My third grader is not consistently what I would call a good speller. She will get a word right on a spelling test and then misspell it a few days later on an assignment. Is there any way to improve her spelling?
– For Improvement
Your first step is to determine the severity of your child’s spelling problems. It may not be as serious as you believe. Talk to the child’s teacher and find out if she is spelling most words correctly or not and if the teacher believes the child has a spelling problem.
Of course, a spelling problem could be serious and caused by a learning disability. In that case, testing would need to be done. Nevertheless, whether it is a learning disability or the child simply has not learned a satisfactory way to spell words, here is a good way for children to tackle the challenge and remember how to spell the words on spelling lists.
When your child brings home the weekly list, you should have her write the words on the list as you call them out. Then she should correct what she has written against the spelling list and write down any words that she misspelled opposite the misspelling. Afterward, immediately quiz her again using only the words that she has misspelled — limiting this number to no more than 10 words. If she misspells any words this time, the correct spelling is written again. Repeat these steps until all misspelled words are spelled correctly.
Next, for a few weeks, add to her new spelling lists a few of the words that she has frequently misspelled. What you have done is repeatedly have her spell the words, so she should remember them.
Parents should send questions and comments to dearteacher@dearteacher.com or to the Dear Teacher website.
©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2019