AAS...on level 3, finishing grade 3, how to know if it's working? Anyone use all levels?

[mmasc]

I know the mindset of 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' so I'm trying hard to avoid that! But I just can't seem to figure out if AAS isn't working for DS8, or if it just takes more time developmentally. Here is our background: We started AAS when DS was in second grade with AAS1 and moved through quickly until we started hitting stuff he didn't know. We are now halfway through level 3 and finishing up third grade. My main reason/concern for looking at other spelling is that at his age I think some things aren't getting covered quickly enough. Are we just behind? I don't want to rush, I just wonder if he needs to know some things by now...like igh words, -ing, -ed ending rules, etc? I know it's a move at your own pace curriculum, but can anyone tell me how long it normally takes to go through the seven levels? I know we've slowed way down in level 3 because of the amount of dictation sentences. I love those, btw. I definitely think DS needs dictation in sentences because that's usually where he misses the words. I've read all the threads about the difficulty of using correct spelling in your actual writing, which is why I'm wondering if it's developmental and we just need to stick with it? Or jump ship after finishing level 3? I'm just trying to reevaluate our choices before purchasing level 4. I've looked a little at Apples and Pears, Spelling Plus, and Phonetic Zoo. I don't want to switch but then have to go back to AAS wishing we hadn't tried out something else! Thank you for reading my ramblings!

(Also, I think he needs dictation outside of spelling, so I'm looking at adding either WWE or English Lessons through Literature in the fall...oh how I wish I'd done this sooner!)

[scootiepie]

Following...same here...in AAS 2/2nd grade.... I see other kids my son's age spelling far better than he is using different programs...just wondering if it all evens out in the end.

[petepie2]

My DD is in 4th grade and is halfway through Level 7. Of course, she is a natural speller and can also handle several dictation sentences at once. My DS is in 2nd grade and is in level 3. He is not a natural speller and doesn't have a great visual memory for how words are spelled. We'll just be going through the levels at his pace. It would be pointless to rush him. He needs lots of review, and he's nowhere near being automatic in applying what he has learned.

 

What kind of speller do you have? My DD would have done just as well with a burlap sack spelling program. Some kids, like my DS, just need something systematic and deliberate to learn to spell.

 

Doing dictation outside of spelling is a great idea. I always spell words for him that I haven't taught, but sometimes I will comment on why they're spelled the way they are (if I know). So it's a great way to get some extra spelling instruction in there before you get to it in AAS. 

[mmasc]

 

My DD is in 4th grade and is halfway through Level 7. Of course, she is a natural speller and can also handle several dictation sentences at once. My DS is in 2nd grade and is in level 3. He is not a natural speller and doesn't have a great visual memory for how words are spelled. We'll just be going through the levels at his pace. It would be pointless to rush him. He needs lots of review, and he's nowhere near being automatic in applying what he has learned.

 

What kind of speller do you have?

 

I wish I knew! I feel like he's a good reader, but not a good speller. Of course, some words I see as 'age-appropriate' may not have even been taught yet, which is why I'm confused about changing or sticking with it. For example, should he know how to spell 'fright' just because of his age/level, or should 'frite' be normal because he's learned that rule (vowel consonant e) but not -igh words?

[petepie2]

I think that's normal. My DS would probably spell "fright" as "frite." Although, he seems to  be getting to the point where he may say it doesn't look right. Again I would encourage other dictation and copywork. It will give you an opportunity to address some common words that you haven't reached in AAS. My DS hasn't learned many words outside of AAS. We even had to practice the word "said" forever before he got that one.  If you feel AAS is working, I'd probably stick with it.

[mmasc]

Thanks for the advice petepie2. It's encouraging to hear. I think I need to bump up the outside of spelling dictation to expose him to more words that we haven't reached yet in AAS.

[SevenDaisies]

My dd9 is halfway through level 6. After finishing level 3 I considered making the switch to R&S because it was more independent. If I recall, up to level 3 it was pretty basic, and I did feel that she was behind her public school peers because they were learning words by sight and not according to the rules of phonics, but I didn't stress because I understood why she was behind. However, it was working so well, that I decided to stick with it. By the time we made it to level 5 it we had really gotten into a good groove and we are now moving through level 6 at a very leisurely pace, only spending about 10-15 minutes three days a week. I could easily speed things up, and cover more than one lesson a week or go for longer each day, but once we finished 5, I felt like we had reached a point where she was on level with her peers. It is going so smoothly and quickly at this point, that I am glad to have stuck with it. That said, she is a fairly natural speller, but we have moved at a fairly steady pace from level 1. As we progressed, we spent less time per day and we worked on it less days per week.

[Farrar]

We started the program late.  My twins are nine, in fourth grade.  One is finishing level 4.  The other is starting level 6.

