Will DS ever learn to spell?

[Negin]

Poor boy really struggles. He has never been tested, but was a late reader and shows some signs of mild dyslexia and dysgraphia. It’s been difficult for me especially – a natural speller. Is there anything that will really help learn to spell OR do I have to resign myself to the fact that he will always struggle? :confused:

He’s now on Level 3 of All About Spelling and I have to say that it has been a more effective program than any other. Nonetheless, he needs drill and lots of it. AAS is just not enough.

So we recently got Mega Words. I forgot to order the Teacher’s Guides and looking at the program since we just started using it, I think I need to order those also.

I’m looking for ANYTHING at this point that will help him learn to spell and that is preferably user-friendly – just something effective. Is there anything else?

I do know that AAS and Mega Words are Orton-Gillingham-based (teaching the structure of words - syllable types, syllable division, rules, exceptions, and so on). So obviously, I would prefer Orton-Gillingham-based. I think … unless I don’t know what I’m talking about!

Programs/Options that I’m going into – and I am open to other suggestions:

 

1. Just order the Teacher Manuals for Mega Words and be content with that – since I have a few of the books already. Keep reviewing AAS and doing the Mega Words.

 

2. How to Teach Spelling – there are workbooks also

 

 

3. [/url]

 

4. Solving Language Difficulties

 

5. by Marica Henry -

Someone said that this book combines spelling with root word study. Often used for remedial students for up to even 8th grade.

 

6.

 

I do know that Sequential Spelling is not a good choice for a child without good visual memory. It relies on their ability to recognize and recall the patterns being presented. SS is great for natural spellers, but not so much for those who struggle.

 

At this point, I’m willing to try almost anything and everything to have him learn to properly spell.

If you have any experience with any of these programs, please share. Thank you.

[dani3boys]

We have used AAS through level six with my two sixth graders, and they learned all of the spelling rules well, but they are still pretty bad spellers. I tried Megawords for a while, but it just wasn't clicking with us, so we are trying Spelling Power. They do a pre-test, and then only work on the words that they spelled wrong. They like it so far, but we'll have to see how it works out in the end.

I have my Level 1 Megawords teacher edition listed on the for sale board here if you are interested. It is the newest edition. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240137&highlight=megawords

[8filltheheart]

they learned all of the spelling rules well, but they are still pretty bad spellers.

 

as a mom of horrible spellers that know OG rules/methodology and still have problems spelling, the only program that helped is Apples and Pears by Sound Foundations.

http://www.prometheantrust.org/usshop.htm

 

If you search the forum for Apples and Pears, I'm sure you'll find lots of info.

[katemary63]

I think megawords is excellent for stuggling spellers. I use it for my DD who is a natural speller so I don't have specific experience using it for a poor speller, but from what I see, I think it would be great.

[Pegasus]

Sequential Spelling was actually designed for students with dyslexia issues. It doesn't teach rules though, just spelling patterns. Very easy to use and takes very little time each day. No studying!

 

It's worked well for us.

 

Pegasus

[siloam]

AAS is one of the best programs out there, but there are a few things that can impede improvement.

 

First is being able to hear the difference between sounds. How did he do with the sound work in level 1? Does he continue to struggle to pick the right letters or does he mix up short i and e, and blends? LiPS would go a long ways to correcting these problems.

 

Second is the ability to see words in the mind. If he can't he doesn't have strong visual memory for words, thus lacks your ability to "see" a word and know if it is spelled correctly. Seeing Stars, just the TM, would be my recommendation to solve this problem.

 

Third is if you have the child on board or not. If the child is burned out and at a point of, "I don't care." then any instruction you give probably won't be effective. Until they decide they are tired of it and want change you won't make progress.

 

Last the speed at which AAS moves can be a little too fast. With my 3rd dd who needed both LiPS and Seeing Stars and is hands down a dyslexic, she covers one set of word for four days. The first day we use tiles and I sound the word out for her. The second day she uses a white board and we do more of a traditional spelling format. The third day she uses air writing and visualization from Seeing Stars and the last day she writes them out on pen and paper. She also covers about 6 review words a day, doing a ton of review before we are through.

