[Aim2Inspire]

Hello everyone. I have 27 students in my classroom... our of 27 students, 14 of them fail their spelling tests almost every Friday. I give them a pre-test on Mondays... I have them write their words a certain amount of times everyday... we practice them in the classroom... we play spelling games and on the day of the test... I have 2 students that get only 1 word right (out of twenty!) and the rest of them have about half wrong... I'm not sure what to do. My students are bilingual but I make it very easy for even the non english speaker to be able to say the word and know the meaning. I'm running out of ideas. I don't want to make the test easier because being able to spell is very important... most of the 14 got the word "title" wrong and we write it EVERYDAY! I want to pull my hair out... how do you get your students to practice their spelling words so that they do well on the test on fridays?! All ideas are welcomed!!!

[MissA1stGrade]

Maybe cut the list down to 15 words. Also, you could spiral words from past lists through the new lists. This might be good for especially challenging words. Good luck!

[1956BD]

and get some success before moving on. Offer some rewards for students who do well. A little motivation might be just the thing. Also see if they like practicing their words on Spellingcity.com. It is free! You just enter their list of words each week. There are so many games they can play online to practice. Maybe that will help them.

[3rdgradequeen]

I have modified my spelling for the last few years. I do the pre test on Mondays. Those who get 100% or only 1 wrong get to do the poem of the week, learn words, and respond to poetry during the week. Those who get several wrong learn the 14 basic spelling words for the week. They do tic tac toe activities and the work book. Some of my kids also get only one right. Those kids have 10 words, in fact I am considering moving one of the kids to only 6 words.

Suggestions: I would definitely say that 20 words is too many. I'd cut the list to 12 or even 10 for some of them. Do they do homework to practice the words? Do you do flash cards or word sorts? You could have them look at the word, visualize it in their heads, and spell it backwards and the correct way. (I know this sounds crazy, but it s amazing that some kids "get it".) Can they orally spell the words to you? Sometimes kids can do better orally rather than writing. Also, try having them do a kinesthetic activity like throwing a ball to a partner while spelling the word.

I hope some of this helps.

[aberbe]

All of my students have their words on cards. We play games with them all week. Quiz quiz trade, concentration, spell-o, blind sort with a partner, sparkle, sit stand squat, what doesn't belong, speed spell... They have 20 words, but I only give them ten on the test.

Also, I've gotten away from the "give words on Monday, test on Friday." If they need more than a week to work with a specific set of words, then we spend more time on them. We might take the test on the following Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Etc. I explained this to parents at the beginning of the year.

[merta]

I had a class couple of years ago that really struggled, I started having them skywrite their words. We also varied how we practiced the lists each day.

[teachinagain]

I have started using spellingcity.com with my class. you can sign up for a free version which allow you to post each week's spelling words and it will save the list for students to use. They can use it at home or in computer lab if you have one. There are games to play, like hangman, word searches, ABC order or just plain spelling practice (it will say the word or use it in a sentence and students have to type it in). You can also print out some of the games to use for supplemental practice. Hope this helps.