Last attempt to teach spelling to sixth grader?

[Tenaj]

Say you had a sixth grader (boy - if that makes a difference) and you want to make one last ditch effort to turn him into a decent speller, what program would you use?

 

He cannot spell to save his life. In his writing, words like "want" will turn into "wnat", "our" turns into "ar" and when told to proofread he honestly seems unable to locate the errors.

 

I spent this weekend at the convention going from booth to booth hoping that something would jump out and say "Hey, try this" to me but, alas, there seemed to be nothing that grabbed my attention as a solution. So I humbly come to the hive mind! Give me your expert opinions!

 

I'm guessing one option is to let it go and train him to use spell check for the rest of his life but I'd rather give him a fighting chance to at least be able to jot his wife a note someday and have her read it, rather than laugh!

[Tenaj]

I should add that he has no trouble reading at all. He's speeding through the Redwall books so the only area that seems to be affected is his ability to spell.

[Tree House Academy]

I actually took a backwards approach. I was doing everything I could find to teach my ds9 spelling. I was doing so much that it became overkill. I think the best thing we did in all that time was spelling power starting over from level A and just going back and hitting the basics.

 

Now, I have taken him back and we are doing ETC books 6-8. While it is on the "easy" end for him, it is starting to click as to why certain words are spelled the way they are. Taking a break from spelling has given him some downtime as well and he is not nearly as stressed when he writes...therefore his words are not nearly as badly misspelled. My ds is also a good reader...the phonics are helping him connect spelling with reading, I think.

[Emmy]

Have you looked at All About Spelling yet?

[Tenaj]

I own Level 1 because I used it with my first grader last year, but I haven't tried with my sixth grader because I know he would be completely insulted. I'm trying to preserve his pride a bit but his second grade brother really spells more confidently than he does. If I go with AAS, would I start with level 1? I'll have to go check out their website and see what I can figure out? Thanks for the suggestion, that one wasn't on my radar.

[Tenaj]

I really like this idea. I own Spelling Power and could easily get the explode the code books you recommend and no one else has done those books so it wouldn't be demeaning to him. I had also considered Megawords but that might be a better follow-up after the ETC. Thanks for this suggestion.

[GraceinMD]

What about Spelling Power? http://www.castlemoyle.com/shopping/spelling/spellingpower.htm

 

IIRC, it was designed to remediate spelling problems (I think the author originally developed it for her 6th grade dtr who read well, but spelled on a 2nd grade level), is used from age 8-->adult (all one book - gotta love THAT!), and reinforces the spelling with a variety of multi-sensory approaches (visual, tactile, etc.).

 

We've used it for several years - we spend about 15 minutes 3x/wk - and I can see improvement in my very verbal, good-reader, "but you know what I meant so why should I bother to spell it correctly" child!

 

I've never used the cards or the CD-ROM, or anything other than just the book itself.

[Emmy]

My son has been spelling similar to your son - now he's younger, he'll be 9 in a couple months - but it has been a huge concern of mine that he would spell a word like "our" as "ar". Initially I blamed the few short weeks at public school kindergarten where the teachers praised and lauded inventive spelling. But as time went by and his reading levels were soaring but his spelling wasn't improving , I knew I needed more help. We started with SWO and it was a real bust. He wouldn't remember the words 2 weeks after learning them. Then we did Natural Speller because I thought maybe working in word families would help. After that I made a couple changes at once - first I increased copywork and dicatation. And secondly we started AAS. I levels in AAS are not grades - they are levels. Of course now that he's seen his younger brother in level 1, it might be hard for him to use it - but I would just say - look this isn't about doing first grade, this is about starting over and learning the spelling rules in a new way. My son has been doing a lesson a day up to lesson 17- which took 2 days. He starts lesson 18 tomorrow. I expect to move him into Level 2 by summer.

 

I would try it - it will teach the rules of spelling and it will get him thinking about why things are spelled like they are.

