Megawords Pacing Questions

[SeaConquest]

I'm looking at using Megawords next year for spelling. I am trying to get an idea of how long we should spend on each word list. We currently do Rod & Staff spelling twice per week -- one lesson per week split in half. Can we accomplish one word list per week with Megawords?

 

The books don't seem to contain very many lessons/word lists. Did you blow through several of these books per year? I am trying to figure out a reasonable pace, as I need to request the books from our charter. Thanks so much.

 

 

[Lori D.]

I used them with a struggling speller (mild LDs in the LA areas), so we did about a page a day (sometimes 1/2 page), plus practicing with the words daily on the white board, oral practice, and a few other remedial things specifically needed by DS. It took us about 2 weeks per word list/unit.

 

Overall, we went through 1 book of Megawords about every 26-28 weeks. And if you have an average-to-good speller, you'll probably blow through a book in 20-24 weeks. Either way, you need more than 1 book per year.

 

Some of the books are more difficult than others, so you may slow down a bit later on. Book 3 was more difficult than Book 1 and 2. And then, I can't remember if it was Book 6 and/or 7 that was also more difficult… You can see the most amount of sample pages and the  table of contents here.

 

And… you DO want to get the TG, as there are usually several exercises per unit that require you to read a list of syllables to your student which match up with certain words from the list, and you won't know which syllables to read without the TG.

 

BEST of luck in your Megawords adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Lori D.

[Roadrunner]

We are on book 3 after 1.5 years of using it. Here are things that prevented me from blowing through those books. Those lists are huge, so I can't test them all in one day since my kids are young. They would rebel if they had to take a dictation for 100 words in a single sitting. Since my kids can spell most of the words (both natural spellers), it's important I identify what we should actually spend time on practicing, so pretest is important here. It takes us a week just to do the pretest. Also, if you want to go through the books quickly, you will need to devote significant time to spelling. We simply don't want spending that much time on spelling, so we only do it couple times a week and complain. I am starting to question if natural spellers even need a program that is as detailed as Megawords. 

[KathyBC]

 

 I am starting to question if natural spellers even need a program that is as detailed as Megawords. 

 

With a younger, natural speller I used Spelling Workout, rather than Megawords, which I used with the older two.

Edited December 26, 2015 by KathyBC