Expections re spelling in Year 4?

[Parka]

Interested in people's views on this. My DS came home from school today very upset because he only got 4/10 in his spelling test - which included the following words - onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, metaphor, alliteration etc. He's been told he has to miss playtime tomorrow because he did so badly.

I'm really irritated by this. He's got a great vocab and reads a lot, but he does struggle with spelling and writing. I was so surprised when I saw the spelling practice list (as he still regularly gets things like 'their/there' and 'off/of' mixed up) - we worked through it together but I must confess that after 3 hours spent doing his literacy homework I probably didn't give it the attention it deserved.

What do others think - both of the complexity of the words and of being told he has to miss playtime for doing so badly?

[vestandknickers]

Why the heck did you spend 3 hours on his literacy?

[sighsloudly]

my year4 ds spelling list includes quiet quieter quietest late later latest cube etc your ds words seem very difficult to me.

[Parka]

Er well not sure why that matters but seeing as you've asked - there is an awful lot of it so we broke it into chunks and once you add them up, plus the chatting about it and the cajoling etc, that's my guess as to what it came to.

I've got a bee in my bonnet about that too, but I shall save that for another day.

[LizzieMint]

My dds in yr 4 too and her spellings as far as I remember this week included beautifully, hopeless and happiness.
But am also at the thought of spending 3 hours on homework at this age, my dds probably takes an hour max for all of it, maths, literacy and spellings, and that's largely because she faffs about with it.

[vestandknickers]

I asked because there's something wrong if you're spending 3 hours on homework.

Might have been better to let your DS get on with that without all the chat and cajoling and save your energy for testing him on his spellings.

If he's been asked to learn spelling and clearly hasn't, then losing a play time seems fair enough.

Those words are tricky, but they are used very frequently in yr 4.

[WowOoo]

There is no punishment if you do badly in my son's school spelling tests. It seems unfair.
His year 4 spellings were far easier. All I can remember from last weeks : forgotten and attempt.

[Parka]

Just learned that 24 out of his class of 30 failed (ie got less than 7 right). I understand that these are common words in year 4 but still feel that week 5 is a bit early when many if the kids are really struggling with much easier words.

[mrz]

Word list–
years 3 and 4

accident(ally)
actual(ly)
address
answer
appear
arrive
believe
bicycle
breath
breathe
build
busy/business
calendar
caught
centre
century
certain
circle
complete
consider
continue
decide
describe
different
difficult
disappear
early
earth
eight/eighth
enough
exercise
experience
experiment
extreme
famous
favourite
February
forward(s)
fruit
grammar
group
guard
guide
heard
heart
h
eight
history
imagine
increase
important
interest
island
knowledge
learn
length
library
material
medicine
mention
minute
natural
naughty
notice
occasion(ally)
often
opposite
ordinary
particular
peculiar
perhaps
popular
position
possess(ion)
possible
potatoes
pressure
probably
promise
purpose
quarter
question
recent
regular
reign
remember
sentence
separate
special
straight
strange
strength
suppose
surprise
therefore
though/although
thought
through
various
weight
woman/women

[Snapespotions]

DD was in year 4 last year, and used to get spellings like this, but they were only for the top group. This year's spellings are much, much easier by comparison and she knows them all without even looking.

I'm in two minds about whether there is any point in learning spellings anyway, but if you're going to make kids learn them, then surely they need to be at an appropriate level of challenge - not so easy that they already know them, but not so challenging that it's impossible to learn them! And that will presumably differ from one child to the next!

I think it's very unfair to punish a child for doing badly in a test - unless the teacher was confident that it was down to a deliberate lack of effort/engagement on the part of the child, which doesn't sound like it's the case here. Are all 24 kids going to be kept in at break time?

[YonicScrewdriver]

Hope it's ok to jump on rather than start a new thread - DS is in year 3 and can learn the spellings fine for tests but doesn't spell well in general writing - how can I help him?

[Parka]

@snapespotions These spellings were given to the whole class, some of whom don't have English as first language etc. I'm all for setting challenging work but it has to be appropriate. Thanks to everyone who has posted, it's been really helpful seeing your views and experiences.

@yonicscrewdriver I don't know to be honest - I wish I did. My son struggles with writing generally and I think he just rushes his spelling - so I'm going to try and encourage him to slow down and say the word in his head, but of course that only works with certain words.