Spelling

Reply to Spelling on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:49:41 GMT

jo.010813ong — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:49:41 GMT

Yes, she's been taught well... the teacher said may be her brain has yet to 'switch' on ! :lol:

:love: i used your methodology to guide her at the moment

Reply to Spelling on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:09:32 GMT

tamarind — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:09:32 GMT

jo.ong:
Hi Tamarind,

Her kindergarten teacher said my gal has no problem with her phonics, which is why, i find it strange when i use phonic to guide her for the spelling - she cant do the sound. :!:

I went to your blog and started trying out your method... 50% working 50% it is not... i'm not too sure why... :?:

If phonics is properly taught in the kindergarten, then your girl should not have any problem with spelling at all.

When my girl attended the Montessori phonics enrichment class, during every lesson, the teacher taught the kids how to listen to the sounds of a word, and pick the correct letters. Kids who has a good foundation in phonics naturally knows how to spell out the words easily.

If you are practicing using my methods :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

Remember to break up the sounds, like \"c-an\", and ask her to listen to the sound and pick up the correct card.

Reply to Spelling on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:19:26 GMT

jo.010813ong — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:19:26 GMT

hmm… i will give it a try. Many thanks

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:14:18 GMT

jedamum — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:14:18 GMT

i'm not sure if this will work, but instead of sitting down and spell the word with her during spelling revision time, you can try letting your girl spell the words first before letting her see the words - ie she has to use her phonics skills to decipher the word first. then use a different colour marker and get her to mark her own mistakes - ie hoping that the next time she tries to spell the same word, she can link back the action of correcting and remember which letter she got wrong. see if it helps.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:16:34 GMT

vain_pot — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:16:34 GMT

jo.ong:
Numbers like 5, 6 or 9 can be reversed... She has no problem copying a sentence though...

I tried her on re-ordering of words to form a sentence, she could do simple ones like 5 or 6 words.

Hi Jo!! finally i am in!! :lol:

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:10:55 GMT

jo.010813ong — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:10:55 GMT

Numbers like 5, 6 or 9 can be reversed… She has no problem copying a sentence though…

I tried her on re-ordering of words to form a sentence, she could do simple ones like 5 or 6 words.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:07:15 GMT

Funz — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:07:15 GMT

aside from mirroring ‘b’ and ‘d’ are the rest of the letters and numbers correct? Is she able to copy a sentence?

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:59:15 GMT

jo.010813ong — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:59:15 GMT

I uses a variety of tools one of them is the flashcards. She's only interested in the picture, not the word!

I also get her a special book so she could write the words she learned like a word book. She don't remember those words either!

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:47:29 GMT

mrswongtuition — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:47:29 GMT

For visual learners, it’s better to make use of colours and flashcards.

I currently am tutoring a student with special needs. She learns way slower than other children (probably 3-4 years behind peers the same age).

I use flashcards and coloured words to help her remember the words. For example, for the word "themself", I will write "them" in red and "self" in blue. When I first introduce the word to her, I will cover ‘self’ so she only sees ‘them’ which she can recognise easily by now.

Even for short words like ‘cat’, I use red for ‘c’ and blue for ‘at’. She can remember better this way.

Sometimes the word has ‘d’ or ‘b’, I have to let her draw on the flashcard to help her remember. She’s a visual learner and can remember better when she sees things often. Her mum actually pinned those flashcards we use during lessons on a corkboard at home and she’ll spend 10minutes revising them daily. She changes the words every week. It’s around 10-15 words per week, depending on how difficult the words are.

To help her remember better, I do revise with her past spelling lists on regular basis. It is random testing, not following a fixed list. I try to find story books with words that she’s learnt too so that she can read and relate to the words better.

I’ve recently lent her my son’s ‘Wink to Learn’ DVD to expand her vocab. It adds variety to learning (not always worksheets and exercises). She enjoys it and is picking up more words too.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:35:24 GMT

jo.010813ong — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:35:24 GMT

Hi Tamarind,

Her kindergarten teacher said my gal has no problem with her phonics, which is why, i find it strange when i use phonic to guide her for the spelling - she cant do the sound. :!:

I went to your blog and started trying out your method... 50% working 50% it is not... i'm not too sure why... :?:

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:30:29 GMT

tamarind — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:30:29 GMT

jo.ong,

You should definitely start to teach your kids phonics. It is not too late to start now.

