Spelling You See or Sequential Spelling

[bethanyjoy]

I have a 4th grader who is a struggling reader and speller. She can read picture books, but doesn't have the stamina or fluency to read chapter books yet. We have tried several spelling curriculums where they are given words for the week, activities to do with those words each day, and then a test on Friday. She can never remember how to spell the words on Friday. It's like she has never seen them before. I've been looking at Spelling You See (Jack and Jill level) and Sequential Spelling. I worry that the writing involved with Spelling You See (especially in the higher levels) would be too much, but I also don't know if Sequential Spelling would give enough practice with each word for her to be able to remember how to spell them, as well as it being too much for her to write 25 words each day. Which one do you all think would work better for her? Thanks!

Edited September 8, 2018 by bethanyjoy

[acresoft]

If the writing is too much for one time, maybe dividing the sessions up and having two to three times in the day for it, would make for less at one time.

If neither curriculum is quite what you want, there is others.

[MerryAtHope]

It's really hard to say since different things work for different kids! I'm assuming you have something for working on reading though? With regard to spelling--that's exactly the issue we had with Sequential Spelling--to do a "lesson" in a day took really long and there wasn't enough repetition built in for my kids to master it (that and the approach didn't work well here). But sometimes you don't know until you try something. You always have the option of breaking up the lessons more if you think one or the other might be a strong fit though. We ended up with All About Spelling.

[Peaceseeker]

I am a big fan of Sequential spelling, but honestly I would probably put the spelling on hold and focus on targeted intervention for improving the reading.  If I was going to try spelling at the same time, I would probably stick to copy work for a while and not do a formal spelling program.  

 

[Moonhawk]

If you do sequential spelling, you could maybe cut each day in half if 25 sounds like too much. It doesn't have "official" repitition, but I've noticed that since it goes over similar words over a few days ( can, cans, canned) the core word is getting review. It also does homynyms at the same time or week, which could be good or bad for you, because it's good for my kids to see that these words have different meaning and are spelled differently, even though they sound the same. 

[Storygirl]

You may consider posting this on the Learning Challenges board. There are many parents there who have experiences that they are willing to share.

My daughter is dyslexic, and you mention red flags for dyslexia in your post. Has she been evaluated for a learning disability? For dyslexia, an Orton-Gillingham approach is recommended for remediating reading and spelling. All About Spelling is based on OG principals, I believe, though it is not a full OG program. I tried AAS with DD, and she was not able to make progress. She could not even move past the first cards of level 1.

We also tried Sequential Spelling, among other things. Sequential Spelling teaches by spelling patterns, not by rules. DD did not learn to spell through that method. She was unable to store the spelling patterns in her memory.

Barton is commonly recommended. It is an OG based program, created to be used at home. If we had continued to homeschool, I believe that is what I would have chosen, once we had the diagnosis.

What helped DD was hiring an OG trained tutor. She made more progress in that year (fourth grade) than she had in all the years before that with me at home, because she needed the intense remediation.

Honestly, DD will never be a good speller. But she has made stellar improvements, since we found the right help for her. And she reads on grade level. I agree with the poster who recommended working on on the decoding/ reading first and foremost.