Spelling Tests for 5 year olds

[MyOneandYoni]

Not really happy that a weekly spelling test has just been introduced in Year 1. Many children only recently just turned 5.
Apart from anecdotal evidence, does anyone have any research based evidence that spelling tests so young are a good idea or not?

It's fairly common.

There is lots of evidence to show that spelling tests are not great ways to get children to remember how to spell words (children who get 10/10 every week, still can't spell the words correctly in their writing). Not sure there is any particularly related to age.

I know exactly how you feel. I have the same with my year 1 son, he wont be 6 until right the end of the school year. I get mixed emotions about how much work I should be doing with him.

When we do work at home, although we don't spend more than 10 minutes I look at him and feel guilty, he's so young. I didn't start school until I was almost 7. English is not even my first language and I can spell.

On the other hand, I don't want him to have to play catch up and on a bottom set with low expectations from early on. Being one of the youngest I feel that he may need to do more at home, as he wont be as quick to grasp the concepts at school as quickly as older children. At home he can get my undivided attention.

I wish year 1, year 2 even was more like reception but unfortunately it's not.

Teaching spelling is one thing, but testing at such a young age is nuts, and absolutely awful for weak spellers.

There is no research evidence that spelling tests do any good at any age, let alone at such a young age.

Such insanity makes me wont to campane for spelling reform eevn mor than ennything else. The nuttines of English spelling causes chyld abuse.

some schools do it, some don't. If you child's school does I don't really see what you can do about it to be honest. from Yr1 is really quite common.

Hi MyOne:

I have two very different approaches to spelling.

DD2 is a whizz - she just picks it up and quickly. Likes to work out what the pattern is - so if the words all end -tion/ -sion (she learns which words end -tion and knows the rest end -sion).

DD1 is awful - just never makes rhyme nor reason of her spellings - so we have to work out tricks. The boisterous choir avoid android coins - to help her distinguish 'oi' words in that weeks spelling. We would test nightly and she'd write out missed words. Could do it 2, maybe 3 times with DD2 and she'd get perfect scores - DD1 would still always miss one or two come the test.

so if it is something along the lines of this: www.westmnst.bham.sch.uk/attachments/download.asp?file=93 - then this is doing several things:

working those phoneme/ decoding (sounding out) skills

teaching spelling patterns

reinforcing phonetics teaching (if joined up with what is being taught that week).

then think of it as part of the whole package - learning sounds of letters/ decoding skills/ spelling patterns.

Tests seem a bit serious - but only if you treat them seriously. I've always taken the 'as long as you try your best approach'

Some here have sworn by the squeebles app: keystagefun.co.uk/spelling-apps/squeebles-spelling-test/ - so may be worth an explore.

HTH

Spelling tests are introduced about half way through Y1 in my DC's school. They do 5 spellings per week and they are graded according to ability. They up it to 10 spellings per week in Y2. I think beginning of Y1 is too early as they won't have done that much writing at all yet.

In year 1 they are reading though, so why not practice words and spell them correctly? It can be useful if linked to reading.

I'm in Scotland, DS has just started Primary 1 at the end of August and only turned 5 a couple of weeks ago, they are just learning how to form letters and recognise words and sounds by reading them, no-where near learning to write whole words and sentences independently let alone learning to spell. I can't imagine any of his classmates being ready for spelling tests yet, and they are all bright kids.

Thanks everyone - very useful. Didn't think I'd ever day this but i think my son started school too soon...

Ours had spelling tests in reception! Dd does tend to remember how to spell words if she's covered it in a spelling test.

Ours start in Y1. My dd in top group so gets the y1 & y2 words. Two weeks ago 18 words and last week all days, months and half a dozen others! It is bonkers! But don't get me started on amount of homework in our school!

MyOneandYoni:

I hear you - and have also felt that at times, especially when I could see a room full of 6 year olds reading well and DD1 could barely sound out a word.

My advice is keep plugging away and keep signalling you believe he'll get there in the end. Don't panic that he can't do x or y right now - just ensure that whilst he's struggling to do it he's clear on why it's improtant to know how to read or add or whatever....