 

Heather (dyslexic who can't spell)

[Jilly]

Megawords has helped my son, who has struggled with spelling for many years. The program just seemed to click with him, and he is making a good deal of progress with it.

 

You need the teaching manuals though, as there are many lessons that have you dictating sounds or words to your student, and this information is only in the TM.

[rafiki]

.

[LizzyBee]

My 14 yo is mildly dyslexic. She struggled greatly with spelling! But at 14, she is a decent speller and even got the highest score on a spelling test in her 9th grade English class at school. We used Calvert Spelling on CD (the old version), but AAS and MegaWords are great programs, too. Hang in there and be patient.

[Sandragood1]

My ds(14) was a horrible speller, late reader, etc. His spelling improved a great deal when he started typing on-line with friends while playing games. The incentive to make oneself understood is huge.

 

I also found that time, time, time is a huge help. Their "spelling brain" matures more slowly. I see it also with my dd.

 

Sandra

[laundrycrisis]

Our son has poor visual memory skills and is just beginning to read with some fluency. He does not write without almost 100% help and even that is a struggle, but he is learning to type. It is too early to tell for sure, but the typing seems to be helping him with spelling in a way that writing words on paper never could.

 

I remember that once I learned to type, sometimes I could not remember how to spell something, but I could remember how to type it - like my fingers remembered - and I could type it in the air and then remember how to spell it. I still do this. I think it is a kinesthetic way to remember spelling - different than visual or verbal. Maybe adding some typing would help him.

 

Our son first got some keyboarding with Dance Mat, then went back to the beginning of Click'n Spell. Now he is also doing Type to Learn, and I am adding some custom content to the program from the Spelling Plus dictation book. He is able to do much more this way than he was with pencil and paper. We will come back to pencil and paper later - this approach is helping him so much.

[MerryAtHope]

So, is he struggling to remember what he has learned in AAS? Or is it applying what he has learned to his writing outside of AAS? Those are two different skills (whether he can do it correctly when only focusing on spelling, vs. whether he can do it correctly when he is writing for other subjects), so I would start with that question first.

[Mom-ninja.]

Ugh, I wonder the same thing. My dh is a horrible speller and I suspect dyslexic. He's told me to give in to the idea that our oldest ds will not be a good speller. I'm not giving up though!

 

I also use AAS and we are also in level 3. Actually, we're taking a break with AAS while we work through REWARDS reading.

 

Here is an example of what he wrote today. He's writing down rules for a card game he invented. I'll only type out the sentences with misspelled words.

 

"The swich direcktion card has one life."

 

"The discared card has three lives."

 

"The swich card only has one purpos"

 

"Each attack desteroy or takes away a life."

 

"Only the swich direckt card can take lives."

 

 

So, that is written by my just turned 10 yr old. Is that about how your ds's spelling is?

 

Looking at his mistakes (which I did not tell him about because this is complete free writing for his own) I see that he is using the rule about "ck" after a short vowel in the words "direckt" and "direcktion." I also see why he didn't put an 'e' at the end of "purpos." He is thinking that an 'e' at the end will make the 'o' have the long sound.

 

Any suggestions to help him understand these errors?

 

I'm with you Negin, I'm trying to decide if I continue with AAS or switch. Sometimes I wonder if the rules are causing confusion due to his mistakes.

[Carol in Cal.]

Phonetic Zoo was what really saved my DD's spelling.

 

Looking at your DS's spelling, it seems like he is making phonetic errors. That's good. My DD was misspelling so randomly early on that I was thrilled when her mistakes started having patterns. She would misspell the same word three different ways on the same page. It was mostly because she didn't care about spelling at all, and also she thought a lot faster than she could write, and for a long time couldn't do both at the same time.

 

Copywork helped her at least as much as PZ. I was a BEAR about perfect copywork. It forced her to really look closely at the spelling and punctuation of the texts I chose.

