How to Help Son w/Spelling Issues at Co-op

[JazzyMom]

My 12 ds is taking General Science at co-op this year.  He is able to understand the material, complete the assignments, and manage the workload just fine.  However, he just took his first test (at home, open book test), and there were a lot of misspellings on the open-ended questions.

The last question was: Name something you learned in this module.  His answer:

”defrent worldvies com up with defrent interpretations of data.”

DS completed vision therapy last year and has come a long way with spelling.  For him, this means being able to spell basic words like the, and, you, with, tree, etc.  Previously, almost every word in the sentence would be misspelled or have letters transposed.

Now that the vision issues are resolved, we are working through Sequential Spelling curriculum, and I’m going to see if that helps with progress.  He’s also taking a grammar lab class at the co-op that is supposed to be a review of grammar and a gentle introduction to writing.

He is reading well above grade level.  We did standardized tests this spring, and his scores were

Lexile measure 1105
Reading Comprehension 81%
Vocabulary 62%
Language Mechanics 34%
Language Expression 54%
Spelling 11%

(Those are the percentiles.)

So I don’t think the class is too hard for him.  His spelling is the main issue.

Do I talk to his teacher about this?  If so, what am I trying to communicate and what  am I asking for?

I hope this question makes sense.

I have 2 graduates and a high school freshman, so I’m not new to homeschooling.  I’ve just never dealt with a learning challenge before.

Edited September 9, 2022 by JazzyMom

[HomeAgain]

Has the teacher remarked on his spelling?  Is it a graded part of the work?

If anything, I'd just drop her a quick line with what you said here: "vision therapy has resolved some of ds's issues enough with reading that we are now able to work on spelling."

[alisha]

Just now, HomeAgain said:

Has the teacher remarked on his spelling?  Is it a graded part of the work?

If anything, I'd just drop her a quick line with what you said here: "vision therapy has resolved some of ds's issues enough with reading that we are now able to work on spelling."

Yep, I would do exactly this!

[desertflower]

If there is any writing in the co-op, then yes, I would like the teacher know.  Exactly what you told us.  Sometimes explanations help the other person understand things better. 

[JazzyMom]

Okay, thanks!  I’ll send it to both of his teachers.

[PeterPan]

Are you considering a psych eval? Might be wise at some point to clear up what remains since his VT and get proper accommodations written down for him.

At this point the most practical thing would be to go to tech. Teacher sends him the test as a pdf that he can type onto with his chromebook, ipad, whatever. Then he returns via email, done. Or he keeps his phone with him and checks spelling quietly using his tech. My ds checks his spelling with siri/alexa when writing anything. Self-monitoring and knowing what he knows and what he doesn't is an important skill. Given the patterns of his spelling errors, it may be that the working memory load and stress are a factor as well, so going to tech will reduce the stress of that piece.

[JazzyMom]

9 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Are you considering a psych eval? Might be wise at some point to clear up what remains since his VT and get proper accommodations written down for him.

At this point the most practical thing would be to go to tech. Teacher sends him the test as a pdf that he can type onto with his chromebook, ipad, whatever. Then he returns via email, done. Or he keeps his phone with him and checks spelling quietly using his tech. My ds checks his spelling with siri/alexa when writing anything. Self-monitoring and knowing what he knows and what he doesn't is an important skill. Given the patterns of his spelling errors, it may be that the working memory load and stress are a factor as well, so going to tech will reduce the stress of that piece.

Thanks!  I hadn’t thought about having him use spell check at this point.  

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes,I have a dd with similar issues, now in college. She gets accomodations. For her, in your situation, those accomodations could have been me helping her spell her answers. So after she'd written them I would have edited and had her correct. Or like others said, letting her do it with spell check, anything of that sort. And yes, I'd give her teacher a heads up in case any issues come up. 

In college she has several things available like she gets longer to turn in some written assignments. The extra day gives her time to have it looked over in the writing center or with a tutor to help her catch anything spellcheck misses. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by 2_girls_mommy

[lmrich]

Can he type? Many of my students with spelling issues type everything and while it is not perfect - it sure helps! 

[JazzyMom]

3 hours ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

Yes,I have a dd with similar issues, now in college. She gets accomodations. For her, in your situation, those accomodations could have been me helping her spell her answers. So after she'd written them I would have edited and had her correct. Or like others said, letting her do it with spell check, anything of that sort. And yes, I'd give her teacher a heads up in case any issues come up. 

In college she has several things available like she gets longer to turn in some written assignments. The extra day gives her time to have it looked over in the writing center or with a tutor to help her catch anything spellcheck misses. 

This is good to know. I was wondering how everything will work once he gets into college. Did you do special testing or evaluation for her when she was young or wait until she got into the high school/college level?  

Edited September 16, 2022 by JazzyMom

[2_girls_mommy]

On 9/15/2022 at 8:15 PM, JazzyMom said:

This is good to know. I was wondering how everything will work once he gets into college. Did you do special testing or evaluation for her when she was young or wait until she got into the high school/college level?  

We had testing and therapies starting in middle school when I knew for sure there was a real issue. We went back for evals her junior year to qualify for accomodations on the ACT test. Then with all of that documentation she qualified for accomodations in college. It's really easy, and there is a lot available there to help her succeed. She's in month two and very happy at college so far.