Need help with SWR

[P31Mom]

I *thought* I found the perfect curriculum for my kids. I'm supposed to start teaching it tomorrow and yet I'm floundering in just coming up with a first day's lesson plan....and I've been trying to learn this program for 3 weeks! I didn't wait till the last minute.

 

 

Is there anyone out there that is familar with Spell to Write and Read that can tell me how to plan a day with this program. I feel like I don't have time to figure this program out. It seems to be very confusing with NO logical layout. It jumps from one thing to the next, seemingly for no reason.

 

I was not able to attend the seminar that came to our area recently, and there are no other seminars scheduled in our area.

 

If anyone has experience with this program could you please give me some advice on how to plan my lessons?

 

In my 11 years of homeschooling this is the most confusing curriculum that I've ever tried to use!

 

Any suggestions on a good alternative to this program?

 

Sorry about the drive-by post without introductions. Please forgive my lack of forum-etiquette!

 

Michelle

mother of 7...no time to deal with poorly laid out curriculums!

[Alana in Canada]

This really is a poorly written curriculuum, indeed.

 

First of all, what do you intend to use it for? Are you teaching little ones to read? Are you remediating?

 

One of the terrific things about this curriculum is that you can adapt it to your needs.

 

I used it to remediate my second grader and teach my "guesser" at words and sounds to read properly.

 

Look at the back of the red book. There are weeks of "lesson" plans. Where you begin depends on where you are in the process. We started right at the beginning with teaching them how to write the alphabet cursively, learning our consonants and vowels and learning the phonograms.

 

A lesson-week for one list might look something like this:

 

Day One:

1. Review/Teach phonograms.

2. Dictate List (how much of it depends on the ages and abilities of your kids). They write it down. I used finger spelling to help them. I would quickly flash phonograms at them to make sure they got the right ones right from the start. (Do it just as it is laid out in the guide: two columns. It really does work well).

3) Read the list across on their pages.

 

Day 2:

1. Review phonograms

2. Read the words across from the student's list.

2. Teach a "page" if called for--or, if none, teach one of the "suggestions for further activities."

 

Day 3

1. Review phonograms.

2. Dictate List to cards.

3. Have the students make up sentences and write them down. It was easier when they were younger to do this on the cards so they could shuffle them around. (I cut up 3x5 cards into 4's for this and hole punched them and kept them on a ring: a different colour per list. I have kinesthetic, visual learners.)

 

Day 4

1. Test or review phonograms

2. Test words.

 

I hope this helps.

[prairie rose]

 

Any suggestions on a good alternative to this program?

 

 

 

All About Spelling

[Dinsfamily]

With what ages are you using it? I am a few months into it with my K'er. I have a schedule posted on my blog the covers the whole year. http://dins-family.blogspot.com/2009/08/swr-schedule.html. I found the schedules in the back of SWR to be very helpful when building my own (SWR p. 225). I also like the chart on pg. 64. It gave me a picture of how we should progress each year. We basically do what the previous poster did. Here's my basic template for a week of work.

 

Monday:

Review concepts/Play game

Teach new reference pages (if necessary)

Introduce new phonograms (if necessary)

 

Tuesday:

Read all phonograms (that have been introduced)

Dictate new spelling words

 

Wednesday:

Enrichment

Read words

Quiz some phonograms

 

Thursday:

Enrichment

Read words

Read phonograms

 

Friday:

Tests new words and some phonograms/words for review

 

This is the plan, but I'm flexible with moving activities to different days as needed.

 

Hope that helps,

[P31Mom]

This really is a poorly written curriculuum, indeed.

 

First of all, what do you intend to use it for? Are you teaching little ones to read? Are you remediating?

 

One of the terrific things about this curriculum is that you can adapt it to your needs.

 

I used it to remediate my second grader and teach my "guesser" at words and sounds to read properly.

 

Look at the back of the red book. There are weeks of "lesson" plans. Where you begin depends on where you are in the process. We started right at the beginning with teaching them how to write the alphabet cursively, learning our consonants and vowels and learning the phonograms.

 

A lesson-week for one list might look something like this:

 

Day One:

1. Review/Teach phonograms.

2. Dictate List (how much of it depends on the ages and abilities of your kids). They write it down. I used finger spelling to help them. I would quickly flash phonograms at them to make sure they got the right ones right from the start. (Do it just as it is laid out in the guide: two columns. It really does work well).