 

It was slow, but she spells OK now, not perfectly but pretty OK.

Edited February 7, 2011 by Carol in Cal.

[MerryAtHope]

Ugh, I wonder the same thing. My dh is a horrible speller and I suspect dyslexic. He's told me to give in to the idea that our oldest ds will not be a good speller. I'm not giving up though!

 

I also use AAS and we are also in level 3. Actually, we're taking a break with AAS while we work through REWARDS reading.

 

Here is an example of what he wrote today. He's writing down rules for a card game he invented. I'll only type out the sentences with misspelled words.

 

"The swich direcktion card has one life."

 

"The discared card has three lives."

 

"The swich card only has one purpos"

 

"Each attack desteroy or takes away a life."

 

"Only the swich direckt card can take lives."

 

 

So, that is written by my just turned 10 yr old. Is that about how your ds's spelling is?

 

Looking at his mistakes (which I did not tell him about because this is complete free writing for his own) I see that he is using the rule about "ck" after a short vowel in the words "direckt" and "direcktion." I also see why he didn't put an 'e' at the end of "purpos." He is thinking that an 'e' at the end will make the 'o' have the long sound.

 

Any suggestions to help him understand these errors?

 

I'm with you Negin, I'm trying to decide if I continue with AAS or switch. Sometimes I wonder if the rules are causing confusion due to his mistakes.

 

The first thing I would do, IF this had been an assignment and not freewriting, would be to give him time to find his errors. For some kids, that needs to be on the next day, or after a short break. Perhaps even in place of the next LA assignment. When kids are thinking about getting their ideas out, there is so much to focus on--creativity, how to organize ideas, how to turn those ideas into words, thinking about audience (it has to make sense not just to the writer but to the reader), and then add onto that spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, neatness etc.... It's really a lot to think about at once.

 

I wrote a blog article about how to help kids incorporate more of their spelling skills into their writing that might give you some ideas. I can tell you that the end of level 3 and moving into level 4 was when I *started* seeing my kids improve in this area. The writing station exercises in Level 3 are a great time to focus on editing. They are short, and the kids are using at least some words they know how to spell (if they misspell words that they haven't yet gotten to--such as purpose in your example, I either let it go if there is much to correct, or I say, "You wouldn't know this one yet, so I'll just show you...")

 

Plus going into Level 4, the exercises focus more on having the kids decide what strategies to use--they analyze word lists and decide which strategies that they have learned are going to be helpful. This is an important skill for kids to develop. They've learned some strategies in levels 1-3, but they've always been told what to do--now they have to choose, to think it through. Dictation makes them do this too, but the directed lessons on this are very helpful--both for the child to consciously recognize they are using strategies, and for the mom to help coach a child who isn't using strategies they have learned. It helps us to know which areas to work on more. AAS teaches 4 main strategies (rules are only one of those strategies). Sometimes kids miss that and think they are just learning rules--good spellers need to know how to use a variety of strategies.

 

Ok, so let's pretend this was an assignment that your son did, he found some errors, but the ones you identified he didn't find. First, praise for all he found, whether or not he was able to correct them. Walk him through correcting the ones he found and encourage him that he's making progress.

 

"The swich direcktion card has one life." I'd tell him there were 2 errors in this sentence and to try to find them. See if he can identify them first. If not, then I'd say, "switch is one of them. Can you think of any rules that might apply to this word?" Try to get him to give you the information if possible--then he owns it more. If not, then state the rule similar to the card, "how do we usually spell the /ch/ sound after a short vowel?" and see if he can fix it. For "direcktion," I'd have him write the root word first and see if he can do that. He's actually got the "tion" ending correct--praise him for spelling that when he hasn't gotten to that suffix yet. He also did the "ir" correctly--I don't think direct is in L3 either, praise for that. See if he can get the root as direct. If so, praise. If not, ask him, "when do we use CK?" See if he can tell you that it's after a short vowel in a one syllable word. Then see if he can fix it.

