All About Spelling or Something Similar?

[Ramie]

Hi. This is my first post here. I am homeschooling a 10yo-4th, 8yo-2nd, and 5yo-pre-K this year, and have a 3yo in tow.

 

I am figuring out what to do about spelling for my 8yo in the fall for 3rd. I might post my lengthy question in the future, but for now, let me start with something simpler.

 

I am grudgingly considering using AAS next year for her. Grudgingly because I am already maxed out with mom-intensive work. I haven't actually seen the program, but I understand that some of it's main qualities are:

a) that its lessons are ordered systematically

b) it is ordered so that you master the concept before moving on

c) it is multisensory

d) it requires mom to work with the student at ALL times?

 

Am I correct in this? Are there any other programs who use a similar approach but that do not require mom to work with the student for every single work session? I already have letter tiles (not grouped in phonograms though, just individual letters), and I could add a multisensory component to a program that didn't already have one. So I'm wondering if there is anything that offers a & b, but not d?

 

Thanks

Edited May 28, 2011 by Ramie

[Jen500]

How To Teach Spelling used with the workbooks (How To Spell) has a similar approach but is less teacher intensive.

[mamachanse]

We use AAS. Everything I do seems teacher intensive right now. :tongue_smilie:The thing I love about it is how quickly it goes. It is open and go now that I have my rhythm (at first it was akward for me). We do either one lesson or 15 minutes. Normally it takes much less time than that. And ds8 loves it. :001_smile:

[Ramie]

Thanks for the quick replies. How to Teach Spelling looks intriguing. Are there any out there who have tried that and ended up still using AAS for some reason? If so, would you mind sharing why?

[Love_to_Read]

You might be able to quickly put the spelling lists into www.spellingcity.com for her to hear the words without you....Other than that, I'm not sure how you'd do any spelling program without reading aloud to her.

 

I totally hear you on the mom-intensive issue...I'm desperately looking for other subjects where I can ease up on that. But spelling I'm working directly. That said, I am enjoying All About Spelling. It does go pretty quickly, and sometimes I prop the book open while my own hands are full. Since she's older, I tell my dd to make the words the book wants for examples (as in..."Pull down a c...a...t... Ok, that's our first example. Notice this about it..." So I'm still giving her the spelling as a model, I'm just not physically laying the tiles out myself...I'm free to literally have my hands full with something else that needs to be done.)

[Ramie]

Well, I'm not looking for no involvement. Currently, we do one lesson a week, and I spend Monday giving dd a pretest and discussing the words/spelling patterns she needs to learn. This takes about 20 minutes. I also give read her the words on Thursday/Friday for her test. It is the days in between in which she has certain tasks she needs to complete with her words, that she can do (mostly) independently. I do still interject here and there, and she does show me her work as she goes, but I can be doing something else while she's working on spelling. I really *need* her to do some things independently, or else I won't have time to work with my other kids (she already gets about 2 hours of my time each day). It's just a scary thing to be moving from 2nd to 3rd grade and ADDING things I have to do with her, instead of her becoming more independent. I may just have to deal with it - if cutting something else out it what it takes, then I'll do that. I've been wondering if I would need to keep having her do phonics as a separate course if we were doing AAS. If not, that's one place to make time (of course phonics is mostly done independently too, so it's not an even trade).

[Chelli]

Here is the post where I give my review of How To Teach Spelling based on just looking at the materials I received in the mail. I moved from AAS to How to Teach Spelling because of the teacher intensiveness issue. This is a much better fit for us. Like you we also have a lot of teacher intensive curriculum.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275295

 

The main difference that I can tell between the two is that AAS is scripted where as How to Teach Spelling leaves it up to you to teach how you want to.

We have been using How To Teach Spelling for a week now and this is how I break it down.

 

Done independently:

• Monday: dd (1st grade, 7 years old) does the How To Spell workbook page for the phonogram/rule we are learning that week. Before she does the workbook page, we go over the phonogram and/or rule together.
  
• Tuesday: dd writes rainbow words with her spelling words (I use the words in the workbook as her list for that week).
  
• Wednesday: dd puts her spelling words in alphabetical order.
  
• Thursday: dd writes her words 3x each. Within the next month or so, this will change to writing an original sentence with each word.
  
• Friday: we will have our spelling test including dictation of about 4 sentences.
  

