A little confused & shocked at DD1s work. Help

[lexie01]

Just to put this into context dd1 is quite bright (mostly in top groups at school) and loves school (because of friends rather than work). Her teacher thinks that she cruises a little and switches off during lessons. All of which I would agree with.

Following parents evening we were allowed to look at her books and I was really surprised at how bad the spellings and grammer was. Her handwriting is beautifully neat and her stories imaginative which suggest she puts some thought into them and time and effort in how she presents her work. But the spelling and grammer was appalling. Some sentences didn't make sense because she had missed words out, capitals appeared where they shouldn't and basic words were spelt incorrectly. When I verbally asked her how to spell some of these words she was able to do so and when I asked her to look at work she identified what was wrong with the grammer immediately. She has never had problems with spelling tests - usually one quick run through and she is fine. So why is it not transferring to her literacy work? Part of me thinks it is the 'can't be bothered' attitude but then the way she presents her work is so lovely this can't be the case - can it?. Any thoughts?

Dyslexia?

how old is she?

and what did the teacher say?

Grammar*

Sorry couldn't resist.

I would think that, if someone does have a good grasp of spelling and grammar, it would take far more effort for them to get it wrong than to get it right, so I don't think it's a case of "can't be bothered." Could it be possible that she's really bored/disenchanted with school and is doing it wrong on purpose, like as an act of rebellion? I was a "bright" child and I remember in one year at primary school, the teacher used to dedicate half an afternoon twice a week to us all going through our books and correcting any mistakes that she'd circled - but it was very rare that I had any, and I was so ridiculously bored during this time that I ended up making mistakes just so I'd have something to do!

Is it just a recent problem? Is her written work always so poor or is it just the odd piece? I would maybe wonder if it could be due to something like dyslexia, but if she has no problems with spelling tests or reading then probably not.

Sorry I should have said she is year 5. I would't have dyslexia because she is fine in spelling tests but I am not an expert.

She has always had a slight problem with spelling when writing text (stories etc). The teachers have always said it is because she doesn't read her work through at the end to correct any mistakes and that her brain is working faster than she writes so she is too quick to write her thoughts down without thinking of sentence structure and spelling. I guess what threw me this week was how neat and well presented her work was which didn't give the impression of someone 'throwing' their thoughts down. And also she is now in year 5 and we really need to get this sorted.

Her teacher raised the subject as well and said that he is going to work with her to try and resolve these issues but as we don't know why it happens it is difficult. Maybe she jus takes after me who can't spell either Baabaa!!

As a parent I would look at the spelling and grammar separately.

Can your daughter speak properly and grammatically? If she can then there's a good chance that if she writes a passage for you at home, you note down the grammatical errors in it but don't let her see the ones you've noted, then give her the passage back and ask her to point out the grammatical mistakes. Then you'll know if she really doesn't know how to write properly, (or from what it sounds like, she does know but isn't checking what she's written to make sure that it's correct.)

When a child is writing they have to think about a number of different things all at the same time - handwriting, grammar, spelling, how to organise their ideas, what genre to write in, what vocabulary to use, what to actually write about. I think it's not that unusual for children to be able to do all of these things in isolation but to struggle to put all of them together. You've just said that she writes very imaginative pieces which are well presented, which suggests those are the areas she's putting her effort into. Having said that, by year 5 it should all be coming together.

One of the best pieces of advice I was given was that you have to make it harder for a child to get it wrong than to get it right. So if, for example, the teacher highlights the common words she spells wrongly and then makes her spend her own time (break, lunch, homework) looking up the correct spellings in a dictionary and then writing them out 5 times it will become easier for her to get it right first time. If she's missing words out of sentences, rainbow writing might be worth a try. Each time she starts a new sentence she changes colour of pen. Normally used for those children who forget to use full stops etc, but would make her focus on each individual sentence and so hopefully spot the missing words.

I've yet to come across a KS2 child who actually wants to go back and check over a piece of writing when they've finished - most of them think that once they've finished writing it's over. Helping her to spot her errors as she goes along means she won't fall into the trap of thinking she can sort it out at the end and then forgetting.