 

"The discared card has three lives." Again, tell him there is one error in this sentence. If he doesn't find it, encourage him to read EXACTLY what he wrote--sometimes I tell my kids to PRONOUNCE exactly what they wrote. If he does this, he should see his error--dis-cared (long a), when he wants the /ar/ sound--discard. If my kids don't pronounce what they wrote and don't find the error, I say, "I would pronounce that 'dis-care-d.' You want the word 'discard.' Do you know what to change?"

 

"The swich card only has one purpos" Purpose--he got the UR correct and hasn't learned this word yet, praise him. Let him know he wouldn't know about the e at the end (we really don't pronounce it as a long E. Words that end in /s/ or /z/ often have a handyman E at the end--in this case so that the word doesn't look like a plural. He'll learn that a bit later).

 

"Each attack desteroy or takes away a life." Great job on attack! Ask him to pronounce exactly what he wrote & see if he can find his one error.

 

That's how I talk them through with my kids to help them build up some of these skills for themselves. It takes time and effort (which is why, in my blog article, I recommend starting this with dictation, and then short things like the writing stations. Eventually you can do this with longer things they write too). But with elementary aged kids, or even junior high aged kids, you want to make sure it's not overwhelming or too much at once--bit by bit they can learn to accomplish this.

 

HTH some! BTW...since most of your son's errors were on words he hasn't studied yet, I wouldn't be discouraged by this at all. Give him time to get there and to learn the logic to think these through. Merry :-)

Edited February 7, 2011 by MerryAtHope

[razorbackmama]

I am switching my 10yo dyslexic from AAS (which worked, but not well enough) to Barton Reading & Spelling. I've almost decided to switch my older boys, who are currently using Megawords, to it as well.

[Mom-ninja.]

Merry, thank you!

[Lori D.]

First: patience. The spelling portion of many children's brains don't even begin to mature until age 10-12. However, there are things you can do to help. Below is our "journey" -- which is still incomplete and in process. Second: if your child is over 10-12yo and spelling hasn't clicked, you are probably looking at some sort of underlying issue; the good news is that there are things to look into/try which could help; the bad news -- it is not a quick fix, and a single easy-to-use program will most likely NOT be the answer to the problem. (I know, I keep wishing for/looking for that too!)

Our struggling speller is 17yo; he didn't even begin to click with spelling until after he was 12yo. He was tested at age 10 as borderline dyslexic -- I think he has "stealth dyslexia", as he also has difficulties with getting writing out of his head and onto paper. He is a very visual-spatial learner, which means he intakes information very concretely (see it/touch it) and processes information very randomly -- order doesn't matter. Unfortunately, spelling is not very "touchable", and correct letter order is everything!

What has helped somewhat for our struggling speller, in this order:
1. practicing words in a way to emphasize the sequential order
2. Megawords
3. individualized spelling
4. just discovered this year, ideas from Dianne Craft to help "blocked learning gates"

The practicing spelling words in sequential order helps strengthen that very weak area of sequential, ordered thinking through having him HEAR the order, one letter at a time by spelling out loud to him, and then having him spell out loud back to me (Andrew Pudewa's "Spelling and the Brain" lecture).

The Megawords has helped him learn vowel patterns and to break words into smaller syllable chunks for spelling attack. It has been a tremendous help when coupled with specific spelling practice ideas (below).

The individualized spelling is me creating his spelling lists. We are slowly working through "The ABCs and All Their Tricks" as our "rules spelling resource". I pick 1-2 spelling patterns and then use words from "The ABCs" and Megawords. We practice several times a day (each time using a different method) in short 5 minute bursts. We initially went through the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual (order code # = SPL 201) to learn very visual ways of remembering vowel pairs and other letter pairings (for example, "ck" at the end of a word (such as "pack") -- the "c" is drawn as an open-mouthed child and the "k" waves his arm and leg to keep the flies from getting into the child's mouth) -- the very visual image with a very unusual "story" attached to it helps embed the letter pair into long-term memory. Below are the details of practice methods.

