Why Doesn’t Spelling You See Have Tests?

Spelling You See provides a unique approach to spelling that develops your child’s visual memory skills in order to become a proficient speller. Our distinctive activities involve reading a passage and listening to it being read, analyzing spelling patterns in the context of the passage, copywork, and dictation. Spelling You See does not include word lists, tests, or memorization.

You may be thinking, “Wait, if there are no tests or assessments, how do I know if my child is really becoming a more proficient speller?”

Often parents wonder how they can measure their child’s progress. It’s important to remember that performance on tests does not always measure a student’s ability to spell accurately in independent work. Words learned in lists are usually stored briefly and then discarded, but words learned in a meaningful context are far more likely to be remembered and used in the student’s own writing.

One problem that my children constantly encounter is massive weekly spelling tests where they are given a list of words for the story they are focusing on and then have a verbal and written test at the end of each school week. What I have encountered is that within a week or two it’s like someone came and pulled the plug on the proverbial spelling memory area of my children’s brains and they have completely forgotten the spelling word. This is not only frustrating for me; but also, it is frustrating for my children as well. I was extremely pleased to see that there are no tests in Spelling You See. This curriculum relies on children improving their skills and showing proof of that mastery of the spelling words in the lessons and other every day writing that your child does in other homeschooling assignments. – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom

As the student works through Spelling You See, you should observe increased accuracy and speed in completing a dictation passage. Eventually, you should see more accurate spelling in other daily work as well.

When completing writing assignments with your child try a few techniques to reinforce the Spelling You See philosophy. If your child asks “How do you spell “_____?” Ask him to rely on his visual memory by prompting him with these three techniques:

1) “What do you think looks right?” Have your child try to write the word before providing the spelling of the word. Then coach them through thinking about any word patterns he or she may know, and help them finish spelling the word correctly. Even getting part of the word correct can be a step toward success!

2) Another way to approach the spelling of unknown words when writing is to use a scrap piece of paper and ask your child to guess three ways to spell the word. Then ask him to select the one that he thinks is closest to the word. If necessary, help him to finish spelling the word correctly.

3) Try to ask your child to close her eyes and visualize the word and then write down whatever she can picture. I often do this as an adult to spell words I can’t remember. This will draw on her developing visual memory skills.

These techniques can aid in the development of your child’s visual memory skills which is occurring as they work through Spelling You See.

Spelling is the last of the many skills required for content or creative writing. The brain pays attention to other skills first, so be patient and do not put pressure on your student. The repetition of words and basic letter patterns in Spelling You See is deliberate as many students need this repeated practice to master English spelling.

The dictation exercises in Spelling You See should not be treated as tests. Regardless of how a student performs on the final dictation of the week, always move forward to a new passage the next week. It is not necessary to keep a list of troublesome words. Everyday words and word patterns will show up over and over again as the student works through the lessons with different passages.

If you are required or wish to keep a record of your student’s progress, you may remove pages from the workbook at regular intervals, date them, and keep them in a folder. You may also want to keep samples of independent writing from the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.

Learning to spell proficiently takes time. Progress is not always obvious from day to day. Reviewing student work over time should encourage you and your child that improvement is taking place.