[mamaof2andtwins]

I would get very serious about using dictation and copywork, but the dictation is the key. I saw remarkable results with my son, and we didn't get after this seriously until he was in 7th grade.

 

Also, I would recommend AAS. I will be going through it with my 15 yo.

 

Jennie

[Staci in MO]

I don't know if the improvement is because of Megawords, or if we started Megawords at a time when it was finally starting to come together, but I've noticed a big improvement this year.

 

My ds is in 6th, too.

[jensway]

I started AAS this year with my son. He turned 11 in Jan.--5th grader. His spelling was horrible. Could only spell 3 letter words with any consistency correctly. I did start with Level 1 and he went through it pretty quickly. But I felt that he needed to start at the beginning and get a good foundation. We are almost finished with Level 2. He is now spelling 7 letter words on his own!! :D

 

We will be doing Level 3 & 4 next year. This program has helped my son understand spelling and versus trying to "remember" how words are spelt. :001_smile:

[deeinfl]

done well with a mix of Megawords and Sequential Spelling, but I don't know how much time you have and how much work you want to give him.

 

My son did a speed through starting in the 6th grade of Megawords and finished all 8 books by the end of his 8th grade year. Now that may be too much for some, so if I only had one chance and one program, I would pick Sequential Spelling.

 

Usually when kids don't get phonics by this age, chances are they will never really get it. There's something about how Sequential spelling lists are broken down that somehow stay in the brain, sort of linguistically. It really does work and really does improve spelling.

 

I hope this helps.

 

My remedial three part program for remediating my mildly dyslexic son have been: Tatras, Sequential Spelling, and Megawords.

 

HTH,

 

Dee in Sunny FL!

 

ps typing fast, no time for spell check! :)

[anniet]

When I was homeschooling my high school son he was also a terrible speller(& also dyslexic) I started him on Sequential Spelling and it really made a difference. This also works well with an older child or even adult who has difficulty with spelling. The only thing I don't like is that there's 7 books and each book takes a year. We were only able to get through 2 books before he went to school.

 

My middle daughter has his same learning difficulties and I'm using AAS as I am with all the other youngers. I really believe in this program. It works VERY well. With an older child you can easily get through a book(level) in a little over a month. With my 4th grade dd, we do 1 full lesson per day.

 

My overall vote for your son would be to go through AAS. You could get through all the levels easily in 2 years.

 

Ann

[gevs4him]

Sequential Spelling you can try it for free. http://avko.org/index.htm

 

 

 

Best of luck

Blessings

Lisa:)

[RobotGirl]

I would also suggest Sequential Spelling. They are coming out with a DVD version, so he could do it himself.

[rockala]

I have a son in sixth too and we have advanced a lot this year with SS and Megawords. It helped a lot to realize that most kids who still do not spell well at this age are dsygraphic not dsylexic. that is why reading and comprehension are not a problem.

 

We did do a remedial writing that had the kids do figure eights and then make sure they are forming their letters correctly- from the top down and clockwise. Watch how they make an O- is it counter clockwise- it should be. I was shocked when I told my son to quick just draw an O and it was clockwise. Also the small letter r, do they start at the top?

 

So after much discussion he agreed to go thorugh that even though it was sort of embarassing for him. We kept it our secret. We have gone sort of quickly thru SS2 and are in megawords 2 now. Please do not let the numbers of starting SS1 or Megawrods I scare you.

 

Today in SS2 we had fascinate and accomadating- and those were the easier ones. Megawords pulled in all together.

 

We choose 3 subjects each year that each child needs improvement on. For ds this year it was writing/forming letter, spelling and spelling. They had to be done first thing in the morning when he was fresh.:)

 

HTH

Kathy

[MIch elle]

but I still plan on doing spelling with him until grade 8 with CLE LA (which includes spelling).

 

I also use the Fry List and orally drill sets of 25 words until he can spell correct, the FIRST time, the top 300 words (65% of all written words).