 

We tried a number of things before trying AAS, but AAS is the only thing I saw improvement on for my poor speller's spelling.

 

However - and I say this in every single thread like this - there's a big lag between learning the word for AAS and being able to spell it in his own writing.  And that's completely normal for most kids.  Even for my good speller there's a lag.  For my struggler, we're finishing level 4 and I'm only just now seeing the words from level 3 mostly spelled correctly when he writes on his own.

 

I'll also note that when we do dictation outside of AAS for literature and grammar and so forth, I spell every word out that they have not yet covered in AAS on the board for them.  I think it's too much to ask of them to spell words they haven't learned the rules for.  However, it does give them practice writing those words and learning to think of them as the correct spelling.  So will copywork.

[Jess4879]

FWIW, we were still struggling at the end of level 3.  We actually went back over and reviewed the entire level to make sure it had really cemented.  Now we are on step 8 of AAS 4 (we started on Level 1) and her spelling is finally starting to improve across the board.  She's always done well in the lessons but then went right back to basic phonetic spelling in her writing.  I seriously debated about switching at the beginning of this year, but I'm glad we didn't.  We did add in copy work daily, and I think that has helped a lot too.  We used to do it very sporadically, but I finally got my act together and we made it a daily thing.  It's helped her quality of writing and her spelling.

[mmasc]

Thank you all...I think that's exactly what I needed to hear. Jess4879, what copy work did you add daily? I need to get my act together too and just don't know where to start with it. I'm pouring over my TWTM book right now trying to figure it out!

[Mrs Twain]

I think I need to bump up the outside of spelling dictation to expose him to more words that we haven't reached yet in AAS.

I use Spelling Power mainly for the lists of spelling words. The lists are grouped by category and increase in difficulty. R&S Spelling is our main program, but I also like add separate practice with extra words from Spelling at a higher level of difficulty. Perhaps that is what you are looking for.

[Jess4879]

Thank you all...I think that's exactly what I needed to hear. Jess4879, what copy work did you add daily? I need to get my act together too and just don't know where to start with it. I'm pouring over my TWTM book right now trying to figure it out!

 

We tried a couple different methods and finally started using a weekly copywork book.  So I have a binder split into the days of the week and each section is different.  Mon/Interest (selections or songs they like at the time), Tues/bible, Wed/science, Thurs/history & Friday/literature.  I have some copywork books I've purchased and I take the selections and print them, and other selections I pull from the books we are reading, etc.  So far this has been the method my kids enjoy the best.  They like the variety.  For me it works because I have everything printed and ready to go.  I was very unorganized before and there were lots of days when copywork didn't get done because I hadn't chosed the selection and printed it out yet. 

 

Some kids do best copying a passage multiple times.  My kiddos hated this and would complain and fuss when they had to write it more than once so I gave up.  Even copying each passage only once, it seems to be working. :)

[MerryAtHope]

I don't want to rush, I just wonder if he needs to know some things by now...like igh words, -ing, -ed ending rules, etc? I know it's a move at your own pace curriculum, but can anyone tell me how long it normally takes to go through the seven levels?

 

Level 3 covers rules for adding suffixes (changing y to I, doubling consonants in short vowel words etc...), and also igh words--so if you haven't gotten to these already, you will very shortly.

 

My oldest has done all 7 levels, and my youngest is in level 7. It took us about 5 years, but we also did the whole Homophones book, and took a month off each year to work on our homeschool spelling bee (the kids choice). So it was really more like 4-4.5 years. In Level 7, they study a lot of high school level words (all of the modern Ayers words are used, and those are ranked 9th-12th grade). So yes, it really does even out. Before then the scope and sequence really isn't grade level order though. Trust the program, it really will cover what you need.

 

With regard to missing words in his dictations,  have you seen this article on helping kids achieve automaticity in spelling?

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[mmasc]

Thank you Merry! Once again, you all have helped me so much. I think I'm going to just stick with it and give it time. DS doesn't mind doing AAS, which is another reason I was reluctant to change. Merry: I have a question about the dictation sentences for our resident AAS expert. :)

At the end of the section/step when we dictate sentences, the book states to 'dictate several sentences each day'...does this mean I should do those before moving on to the next step, or incorporate them AS I move on? For example, if there are 10 sentences, should I dictate 5 (or a few), then move on to the next page (step)? The next day, dictate the other 5, plus continue on with where we are in the next section? --OR-- Dictate those sentences until he has done them all, (probably 2 days) before going to the next page/step?

I hope that's clear enough. I've really wondered if this is what's slowing us down a bit and if I'm using this part of the program correctly. Thank you!

