Question: My fourth-grader has a very difficult time on his weekly spelling tests. He copies each word five times every night, and it still doesn't help him do well. How can he improve his spelling grade? - Completely Baffled
Answer: Your son needs to change his approach. He will never learn his spelling words by simply copying them. For your son to become a successful speller, he needs to start picturing the words in his mind. The best spellers are those who can easily visualize words.
As he studies for the weekly spelling test, your son should be focusing his attention just on the words that he can't spell - not on the entire list of words. Help him start this process by giving him a pretest of all the spelling words. Then he should correct the test so he'll know which words he needs to study. While he is correcting the test, he should write the correct word beside each misspelled word. Don't do this for him, as self-correction is very important.
To prepare for the spelling test, your son needs to go over the words he missed on the pretest each evening using the following steps:
- Say a word while looking at it.
- Close your eyes, try to see the word and then spell the word out loud.
- Look at the written word to see if you spelled it out loud correctly.
- Cover the word and write it.
- Check to see if the word was written correctly.
If a word is not spelled correctly, your son should repeat all five steps until he spells the word correctly. Then on the night before the test, give him a test of all the words again. Should he miss any, have him repeat the five steps for these words.
Also, don't just tell your son these steps and expect him to master them. Work through them with him patiently for several days or weeks until he can use them effectively. You should see improvement immediately in his spelling grades.