So this year was the first year we used one spelling curriculum for the entire time, without switching up trying to find one that works. We have gone through Spelling Power, AAS, Sequential Spelling, random spelling sites, etc. This year we used Soaring with Spelling. He liked it, did fine (not great, but usually around 85+ on quizzes). So to see how he is retaining the info, I pulled 62 words from the whole year. I let him read over the list for just a minute or so, only enough to refresh without him being able to try to remember them. I figured if I let him study the words for a long time, then it wasn't really showing what he knew. So out of 62 he got 20 correct. 20. The words ranged from little to irregular to efficient, and included the months and days. How concerned should I be? I am quite upset by it, not at him, of course, as he did well through the year. But now I am unsure what to do to get his spelling up to par. He will be in 6th grade this coming year. I have thought about A Reason for Spelling and Spellwell, or even going back to the beginning of one of the other programs we've used before (though there were reasons we dropped each of them). I know he will never be a great speller (my husband isn't either), but he should be able to remember how to spell common words. What is crazy to me is that he has a great reading level, but spelling - not so much. So what would you do???
After talking to my husband, and having him look through the spelling we used, he seems to think that the program is fine, but that I just need to add in a review of the words taught maybe every 3 weeks or so, rather than waiting until the 6th week like the book does. So unless someone here has a recommendation for a different program or another way to give more reinforcement, I guess we will try it that way. But I am open to suggestions, so please share if you have one.
I think your husband is right. I would take a few words from each week and tack them on the end. So in like week 2 add in 2 or 3 words from week 1. Week 3 add in 1 word from week 1 and 2 or 3 from week 2. and keep going like that. Another thought is make sure you add in all words missed the previous week into the next week's work. It may not be in the worksheets so give different things to practice them.. writing them 3 or 5 times each, write them in a sentence, put them in alphabetial order, etc.
I am having good success with AVKO's Individualized Spelling. My son continues to review words that are misspelled and only practices words or word patterns he doesn't know. I'm seeing him start to spell the targeted words correctly outside of spelling time. It is pretty inexpensive too.
You can see a sample here: http://www.avko.org/Samples/712.pdf I just give the tests until my son misses about 5 words. Then he takes those words and writes them on index cards. We go over patterns for those words if he missed it due to the pattern, but my son's mistakes usually aren't pattern mistakes. I purchased the AVKO membership (around $25) and was able to get this book for about $5. The huge patterns of English spelling book came free with the membership. I should last us for quite some time. We periodically review the index cards. So far about half our time is spent doing the tests and trying to find new misspelled words and the other half is spent practicing spelling words on the index cards. Some of the sentences are a little weird - part of that AVKO humor. They have given us some laughs.