3) Read the list across on their pages.

 

Day 2:

1. Review phonograms

2. Read the words across from the student's list.

2. Teach a "page" if called for--or, if none, teach one of the "suggestions for further activities."

 

Day 3

1. Review phonograms.

2. Dictate List to cards.

3. Have the students make up sentences and write them down. It was easier when they were younger to do this on the cards so they could shuffle them around. (I cut up 3x5 cards into 4's for this and hole punched them and kept them on a ring: a different colour per list. I have kinesthetic, visual learners.)

 

Day 4

1. Test or review phonograms

2. Test words.

 

I hope this helps.

 

This does help. I was planning to use this was 3 children. I originally bought it because I read several recomendations that it was good for children with special needs. My son was adopted in April and we are homeschooling him for the first time this year. He was considered special needs in the public school. The school made a pretense at teaching phonics, focused mainly on the 60 sight words that they were expected to know in Kindergarten, and then claimed that he couldn't read because of his "developmental delay". He learned all 60 sight words and he knew pretty well the basic one sound phonics for his alphabet.

 

So I was going to use it for him, starting from the beginning. Then I have 3 other children that I was going to use for spelling mainly. One of them struggles with spelling (she's 4th grade) and tested on the 3.5 level, with the 2.6 being her tension level. My 5th grader tested on 5.8 level and his tension level is 3.7. My 8th grader tested on the 11.2 level and his tension level was 6.8.

 

Thank you for the day-by-day lesson plan. This helps me to understand HOW they expect me to tie in all the different aspects of this program.

 

Do you teach handwriting when introducing the phonograms or when they are writing dictation in their log book?

 

Michelle

[P31Mom]

With what ages are you using it? I am a few months into it with my K'er. I have a schedule posted on my blog the covers the whole year. http://dins-family.blogspot.com/2009/08/swr-schedule.html. I found the schedules in the back of SWR to be very helpful when building my own (SWR p. 225). I also like the chart on pg. 64. It gave me a picture of how we should progress each year. We basically do what the previous poster did. Here's my basic template for a week of work.

 

Monday:

Review concepts/Play game

Teach new reference pages (if necessary)

Introduce new phonograms (if necessary)

 

Tuesday:

Read all phonograms (that have been introduced)

Dictate new spelling words

 

Wednesday:

Enrichment

Read words

Quiz some phonograms

 

Thursday:

Enrichment

Read words

Read phonograms

 

Friday:

Tests new words and some phonograms/words for review

 

This is the plan, but I'm flexible with moving activities to different days as needed.

 

Hope that helps,

 

You may be my life saver! My son is technically supposed to be 1st grade but at his IEP meeting with the public school they put it to me like this, "You need to decide if you want him to move up to 1st grade or be kept back in Kindergarten. We feel like he's ready for 1st grade math, but not ready for 1st grade reading. If you choose to let him go to 1st grade, we'll provide him with 1 hour a week of extra help in the classroom but don't worry....we'll help the other kids in the classroom also, so he's not embarrassed." In other words, they told me to pick between learning to read and learning math....and I'm relatively convinced that his reading "problems" come from their method of teaching NOT my son. I plan to use this with him starting on the kindergarten level. I have a couple of older kids that I plan to use this with as well, but they are not as urgent.

 

Michelle

[P31Mom]

All About Spelling

 

I will check this out ASAP. I need to have a Plan B in the working!

 

Have you used this?

 

Michelle:bigear:

[P31Mom]

DinsFamily,

 

How do I view your document on your blog? I clicked on it but it took me to a website/page called scibd and there was a blank box there. I hate to keep bugging you but I'm kind of desperate.

 

Michelle

 

Nevermind, I figured it out...when all else fails READ! Thanks!

Edited August 23, 2009 by P31Mom

[Dinsfamily]

You may be my life saver! My son is technically supposed to be 1st grade but at his IEP meeting with the public school they put it to me like this, "You need to decide if you want him to move up to 1st grade or be kept back in Kindergarten. We feel like he's ready for 1st grade math, but not ready for 1st grade reading. If you choose to let him go to 1st grade, we'll provide him with 1 hour a week of extra help in the classroom but don't worry....we'll help the other kids in the classroom also, so he's not embarrassed." In other words, they told me to pick between learning to read and learning math....and I'm relatively convinced that his reading "problems" come from their method of teaching NOT my son. I plan to use this with him starting on the kindergarten level. I have a couple of older kids that I plan to use this with as well, but they are not as urgent.

