Hi all,

I was wondering about other people's experiences with spelling vs. vocabulary in the lower grades. We're having a good experience this year and I thought I'd bring the idea up.

My DD6 is a natural speller. She does third grade spelling and got two wrong out of fifteen on her first test. The most she's missed this year are four on one test.

Her teacher is totally cool ( !), and recently started giving her vocabulary words in addition to her spelling words (they're called "Extra Bonus" words). This week she learned about medical terms like asthma and contagious and chickenpox. We spent some time learning about these things. Bonus: she was pleased to know that those unpleasant shots she gets protect her from yucky diseases.

I really like this approach. She gets stretched academically and builds her vocabulary. Has anyone else experienced this with their kids? I think I remember reading about the idea on this board not long ago.

Val

I've been giving DS5 spelling words lately, to get him thinking about basic building blocks. Some are short, some are longer (a recent longer one was "debilitated"). Every time we do a new block, I have him recite spellings of at least some of the previous ones. I also do not hesitate to throw in spelling words he doesn't have in his vocabulary yet, if they share a common prefix, suffix or base with others in the set.

I've been thinking about printing out the sight-word lists up through fourth grade or so and just having him plow through them for spelling practice in the short term. He is remembering spellings from his reading anyway.

We've not had any teachers extend the spelling that way. My dd12 is also a natural speller. They no longer do spelling in 8th grade anyway.

My dd10 is the polar opposite. Your thread title made me think of her b/c she has spelling in her homeroom class and vocab in her GT reading pull out. They use Caesar's English which deals with prefixes and suffixes as well as other whole words. She generally gets all of the definitions correct, but she keeps missing points for misspelling the definitions or the words themselves. That bugs me a bit b/c it isn't a spelling test yet she'll get no points for getting the definition right but spelling it wrong.

We also have spelling AND vocabulary (they call it "robust vocabulary") and DS7 loves it. They do a pretest with "easy" words and if they get all of those correct, they get 10 harder words. Plus, they have 10 of the vocabulary words which they practice by writing sentences using those words. My son loves this. Nan

DS7 (2nd grade) gets 5th grade spelling words, and always gets them all right. I like the idea of vocabulary words - maybe I'll mention it at conferences in a couple of weeks. I did have the idea of extending his spelling words - looking them up in the dictionary, writing a sentence etc - now that it's getting cooler, we might actually have time to do that in the afternoons

I see this as reinforcing spelling. No matter if they are writing a story or defining a word they should attempt to spell it right and taking a point off just might encourage them to try harder. Spelling isn't just for spelling tests.

As the mother of a gifted dyslexic, I agree with cricket2. There is a huge disparity between DD's vocabulary and her ability to spell. I would rather the teacher correct the spelling so DD can see what is should look like but not deduct points if DD knows the definition.

I printed a list of the dolch sight words, figured it was as good a place to start as any. �I'm about to start teaching the boy some spelling since his lettering is nice and he can copy a list of six words without losing interest, consistently. �

I have that enchanted learning subscription and I printed up a packet for each group of 10 dolch words, including a word list they want copied in abc order ( just going to have him copy them ), a page of " fill in the blank" sentences with a word bank (I thought that was pretty great for a new writer who would get tired writing definitions or whole sentences), and a search a word. �I gave him a halloween word search and he found four easy words that I showed him from the list after I told him how to do it. �(I wanted to brag about that, but I've posted too many brags lately to add one right now). �The other thing they had which I didn't print was the word shape boxes which he loves on starfall but I thought that might not be the same on paper. �Shoot, �I should print them. �If you're going to do it do it right.


Aww, I erased the link. �I read this website a little while ago that suggested the best practice for teaching spelling was to not teach the kids the right way to spell, but to have them guess. �Even if it's wildly inaccurate, the authors said, it will make them better spellers in the long run. �Of course with the stage my guy's at he can't spell anything. �I'm going to have to teach him how to spell something or how's he ever going to guess? �I remember that website said to have the kid write their 3 best guesses when they ask you how to spell a word, then they should chose the one that they think looks the best.

Since we're just starting the spelling I haven't seen it expand his vocabulary but I can't see how it wouldn't.

DS did a "word of the day" exercise for a long time. I'd give him a word and he'd look it up in the dictionary and thesaraus. He'd write down the information, then write a sentence using the word. If the word could take on multiple forms such as a verb and noun, he wrote a sentence for each form.