Every Day Together:

• review the phonograms we have learned (right now we only have the short a sound and the consonants since that was our first week, but we will add them as we learn them. I am making my own flashcards to do this.)
  
• review the spelling rules that we learn as we come across them as well (I am planning on making a spelling binder for dd with phonograms and spelling rules on each page. I will type up the phonogram and/or spelling rule at the top of the page. The pages will go in her binder and when we do our copywork or oral reading she will look for words that fit in that phonogram or spelling rule that we are learning and write them on the appropriate page in her spelling binder.)
  
• dictation of words, phrases, and sentences (These are included in the TM, when to use them is referenced in the workbook).
  

It takes about 15-20 minutes to get spelling done. With about 5 minutes of that being with me, the rest dd does on her own. She loves it (so far) and I love it as well (so far). We will probably use a similar schedule as we go through the program which I am hoping to finish in 4th/5th grade. Then move into a vocabulary/roots study.

 

Hope the link and my response help you get a feel for how we are using the program.

[Ramie]

Thanks Chelli, that helps, especially your weekly schedule.

 

Can anyone post what a typical weekly schedule would look like for AAS?

[boscopup]

With AAS, I sit down and go through the lesson on the white board. We spend 15 minutes. Sometimes we'll complete a step in a day, and sometimes we'll take multiple days to complete a step. The early levels go very fast with an older child. We're in level 3 and are starting to slow down.

 

Each step usually involves review, teaching a new concept, doing 10 spelling words, and some dictation sentences (or phrases in level 1). There are also extra words you can use. Partway through level 3, they add a writing station, where you make up sentences with spelling words. I'm pretty sure we'll take at least 2-3 days per step by that point, or maybe a week.

[The Governess]

When I started AAS with dd6, she was already reading well above grade level. So I have been kind of playing catch up. I usually do one or two steps per week. We do spelling two days a week, 30 min or so per day, so each step takes one or two days, two days if there is a lot of teaching that week. But if we were doing new material, I would break it down like this:

 

Day 1: Review cards, start teaching (20 min)

Day 2: finish teaching, spell words with tiles, dictate half of phrases/sentences (20 min)

Day 3: spell words on paper, dictate rest of phrases/sentences 10 min)

 

I think the teacher intensiveness of this program is what makes it work so well, so I don't mind it too much. :)

[veggiegal]

I am using AAS as a spelling program for my 8 year old, and simultaneously as a reading program with my 6 year old. I like that there is virtually zero prep, and the lessons are short and quick and very efficient. In 15-20 minutes we're covering spelling, reading, and handwriting. (The 8 year old spells words in cursive; the 6 year old in capitals or with the tiles). So, no, the kids aren't working independently, but the prep time for me is zero (save setting up the cards et al for the whole level at once) and it is very Mom-friendly.

[MerryAtHope]

Weekly schedule for AAS--I set a timer for 15 minutes for my dd, 20 minutes for my son (8th grade and we're trying to get through as much as we can). We start the day with a few of the review cards, then open the book and go. Usually we spend one day on the review topic and introducing the new teaching, one day on the new words and part of the dictations, another day on just dictations, and a last day finishing up any dictations and doing the writing station (which starts in Level 3--my oldest is in 6 & youngest is in 5). With AAS though, you can break things up any way you want to.

 

HTH! Merry :-)

[SnMomof7]

Well, I would say that you are right in the list of things you have detailed about AAS.

 

We have finished level 1 and are around 1/3 of the way through Level 2.

 

It IS teacher intensive, but we just DO it. 15 minutes at a time. It gets done and with great results. I balk a bit too because I don't want ANOTHER teacher intensive subject - but it has to get done. She isn't a natural speller, and AAS is so open-and-go for me, grab book, grab whiteboard, grab daughter and our spelling box - 15 minutes later we are done.

 

We take around 4 days/step when things are flowing well and being understood :). The first day we do review/teaching. The second, third, and fourth days we do the writing words/phrases/sentences down - we break this into thirds so it isn't too much writing at once.

[MyLittleBears]

If you really want something non- teacher intensive, and have a natural speller, I would say Spelling Workout. You give them the workbook and they do one lesson per week (about a page a day) and all you do is give them a test on the words learned at the end of the week. This worked well for a while for us, and he did learn a lot, but my ds in NOT a natural speller so we started AAS this year. He needed this level of intruction due to dyslexia. If he was a natural speller, though, I would go back to SWO in a heartbeat!