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Self-Editing

Elementary School Expert Advice from Barbara Potts

Question: Our son's fourth-grade teacher informed us that our son has a problem -- he does not spell words correctly when writing sentences. He usually scores 100 on spelling tests and is doing fine in all other subjects. What can we do to help him overcome this problem?

Answer: Help your son work on learning editing skills at home if he is not already doing this at school. When he finishes writing a sentence or a story, encourage him to look back over his work to see if all the words "look" right. Have a dictionary nearby that he can use to look up words he's not sure of.

Writing sentences with spelling words can help him with this practice, but it will be more fun if your son can do that on the computer. At times he can write sentences with the spell check turned on so that he can see his errors immediately; at other times you can turn off the spell check and let him try to find his mistakes on his own.

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Barbara Potts has worked as an elementary school counselor for many years. She has a BA in psychology from Wake Forest University, and an M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.


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