[Ummto4]

When I was searching for a spelling curriculum in this board, I came across a post by momto7 (I think) who recommends Apples and Pears Spelling by Promethean Trust (UK publisher). This product is geared towards poor spellers (although any normal speller can use this, too) and dyslexic, and is actually similar to the more expensive products offered by special needs publishers (SRAOnline, for example).

 

I have this product at the back of my mind because my son is a language-delayed boy.

 

Okay ... I find her post (from the old board):

 

"

Posted by momof7 on 5:45 Jul 13

This is my experience on teaching spelling to my oldest 4 (I won't include anyone else b/c they just haven't had enough exposure to instruction. These four are in 6th grade through high school graduate.)

 

First, I want to say that my experience is that if you have a *visual* learner than any spelling program is probably going to work just fine. (I read the thread below about WRTR, etc. and I do disagree with WRTR and English spelling being able to be taught phonetically......I'll come back to this.)

 

Spelling, on a fundamental level, is a visual skill. So....my child #2 (going into 10th) has very rarely misspelled a word. He is a strong visual learner and when he reads/sees a word and is forced to actual pay attention to it (via spelling), then he learns how to spell it. If he writes it wrong, when he looks at it, he can recognize that it doesn't *look* right. (I personally can totally identify with this b/c this is exactly how my brain functions with spelling. I can look at a word and simply know that that is not how it is supposed to look.)

 

The child I just described does great with programs like WRTR...not b/c he is learning all of the rules and English is phonetic.....but b/c WRTR makes him actually look at the words, analyze them, and visually imprint them. That works for him.

 

OK....I'm going to try to be more concise :)

 

WRTR does not work well with all children. I have 2 children that the WRTR approach actually created more problems. These 2 are both math and science oriented and thrive on analytical type thinking and formulas. When you start taking English words and trying to box them into rules and kids like these learn the rules the way WRTR presents them (like most English words fit the rules)....it makes for spelling disasters. BTW....the disasters don't start rearing their ugly heads on the levels of AAS. The phonograms in AAS are too basic and the options for different sounds are limited. (I can see children having great success with AAS....but until more of the complicated phonograms are introduced and multiple choices in phonos can not be eliminated based on the rules and the correct phono simply has to be known.....it is hard to say if AAS is going to more successful than WRTR. I *love* the color-coded letter tiles. It is a wonderful hands-on multisensory incorporation which will *hopefully* help in visually imprinting a word's visual reality. :) )

 

The problems start to show up when multiple phonogram choices are possible. For example, they learn that ou says /ow/ in the middle of a word and ow says /ow/ at the end, except before final d, l, or n. (crowd, scowl, gown) BUT.....wait a minute, you are the child that learned that rule. What do you mean that cloud, loud, etc are spelled ou and not ow.

 

That is just one out of hundreds of examples (believe me.....my oldest one knew every phonogram card, every rule, would argue about the rules.....it is the EXCEPTIONS that make up a huge % of the English language, and I do not care what is written in WRTR, there are huge numbers of exceptions and when you have *non-visual* learners that are categorizers/analyzers/ rule followers.....teaching them simply WRTR based instruction will leave them dead in the water as adult spellers b/c of the exceptions.)

 

After WRTR not working with my oldest, we tried Spelling Power. We didn't even stick with it for a full school year. I was hoping that rules followed by word lists would help vs. the randomized words of WRTR. He learned the lists and promptly forgot them.

 

The we tried How to Teach Spelling. It incorporated the rules he already knew.....but it is more *realistic* ;) It acknowledges that we actually do say baby with y saying long e (I never have understood why WRTR insists that we don't!!) It is upfront with the fact that huge numbers of words don't fit the rules and they have to be *memorized* and *retained.* They learn word lists that accompany the rule.....while simultaneously learning exceptions. Then they have dictation from the words....phrases and later sentences. The dictation spirals back through the previous rules so that the rules/exceptions are constantly being reviewed/reinforced.

 

The huge drawback of HTTS is its time commitment. If you are only doing it with one or two children, it is great. But if you are teaching multiple children all on different levels.....spelling will take a huge portion of your day. It was more time than I had to commit to spelling if I was going to be able to teach all the other necessary subjects as well.

