Pster Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 We started the girls in a private, Christian school - they come home at 12:30pm and I work with them to do homework and stuff. (they've been attending since Dec 1 - so they are still adapting to new curriculums and being tested etc etc) Anyway, my 8yo (3rd grader) is reading on a 7-8th gr reading level but has terrible spelling. Any ideas on what I can use to improve it here at home? The spelling lists she has for spelling tests at school aren't the words she needs help spelling! (tho we are even having a hard time studying for those tests) I'm hoping to find a computer program of some sort - she does a lot of writing and I'm just trying to find something different that will hold her interest. I don't mind if it starts on a lower grade level if that means it will cover spelling rules that obviously haven't stuck. And...if I could use whatever program to input our own words (like for studying her school tests) that would be great too. Any suggestions? Anything online you know of? thanks for any help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laure Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I just learned about All about Spelling (AAS). We have used Spelling Power for years and my 10yo daughter has done pretty well with that, but she misspells words when she writes that I am really surprised to see misspelled. We are buying AAS for my younger 8yod who has trouble with spelling/reading/phonics and has some dyslexic tendencies. However, I am buying an extra materials packet for the 10yo because she just doesn't know the spelling rules and we're going to start from the beginning, level 1, but go much faster with the 10yo, of course. It has an Orton-Gillingham approach, multisensory, and covers the spelling rules. http://www.all-about-spelling.com/ I hope this is helpful. Laure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 No advice, just commiseration. My 11yo dd reads at a 12th grade level but her spelling is atrocious. Believe me, we have ALWAYS worked on it, but it has never clicked in for her. Her father is a terrible speller as well, so I think she has inherited it and will always struggle with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jg_puppy Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I am starting to see a difference in my dd spelling since we started Apples and Pears spelling. Now for a free online spelling website where you can enter her words from school then I would suggest - http://www.spellingcity.com/ Jan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mktyler Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Sorry for the unoriginality of this post, its a reprint from another forum, but hopefully will be helpful . . . My daughter has a very difficult time with spelling, just as she did with reading. I have experimented with many approaches and programs and find these strategies to be the most helpful for her: 1. Spelling lists based on the sound-spelling correspondences. So a list of words where the sound /ee/ is spelled 'ea' (teach, each, reach, beach, tear (as in from the eyes), dear, beam, seam, cream, etc.) 2. The words are analyzed for their parts, letter teams underlined, and strange spellings circled. She says the sounds for the parts as the words are written multiple times, currently 5 times. If possible, she exaggerates the pronunciation (for example, /lem-On/) 3. She composes original sentences, trying to combine as many words into a sentence as she can (Each teacher sat on the beach eating cream.) She says the sounds as she writes the words. 4. The words are tested until she gets them right at least 3 times in a row. The tests are not lists but dictated sentences I make up using the words from her list and previous words. I test every day. This takes about 20 min. a day (She is 10 and has 15-20 words a week) 5. The words she gets wrong go through the study process each day. 6. Every Friday we do a random, cumulative test from previous lists. I pick the correspondence to work on based on her writing, then put together a list of similar words. The nice thing about this is . . . its free! If you would like a list of correspondences and words, you can email me privately. Melissa Minnesota Reading Program Junkie dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Sorry for the unoriginality of this post, its a reprint from another forum, but hopefully will be helpful . . . My daughter has a very difficult time with spelling, just as she did with reading. I have experimented with many approaches and programs and find these strategies to be the most helpful for her: 1. Spelling lists based on the sound-spelling correspondences. So a list of words where the sound /ee/ is spelled 'ea' (teach, each, reach, beach, tear (as in from the eyes), dear, beam, seam, cream, etc.) 2. The words are analyzed for their parts, letter teams underlined, and strange spellings circled. She says the sounds for the parts as the words are written multiple times, currently 5 times. If possible, she exaggerates the pronunciation (for example, /lem-On/) 3. She composes original sentences, trying to combine as many words into a sentence as she can (Each teacher sat on the beach eating cream.) She says the sounds as she writes the words. 4. The words are tested until she gets them right at least 3 times in a row. The tests are not lists but dictated sentences I make up using the words from her list and previous words. I test every day. This takes about 20 min. a day (She is 10 and has 15-20 words a week) 5. The words she gets wrong go through the study process each day. 6. Every Friday we do a random, cumulative test from previous lists. I pick the correspondence to work on based on her writing, then put together a list of similar words. The nice thing about this is . . . its free! If you would like a list of correspondences and words, you can email me privately. Melissa Minnesota Reading Program Junkie dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1) Sounds great to me! Have you thought about writing a spelling program? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I would check out Elizabeth B.'s posts/website on this forum and do a search for Webster's Speller on this site as well. I just printed out a copy for my son and i am quite impressed. In addition, there are references to Don Potter's website or you can google the same. I found both sites to be very informative. Pris:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 http://www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm Check out the Apples and Pears Spelling program. It is the BEST I have found and the spelling really carries over to other subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 and his formerly terrible spelling has changed so much. I know he is young, but he couldn't remember how to spell the simplest words. Now he knows rules and applies them consistently. It works!