Spelling Methods

[alisha]

My 5th grader is a horrible speller. Well, maybe not horrible, since we only started AAS 3 this year, but definitely not where he should be. We don't mind AAS, however, it doesn't stick. We tried spelling some words orally-repeating them, clapping to them, etc, and after saying it 30 times, he would still get mixed up next time he tried to say it by himself. I'm thinking about trying Apples and Pears, but am still researching. 

 

So, I know there is rules based spelling and morpheme based spelling and memorized spelling (I guess that's what you'd call the traditional school method), but what other methods are there that I should be checking into?

And anyone know of or have any articles that would help me figure out which method might work for us? Or the meaning of the methods? 

 

Thanks!

[HomeAgain]

The only thing that works here is spelling in context.  We dropped AAS when the lessons didn't carry over.  Now we do Dictation Day By Day, where each day he writes two sentences using a spiraling list of words in grade level.  We blend the two methods.  When a new word is introduced in DBD, it's underlined in the text.  I put it up on the board and we go over the spelling rule for it.  He writes his sentences, looking at the board as necessary for the new words.  The next time it comes up, I remind him of the rule.  If there is still trouble, the book provides a list of similar words to go over.

Once a week we work on word roots.  Learning the meaning of parts of words helped my oldest spell better, so we do it with the youngest.

 

There is another similar method called prepared dictation (DBD is cold dictation), where the student studies the passage and then, when ready, writes from memory.

[Tanaqui]

I don't know how Apples and Pears works, but it worked for us. My younger kiddo is dyslexic. She compensates really well, and you wouldn't know it to hear her read unless you were listening closely, but her writing...! When she started using A&P during the 4th grade, her spelling as akin to a first grader's - a first grader who was a poor speller. By the end of the year, her spelling was akin to a 4th grader's - admittedly, a 4th grader who was still a poor speller, but that was a huge improvement. She was on grade level. (More or less.)

And those improvements stuck. I don't know how or why it works, but I cannot recommend the program enough.

[Ellie]

My 5th grader is a horrible speller. Well, maybe not horrible, since we only started AAS 3 this year, but definitely not where he should be. We don't mind AAS, however, it doesn't stick. We tried spelling some words orally-repeating them, clapping to them, etc, and after saying it 30 times, he would still get mixed up next time he tried to say it by himself. I'm thinking about trying Apples and Pears, but am still researching. 

 

So, I know there is rules based spelling and morpheme based spelling and memorized spelling (I guess that's what you'd call the traditional school method), but what other methods are there that I should be checking into?

 

And anyone know of or have any articles that would help me figure out which method might work for us? Or the meaning of the methods? 

 

Thanks!

 

Spalding worked for us.

[ElizabethB]

Stevenson Language spelling uses memory aids.

 

http://www.stevensonlearning.com/stevenson-reading/list-of-materials/

Edited October 31, 2017 by ElizabethB

[MerryAtHope]

My 5th grader is a horrible speller. Well, maybe not horrible, since we only started AAS 3 this year, but definitely not where he should be. We don't mind AAS, however, it doesn't stick. We tried spelling some words orally-repeating them, clapping to them, etc, and after saying it 30 times, he would still get mixed up next time he tried to say it by himself. 

 

This is more of a memory-based approach than using the strategies that AAS is teaching though. Sometimes a student misses words because they aren't hearing or thinking through the sounds or they forget to apply a rule. Sometimes a visual or morphemic strategy would help them, or a combination of strategies can help a word "stick." And sometimes kids miss words because they just aren't ready to think about content, creativity, grammar, punctuation, and spelling all at the same time, and they need a separate editing time. For most kids, automaticity comes in stages rather than all at once. If you want to stick with AAS and make it work, this post on how to handle spelling mistakes can help--or email AALP to talk through specific issues your student is having. 

 

I'm not saying not to switch if you want to try something else! :-) Just that there may be ways to use AAS more effectively than lots of oral repetitions (which doesn't seem to be helping). (I took my struggling spellers through all 7 levels, so I know some words and concepts can be really hard for kids! My kids needed lots of review and lots of reinforcement on the various strategies, but it did pay off for us.)

 

Anyway, I hope you find what your kids need!

[Homebody2]

Spalding worked for us.