Dianne Craft ideas we are using are nutritional (taking natural supplements) to nourish brain connections, and therapeutic ("writing 8" exercises) to help the brain make left/right connections. She also has a technique for teaching spelling using the child's natural "photographic memory" (similar to specific spelling technique suggestions in "Right Brain Children in a Left Brain World" (by Freed) -- another helpful resource!), but I have just not had the time/ability to try to implement it this late in the game (DS is a junior). Dianne Craft's photographic memory technique is much like the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual's mnemomic visual picture method I mentioned in the paragraph above.


Hope something here is of some help! And BEST of luck in your own spelling journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.



SPELLING PRACTICE in order of most helpful

1. Out Loud (4x/week, 3-5 min/day)
(idea from Andrew Pudewa "Spelling and the Brain" workshop on DVD, coupled with Carol Barnier's "Toss It" idea from her book "How To Get Your Child Off The Refrigerator and onto Learning")
You clearly say the word aloud, spell it (syllable by syllable if that helps), and toss the child a beanie toy; then the student says the word/spells it correctly, and tosses the beanie back. The beanie toss helps keep him focused and mentally prepared. *Immediately* stop and correct any misspelling by spelling it aloud correctly several times and have the student spell it correctly by looking at it and reading it letter by letter several times. Hearing the letters in correct sequential order really helps cement correct spelling in the mind.


2. Work with words on whiteboard (3x/week, 5-10 min/day)
(expanded from original idea from Sequential Spelling; the visualizing patterns are ideas adapted from the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual (order code # = SPL 201)
- excellent for helping child actual visualize spelling patterns
- reinforce vowel patterns, syllabication patterns, etc.
- write out root words and practice adding endings, prefixes, etc. -- tell it and draw it as a story with character pictures (ex.: "hope" -- the vowels at the end of the word like to fight with vowels at the beginning of an ending (like "-ing", or "-ed"), so you have to drop the "-e" at the end of "hope" and then add the endings such as "-er" or "-ing"; adding endings such as "-ful" or "-less", or prefixes such as "-un" are not a problem, because they start with a consonant, and consonants don't fight with the vowel at the end of the word)
- work with homophones -- see the different spellings, and draw a picture or tell a little story to help the difference stick (ex: "meet" and "meat"; it takes 2 people to "meet" and there are 2 "e"s in "meet"; draw the letter "a" to look like a heart and say "I love to eat "meat" -- and see, the word "eat" is IN the word "meat"; etc.)


3. Dictate sentences (1-2x/week; 5-10 min./day)
(idea from Stevenson Basic Blue Spelling Manual)
Dictate 5 short sentences, (slowly, one at a time) each with 2-3 spelling words in them; excellent for student to practice simultaneous thinking/writing/spelling.


4. Worksheets (4x/week, 5-10 min/day)
I make a variety of types of worksheets for the week, whatever fits on one sheet of paper in the spiral notebook for spelling practice:
- add the prefixes/suffixes (ex: _____ + ______ = maiden; pain+less=_______) (ex: add these endings -- "ing", "ed", "less" -- to these words -- "pain", "glaze", "rain" -- use each word and ending only once)
- break the words into syllables
- I write a brief sentence for each spelling word, with a blank for the spelling word; he writes the correct homophone to complete the sentence (ex: "The girl fell and had a ______ in her leg." choice: "pane", "pain")
- list the words in the top half of the page, then divide the bottom half of the page into 2 columns; he writes the words under the correct column headings (ex: "a_e" words / "-ai-" words) (or: 1-syllable, 2-syllable, 3-syllable words)


Other Possible Spelling Practice Ideas:

- Magnetic letters; either child says each letter and lays out each magnetic letter, or look at a written version word and sort out magnetic letters to match. Helps the child see, say and manipulate the letters for spelling.

- Say each letter and use fingertip to write each letter in a tray of sand or cornmeal. Helps the child see, say and feel the spelling.

- Fingertip on tabletop; write each letter large (involve whole arm), saying each letter. Helps the child see, say, and feel the spelling.

