Joyful_Journey Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 After several years of slogging through Spelling Workout, I'm seriously considering moving to a non-workbook approach to spelling next year. I use Spelling Workout so it will be independent, but I often have to sit and explain to my 5th grade ds what he is supposed to be doing in the workbook exercise. More time seems to be spent explaining the exercise or trying to find a word in a crossword puzzle exercise than actually practicing spelling! My kids are probably average when it comes to spelling. They occasionally make spelling errors, but I wouldn't classify them as poor spellers. I don't want something terribly teacher intensive since spelling isn't a serious problem for them (I use other teacher intensive materials so there really isn't room to add another one!), so I've been looking for a resource that has organized list words that I can then assign activities to such as alphabetize the words, look them up in the dictionary, etc. before taking a test on Fridays. I looked at Spelling Power and Sequential Spelling in the past, but at least one of my kids is a perfectionist who hates to pre-test words and get them wrong. In looking further, I've been torn between Natural Speller and Spelling Plus with the Dictation book. Unfortunately, I can't seem to put my hands on an actual copy to thumb through and online sample pages are too few to get a solid idea of the lists in the program. If you've used either one of these books, can you tell me how it has worked out for you as well as: 1) How are the words organized (by spelling rule or by word family)? 2) Does it seem to be "enough" to get you through 6th grade? This is when I abandoned spelling as a separate subject for my oldest dd and just focused on vocabulary and spelling errors in her writing. I know Spelling Plus has a 1000 words - does anyone know how many words are covered in Natural Speller? Are the words at the upper grades sufficiently challenging? Thanks for any help you can offer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful_Journey Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Pretty please? Anyone who has used either one of these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 If you've used either one of these books, can you tell me how it has worked out for you as well as: 1) How are the words organized (by spelling rule or by word family)? 2) Does it seem to be "enough" to get you through 6th grade? This is when I abandoned spelling as a separate subject for my oldest dd and just focused on vocabulary and spelling errors in her writing. Only familiar with Natural Speller. It is loosely based on the spelling practice method of see•say•study•say•spell•write•look•check method used Spelling Power. I used Natural Speller in conjunction with The ABCs and All Their Tricks to create our own individualized spelling for each DS. I found Natural Speller to be a very helpful resource -- a LOT packed into this slim volume. In answer to your specific questions -- specifically about Natural Speller: 1. The words are organized by families. (usually vowel patterns; consonant patterns; prefixes; and ending "families"; every grade had a "compound words" list) 2. There are word lists to all the way up through grade 8. To help you see whether the lists are meaty enough for you, I've tried to capture a snapshot of the upper 3 grades of word lists: grade 6 word lists: - 67 "families" with 2 to 16 words in each family - approximately 400 words to choose from - words range in difficulty from things like: know, oral, vary, edit, and subject; to things like: immigrant; argument; bachelor, verify conscious, and dungeon - ranges from patterns like words ending in __al, __ary, __ous, and __ence, to various prefixes such as dis__, re__, in__, and im__ - includes some foreign words (which indicates pattern or similar spelling pattern) - includes 14 pairs of homophones - has two pages of explanation of concepts to cover grade 7 word lists: - 43 "families" with 2 to 18 words in each family - approximately 300 words to choose from - words range in difficulty from things like: puddle, local, enrich, and debate; to things like: hosiery, insignia, intrigue, siege, and dismal - ranges from patterns like words ending in __ion, __le, and __gue, to various prefixes such as ac__, dis__, ex__, and en__ - includes 12 pairs of homophones - has two pages of explanation of concepts to cover grade 8 word lists: - 27 "families" with 4 to 17 words in each family - approximately 175 words to choose from - words range in difficulty from things like: feud, lunar, evident, wrote, epic, and semester; to things like: unique, accommodate, dubious, negligence, luxury, and strait - ranges from patterns like words ending in __ous, __ege, __que, __or, and __ity, to various vowel patterns such as eu, ai, ie - includes 15 pairs of homophones - has one page of explanation of concepts to cover Natural Speller includes one-page instructions for teaching - dictionary skills - grammar skills - building vocabulary - making plurals - possessives - prefixes and suffixes - syllable rules - capitalization rules - punctuation rules - two-page section of words by category (abbreviations; calendar words; color words; contractions...) - 10-page section for grades 7-8 on Greek and Latin roots and words - spelling rules Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful_Journey Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Thanks Lori! Seeing those word lists is SUPER helpful. Looks meaty enough to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaCoop04 Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Which did you end up using? I'm looking up info for the Natural Speller and haven't found much. If you ended up using it, what is your opinion? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful_Journey Posted May 21, 2014 Author Share Posted May 21, 2014 I finally found both Spelling Plus and Natural Speller at a used curriculum sale, but in the end I didn't use either one of them! My youngest dd seemed to need something more, so I put her in AAS. My 6th grade ds asked if we could move on from spelling and just correct his spelling errors as we find them. If you want to take a word list approach to spelling, I do think that both resources look very good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Natural Speller is a great resource for us. I copied and pasted the main instructions in a composition notebook, copied all the lists by hand for each week (18 words for ds10) and have him study each week. When he's ready (roughly a week) he gets tested on Spellingcity.com. I preload the lists I choose from in Spelling City. He loves getting 100% and by using the books and the exercises he seems to learn quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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