From one parent with rather a turtle of a DD1: slow and steady wins the race. Think water on a stone.

DD started Y3 and has now weekly spelling tests. She can spell and this helps, she feels like a winner instead of a failure because she only gets 1/2 right.

They teach sound pattern and changes to a word like come and coming or house and mouse. The teacher reads a sentence and they hear the word in a proper setting instead of seeing them isolated.

I think at 5 it is pointless and as PP said, often children will forget the word as soon as the next week comes. A friend's DD goes to a school with weekly tests from Y1 and she just resigned to the fact that it is a waste of time but part of school life.

my DD started spelling tests after Christmas in reception. Totally hate the bloody things. She always gets full marks, but her spelling is still very creative now in year 2. (Phonetically correct but not always the right choice.)

isn't learning to spell part of learning phonics? Our tests seem to be around sounds they are learning.

That said they are blardy hard imo. Although at least we only have 10 (and the parental competition is just horrendous)

A bit OTT to compare spelling tests to chold abuse!

DD1 is an August born. She's in Y2 now but has always loved doing spellings even though she's a bit behind in reading and writing. She gets them right most of the time because we practise daily and we emphasise that getting it wrong is not necessarily bad. It's good writing practice and only takes a few minutes!

I've always been told that all homework tells you more about the parents than it does about the children. I've also read in various places that spelling tests do little to help children learn to spell. children consistently get words right in their spelling tests and then immediately spell them wrongly in their independent writing - it's a recognised part of the process of learning to spell.

However, most schools do them because they are popular with parents, believe it or not. If a school didn't send home spellings to learn, they would have parents hammering the door to ask why not. Whether those parents then spend sufficient time helping their child to learn the words is another debate..

Anyway, I'm a big believer that once a child has learnt something wrong it is ten times harder for them to unlearn it and then learn it correctly. In the long run, it's far easier for a child to start to learn the high frequency words they use regularly but don't follow the phonic patterns they've learnt at that stage (for example, some, come, said), rather than continually sounding it out for themselves and getting the wrong pattern ingrained in their heads.

So after half term, my year 1s who are on phase 5 phonics will start to have a few spellings each week of common high frequency words and some which reflect what we are learning in phonics. If they aren't on phase 5, I don't feel they are ready to start learning words which don't follow the phonics they are learning so I'll support them in other ways to become confident in using the phonic patterns they know. But I've stressed to all the parents (those who came to my meeting anyway) that as far as I'm concerned, at this stage of year 1 homework is more or less optional - the children work hard in school all day and they will be tired when they get home. As long as they hear them read regularly, everything else is less important, in my opinion. However, if parents want to do more with their children, then the homework is there.

Yr 1 dd has 22 spellings every week. It was 12 in reception.

I dont see the problem. They are all words she can read so why not write them too?

22!!
DD1 has 7.

Because the new national curriculum 2014 has a list of spelling patterns/sounds they are expected to know by the end of year 1.

Runs to 4 pages with statutory part in first column.
There is no choice but to teach them in year 1 as it is statutory.

Sending home a few spellings a week that correspond to the work in class is surely an efficient way of reinforcement.
(page 40-44 for year 1 spelling requirements)

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335186/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_English_220714.pdf

I don't think anyone was comparing spelling tests to child abuse, were they?

Just think it's sad that barely five years olds, who wouldn't even be in formal education in other countries, are expected to learn spellings in a formal way at home, for a very public test, where the children all know who the 'winners' are.

barely five years olds, who wouldn't even be in formal education in other countries, are expected to learn spellings in a formal way at home, for a very public test

To me that IS a form of child abuse. No less barbaric than the caning which was regularly used in the past.

Really? Child abuse?
Do children start school to early in England?
Should admissions be more flexible to suit the child rather than an admissions process or pensions? I'd say yes to both but I wouldn't consider a quick spelling test once a week as child abuse. At DD1's school they have different spellings for different ability groups so some might get 'cat, hat etc' and others 'people, everyone...'

too early*

child abuse wtaf?