One of the most dreaded school activities is the weekly spelling quiz. Did you know that only three to five students in any classroom get A's consistently on the weekly spelling test?

I was one of those students. As a child, I would see a word once and know it for the rest of my life. On the rare occasion that I ran across a really tricky word, I would write it a few times, picture it in my head, make a clue for it, and presto! That was the end of that!

Why could I do that so easily? Because I am a Print/Writing learner. I was born with my brain already set for reading and spelling. But the majority of students (who grow up to be the majority of adults), are not Print/Writing learners. They are Picture or Hands-On learners, or some other type.

To these students our language doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter how many times you explain that there are rules; there are so many rule-breakers that the rules are not trustworthy!

I am going to give you a strategy that works for many of these students. But first, it is important to understand what doesn't work and why:

---Reading more doesn't make you a better speller. Reading and spelling are two different processes - you can be a great reader and poor speller.

---Looking up words in the dictionary just causes more frustration. If you're a poor speller, you know this can be torture; if you can't spell it, you usually can't find it.

---Writing the words over and over doesn't work. This is still the strategy of choice for kids to practice their misspelled words. It has never worked in the past (if it had, all adults who did this in school would be great spellers), and it will not work now. These students are not Writing learners; if they were, they wouldn't have difficulty spelling in the first place!

In an ideal learning environment, students who are not natural spellers would not have spelling workbooks and wouldn't have to memorize 10 to 20 words every week that have no consistent pattern. They would be taught word families first, then gradually one or two "strange" words per week, using strategies that work for their learning styles.

But your child probably does have a spelling workbook and weekly spelling tests. So what can you do if your child is having a tough time?

If you are homeschooling, you can ditch the workbook. If your child knows the basic sounds and spells phonetically, have him/her choose a couple of "weird" words a week to learn and use the strategy below.

If your child is in traditional school, follow these steps:

1. Go over the spelling words of the week and eliminate the words your child already knows.

2. From the remaining words, ask your child to choose three or four. Then use the strategy below.

3. Talk to the child's teacher and work together as a team. The teacher can track the effectiveness of this strategy for the words that are chosen each week.

Here's the strategy:
Choose a word and make a game out of thinking up memory tricks for that word. For example, to remember "etc." you might notice that the first two letters are ET (as in the cute alien). Most people that misspell this word reverse the order of the "c" and "t." But once they realize that "ET" is in there, it's easy to tack the "c" on at the end and they never misspell it again!

Or how about "friend"? The i and e cause the most trouble. Try writing on a card: fr I end. Then draw a face and hair on the big I, adding arms and legs. And finally, say, "I am a friend to the end."

Five-by-eight cards are great for this. Each word gets its own card. You might need to get your child started by working together at first, but have the child make his own cards. The tricks can be anything; have lots of colored pencils and crayons available and have fun!

And, remember, it's not the end of the world if you're not a great speller. It only becomes a handicap if your child feels bad about it. Be your children's Success Coaches by acknowledging and encouraging what they are good at, and they will grow up to be confident and successful, because they will know that God loves them and has gifted them to do something special in the world.

©2009 by Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis is a California credentialed teacher and holds a Master's Degree in Special Education. She is co-author, with Victoria Kindle Hodson, of "Discover Your Child's Learning Style" (Random House) and "Midlife Crisis Begins in Kindergarten." For many years a Master Catechist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, she attends Mission San Buenaventura.