Our spelling approach has been two pronged, thanks to our oldest having serious problems with spelling. We have been using All About Spelling for several years, and really feel it is very effective, but because she was so far below grade level, we needed a way to give her a base of frequently used words to draw from, as soon as we could. So we started working on memorizing sight words.
I started by printing a list of all the Dolch sight words, arranged by frequency of use.
I then made a poster with a large chunk of the sight words on them. Hanging this up gave her access to the most frequent words during her everyday writing, and a visual goal to work toward for memorizing. Each week we would analyze five words using what we had been learning in All About Spelling. Then she would practice! Since I wanted to make it somewhat interesting, we have been following this schedule for the last several years. It has worked VERY well.
Monday - Analyze new words, and write all words 2 times each.
When we analyze words, we grab several different colors of markers. I write the words neatly, and then say things like, "Trace the vowel team that says long o in blue. Trace the silent e and its mate in green. Trace the rule breaker in red."
Tuesday - Write all words 3 times each.
Wednesday - Page from spelling binder.
The spelling binder adds a little variety each week without me having to do any extra work each week. At the beginning of the year a few years ago I got on Teachers pay Teachers and printed out several spelling practice sheets that looked fun, then added a couple I made myself. I put them each in a page protector in a binder, and the kids use a dry erase marker to do them. Each one winds up requiring the words be written two or three times each.
Thursday - Hands-on spelling.
They consider this the most fun day of the week. We alternate between writing the words in shaving cream, jumping across the room while they spell out loud, writing the words in white crayon and then coloring over them with marker (they call it ghost writing), and writing the words in salt. Every now and then we will throw in something new, like painting the words, playing hopscotch with them, etc.
Friday - Assess mastery.
Sometimes we call this a spelling test, but usually we just call it finding out what our words will be for the next week. Any they can't spell for me on Friday get put on their list again the next week, then we add to it until we have five ready for the next week.
When all the words on the poster had been marked, we celebrated! We made it a big deal too, because it was a huge achievement each time and took probably a whole nine weeks each time. Ice cream, or a date with a parent was usually their choice of prize.
After Cadence had gone through the Dolch words twice with no pretests, we went through them one last time with a pretest on Fridays. Instead of just assigning the next five words, I would have her spell for me until she had missed five. At this point I stopped doing the poster, and just made her list in her notebook. After Dolch words we did nouns, then prepositions, then months/days of the week/address/land forms, etc., and now I just go through her schoolwork each week and find five words she's spelled wrong to assign to her.