 

Michelle

 

Glad I could help. The good thing about SWR is that you can change the speed to fit your needs. You can start your ds at a kindergarten pace with 10 words/week, but you can always add in more later on if he's ready for it. Have you joined the SWR yahoo group yet? It is so helpful! Wanda and the trainers can answer any questions you have.

 

BTW, I taught handwriting before we started doing the spelling lists. Check out step 6. You teach the first 25 phonograms and how to form the letters at the same time. You can go as fast or slow as you need to. My ds wanted to cover them all the first day so we did. He already knew the sounds and we just needed to learn how to form the letters properly. We practiced that for 4 days and then moved on to the lists. Some kids might need to take a few weeks or a couple of months.

[Dinsfamily]

DinsFamily,

 

How do I view your document on your blog? I clicked on it but it took me to a website/page called scibd and there was a blank box there. I hate to keep bugging you but I'm kind of desperate.

 

Michelle

 

Nevermind, I figured it out...when all else fails READ! Thanks!

 

LOL!! Were you able to download it okay? I just changed it so that you can download it as a Word document instead of a PDF if you want. That way you'd be able to change it to fit your needs without retyping the whole thing.

Edited August 23, 2009 by Dinsfamily
adding info

[P31Mom]

Glad I could help. The good thing about SWR is that you can change the speed to fit your needs. You can start your ds at a kindergarten pace with 10 words/week, but you can always add in more later on if he's ready for it. Have you joined the SWR yahoo group yet? It is so helpful! Wanda and the trainers can answer any questions you have.

 

BTW, I taught handwriting before we started doing the spelling lists. Check out step 6. You teach the first 25 phonograms and how to form the letters at the same time. You can go as fast or slow as you need to. My ds wanted to cover them all the first day so we did. He already knew the sounds and we just needed to learn how to form the letters properly. We practiced that for 4 days and then moved on to the lists. Some kids might need to take a few weeks or a couple of months.

 

I'm on the list...but I think they are tired of answering my questions because they are not coming through to the list...and when they do, people are not answering. They've probably answered the same questions a thousand times so I don't blame them.

 

I don't see step 6 on your lesson plan. When in your lesson plan did you teach step 6?

 

 

I've read step 6 but to be honest, by the time I'm finished with one step, I've forgotten what I was supposed to be doing in the step before. And NONE of the steps tells you exactly when to do it, other than vague references like "before you start Wise Guide", etc. At least that's what I seem to be understanding as I read through it.

 

Michelle

[lovinmomma]

I'm on the list...but I think they are tired of answering my questions because they are not coming through to the list...and when they do, people are not answering. They've probably answered the same questions a thousand times so I don't blame them.

 

I don't see step 6 on your lesson plan. When in your lesson plan did you teach step 6?

 

 

I've read step 6 but to be honest, by the time I'm finished with one step, I've forgotten what I was supposed to be doing in the step before. And NONE of the steps tells you exactly when to do it, other than vague references like "before you start Wise Guide", etc. At least that's what I seem to be understanding as I read through it.

 

Michelle

 

I've noticed that your questions seem to be coming in sporadically and some of them are going to my spam folder. Did you know that you can contact a trainer directly? That should REALLY help.

[P31Mom]

LOL!! Were you able to download it okay? I just changed it so that you can download it as a Word document instead of a PDF if you want. That way you'd be able to change it to fit your needs without retyping the whole thing.

 

I think you may be an angel in disguise....:D

[Dinsfamily]

I'm on the list...but I think they are tired of answering my questions because they are not coming through to the list...and when they do, people are not answering. They've probably answered the same questions a thousand times so I don't blame them.

 

I doubt they are ignoring you. :001_smile: It seems like the trainers really want others to succeed. I wonder if there's a technical problem.

 

I don't see step 6 on your lesson plan. When in your lesson plan did you teach step 6?

 

Steps 6 and 7 are the first 4 days of week 1 in my schedule. My ds didn't need much instruction in this area so we went fast. We've been working with the first 26 phonograms for three years. He just needed practice forming his letters and breaking some bad writing habits. Wanda's schedule on page 225 takes 2 weeks to do this. In the last paragraph on page 32, Wanda recommends not to take more than 2 months to do this step.

