Request a CatalogContact Us
 0 Items
Home > Support > Curricula > Spelling or no spelling?
 
 
Question: My son is having difficulty with the grade 3 spelling starting from week 19. Do I agree with him to quit our spelling subject? or do I add drills and divide the test into 3 parts (4-5 words at a time) as am trying to do now? I want him to learn but I don't want him to feel so terrible that he is doing bad in spelling.
Answer:

Dear Parent,

Thank you for your question! 

It sounds as though your son is getting discouraged with spelling, and needs to slow down in the curricula, to gain more confidence.  If your son is having difficulty with My Catholic Speller B, which is for third grade, I recommend that you step back a grade level, to My Catholic Speller A.  However, I would not recommend dropping the spelling all together because spelling is a critical part of English.  Many a writer can lose credibility if his paper is well-written, but contains serious grammatical and spelling errors.  The reader can miss the author's point because the spelling errors are distracting.  For your son it is important, however, to move back a little in spelling, without dropping completely, to help him become less discouraged.      

Consistent practice and drilling will help your son learn the spelling words, as well as dividing the test into parts.  You have some very good ideas! Here are some other activities that you could use, besides the drilling, that might help keep the interest level.  (You have probably already thought of better ideas to help him out, so don't feel like you have to use any that I suggest.)  For instance, you could buy him different colored gel pens, so that he could write his words in different colors.  One favorite activity with my students was buying alphabet letters made of foam.  The students then spelled their words for the week, using the letters.  You don't, of course, have to buy the foam letters.  You could simply write the letters on index cards, and use those to spell words.  Another idea might be to pick a word for every day, from his spelling list.  If he has four or five spelling words each week, it would work perfectly.  Your son could spell the word aloud, write it down on a card to put on the wall, write the definition and then use it in a sentence, or two.  The more that he interacts and works with the words, the more likely he is to remember them. 

One thing that you could also use is positive reinforcement to help him learn the words.  In the beginning, for every word that he spells right, you could give him a prize.  Or you could make a deal with him, and tell him that if he spells more than two words correctly, he can earn a reward.  This might give him the incentive to learn his words.  As he learns more words, the deal would increase to four words and a prize, or seven words, and a prize. 

Another activity I would highly encourage is for him to read as much as possible.  The more your son reads, the wider his vocabulary will become.  Also, the more he sees the words used in context, the more he will remember how they are spelled.  After a while, you could take words from his favorite books, and have him spell those.  If they are words he is interested in learning, he will probably find spelling much easier.  

I hope that this has helped you find that happy medium between too much spelling, and no spelling at all.  Good luck with your role as teacher and parent, and God bless you and your family!

Laura Nicholson

   
© 2024 Catholic Heritage Curricula