Copy work, Spelling w/ dictation Programs?

[Rosepetal]

Which programs would you prefer for copy work,spelling with dictation and why?

 

http://spencerlearning.com/downloads/ultimate-phonics-word-lists.pdf

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/easy-steps-to-reading.pdf

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/bplitebooks.pdf

 

http://www.forgottenbooks.com/books/The_Modern_Speller_v1_1000646435

 

Phonics Pathways---(How to use it for spelling and dictation?)

 

Thanks for Reading!

[Rosepetal]

Any suggestions here?

[forty-two]

I do spelling through dictation using the word list from our reading program in a similar-ish way to Writing Road Through Reading - hear the sounds, and then spell and mark the word, and read it back.  (My kids have phonemic processing issues, so actually I have all the words written out in Dekodiphukan (Decode-if-you-can) sound pictures, marked to identify which phonogram to use when it's not the most common spelling (I made a sound-to-spelling chart they can reference).  So they sound out the word from the sound pictures, and then spell it, mark it (identify digraphs and silent letters and such, plus which sound to use if it's not the most common one), and read it back.)  This works with any word list.

 

For copywork/dictation, we use the Spelling You See color-coded marking system (SYS teaches spelling through copywork and dictation, and I've applied it to all our copywork/dictation; I've also incorporated it into the above word-list marking).  The way they do it is to mark up the whole passage (yellow for vowel digraphs, green for y-as-a-vowel, purple for r-controlled vowels, blue for consonant digraphs, orange for silent letters, pink/red for prefixes/suffixes; we added brown for consonant blends, because my dds can't hear them well), then copy the passage (or part of the passage, if it's long) and mark up what you copied.  SYS stays on the same passage for a week, marking it up each day and copying some/all of it, and then on Friday they mark up the passage again, but instead of copying it, you write it from dictation.  So studied dictation, basically, with a nifty visual marking system as the base for the studying.

 

Anyway, that's how I do spelling with word lists, and with sentences/paragraphs for copywork/dictation.  I used our reading program for our word list because I like it - logical order and plenty of words - and it enables me to teach reading through spelling with dd7.  Our copywork/dictation is from WWE and from our memory work (catechism, Bible verses, hymns).  Does that make any sense?  Feel free to ask for clarification :).

[Sarah0000]

forty-two, how do you feel about Spelling You See's stance that manuscript is best for visualizing correct spelling? What do your children use for their spelling work?

[forty-two]

forty-two, how do you feel about Spelling You See's stance that manuscript is best for visualizing correct spelling? What do your children use for their spelling work?

 

I'm sort of meh about it.  Part of it is that I'm trying to strengthen my kids' ability to read and spell by *sound* (a major weak point for them), and the fact that different fonts *do* interfere with their visual image of the word (and force them to think it through by *sound*)  - as far as I'm concerned, that's a feature, not a bug ;).  But my kids' visual memories are very good - the hard thing for them is breaking a word into phonemes - and building that skill is where we've put the bulk of our efforts; once they can do that, remembering the particular phonogram used to spell a particular phoneme in a given word hasn't been too much trouble for them thus far. 

 

I've actually been having dd9 do her word list spelling in cursive *on purpose*, because it forces her to think through the sounds in the words and how she ought to spell those sounds, because she can't rely on her visual memory for printed words.  (And it helps her build her kinesthetic and visual memory for cursive words - handwriting, both print and cursive, has been difficult for her, and her word list spelling is the *only* thing she does in cursive right now (in fact, as far as she's concerned, it's primarily cursive practice, not spelling/blending practice).)   But if she was visually weak the way she's auditorially weak, I might be more concerned about being consistent there - I do think SYS has a point about different fonts making forming a visual image of the word more complicated. 

 

In any case, dd9 does her copywork/dictation in manuscript, albeit more because she's too shaky on cursive than for spelling visualization reasons; Dd7 does her spelling in manuscript by default, because that's all she knows ;).

Edited April 8, 2016 by forty-two

[MerryAtHope]

All About Spelling has dictation.