This is a complaint post. I hate second grade spelling. All year, each week, the spelling lists have been nothing more than trickery and torture. Here's this week's list:
phone graph
enough tough
stuff photo
laugh rough
puff cough
giraffe cliff
Challenge Words:
dolphin
physical
autograph
Is it just me, or is it just plain mean to put ph, gh, and ff on the same list? My son is so confused that last night he spelled puff: pugh. I ask you--would that even be a problem were it not for this awful combination? I have decided not to work on studying for this. I have just given up. Last night I showed Vince this list and said I don't even know how to help him study for this and Vince said he would try, which is when we heard pugh (puff), stugh (stuff), enugh (enough), etc. He nearly had enough but this list also has ou and plain u for the short u sound. Vince eventually gave up too, because he handed Nathan the list and had him spell it from the list because he was literally frustrated to tears. It's a good thing it's the end of the year because I don't know that I can make myself work through any more of these.
I am curious, though. I want to mention our difficulties and concerns to the teacher and if it were one of my other kids I would have a long time ago. I wonder if it's just difficult for us because school in general is harder for Nathan or is this just mean for every second grader? I sincerely believe Nathan hasn't learned how to spell anything this year--we've just been cramming and looking for weird exceptions that may apply to each specific tricky spelling list.
So really, I want to hear from other moms so I can decide if I should talk to the teacher to save next year's second graders or just wait it out and be glad we are completely finished with second grade spelling.
3 comments:
Wow. I hadn't ever noticed it before, but that IS pretty confusing! Do you feel like second grade lists are worse that way than for other grades?
The sad thing is, that nowadays, teachers are handed just about everything they are to teach and aren't given much lee-way about when to teach something and what to teach. The whole current school system frustrates me right now. I guess poor teachers do better with it, but it really holds back the good teachers, in my opinion.
I just think every child is different. I don't think it's necessarily that school is harder for Nathan, but more than different kids learn to spell in different ways. We used a very similar approach to spelling last year for Dallin (word families grouped by sound even though the spellings might be different, exploring how many different letter combinations can make the same sound), and he didn't have too much trouble with it. I think some kids are visual spellers who will simply memorize the letters, other are trying to sound things out and will probably have more trouble with weird combos like these.
Thanks guys
Amy--I do feel like these lists are worse. Many weeks the older kids look at his list and comment about it. Many weeks there are words from my kids' sixth and fourth grade lists on Nathan's list. You're right that teachers are a bit pigeon-holed.
Lisa--You're probably right about different learning styles. We've been working so hard for the last few years on phonological skills and that could explain why these combinations are difficult for him.
I'll probably just wait it out and count my blessings when it's over :) Thanks for the input!!
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