Spelling Workout verses All About Spelling

[Guest JenKPatterson]

Hi!

 

I'm considering which program to use with my first grader. I know that The Well Trained Mind book recommends Spelling Workout but I'm also considering AAS because it gets such rave reviews! Anyone have experience with these two programs? I think TWTM book was published before AAS was created so I'm wondering if it would have been recommended in the book...

 

Thanks!!!

[dancingmama]

We tried spelling workout. We hated it. And this is coming from a kid who loved workbooks. I had AAS for my son who needed it and just modified it for her. Honestly, she probably could have learned to spell on her own. If your child needs a structured spelling program, I'd go with AAS or LoE.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

My oldest is a kinetic learner. What really helped him blending and learning new words was getting letter tiles and him being the one to move it all together.

I am a terrible speller, I was never taught any rules. So I really want the rule based teaching of AAS.

I looked at a copy of SWO at a thrift store and I was not impressed with it. Also, too much writing for my boy who is behind in that area.

 

So it's going to be AAS for us this fall.

[Dana]

We used SWO for 1st and 2nd grades.

Absolutely useless here.

 

Switched to AAS in 3rd (starting with level 1) and it's a good fit.

 

I think SWO will work well if your student is a natural speller (although I'd argue if your student is a natural speller, you may not need a separate spelling program).

I just ordered the last two levels of AAS & plan to finish it up. I do see a significant improvement since using AAS.

[H_Household]

I'm the opposite from the above post.  I went from AAS to Spelling Workout.  It got harder to keep up with AAS as it's teacher intensive where I could give my boys their SW book to do more on their own.  They practice their words by using the Spelling City app/web site.  I like too that SW has things that they might see in a standardized test like editing and different kinds of activities using the words.  I liked the idea of AAS but it just didn't work for us.  

[trudence1]

I used SWO for my sons until last year and then switched to AAS.  My oldest was a 6th grader and I put him in AAS1 to start at the beginning...we have just moved quickly through the books.  He is finally getting WHY things are spelled the way things are.  He does not love spelling, but he no longer hates it either.

 

What I found with SWO, for my sons, is that they could do fine on a test, but weren't really learning it long term. 

[mom2att]

I've used both.  Way back before AAS was out, we just went with TWTM recommendation and did SWO with my oldest.  She liked workbooks and is a natural speller, so it was a good fit.  We stopped around 5th grade and switched to a vocabulary program instead, because since she was working several levels ahead in SWO she could spell all of the words right but didn't know what half of them meant.  Some kids just don't need a lot of spelling, IMHO.

 

Then there are my younger children.  SWO would have been a disaster for my middle child so I didn't even try.  I didn't even start formal spelling with him until 2nd grade, realizing then that traditional programs weren't going to cut it.  So we began AAS in 3rd and started at the beginning.  The review, the baby steps, the rules-based approach, all were perfect for this kid and just what he needed.  He'll finish level 7 sometime this year, and I'm using AAS with my younger one as well.  Had it been out when my oldest was that age, I would have still used SWO.  She just didn't need something as detailed and complex as AAS.

[Mandy in TN]

If you have a young natural speller and just want to hit the phonics behind the spelling, instead of MCP's Spelling Workout look at MCP Plaid Phonics. A natural speller will be able to spell the Spelling Workout lists no problem, but Plaid Phonics will practice working with phonics rules. If you have a student who needs a little more and the little person prefers or you prefer workbooks, you could purchase both Spelling Workout and Plaid Phonics. They were designed to be used together.

 

I would not suggest using Spelling Workout alone for either group working at a first grade level. My son just used Plaid Phonics. However, this year he is using both because the Plaid Phonics and Word Study F is so slim. Next year I am considering doing like Barbie, mom2att, and using a vocabulary program, but I may use Plaid Phonics and Word Study G with it.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Stellalarella]

A natural speller will be able to spell the Spelling Workout lists no problem, 

 I agree.

 

I started out dc with SWO.  Ds eldest is natural speller, but dd next in line is not.  I don't think SWO helped that daughter become a better speller, 

 

However, here is what I liked about the various levels of SWO:  the proofreading exercises, encouragement to write in both print and cursive towards the end of book B, vocabulary study, and the ability for the student to do everything on his/her own (except the spelling test  :) ).  