My boy used to be the kind, ask him to repeat \"j-a-g-u-a-r\" after me, he went \"j......\" then don't know liao.

I gave up teaching him spelling. Concentrated on teaching him phonics only since 3 years 3 months old. At 4 years 8 months old, he can spell many words without the need to practice at all. Check out my blog :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2009/05/spelling.html

He also knew how to spell all the words in his spelling list from the kindergarten before he started to practice them. I only let him practice writing once a day because his writing is still not very good.

My blog includes my methods of teaching phonics. But if you are not confident, you can find a good phonics enrichment class for your kids.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:01:06 GMT

jo.010813ong — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:01:06 GMT

Funz:
Mirror imaging is a common mistake among preschoolers. Some even up to early Pr school. Your dd is only 5yrs old so not surprising.

How are you coaching your DD1 in her spelling. Verbally or do your get her to write it out? If she is a visual learner, get her to write the words while learning. Are the words from school or are you giving her spelling on your own. If you are giving her spelling on your own, try to give her words that are relevant to her. eg, sight words or key words from books that you have just read.

DD is also a very visual learner so phonics may not be as helpful to her as compared to one who is an auditory learner. And she finds learning tingxie easier then spelling initially.

And learning and forgetting it is also very common. Especially for spelling. Don't forget that a lot of these words are 'new' to her. Even for us adults when introduced to something new and not applied constantly, we forget eventually.

Honestly, I din coach my younger one on spelling. All her learnings are from the childcare centre... :oops: I merely give her assessment books over the weekend. Academically, she's good except writing. She's abit struggling with that as she's left handed.

I started to realise that my elder may take longer than usual to pick up the spelling skill hence started her early (rightful timing is in K2). Started with sight words and easy words eg wag, bag, rag, hug, bug, jug or pet, vet, jet, etc... still she's finding them difficult. I suppose I will have to do it with her very slowly.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:50:21 GMT

Funz — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:50:21 GMT

Mirror imaging is a common mistake among preschoolers. Some even up to early Pr school. Your dd is only 5yrs old so not surprising.

How are you coaching your DD1 in her spelling. Verbally or do your get her to write it out? If she is a visual learner, get her to write the words while learning. Are the words from school or are you giving her spelling on your own. If you are giving her spelling on your own, try to give her words that are relevant to her. eg, sight words or key words from books that you have just read.

DD is also a very visual learner so phonics may not be as helpful to her as compared to one who is an auditory learner. And she finds learning tingxie easier then spelling initially.

And learning and forgetting it is also very common. Especially for spelling. Don’t forget that a lot of these words are ‘new’ to her. Even for us adults when introduced to something new and not applied constantly, we forget eventually.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:29:43 GMT

MMM — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:29:43 GMT

Did your no. 1 and 2 go through the same academic route??? We also have to bear in mind that every child is different in terms of learning style like you mentioned.

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:19:34 GMT

jo.010813ong — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:19:34 GMT

MMM:
.... personally I thought this sounds very familiar for my son when he was in K2. His case was worst. Remember it now but 1 min later, it's totally gone.

If your girl is learning phonics, use phonics to help her to break down the words to spell. It'll be easier to remember that way.

Meanwhile for my son, he is going to P2 next year. He did some advanced phonics program during K2 and somehow those helped him tremendously so spelling in P1 was a breeze.

Thanks, MMM. Not mean to compare, my 4 year old gal master a word in 3 tries! She can spell words like hippopotamus, astronaut, etc... but the elder one not even any where near. So I start her slowly with 3-letter word but haiz... either she still cannot get the spelling on her head or simply no interests at all !

She's a visual person... phonics dun seems to be able to help her. At her age, she can still have mirror image of \"b\" and \"d\"... cant tell which is which. :x

Reply to Spelling on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:16:32 GMT

MMM — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:16:32 GMT

… personally I thought this sounds very familiar for my son when he was in K2. His case was worst. Remember it now but 1 min later, it’s totally gone.

If your girl is learning phonics, use phonics to help her to break down the words to spell. It’ll be easier to remember that way.

Meanwhile for my son, he is going to P2 next year. He did some advanced phonics program during K2 and somehow those helped him tremendously so spelling in P1 was a breeze.