AAS? AnP? AHHHHHH

[DragonflyAcademy]

I am freaking out just a little bit.. well more than a little bit..

 

I had never heard of phonograms until recently.. and became concerned that I wasn't teaching them.. so I just bought, used, AAS level 1 and am waiting for it to arrive.. I have a 1st and 4th grader..

 

Now I read how some people don't like AAS.. feel it's too "rule based" and that english really doesn't follow rules.. and I worry that all this rule memorization will make my oldest shut down.. since he's never had this before.. I worry that it will take hours to do each day..

 

so then I read some people like Apples and Pears.. and I have the same worries...

 

 

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! Part of me wants to run screaming the other way :001_huh::tongue_smilie: and pretend I never heard of Phonograms..

[parias1126]

You are spending too much time reading these boards! lol Seriously though, I wouldn't worry. Do a search on AAS and you will also read many wonderful things about it. I just started it with my DD8 and she is doing very well with it. It doesn't take more then 15 minutes. I'm not sure what you mean by English doesn't require rules. The English language is full of rules. You need to spell in the English language and Spelling requires rules to become a great speller. I am a good speller, but it was always from memorization. I am enjoying learning right along with my DD. It has helped me to have a better understanding of the "why's" of spelling and I'm so glad my DD will have that understanding at an early age.

[christine in al]

All it is is learning the SOUNDS of letters and letter combinations rather than the names. It moves spoken language ( one you already know) and written language closer together. Most of us learn the letter names ( really bloody useless for spelling) rather than the sounds.

Example: When we see a feline we dont' say " Pet the /SEE-AA-TEE/ "

We say" Pet the /k..a..t/ We SAY the phonograms, not the letter names.

You already know the most common phonograms. study of them will give structure to what you already know and open up lots of new cool things.

 

AND Learning WHY words are spelled in certain ways is fun and helpful.

 

Isn't it slightly interesting to think there may be a REASON the number two is spelled with that silent w ? *

 

You may find the cd of phonograms most helpful.

 

* comes from the Old English word " twa" meaning 2.... and now you know why twelve is spelled the way it is too. fun huh?

 

Not every single word spelling has a good reason. but most do.

 

~Both ASS and Apples and Pears seem popular on the boards.. breathe, look at them both, even try them out and keep the one that works best for your family, sell the other.

~christine in al

[christine in al]

Cursive First has reproduceable ( great,, I can't spell that, Right, trust me on spelling) sheets on which the student practices writing a specific phonogram while saying it aloud .

 

~Christine ( who can't spell so wants her children to be able to) in al.

[8filltheheart]

I am freaking out just a little bit.. well more than a little bit..

 

I had never heard of phonograms until recently.. and became concerned that I wasn't teaching them.. so I just bought, used, AAS level 1 and am waiting for it to arrive.. I have a 1st and 4th grader..

 

Now I read how some people don't like AAS.. feel it's too "rule based" and that english really doesn't follow rules.. and I worry that all this rule memorization will make my oldest shut down.. since he's never had this before.. I worry that it will take hours to do each day..

 

so then I read some people like Apples and Pears.. and I have the same worries...

 

 

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! Part of me wants to run screaming the other way :001_huh::tongue_smilie: and pretend I never heard of Phonograms..

 

:grouphug: Sorry if I am the one that caused your crisis!!

 

The English language is about 95% phonetic when it comes to reading. It is why knowing phonics and the rules helps produce solid reading skills.

 

It is the converse however that is not true. Knowing phonograms and the rules will not enable you to spell 95% of the words.

 

Phonograms are simply the sounds that different letters and/or letter combinations make. For example, ou has 4 sounds (ow, long o, oo (as in boo), and short u) ow has 2 sounds ow and long o.

 

The rule that accompanies ow is that it may be used at the end of English words or before final d,l, or n. (for example crowd, scowl, and gown) BUT.....then you have loud, cloud, foul, etc. that don't follow the rule. There are so many exceptions to the rules that the exceptions far out number the total number of rules (which aren't that extensive, really.)

 

If a child encounters a word that they do not have a clue how to spell, they can spell it numerous ways by combining different phonograms that make the same sound. For example, the word phonics.....faunics breaks no rules yet is spelled incorrectly. Knowing that the word phonics is based on the morpheme phone would actually help build all sorts of words that use that root......telephone, phonograph, etc.

 

When it comes to teaching kids to spell, almost any program will work with natural spellers. Finding what works with poor spellers can be hit or miss. Rule based spelling with visual cues and multisensory integration may work with certain children. It just simply isn't a cure all for all kids. It may help or it may not. Neither is a morpheme approach a cure all. Combining the 2 with a root study has helped my extremely poor speller.....but is spelling is still atrocious. :tongue_smilie:

[twoxcell]

Take a deep breath:001_smile:. I am using AAS Level 1 one with my ds age 7. We have been at it for 10 weeks, and are on step 17. I do it with him 3 days a week for maybe 15 minutes. It really is simple and easy, and so far we both like it.

[MerryAtHope]

I would wait until you get AAS, try it out and see how it works. They have a 1-year, 100% satisfaction guarantee (if you ordered direct from AAS that is), so you have time to see if it works for your kids.

 

I think that it's a misnomer though to think that AAS is only about rules. Rules is only ONE strategy that AAS uses. AAS teaches kids, over the course of time, to analyze words, and decide what kinds of strategies will help them to learn this word. As an example of the strategies AAS uses:

 

segmenting

pronouncing for spelling

visual memory recall (AAS makes use of word banks for patterns that must be discerned visually. Also the word cards can be used visually, and many of the strategies for learning rule-breakers are visual as well).

rules

identifying base words (for example, knowing whether a base word ends in S like confess, or t as in invent, is a clue for whether the ending will be sion or tion--confession, invention).

