I Am Not a TEACHER and My 1St Grader Failing Spelling..Any Suggestions?

My son is in third grade, and spelling is actually a strength of his, but as the words have gotten more challenging, he needs to study more. His teacher gives a pre-test on Mondays, and the actual test on Fridays, so what we do is I make flash card with the words he misses. On one side, I write the word correctly, and on the other side I write the word with a blank where he made the error. For example:

If he wrote "mischievious" instead of mischievous, I would write

MISCHIEVOUS on one side, and
MISCHIEV_US on the other

I give him the cards in a baggie and he practices them in the car, and off and on throughout the day. My husband quizzes him in the mornings before school, too. He's gotten a 100 on all but one test this year, and that test is what prompted us to start making the flashcards. He likes practicing with them. Some weeks he has 10 to practice with, and some weeks he has 2. It depends on how difficult the words are each week.

I also like spellingcity.com that someone else mentioned. :)

You say you practice with him but have you tried having him write them a set number of times each day? This has been what I have done with both my boys from the time they started getting spelling words. The would do their usual spelling homework and after that was finished they would write each word 5 times each. If they bomb a test then the number of times would go. Once they did good/great on a couple of tests the number would go back down to 5 times each.
Another plus to this in it helps their handwriting skills.

I am a teacher, but, I do high school, so I don't have any great ideas for you, I wish that I did. I think I would look at working with phonic sounds, and how letters go together to make common sounds come out. I know you can get these online and print them. They used to be free, but I don't know if they are anymore. Just do a few google searches. Also The Learning Palace should have some workbooks for you if you want to go that route.

One thing I wanted to mention though, is that spelling is a skill in and of itself. It is not something that is associated with reading or writing in the brain. Functional MRIs show that spelling is actually done in a very different part of the brain, and it has to be "connected" to the other parts. Not everyone has a strong spelling section of the brain (like me for instance) or a strong connection. Practice really does help though. And not many people know or acknowledge this, but spelling is not a sign of intelligence per se. It is a unique intelligence of its own, and should be considered as such. Should a kid be held back because he can't spell, but can do everything else including reading and writing? I would say probably not, but if he is weak across the board, then maybe.

The best way to learn spelling is actually to increase reading and exposure to words. The more the better. So, get out those books and start reading to each other!

Good luck Mama, I know this has to be so difficult and trying!

I'm not a teacher but a few ideas for you:
www.spellingcity.com lets you put in his specific weekly spelling words each week. Then there are options to teach & test online.

Also, is there a possibility of a peer tutoring him at school during free time?

Before you go the route of a place like Sylvan, go talk to the school counselor. The counselor should know of teachers who tutor on the side which is cheaper, not a 'business", and more specialized to your child's needs.

I've been a substitute teacher over 10 yrs regularly at the same elementary school only. I work the K-5th grade but my favorite is the 1-3 grades and I am in 1st a LOT.

Does your child see the reading specialist at the school? Some children are pulled out for small group or one on one instruction during the week to improve on reading and spelling skills.

Our school also offers free tutoring after school until 4pm.

When you get tutoring through the school route, your child is being taught the way the school teaches the program.

There are several websites to make spelling fun. One section of station work we do weekly is a computer station and one of the children's favorites is spellingcity.com.

In 3rd-5th grade, part of weekly homework is to write spelling words, make sentences, etc. Just practicing writing them can help.

Best of luck to you!

For letter sounds, there is no better site for young kids (IMO) than Starfall.com

Thre are lots of levels to work through, but it's games, activities and songs that help kids learn to read and spell, rather than just drills.

As for the weekly spelling tests, my advice would be to stop letting him TRY to spell the words on his own early in the week. By having him sound them out (incorrectly) it gives him a memory of an incorrect spelling. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night have him COPY the words spelled correctly. Let him LOOK at his spelling list while you ask him to spell the word (so he's basically just reading it out letter by letter).

When he's ready to spell the word on his own, you'll notice he just doesn't look at the list in front of him. Safe practice quizzes (asking him how to spell the word) for Thursday night.

Hope this helps.

T.

