Our spelling program focuses on really teaching kids; every week I plan to teach lessons to help them learn something new about how words are spelled and how to have better spelling in their writing.
Students will not be given a long list of words to learn for a test,
experience and research has shown that typically this does not lead to
correct spelling in their writing. What we will do is help your child figure out what words he often misspells in his writing and "learn them cold" so that he'll never get them wrong again.
Learning to spell correctly is a gradual, complex process.
First, kids pick up many words from their reading. Second, in class
we explore how to get more words right in their first draft. Third, they learn how to edit their drafts for spelling.
These processes are going on all year, and kids will continue to spell unknown words the best they can with their current knowledge, and they will improve as they learn and add to their knowledge through daily reading, daily writing and focused lessons.
One of the most important things you can do is to encourage your child to read, because that is how we learn to spell most of our words.
If she's writing at home, talk with her about how she comes up with her spellings and how she edits for spelling. You don't want
to be too picky about this; for most children, editing
a few spellings makes more sense than trying to get every word correct, which can be a little tedious until they are older and have acquired more words through wide reading.
Dictionaries and spellcheckers are great to have available for the
to use at home. -excerpted from district spelling materials
