Hello! I could use some fresh ideas for studying spelling independently for upper elementary/middle school ages. Two of my children transitioned from spelling activities (generated by me) to studying completely independently. So, in early elementary, I would make up puzzles, word searches, cross words, word unscramble pages, and the like. As they got older they were able to study independently, and prefer that I simply give them a list, which they study and learn over the course of the week. I feel like those two ruined me for helping their brother! This child just doesn't get studying on his own. He gets the idea, but whoa, doggie, it doesn't work so far. He went from doing fine (high B's to A's) in spelling to catastrophic testing disasters. Okay, so, right now, I'm helping him - a lot - with the idea that we're working on him learning how to study spelling on his own. But I could use some fresh ideas. He has tried looking at the list, closing his eyes and thinking/saying the spelling, then checking himself. Crash and burn over a few days. The ONLY thing that has worked for him is writing out the list, over and over. I hate to have him spend his time that way, I'd rather have him writing a composition. I have thought about having him create his own puzzles -- type in the words to a word search generator, then print it and find them. It seems like it would give him two chances to practice... I would use Spelling City except for a few things: I don't really want to spend MY time putting his list in (I guess he could do that... another chance to practice...), but I also find a LOT of the words in our spelling lists are not recognized by Spelling City's database, and often it won't offer the word for spelling practice if it doesn't have a definition or pronunciation. To be fair, they may have changed this since I last ran into this problem. :/ Any ideas? I would appreciate the input.
IS he creative?? Does he like to write stories?? I would tell him to write a creative story using his spelling words. It can be funny, ...just have him underline his spelling words. Other than that..if he likes to moves around...Do you have a trampoline?? Maybe he can jump as he spells the words?? If writing the words helps, have him use them in a sentence, and have him underline the phonograms...this way if he identifies the spelling rules, it may help him to remember the spelling.
Attacking a whole list at one time is depressing at best. Take a big list and tell him to focus on no more than five at a time. Two or three may be better. Tell him to quiz himself, and write the answers out. (Always write the answer out) If he makes a mistake, then he should write the correct answer out 3 times. He should not add a new word until he has learned one well. I was a Skinnerian psychology major from the U. of Pitt, so this is based on reward, motivation and 7 kids that were home-schooled. In 20 years this plan worked well. Nothing is as addictive as success. Just read your post, he looks like a visual learner. Also, have him write unknown words that he encounters in reading. He will amass a nice vocabulary that way. My daughter found an SAT prep book and decided to memorized the 1500 words in the vocab section.