When we had this issue with our son, we had him tested for dyslexia. In Texas, if a parent requests testing, the school will do it for free and many other states have followed. Research your school district's policies and see if there s testing for various learning issues. It has made all the difference in the world, understanding why he was having issues with spelling and reading.

We always treated spelling words like a game. On Monday when the words came home I'd write each one on a small piece of paper and tape each paper to a sliding glass door that way by the kitchen table. There were usually a couple words that they could spell without any practice so those we moved to the "Hurrah I know how to spell this" spot on the slider. For the other ones we'd concentrate on 2 or 3 of the words saying them and spelling out loud. Nothing on paper just out loud. Each day we'd add another 2 or 3 words doing the same thing and moving the ones spelled well to the hurrah spot. By the end of the week most of the words were being spelled correctly out loud. I found that having them write the word was a waste of time because if they can spell it and see it in their brain they'll be able to write. it.

My son also had issues reading so we went back to basics and got early readers from the library. They were fast easy reads for him and it built up his confidence. He'd breeze through several books back to back. Then we started adding harder books and continued until he was a confident reader. By the end of the school year he was right with his peers.

Work with him. I'm not a teacher but no one has more interest in seeing my kids reach their full potential. And the struggling little boy who they wanted to hold back? Getting his master's degree in engineering.

Read to him aloud every day. Practice and remind him of letter sounds, long and short vowels, etc...
Flash cards: have him participating in this activity by using colorful flash cards. Let him to write the words, it doesn't have to be perfect, just right spelling. Use basic and more useful words at first, something he relates to or he is familiar with.
Draw colorful squares on a piece of leaf paper, and have him to write a single letter inside the box for a specific word , like: s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g, each letter inside a different box/square. Do it with just 3 or 4 words every day, no more. Make it fun, laugh and praise him every time he is doing correctly.

The book "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington is GREAT. With brief, short, easy daily lessons he will learn phonetically and be rewarded by reading sentences after each lesson. My first grader is an awesome reader and my 4.5 y/o son is reading very well and loving the work we do with chalk board and chalk (book recommends magnet letters on board). Don't be discouraged about his ability. Memorizing lists of words is actually not optimal for spelling comprehension-though I get he has to do this for his tests. We homeschool and this book has made reading so easy. Many boys take longer to grasp reading, so don't stress, just work, he'll get it! I also like the "Spelling Workout, Level 1, 2...." books.

Try Kumon. They are much less expensive than Sylvan.

How do you have him study the words? I have always found that if I write something down, I remember it better. My GD has always studied her words by writing them 3 times each a couple of nights out of the week. By the time she has written the word six times, she knows how to spell it. I think it's harder for them to spell them out loud than to write them.

My first suggestion would be to have his eyes checked by a Pediatric Optometrist, not just your pediatrician. I learned after struggling with my son over math for 3 years, that he had monovision (only his left eye works correctly). Since getting him glasses so that he can see, he does well in math and all of his grades have improved. My Kinder was tested and she needed bifocals!

My second suggestion is to put pictures to the words and place them on the fridge. So that every time your son is in the kitchen, he can look at the pictures and spell the words.

Another something that has helped my kids is the Phonics games. LeapFrog has some wonderful gaming products.
http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-19199-Letter-Factory-Phoni...

http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-19138-Letter-Discoveries/d...

All About Spelling! I love this program. I use this for my children on top of them going to school. They weren't struggling, but I really wanted a better program instead of them having their spelling words dictated to them without reason as to how to spell them. My son is in 2nd grade and we have never studied for a spelling test and he gets 100% each week and at least 3/5 challenge words!
The creator of the program had a son who was struggling with reading and writting and nothing was helping. Read her story..
http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/our-story

I'm on my lunch break and don't have time to read responses thus far so forgive me if I repeat.

My daughter, also in 1st grade, learns better by touching objects. Things seem to stay with her if she's had her hands on it. Every night we use bananagram tiles (scrabble tiles would work too) to form her spelling words. I make a big pile in the center of the table then I'll give her a word to build. She has to sound out the word to know which letters to search for. Once she builds the word if it is correct we high five and move to the next one. If it is phonetically correct but spelled incorrect, I tell her exactly that. "Wow, you sounded that out and spelled it exactly like it sounds, so phonetically you are correct, however the word is actually spelled like this____." I want to encourage her to continue to sound it out and if she's right in how it sounds kudos but it is important to spell it correctly too.