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 My spelling lessons are free online, they teach most of the spelling rules: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html I would follow on with a good rules based spelling program, you can also try Gayle Graham's notebook, it shows an easy way to find rules/patterns and categorize words and is based on the students' own misspelled words: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inashoe Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Andrew Peduwa of IEW explains that the advanced readers are actually skimming and not noticing the details. He has a CD Spelling and the Brain - or something like that - in which he discusses it in more detail. He also goes on to explain that the letters need to be stored sequentially, one at a time. He has made a spelling program which is working well for my avid reading, atrocious speller. After ditching many programs since they simply were not making any difference, I tried his program, Phonetic Zoo from IEW. It covers a rule at a time, with a list of words that fit the rule, and the exceptions to the rule. Only after mastering a lesson, do they progress onto the next lesson, hence my natural spellers are way ahead of my not-so-natural. I don't need to read any spelling lists out aloud - Level A comes with a set of 5 CDs with all the spelling lists - my kids just plug in their headphones and do the lesson independently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Pster, one thing I notice is that you're wanting it to hit the words she actually NEEDS for her schoolwork. Some of those programs use programs that distinctly aren't the words she probably needs. I remember running into the same thing with my dd while doing SWR, because it had her spelling words she DIDN'T need and didn't care to learn to spell. Have you looked at Spelling Plus? It has dictation sentences that spiral to keep the words fresh, and the words are very, very practical, words she probably wants to spell right now. It won't do anything for the rules (add the rules cards from SWR, for instance, for that), but the words themselves are practical. My dd responded very well to dictation, so it might be something to consider. As far as on the computer, we do the calvert spelling cds and enjoy them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Andrew Peduwa of IEW explains that the advanced readers are actually skimming and not noticing the details. I don't agree with this, for two anecdotal reasons. One is that my reading speed is really fast, as are the reading speeds of ALL my former editor/proofreader coworkers. It's just that natural byproduct of reading a lot. A good proofreader has to notice millions of details (punctuation, grammar, typesetting, etc.)--it is totally possible to be a speed reader who does actually notice not just details, but many more than the average reader who doesn't have a job like this. My dd is a very fast AND advanced reader. In other words, her reading speed is fast, and she is able to comfortably read very difficult works. Yes, she does remember details--her memory in this regard is nearly photographic. I have always been puzzled as to why she can tell me who said what and what they were wearing, etc., but not be a better speller. All I can say is she must have inherited it from her father, whose bad spelling is legendary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mktyler Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I have a theory based on my experience with my expert memorizer/bad speller/struggling reader who now reads well . . . Some people are really good at remembering things at the meaning level and so they don't remember things below the meaning level, the parts that build up to the meaning level. So my dd10 could memorize whole passages of books but not be able to read the simplest words. She can memorize speeches I give to my little kids--verbatim, and spew it out weeks later. With spelling, she remembers the words and the meaning of the words and passages--but not the parts (the spellings) that don't have meaning beyond their correspondence to sounds. The activities I described previously are meant to put all the important parts together connected by meaning. One thing that I have been doing is emphasizing over and over again that words each have their own correct way to be spelled. You can't just put letters down that will get you close to the word, you have to put the right letters down. Just a theory . . . Melissa Minnesota Reading Program Junkie dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Have her read, read, read/write write write...my strongest speller is actually the one that always has a book in her hands..there may be the few exceptions to words that I will teach them as we go along...(saLmon, breathE, milieu..now that's just a plain and silly spelling! :)) but I had my kids do copywork of portions of literature that had a plethora of big words :) The more the brain sees it and stores it in there..the more it's just 'in' there....it also helps to have a bit of Latin or Greek (we do Latin)..but I honestly can tell you that their spelling abilities do not really come from Latin, their understanding of the meaning may... I would stay far away from any spelling programs that ever show a 'wrong' spelling (Spelling Workout did this)....once that image is in that brain, it's hard to get it out...I liken it to computer spell-checks...someone had to type that word into the computer at one time....so let their reading/writing be that instrument and save the spelling for those tough words (less than 5% really)...over time 80% of the words commonly used will come to them without having been 'taught' how to do it. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I will add that I have watched my 13 year old (horrendous speller, excellent reader) magically be able to spell within just the last year or two...he for the longest time spelled were "where" grammar "grammer"....and he would spell it correctly in one section and completely miss it in the same page...but now, with little spelling instruction he is amazingly a good speller...he spent most of last year reading probably over 70 chapter books easily, the most he's read in that time frame...I have always had them do vocabulary words/copywork/but our spelling instruction has been limited to about 10 days in 7 years...really. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I have read hundreds of books a year since I was a small child, every year except the year my second child was small. (I got a lot of reading in when my first was small, I read while she nursed.) I used to be a poor speller but a great reader, and I've always been a very fast reader. (I did, however, memorize my spelling tests fine, I just didn't retain much of the information months later.) I learned short vowels and consonants in K with the 3Rs + Read little books, then had whole word teaching in 1st grade. When I read aloud to my parents, they would help me sound out any word I missed. After teaching phonics and learning all the phonetic spelling rules as an adult, my spelling improved to where I'm now a good speller, although not a great speller like my dad who was taught complete phonics from the beginning. I had a bit of a slowdown in my reading for a month or two when I first learned all the phonics rules, then my reading rate went back up to very fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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