- Child say each letter aloud while writing it; then child "unwrites" the word, saying each letter and going over the letter with fingertip to erase it letter by letter. Helps the child see, say and feel the spelling.

- Roll out "snakes" of clay and shape each into a letter of the spelling word. Helps the child see and feel the spelling.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Lori D.
fixed typos

[dani3boys]

First: patience. The spelling portion of many children's brains don't even begin to mature until age 10-12. However, there are things you can do to help. Below is our "journey" -- which is still incomplete and in process.

 

Our struggling speller is 17yo; he didn't even begin to click with spelling until after he was 12yo. He is also mildly dyslexic and also has difficulties with getting writing out of his head and onto paper. e is a very visual-spatial learner, which means he intakes information very concretely (see it/touch it) and processes information very randomly -- order doesn't matter. Unfortunately, spelling is not very "touchable", and correct letter order is everything!

 

What has helped somewhat for our struggling speller, in this order:

1. practicing words in a way to emphasize the sequential order

2. Megawords

3. individualized spelling

4. just discovered this year, ideas from Dianne Craft to help "blocked learning gates"

 

The practicing spelling words in sequential order helps strengthen that very weak area of sequential, ordered thinking through having him HEAR the order, one letter at a time by spelling out loud to him, and then having him spell out loud back to me (Andrew Pudewa's "Spelling and the Brain" lecture).

 

The Megawords has helped him learn vowel patterns and to break words into smaller syllable chunks for spelling attack. It has been a tremendous help when coupled with specific spelling practice ideas (below).

 

The individualized spelling is me creating his spelling lists. We are slowly working through "The ABCs and All Their Tricks" as our "rules spelling resource". I pick 1-2 spelling patterns and then use words from "The ABCs" and Megawords. We practice several times a day (each time using a different method) in short 5 minute bursts. We initially went through the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual (order code # = SPL 201) to learn very visual ways of remembering vowel pairs and other letter pairings (for example, "ck" at the end of a word (such as "pack") -- the "c" is drawn as an open-mouthed child and the "k" waves his arm and leg to keep the flies from getting into the child's mouth). Below are the details of practice methods.

 

Dianne Craft ideas we are using are nutritional (taking natural supplements) to nourish brain connections, and therapeutic ("writing 8" exercises) to help the brain make left/right connections. She also has a technique for teaching spelling using the child's natural "photographic memory" (similar to specific spelling technique suggestions in "Right Brain Children in a Left Brain World" (by Freed) -- another helpful resource!), but I have just not had the time/ability to try to implement it this late in the game (DS is a junior). Dianne Craft's photographic memory technique is much like the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual's mnemomic visual picture method I mentioned in the paragraph above.

 

 

Hope something here is of some help! And BEST of luck in your own spelling journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

SPELLING PRACTICE in order of most helpful

 

1. Out Loud (4x/week, 3-5 min/day)

(idea from Andrew Pudewa "Spelling and the Brain" workshop on DVD, coupled with Carol Barnier's "Toss It" idea from her book "How To Get Your Child Off The Refrigerator and onto Learning")

You clearly say the word aloud, spell it (syllable by syllable if that helps), and toss the child a beanie toy; then the student says the word/spells it correctly, and tosses the beanie back. The beanie toss helps keep him focused and mentally prepared. *Immediately* stop and correct any misspelling by spelling it aloud correctly several times and have the student spell it correctly by looking at it and reading it letter by letter several times. Hearing the letters in correct sequential order really helps cement correct spelling in the mind.

 

 

2. Work with words on whiteboard (3x/week, 5-10 min/day)

(expanded from original idea from Sequential Spelling; the visualizing patterns are ideas adapted from the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual (order code # = SPL 201)

- excellent for helping child actual visualize spelling patterns

- reinforce vowel patterns, syllabication patterns, etc.

