How To Ensure Accurate Spelling
I recently received the following letter from a parent:
I have been using your Phonics Plus Five method with my 6 year old daughter. Thank you for creating such a great program. I love it.
So far, we have made it through the Boarding program. When we got to the end, she could read all the words, but she could spell only about half of them correctly. Since you provide a set of review activities, I assume this is normal. But the review does not seem to be enough. Her spelling is still not as secure as I would like. She can spell them fine if I give her the letters out of order and she has to arrange them in the right order, but she cannot pull them out of midair, so to speak. What should I do?
And here is my answer:
This is a great question and it gets to the heart of a set of key skills that children must develop—the skills involving visual memory. When the review activities in the program are not sufficient, the best technique to use is what I call "One Hour Recall."
Here’s how it works. Take the review sentences from the guide that are relevant to the level you have been working at. In this case, it will be the Boarding level. Each day, take a set of two different sentences and write them clearly, each on a separate page. Show your daughter one sentence and have her read it. Following that, point to the first word and have her say it. Then cover the word, provide lined paper, and say, "Now write it." (By the way, discourage the labeling of letters if she is doing that. Though it is widely used, labeling of letters can actually interfere with the development of visual memory ).
If the spelling is correct, move on and have your daughter finish the sentence, repeating the process with each word. But if there is an error, cross out whatever she has written (making sure to blacken out the words). Then on a new line or with fresh paper, start the sentence again from the first word. Do this as often as is required--till your child writes the entire sentence correctly.
Repeat the process with the second sentence.
Then move to the ONE HOUR RECALL. For this, about an hour later, say "One of the sentences you wrote today was ......(and tell her the sentence)." Then add, "Now I want you to write it again--but this time, I won't show you the words." Following that, dictate the sentence to your child --a word or two at a time. If she makes one or no errors, say "Great.That's all we have to do today." But if she makes two or more errors, immediately stop the writing and repeat the work above (of writing out the two sentences in the way indicated).
If this repetition is needed, do not repeat the one hour recall that day. In other words, you do the one hour recall at most only one time a session. (And don't be stressed about it being exactly one hour later. It's fine if you leave 30 minutes or more between the original writing and the recall.)
Complete all the review sentences for the Boarding level in this way. This work tends to be "boring" but the activity requires only a few minutes each session. Also you might find that offering a favorite reward does a lot for your child's effort and spirit.
The one-hour recall process generally sets in place the visual memory that is needed for effective reading and writing. Usually, it is not required past the Boarding and the Runway levels. In other words, it takes some time to get established, but once established, the memory skills are never lost.
Finally when you do start the next level, make sure that in all work where writing of sentences is required (as in Write In To Read), you cover the models so that your daughter is doing the writing from memory.
