Teaching spelling without a curriculum?

[themayflies]

My oldest child is going into 2nd grade and we didn't do spelling last year, so I'm new at this.  :)  Do I have to have a curriculum for this?  Are spelling lists by grade pretty standard or would I get a thousand different results if I searched for "2nd grade spelling lists"?  Can anyone recommend a site with good lists?

 

I have searched for articles or blog posts on doing spelling without a formal curriculum, but can't find much.  I read Leigh Bortins book, The Core, and I think she just suggested finding a list of the 1,000 most commonly used words and work from that.  Are any of you teaching spelling without a curriculum?  Thanks for the help. :)

[mrs.m]

You can get Spelling curriculum fairly inexpensive. The Core actually suggests WRTR followed by Spelling Plus. These books are a great non-consumable investment and will give you guidance should you need it.

[Marie131]

I did not follow a spelling curriculum last year for grade 2.  We did start the year using AAS but it wasn't for us.  I wanted our spelling to follow the rules but without all the extra fluff, so I used Phonics Pathways to teach the rules and made a spelling notebook for my ds.  We did 3-4 days of spelling, depending on how much reinforcement he needed.  On the first day I taught the rule and he copied some words that used the rule into his notebook.  On day 2 we rehearsed the rule and played a "game" on the whiteboard to see who could spell the most words correctly (he always won - lol!) then we would do dictation in his notebook.  On day 3 we had a spelling test on the whiteboard.  If he got any wrong he wrote the word out 3 times in his notebook.  If he got them all correct we were done spelling for the week, if he struggled we spent more time working with that particular rule. 

 

It worked well for us at the time.  Next year I am using R&S as I would like all the work to be done for me and I would like spelling to be independent.

[Tanikit]

I don't use a curriculum with my child - I am also teaching a rule (some of the rules I have searched for on the internet, others I internally know, others I got out of OPGTR/ The ABCs and all their tricks) and then doing dictation sentences based on that rule. Naturally because it is dictation the most common sight words also get included and I check a list of the top sight words and purposely add them to our dictation at staggered intervals. It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't.

 

This is what we covered: cvc words and beginning and ending blends that are standard (NOT like ch vs tch at the end of the word)

                                      : ck endings

                                      : ll, ff, ss endings

                                      : th, sh and ch

                                      : ing

                                      : ed

                                      : all words (ball, call)

                                      : the silent E

                                      : ee and ea

                                      : ai and ay 

                                      : y endings at the end of multisyllable words for the E sound

                                      : ew and ue                                      

 

Those are the ones I remember - there have been many more. 

By second grade if your child is doing a lot of independent writing you can also just check their work and see what they are misspelling and teach the rule and a set of words based on that.

                                      

[Sahamamama]

We use All About Spelling. I wouldn't want to try to make it up on my own. ;)

 

http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/categories/All-About-Spelling/

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

If you have a phonics book, you can just "reverse engineer" to get spelling lists according to phonics rules.  In Phonics Pathways, they have a page explaining how to do this. 

 

Personally, I think frequency lists for spelling are the equivalent of sight words for reading, and I prefer to teach rule based methods instead (thus, phonics for reading and phonics rules for spelling).  Having said that, there are three high frequency spelling lists to be found in How To Teach Spelling, and I'm sure I'll teach those in order to jump-start our spelling program this fall.  HTTS is a teacher's guide which can be used to create spelling lists if you don't care to purchase the workbooks. 

[Twigs]

Here are some links to spelling rules, but be sure to check out the sites as there is much more information available.

 

The Riggs Institute 

 

Logic of English - also, there are spelling lists under the “Free†heading

 

Reading from Scratch

 

I’ve recently been trying to improve my spelling, and was surprised to learn that not all spelling rule lists have the same rules! (That’s why I linked seveal lists.)

 

themayflies,

 

Could you please add a tag to your post #1?

 

spelling

 

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Thanks!

[Ellie]

My oldest child is going into 2nd grade and we didn't do spelling last year, so I'm new at this.   :)  Do I have to have a curriculum for this?  Are spelling lists by grade pretty standard or would I get a thousand different results if I searched for "2nd grade spelling lists"?  Can anyone recommend a site with good lists?

