5th grader with bad spelling habits

[roostermom]

Help! My son is in the 5th grade and is not very good at spelling. He keeps his grades at a C+ minimum(spelling of course) and I just can't find a way to help him spell better! Is this a gender thing? I have talked to teacher at PT Conf. and I don't think I made any headway. Suggestions?

[AnnW]

I don't think it's gender, my 14 year old ds can spell. Is it on spelling tests? Then he probably needs to study more. Is he not remembering the spelling words or other words when he is doing other work, and then being counted off? Alot of that is probably laziness. My 9 year old dd does that.

[darlene]

Get him reading more. Good readers are usually good spellers.

:)

[Leigh]

If it is for spelling test, have him bring home the words every night and go over them. Give him practice tests. Let him write themand say them aloud. Make up chants spelling the words. I know he may think he is too old for this, but it might help if he spells them out of stuff. (ie, dried noodles, clay, dirt..) Have him draw a picture and place the troubling word somewhere in the picture. When he is taking the test have him think of the picture. These are just some spelling strategies, that I have been taught to use with the children I teach. They may or may not work with your son depending on what type of learner he is.

[JeannieOR]

I agree with Liegh about spelling strategies.

-Please, don't automatically assume that it's laziness. Spelling does not come as easy for some as I does for others. My son hardly studies at all and gets 100's on most of his tests while my dd spend much more time studying and is averaging about a 'C'. She's a good reader but tends to do better in math. I am still to this day a horrible speller, but my reading comprehension was always pretty good.

[JeannieOR]

...just an update on dd's spelling. At the beginning of the year she was being tested on 20 words a week and not doing so well. The teacher decided that she'd rather have her do 10 words and get them all right then study 20 words and get them half wrong. She started assigning her only 10 words a week for a few weeks and she got perfect scores then she raised it to 15 words a week and she's been doing great. The teacher plans to have her doing 20 words a week by spring. I thought it was such a good idea. It's really restored her confidence. :thumb: