Country Girl Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 I am looking at possibly starting Megawords with my son next year. We are currently doing AAS 2 but it really is a waste of time for us this year. We are working through it but my son never misspells any of the words but he also isn't using the rules being taught because the words are just too easy and he doesn't need to learn the rules and apply them in order to spell the words correctly. He is an advanced reader (not really sure what level but my guess is 8 grade-ish level) but I think in order to get him to continue to advance in his reading he needs exposure to more advanced vocabulary and more difficult words (multi-syllable etc.). I was thinking using Megawords might kill two birds with one stone.... spelling and increase his reading level. Not to mention I'd really like to start adding more independent (less mom-time) things to our day and it seems this would fit the bill. Anyone with experience have any thoughts on this? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine State Sue Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Megawords is intended for 4th grade and up, after the child can spell 1 syllable words. It is definitely not teacher intensive. It may not help his reading level. We skip many of the pages that help with learning to read big words because ds already knows them. It may help with vocabulary as that is included. You can read my review in this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Country Girl Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 Sue, Thanks for your thoughts and the link to your review. I'm still not sure what to think. It isn't too expensive so I may get it to try and if it is too soon I can just hold on to it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Megawords will help with reading too because part of it is reading a list of words and checking for both speed and accuracy--and once they can read a certain number of words in a certain amount of time with a good accuracy rating (you chart this), they can move on. With your AAS issues, if you want to try to make it work better (either for the rest of this year or for the future), you might try fast-tracking him. It sounds like he doesn't need to spend so much time on each lesson. The beauty of AAS is that you can customize it to fit your child’s needs, whether you need to slow things down or speed them up. Breaking it down section by section: · Review Cards: If your child has mastered the cards, you won’t need to do this section. When the book says to review mastered cards, choose 10 or so of the most difficult patterns for your child to review. You can do more if needed, but if not, move on. · Review Concepts: If your child didn’t struggle with those concepts and already has them mastered, again, there’s no need to review. If the concept hasn’t come up for awhile, you might want to touch on it quickly to make sure it’s not forgotten, but you get to be the judge of whether your child needs this part. · New Teaching: If your child is catching on quickly to the new sound presented, there’s no need to do all of the word cards. Pick a few to make sure your child can demonstrate the concept. If there’s a word that has a combination of sounds that’s trickier for your child, choose that as one of the words. A child who catches on quickly might almost be insulted by reviewing easier words, while a child who has to work hard at spelling builds confidence on those easier words. So you can choose what’s helpful to your child. When you are satisfied that your child understands the concept being taught, move on. · Reinforcement concepts: These provide additional practice with the concept. Unless you think one of the words might be a challenge for your child, feel free to skip this section. · Dictation: This section incorporates both the new teaching and patterns previously learned. If you don’t think your child needs much review, you might choose just a few phrases and sentences that use patterns you would like to review. Do at least a couple of sentences to make sure that your child isn’t just memorizing a pattern for a word list, but that she can choose the patterns to use for each word when they are in a more natural context. I've heard people say they breeze through some of the early books in just a few weeks. Use the books to fill in any holes and to make sure that your son hasn’t simply memorized the easiest patterns, but understands how they are used. Later when they get to more advanced words, this knowledge will help him. HTH some! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningGlory Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I completely agree with Merry. Speed up AAS. I started AAS with both of my sons this school year. My fifth grader has breezed through Levels 1, 2, 3 and started Level 4 this week. He is finally getting to some words that might give him pause (but maybe not), but the skills that he has learned in the meantime are so valuable. He has learned to analyze a word...think about it...before he just makes some wild guess. This skill has carried over into all his other school work; I am very, very pleased with this!!! We covered one step a day, 3X a week to get to this point. And another thing...Level 3 adds in a part called Writing Station. You dictate a word and the student writes a sentence using that word. This is where you can really see the results of the program. My 2nd grader has taken a bit longer; he has just finished Level 2 and is ready to start Level 3 next week. I'm seeing the same results with him...just at a bit slower pace. With him, I cover 1-2 steps a week doing spelling between 3-5X a week (depending on our schedule). Both of my sons were atrocious spellers in their other school work. They always made 100s on their spelling tests, but then they would misspell many, many words in other writing. It drove me crazy! But their misspellings have steadily decreased since starting AAS. And this is not because they have learned new words in AAS...but because they have learned to think about what they write. I cannot emphasize how pleasing this is to me! HURRAY!!! By the way, I was just looking at Megawords yesterday. If AAS Level 5 is not ready when we need it, I may substitute with Megawords. The scope & sequence of MW seems to fit nicely with what we have learned in AAS. I think my older son would be ready for at least Level 2, maybe Level 3. I know this probably wasn't helpful, but I just have to rave about AAS! Jetta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 My oldest did AAS level 2 lessons over 2 days. No need to spend lots of time on something if he already knows it. Move him through it quickly and go on to the next level. Level 3 is picking things up a good bit! I've never used megawords, so I can't help there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Country Girl Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 Thank for the suggestions everyone. I have thought of just speeding through it, and we have a bit.... but I don't see him retaining any of the rules at this point since the words don't require him to. I guess I'm just feeling a bit like it has been a waste of money for us, since we really aren't getting anything from it long term. That is making me a little reluctant to spend the money on the next level even though I know it will get tougher. I have to admit, I'm also a little skeptical on rule based spelling programs and if that is really the best method for my ds. I'm an okay speller, and I definitely don't use spelling rules to spell. I just look at a word and see if it looks correct. If it looks funny to me, I just spell it a different way until it looks right. I have already seen my son doing this and so I'm wondering if a different method may be better (although I realize Megawords uses some rules, it seemed to use other modalities as well). This may be a topic for a whole different post though:D. Thanks for all of the replies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Thank for the suggestions everyone. I have thought of just speeding through it, and we have a bit.... but I don't see him retaining any of the rules at this point since the words don't require him to. I guess I'm just feeling a bit like it has been a waste of money for us, since we really aren't getting anything from it long term. That is making me a little reluctant to spend the money on the next level even though I know it will get tougher. I have to admit, I'm also a little skeptical on rule based spelling programs and if that is really the best method for my ds. I'm an okay speller, and I definitely don't use spelling rules to spell. I just look at a word and see if it looks correct. If it looks funny to me, I just spell it a different way until it looks right. I have already seen my son doing this and so I'm wondering if a different method may be better (although I realize Megawords uses some rules, it seemed to use other modalities as well). This may be a topic for a whole different post though:D. Thanks for all of the replies! Well, you do have a full year to return it. If you decide it really wasn't worth it, you can send it back. Is your son retaining the rules from the key cards? I wonder if he's just internalized the rules already and doesn't need to think about them on these easier words. Eventually that's what you want I think. You don't want someone to stop for every word and think, "now what's the rule?" before they spell it--you want it to become automatic. Also, spelling something and then trying a different spelling is an important word-sorting activity that you do more as you go into the higher levels. In level 3, for example, once they've learned 4 ways of spelling the long A sound, they get to sort words that use each of the spellings. And one of the things they do is write it, and if it doesn't look right, they try another spelling for that sound. There are rules for some spellings, but not for every spelling, and sometimes you do have to use just the strategy you describe. So know that as you progress, AAS also encourages this. Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Country Girl Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Well, you do have a full year to return it. If you decide it really wasn't worth it, you can send it back. Is your son retaining the rules from the key cards? I wonder if he's just internalized the rules already and doesn't need to think about them on these easier words. Eventually that's what you want I think. You don't want someone to stop for every word and think, "now what's the rule?" before they spell it--you want it to become automatic. Also, spelling something and then trying a different spelling is an important word-sorting activity that you do more as you go into the higher levels. In level 3, for example, once they've learned 4 ways of spelling the long A sound, they get to sort words that use each of the spellings. And one of the things they do is write it, and if it doesn't look right, they try another spelling for that sound. There are rules for some spellings, but not for every spelling, and sometimes you do have to use just the strategy you describe. So know that as you progress, AAS also encourages this. Merry :-) Merry, Thanks for the thoughts! I don't think my son is really internalizing the rules because he doesn't always remember them when we review the cards. However, I can see how that is the ultimate goal. Also, thanks for giving me a glimpse into some of the methodology in level 3. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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