My oldest (5th grade) has never been a natural speller, but after almost 6 years of use, I credit his advancements in spelling over the years to Spalding. He knows the rules and uses them daily in his writing, and he can usually use the rules to fix a misspelled word I point out. Sticking with Spalding over the years has paid off tremendously for my spelling challenged son.

 

ETA: I don't think starting Spalding in 5th grade is too late at all. I've also been on these boards long enough to know that if you are serious about using Spalding but have questions, Ellie is the resident expert.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Homebody2

[TKDmom]

I don't know how Apples and Pears works, but it worked for us. My younger kiddo is dyslexic. She compensates really well, and you wouldn't know it to hear her read unless you were listening closely, but her writing...! When she started using A&P during the 4th grade, her spelling as akin to a first grader's - a first grader who was a poor speller. By the end of the year, her spelling was akin to a 4th grader's - admittedly, a 4th grader who was still a poor speller, but that was a huge improvement. She was on grade level. (More or less.)

And those improvements stuck. I don't know how or why it works, but I cannot recommend the program enough.

 

Tangent...but how did you find out she was dyslexic? My 6th grader writes worse than my 3rd grader, but I'm not sure if that's because he's a boy, or because I slacked on teaching him spelling and handwriting, or maybe he's actually a smart kid with dyslexia.  :confused1:  

[Tanaqui]

Her dad's dyslexic, and in retrospect, the few issues she does have with reading (and especially did when she was learning) are classic. Like, she couldn't rhyme. Or, she could rhyme, but she didn't. If you set up an obvious rhyme for her, she would not fill in the correct missing word. As an example, when she was seven, I was explaining to her and her sister about the different ways of measuring temperature, and I said, for Celsius, "Thirty is hot, twenty is nice, ten is cold, zero is..." and she said "Frozen?" Or if you said "you get what you get, and you don't...." she might have finished with "get mad at other people". She could read a sentence written on a blank page that said "Elephants are rarely seen in America", but she couldn't read "The fat cat sat on the mat". (And I still don't understand how she could guess "elephants" from context but not "cat", but whatever.) She reads, and has always read, with great animation... but she very carefully would mumble any word she didn't immediately know or guess, and wouldn't even take a stab at it. If forced to try, if you noticed what she was doing, she'd get the first sound and then the rest would fall apart. She'd pick the wrong function words - "the dog is on the table" maybe instead of "the dog is at the table", and not just now and again, but consistently. She'll skip words sometimes, and they're important words. It's common for her to mispronounce words in speech, putting the sounds in the wrong order. But it's rare to catch her making mistakes in reading because she's bright, and she enjoys reading, and so she compensates really well - and she has great comprehension and has always read in a very fluent way.

 

Plus, her spelling errors are the sort that you really don't expect to see in a child her age - for example, she still sometimes will misspell her full first name, or she'll get all the letters in a simple word like "night" or "today" right, but in the wrong order. She should not be misspelling our names at this age! (But she's still improved from where she was, and now there's a good chance she'll catch her errors, at least when it comes to common words and everybody's names, so that's progress. And if she can't catch her mistakes, spellcheck now can, so again - progress! I like to set attainable goals.)

 

Her penmanship is fine - neat, rapid, no pain - so we've never considered dysgraphia. That is another possibility for your son, though.

 

We actually weren't able to get a good diagnosis through the schools, though, because of her skill at reading and also because (I found out later, after one tester confessed it to me) school districts hate diagnosing dyslexia if they can at all avoid it. Grr. It was infuriating. If you're seeking a diagnosis, you might do well to start off with private testing, even though the schools are supposed to provide it for free.

 

https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection

[TKDmom]

Yeah, he doesn’t quite fit the classic signs of dyslexia, but some things are close. He can’t hear the difference between short e and short i. Speech therapy helped some, but sometimes he still asks me about them. He does occasionally misspell his name. My dh is appalled by his spelling, but it’s improved a lot since he started typing more and using spell check. He can’t seem to figure out rules for capitalization or punctuation—I still have to remind him to capitalize his name and the first letter of every sentence. He had letter reversals till about age 10... Some of these things, I could attribute to poor teaching, or maybe a kid who needs more explicit teaching than I gave. My oldest just picked up all these things naturally, though. She came home the other day and handed me a form to give my permission to move up to honors English. The last straw for her was that they’d gone over comma rules in class that day (this is 11th grade!). DS piped up that he wished someone would teach him how to use commas. It’s both ends of the spectrum here! He’s in school now, so I’ll reach out to his English teacher.