Although LA is not his favorite, he liked this exercise. It only took him a few minutes a day which may have been part of the attraction! He too is a natural speller so I never worried about testing him on the spelling of these words.

LoL. My 3 yr old is arguing with me that he's not learning spelling. I said you already have been.. He said, "that's not spelling; it's only writing."
(((Ok, you win. It's not spelling, it's only writing words. :)))

Ds8 has a new challenge in spelling this year (3rd grade). His teacher doesn't just give them their words to learn - she also gives them a few different excercises to do,as homework, which goes towards their grade (if they do 4, they get A, 2 they get B etc). One of ds8's things is to find the definition and write a sentence. His words this week included illusion/allusion, gambit/gamut, chose/choose, advice/advise, emigrate/immigrate and more (16 in all). The words are easier than last years (for now) - but it's definitely been fun watching him try and come up with sentences ! His sentence for 'allusion" was - "It's very hard to write a sentence using the word allusion" LOL

This is popular now. It makes my DD nuts. "NO, just TELL ME how to spell it because I KNOW this isn't right."

She is a fantastic speller, but she wants the correct spelling so she can learn it. I think this approach works with reluctant writers who are just learning but is really not right for everyone.

I agree that it's probably not right for everyone, but I've found that it works well with DS(now)6. A couple of factors in its favor: it encourages thinking about encoding rules more, as well as the effort to recall spellings for words that have been read before. This is a completely wild guess, but I think that using this technique with DS6 has greatly increased his likelihood of memorizing correct spellings just from his reading, in passing.

Right now, we're coverying 40-50 words per night, which I believe takes roughly 10-20 minutes depending on the list toughness. At the end of a grade, we take two weeks off, then start again. DS6 finds spelling boring, so I try to concentrate it into intense little doses to get past it as fast as possible. I'm looking forward to the day when I can eventually tell him that we're done with spelling lessons.

We bought a "Words on the Vine" book, which looks great from the standpoing of teaching spellings of bases, prefixes and suffixes all at once, with some fairly interesting words and puzzle-based content. We're going to crack it open this weekend. (For some reason I can't fathom, WOTV doesn't seem to have been turned into a series.) I also have a high opinion of some Scott Foresman spelling/vocab materials I've run across, which tries to keep things interesting too, though being a lot more based on rote learning than something like "Words on the Vine".

We're eagerly awaiting the enrichment for this year, which I believe will include some vocab work. I believe his second grade teacher will be initially in charge of getting it together. I was worried, but after meeting her I think she will probably turn out to be fantastic.

i DO have DD8 guess the first time and she gets frustrated but it makes her think about how the word sounds. Sometimes it's a confidence thing. If she is really not coming up with the word I will spell it for her. The only way I have found that works for her to learn her spelling words is writing them. On paper, on a dray erase board, in crayon or marker - whatever. As long as she writes them a number of times during the week. We try to do them once a night. By mid-week if there are a few she is getting wrong I have her write that one 3x. We also come up with ways to remember how to spell like "frustrated" I might say "R U frustrated?" because the "fru" is the part she was missing.

Ok, annoying spelling word of the week for DD8 "foisted" bleh.

Her teachers send home activities like "jump rope as you spell the word", draw a crossword puzzle using the words, etc but for her it's good old repetition.

DS10 just absorbs spelling words since he was little so we often just do a review or I ask him if he knows his words lol

Iucounu, I'm curious why you choose to teach spelling so explicitly outside of school. I guess it's my general belief that a bright child who reads way above level and has no actual deficit in spelling will absorb spelling through the ether, as it were. I know I did, and DD appears to be doing the same. I mean, some review of general principles seems like a good idea.

I guess I just don't think of it as something that requires enrichment, per se.

A few reasons, including: to speed up his writing, and make it easier for him to write whatever he wants; to develop his ability to absorb from the ether; to make sure he learns proper encoding rules; to counteract the probability that this year, his language arts instruction at school will be far below his level; and because he picks it up so quickly that we'll be done before too long, for all time. (His writing slowness was originally indicated as one area of concern prior to his grade skip.)

I would agree that it's not required, like lots of the things we provide for our children aren't required. Spelling is such an important communication skill, I want to make sure he's squared away so that he can easily get his ideas across to adults without them taking him for granted.