 

I have searched for articles or blog posts on doing spelling without a formal curriculum, but can't find much.  I read Leigh Bortins book, The Core, and I think she just suggested finding a list of the 1,000 most commonly used words and work from that.  Are any of you teaching spelling without a curriculum?  Thanks for the help. :)

Well, actually, *spelling* would be the curriculum; you would decide what you would do to accomplish your goal of helping your dc to improve. IOW, Modern Curriculum Press's Spelling Workout is not curriculum; Rod and Staff's Spelling by Sound and Structure is not curriculum; BJUP's spelling is not curriculum. They are all *instructional materials.* And for a little person who is just 7, they may or may not be necessary.

 

You can use the words your dc misspells when writing, and help her understand how they should be spelled. You can have her write those words in sentences, add suffixes or prefixes to them, write other words which have the same root, divide them into syllables. Eventually, you can teach alphabetical order (and please: say "alphabetical order" and not "ABC order," lol) and have her begin to alphabetize her word list.

[Hunter]

Studies show that merely using a spelling curriculum has no effect on student writing. None.

 

There are authors who claim that THEIR curriculum DOES have an effect on student writing, especially with LD students. To be honest, I use spelling curricula more to facilitate teaching cursive handwriting, to teach reading, and to satisfy my OCD needs, rather than to teach spelling itself. Romalda Spalding says students cannot write in cursive until they have progressed to writing in syllables, from individual letters/phonograms. I've found this to be true. I teach an intensive mix of cursive handwriting, spelling, dictionary respellings and some basic grammar, using a lot of copywork and sentence compositions.

 

I found the section on spelling in Homeschooling on the Cheap to be interesting reading. The Kindle version is $4.99

 

              Spelling   When it comes to spelling, there are three methods that are both effective and inexpensive. You can teach using dictation, using your children’s own misspelled words, or by using word families. All have their merits, and are highly superior to traditional spelling programs.  

 

Traditional programs tend to follow one of two routes, or a combination of both. They either teach using phonetic rules – all the words in this week’s list contain some from of long E, or exemplify the two sounds of G, for example. These programs work great if your child is capable of reading all the words on each week’s list. Or they teach the spelling “rules†– all of this week’s words have an I before E, or are all plurals using –ES. These programs work wonderfully if your child is able to transfer what he’s learned in spelling to other words with similar pronunciations. If your child isn’t a strong enough reader, or has difficulty relating spelling rules to writing on his own, then all the wonderful programs in the world won’t improve his spelling abilities. Stewart, Suzanne (2010-07-15). Homeschooling on the Cheap (p. 42).  . Kindle Edition. 

 

The author then goes on to explain how she does dictation, misspellings, and word families, and then says this:

 

Never, regardless of the method you choose for teaching spelling, allow a spelling error to go unchecked and uncorrected. The purpose of teaching spelling is so that children learn to spell correctly. Allowing misspelled words to remain misspelled runs risks of the student mis-learning the word with the incorrect spelling. Then, the tougher job of relearning the word correctly must take place at some later time. All spelling errors in dictations, both initial and final, all spelling errors in the week’s copywork or practice exercises, should be corrected immediately by the student for correct spellings to be cemented in the student’s mind. I don’t recommend really starting spelling instruction with children before 8 years of age or so. Their language abilities should be focused on learning to read, write and enjoyably experience language – phonics, handwriting, composition and creative writing, literature (read alouds,) and memorization – and not worrying them with the nitty-gritty stuff like proper spelling. They’ll not be doing much assigned independent writing at this age, anyway, so spelling instruction is a bit unnecessary in my book. Stewart, Suzanne (2010-07-15). Homeschooling on the Cheap (pp. 47-48).  . Kindle Edition. 

 

I don't think it's wrong not to use a spelling curriculum. All too often they are a waste of time. Yeah, I use one, and HOPE it's actually worth it, but I'm not so sure it is. The students ARE learning handwriting and grammar during spelling though, soooo...I keep teaching it. :lol:

 

[Twigs]

Weekly Spelling Lists http://www.kyrene.org/Page/17367

[kiwik]

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a spelling curriculum/programme until I read TWTM. When I was a child we had a published book of spelling lists by level (1970's), ds6 has the same sort lists but you can download them and print them - and the lists are longer and studied in chunks. I had never heard of anyone learning to spell any other way than by memorisation.

[LUV2EDU]

Here are a few links with free spelling worksheets. Hope this helps. :001_smile:

 

Free

 

Spelling Connections

http://www.zaner-bloser.com/media/zb/zaner-bloser/spellingconnections/practice-pages.html

 

Mcgraw Hill

http://www.mhschool.com/reading/treasure_workbooks/national.html

 

K12 Reader (2nd grade spelling and dictation)

http://www.k12reader.com/second-grade-spelling-words/