Spelling program for an advanced reader?

[runamuk]

My daughter is 8 and will be in 3rd grade next fall and I'm not sure what to do about a spelling program for her. When she left 2nd grade (in a public school) she was reading at a 6/7th grade level and spelling words like machinery, occasion, illustrated and foreign. She is very strong in language and reading. She has a photographic memory, so she doesn't need to spend a lot of time learning to spell a list of words.

 

I was originally thinking of pulling words from her reading (history, science, language arts) that are unfamiliar and having her write out the word, the definition, and use it in a sentence (very similar to the program her teacher had her set up with at school). However, I don't want her to miss out on concepts of spelling (suffixes, prefixes, etc).

 

Is there a way or a program that we can use to teach her the spelling concepts without her being bored to tears?

[KarenNC]

We are using and liking Spelling Power. http://www.castlemoyle.com/shopping/spellingpowermenu.htm It takes about 10 minutes a day and you only have one book that covers spelling for 3rd grade and up. I picked up a used edition (without the cd, haven't felt the need for it yet) for about $15.

 

You give a survey test to tell you which placement test to use, then the placement test to determine which level to use as a beginning. The levels are further divided into groups based on spelling rules, with periodic review tests and delayed recall tests. Each group is usually about 15-20 words, at least so far for us.

 

Once the level is determined, you have lists of words. Here's how we work it with my 7 yo advanced reader and natural speller (she placed into level D, it goes from A to K). We use a somewhat modified method since she doesn't seem to need quite as much writing:

 

I read the spelling rule aloud, then read out the first word, use it in a sentence, repeat it and she spells it orally to me (sometimes I make the sentences relate to each other in a silly story). If it's correct, we go on to the next one. If it's wrong, I spell it to her, she writes it down on that day's page in a regular notebook, and we go on to the next one. We continue in this way until we either reach the end of the list or she has missed 5 words total. This may take a few minutes more than the 5 minutes the program calls for, but it's working for us.

 

Then she practices the words she missed, using a ten step process outlined in the book and writes sentences with the words. She likes to try to use all the words she missed in one sentence if possible. So she only has to study the words she actually misses.

 

The next day, we repeat the process, starting with the words she missed the day before. The text offers ideas for further activities if you desire, but so far we haven't needed to use them (things like dictionary use, etc are covered in her grammar program). There are ideas for suffixes, endings, prefixes, etc. One thing I have done when she hit a problem, for instance words that end in -or rather than -er, is to give her a list of words that are that exception and let her write them a few times. It would also be easy to add in words from her other subjects if you wanted to do so.

 

Paula's Archives http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/SPhow.htm also has some ideas on using the program.

[Peela]

Check out Spelling Wisdom. It is a dictation program used to teach spelling of 6000 commonly used words.

I have had to use an older level for my good speller, but it works really well for kids with good visual memories. It has very beautiful excerpts from classical literature.

Spelling Power is also good.

Both of these programs involve you though, so not so good if you want her to work independently. But, neither takes long, either.

[runamuk]

Both of those sound like they would work for Elle. Thank you! :)