 

etc...

 

As you get higher and higher in the levels, they introduce more strategies and each lesson has you walking kids through how to analyze words for the best approach to learning them--but it's all presented incrementally so that it's not overwhelming (you don't have to learn all of the methods at once).

 

No one program is going to work for everyone--and if AAS doesn't work for you, that's ok! But, I wouldn't discount it (especially since it's on the way to your house now!) before even trying it or really understanding what the program is about.

 

Merry :-)

[tarana]

I am freaking out just a little bit.. well more than a little bit..

 

I had never heard of phonograms until recently.. and became concerned that I wasn't teaching them.. so I just bought, used, AAS level 1 and am waiting for it to arrive.. I have a 1st and 4th grader..

 

 

 

Don't be upset. I am in the same boat as you. Personally I am a sight reader & pretty OK with spelling (not great though!).

 

I started phonics when my twins(now in 3rd garde) were in Pre-K using LeapFrog videos, then graduated to Long & Short Vowels. One of my twins had a feeding issue & was recieving speech therapy. Did very little to help her eating disorder but her phonics improved a lot. She was blending words & reading in Kindergarten. My other DD learnt to read by mostly listening to me or her twin, but ended up being a terrible speller. Thanks to the intrest they developed in Mystery, both my girls are reading 2 grades ahead. In between all this "Phonics" kind of was thrown out of the window.

 

I wanted to work on my DD's spelling & got AAS. We almost completed AAS-2, but it was't helping DD's spelling much as she needed stuff taught in the higher levels & we always seemed to be trailing behind all the time. So this Aug, we swtiched to Spalding - The Writing Road to Reading.

 

I borrowed the WRTR book from the library. It has a section on Phonograms & the instructional Tips on how to say the phonograms is superb. Also there is a list of rules (2 pages) which I made a copy of.

But the best part is the Word List. It shows the segmenting on each word & the rules that apply & stresses on the phonogram used in the word. When my DD has trouble with a word, I refer to this list for an explanation.

 

Currently we are concentrating only on memorizing the 70 phonograms & doing some segmenting.

 

You can use AAS as your spelling program, but if you can get hold of the WTRT book from the library do use it as a reference.

[In2why]

I only know our experience with AAS and I can easily say that it is the only curriculum that we are using that you couldn't pay me to switch. Everything else is okay and working, but AAS is working well, is easy, and most important my son is retaining the lessons in not only his spelling work but also in his reading. If there is a magic program (and no there isn't) for us AAS is it. Now that I have used it, if they doubled the price I would still use it. I will continue to use it for as long as it works for us. My only really minor hesitation is that if I made my son spell out everything with tiles like it suggests in the book he wouldn't like it as much, and since he doesn't need it once he grasps the concept, I let him write them instead on the white board. If I forced him to use the tiles on everything we probably wouldn't like it as much.

[scrapbabe]

Well I bought AAS twice and sold it - before we ever used it, cause I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. Now, I'm tempted to buy it again.

:001_huh:

 

So try it out, and see how it fits. That's the beauty of homeschooling. If something doesn't work, try something else. You'll always be able to resale AAS should you choose not to use it.

 

Smiles,

Shalynn

[jsleepymom]

Lol this is the story of my so-far very short homeschooling journey :lol:!

 

I am on the prowl for the perfect curricula (as if there is such a thing!!), and will frequently purchase a program after researching it for weeks and hearing nothing but good things about it...until I've swiped my card and it's on the way in the mail that is :001_huh:!

 

I just ordered (and received, they ship quickly!) AAS. I also ordered and received a Phonemic Awareness curriculum. So of course there will be millions and billions and trillions (can you tell we've been reading 'A Million Cats' - is that what it's called??) of threads on why AAS is not the answer, does not work, will result on incompetent nincompoops if implemented, etc.

 

Seriously though, I've been looking it over, preparing letter tiles and it looks really good (we have level 1). In fact my 4 year old (who will not be using the program) saw my computer with the phonogram cd loaded and started clicking on the phonograms and ended up spending 30 minutes clicking on the sounds over and over and over and...anyway, looks like they will enjoy learning this stuff :001_smile:. We will like it. We will like it. We will like it. So will you. So will you. So will you. :D

 

Does that help you any? :001_huh:

[Penelope]

I think some understanding of phonics is important for spelling. But not everyone needs to go through spelling in the very slow and incremental way that a program like AAS does.

 

I never learned any of these spelling rules or phonograms, except maybe how to make plurals, and I would never go through a spelling program like AAS if I had a very visual learner that was a natural speller and did not need the bit by bit parts-to-whole method. I think the rules can actually confuse a visual speller, because there are so many exceptions to the rules. I actually don't know for sure if my child "needs" AAS, because I started it fairly young, and I think many many people will improve their spelling just by extensive reading. So when I read testimonials for any spelling program on a message board, I take them with a grain of salt, because the truth is, the child could improve several grade levels in spelling for several reasons, and the spelling program they started a year or two ago may or may not have anything to do with it. I think it's more impressive to see that kids who are a little older and were really struggling and not picking up spelling at all with some other program, were helped by a program. But again, the average kid may have no need to go through a program like this. There are plenty of people who have not used an O-G spelling program who spell well.

Edited September 17, 2010 by Penelope

[DragonflyAcademy]

thanks all.. I'm not panicking quite as much..

 

My middler is just starting to read and spell.. I can see that she makes some mistakes with letter sounds consistently..so perhaps this will help.

 

My oldest has, until this year, spelled easily.. I'm not sure if it was because the words were easy (public school and then once home schooled.. spelling workout..) but his pronunciation of words can be off and he is struggling with spelling this year..grade 4... so I thought we needed.. something...