In 5th grade they do spelling a bit differently. Instead of the usual list of ten words that the kids memorize for a week and then forget, in 5th grade they are given a list of 100 words that they have to learn over the course of the year. Each week the teacher pulls ten words out of a bag and those are used for the weekly spelling quiz. At the end the kids swap papers, score each others quizzes, and then swap back. The kids then graph their results on paper so they can see how their scores are improving. The goal is that as they study and learn the words their scores will go up each week. As an added bonus, if you get all ten words correct for seven weeks in a row you get $300 classroom dollars and the chance to opt-out of spelling quizzes.

Someone is rich on classroom dollars now!

Guess who was the first in the class to reach that level?! Just seven weeks into school! :)

As I said, you get the chance to opt-out of spelling… OR to move on to a harder list. They are working now from a list of 100 content-specific words that cover math, science, literacy, and more. The next list is larger (I’m not sure how large as we haven’t seen the list yet) and taken from the Scripps National Spelling Bee word list. I was talking to his teacher yesterday and he said the Scripps words aren’t necessarily harder, but they are less common words (unlike the content words he uses in school all the time) and there are many more of them, which makes the list a lot more challenging.

Because Lex put minimal work into the first list and whizzed through it easily, we are encouraging him to try the next list. I think he needs more challenge in school, not less. :) I’m looking forward to seeing the list too!