 

I realized very quickly, though, that SWO was not going to be a best choice for the next two kids I had in line, so we started them on AAS.  They needed the phonics handholding that AAS provides.  It does however, take more one on one time.  I appreciate the dictation sentences in AAS that start in level 2.  I don't use the dictation sentences in our WWE program and rely on AAS for that aspect of writing.

 

The next little guy I have coming up is a natural speller.  If he sees a word, he can spell it.  I am thinking about going back to SWO for him--except that I do think it is valuable to hear the phonics rules.  I appreciate how AAS  has kids learn those--it is a similar style to learning the parts of speech with the FLL curriculum.  Well, and I like the AAS dictation sentences.  

 

I'm not being much help, he he.  I like aspects of both programs.  :)

 

Andrea

[Hakg]

We used all of level 1 of Spelling Workout and had no retention, switched to AAS and it was much better.

[stayathomelibrarian]

My 2nd grader uses both.  We used AAS last year.  I got SWO just to check it out this year, and she could finish it in a week if I let her.  We carry it on outings and she works on it in the car and when she has a few minutes.  We use AAS during our school day. 

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

I've been going back and forth about which to use too. I decided to try Spelling Workout first because it's so much cheaper. And if it doesn't work out, we'll try AAS. 

[AmandaVT]

I'm not very far into it yet, but so far I LOVE AAS. DS loves reading and spelling and he loves AAS. I love the way it's set up, the way it teaches. So far, everything. It's great.

[Juliegmom]

 

 

I think SWO will work well if your student is a natural speller (although I'd argue if your student is a natural speller, you may not need a separate spelling program).

I agree! :-)

[NittanyJen]

I'm a lone voice here, I guess.  

 

DS10 is anything but a natural speller, and Spelling Workout is awesome for him.  It does a great job of explaining the spelling rules, and it groups the spelling words together according to the spelling rules so that he can see the patterns and really learn them.  It is *really* key to read and learn the rule presented at the start of each lesson before starting in on the lists.  

 

He has memory/ordering issues, and the review built into Spelling Workout really helps with retention for him, too.  The review units include both commonly difficult words, plus places for you to customize the review units with words he might have struggled with.

 

He's not generally a workbook guy; he hates writing and we don't use a lot of workbooky stuff, but Spelling Workout really hits the spelling rules very well, teaches my absolutely not natural speller how to spell, and definitely has good qualities for retention.  It's the one subject where he actually does require review and help, and SWO has made a huge difference in his abilities over time.  It's very well organized and the groupings of the words just make sense in terms of generalizing outward to other words that aren't on the list but are spelled according to the same rules.

 

I've always been puzzled by the lack of love for SWO on these boards-- it's logical, it generalizes to help them spell words not on the lists but similar to the lists; it includes and explains the general spelling rules, it includes usage, so they have to learn what the words mean as well as how to spell them, and it includes regular review to make sure they are retaining what they have learned-- just add their trouble words in the blanks provided in each review unit, so that the reviews are customized for your child.

 

It works great here, and definitely not for a natural speller!  My older kiddo, the natural speller, moved on to vocabulary instead-- why make a natural speller study spelling?  That would be a waste of time!

 

 

 

 

[BetterthanIdeserve]

_{I mainly chose AAS because I was trying to avoid workbooks and I liked the multi-learning style approach along with the rules.I saw significant improvement in my daughter's reading ability in the first month of AAS1 - it really improved her understanding of phonics. I have waffled each year about continuing the curriculum because it so teacher intensive, but we're still using it at Level 4 and I just bought Level 5. Some days I have been known to have her read the lesson herself and copy the word list 2-3 times. I also don't do quite as much dictation as they suggest. We're also doing WWE and sometimes I'll just choose dictation from one of the programs rather than doing both. We do spelling three days a week with one day for review (I don't have all the word cards punched out-we focus on key cards, sound cards, and problem words), one day of new teaching (and 1-2 dictation sentences) and another day of 2-4 dictations sentences with 1-2 writing station sentences. I realize that she could probably be a better speller if I followed the curriculum completely as designed, but I thing we've reached a good balance for us.}