MelissaMinNC Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Trying to decide about spelling for next year. Not making any final decisions until I can see some things in person, but AAS is on the list. It's a little overwhelming when I look at it - there are an awful lot of parts and pieces. It seems like. Just curious, how long does this take, per lesson? Do you do it every day? I will have a 5th grader, who's never done a formal spelling program, but is a pretty good speller (natural speller?), and we've always done copywork and dictation. I will also have a 1st grader, just learning to read. (He's doing MFW K this year - reading CVC words. In all likelihood doing MFW 1 next year, which includes a complete phonics program.) Would I even use this with the 1st grader, or wait until he is through phonics instruction? TIA, Melissa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 it varies on the lesson. The short ones I combine my kids...like the ones with no spelling words. The longer ones took us up to 1/2 hour some days. And I do it individually with each child :001_huh: I personally wish it were a shorter program, but it does work. It's just teacher/time intensive. I hope the efforts now will be worth it later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 We usually spend anywhere from 20-30 minutes on a lesson, and do it 3 times per week. The time goes by fast, as we both love AAS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Jen* Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 With my K/1st grader I use AAS 1. Our lessons take about 15 minutes three times a week. First day we review cards that he needs review on (not many - takes us about 2 minutes), then we do the new teaching for the lesson. This takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on the rule and how many of the words he already knows, then he spells about half of the words on with the tiles. 2nd day - Review the new rule and then spell the 10 words on paper along with 3 phrases 3rd day - Spell 5 of the additional words given to check that he knows the new rule and then write 5 more phrases. We go through about a step a week, but since he is so young we do about 3-4 steps then take a week to review old words to make sure that he remembers what he has learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 We spend 15-20 minutes per day, 4 days a week. In level 1, we were able to get one step in each day, or sometimes more (I think the first day we did 4 steps). In level 2, I'm sure we'll slow down some. Level 1 only took my first grader (a good reader) 3 weeks. That's because much of it was review - short vowel sounds and all that. He did learn some new things though, so it was worth doing that level. For a 5th grade natural speller, I'd start at level 2. I would start your first grader at level 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheekymama Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 We do 2 steps/week...the first day of a step we will spend about 20 minutes...the 2nd day is review so it doesn't take as long...I love this program and so does dd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Melissa, It can take as long or as little time as you like. The main components are the TM, the word cards, the phonograms, key cards (spelling rules) and sound cards, which are the opposite of the phonograms. With the phonograms you see the letter and recall the sounds. With the sound cards you hear the sound and recall the letter. Here is my weekly schedule: Monday: Review phonograms-they cover daily any they miss Tuesday: Review key cards-they cover daily any they miss Wednesday: Review sound cards-they cover daily any they miss Thursday: Do a Homophone worksheet (separate product) This takes about 5 mins per child, and the older two have them so memorized they only cover phonograms once a month. Then daily my oldest does a step (lesson) in 2 days. Generally the first day is instruction, the second day is the words. This takes 10-15 mins a day. My other two children (ds is still working on the early steps of level 1) cover one bold section a day. Generally the teaching time is broken into pieces: read the word bank to build visual memory, do a word analysis, introduce a new phonogram, add a homophone to your homophone list, teach a rule breaker and put it in jail. I do each of those on separate days. Their teaching time takes 5 about 5 mins (if that). I generally also review 4-8 words a day (more for my oldest) and that takes 5 mins a day per child at most. Total my youngest gets 15 mins at most and I would bet, because we are in such a routine, it is more like 5-10 mins. I pull the cards the review cards and she just gives me the answer, then she gets the white board will I pull review cards and she writes them and then last I pull the TM (which is stored on her desk) and we go over the one thing she is to cover that day. Actually the most time consuming thing might be when I have to get the tile boards and after instruction we have to put the tiles away, but she helps me with that as well. But it does take time to build the routine, so at first it would take longer. Once my oldest finishes AAS, which should be in the next year. She will start level 6 in a month. At this point I am more concerned about level 7 being available when I need it. :D But back to my point. Once she is finished my time will be freed up and I will focus on my 2nd dd. She will start to go through it at the pace of a step in two days. My oldest didn't start the program till 5th grade, and is already looking at finishing it 3 years later. My 2nd dd is in book 3 despite the really small pieces we have been doing it in. In a year she will be up to book 4 at the least. Then it will probably only take another year, maybe a year and a half for her to be completely done with the series and I can focus my attention on my 3rd dd. Long term all will get though it. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I simply set a timer and work for that amount of time or until the step is finished, whichever comes first. By that I mean I set a timer for 15 minutes and we start working when the timer goes off I put a post it flag on the page and we stop. The next day when I start the timer we start at the post it flag and work onward through the step. If we finish a step before the 15 min is up, great we stop there and start the next step the next day. By doing it this way I can guarantee that spelling never takes more than 15 minutes a day, sometimes less if it's an easy step. I do spelling 4 days a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Trying to decide about spelling for next year. Not making any final decisions until I can see some things in person, but AAS is on the list. It's a little overwhelming when I look at it - there are an awful lot of parts and pieces. It seems like. AAS recommends working for 15-20 minutes a day for younger students, and up to 30 minutes or so for older students. We set a timer and work until it goes off--I do 15 for my 6th grader & 20 for my 8th grader. Each day we start with any cards behind the review tab and then pick up wherever we left off previously in the book. It can seem like a lot of pieces at first, but once you get organized it really isn't. We have our white board with the tiles on it, and then everything else I keep in a rubbermade box. The pages that come in the materials packet are in a folder, easy for me to access. The ones that we use most often I use as bookmarks in the book, so they are handy when I grab the book. The cards are all organized in the card box. Here's a picture of my "everything" box. I should update my photo as I have the new spelling review boxes (they are very cute! Although my $1 sterilite fliptop boxes served me fine as well!). But this will give you an idea. HTH some! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 We spend about 30 minutes on a lesson and do a couple of lessons a week. Our whiteboard is already set up with the tiles, and my 7 y/o can alphabetize quite well so I don't have him do the tiles every time. (with the 4 y/o I am using the same board once a week and having him place the tiles to get that). At the beginning of a step we review any phonogram card he had problems with from our previous lessons. That takes a couple of minutes tops because I set them aside when he stumbles. After that I read directly from the teachers manual and we build a couple of words based on the new concept. We rarely do all of the listed word with the tiles because it would suck the fun out of our spelling lesson and so far the kids haven't needed it. Next I dictate all of the practice words and he writes them on the whiteboard and I can see and catch when he begins to make an error and explain the rule to show him his mistake. He is happy to easily erase the error and corrects it very quickly by using the erase board. Later we have a composition notebook and I dictate the phrases and then the sentences to him. By this time he knows the rule we are working on, and feels comfortable writing them in pencil on paper. If there are any problems I tell him to look at sentence 4, because there is a problem. He finds it and edits. Basically it takes about 30 minutes at the most for each step. Since we do AAS 2 times a week, we cover 2 steps a week, and during the week we also read the AAS books that cover the lessons we have worked on as part of his oral reading. That gives me another chance to review the phonics rules we covered. Every so often I also have him take a spelling test, and use a few of the word cards from each lesson. (there are about 10 per step but I only need 2 or 3 to test whether he knows the concept). I also consider AAS his dictation work so I dropped that part of WWE. I use the same process, I say the sentence once, he repeats it, and then writes it on the paper. I also consider it his handwriting practice, since he writes well, and also does narrations in our other subjects. By doing this I am able to use AAS for spelling, to reinforce phonics in reading, for reading practice (although I also add other oral reading) dictation, and handwriting. All in about 30 minutes a day. Oh an sometimes we take all of the word cards and play a card game where he reads them and if he does it without hesitation or stumbling he gets the card, and if not I get the card. I mix the ones we have already studied so they don't need to be in order anymore. It seems like a lot of small parts and processes, but it is really easy and fast. I listed what we are doing now, but if it gets more difficult I will change it as needed. But I keep waiting for us to get to more difficult material and it hasn't happened. I think the combination of hands on, plus hearing, seeing, and writing makes it stick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn&charles Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 My 6th grader spends about 15 minutes a day, 4-5x a week. I usually split each lesson into 1-3 segments of time, depending on how long it is. I mark our place in the book and then each day we just pick up where I last left off. It does seem like the program has a lot of pieces, but once you get it all set up, it's not a big deal at all. I bought a $5 magnetic white board from Wal-mart and use that for the tiles. Many times though we don't even use the tiles. I often pull out a small dry-erase board and use that instead, when using the tiles would just take up too much time or I know that Otter will get the concepts without using them. I really like AAS. We just started level 4 today! I started Otter out with level 1 last August. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelissaMinNC Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Thanks everyone! Lots of good thoughts; I like seeing how it looks for everyone. :) Melissa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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