[MerryAtHope]

Thank you Merry! Once again, you all have helped me so much. I think I'm going to just stick with it and give it time. DS doesn't mind doing AAS, which is another reason I was reluctant to change. Merry: I have a question about the dictation sentences for our resident AAS expert. :)

At the end of the section/step when we dictate sentences, the book states to 'dictate several sentences each day'...does this mean I should do those before moving on to the next step, or incorporate them AS I move on? For example, if there are 10 sentences, should I dictate 5 (or a few), then move on to the next page (step)? The next day, dictate the other 5, plus continue on with where we are in the next section? --OR-- Dictate those sentences until he has done them all, (probably 2 days) before going to the next page/step?

I hope that's clear enough. I've really wondered if this is what's slowing us down a bit and if I'm using this part of the program correctly. Thank you!

 

Actually, either way is fine! I always did work through the dictations before moving on to the next lesson, because I felt they helped solidify words/concepts for my kids (perhaps a more "mastery-based" type of thinking about it). However, lots of people think about it in a more "spiral" type of fashion. They will go on to the next lesson, but use part of their lesson time to do some of the previous dictations. If you are on step 10, and doing the dictations from step 9 along with your lessons, you'll want to finish the dictations from 9 before going on to 11, if that makes sense. Get them in one way or another, but you can make this work for your needs and your student's. 

 

Overall, it probably won't affect how quickly you get through the steps--you'll still work about 20 minutes per day, you'll just rearrange what you do in that time--does that make sense?

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[mmasc]

Yes, it makes sense! Thank you for your help. We've been doing them all before moving on, so we might just stick with that.

[rocassie]

Thank you Merry! Once again, you all have helped me so much. I think I'm going to just stick with it and give it time. DS doesn't mind doing AAS, which is another reason I was reluctant to change. Merry: I have a question about the dictation sentences for our resident AAS expert. :)

At the end of the section/step when we dictate sentences, the book states to 'dictate several sentences each day'...does this mean I should do those before moving on to the next step, or incorporate them AS I move on? For example, if there are 10 sentences, should I dictate 5 (or a few), then move on to the next page (step)? The next day, dictate the other 5, plus continue on with where we are in the next section? --OR-- Dictate those sentences until he has done them all, (probably 2 days) before going to the next page/step?

I hope that's clear enough. I've really wondered if this is what's slowing us down a bit and if I'm using this part of the program correctly. Thank you!

I just wanted to say that instead of dictating sentences every day, we do the sentences at the end of the week as a test.  Often I will pick 4 or 5, and depending on how DD does, we will move on.  For us this works because DD is much more cooperative if we only do one/two points from the lesson a day rather than trying to do a little of the whole lesson each day. She doesn't like to get into something just to move on and gets very frustrated(bored) if we are repeatedly covering what she already knows.

 

This is how we structure our week:

 

Day One:  Word Analysis and Introduction of new Phonograms/Suffixes/Etc.

Day Two:  Word Sort (like the long A categories), Long E book, Homophones, Etc.

Day Three: Words and Brief review of day one and two

Day Four:  More Words and/or review if she had difficulty OR Test

Day Five:   Test if we didn't do it the day before or review of concepts if the test didn't go well or no spelling

 

Just another thought on how things can be structured differently.

[SevenDaisies]

Thank you Merry! Once again, you all have helped me so much. I think I'm going to just stick with it and give it time. DS doesn't mind doing AAS, which is another reason I was reluctant to change. Merry: I have a question about the dictation sentences for our resident AAS expert. :)

At the end of the section/step when we dictate sentences, the book states to 'dictate several sentences each day'...does this mean I should do those before moving on to the next step, or incorporate them AS I move on? For example, if there are 10 sentences, should I dictate 5 (or a few), then move on to the next page (step)? The next day, dictate the other 5, plus continue on with where we are in the next section? --OR-- Dictate those sentences until he has done them all, (probably 2 days) before going to the next page/step?

I hope that's clear enough. I've really wondered if this is what's slowing us down a bit and if I'm using this part of the program correctly. Thank you!

 

We do a lesson in 3 days. On Day 2 of a lesson we dictate the first 4 sentences. On Day 3 we dictate 4 more, and on Day 1 of the next lesson we do the last 4.

[Nkemjika]

Has anyone else finished all levels? Did it work?  I'm struggling in deciding between AAS and LOE essentials (or keep trying to figure out how to make SWR work). I have a 5 year old and 6 year old who are very advanced readers. Thanks. (PS: I have SWR but I'm having a hard time with it, and my busy schedule doesn't help either). Thanks again.

[go_go_gadget]

As others have said, I don't think AAS is meant to correlate to grade levels. Do keep in mind that students in school are usually spelling as just a rote list of words, without actual instruction. Instead of comparing how many words your student can spell compared to their peers, perhaps consider how many words your student could spell without ever having seen them before, compared to their peers. It takes longer to build this foundation, but it's a stronger one for non-natural spellers. I have one of each, and my non-natural speller is in AAS4, having made considerable improvement in the last year or so.