How We Practice for Spelling Tests

Spelling tests are something I have been critical of in the past so when my daughter started traditional spelling tests this year, I decided to keep an open mind. While I am still not a fan of the traditional assigned list and end-of-week tests, we have found some ways to make it purposeful and even enjoyable. Read on to find out what we do to practice the words in ways that help her to understand them better and be successful on Friday.

This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I personally use and love, or think my readers will find useful. Visit my disclosure statement for more information.

My daughter is at a new school this year- which we love. She has phenomenal teachers, sweet friends, and fantastic extracurricular opportunities. Her school is well-known for high expectations for both academics and behavior.

My daughter is thriving in the challenging environment and her teachers are doing a great job supporting and encouraging her learning. One of the academic differences this year is that my daughter has spelling tests. Spelling tests are not my favorite thing. As a teacher, I didn’t administer them and as a reading specialists, I didn’t promote them. However, since spelling tests are part of the literacy curriculum at her school, my daughter is now studying words and taking a test every Friday.

Spelling is important for children to be able to communicate effectively (and to be taken seriously – check out any social media post where the author has made a misspelling and the responses about their error can be endless). It is interesting that traditional spelling tests are still the preferred vehicle for teaching and administering spelling. So many adults that I talk to hated this method of assigning and testing spelling as a kid. However, research shows that we continue with this method because parents, teachers, and administrators are familiar with assigned lists and weekly tests. This article is a great resource if you want to know more about the research.

Luckily, my daughter’s teacher understands the research and provides nightly homework that supports her spelling learning.

My daughter’s spelling homework follows a weekly pattern:

Monday: She is given two pieces of paper: one with her spelling words to cut out into strips of paper and another with a large grid. The grid has 4 columns with a spelling pattern at the top of three of the columns and the fourth is for words that don’t fit any of the weekly patterns. She cuts out the words and sorts them into the best column. I love word sorts. They are a fantastic way to notice the patterns in words which greatly helps with our understanding of how to spell. You can check out this article for a great overview of sorting.

Tuesday: She puts her words in ABC order

Wednesday: She is given a sheet with 2-3 sentences where a word is left out and she is asked to fill in the blank with one of her spelling words to complete the sentence. She is then supposed to create three sentences using the remaining words and write them in the space provided.

Thursday: We give a practice test. This shows her which words she still needs to work on. Even though her teacher has not requested this – Any words she misspells, I ask her to immediately write them correctly three times so that the incorrect spelling doesn’t imprint into her memory. I make sure that she is writing it correctly so that she is practicing the correct spelling. I want her to remember and practice writing it correctly so that’s what she remembers.

While I don’t believe that spelling tests are the most effective way to learn spelling, I do believe in instilling a sense of responsibility for academics. I want her to do well academically and I want her to understand that just like she has to practice soccer and basketball to be successful in her games, she has to practice/study for school to be successful on her assessments. I view her weekly spelling tests as a way to cultivate responsibility, perseverance, and study habits.

Practicing Spelling Words

I found very quickly that while the homework assignments shared above offer some practice, it wasn’t enough for her to understand and remember the spelling of the words. She had a week where we didn’t do any of our extra practice and she did not do nearly as well on her spelling test. When her spelling test came home that Friday, we talked about the difference in her performance that week and how she performed on the weeks when we practiced. She is highly motivated/competitive, so the clear difference in her tests was motivation for her to do the extra work even though some nights it’s hard to fit it in. So here are the ways we practice the words at home to help her understand the assigned words better.

Word Patterns

The simplest thing that we do is talk about the word patterns. We look for ways the words in her list are similar or what makes them unique. For example, this week her list had quickand kick. For some reason, she was having trouble remembering the c in kick but not in quickso we compared the words and talked about the short vowel sound and how the /k/ sound was spelled the same. This conversation helped her remember the spelling of kick. Another time, she had a list of words with the soft c (/s/, when c makes the s sound) and she kept trying to write an s in several of the words. We looked at the list to see where the /s/ sound was spelled s. Looking at the list and talking about it helped her realize that she needed to think about the c spelling of /s/ for all of the words on her list that week.

