Oh no! The dreaded weekly phonics test is coming up. Time to learn this week’s spelling words. How do I teach my child these words? What are they supposed to do with them? This word is just not sticking, we have practised so many times!
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” – Ignacio Estrada. Every child learns in a different way. Once you find out what is stopping them from achieving their potential, they will flourish.
Phonics is all about understanding what sounds go together and how they change accordingly. If you child doesn’t know the blends (e.g. ch, th, pl, sh etc), they might struggle to spell. Sometimes it is beneficial to ask them what the blend is first and then what word has those sounds.
Our eyes are trained to look at the beginning and end sounds of words to be able to become fluent readers. That is why some children are excellent at reading, but struggle to spell. They are not used to looking at the individual letters in words. These children need to be slowed down and practise activities that require them to play with parts of the words. For example, breaking up the word into syllables, finding smaller words in the word. For example, “that” has the word “at” in it.
Most children just need repetition and to take note of their spelling mistakes. A wonderful activity to complete at home is the “Look, say, cover, write, check” activity. Allow them to sound out the words out loud. Write the words out continuously, draw pictures of the words and put the words into sentences. Complete a mini test with your child so that they know what to expect and you can see what they are still struggling with.
Making corrections is very important. If your child spells a word incorrectly, don’t make them erase it. Either they write the correct spelling at the top or next to it. They must be able to see what and why they spelt it incorrectly. This allows them to form new connections to the correct spelling.
Do you test your child on their phonics words?
