choirfarm Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 What are the strengths and weaknesses of each one? Trying to decide between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lainey Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 We've tried both and All About Spelling was the one that my son understood the best. Apples and Pears is good, but All About Spelling just goes more in depth and is more visual with the letter tiles. They are both scripted, so that was a plus for me because I like scripted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 What are the strengths and weaknesses of each one? Trying to decide between the two. I would suspect AAS is more time intensive, while A&P I don't get how the child learns to spell the base word. That said Michele and other morph fans sold me on it, so I plan to use Dynamic Literacy after AAS (already bought it). AAS strength is that it is systematic multi-sensory instruction. A&P would also be considered multi-sensory (write, hear, say even through it doesn't have tiles) and gives meaning to the different parts of the word, which can give more reason to learn it. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Apples and Pears is literally open and do. The biggest plus in my book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Apples & Pears is "open and go" and less expensive. It takes much, much less time for us to do A&P than it took for AAS. I liked the letter tiles from AAS and kept them, but sold everything else. My biggest beef with AAS was the sheer amount of time it took. A&P goes pretty quickly, but I just dropped it for awhile, did some spelling words on paper and picked it back up when Ariel was ready to move on. She likes the word searches and simple crosswords. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I would suspect AAS is more time intensive, while A&P I don't get how the child learns to spell the base word. That said Michele and other morph fans sold me on it, so I plan to use Dynamic Literacy after AAS (already bought it). AAS strength is that it is systematic multi-sensory instruction. A&P would also be considered multi-sensory (write, hear, say even through it doesn't have tiles) and gives meaning to the different parts of the word, which can give more reason to learn it. Heather Heather, I feel like I'm stalking you lately, but I want to ask about Dynamic Literacy. :001_smile: Why did you choose this over Apples & Pears? Does this happen to take the student to a higher level than Apples & Pears? I am using SRA's Spelling Mastery, which is another morpheme-based spelling program, but my son will finish the final level next year and, while he's done very well with it, he's still going to need to continue to work on spelling. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Heather, I feel like I'm stalking you lately, but I want to ask about Dynamic Literacy. :001_smile: Why did you choose this over Apples & Pears? Does this happen to take the student to a higher level than Apples & Pears? I am using SRA's Spelling Mastery, which is another morpheme-based spelling program, but my son will finish the final level next year and, while he's done very well with it, he's still going to need to continue to work on spelling. Lisa Lisa, Stalk away! ;) I didn't really want to use A&P because of the spelling focus, because it is written to younger children and because of the British influence. While I know the last it isn't a big deal it would be something else to deal with. Dynamic Literacy has a track for older children, a vocabulary focus, the game CD which is a better fit for using with my oldest. Dynamic Literacy does have a scope and sequence here, so you can see how it compares to what you are doing. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elohcin Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I use Apples and Pears with my struggling speller. She has done fantastic with it. It is really helping her spelling improve. I tried to love AAS. I think with teaching 4 this year it just is too time intensive (too many other time intensive things to do). I am keeping it and may use it next year with my K'er who will be ready for it or maybe I will just get Apples and Pears for him too. It really is easy to use. Open and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeOrchidSong Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) Lisa, Stalk away! ;) I didn't really want to use A&P because of the spelling focus, because it is written to younger children and because of the British influence. While I know the last it isn't a big deal it would be something else to deal with. Dynamic Literacy has a track for older children, a vocabulary focus, the game CD which is a better fit for using with my oldest. Dynamic Literacy does have a scope and sequence here, so you can see how it compares to what you are doing. Heather Heather, I am using AAS and watching what you will use after AAS is done. So Dynamic Literacy is the one? I have to check it out. I have a question: How does Mega Words compare to Dynamic Literacy? Thanks! Edited February 9, 2011 by aomom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 AAS taught my son why words are spelled the way they are, but he couldn't go the other direction and reason out how to spell words. It did help his reading, though. 8fillstheheart has explained in her posts why you can't easily reason your way to spelling - there are multiple ways to spell various sounds, and at some point you just have to know which way to use. This is where my son got stuck. A&P focuses on giving children practice writing phonemes and later morphemes. We are in the beginning of book A, so we are doing lots of /ee/, /ar/, /ing/. There isn't really a set word list - one day the kid will spell car, the next day sharp, and the next day barn. The point is that they are practicing writing /ar/ (along with the word "are"). We have only been doing A&P for two weeks and my son, who could not spell even kindergarten-level words, is doing extremely well, and is spelling these words/patterns in his normal writing. AAS also focuses on the easiest spelling rules first, while many common words are "rule breakers." We got bogged down trying to reason our way into spelling fairly simple words and never even got to the patterns for the more common words. A&P moves much more quickly into common phonemes, giving the kid a much more useful toolbox of skills at the beginning. I agree with others that the teaching portion of it is far more streamlined. You each have a book and you work closely together for maybe 10-15 minutes, then you're done. I do input words into spellingcity for my son to play around with, but it's not necessary. With AAS you're moving between the whiteboard/magnets, flashcards, and the TG. Not all kids need the multisensory approach. I almost can't believe I'm saying that - but in my son's case, no amount of manipulating tiles or answering flashcards works as well as actually writing the words as he says the sounds. A&P does various activities in the workbook though - it's not just copying lists. There are word searches, dictation, reading words, reading sounds, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Lisa, Stalk away! ;) I didn't really want to use A&P because of the spelling focus, because it is written to younger children and because of the British influence. While I know the last it isn't a big deal it would be something else to deal with. Dynamic Literacy has a track for older children, a vocabulary focus, the game CD which is a better fit for using with my oldest. Dynamic Literacy does have a scope and sequence here, so you can see how it compares to what you are doing. Heather Thanks, Heather! I will have to take a closer look at the scope and sequence, but from what I've seen of the program, it looks like the Essentials level would be a good follow up for us of what we've done with SRA. I've also e-mailed the company to see if they can give me any insight into whether this would take us further than Spelling Mastery. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Lisa, I was advised by the author of A&P that upon finishing level D to keep a list of words my dc found personally challeging. By then they have enough morpheme base to continue growing. You would review misspellings by asking if there are any morphemes in the word he recognizes, have him write out a word sum, ask if he had to use a rule (such as drop e), review the word the following day, review a week later, and keep a list to practice at regular intervals. I'm not sure how far SRA goes, I would probably give the placement test for A&P D to compare the two. Michelle - I "think" A&P stops about where SRA's Spelling Mastery does, but I'll have to take a closer look at it. I will consider the advice of the A&P author, but I feel like my son may need to continue with spelling in a systematic way. We've got another year with SM though, and he could surprise me. He's made some real leaps in a number of areas this year and if that continues, maybe it will just all come together for him. I can only hope. Thanks for sharing this information with me. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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