Suggestions on the best way to learn spellings

[wigglywoowoo]

DD has just started Year 1 and has had her first lot of spellings sent home. I'm aware that the MN consensus is that spelling tests don't work as children don't apply the spellings in their work.

I was wondering if getting her to write the word in a sentence would be better than just doing the look, cover, write method?

Any suggestions welcome.

DD does look cover write - nightly for a test on a friday. Worked for her - usually 10/10 in the test and she uses them in her work. From yr 3 they are expected to do the sentence thing.

Maybe start look cover write and see how it goes.

Thanks dixiechick.

I was a bit daunted when they appeared on Friday. I don't remember ever having spellings to learn when I was at school.

Hi wigglywoowoo

We wrote each word out 3 times in the school spelling book and then tried writing sentences (which some teachers requested and others didn't). We made a game of trying to put as many spelling words (correctly used and not just as a list) into a sentence. [underlined or highlighted so teacher could see use of word].

This often meant that 10 spelling words could be correctly used in less than 4 sentences and also meant that you could explore rhyme and multiple meanings for words. If all 10 words were used, we let the girls get a treat at the weekend - mainly because it only rarely occurred.

We were purists and would not allow our DDs to change tense - to avoid confusion on what the spelling word actually was come the test.

So that usually writing words 3 times each & sentences took up ~30 minutes Day 1. (Spelling came home on a Monday with test on the Friday)

Days 2-4 we would do practice tests and then write out the word that was wrong. Day 2 - 5 times each. Day 3 - 8 times each and Day 4 - 10 times each.

One trick that really helps is to look through what type of words are given - quite often you have a single phoneme or similalry sounding phonemes.

So we had oi and oy words with similar sounds and then worked on learning the 5 oi and 5 oy words - and made a point of ensuring that at least one group was solidly learned, so that if it wasn't one of the 5 'oi' words, it must be spelled with oy.

HTH

Some fab tips there, thanks! I'm not even sure when the test is but i'm really keen that she becomes as confident speller, unlike me.

We do the look, cover, write, but they also say it aloud at the look, cover and write stages. My two DSs have to write the word 3 times. School policy. They have to write it in their spelling book (year 3 onwards) to prove they have done their homework.

Ds1 gets everyone right every time, he is now in year 5, Ds2 is less consistent, he has to do his 3 days or less before the test. Ds1 retains the information.

Test wise, Ds2 just has to write the word, Ds1 has to fill in the blanks in a written paragraph.