I'm curious when he's being asked to write the words and what specifically is driving his teacher batty? For instance, is this happening when the students are being asked to free-write? If so, is he stopping and not moving forward, or is he finding a synonym and using it? Is the teacher going batty because he's asking her constantly how to spell words, or because he's not doing work?
My guess is that the thing to do is to first understand what exactly the teacher finds troublesome, and try to accommodate that. If he's asking how to spell words, can you give him some kind of tool to help him figure it out rather than having him ask the teacher? If he's just not writing anything down, can you give him a list of common words that he can pick and choose from?
If the teacher is worried that it's perfectionism, then think through - are you seeing perfectionism in other areas? If so, those areas might provide an easier place to learn to deal with perfectionism. If not, does it really matter?
polarbear