 

I've read step 6 but to be honest, by the time I'm finished with one step, I've forgotten what I was supposed to be doing in the step before. And NONE of the steps tells you exactly when to do it, other than vague references like "before you start Wise Guide", etc. At least that's what I seem to be understanding as I read through it.

 

Wanda sets up the book so that you can go at your own pace. You just proceed through the steps in order. It helps me to focus on one step at a time. Step 12 is really the heart of the program. Another thing that helped me was to build my own log book. I've completed the program through list F in my own log book. I plan on doing more before I get that far with my ds. I was able to teach myself the reference pages and markings on my own time and see the flow of the program.

 

One other thing that I did was to make a copy of the Scope and Sequence page for my ds's SWR binder. I put a checkmark by each step when we start it. This would especially be helpful if you're using the program with more than one child. It reminds me of what we've done and when to do the next step.

 

Michelle

 

I think you may be an angel in disguise....:D

 

I'm just really glad that my hard work can help someone else. :D Really no reason for you to recreate what I've already done.

[PeterPan]

Michelle, part of the learning curve is because you don't see how this all fits together. Don't try to do too much at once. I would start with your older kids and do the 4th, 5th, and 8th graders together at first. Start all the way at the beginning (since they all tested pretty) to make it easy for them as they learn the phonograms. But because the words are easy, you're going to keep a pretty good clip. SWR suggests 40 words a week, and that's what I would shoot for doing 10 words a day and spending Friday as review. When you finish through list I2 (which is list 12 I think?), I would then give the diagnostic test AGAIN. At this point your 8th grader will probably pull ahead. You'll put him into a higher list and keep the 4th and 5th graders together. It doesn't matter if their spot in the lists doesn't exactly match their diagnostic scores. They'll still learn and progress, because they're learning how to attack words, how things fit together, how things work. As they internalize the rules, they'll start to apply them to new words they don't know.

 

Enrichments? There are lots of ways to practice. You could totally skip all those enrichments, or you could chose to do some. Find a middle of the road option, kwim? I personally think it's very wise to dictate the sentences from the Wise Guide. What you might find practical is to dictate Wise Guide sentences 2 days a week, do enrichments two days a week. And what I did with the enrichments when I was doing SWR was to type them up onto slips and put them into a jar. Kind of added a fun element. Alternately you could get the audio cd's and have them practice that way (since you're teaching so many kids). Definitely do sentence dictation using the words, as it's a terrific way to pull everything together and get retention, highly recommend.

 

Now for your K5er, I personally would wait, maybe just doing phonograms now, until you get the others started. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much at once! Once you've taught the others a while and gotten in the swing of how it works, you'll have no trouble rolling in your K5/1st. Your main emphasis at this level is learning to read. Do the words together, write them on cards, and let him practice reading them periodically throughout the day (3-4 times daily). You're going to start the whole log over at A again next year (or come January, or at some point when you realize it's time to reboot), so don't be too perfectionist about this. I went back to A *3 times* with my dd.

 

You could do AAS with your younger while doing SWR with the olders, but I think you'll be fine as you get into it. See how it goes. If he needs more methodology or you want more hand-holding, feel free to get AAS. Many people here have found a year with AAS helped them understand SWR better. ;)

 

Don't try to do too much at once. Start with your olders first, since they'll be easier. It's NOT hard once you see what you're trying to do. Oh, and you can look up the Quick & Dirty Guide to Starting SWR on lulu.com :)

[P31Mom]

I've noticed that your questions seem to be coming in sporadically and some of them are going to my spam folder. Did you know that you can contact a trainer directly? That should REALLY help.

 

 

I just noticed that several of my questions came in all at once also. So maybe the moderator is just busy. (Again, not blaming anyone...who has time to sit at the puter and wait for messages to moderate?)

 

Michelle

[P31Mom]

I'm just really glad that my hard work can help someone else. :D Really no reason for you to recreate what I've already done.

Wanda sets up the book so that you can go at your own pace. You just proceed through the steps in order. It helps me to focus on one step at a time. Step 12 is really the heart of the program. Another thing that helped me was to build my own log book. I've completed the program through list F in my own log book. I plan on doing more before I get that far with my ds. I was able to teach myself the reference pages and markings on my own time and see the flow of the program.

