Jump to content

Menu

8th Grade Spelling


TheAttachedMama
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi Everyone,

Can anyone recommend a spelling program for my 8th grade daughter?  She still REALLY struggles with spelling.   She does not have an official diagnosis, but I have always suspected she has dyslexia.   I know that she may never become a great speller, but I don't want to give up on spelling instruction quite yet.  She has some time in her day, and I think practicing handwriting and spelling may be the best use of it right now.

She does not have a strong visual memory, so words never "look" wrong to her.   She also has a hard time remembering (or applying) even spelling rules like those taught in LOE or AAS.   Route practice has not seemed to help either.  

I am hoping I can find something that she can use mostly independently as I am having a VERY hard time mustering up the inner strength and resilience to teach her spelling yet again.  (The teen years are hard!)  I also have her younger brother to teach who is taking up a lot of my instructional time.  

Thanks in advance,

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know a lot of these ideas are for elementary kids, but I thought if looking at words doesn't help her, some of these ideas for kinesthetic or oral practice might be more beneficial than a workbook, and maybe you could tweak them to be more age appropriate.

http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/10/75-fun-ways-to-practice-and-learn.html

Another thing I do is to tell a story in a couple sentences that relates the meaning of the word to the part of the spelling that the student struggles with. If she needs to spell "spinach", I might talk about chomping down on a bowl of spinach, and the teeth making a "ch ch" sound. My daughter then remembers my words, and when she has to spell spinach, she'll remember that there is a "ch" somewhere in the word.

You could always customize a word list for her based on the ones she's currently misspelling the most frequently. I write spelling words on index cards and file them by how many days in a row my student has spelled them correctly (like a daily spelling test). Once words are spelled correctly three days in a row, I let my kid tear up the index card. If you try to keep the number of index cards to ten or less and only add new cards on Mondays, it seems to be more beneficial for long term retention of the spelling. That's the method I've used with my kid who I suspect has dyslexia/dysgraphia, and she has shown a lot of progress with it since I started using it three years ago. Once the student knows the ideas of how to practice the words (and you could print out a list of ways to practice for her to reference), it takes less than ten minutes a day with the teacher.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Preface to my response:
I know you have a very full plate from real-life stuff, plus several children with various LDs, BUT -- if you really want a child with LDs to progress in the struggle area, that means 1-on-1 work with the student. Even an older child (age 12-14 / 8th grade) with learning issues. That's usually part of the LDs problem -- that they can't figure out how to progress solo, even with a great program.

Find a program that targets specifically WHY your student is struggling with spelling
Also, you will save yourself time and headache if you can narrow down what specifically is the problem (or problems) for the student, as that is what you want to target to help the student, and different spelling programs target different issues. In this past thread: "Spelling in 8th grade", there is some helpful discussion on this topic. I am reprinting from that thread the list of programs that most frequently are used with struggling spellers, and what each program targets.

Our experience with a struggling speller
Rote practice and rule-based programs did NOT work for our DS#2 with mild LDs (stealth dyslexia), who struggled with spelling, writing, and math, and was an extreme Visual-Spatial learner, needing whole-to-arts style materials at least to start with. What worked for him was a combination of things:

1. time/patience = he did not even BEGIN to *click* with spelling until age 12, regardless of ALL the work I put in with him prior to that
2. 15 min./ daily of 1-on-1 work to work on Spelling with:
- whiteboard work (visual/color + "story" (similar to @rutheart's spinach) to remember word endings, vowel patterns, etc.)
- very short/targeted dictation sentences (strengthen weak simultaneous writing/spelling skill)
- out-loud back-and-forth spelling practice (strengthen weak auditory memory)
- several tactile spelling practice methods (practice spelling out loud, with tactile element to enhance input/memory)
3. Megawords -- done mostly solo, but does require some parent dictation of syllables (strengthen seeing/using syllabication patterns)
4. individualized spelling I created for him, loosely based on Sequential Spellings "building up from a base word" sort of concept
5. typing everything with SpellCheck on -- seeing the red squiggle helped alert him that he had a misspelling to fix
 

BEST of luck in finding what best fits for your DD and for YOU. Warmest regards, Lori D.
 

- Apples and Pears = morpheme-based; presents morphemes as units of meaning within words, then drills those root units
- All About Spelling = phonics-based/Orton-Gillingham approach, using multiple learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic)
- Sequential Spelling = visual-based; syllables and "chunking" to see smaller words within longer words for spelling attack
- Phonetic Zoo = phonetic-based; helps to strengthen weak auditory-sequential processing
- Megawords = rule-based; focus on syllabication (breaking long words into smaller syllables + spelling patterns), plus vowel patterns
- Apples Daily Spelling Drill = rule-based review
- Spelling Through Morphographs = morpheme-based + rule-based; words are morphographs (base + prefixes/suffixes), and rules for spelling these combinations
- Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual = visual-based; mnemonics (visual images/story) linked to spelling patterns to go into long-term memory
- Dianne Craft - "blocked learning gate" of spelling = visual/story-based to put spelling into long-term memory, plus suggested techniques to increase brain hemisphere connections
 

Edited by Lori D.
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...