Spelling exercises for older dc

[rose]

I dropped spelling a few years ago with my older two dc but my 14yo ds is still struggling with some pretty basic issues. I'm planning to start back up with Spell to Write and Read but many of the suggested practice activities are just too juvenile. For any of you that have remediated an older dc do you have some suggestions for ways to encourage him to work with the spelling lists without boring him? He has some issues with dysgraphia so I think that activities that can be done on the computer, with letter tiles or even verbally would be best.

 

As an extra, I'm planning to start English From the Roots Up, because we haven't done anything with Latin or Greek yet. I was thinking that even if we only look at word roots for awhile it might train his eyes to notice the roots, prefixes and suffixes of words and thus not make some obvious spelling mistakes

[SilverMoon]

I'm not familiar with SWR, but I did run/fast-track an older kid through Writing Road to Reading. We spent a few days working on the cards (he'd heard younger siblings chant them often enough it didn't take him long) and started at the beginning of he word list. I did have him copy the notebook pages from the guide to start with, but them I veered off the instructions. Rather than 30 words a week he filled a notebook page with the words and the markings. Anything I felt he didn't get I wrote down, and I'd start with those words the next day before continuing in the list where he left off. It took us a couple/few months of daily work with mom but his spelling took a remarkable leap when it was over. Perhaps magnetic tiles on a whiteboard so markings can be added to the words?

[nixpix5]

I worked with a kid once who was using sequential spelling at home via the dvd rom version. It was pretty neat. Essentially you pop the disc in your computer and can print out the sheets to write on and then the lessons are broken down. You click one and the spelling video kicks on. It gives you the word orally and you spell it either on paper or type it in (the 2.5 version gives both options) and then they show you the word. You practice what you miss. It is a simple program but feels more "grown up" and is more appealing to older kids. The kiddo I knew who used it was 12.

[rose]

I'm not familiar with SWR, but I did run/fast-track an older kid through Writing Road to Reading. We spent a few days working on the cards (he'd heard younger siblings chant them often enough it didn't take him long) and started at the beginning of he word list. I did have him copy the notebook pages from the guide to start with, but them I veered off the instructions. Rather than 30 words a week he filled a notebook page with the words and the markings. Anything I felt he didn't get I wrote down, and I'd start with those words the next day before continuing in the list where he left off. It took us a couple/few months of daily work with mom but his spelling took a remarkable leap when it was over. Perhaps magnetic tiles on a whiteboard so markings can be added to the words?

 

WRTR sounds so much like SWR. I really like this idea. I might have him do the notebook pages on the computer. We could print them out later.

 

[lllll]

nm

Edited September 6, 2017 by lllllll

[Ottakee]

Apples and Pears is super easy to use and not babyish at all...even at level A.

[OneStepAtATime]

Is this the child that may have learning issues?

[Ellie]

WRTR sounds so much like SWR. I really like this idea. I might have him do the notebook pages on the computer. We could print them out later.

 

 

The author of SWR was an experience Spalding teacher, which is why SWR is so similar to Spalding (WRTR is the manual; Spalding is the method). I think Sanseri made the method more complicated in SWR, but then there are those who think Spalding is more complicated, so there you go. :-)

 

I'm not sure doing the spelling notebook on the computer would be a good thing; the actual writing on paper is part of the process.

[rose]

Is this the child that may have learning issues?

 

Yeah, same one. I've seen some improvements lately in his efforts but I can also see that he's forgotten some of the spelling rules that he used to know. I doubt he'll ever be able to spell with ease but I can probably get him to the point of not turning the ly suffix into ally or ley. Some of the more concerning spelling issues like phonogram or letter reversals might not go away so easily but they're not that common either.

 

[rose]

 

 

I'm not sure doing the spelling notebook on the computer would be a good thing; the actual writing on paper is part of the process.

 

I get that but with this particular child the act of writing would probably do the opposite. He'd labouriously write out the pages and get so frustrated when his hand would write the wrong letters that he'd lose track of the actual word he was working on.

 

[ElizabethB]

I would have him watch through my online spelling lessons and work through my Syllables series. The syllables series has both spelling and word roots.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

 

For combined spelling and word roots I also like Marcia Henry's Words, it is not babyish. It is usually cheapest from Pro-Ed. The Words sample is from early on, by the end you are working with multisyllable Greek and Latin words.

 

http://www.proedinc.com/customer/productView.aspx?ID=989

Edited August 23, 2017 by ElizabethB