hmm, trainee teacher - you have been brainwashed. RESEARCH shows that spelling lists do not work. So you can feel great giving them out, but if you want your class to improve their spelling, find other ways, there are many, the lists aren't one of them.
coyoacan - it isn't what we think, it is what research has shown. I suspect the schools that use lists are also doing something right in class wrt spelling.
I never understand the problem people have with homework. DDs homework is generally a reading book twice a week, some spelling words and sentences and maths practice. I don't understand why people object to it.
That is because for your kids it isn't an issue. But for many families it really is. Ds is now in year 7 and does hw with no fuss in his grammar school. But at primary, this was a typical saturday:
me - ds hw time.
ds - no just a minute, I'll do it later
me - no now (gets ds to table with pencil and paper etc)
ds then fiddles, moans, complains, whines for half an hour. I get firmer, he resharpens pencil 10 times, I remove sharpener and get firmer.
2 hours of prevaricating and complaining later, no hw is done, saturday morning is gone, my relationship with him is in tatters, and he is STILL not doing hw.
(and before you ask, yes hw was right level, he just didn't want to do it. typically he would finally give up, do the work, and it would take 20 minutes)
In the end I refused to sacrifice hours and hours of precious family time to a pointless piece of work. His need to be outside running and being physical was higher than he need to do hw.
One half term I told his teacher, sorry we will not be writing a diary this half term as ds is going away, and I explained that our last break had been taken over by the DAILY 2 HOUR battle to do the 10 minutes of daily diary writing she had asked for.