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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: Jan 17 2014 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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I ran across an issue that I think is causing my oldest to struggle with spelling. He told me the other day while working on trying to spell a word, that he actually had correct, that the word just didn't "look right" to him. This caused him to think it was wrong and he kept erasing and trying again. I know how he feels! I do this to and many times I will ask my husband if I spelled an easy word correct even though I know I did but it just doesn't look right.
Skip forward to this weeks dictation lesson. (We haven't done any dictation since November.) I pulled a sentence out of a book he is reading. A dense canopy of trees shaded the remote highway. He underlined the words shaded and remote as he didn't know how to spell them and studied those all week. Today when he was writing the sentence he missed the words dense, canopy, highway. He got frustrated because he didn't pick those words out to study because he thought he knew them. When it was time to write the sentence for dictation the (correct) words just didn't look write. He kept crossing them out and rewriting them.
My first thought is to do a practice dictation with him during the week to find these words that at first look he thinks he knows but would miss them when writing. I also told him that he shouldn't go by look of a word to decide if it's spelled correctly.  But, I know from experience this doesn't help.
Is there something else I'm missing here? Any other ideas?
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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SallyT
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| Posted: Jan 17 2014 at 3:34pm | IP Logged
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Maybe keep the sentences no longer than that one, and have him work on every work that isn't a, an, or the -- at least look at them daily, then close his eyes and try to see them in his mind *as they are* on the page. Really work on visualizing each word, and the sentence as a whole. Then, when he goes to write, he'll have a stronger mental image to work from as he writes all the words.
Sally
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Jan 17 2014 at 4:19pm | IP Logged
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Does he spell them right and then second guess and redo them incorrectly? because if he does then all the standard recommendation to go back and check your work will work against him.
I think I was in 3rd grade when I realized that my first answer is the best answer when my "corrections" almost always took a right answer and made it wrong.
So if he is doing this, the best thing is for him to never go back and correct, with one exception. If you KNOW 100% that the answer is wrong (not just that it doesn't look right) and if you KNOW 100% the proper way to spell it. Otherwise your first guess is the best one to go with.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 17 2014 at 4:36pm | IP Logged
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I have a few ideas:
1) Require dictation selections as copywork so that the entire sentence must be written after the period of study. (This is NOT a CM approach, but I have done this with one of my students and found that it helped give him some good success to build on! I only did this with him for about 6 months.) Study your dictation selection as normal, and then he should:
** Set his desk up with selection above his paper so that he only needs to move his eyes to see the selection and then shift his eyes down to his paper to write. Goal here is remove distractions and obstacles!! Clean desk!!
** Tell him to look at 3 - 4 words at a time and write.
** If he has to look back at ANY word to check for spelling, he should make a small dot next to that word on his paper and then continue writing until his copywork is complete.
** At the end of his copywork, he needs to study those words, too, and let you know.
** You will need to re-evaluate that selection if he adds too many words to study. (More on that below) 2) When we study a dictation selection and a child identifies words that may be a challenge to spell, I may also say something like,
....enter at the part of a studied dictation when the child has just identified the words he thinks will be a challenge to spell:ME: "Ok, those do sound like words you should study, but are you sure you could spell *dense* and *highway* on your own?"
HIM: "I think I can."
ME: "Great - let me hear you spell them aloud - go ahead and spell dense for me."
HIM: "D-I-N-S"
ME: "Hmmmm...sounds like we might need to study that word together a bit. And then take the time to go through the word together along with any other words we've identified.
3) If I found that for 2 weeks in a row...or 3 dictation selections in a row...whichever comes first - that we were identifying more than 3 words per selection that were a challenge, that's a signal that this student needs to go to different, less challenging selections. This is my experience only, but I have found this to be pretty consistent:** Three words is stretching attention and patience in a studied dictation.
** Two words is best
THEREFORE
** 2-3 words for each selection is my goal when we identify the challenging words. And for your young man, I'd want to keep it to two words only with the rest easy-peasy words so that he can build on some success!! 4) Begin to keep a word journal for yourself - just a small little notebook. Write down words that he mis-spells consistently. ** Can you identify a pattern? (A particular phoneme that he consistently reverses?) Focus and target that!
** Can you begin to see that all the words in your journal are just too difficult right now so that you now have a definite place from which to dial back?
** Are you journaling more than 3 words each time he tackles a dictation? You need to offer simpler, less-challenging selections.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 17 2014 at 4:46pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
the best thing is for him to never go back and correct, with one exception. If you KNOW 100% that the answer is wrong (not just that it doesn't look right) and if you KNOW 100% the proper way to spell it.
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This.
Do not let him go back and forth correcting and changing a word's spelling - especially not on a dictation selection. It's confusing and it muddies any visual memory of a word...and in a dictation it interrupts his power of attention. He should be stretching his memory as you've read the selection aloud and he must now write it. If he starts second-guessing his words while he writes a dictation selection, then:
** His selection wasn't studied long enough - spend more days studying before you write.
** He has a mental block with a particular word - make note of it and move on.
** Your selection is too long and he's overwhelmed trying to remember too much.
If you see him correcting a word, ask very simply if he is sure he needs to make a correction. If the answer is no, tell him to leave the word and move on.
DO: Add that word to your little word journal and see if you can begin to see a pattern with words spelled similarly that may trigger an unsure response when he writes it.
DO: If needed (and I'd do this on words that we've identified a child has a particular mental block with - not every word needs this), bring in all the different ways of learning to help him when you study a dictation selection:
** Trace the word in the air.
** Write the selection as copywork.
** Ask him to spell the words he's identified aloud.
Approach it in a variety of ways that bring in the auditory, kinesthetic and visual parts to the game to really help seal a word-memory.
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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
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jawgee
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| Posted: Jan 17 2014 at 6:10pm | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
| Require dictation selections as copywork so that the entire sentence must be written after the period of study. (This is NOT a CM approach, but I have done this with one of my students and found that it helped give him some good success to build on! I only did this with him for about 6 months.) |
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We also use dictation as copywork, and I've found it to be very helpful for my oldest.
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Monica
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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: Jan 18 2014 at 10:06am | IP Logged
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Thank you everyone! This was all helpful. Looking forward to trying some new things next week.
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Spelling (dictation) Question