Word Analogies

We also talk a lot about word analogies – if you can spell _____ then you can spell _______. (If you can spell Jack, then you can spell tack). While she does some of this when she sorts her words on Monday, I have found we need to talk about it a little more for her to really understand and not just put words in a column. Knowing this strategy of using known words to spell (or read) unknown words is a fantastic strategy to use in their writing and their reading.

I want her learning to fun and something she is motivated to do.

So here are our favorite ways to practice spelling words:

Tic-tac-toe spelling –

My daughter loves to play this in the bath tub with bath crayons, however, this could be played with paper and pencil or markers and white boards. I call out the word, she writes the word in one of the tic-tac-toe spaces. She fills the entire grid (we get to practice 9 words each time we play) and then we play tic-tac-toe. She loves playing this and we do this almost every night. On weekends, if she wants to play, we play using high frequency words or people’s names.

Word Ladders –

This one is nice for helping her with longer words. Word Ladders gives her multiple opportunities to practice writing a word and solidify the pattern of the word.

To do the Word Ladders, she writes the first letter on a line, then on the next line she writes the first two letters, then on the next line she writes the first three letters, she continues until she writes the whole word. I ask her to write the whole word one more time for good measure. My daughter likes to do these in the bath with bath crayons, but they can be done on regular paper too.

So if the word was surprise, it would look like this:

sur

surp

surpr

surpri

surpris

surprise

Ghost writing –

She loves to write her words with a white crayon on plain white copy paper and then color over each word with a marker (We love Mr. Sketch and Crayola smelly markers – something about the smells is an extra incentive for her). When she colors overs her writing with the marker, the word (written with the white crayon) is revealed.

Fill in the Missing Letter –

This one is simple, if you have a few minutes and only have minimal materials. Simply write out one of the spelling words but leave out 1-2 letters in the word and replace them with a blank. You can add a simple illustration at the end of the word to serve as a clue (if you want). Your child then fills in the missing letter. I like this one if I notice that my daughter is having trouble remembering a particular letter in a word or if she is mixing up the letter order in a word. I am very thoughtful about which letters I leave out so that I am asking her to pay attention to the part of the word that is usually a challenge for her.

Make the words with magnetic letters or letter tiles is another way your child can practice their words. This one can be done independently with no prep too.

Rotate ways to practice and allow your child the ability to choose how they would like to practice. Choice is a huge motivator. We also practice in different ways depending on where we are. For example, the fill in the missing letter activity is something I introduced to her when we were waiting for our dinner at a restaurant one night. The restaurant provided a kids menu/coloring sheet and crayons. When she was done coloring the front, I simply flipped the sheet to the back and wrote out a few words with missing letters and added some simple drawings to give her a hint (and to make it a little more fun for her). I only did a few words (4-5) so that it wasn’t tedious. I also presented it in a way that made it sound fun and challenging. (“I have a word puzzle for you. See if I can stump you.”- she is highly competitive, so this tactic worked well). The way we present things is huge for kids. If we present it in a way that is fun and enjoyable, then they will typically want to try it. If we present something as boring, they are going to automatically think it is boring and not want to do it.

TIP: With these kinds of practices, I always try to stop before she gets bored or frustrated.

We also practice with handwriting sheets because my daughter needs to practice handwriting. I make these at the beginning of the week, as soon as I get her spelling words. I make several copies so that she can do one each day. These are easy to complete when she has a few minutes. She loves that I let her use my colorful Sharpie pens to complete these. (I capitalize on the little things that motivate her)

While these activities have made memorizing spelling words more fun, there are times when she is not in the mood to practice. If possible, we put it off until later in the evening when she is more willing. We have had a few times though that I reminded her that doing well on her spelling tests is an expectation of her teachers and will help with her reading and writing. I then offer her a choice of how she wants to practice. Given the choice and recognizing the expectation, she usually agrees to practice. I also offer a choice of a fun activity after practice (like playing basketball or playing a game or having more time to play with something in her room) to provide another incentive for getting her spelling practice finished and out of the way.