Spelling mistakes

[Kristie in Florida]

Let's say for example that your sixth grade daughter did a narration exercise in WWS and still managed to mispell words that were right there in the selection. What would you think? Would you change anything?

 

She said that she just didn't go back to see how the words were spelled because she wrote the narration without looking at the book. It was a great narration BTW.

 

We dropped AAS because it was never getting done and she is starting R&S after the holidays.

 

I don't know if this is spelling related or carelessness related, or something else entirely. I was exasperated... the word was RIGHT THERE all she had to do was look. I made some stupid comment about her going back to first grade copywork, which I'm thinking was wrong of me.

[duckens]

For my 3rd grader, if the word was RIGHT THERE and she spelled it wrong, I count it as wrong.  This is true for ALL subjects.  I do not tolerate laziness/sloppiness/carelessness, and I reward "resourcefulness" (seeing the word nearby and copying it so she doesn't have to look it up).

If she spelled it wrong, but the word was not RIGHT THERE, we fix it together or look it up together.

 

 

I imagine that by the time my child is in 6th grade, I would count it as wrong, but restore full points if she can fix it by herself (looking words up in the dictionary or online).  IMO, fixing things/looking things up is a valuable skill, too.

Misspelled words may be tacked onto this week's spelling list.

Edited December 10, 2015 by duckens

[MerryAtHope]

I'd put a light pencil x next to the lines that have mistakes, one for each mistake, and have her find and fix them. Praise for those she can find and fix, help with any she doesn't find, and move on. Most people do copy the way she described. It's incredibly tedious (and often even less successful) for someone to have to look back and forth at every letter in every word they copy. If the word is one that has a rule or reason for spelling it one way versus another, I'd have her review that--when she fixed the word, I'd go over it during our next one on one time and say, "You're right, this is the way it's spelled. Why can't it be spelled the way you had it before?" or, "What can help you remember to spell it this way?" This helps to reinforce any rules that she has learned, or any phonetic or morphemic strategies. If it's a visual strategy only (for example, knowing that we spell street with EE and not EA), I would just reinforce that--"This is correct, we use EE in street." 

 

We tend to think of copywork as this easy task, but unless the student already knows the spelling for the words, it's actually more challenging than it appears on the surface. 

 

However, I would also instruct her to re-read her work (any work--copywork, dictation, written narrations, papers etc...) before she turns it in. If necessary, give her a separate editing time for a longer piece, but at 6th grade, she should go back and proofread. I wouldn't expect her to catch everything, but it might help her catch some mistakes, and it's a good habit to develop. 

[Jess4879]

My DD does this as well.  I do as Merry suggested and mark them and have her go back and correct them.  She doesn't realize that the words are spelled incorrectly, so she doesn't see the need to look back.  I don't consider this sloppiness or laziness.  It's just a mistake.  If it's a word that is consistently spelled incorrectly, I will have her spell it with tiles, use it in a few sentences, close her eyes and visualize the word, etc.  My DD will photograph a word in her mind and to her it's correct.  She can read it a hundred times the correct way and when she spells it, she will still spell it incorrectly.  With words like this we need to change her inner photograph, if that makes sense.   

[wintermom]

Let's say for example that your sixth grade daughter did a narration exercise in WWS and still managed to mispell words that were right there in the selection. What would you think? Would you change anything?

 

She said that she just didn't go back to see how the words were spelled because she wrote the narration without looking at the book. It was a great narration BTW.

 

We dropped AAS because it was never getting done and she is starting R&S after the holidays.

 

I don't know if this is spelling related or carelessness related, or something else entirely. I was exasperated... the word was RIGHT THERE all she had to do was look. I made some stupid comment about her going back to first grade copywork, which I'm thinking was wrong of me.

 

I think you over-reacted. It's very easy to make a spelling error- whether you've just read the word, or already know the word. My dh is the king of finding spelling errors. They just pop out at him. He found one in the local elementary school Remembrance Day poster, in our son's 7th grade English teacher's poster at Parent-teacher interview, and in my homeschool posters. Just correct the mistake and get on with the praise for the wonderful narration.