How do you teach your DCs spellings - please help at my wits end

[cottonwoolbrain]

DS tries so hard...

copy, copy, cover

Writing them out

Trying to put them in sentences

saying and even singing the letters out loud...

Me and dp go over them with him every night and morning

yet at the end of it all he's lucky if he gets 4/12.

He's year 3 now and so despondent. He said this morning I'm not trying anymore because I always do badly anyway and then burst into tears.
The spellings seem much harder this year. They have an easy list and an optional hard list which I don't dare touch with him beyond making sure he knows the meaning of the words.

I've spoken to his teachers who tell me to just carry on what we're doing. They don't get cross with him or pressure him but he still sees the mark :(

I don't think its dyslexia as he reads quite well though needs help with the odd word (he's on lime band which I think is about right for his age - July birthday so he's 7) He clearly understands everything he's told but he's struggling so much with spelling. His hand writing isn't very good but its rapidly improving.

Please help, he's so sad and really wants to succeed but I don't know how to help :(

I think what you have started sounds great. When he has done the ea ones, can you write each word on a separate card but leave a space where the ee/ ea sound is. Then get him to sort them into an ea pile and an ee pile. You could put the correct grapheme on the back so he can self check at the end.

That's a good idea thank you - I will buy some cards

You should also talk to the teacher and check if his spellings are differentiated. It can be really iff putting and disheartening (for both if you) to put all this work in, and not getting it right. Differentiation doesn't have to mean easier words,it can just be less of them. Also check if it's the spelling rule he gets wrong or the words themselves. For example excelent would be using the spelling rule correctly but still spelt wrong. If that's the case, I'd give him praise for remembering the rule to begin with.

Another trick that works sometimes is writing the "important " sounds in a different colour. So write the words in pencil but leave gaps for ee,ea etc. He can then add the sounds with a different colour pen.

Once you’ve sorted the ‘ee’ and ‘ea’ words, as educatingarti has said, get him to write them into 2 lists. As he’s writing the words get him to say each sound as he writes it. The combination of muscle memory, hearing the sound and seeing the spelling is really important.

If he’s willing to do it with a pen & paper at the moment I’d stick with that rather than an app.

It is possibly to appear to have no problems with reading and be dyslexic. But chances are there would be some indication (such as mixing up b, p and d).

English spelling is a nightmare, so many exceptions to the rules.

Take a look at Toe by Toe:

toe-by-toe.co.uk/

He got 7 out of 12.. still some way to go obviously but he got a sticker and a good work point from his teacher who knows hes been trying so hard. Most of the others were really close eg teacher was teecher

He will get next weeks list tomorrow night.

At least maths comes easily to him he raced through his homework tonight and then did the extension... I've come to love Tuesday night homework!

Teacher here - haven’t RTFT but try a word ladder.

Write all the words on a piece of card - the larger the better. Start with 2 words only, face down, in a column on the floor. Child has to turn the first one over, read it, spell it out loud, spell it by writing it. THEN, jump over it and turn the next card and do the same.

Doesn’t matter if it goes wrong or is spelled incorrectly; just chant the correct spelling, help him write it quickly; move on.

Once he’s cracked two words, add a third, across the room. Same routine. As he gets good with them, turn them face down again to see if he can spell it without looking.

As he cracks 3, add another word.

Keep the same order; mix up the order.

The beauty of the word ladder is, apart from day one you only ever learn one word at once, so not daunting. It’s quick: you can play it several times a day for literally a couple of minutes only. The jumping, reading and writing helps muscle memory. And stretching a long ladder of words across the carpet as they get good at reading them makes them feel really, really clever! They can see how much they know and yet there will only be one new word at any given point.

If it is making him feel a failure then I would stop bothering at home, as it isn't improving his mark/spelling. When he grows up and goes to work he will have spellcheck to help him. Some children find spelling more difficult than others. Just focus on things he can do like reading, and encourage vocabulary around anything that interests him (verbally not written).

I was going to come and say reading, but I see PPs have got that covered!

I really do think that reading is the key to spelling, grammar and vocabulary (and conversation for the spoken versions).

We had this with Dd last year.

In the end I asked for differentiated spellings as the ones that were set were just too hard for her, though they were fine for her twin brother in the same class.

Sometimes, if the list seemed too hard we picked out maybe 5 spellings that the teacher agreed to test her on and we missed out the others. That way she still got her team point / reward / whatever if she did well instead of constantly scoring low.

Her spelling still isn't great but her confidence has grown now she's got a fighting chance of a decent mark. In the end about 1/3 of the class ended up with the differentiated 'easier' list, so it definitely wasn't just her.

I have a feeling I'm about to start the same conversation with this years teacher, who has issued the same spelling list to the whole class.....

7 out of 12 is great! That's 3 more words than he usually gets which is a massive improvement. Just keep doing what you are doing , and if you find a method that gives better results(not necessarily perfect) keep to it.

7 out of 12 is really good, given his previous scores. I hope he’s proud of himself.

I think the spelling homework will probably get easier if you stick with the method you’ve gone with. Firstly, success breeds success and secondly once the process is ingrained he should start to automatically look for the spelling patterns when he comes across a new word.

We have “word of the day” - just concentrate on one word a day, or 2 if there are more than 7. We write it it, say it, sing it, use it in made up conversations. Write it in bath crayon, condensation. On stacks of paper, blackboard etc. Each day we run over the previous words of the day.At the end of the week we have a fake spelling test.