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Spelling....it's not getting done!


cam112198
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We've been using Spelling Workout (Monday and Tuesday) and Soaring with Spelling (W, TH, Fr) for my two good spellers. These are not teacher intensive programs at all. It's great to have an easy subject--as in "while I am working with X on this, you can get started on your spelling..."--so I can focus on things that are more challenging to both teach and learn.

 

While I would never say I love them they do the trick and that is good enough for me.

 

PS I used AAS with my oldest, a remedial speller. It worked when we worked but sometimes the complexity of all the doodads was too much for this busy mom. Better an imperfect program that gets done than a great one that doesn't.

Edited by yellowperch
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I love R&S spelling. It's simple and easy to use, yet thorough and effective. The words may seem on the easy side, but these books aren't about memorizing an arbitrary list of words. The exercises make the kids work with the words and use them. I can't compare it to AAS, though. Assuming that nine year old is a fourth grader there will be three days where she does one section in the workbook, one day to just practice the words, and one day for the final test.

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Have you thought about using a digital recorder for spelling words and dictation? That could save you some time. I haven't tried it yet, but my child is very slow to write out words for dictation. I've started doing AAS while I'm cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes. I leave the TM open to see the list of words and just step over to it as needed.

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We were having the same problem and were using AAS. It's a great program that teaches all the rules but it just wasn't getting done. I've decided to switch to Spelling Workout. From what I've read, it's pretty independent and should work well with kids who don't have too much trouble with spelling. I don't have any input on SW yet since we haven't started it but I'm hoping that at least spelling will get done now.

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My ds is also a natural speller. I just use his vocabulary words as spelling words. This year we started using the website www.spellingcity.com. It's great. I just create a word list for him and he can do it completely independently. The computer says the words and he does the test on the computer. There are games for him to practice with the words during the week. It makes it real easy to get spelling done!

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I love R&S spelling. It's simple and easy to use, yet thorough and effective. The words may seem on the easy side, but these books aren't about memorizing an arbitrary list of words. The exercises make the kids work with the words and use them. I can't compare it to AAS, though. Assuming that nine year old is a fourth grader there will be three days where she does one section in the workbook, one day to just practice the words, and one day for the final test.

I second R&S. We love it here. Very easy to use independently as well.

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I'm experimenting at present with recording the AAS lesson onto an MP3 and having the child work through it on an MP3 player. They've done a couple of lessons each and so far so good. It hasn't saved *me* any time, lol, but I can do it at my convenience, and then each kid can do so as well. I'm aiming at them doing it in the car.

 

I looked at Phonetic Zoo, but it looks like it isn't really designed for kids under about grade 4 (?) and when I did the placement test one of mine placed at still needing AAS. (They seem to suggest AAS levels 1-3 and then move in to Phonetic Zoo.) The older would have been fine with Phonetic Zoo, but I already have AAS and like it and I'm seeing if we can stick with it, albeit done in a different format!

 

Min

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have you thought about using a digital recorder for spelling words and dictation? That could save you some time. I haven't tried it yet, but my child is very slow to write out words for dictation. I've started doing AAS while I'm cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes. I leave the TM open to see the list of words and just step over to it as needed.

 

 

I am resurrecting this post, because I STILL don't know what to do! I would love to hear more about this idea!

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I'm experimenting at present with recording the AAS lesson onto an MP3 and having the child work through it on an MP3 player. They've done a couple of lessons each and so far so good. It hasn't saved *me* any time, lol, but I can do it at my convenience, and then each kid can do so as well. I'm aiming at them doing it in the car.

 

 

Min

I would love to hear more about this idea as well!

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I don't know anything about any of the programs you listed, but I will say that we use Wheeler's Elementary Speller, free from Google Books. It takes us 5-10 minutes a day, and it has really improved my dd9's spelling. Some days it feels like we don't actually get much done, because the lessons can be very short, but by working steadily every day I have seen a lot of progress.

 

Might want to give it a try; it's free, so you have nothing to lose!

 

Tara

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We had the same problem with AAS, although my kids aren't natural spellers. I switched my DD over to SWO and it's going good so far. She's not struggling with it yet, so we are doing 2 lessons a week until she runs into problems.

 

I moved my 6th grader to Spelling Plus with the dictation book. It's going ok. I really love the program, but he doesn't slow down and put effort into it. I'm keeping with it for him though because he would have the same problem with any program.

 

I'm putting my 4th grader in Apples and Pears. I suspect he may be dyslexic. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a natural speller though.

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I am LOVING Phonetic Zoo for my DS in 3rd grade. I was a little worried because spelling is not one of his better subjects, but he loves it! I think he likes it because he can be independent, there isn't a bunch of fluff (worksheets etc), and he likes the competitiveness with himself (seeing how quickly he can get through a lesson - 2 100% scores in a row).

 

If you want to try it, you can order from IEW and if you don't like it or it's not right for you, just send it back and they'll refund all of your money.

