Remedial Spelling for 7th grader?

[Guest Princess]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a very user friendly spelling program. My 7th gr dd can't spell her way out of a corner, bless her heart. As her work progresses, it is more and more of a problem. She doesn't have time to spend on an elaborate curriculum, and she doesn't want anything babyish either. I think she's primarily an auditory learner.

 

Any thoughts about Phonetic Zoo? Other ideas?

 

Thanks so much,

 

Princess

[Beth in SW WA]

Apples is a quick daily workbook page dealing w/ common spelling issues. I think its $14.95. My ds 12 needed this but dd 10 didn't.

 

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=727011&event=CFN

[5wolfcubs]

I was going to suggest Apples too! My dd is in 7th grade and using it. She can do it on her own (no waiting for mom to dictate words), knows exactly what the assignment is, and is actually is enjoying it. Thumbs up here!:D

[Chris in CA]

Not a curriculum, but I've had great success with dictation for my 5th grader, we do this daily for 5-10 minutes and her spelling has really improved. If your interested, I can elaborate

[Christy B]

My 7th grader is enjoying this -- it is "rule based" and it also works on syllables, etc. She can do it independently.

[Claire]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a very user friendly spelling program. My 7th gr dd can't spell her way out of a corner, bless her heart. As her work progresses, it is more and more of a problem. She doesn't have time to spend on an elaborate curriculum, and she doesn't want anything babyish either. I think she's primarily an auditory learner.

 

Any thoughts about Phonetic Zoo? Other ideas?

 

Thanks so much,

 

Princess

 

The only program that worked for us at that age was Sequential Spelling. We did it in a streamlined method that made it very fast and very easy -- less than 5 minutes per lesson for book 1, less than 10 minutes per lesson for book 2. It is not babyish at all, and starts out with multi-syllable words. IMO, this program works on spelling subskills that other programs take for granted -- such as pattern recognition skills.

 

Once dd had finished the first two books of SS, I had her take the online placement test for Spelling Through Morphographs. (Google to find the online test.) We switched to that program because it covers so many words in a year. It was easy too, as the program is entirely scripted, but lessons took about 20 minutes per day. (You could easily stretch this program out over two years working just 2 or 3 days a week.) That program is sold by SRA, but is expensive (about $300). (It is listed under "direct instruction".) Wonderful program, though.

 

We tried Phonetic Zoo and Spelling Power, among others. Neither worked at all for my dd.

[Elm in NJ]

for my 12 year old. It is kind of expensive and it does require teacher's input but it only takes us 15 minutes a day. We are halfway through level C and I see a big difference in his spelling already. The main thing is that he is automatically applying it to his other written work..

 

We plan on using the level D also. Sequential Spelling didn't work over here because he was not transferring it to his other work.

 

Elmeryl

[Guest]

Is a secular version of Apples available?

[Kathy in MD]

multi-sensory and designed for poor spellers. They took more time and didn't work.

[Carol in Cal.]

She is 11 1/2 and is finally starting to apply spelling rules which she learned from this program.

 

The program is mastery based. That means that the student must spell all of the words on each list correctly on two successive tests before moving to the next lesson. Each lesson includes review of the spelling rule and examples that both demonstrate and provide exceptions to that rule.

 

Since everything is conveyed by CD, my auditory learner is picking it up faster than with other programs that she was supposed to read.

 

I could have accomplished much the same thing by talking her through the rules gradually, but by the time we tried this she was pretty resistant to such instruction because she had gotten so sensitive about her spelling. So it was a good thing to be able to delegate that to a program and let her move at her own pace.

 

She does not spell perfectly, but I do see her applying the rules to her other writing most of the time, and her 'random' misspellings have also been reduced.

 

BTW, dd is an avid reader. But she didn't learn spelling from reading as some do. That doesn't necessarily happen, I have learned.

[Lori D.]

Megawords is done almost entirely by the student. It can be used as a stand-alone spelling program, or as a spelling supplement. It teaches vowel patterns and syllabication patterns that carry over from short words into longer words. It is designed for gr. 5 and up. It includes great vocabulary, as well.

