Improving spelling

EmeraldE · Post by **EmeraldE** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:12 pm

Hi all
I know my eldest is a bright boy but he is not great at spelling

This may cause him some issues in the old VR tests! Thing is he gets his spellings correct in school tests and then a week later in free writing he will spell words incorrectly which he has apparently learned! This is mega frustrating

Anyone any good ideas how to improve spelling?

Cheers

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:16 pm

play scrabble, but using the dictionary to check and look for words.

try googling games for homonyms (there, their, they're ) common mistakes when writing or typing quickly.

MarkyBoy1972 · Post by **MarkyBoy1972** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:40 am

I am no expert - this is just an opinion! That is the health warning out of the way...

I would recommend that he looks to boost his reading as this will reinforce familiarity with the words and spellings that he has learnt. Also worth frequently revisiting the words covered in previous weeks test ... perhaps worth writing the words from the week on a large sheet of paper on the back of bedroom door so that they are seen every morning and they might get into his subconscious?!

The reading will help though as it may not be enough to pass the spelling test if the words are not retained ... reading will build on familiarity.

Computer based activities may also help (if he is into the PC) and they will help the spellings be retained at a time when he is more relaxed.

Sorry if you knew all the above, hope it helps though.

Tolstoy · Post by **Tolstoy** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:58 am

Check he knows some of the basic rules and patterns. When I started working with DS1 it became blatently obvious he didn't! Simple things like endings i.e tion, sion, ed v d or es v s. We left it too late to sort out but it is something I will be working on before he hits secondary school next year and I have spoken to his teacher about the problem and his SATs boosting will be focused around that area.

Also I personally don't worry about spelling tests as such. Unless they are based around words the child commonly uses and gets wrong they can be a waste of time. Make up your own for him which are custom built and then ask him to write stories encorporating the words, this method can be used to increase his vocab knowledge using some of the words on the suggested vocab lists available. Don't worry if you have to go back to the same word a few times, in the end it will sink in, being given new words every week doesn't.