DS yr 6 had since grade 1 always worked at the spelling level above in the word list and workbook. This year he has a new teacher who gave him year 6 workbook which he did last year. Explained he has already completed this. We usually do a pre-test at home for the week and just concentrate on the words he misses, which are always less than 5. He doesn’t get any homework and does the whole list in this workbook and for say cover write check.
He was given a level test at the beginning of semester 1 (Feb in AUS) and got 100%. this particular curriculum only goes to year six so a different year 7 curriculum was found.
Start of semester 2 this week and teacher tells him in front of others that he has been ‘downgraded’ to year six as he does not use correct spellings in his writing. I have no doubt that if I asked him to spell a difficult word he would know if but accept that during writing his spelling definitely drops. I thought this would common since there are lots of other things he has to think about whilst writing. It’s never been mentioned by any previous teachers.
I can’t see the value in repeating a semester of spelling, doing the exact same workbook last year which didn’t help him integrate his knowledge into his actual writing. He scores highly in spelling SATS but struggles a bit with writing especially plots and ideas. It just seems a waste of half a year.
Does repeating the same work see like the best approach or could this be tackled a different way? Is there anything I can do at home to help him?
Many thanks for any advice.