Spelling – A list of 25 spelling words must be studied and mastered for each curricular story we read in class. Words will be posted on the internet each Thursday unless I post otherwise. Each Thursday or Friday I will thoroughly review the list with the class and give your child a pre-test. I will send it home to you. This will tell you which words your child already knows how to spell and which words need further study.
How often should the spelling words be studied? The answer is as often as needed. Obviously, if your child gets 100% on his/her pre-test, no study is needed. This will free up more time for other areas of study. If your child is not a good speller, more time will be required to score 80% or above on our weekly test.
How should they be studied? Again, it’s your choice as long as I find “evidence of study” in your child’s homework each week AND your child is scoring 80% or better on each test. However, your child needs to take a “practice test” at home so you can see how he/she will do on his/her test at school. Place the practice test in the homework folder as “evidence” each week. This will give you and your child one last opportunity to study the missed words before our test at school.
I will attach a list of other study suggestions to each spelling list for our convenience. You may choose these activities or develop your own BUT “study evidence” must be placed in your child’s homework folder, each week, in the form of completed work or a note from you describing and verifying the study activity.
If your child’s folder is consistently filled with notes verifying that “study” is mostly done verbally AND your child is not scoring 80% or above, I may ask you to choose other study activities and present “study evidence”.