I also have a list of "spelling activities" that she can choose from each night to practice writing her words. For example one night she may choose to write the words in alpha order. I give her a list of the 10 spelling words in no particular order and she has to write them in order. The next night she may choose to do "Across and Down" where she writes the word across the line and then down from the 1st letter like a crossword puzzle. Example:

Down
o
w
n

The next night she may do "Choo-Choo" words. She will write all 10 words as one big word train. Each word is written in a different color pencil or marker.

Or she is to write all of her spelling words and then go back and circle all of the consonants or trace all of the vowels in blue, etc.

Or she can draw a picture that includes 10 bees, then she is to write each of her words in one of the "spelling bees."

Or connect the dots. She can write the words using dots and then connect the dots in a different color.

The trick is to come up with ways to give them a bit of control, they get to choose the activity but make the activities fun for them as well as educational.

In our case on Monday thru Wednesday she gets to use the written list that I've prepared for her to complete her spelling activity. After completing the activity we use the bananagrams and she has to build the words from memory. On Thursday I give her a spelling test which she has to complete from memory. If she is struggling with any words then she does the spelling activity using those words if not we skip the activity and just do the bananagrams because she loves doing them and thinks it's a fun game.

I also have a word ring I've put together for her over the past few years. I started by printing out age appropriate site words. I cut them into squares about 2 inches tall and 4 inches wide. Punch a hole through the top and put them on a metal ring. You can find them in the dollar store or walmart in the school supplies. I add her spelling words to the ring each week. We flip through the word ring daily so that she quickly recognizes the site words and spelling words to increase her reading skills.

As for reading, I started out with site word and word family books that I purchased online. I believe I got them from ebay or amazon but they were extremely reasonable. These are not long story books but are about 10 pages that emphasize the 2 site words covered in each book. Here's the link to the books I used:

http://www.amazon.com/Sight-Word-Readers-Parent-Pack/dp/0...

I started out by having her read 2 of the books every night until she knew all of the words in each book. Then I'd add a book every week until eventually she was reading me all 25 books each night for a few weeks. Then we moved on to regular books. Now we read one book a night and if she is really tired we alternate and she will read a page and then I will read a page. If she comes to a word she doesn't recognize I have her sound it out. 9 times out of 10 she gets it and if she doesn't then I help her sound it out slowly. Reading can be very over whelming if they are presented with what they perceive as a "big book" however if you start small with the site word books it will help to build his confidence. Confidence is key here.

Several years ago we got her a few computer games to play to help learn her abc's, phonics, math, etc. I started her out with the toddler versions for shapes, colors, and abc's and then we moved up to preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade. Your son may learn better from visualization while using his hands as well. Maybe give something like this a try:

http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Learning-Kindergarten-Bundle...

We also love the Jump start explorers games.

Santa brought my daughter a leappad tablet last year and most of the games shes plays on it are educational and really work with reading, writing, and math. I think the games really helped her put the sounds with the letters because she repeatedly heard mickey, or pooh and friends saying the letter sounds and she had to pick the letter to match it.

I just try to keep learning as fun as possible so that it is something she enjoys doing and it doesn't become a chore. I hope some of this will help your son too :)

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

whoaa...you said 1st grade right? my kids didn't have real spelling/vocab until 3rd grade.

what you really need to do is find an older (i.e., over 55) teacher or do an internet search and get the school to see that they are waaayy overreacting here. I said an older teacher because apparently they stopped instructing teachers about age appropriate learning sometime in the '70's. my mom (35 +years in education) tells me there are lots of kids whose brains simply CAN'T read or spell before 7 or 8. it means nothing for future achievement and nothing on intelligence. Unless we screw it up and they start hating school and learning before they can really get started.

this is a case of the school not being age appropriate in their expectations.

at this point, I would do my research then have a meeting with the principal and teacher, and maybe special ed (there could be a learning disability here). Your talking points: your research showing that their expectations are age inappropriate, your concerns that he thinks he's stupid and will start hating school, what is testing for learning disabilities, what do we do next.

in the meantime, keep reading fun. skip whatever the teacher wants (he's not succeeding at it anyway!) and do LOTS of read aloud. you may also talk to the public library. ours had lots of books that helped kids read by making things almost the same on every page - those can build confidence.

good luck!

