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Home : 2005 : March : 17

also..
By kali

Hi Cheryl. Amy gave you a lot of great advice and I just had a few things to add. Get Robert Gentry's book "Spel...l is a four letter word". It is an easy quality read that really explains what is Developmentally appropriate
for the stages of spelling. It talks about how learning to spell comes from writing, writing, writing, and of course reading. When children are learning to spell they rely on phonics,thus invented spelling is where they are at. This is how they develop hypothesis about spelling. Phonics is the lowest level of spelling strategies, because as adults, we know that their are so many rule

breakers and words are not often spelled like they sound! So that is why, kids grow out of invented spelling, because you teach them to rely on better spelling strategies (such as word families). Eventually we see spelling as more of a visual memory, you write the word or see it in print so many times-you know it. Studies do not yet know why some of us have better visual recall. Anyway, a good visual recall builder is a game like........put out several objects (a lego, marble,block,safety pin, etc) and have the child close their eyes, while you remove an object. The child opens their eyes and tries to guess what is missing. The kids LOVE this "spelling lesson"!

I would check with the school's speech therapist and make sure she/he is at the meeting you have with the teacher and principal. Like Cheryl said, it is all about phonemic awareness, and if your child gets at all tangled in this area, they need to be working with the S.T. This person is more often than not, very smart and very good with children. Also, if your child qualifies for speech, that is not a reason to retain them-and not even amo in my book!

Sounds like your child's teacher is not all that warm and understanding. It also sounds like you are doing most of his quality instruction. Spelling tests are foolish and sound very stressful for a child. You said your child takes these tests on the computer? It must take a long time for them to even find the letter on the keyboard than it does to figure out what letter they are looking for! How much process time do they have to complete this awful task? Also, spelling test on site words are worthless. You should get on this teachers ass about learning vocabulary, and how it has to be connected to something meaningful.

You might also want to request a Special Ed teacher at one of your meetings, because a teacher thinking about retention should have asked for this person's oppinion.

Different states have different reading level requirements (as of now), for example,we require a kindergartner to read at a level 3 by the end of the year to meet the standard. At the same time we would not retain a child just because they did not meet this standard. You will see kids all over the Country in title one reading recovery services becuase they are 1st graders not on grade level in reading. Is this teacher doing Guided reading groups? She should be, and she should be working with the group who is not meeting the standard (not an ed tech). I'd ask to observe your child in a guided reading group.
Good luck, and keep reading rhyming books every night!