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I'll second (or third? fourth?) the recommendation for Spelling Workout. Rabbit and Pooh do it independently, and have been for the last year. All I do is test them once a week. If they mess up, they have another week to learn those same words. (I don't schedule things tightly - we just go on to the next thing, iykwim.) We do SWO in conjunction with MCP Phonics/Word Study, so I feel we do spelling very thoroughly.

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I just started back up with AAS. The first time I tried four years ago it didn't work out for the same reason you stated.

I thought I'd never give it another go but here I am using it with four dc now (going on our second week).

 

What I've done to make it work is tack it on with another subject. For instance with Lance, I set the timer for 10 minutes. Once the timer goes off we go straight to his phonics lesson.

 

With Ethan, it's right before his reading lesson. I set the timer for 10 minutes.

 

With Caleb and Brent, it's right before Shurley Grammar. I set the timer for 15 minutes and we're done. Today, we finished the step (lesson) before the timer so we just stopped and started grammar.

 

As for a more independent spelling Soaring with Spelling is one my children enjoyed last year. This year my oldest is using Sequential Spelling with the DVDs so he can do it on his own.

 

HTH,

Linda<><

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We are using Sequential Spelling this year and loving it. I bought the DVDs for my 10 and 13 yo boys and the voice on the DVD dictates the words to my kids and they pause it, write, and then unpause and watch the computer graphic demonstrate the spelling. It's exactly what I needed--something hands off! My almost 9 yo is using it, too, only he's not much of a reader yet and I dictate it to him and check the words he's written. He wasn't picking up on the patterns of spelling it was teaching just doing it with the DVD on his own. It's going well again now that I'm dictating the words.

 

My older boys say it's "easy" (I'm having them do two lessons a day to speed up going through the books) but they are learning lots and I see their spelling improving! That's all that I want. We've tried Spelling Workout, apples and pears, Spelling Power, personal lists and this is my favorite so far!

 

Becky

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We are using Sequential Spelling with my 3rd grader this year and it's going really well. It's quick and easy and she doesn't complain. She's really latched on to the phrase "Mistakes are opportunities to Learn" that they focused on at the beginning of the book. I'm interested to see how she does when we get to the review section to see what she's retained. She reads a lot, but has always struggled with spelling. She gets things backwards pretty often and likely has some type of dyslexia. She's really getting it with SS, though. And she doesn't hate it like she did last year. She doesn't have to spend time writing the same words over and over. She's getting the patterns of spelling and I've noticed that her spelling overall has improved dramatically when she's just writing random things around the house.

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A couple of people were interested in doing AAS with audio recordings. I've just started to do it that way with my kids, so it is probably a bit early to say, but so far so good.

 

We're afterschoolers so our time for schoolwork is necessarily very limited. I want to do spelling in the car on our half hour commute to school, and also take advantage of the strong auditory memory of one of the kids. I don't think doing it this way has saved us any time, but it has meant I can put in my effort at a time of my choosing, and the kids can work independently.

 

I started recording the step (on my computer, using Audacity) and have virtually recorded the whole thing. Most steps are taking more than one session as I'm trying to keep it down to about 10 or so minutes on the recording. This is because they have to pause it periodically and write.

 

I start by saying "you will need" whatever it is (word bank etc) so they can gather their materials (which I've pre-assembled into a file, with some writing paper). Then I do some review for them - I dictate four sounds, and they have to write them down. Then I give them the answers so they can mark their own. Then we run through a few of the rules cards, and give the answers.

 

If the step says to build a word, I get them to write it down and then do whatever the teaching point is. So, it might be "write these words - pony, p o n y; milk m i l k".

 

After each exercise I give them the answers so that they can self-mark. I also spell out each of the dictation sentences. If they've made a mistake, I've got a section in their files for "review with Mum" and they jot it down and show me at the end.

 

If the step needs more than one session, I try to divide the dictations up so they do some with each session. Also, the last session seems to be mostly a "test" of the list words and the last dictations. At this point they're given a choice to do the test or go back and do the previous lessons first.

 

I'm sorry that was such a long post! I know there are a couple of other people on this board who do AAS in a similar way - I got the idea from their posts.

 

Best wishes

Min

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Ok I love love love AAS but if he's a natural speller then if it were me I'd take his misspellings from his writing and enter them at Spelling City and let him play games there. Nice and easy and simple and FREE.

 

Let me reiterate that I LOVE AAS but sometimes there just has to be a compromise :001_smile:

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We are using Sequential Spelling this year and loving it. I bought the DVDs for my 10 and 13 yo boys and the voice on the DVD dictates the words to my kids and they pause it, write, and then unpause and watch the computer graphic demonstrate the spelling. It's exactly what I needed--something hands off! My almost 9 yo is using it, too, only he's not much of a reader yet and I dictate it to him and check the words he's written. He wasn't picking up on the patterns of spelling it was teaching just doing it with the DVD on his own. It's going well again now that I'm dictating the words.

 

My older boys say it's "easy" (I'm having them do two lessons a day to speed up going through the books) but they are learning lots and I see their spelling improving! That's all that I want. We've tried Spelling Workout, apples and pears, Spelling Power, personal lists and this is my favorite so far!