I'm also teaching him typing, another communication skill that isn't required. I think it's going to help him in the long run because he'll be able to churn out text faster and with less stress.

Interesting. I would teach DD typing long before I would spelling. I'm not at all opposed to teaching things outside of school, but spelling is not something I'd thought to do anything with because I suppose I have an unexamined belief that teaching spelling to a naturally good speller who reads widely is essentially unnecessary. (Hmm--am I a spelling unschooler? Ha!) I would probably take spelling out of DD's school curriculum if I could. She's doing very well on her own with it, whereas she clearly would benefit from explicit instruction in many other areas.

I don't know how much of this stems from my own experience with the subject of spelling, which was never a good use of my time.

I agree that it's unnecessary in terms of where he will eventually wind up, but that doesn't mean that there will be no benefit in the meantime. He'll attain full proficiency faster, and in the meantime his speed and accuracy will be improved vs. with no instruction. The lessons go quickly. I don't see an important drawback.

With a struggling speller I would take a different approach, probably doing it more consistently but over a much longer period. With DS6 we just blow through it quickly.

ETA: I also didn't find spelling instruction a good use of my time in school. I remember kids at my school being taught by what I believe was called the "Skyline" method at the time, basically memorizing words by the heights of the letters. It seemed silly to me and still does. What I do with DS is different: I give him a word, he quickly spells it, and if he gets it wrong (which is pretty rarely) I ask him to try again. It has made him a lot faster and has filled in chinks in his armor, so to speak.

The increase in accuracy helps because he's loath to do things where he might be less than perfect; for writing I decided that precision was a good thing to be fostered, and he has the capacity to actually be perfect with grammar and spelling, so we might as well go for it. It may have a secondary effect of impressing the teachers more at his school, but the reason we began was just to help him become faster and more self-assured while writing in the classroom.

I found another fun way to review the spelling list. Put all the letters for the spelling words on post-it-notes in a row on one wall. You spell the word. He runs and grabs the letters on at a time and sticks them to the other wall. When he gets it right he spells the word one time looking at it and one time with his eyes closed. I haven't tried it yet because I have to go to town to get post-it notes.

That's a cool method. DS6 has sometimes asked for the ability to write a tough word when I ask him to spell it the first time, and at the time it seemed to increase his accuracy, and at the very least his confidence.

We LOVE All About Spelling. It teaches the REASONS for spelling words, rather than give kids lists of words to spell, which we all know is ineffective.

I've been very happy with it.

I even wrote a blog post about my struggles with teaching spelling in an efficacious manner:

[url=http://www.homeschoolinflorida.com/what-curriculum-to-buy-for-phonics-spelling/][/url] http://www.homeschoolinflorida.com/what-curriculum-to-buy-for-phonics-spelling/

DD's school mentioned that in 1st and 2nd grades they have three spelling groups. A small group of the spelling challenged, a large group of average spellers, and a top group of photographic memory spellers who get vocabulary, Greek and Latin instead of lists. They said that the first group of children are generally spelling from the 3rd grade lists.
They also promised us that they don't have names or leveling for the groups but they also told us that the kids figure it out pretty quickly. LOL!

I give my daughter additional spelling exercises at home. I registerd her on beestar for vocabulary and reading pros. It's pretty cool. The text has nice simple fonts and the pictures and graphs are to the point not distracting. DD has got remarkable progress.
Lisa

As somewhat of an aside, for my oldest DD, who is likely dysgraphic, combining spelling and vocabulary for a grade would be a nightmare. She can tell you the definitions but can't spell her way out of a paper bag. (In fact, her VCI was her highest score on the WISC with all of the subtest being equal.) Unfortunately, the emphasis on spelling and her perfectionism actually hindered her writing. She had an extensive vocabulary even as an infant, but when it came to writing, especially in early elementary school, she wouldn't use a word she couldn't spell.

For my middle DD, I am currently not happy with her teacher's choice of combining vocabulary with spelling since instead of enrichment it becomes a punishment. Specifically, they take a spelling pretest on Monday. If they miss 4 or more words on the pretest, they then have to define every single spelling word. If they miss fewer than 4 words, they only have to define the words they misspelled and 5 bonus words. Then, they are never evaluated on vocabulary. So, what this means in her class is that there are natural spellers who don't necessarily know what the words mean (and don't have to learn), and others who know every definition but have to spend quite a while defining words.