4Real Forums: Good Speller

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Topic: Good Speller

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Aagot
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Posted: March 11 2011 at 10:52pm \| IP Logged

Okay, this may seem like a strange question but, what do you do with a good speller? I have an 11 yr old who struggles tremendously and then a 10 yr. old who is a great speller. I gave him the placement test from Phonetic Zoo and he tested into the high school level. I didn't choose to use PZ because he is very visual and probably won't like the format.

Am I over thinking this? Should I just let him go and not bother to have him do a formal program? He doesn't know the rules at all but simply looks at a word and gets it. He reads voraciously and I think he just soaks up the spelling.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Aagot

mom2mpr
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Posted: March 12 2011 at 8:21am \| IP Logged

I skipped spelling for my good speller. He is the same type of kid, reads a lot and "get's it."
I don't feel he missed anything..yet

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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).

Mackfam
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Posted: March 12 2011 at 8:54am \| IP Logged

Some children are natural spellers; some are not. It sounds like exposure to good literature has been enough for your 10yo to solidify his natural instincts with spelling.

My concern would be setting up a competitive mentality between two boys that are close in age, and no doubt are very aware when one has an assignment and the other does not.

May I suggest an alternative? I offer this simply as a testimony of what has worked well with my time, effort, and has yielded results in terms of spelling with my children. I trust that you will consider it only insofar as it might be helpful, and will disregard it if it doesn't fit with your comfort level/style/approach.

I don't use formal spelling programs with any of my children. We use the dictation method to teach spelling and grammar which makes it fairly simple to to work with both good spellers and challenged spellers without making it obvious or drawing attention to a level of a spelling program, or anything else. Dictation can seamlessly integrate into our day without much effort, and the lessons themselves are generally about 10 minutes long. Neither of my two oldest were natural spellers initially. In fact, my oldest was not only a poor speller, but demonstrated some mild dyslexic tendencies. Through the years, I have seen amazing progress with my children's spelling and both have become good spellers through the consistent application of dictation lessons.

Dictation lessons allow us to approach basic spelling rules and their exceptions without spending a ton of time or effort (daily short lessons of 10 minutes). I think this attention is important whether you have a natural speller or not. For one child (the challenged speller), you may be providing basic spelling skills and they may one day improve dramatically, as I have seen dramatic improvement in my own children over the years, and be ready for more. Once spelling skills are more solid (or now if you have a natural speller), we're able to dig into exceptions more and roots of words along with suffixes/prefixes. These skills are very helpful to the older student who will one day find him/herself reading multi-syllabic words that may have shady contexts within their reading. Understanding some of those basic spelling rules, and some of the root word/suffix/prefix understanding is a real help to the older student in deciphering, reading and understanding a wider and wider vocabulary.

I find dictation an efficient way to approach language arts skills. You can find some great insight and information here at 4Real on dictation. Good luck in finding the best fit for your son!

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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19

, ds 16

, ds 11

, dd 8

, and dd 3

Wildflowers and Marbles

Aagot
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Posted: March 12 2011 at 8:45pm \| IP Logged

Thanks Anne and Jen,
competition and self-esteem are certainly an issue as reading was the first huge hurrdle for the 11 year old, but the 10 year old got it at 5. The younger one doesn't rub it in at all but the older one feels it anyway. So yes, I want to avoid that.

I guess I was worried that dictation alone wouldn't work for one who wasn't a natural speller but I am glad to see that it can. The other issue is, I worry that if I'm not following a set spelling program, I'll accidently let rules and exceptions fall through the cracks. I should just make sure I'm on top of those myself.

Thanks for the links and your insight Jen! Your answers always amaze me in their detail and practicality. I am eager to find time to follow those links!

Aagot

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