Spellings help please

[onelasttrythenimout]

My Dc are struggling with their spellings it doesn't seem to matter what we try they just don't seem to be able to remember them let alone write them in their work. How did your Dc learn theirs? In all honesty I am at a complete loss now and don't know what else to do to help them. I have spoken to the school and they say the best way is to continue using look, cover, write and check but this clearly has not been helping even though I make sure they are doing it correctly.

I think we have moved on, and it's better than it was. Even in mixed methods schools there is more phonics content than there used to be so more children are grasping the basics.

The issues now are probably those children at the 'lower end' probably aren't getting the whole class teaching that they need to achieve well and the phonics for spelling doesn't seem to be nearly as week taught as in reading. Particularly beyond year 1.

Elisheva in your example of hierarchy if the child is finding the ch spelling of the sound /k/ difficult it can help to link it to words they know with that spelling for the sound - Christmas would be an obvious one (ch is often the spelling for /k/ in words of Greek origins)

Is there any pattern in the words that are being sent home?

And what happens when she only gets 2/10 in a test? Does she get the same words again, or does she get new ones?

DS is 7, year 2 (England). He gets 10 spellings a week to learn and usually gets 7+ right.

We write the words on a blackboard in the kitchen when he gets them. Every day we choose a "word of the day" and really practice that throughout the day. We start with the hardest words, and obviously sometimes have to do more than one word.

I also try and get DS to write out his words everyday, preferably 2 or 3 columns.

He also uses an app on his Hudl called "Squeebles" which you can put your own spelling tests into, and it makes them into a game.

Rafal Eldest has used word study in the past, which did have a pattern if I remember correctly, but now he just seems to have random lists of spellings from year 2 til now. I don't know if that is the norm for this age but the fact that DS has repeatedly done these spellings before using the LCWC and still can't spell the majority of them just leaves me as to why the school would insist we carry on using LCWC? Youngest does seem to be working to a spelling pattern eg. igh with other random words thrown in. It really upsets her when she gets 2/10 and ends up doing 2 sheets of LCWC at school and I'm pretty sure they are convinced I'm not supporting her at home.

Thanks Bike I will check out the Squeebles app.

mrz sorry for slow response, I am not in here regularly.

I read your cut and paste and I respect your stance, however the Australian author of your piece had not investigated beyond a quick google (like you).

I an education researcher and feel very confident with my choice. I talk with industry leaders every day, attend workshops and seminars, visit schools involved in trials and report on my findings. In this case I also have first hand experience of the programme and am very impressed.

The DD method is respected here. In our case, the tutor also leads an SEN unit in a school of 1400 students.

It is completely fine and normal to reject what you don't know or understand, but your snake oil claims, based on one poorly-researched review, are unhelpful.

Interesting because it's from the Danks Davis website

As an education researcher I'm sure you are aware that the elements of this programme have been widely discredited ?

Have you a link to the pages you posted, mrz?

I'm afraid that anything that started with Brain Gym, a completely unscientific and unevidenced 'programme' would ring huge alarm bells for me straight away.

If the programme is so effective that it will help lots of people, why does it have to be so expensive? If it's really good, a lot people would purchase it, so the price can be less expensive. If I see something like that it would make me feel someone is trying to take advantage of desperate people.

www.danksdavisdyslexia.com/index.php?id=3 from Danks Davis site

And from the University of Auckland (who apparently conduct research using Google 🤔) www.ldaustralia.org/client/documents/NZ%20brain%20changing%20interventions%20report%20e.g.%20Arrowsmith.pdf

Hi OP,

There is a quite recent intervention program called 'Active Literacy Kit', developed by Dyslexia Action. It is very cheap (about £80 when I bought mine) and very clearly designed.

Essentially, it is a core literacy pack which checks that all of the core knowledge for literacy is both present and fluent in the learner. So alphabet, letter name/sound correspondence, sequencing skills, digraphs (letter combinations) etc. 30 exercises, easily tracked, explained and with time targets to aim for.

It may be that your DC's are well beyond this, but I have been surprised at how many students (adults and children) are missing confidence in one of these foundational areas, which has made them less confident in many other areas of literacy.

Almost a hundred pounds to spell CVC words 🤔