Guest Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I just don't 'get' Megawords. Is it for helping with reading, spelling, or vocabulary or all the above? How do you schedule it? How many books a year? How do you use it for spelling? Do you still do a separate spell/vocab program? And does it help visual people to 'see' the words better to spell them? It seems similar to Apples and Pears from the Bear Necessity UK Phonics people. Now I couldn't see, and neither could my boys, how that program was supposed to help them. Not enough hand holding or explanation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine State Sue Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I just don't 'get' Megawords. Is it for helping with reading, spelling, or vocabulary or all the above? How do you schedule it? How many books a year? How do you use it for spelling? Do you still do a separate spell/vocab program? And does it help visual people to 'see' the words better to spell them? It seems similar to Apples and Pears from the Bear Necessity UK Phonics people. Now I couldn't see, and neither could my boys, how that program was supposed to help them. Not enough hand holding or explanation. Yes, it helps with reading, spelling, and vocabulary. We just do a page a day. We started in 5th grade and covered 1, 2, & 3. We skipped a number of the pages for reading since ds didn't need it. In 6th grade & 7th grade, we did a page a day during the second semester. We finished 4 & 5 in 6th grade and 6 and most of 7 in 7th grade. We'll finish 7 & 8 in 8th grade. Megawords helps the student to learn how to break the words apart into syllables, then read or spell the syllables. I suppose it tries to be visual because it will have a line for one syllable, a box for another syllable, followed by a line for the 3rd syllable (for example). It tries to be auditory because it says the student should say the word out loud. That's what helps me - hearing the word broken down into syllables. I don't use any other spelling/vocabulary program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Thanks, Sue. I was hoping you would chime in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine State Sue Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I will say that although Megawords works fine for us, I am not in LOVE with the program as I am with some of my other curriculums (or is it curriculi?). I wanted something that focused on breaking down words into syllables and Megawords does focus on that. The program is not teacher-intensive and the results are satisfactory (in terms of test scores and little resistance from ds because it doesn't require much of him). So, I stick with it. It seems to work. I don't know that I understand the design of the program. How did they choose these word lists to focus on? How does this help ds to remember when to use -cial as in artificial as opposed to -tial as in essential? I dunno. I get back to the results and decide not to try to fix what's not broken. Does that make sense? I don't really wholeheartedly endorse Megawords. But, it does work for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I just don't 'get' Megawords. Don't feel bad, we didn't "get" it either and I didn't see that it was helping my son with, well, anything! :confused: He already knew how to break words into syllables and I couldn't seem to connect that ability with any type of spelling instruction. Meaning, I didn't see how one could use Megawords for a spelling curriculum. I was completely lost. I think it was me. All I saw each day was busy work that was not accomplishing anything truly worthwhile. So many on the boards rave about it though, so I must have missed something. I wasn't willing to continue on to find it [that missing something]...so we dropped it. It was a happy, happy day. :lol: Personally, I think All About Spelling is far superior. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 We did Level One of AAS and I loved it. Mine see words in whole pictures, not as phonics bits so anything we have tried that uses phonics rules, as in Sue's example of when to use which ending, has been a waste. Make sense what I am trying to to say? ANd yes, we tried Sequential Spelling, too. That one had us going 'huh?' as well. SO I guess we will try this as a last shot attempt. Maybe Apples and Pears works better when used along with the Bear series of phongraphix reading. I dunno. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.