 

One other thing that I did was to make a copy of the Scope and Sequence page for my ds's SWR binder. I put a checkmark by each step when we start it. This would especially be helpful if you're using the program with more than one child. It reminds me of what we've done and when to do the next step.

You know this statement right here makes complete sense to me. For some reason, I thought the book was telling me to do some of the steps (1-11) at the same time...and then it seemed to backtrack and say don't do one step till you do another. I'm sure I'm probably not understanding it correctly. In fact, I KNOW that part of my understanding issue is I'm interrupted quite often (like 5 times just while typing this...make that 6...). I LOVE to read but I lose my train of thought very easily. So as soon as (make that 9 times...can you tell all of my children are home from church now???) I get interrupted I have to reread what I just read. Add to the fact that I'm a sloooowww reader, and you have a mom panicking before school begins, lol.

 

Weird that I love reading so much since I'm slow and I lose my train of thought so easily, :001_huh:.

 

You've been such a big help.

 

Michelle

[kalanamak]

 

You could do AAS with your younger while doing SWR with the olders, but I think you'll be fine as you get into it. See how it goes. If he needs more methodology or you want more hand-holding, feel free to get AAS. Many people here have found a year with AAS helped them understand SWR better. ;)

Listen to all of OhElizabeth's advice. You can even search this forum for more help with it. There is a yahoo group. Start. Teach the phonograms. If the child has trouble with writing and you are eager to get off on the right foot with reading, the AAS tiles work for some (I do half dictating and half tiles because kiddo is such a perfectionist with his letters right now...I know, I know, I'm counting my blessings). After doing SWR exclusively I found it really helped him sound out words (notice the title is not "Spelling Lessons" but "Spell TO Write and READ") and I considered it reading lessons not spelling lessons. Now up to my knees in both SWR and AAS, I think of the latter more as a spelling program. Others might disagree. I like flipping back and forth. Makes more of a change for me and kiddo, but it would possibly be chaos for more than one or two children.

 

How old is the new child?

[kalanamak]

....and I'm relatively convinced that his reading "problems" come from their method of teaching NOT my son.

 

SWR was amazing for my mathy/sciency kid. When he is reading aloud and stumped on a word, I can say "the third sound of A" and off he goes. He positively LOVES putting numbers above letters and double underlining some. It reminds me of something I read about wet catfood: the kind that comes in chunks with a cream sauce on it. The cats go wild not because they love the sauce, but because they want to get it off the meat so they can eat it neatly. Kiddo flipped open his notebook and was eager for the first word so he could squeal "A 3 goes there, right" While gloated over his prowess in the marking system, he learned to read.:)

[Dinsfamily]

SWR was amazing for my mathy/sciency kid. When he is reading aloud and stumped on a word, I can say "the third sound of A" and off he goes. He positively LOVES putting numbers above letters and double underlining some. It reminds me of something I read about wet catfood: the kind that comes in chunks with a cream sauce on it. The cats go wild not because they love the sauce, but because they want to get it off the meat so they can eat it neatly. Kiddo flipped open his notebook and was eager for the first word so he could squeal "A 3 goes there, right" While gloated over his prowess in the marking system, he learned to read.:)

 

This is my ds EXACTLY!! He is mathy/sciency kid and loves the logic of SWR. He wants to do more words because he loves to figure out the markings. List D is "his favorite list ever" because of all of the silent E markings! I'm sure list E will be come his favorite list when we get there if it contains more words with markings. LOL.

 

I just wanted to emphasize what Elizabeth said for your 6yo. Wanda is pretty adamant in the book that they do not need to master the phonograms or words the first time around. He will have a lot of time to practice. We keep our enrichments fun and our spelling time stress-free. We'll start at list A again next year. While you're figuring out everything with your older dc, you could just work on handwriting and phonograms with your 6yo plus some of the preschool activities in Step 2. Then he'd be ready to start list A as soon as you are. No reason to rush.

 

I also recommend the Phonogram Fun Packet by Beall's Learning Games. It has a board game that reinforces the phonograms and spelling rules which is completely customizable for each child playing (plus a lot of other phonogram games too). My boys (5yo and the 3yo) love it and my dh is learning the phonograms too ;).

[Alana in Canada]

Do you teach handwriting when introducing the phonograms or when they are writing dictation in their log book?

I did, yes.

 

They did really well with it, too.

 

Glad you got some help!