Provide students with a list of 20 to 25 age-appropriate spelling words. Words may be related through shared letter combinations, grammatical usage or their appearance in a class reading unit. Set a deadline by which the fourth-graders must know how to spell the words.
Review the words in class over a period of several days. Do short ungraded tests on eight to 10 of the words at time. Provide definitions for any unfamiliar words. Ask the students to use the words correctly in sentences.
Provide children with a multiple-choice worksheet that requires them to select the correct spelling from among three to four incorrectly spelled versions of the word. Review the students' worksheets to identify any common spelling problems; reinforce the appropriate spelling rules as needed.
Announce the test date in advance. Remind the students to review and practice the words at home to prepare for the test.
Prepare the spelling test in several sections. The first part might be a series of 10 to 12 blank lines on which the students have to write a spelling word after you've said it out loud. The second portion might include some multiple-choice questions in which students have to pick out the correctly spelled version of the word. The final section might be a short segment in which students have to write several short sentences, each including a correctly spelled list word used in context. Remind them to complete the tests neatly and carefully and not look at their neighbors' papers.