Help w/ 3rd grade spelling!

[Steph9072]

My daughter is 8 and in 3rd grade. Holly is a very intelligent girl. She is reading at 5th -6th grade level and is above grade level in most of her other classes. The problem we are having is she is not retaining her spelling words. We are using the same method we have the last two years & she did well then. I give her the spelling words orally. If she has difficulty I spell it and she repeats after me. Then we move on to a written practice. Where I give her the words and she spells them on paper. The ones she misses she must write out. We do this every night with the amount she writes moving up each time she misses the word. We start with 3 times each and move up to 10 times. However she is still having tons of problems retaining her spelling words. I do encourage Holly to say the word out loud or to herself & sound the word out as she spells.

It is starting to have an effect on her confidence. Does anyone have any idea or suggestions to help her retain her spelling words?

TIA
~Steph

 

[notsosnowwhite]

It's easier to spell a word if it is a "sight" word. Try this: make flash cards with the words written in very bold letters. Have your student look at it, say it out loud, trace it with their finger, all the while just staring at it and making a picture of it in their mind. Then, hide the card. Have them picture the word and spell it out loud. They can write it in the air while trying to spell, or write it on their hand with a finger, whatever it takes. If they can't do it right away, show them the card again. When they can do that step, take it even further and have them try to spell the word BACKWARDS. This takes many times, but if they can picture it and successfully see that image in their minds, it usually leads to success. (Fun fact - watch your child's eyes when they try to spell out loud. Most children will look up and to the left when they are trying to spell from memory.)

If your child is auditory and enjoys singing, you may consider setting spelling to a familiar tune. Example: If you have a five letter word, use the tune "Old MacDonald" and use it like this:
"This is how you spell cheer: C-H-E-E-R.
Spell it loud and have no fear: C-H-E-E-R.
With a C-H here and an E-E-R...
Here a C, there an H, Everywhere an E-E-R...
This is how you spell cheer: C-H-E-E-R.
There are lists online you can find that give you ideas for tunes for certain letter numbers in words. When I taught third grade we used these a lot and the kids LOVED making up their songs.

We cheered the words, did jumping jacks to words, stomped the words, spelled them in british accents, whatever we could do to keep attention and have that repetition.

Good luck!

 

[Mrs. Charming]

You might want to try mnemonic devices. It's a little rhyme or poem that would help her remember the spelling of words, along the lines of "Dessert is spelled with two S's because you want to eat dessert twice/Desert is spelled with one S because you only want to cross the desert once." Get creative, get silly, let her come up with her own devices. This linkhttp://www.learninginfo.org/spelling-mnemonics.htm should give you some ideas!

Good luck. Remember that some people can be absolutely brilliant, but just can't spell that well. It happens! (I'm not saying that she should give up completely, lol. 3rd grade spelling isn't the end all be all.)

 

[Hannathy]

You might want to try mnemonic devices. It's a little rhyme or poem that would help her remember the spelling of words, along the lines of "Dessert is spelled with two S's because you want to eat dessert twice/Desert is spelled with one S because you only want to cross the desert once." Get creative, get silly, let her come up with her own devices. This linkhttp://www.learninginfo.org/spelling-mnemonics.htm should give you some ideas!

Good luck. Remember that some people can be absolutely brilliant, but just can't spell that well. It happens! (I'm not saying that she should give up completely, lol. 3rd grade spelling isn't the end all be all.)

I'm echoing the you can be very smart and not spell. My DD and most of her immediate group of friends can't spell at all and they all attended a charter school for the highly gifted! One of her friends is going to be the valedictorian and he can't spell , and she is spending the afternoons at the university instead of high school and you would be appalled at some of the spellings I have seen from them. her teacher in middle school told me that it is very common for gifted kids to not spell, it's like their brains are moving too fast on the concepts to care about the spelling. My DD memorized well so she got A's on her tests but in everyday writing forget it. I guess I don't have any real hints but letting you know she isn't alone and luckily most things are typed on the computer anymore so spell check is available so she can still do well in school as a bad speller. have her try but don't stress to much.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Write the words really big with chalk on the driveway.

Cut apart the flashcards into letters of groups of letters. Mix up and put back together.

Draw your words on the wall with a flashlight in a dark room.

Practice your words in sign language (manual alphabet.)

Cut out the letters from old magazines and glue them onto paper to form "ransom note" style spelling words.

Play hangman with the words.

Make a word search puzzles on puzzlemaker.com.

Type them into Excel or Word, and turn them into different colors and fonts.

Convert them to number code (A=1, B=2,... Z=26) and back.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

I second that intelligent people are not necessarily good spellers. DD9 is in a combined 4th/5th grade academically/intellectually gifted class and is a horrid speller. Her penmenship (sp? LOL) is bad also. Her teachers have always described her as a classic "higher order thinker" whose mind is always racing around and she doesn't notice mundane details like spelling and neatness and picking up her underwear off of the floor lol. She doesn't seem to have trouble with memorizing for tests, but when writing she will misspell words that I know she has learned before.

 

[cnktruitt]

Here is what my 3rd gr DS teacher sent out....

You can also create an account at spellingcity.com It is a free service, you input the spelling words & it generates different games.

Good Luck

 

[FoundMyPrince]

DD9's school uses Spelling City. She is in the 4th grade and enjoys the website (www.spellingcity.com) and it seems to be helping her study.

 

[Carriemel]

Try the SSHW method...

See the word.
Say the word.
Hear the word
Write the word.

There are some experts that say if you look at words in that order...see, say, hear, write...you will remember them longer. I think it kind of makes sense. You see the word written out. You say the word to get it into your mind. You hear someone else say the word. And then you write the word to further ingrain it in your head.

I used this method for learing foreign (Spanish) words in high school and college, and it seemed to work. Not only that, but my pronunciation of those words was more like a native speaker.

 

[locolala]

We played the "charley horse" game. Basically, I started across the room from my dad, who was sitting on the couch. Each time I got a word wrong, I'd have to take a step towards him. If I got all the way to him, I got a charley horse on the leg.. basically a really light punch. No, it didn't really hurt and I never had bruises, but it was enough incentive to spell my words right! Before anyone says anything, my dad was not abusive in the least, in fact he's a child psychologist, so he knew that what he was doing wouldn't have a negative impact on my psyche.

On the gifted kids having problems spelling aspect, I totally agree! I was in the gifted program from k-12, and I've always had issues spelling. It is like my mind just cycles too fast and my fingers can't keep up.

 

[Alesia]

I second that intelligent people are not necessarily good spellers. DD9 is in a combined 4th/5th grade academically/intellectually gifted class and is a horrid speller. Her penmenship (sp? LOL) is bad also. Her teachers have always described her as a classic "higher order thinker" whose mind is always racing around and she doesn't notice mundane details like spelling and neatness and picking up her underwear off of the floor lol. She doesn't seem to have trouble with memorizing for tests, but when writing she will misspell words that I know she has learned before.

You've just described my DD9.

 

[Drusilla]

We have a large dry erase board that hangs in our eat-in kitchen. My 3rd grade DD writes her weekly spelling words on the board. She sees them as she eats breakfast, snack, does her homework (unless it's spelling homework then I cover the board), dinner, etc. It has helped tremendously with the "see" part of learing the words. They're always there without me constantly putting them in front of her face. We did this last year as well and there were only 2 spelling tests during the entire 2nd grade that she didn't get 100% on, which was a huge improvement from 1st grade.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Thanks cnktruitt and FoundMyPrince for the spelling web site!

I think DS will really like it. They just started this (short) week, so no spelling list until next week - but I created an account, so we're ready.