- write out root words and practice adding endings, prefixes, etc. -- tell it and draw it as a story with character pictures (ex.: "hope" -- the vowels at the end of the word like to fight with vowels at the beginning of an ending (like "-ing", or "-ed"), so you have to drop the "-e" at the end of "hope" and then add the endings such as "-er" or "-ing"; adding endings such as "-ful" or "-less", or prefixes such as "-un" are not a problem, because they start with a consonant, and consonants don't fight with the vowel at the end of the word)

- work with homophones -- see the different spellings, and draw a picture or tell a little story to help the difference stick (ex: "meet" and "meat"; it takes 2 people to "meet" and there are 2 "e"s in "meet"; draw the letter "a" to look like a heart and say "I love to eat "meat" -- and see, the word "eat" is IN the word "meat"; etc.)

 

 

3. Dictate sentences (1-2x/week; 5-10 min./day)

(idea from Stevenson Basic Blue Spelling Manual)

Dictate 5 short sentences, (slowly, one at a time) each with 2-3 spelling words in them; excellent for student to practice simultaneous thinking/writing/spelling.

 

 

4. Worksheets (4x/week, 5-10 min/day)

I make a variety of types of worksheets for the week, whatever fits on one sheet of paper in the spiral notebook for spelling practice:

- add the prefixes/suffixes (ex: _____ + ______ = maiden; pain+less=_______) (ex: add these endings -- "ing", "ed", "less" -- to these words -- "pain", "glaze", "rain" -- use each word and ending only once)

- break the words into syllables

- I write a brief sentence for each spelling word, with a blank for the spelling word; he writes the correct homophone to complete the sentence (ex: "The girl fell and had a ______ in her leg." choice: "pane", "pain")

- list the words in the top half of the page, then divide the bottom half of the page into 2 columns; he writes the words under the correct column headings (ex: "a_e" words / "-ai-" words) (or: 1-syllable, 2-syllable, 3-syllable words)

 

 

Other Possible Spelling Practice Ideas:

 

- Magnetic letters; either child says each letter and lays out each magnetic letter, or look at a written version word and sort out magnetic letters to match. Helps the child see, say and manipulate the letters for spelling.

 

- Say each letter and use fingertip to write each letter in a tray of sand or cornmeal. Helps the child see, say and feel the spelling.

 

- Fingertip on tabletop; write each letter large (involve whole arm), saying each letter. Helps the child see, say, and feel the spelling.

 

- Child say each letter aloud while writing it; then child "unwrites" the word, saying each letter and going over the letter with fingertip to erase it letter by letter. Helps the child see, say and feel the spelling.

 

- Roll out "snakes" of clay and shape each into a letter of the spelling word. Helps the child see and feel the spelling.

 

Thanks for all of this information!

[Lori D.]

PS -- I would also like to add that spelling; writing; and thinking of what to write are 3 different skills and each is processed in a very different part of the brain. Struggling spellers may learn spelling patterns and rules -- but then fail to use them while they are writing because their brains are not able to integrate 2 or more skills and brain areas at the same time.

 

Our DS does a better job of writing if we take off the pressure to have to spell, punctuate, etc. for the first draft. And then have him later go back and fix mistakes as a separate step in the writing process.

 

Dictation of short sentences has helped him begin to integrate these skills somewhat. Also, since 8th grade, we have a weekly practice of a timed essay from a prompt (an idea from 8FillstheHeart! :)), in order to prepare for SAT testing in late high school, but I found it helped him with the integrating of spelling/writing somewhat, AND helped him decrease the amount of time he needed to "switch mental gears" from "writing mode" to "editing/spelling mode".

 

As someone else mentioned, typing and online conversing has also helped DS improve spelling, as he does not want to look foolish -- it has also helped him see the spelling mistakes of others! He often points it out to me; just being able to see that something IS misspelled is a big step forward for our struggling speller! :)

Edited February 7, 2011 by Lori D.

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I want to thank everyone so very, very much. This is all so helpful. I'm copying, pasting, and saving all your posts to read and take notes later as I make my decision.

I don't want to quit AAS. AAS has helped him a lot. I love the program. I just feel that ds needs all the help that he can get. Lots and lots of work.

Once again, thank you. And if you think of anything else, or if anyone has more to add, please continue sharing. :grouphug: