What kind of student is Sequential Spelling a good/poor fit?

[silver]

If you've used Sequential Spelling, how did it go? What kind of student is your child? What personality traits/learning styles was it a good fit with? If it didn't, what makes it a poor fit?

 

 

My son is good at seeing patterns. With AAS, this played out that he'd apply the spelling pattern for the lesson (which phonogram was being studied, for example) and do great during the lesson. But then he'd promptly forget it and bomb the reviews. I'm trying to figure out if Sequential Spelling would give us similar issues or if it would work off the pattern finding strength.

[Tohru]

I used SS with one and it worked (kind of) when nothing else worked (failing Spelling Workout, Spelling Power, MCP).

I tried to use SS again for another child, but it was miserable, however switched to WRTR and that's been great.

[MerryAtHope]

I think it works better for kids who enjoy a discovery-oriented approach. It was an especially bad fit for my one who preferred direct, incremental teaching. He always felt he was being tested without being taught, so it felt unfair for him. He had a similar reaction to other discovery-oriented methods (SS was the one that helped me see the pattern in what didn't work for him, LOL!)

 

In SS, you'll spend 4 or so days on a pattern--if you were spending that many days on the AAS lessons and he wasn't retaining the pattern, then it might still be an issue. (If you were moving faster, maybe going more slowly by using SS, or by using AAS but building in more review--which is what worked here--would help). 

 

HTH as you try to decide what the best fit is for him!

[MinivanMom]

It was a very good fit for my kid who has a low working memory. I could teach and teach spelling rules, but he just struggled to remember and apply the rules. Something about the format of SS, where you write words with the same pattern over and over, helped him to get that pattern cemented in his brain. I think it was the repetition of similar words that all follow the same pattern. With SS the spelling instruction actually transferred over to his writing.

[silver]

Thanks for your input, everyone. If anyone else can chime in with their experience, I'd appreciate it. :)

 

 

I think it works better for kids who enjoy a discovery-oriented approach. It was an especially bad fit for my one who preferred direct, incremental teaching. He always felt he was being tested without being taught, so it felt unfair for him. He had a similar reaction to other discovery-oriented methods (SS was the one that helped me see the pattern in what didn't work for him, LOL!)

 

In SS, you'll spend 4 or so days on a pattern--if you were spending that many days on the AAS lessons and he wasn't retaining the pattern, then it might still be an issue. (If you were moving faster, maybe going more slowly by using SS, or by using AAS but building in more review--which is what worked here--would help). 

 

HTH as you try to decide what the best fit is for him!

 

When he was younger, he definitely liked direct teaching. He's been enjoying Beast Academy, which is discovery based, so it could be that he's ready for less direct instruction in other subjects, too.

 

 

 

 

It was a very good fit for my kid who has a low working memory. I could teach and teach spelling rules, but he just struggled to remember and apply the rules. Something about the format of SS, where you write words with the same pattern over and over, helped him to get that pattern cemented in his brain. I think it was the repetition of similar words that all follow the same pattern. With SS the spelling instruction actually transferred over to his writing.

 

I do think he needs more practice spelling words correctly. I'm just not sure if giving him a program where he can blindly follow a pattern will give him that practice that sticks or if it will be a mindless thing that doesn't engage the "right" areas of his brain to stick long term.

[daijobu]

I had one dd it worked great with, and another who really hated it.  But it was as I was still understanding their learning styles, so I could not have predicted this in advance.

 

My older dd and I loved it because frankly, as a good speller, I didn't see much point in spelling curriculum, but I wasn't quite  ready to just not do spelling.  I liked the approach of showing patterns rather than telling rules.  Dd enjoyed that there were frequent placement tests and she often would skip many pages of words, so that was satisfying to her.  And it didn't take much time.  

 

My second dd is something of a perfectionist.  She thought it was unfair that she was being tested on words that she wasn't given an opportunity to prepare for.  She hated that she was marked off for words that she hadn't studied prior.  And believe me, I did everything to avoid communicate any sense of shame from missing a word, and I tried to explain that she wasn't really being tested per se, but she was not hearing it.  

 

Every other spelling curriculum I looked at was just so much more time-intensive and work-intensive, and as I mentioned I was on the fence about spelling anyway,  so I ended up modifying SS to make it work for her, but just barely.  It's been a few years now, but I think I gave her the words in advance to study.  

 

Even now, we use MCT for vocabulary, which I wholly endorse, but she still stresses out over missing a word here or there on the quizzes, even though there's no real impact to her life, it isn't even a graded class.  

 

I hope that helps!  I do really like SS in principle, but like all things, YMMV.  

[blondeviolin]

My son is also good at seeing patterns but they don't always stick. With SS, he's picked up a lot of patterning. He knows the words he's writing will all have the same stem if you will but he also gets caught up on simple things that he shouldn't. (I have repeated, "when adding a vowel suffix, double the consonant to protect gr short vowel" until I'm blue in the face. This is one my kids most often forget.). BUT, I haven't found that level one constantly hits some high frequency words and spirals back to them so he doesn't have much time to forget them - does, could, would, should, walk, etc. He may not remember ALL of the patterns but a lot of them transfer to his original writing. And if he misspells a word, it's still a pattern they've drilled (cote vs coat). I don't have to spend two hours on spelling for him to forget the rules the next day. And because he's writing them over and over again the muscle memory and visual memory are improving a bit.

 

We're just finishing up level 1, but I'm pleased and have plans to continue him with it next year. I do really feel like this is a "spiral" spelling program vs the "mastery" approach of AAS, which was not effective here.

Edited May 21, 2017 by blondeviolin

[EmilyGF]

My oldest daughter thrived on SS.

 

She is a very intuitive thinker and is great at coming up with connections and patterns but just doesn't connect to other people's connections. RightStart math was where I discovered this - she just didn't connect. She's doing great with MEP, though, because she gets to make more of her own connections.

 

I find that my kids really don't need consistent spelling (GASP!) because once they get a program that is right for them they start seeing words in a new way that makes it so they begin to become intuitive spellers because they are internalizing their own set of rules. For my oldest, that was an intensive phonics program (WRTR), for second, SS.

 

What's funny is that I'm learning Hebrew right now and I'm seeing how I think about spelling and rules and it is fascinating.

 

Emily

[kbutton]

Both of my kids have translated Sequential Spelling into real-world spelling gains. One had three years of phonics-pattern spelling at school, and he would forget his words immediately after getting perfect grades on the tests. 

 

I really think that the clincher with SS is that you spell a bunch every single day. So, while a phonics program might have a list of words with -unk, SS has roughly four days you spend on one or two patterns, and each day you have 25 words. 

 

Both of my kids have a pretty good visual memory for spelling and are pretty good with patterns. I am not sure I'd call them discovery learners--they are moderate on that scale--not high, not low.

 

Book 1 for SS is a total pain. It has a lot of common words, but it's FULL of homonyms and tricky spellings. Book 1 is a slog. It's much better after that. In fact, I strongly suggest starting with book 2 and then going back to Book 1. Book 1 definitely works, it's just super slow. 

 

P.S. As soon as my kids are reasonable typists, we do the lists on the computer, and their typing ability skyrockets very, very quickly. 

[silver]

I'm glad you mentioned typing the lists. I've been pondering if I could have him type his lists and get the same benefits. When you do that, do you turn off the automatic​ marking of misspelled words? I was thinking of turning off auto correction, but leaving the red squiggly lines on, so that he'd get very immediate feedback on his spelling.

[Bluegoat]

I've used it with two different students.  Both seemed to do well with it and it impacted their ability to spell when they wrote.

 

With my perfectionist student, I really had to explain how the program worked - that it was ok not to get the words right away and that was how it was designed, and how other programs were designed.  It may even have helped her ellow out a bit about that.

 

I didn't use the computer version -  I read the words from the book and they write them out and I correct right away.

[...................]

My son was a poor speller but a very logical thinker, engineer, LEGO type. It worked wonders for him. We only did about 3 levels. After that he used Calvert spelling For 3 years and that was enough. He still wouldn't win any spelling bees but for the most part spelling is not a frustrating or embarrassing thing to him.

 

It did NOT work for my actually dyslexic daughter. She is right brained, creative, artistic, very clever with board games, good at drawing. The program made her shut down completely- the fact that most of the words have a pattern but a few do not confused her. The thing where you erase and fix your word immediately almost made her cry daily. She hated how repetitive and boring it was...

 

We used Apples and Pears from Prometheus Trust instead and it worked wonders - it was hard work and it wasn't her favorite time of day, but she hung in there and we both could see major improvement regularly.

[...................]

 

With my perfectionist student, I really had to explain how the program worked - that it was ok not to get the words right away and that was how it was designed, and how other programs were designed.  It may even have helped her ellow out a bit about that.

 

 

 

This.  Some students are either perfectionists or so worried about their spelling and sensitive types...my dd absolutely hated this method and no matter how much I explained it we had regular tears.  

[Sneezyone]

It worked beautifully for my mechanically inclined oldest child. She really needed the repetition and muscle memory that SS uses to get the patterns down. She also doesn't care about making mistakes. She loves to throw herself into things, harebrained schemes and all, to see what will happen. Correcting mistakes, low-pressure learning, THAT she could do! DD got through 1 and 2 before going back to school and I immediately saw a difference in her writing. It would be a DISASTER for my younger, however, who wants to 'win' at everything and declares himself a failure if he misses one or two on a 20-word spelling test.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Sneezyone

[kbutton]

I'm glad you mentioned typing the lists. I've been pondering if I could have him type his lists and get the same benefits. When you do that, do you turn off the automatic​ marking of misspelled words? I was thinking of turning off auto correction, but leaving the red squiggly lines on, so that he'd get very immediate feedback on his spelling.

 

We don't use auto correct, but we do leave the red lines on. Our program also sometimes suggests a word, but I instruct them to just keep typing even if it's the right word.