 

Megawords has been *very* helpful for our struggling speller. It is pretty inexpensive. See sample pages at http://www.christianbook.com. If you go this route, start with book 1, and since you'll move through the book fairly quickly, get both book 1 and book 2. Also, the teacher manual, as that includes not only the answers, but some tips on using Megawords as your sole spelling, but especially, it has the lists of syllables needed for the occasional exercise in which you dictate a list of syllables to the student.

 

 

We spend about 10 minutes a day outside of Megawords working with words in various ways; the following 3 things have been very effective:

 

1. Practice spelling the words out loud (4x a week, 3-5 minutes/day)

(This will probably connect well with your auditory learner, and this is an idea straight from Andrew Pudewa, creator of Phonetic Zoo spelling.)

First you clearly say the word aloud, then spell it (syllable by syllable if that helps), and toss the child a beanie toy; then the student says the word/spells it correctly back to you, and tosses the beanie back to you. The beanie toss helps keep him focused and mentally prepared. Immediately stop and correct any misspelling by spelling it aloud correctly several times and have the student spell it correctly by looking at it and reading it letter by letter several times. Hearing the letters in correct sequential order really helps cement correct spelling in the mind.

 

2. Work with words on the whiteboard (3x a week, 5-10 minutes/day)

(This is somewhat based on ideas of seeing a root word/syllable and adding onto it from Sequential Spelling.)

- reinforce vowel patterns, syllabication patterns, etc. from the lesson

- write out root words and practice adding endings, prefixes, etc. (ex.: "hope" -- since the word ends with a vowel, and some endings begin with a vowel, they "butt heads", so you drop the "-e" at the end of "hope" and then add the endings such as "-er" or "-ing"; adding endings such as "-ful" or "-less", or prefixes such as "-un" are not a problem)

- work with homophones -- see the different spellings, and draw a picture or tell a little story to help the difference stick (ex: "meet" and "meat"; it takes 2 people to "meet" and there are 2 "e"s in "meet"; draw the letter "a" to look like a heart and say "I love to eat "meat" -- and see, the word "eat" is IN the word "meat"; etc.)

 

3. Dictate sentences with spelling words (1-2x a week; 5-10 min./day)

(Do this later in the week, after student has had time to get familiar with the spelling words.)

Dictate 5 sentences, (slowly, one at a time) each with 2-3 spelling words in them for student to practice simultaneous thinking/writing/spelling.

 

 

BEST of luck in your spelling journey! Warmly Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Megawords sample pages; click on links below the picture at this website:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntk=keywords&Ntt=megawords&action=Search&N=0&Ne=0&event=ESRCN&nav_search=1&cms=1&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

We have used sequential and it has been fine, but Apples might be a better choice because goes through the rules:confused:

[Chloe]

Chris, I'd love to hear how you've had spelling success from dictation. I've been doing dictation with my dd for over a year, but I'm not seeing a huge improvement in her spelling. Maybe I need to give it more time, or change the way we've been doing it.

[Chris in CA]

My method is pretty simple, I choose a book, often a book that she is reading or we are using as a read-aloud and dictate 3-4 sentences. I try to pick an exciting part, this makes it more fun. I read the entire sentence, then I break it down for her to write. When I reread the sentence I pause for commas and have her tell me where the punctuation is and write it down. Whatever words she has misspelled I have her correct and write down on her spelling list. Every Friday I have her use those words to make a nonsense sentence (she loves that part and comes up with some pretty funny ones). If she gets it right three times, she takes it off her list, but I'll occasionally quiz her on it, just to make sure.

Honestly this is the only method that has worked for her, she seems to see the relevance of it, it's not just meaningless lists of words, but actually in a book and she likes that.

hth

Chris

[Chloe]

Oh, I see! When my dd misses words from dictation, I correct her and take note of the word, but I really didn't know where to go from there. Having her use the words in a sentence of her own makes sense! I'll give it a try!

 

Thanks!

[Chris in CA]

Your welcome

Sometimes we also have spelling B's where they stand on the other side of the room and each right answer from their list gets a step forward, the dd that gets to me first gets a prize