It is only Nov. sometimes it just. Licks one day. Just keep working with him
And see how it goes.

My oldest son had issues with spelling and reading in first grade as well. I had the school test him for learning disabilities and he came in at the 26th percentile in one area (the cut off is 25th percentile or below for services). At the time, we didn't have a Title I program in our school district so there were no formal resources for help in school for kids who didn't qualify for special education. It was maddening.

We ended up having him tutored privately once a week in second grade with a tutor who specialized with non-traditional teaching techniques. Some of his ideas come from the Lindamood-Bell approach, which you can google and learn about. Basically, he re-taught my son the rules of language via pictures. We paid $45 a week for the whole school year - it was a big expense, but it got him reading on grade level by the end of second grade. He did eventually qualify for special ed in 4th grade when he was re-tested and has been on an IEP for 5 years but still struggles with spelling.

When he was younger, a technique that worked for us was to have him walk around while practicing his spelling words. If he spelled the words aloud while walking circles in our kitchen the morning of the test, he did OK. If not, he would fail. There are still some silly tricks that he learned back in 1st grade that stick with him in 9th (for example, when spelling the word "because" I told him to break it into "beca" (pronounced Becca) and "use" and he still spells it that way). When learning "somersault" he would actually do one and have his body making the a, u, l and t letters as he finished the roll, stood up, and put his arms out. For some words, we drew pictures to remind him of tricky combinations. He later learned multiplication tables this way through a program I bought on line called Times Tales. Sometimes we would use music to help with spelling - for my son, spelling something in a song would stick more than reading it or writing it would. For some kids, the lessons stick if they have something physical connected to it - so bust out the fridge alphabet magnets or something else that he can literally manipulate with his hands. And finally, some kids respond well to computer games (spelling city is a good one and there are others like it).

In first grade, guessing according to the pictures instead of the words is actually a valid technique so don't discourage that. We got a letter at the beginning of this year (my youngest is in 1st grade) that basically said "don't tell you child to sound out the words" because that's what we all learned. My 1st grader has learned to look at the pictures to try to guess, or skip the words he doesn't know and then see if what follows give him clues, etc. It's been fascinating to watch. The program our district is using is Reading Street by Scott Foresman so you might want to google that. The approach is called dialogic reading and involves an adult and child reading together. If you google that phrase you'll come across some good info. For most of us, this is how we've been reading to our kids since they were toddlers but I think that as our kids start school, we tend to shy away from this kind of reading in favor of them learning on their own. Diologic reading is appropriate into elementary school though so maybe you can work on this at home with your son in a formal way and see if it helps move him along.

Hope that helps a little!

Are you still reading TO him, or just listening while he reads to you? Make sure that you do lots of reading to him as well, so he continues to hear the words pronounced correctly as he sees them on the page.

Starfall.com is a good website for helping with reading, though I'm not sure if it specifically has spelling assistance.

Make it fun. Find games to play that involve words, like a really watered down version of scrabble and use his spelling words to play it each week.

Work with his spelling words each week in fun ways - write them on the sidewalk in chalk, paint them on giant pieces of butcher paper, find alphabet magnets and spell them out on the fridge.

Also, I am a Discovery Toys consultant and we have a few toys and games that are designed to help with spelling, reading, and letter recognition/sounds/spelling. Please visit my website at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao I would highly recommend:

Memo Spell - a memory style game that has children search for cards to spell basic words
Tub Stick-Ups Letter Catch - fish for letters in the bathtub then stick them to the wall (they stick when they're wet) to form different words
Wordy Speedy Spell - a scrabble-like game with a twist, form words of different lengths and play an optional speed round. With basic and advanced versions, you can tone it down in the beginning to play at his level

The most important thing is to make it fun. The more you try to drill him and make it feel like work, the more he'll resist or tune it out. So keep finding new ways to play with letters and words.

One other idea: consider turning on the closed captioning when he's watching TV. It's just one more way for him to see words as he's hearing them.