 

Becky

 

We are using Sequential Spelling with my 3rd grader this year and it's going really well. It's quick and easy and she doesn't complain. She's really latched on to the phrase "Mistakes are opportunities to Learn" that they focused on at the beginning of the book. I'm interested to see how she does when we get to the review section to see what she's retained. She reads a lot, but has always struggled with spelling. She gets things backwards pretty often and likely has some type of dyslexia. She's really getting it with SS, though. And she doesn't hate it like she did last year. She doesn't have to spend time writing the same words over and over. She's getting the patterns of spelling and I've noticed that her spelling overall has improved dramatically when she's just writing random things around the house.

 

This is very tempting! I have a friend in town that loves it as well!

 

A couple of people were interested in doing AAS with audio recordings. I've just started to do it that way with my kids, so it is probably a bit early to say, but so far so good.

 

We're afterschoolers so our time for schoolwork is necessarily very limited. I want to do spelling in the car on our half hour commute to school, and also take advantage of the strong auditory memory of one of the kids. I don't think doing it this way has saved us any time, but it has meant I can put in my effort at a time of my choosing, and the kids can work independently.

 

I started recording the step (on my computer, using Audacity) and have virtually recorded the whole thing. Most steps are taking more than one session as I'm trying to keep it down to about 10 or so minutes on the recording. This is because they have to pause it periodically and write.

 

I start by saying "you will need" whatever it is (word bank etc) so they can gather their materials (which I've pre-assembled into a file, with some writing paper). Then I do some review for them - I dictate four sounds, and they have to write them down. Then I give them the answers so they can mark their own. Then we run through a few of the rules cards, and give the answers.

 

If the step says to build a word, I get them to write it down and then do whatever the teaching point is. So, it might be "write these words - pony, p o n y; milk m i l k".

 

After each exercise I give them the answers so that they can self-mark. I also spell out each of the dictation sentences. If they've made a mistake, I've got a section in their files for "review with Mum" and they jot it down and show me at the end.

 

If the step needs more than one session, I try to divide the dictations up so they do some with each session. Also, the last session seems to be mostly a "test" of the list words and the last dictations. At this point they're given a choice to do the test or go back and do the previous lessons first.

 

I'm sorry that was such a long post! I know there are a couple of other people on this board who do AAS in a similar way - I got the idea from their posts.

 

Best wishes

Min

 

Wow! Thanks for your very detailed response!

 

Ok I love love love AAS but if he's a natural speller then if it were me I'd take his misspellings from his writing and enter them at Spelling City and let him play games there. Nice and easy and simple and FREE.

 

Let me reiterate that I LOVE AAS but sometimes there just has to be a compromise :001_smile:

 

I hear ya! :001_smile: I pulled out level 3 today and was looking at it (this would be the level she is in), and she could spell every random word I picked out! She keeps telling me it's too easy. Does anyone know when it gets harder? If I continue on with AAS, is there a way to fly through a level if they already know how to spell all the words?

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We use AAS with our natural speller, customised, with a rules based approach.

 

*DS looks through the list of words first.

*We review previous rules cards (helps to have those rules down pat to remind him of during dictation time :001_smile:)

*Since he's heavily auditory in his learning preference, we talk through the rules part of the lessons, verbally, together.

*Practice a little around rules/words that he needs some practise in.

 

All done.

 

No tiles, no spelling word cards etc with him, just as prescribed above.

(Merry helped us with possible ideas and taking many of her suggestions we arrived at the above, with AAS, for ds).

 

I think the hardest part for me was/is making sure I schedule (allow) time to do spelling each day. Spelling became the portion of teaching that was just too easy for me to drop off.

 

I don't do spelling with ds all year, just for a few weeks each term.. and this year he wants to complete the books, so has asked for summer time spelling (completing a 'school' book earns the student, & the mum, a reward in our home;)).

 

DD uses AAS as prescribed and NEEDS the daily lessons. But that's another story.

Edited by tuesdayschild
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We use AAS with our natural speller, customised, with a rules based approach.

 

*DS looks through the list of words first.

*We review previous rules cards (helps to have those rules down pat to remind him of during dictation time :001_smile:)

*Since he's heavily auditory in his learning preference, we talk through the rules part of the lessons, verbally, together.

*Practice a little around rules/words that he needs some practise in.

 

All done.

 

No tiles, no spelling word cards etc with him, just as prescribed above.

(Merry helped us with possible ideas and taking many of her suggestions we arrived at the above, with AAS, for ds).

 

I think the hardest part for me was/is making sure I schedule (allow) time to do spelling each day. Spelling became the portion of teaching that was just too easy for me to drop off.

 

I don't do spelling with ds all year, just for a few weeks each term.. and this year he wants to complete the books, so has asked for summer time spelling (completing a 'school' book earns the student, & the mum, a reward in our home;)).

 

DD uses AAS as prescribed and NEEDS the daily lessons. But that's another story.

 

Thank you so much for that suggestion!! I'm going to try that! Great advice from Merry! Thanks for taking the time to type that out!

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