Studying for tests in middle school can be hard. Each subject is becoming more detailed than what they learned in elementary school. The vocabulary words seem much longer. To top it all off, as my son has become a teenager, he has decided he would like to be more independent in his studies. It’s a proud moment when your child tells you they can do it on their own.
To help my son gain some independence with his studies, we decided we would start using Super Speller. For subjects like science, history, and reading, this works well. With these subjects, there are vocabulary words. Each chapter has words he must know to help him better understand what he is learning. He will be given the words and, after a certain amount of time, he will be tested on them. Each time he brings home new words in these subjects, we enter them into Super Speller. We do this just as we would spelling words. However, with these type of words, there is already a definition to go with them. Instead of having to come up with our own sentences to record, we just use what his teachers have given him. Then off he goes to study each day. He can now hear the definitions and see the words that go with them.
With his reading vocabulary words, he has to know the definitions and how to spell them. So he will practice these words just like spelling words. With history and science, the tests are always multiple choice. With multiple choice tests, I do not make him worry about learning to spell the words. When he takes the test using Super Speller, I will give him the list of words to choose from and he can look at them and type them in. I know this goes against everything I say about wanting my kids to be able to spell. However, there are two reasons I choose to do this. First, it takes pressure off of him. If I tell him he does not have to know how to spell the words, he does not complain about having to study for them. Second, I have noticed that after all the studying he does for the words, he has actually learned how to spell them. As I stand back and secretly watch him take the tests, I see that each time, he looks at the list I have given him less and less.
I hope these ideas can help your child study too. Super Speller cannot help with every kind of test your child will study for. Especially the ones that have more than one answer. However, we have found that it can go beyond spelling and beyond elementary school.