5th grade boy...needs spelling help! AAS?

[JoyinIndo]

All right,

My son will be in 5th grade next fall and as I look ahead, I need to get a spelling program that can help him. His spelling is really awful. If he writes 5 sentences, he will have at least 10 words misspelled, and they won't all be hard words either. :(

 

I, being a somewhat CMer, thought I could do dictation (Spelling Wisdom) and it would all turn out ok. Then, seeing that wasn't working, switched to Sequential Spelling since it was accessible here. It's ok, but not really helping.

 

I have been reluctant to AAS because I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that it was teacher intensive, but at this point I'm willing to try anything.

 

Do you think that AAS would be a good choice for us? And if so, what level do I start a 5th grader?

 

Thanks for the help!

JoyinIndo

[scrapbabe]

I have a 10 almost 11 yr old son whose spelling and writing abilities are atrocious! I have been doing AAS with him the past month or so. I started with level one, which is super easy, but he feels successful and I know we're filling in any gaps he may have (which are a ton!) My oldest is a natural speller like me, so I never had to do spelling with him. But it's clear I won't get away with that with my 10 year old.

 

I know the writer of the program encourages you to start at the beginning even with older children. I don't think it's too teacher intensive. I have to direct the lesson, but they don't take more than 15 min a day. That's not teacher intensive to me.

[MangoMama]

Basically, everything Shalynn said. ;)

 

I also started my then 10 year old daughter on level one. (This was before I knew that the creator of the program suggested this.) I just wanted her to have a good foundation in spelling before moving on. We zoomed through it, doing up to 3 lessons a day. The lessons are very short, and even when doing 3 lessons a day, we would still get done in 15-20 minutes.

 

We love AAS and cannot recommend it enough! :thumbup:

[nukeswife]

I also started my oldest who was an atrocious speller at level 1. That way I made sure that all gaps were filled, and as pp said, it boosted his confidence in spelling.

 

As for how teacher intensive it is, not really, you need to be there to teach the lesson and give the words etc, but our rule is we work 15-20 minutes (15 for my younger dd and 20 for my older son) or until we finish a step. If we finish the step in 20 minutes great, if not I simply put a post it flag there and that's where we start the next day.

[MerryAtHope]

I started my kids on Level 2 at the end of 3rd and 5th grades--but then I realized that they had some gaps from Level 1, so we went back and spent a few weeks filling in those gaps. That's often the case for older kids who struggle with spelling. I wrote about our experiences in my blog.

 

You might take a look at this article on whether to start with Level 1 or Level 2.

 

My kids are in level 5 now, and it's helped them tons--you really can make a lot of progress. HTH some, Merry :-)

[JoyinIndo]

Thank you all so much. I really appreciate the help! I am going to look at the articles Merry mentioned and then most likely order Level 1. I am excited to finally have a plan!

 

Blessings,

JoyinIndo

[jenL]

I ditto everything the other posters have said. I used to be a remedial reading instructor for dyslexic and LD children in grades 6-8. I taught a program called Wilson Reading. AAS is almost exactly like Wilson except it is NOT teacher intensive. It would take me hours to plan lessons for 5-10 kids, whereas I open AAS with my son, and we just go. I set the timer for 15 minutes, and we stop when the time goes off; the next day we pick up where we left off. My son LOVES spelling, and he asks to do it first every day. He is not a natural speller by any means, yet I can see his progress daily. We may back up and review if necessary or stay on a step for several days/weeks. It's an excellent program, and it will fill in your son's gaps while helping him become a good speller in the process.