Capital and Lowercase problems

S

sarahlee

New Member
I am a mother who was guided here by a teacher for help. My daughter is 6 and is in her 4th week of "spelling" tests (which are just writing uppercase/capital and lowercase letters.) She is constantly getting mixed up and we have tried different ways of trying to get her to learn the difference. Is there anybody that can give me some new ideas to try? We are all getting frustrated.
 
Can you explain more clearly what the tests are like? Is your daughter writing the wrong letters or confusing capital versus lower case? How are the tests administered?
 
It is my understanding that the teacher will say capital or lowercase before each letter and the students have to write the correct letter in the correct case. My daughter knows her letters, so she is confusing capital and lowercase, but it is not consistent. She will one time write a big letter for capital but the next time the teacher calls capital she will write a little letter.
 
That's weird . I don't remember ever doing that in school and have never heard of any teacher doing that (is this a new thing nowadays?)
 
sarahlee said:
It is my understanding that the teacher will say capital or lowercase before each letter and the students have to write the correct letter in the correct case. My daughter knows her letters, so she is confusing capital and lowercase, but it is not consistent. She will one time write a big letter for capital but the next time the teacher calls capital she will write a little letter.
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There are better ways to assess this.:2cents:
 
ChildWhisperer said:
That's weird . I don't remember ever doing that in school and have never heard of any teacher doing that (is this a new thing nowadays?)
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This was done by my teachers in first grade growing up as part of learning how to print. It wasn't part of spelling but it was part of handwriting.

It sounds like your child is still struggling with automatic recall of the forms of the letters which means that she just needs some more practice. Under a time constraint or in a testing mode, she may get nervous and write what first comes into her mind. She may just need some more practice at home in a relaxed environment where when she writes she vocalizes the type of letter while she writes the form.

It is like anything she has learned to do. Some things just take time to learn to do well. At first you can do the task, but you might forget along the way and need a reminder. Eventually you know how to do it. Working under a mindset like that, in a relaxed environment at home for a short period of time, she will eventually become automatic with the skill. Don't worry about this issue at this point. Just spend a bit of time with practice and vocalization while she writes. Then find ways for her to show recall without writing and some with writing at home.
 
Here are some ideas:
- Practice sorting capital and lowercase letters. (Print or write letters on cards.)
- Get a highlighter and have her highlight all the capital letters on a page from a magazine.
- Letter detective worksheets
 
Magnetic letters

Maybe you could try getting some magnetic letters and have her sort them. She could even do this on the fridge in the evening while you are cooking!
 
Thank you all for the great suggestions. In the end, I spoke with the teacher and she let me know that a few other students were having the same issues, so she changed up the test last time. My daughter got all of them correct this time!
 
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