Fourth Grade
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My son is a fourth grader and dyslexic (medical diagnosis). Through an amazing amount of hard work,he actually reads at grade level, but spelling is just a nightmare.

He usually gets one or sero right on the Monday pretest (the easiest words, not challenge or anything like that). He (and I) work on those d*** words every night so he can get 60% on Friday.

In our area 4th grade is the first years for actual letter grades and I am terrified my son will get a D in spelling. He wants so so badly to do well in school and if he gets a D he's going to be devastated. (As in, he will say things like "I'm sorry I'm so stupid, Mommy" or "I hate my life" or "I want to die.")

My son has an IEP but I've never had to deal with letter grades before. WHat do most upper-elementary teachers do about grades for kiddos like mine?
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Original poster Thanks you all for your responses. I am going to talk to the teachers about shortening his list. Last year when most of the words were one or maybe two syllables, he could handle 15, but this year it's 20 words and most of them are two and three syllables.

> I notice that you said your son has a medical diagnosis for > dyslexia. I'm...See More
Sep 19, 2011
Ben Getting an F in spelling does NOT make your son a stupid boy. Doesn't he do well in reading? What about writing stories or essays? What about his book reports? Social studies? Math? Science? Foreign language? If his only deficit is in spelling, then his overall grade can't possibly be an F!

If your son were an 18 year old college student, ...See More
Oct 12, 2011
Teacher Parent On 10/12/11, Ben wrote: > Getting an F in spelling does NOT make your son a stupid boy.

It does not but it can make a child feel as if they are stupid and that I think is this parent's point. Getting an F even in one subject can make a caring child feel as if they're stupid or have done something wrong. Children can feel shame from an ...See More
Oct 12, 2011
KK This may be a little off topic, but the amount of time some schools spend with spelling tests seems off to me. I have never ever seen any research that says weekly spelling tests improve spelling.

Although I would not say this widely to parents, it has been my experience that some people tend to be natural spellers--these tend to be people...See More
May 31, 2012
KK Oh, sorry--I didn't check the date before I posted--I clicked the topic from the window to the right. Hope it resolved happily this year!

On 5/31/12, KK wrote: > This may be a little off topic, but the amount of time some > schools spend with spelling tests seems off to me. I have never > ever seen any research that says weekly sp...See More
May 31, 2012


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