Children Spelling

Most schools teach whole languge, not phonics, so that may be the root of the issue. If it is the whole class, you can probably see the quality of the LA education from the best practice of the school, or district at large. For this particular task, follow the teachers lead in grading the papers the way she wants it. I would focus on your child, and see if you think you need to supplement her spelling skills with some tutoring. Then, make an appointment with the pricipal and ask about the program that the school uses for teaching spelling, what you saw, what the school's state testing scores are, and what you could do to advocate for the school to the school board to help. When you see an issue, you will be well recieved if you go speak to the powers that be with a helpful attitude instead of a complaint. The principal may welcom both your feedback and your support, and your geniune interest is always appreciated.

M.

Yes, fourth graders should spell better than that! But, what I'm more concerned about is that she lets parents grade papers. When I taught (I'm a SAHM now), we were never allowed to let anyone grade papers. Privacy is a huge issue. Plus, she should be reviewing the work.

spelling is just not a priority in this country any more. i'm constantly horrified to see misspelled words and egregious grammar mistakes on billboards, government documents and advertisements.
if it's important to you (and i'm thrilled that it sounds as if it is) i would supplement your own child's spelling curriculum at home.
khairete
S.

I homeschool and i notice it in my children and I didn't have time to take a lot of time to "fix" this problem. What I started doing is when they misspell a word on an assignment, no matter what the assignment is, I have them write the words correctly on a separate sheet of paper 3-5 times each. That really seemed to help with future assignments. My teens are pretty conscientious about spelling things correctly. I'm glad because it's annoying to try to read something that is full of errors. I also have my kids correct their misspelled words right on their assignments. I'm not sure how much she can do this realistically with so many students but it's better than having a whole separate spelling course. Good luck!!

This is Dyslexia in most of hte cases. They should be graded on content, not spelling unless it is truly a spelling paper. MO DOES NOT recognize Dyslexia, schools do not test for it, & these kids will continue to struggle thanks to this. Traditional teaching, flash cards, writing the words over & over again will do nothing for these children. It takes special Dyslexia directed teaching to reverse this. 1 in 5 kids are Dyslexic, most go unrecognized, & continue to go through school like this. Some are very mild while others are profound. If you really want to help go to www.dys-add.com & closesly watch the 3 hour webinar. You will learn other traits to look for to try to distinguish if it is Dyslexia or if these children need a spelling intervention program. BTW - thanks for volunteering & caring enough to be concerned about these kids!!!!

I teach at a school where we're going back to phonics. I work with Kindergarten through 6th grade and I can definitely see things getting better, but there's still a ways to go. I have Kindergarteners coming in not knowing their ABC's. That for SURE can't be blamed on the schools! Blows me away.....

Just had a meeting up at pour school on Monday night. Spelling & grammar came up in the discussion. The teachers told us to help our kids with it now because the state tests will start to deduct points for errors. This is for 6th grade!!!!!!!! Now, I personally have given my kids workbooks and words to spell and define for the last few years, so they are good spellers. It amazes me as to the low standards the public schools have. Maybe they should be run by nuns LOL!!!!!!! I went to Catholic school and let me tell you, we learned what we needed to know!

A couple things.
Yes they should know how to spell sight words.
I have a fourth grader. He is so sloppy and so careless.
I don't know what you mean by speling stroy, are they writing stories using spelling words or just writing stories?
Are these the spelling words?
THey are probably being very careless. I have to correct my son all the time with spelling and capitalization. I make him redo tings he can't seem to hand in neat, correctly spelled and capitalized, I homeschool.
They are also taught in public school a lot of whole language and not much about phonics. MAny teachers, not all, also feel that since spell check is on every computer they don't need to drill spelling. That and why teach them to spell correctly when they will just type in OMG and C U L8R while texting.

Well, that's schools today. Back in 'the old days' we had to spell AND write with content. It's a shame how lax our schools have become. Homeschooling is a great option if you want your child to learn what you feel is important, like spelling and writing.
Otherwise, work with your own child at home when they do homework. Now with the texting and shortcuts for words it will definitely get worse as far as spelling goes.

I would be concerned. I was taught to spell phonetically (and spell well usually!) and my best friend was not (and can't spell to save her life). I think that makes a big difference. I don't know what your school's approach is, but that might be something to look into. If you are already volunteering, I would talk to the principal about some kind of mentoring program or something to address this issue. Thank you for being a vigilant parent!

how can they know how to spell or write correctly when teachers themselves write:
teacher's (when referring to plural as in 'teachers')
i am shocked to see how many mistakes elementary school teachers make. it's the teachers, not kids.

My youngest daughter was in 4th and 5th grade and had spelling issues. Didn't get the phonetics. Unfortunately I was the same way. Our schools, Liberty, had a program that she went to until she was caught up. She still has trouble today with some words but is more willing to try to spell it herself then ask for help. Most of the time she gets the words right, but she isn't as confident as she should be. Check to see if the school has a program for those kids...it could be that they just don't hear the sounds like they should. Hope this helps. Good luck and God Bless.

Teachers have an unbelievable amount of content to teach during the day, and students are continuously pulled from the classroom for special classes like PE and Music, resource, speech, band, strings, etc. Some of the previous posts that are so critical of teachers really bothered me, but I realize that most people have no clue how much work teachers put into their lessons and how much they care about students. About spelling: yes, students often make spelling errors. I am an upper grade elementary teacher, and I do teach a spelling rule each week, but students often struggle to apply it in their writing when they are busy focusing on other things, like content, organization, word choice, voice, fluency, etc. I teach my students to just get their ideas down first and worry about spelling later. Then I teach revising and editing strategies that they can apply to real life later. When grading, I make my expectations clear and let students know when I expect spelling to be correct. I suggest asking the teacher again for information about her spelling curriculum.

Jennifer C. is right about dyslexia, but not all bad spellers are dyslexic. However, most dyslexic people are bad spellers. 85% of the English language is regular for spelling, but our schools generally do not have spelling curricula that teach spelling sequentially, because they don't teach phonics in the way it should be taught. When whole language (or teaching reading by guessing, as I like to call it) became popular, any real teaching of spelling--except by memorization--was eliminated. When my children, who are now 30 and 28, would come home with "A" papers full of misspelled words; it would drive me crazy, but their teachers had been taught not to emphasize spelling. The pendulum is starting to swing back the other direction, but it could take years for public schools to incorporate any spelling curricula that actually works. Pray for school choice, people. It's the only way our schools will ever improve enough to properly educate ALL children.

Some kids just aren't good spellers. Some kids don't get any support from home. Some kids are just careless. Yes, it would be nice to see those children spelling more accurately, but it is not the teacher's fault, per say. I also agree that if those words weren't the spelling words, it's not as much of an issue. Spelling shouldn't be counted off until a final product of an assignment and since that type of assignment is probably only just one draft, I don't think it's too important to look at it. In my opinion, as long as they are doing the assignment correctly and accurately and using their spelling words (and even those misspelled words) in proper context, they have been successful. Let's face it, I am among those who genuinely would like to see our children be more careful and be better spellers, but with all the technology today that makes us not have to be better spellers, I'd be more concerned with content.