I don't see Poppy all that much anymore, though we will be studying together some when we travel together to Vietnam soon. She's midway through 4th grade now, and I've been studying with her since kindergarten. Poppy can read and write within parameters of her grade level, though she doesn't love either activity all that much. She prefers the visual arts: drawing, painting, coloring, and she's an extraordinarily talented artist, like her mom. Her literacy scores can vary wildly, depending on the day and the metric and the text, but she completes her classwork and homework willingly and mostly independently, and she usually gets 85 or thereabouts on her weekly spelling tests. I'm gonna call that a win.
When I do meet with Poppy, we do a little reading or I ask her questions about her recent schoolwork or homework in her binder. I look through her spelling tests to see what I can learn about her process. I am sometimes surprised to find that 4th grade spelling tests are still covering pretty basic concepts, like consonant clusters, but I am never surprised to find that there is never any feedback, just a score.
When I do come across a spelling test or assignment that appears to involve more trouble than usual, I take a picture so I can look for the pattern of what Poppy has missed or needs help with. One such test was given in October, and it targeted 3-letter initial consonant clusters, most of which start with the letter <s>.
Here's a photo of Poppy's test, which got a 68%, a bit lower than her usual B or B+. The teacher who graded the test made a couple of errors in her grading – can you find them? She also appears to be missing a common pattern in multiple errors Poppy's made here, and it is easily remedied. Do you know what it is?
