Has anyone used Spelling Plus?

[whitestavern]

I did a quick search but it brought up about 10 pages. I looked through about four and couldn't find anything. If you've used Spelling Plus, can you give me a quick review...what did you like/dislike? Thanks!

[Kuovonne]

I've used the Spelling Plus Dictation book. I really like it. The dictation book lists all 1000 words in the program, and then provides dictation sentences that provide repeated exposure to those words. I love that review is included in the sentences so that if DD misspelled a word, it would show up again in later dictation sentences.

 

I like it for cold dictation - where the child doesn't see the passage beforehand. I found the vocabulary and sentence structure just right for grammar age; much simpler than the sentences in Spelling Wisdom.

[whitestavern]

Thanks Kuovonne. So do you use the dictation book as your entire spelling program? If so, how do you work it? I'm wondering if I could maybe do a day of copywork, then pretest, then a day of dictation, and then retest, or some kind of similar schedule. What do you think?

[Kuovonne]

Thanks Kuovonne. So do you use the dictation book as your entire spelling program? If so, how do you work it? I'm wondering if I could maybe do a day of copywork, then pretest, then a day of dictation, and then retest, or some kind of similar schedule. What do you think?

 

I think that Spelling Plus works better with cold dictation rather than studied dictation.

 

When I used Spelling Plus, it was my entire spelling program. I pretaught each list of 15 words, and then did cold dictation of the sentences for that list. The dictation sentences already included review words from previous lists. About halfway through, I decided to drop spelling as a formal subject because my daughter is a natural speller.

 

You can find a wealth of info about the program at the author's website.

[deeinfl]

I use Spelling Plus Dictation as our whole spelling program. What we do is on Monday we go over the word list. On Tuesday, we discuss any special spelling patterns, or phonograms. Sometimes we mark the words with our own system, basically it's just circling or underlinging familiar phonograms, or phongrams that need special notice. On Wednesday I start orally quizzing...and on Thursday or Friday I will give a written test. If all the words are spelled correctly, the following week we will start the dictation sentences at 4-5 a day. If there are troublesome words, we may choose to practice further, or just begin dictation anyway. Usually once the dictation starts, the word is remembered.

 

My son has really retained the spelling of most of the words this way. But the bonus has also been the attention to capitalization and punctuation along the way.

 

I asked my son if he wanted a workbook this year for spelling, and he declined telling me that he loved the way that we do spelling with dictation. We plan to continue with Spelling Plus Dictation throughout the 6th grade.

 

HTH,

 

Dee in Sunny FL!