 

Phonetic Zoo was our next stopping place. PZ is a wonderful resource for busy moms that want children on auto-pilot for spelling. It is a great program for *auditory* learners. They hear the rule after every 3 words (there are 15 words per list, so the rule is heard 6 or 7 times per list.) They hear the word, spell the word, hear the word spelled back correctly. They do not progress until they master the list 2 times.

 

Draw backs.....it is very list oriented. No spiral review. However, we had a much higher success rate with PZ than SP. If you do not have spelling impaired children and have multiple children you are teaching.....I would give PZ a try. I personally think that if you took a little time and created a stronger *visual* component (like workbook type pages) and added a hands on component (like the color-coded letter tiles), PZ would be a much stronger contender......AND I did *NOT* think of that until just now while I was typing this.....hmmmmm......I am going to have to mull that one over for a while. ;)

 

OK.....that leaves my newest purchase. Apples and Pears. First....I have never taught this program. I just ordered it a couple of weeks ago and have been looking through it. What I like about it.....

it has visual discrimination exercises....for my non-visual learners, it is simply another path that forces them to actually pay attention to the visual reality of words.

 

it is incremental....it breaks apart the words in different ways....they have to fill in the missing letters in dictation (the number of letters and some of the letters are provided initially)

 

it spirals

its multi-sensory

they learn spelling patterns, but not in a single categorized list (not like hill, pill, mill, etc.)

 

Will it work? That I can't answer. But my oldest graduated still spelling impaired and my 6th grader is following the exact same path. (And it isn't for lack of spelling instruction!!) So....I am going to give it a try. I am going to incorporate the color-coded letter tiles of AAS. He likes them. As a matter of fact, my 3rd, 6th and 8th graders keep walking past the boards (I made one each for the 3rd and 6th graders) and arrange the tiles in messages to eachother. If they want to use them.....hey, that is huge! :)

 

Sorry for being so long winded. I hope someone found this helpful! :) "

 

And this one is from Michelle T

 

"He has LD's, spelling is very, VERY hard for him.

 

The repetition, the copywork, the tracing, the dictation of sentences; these are helping him learn. He still hates spelling lessons, but admits that he is making great progress.

 

We're on lesson 50 of the first book, I expect we will go through all four books.

Michelle T"

 

HTH,

[ELaurie]

in OH this past weekend. She said that even when your dc know the spelling rules, and can spell words correctly on a spelling test, it takes a long time for the learning to transfer to other subject areas. Your ds may simply need more time to bring these two areas of learning together. Settle on a program that you like, and stick with it for awhile - don't give up yet :001_smile:

[Tenaj]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Now I'm torn - I loved using AAS last year with my younger son - however, as you can see from my siggy line, I have lots of littles with one on the way in the fall and the chances of me being able to consistently do AAS with my sixth grader don't look good :) That's why I dropped it after level 1 with my other son, I just couldn't be consistent with it.

 

We started out this year doing Spelling Power, but do to severe morning sickness (talking when nauseated is never fun) we dropped and it and I pulled out Phonetic Zoo A for him (I already owned it). He likes it because he doesn't have to wait on me to participate in order to complete his spelling, however, I'm finding the same problem I had when I used it with my olders, there's very little retention going on.

 

It is encouraging to hear what SWB said at the conference. I remembers my olders having spelling problems in middle school which have now basically disappeared, however, my sixth grader's spelling difficulties are much more noticeable and severe than theirs were.

 

I have much to ponder!

[MomZ]

 

I promise that the frustration and embarrassment of not being able to spell well far outweighs the short term embarrassment of being at the same spelling level as your little brother.

I have a 13 year old who also really struggles with spelling, so this is good advice for me to remember as well. I am finding the more copywork she does, the better. We will also be starting heavy dictation this week. I am also seriously thinking of printing Webster's Spelling Book http://donpotter.net/PDF/Webster%27s%20Spelling%20Book%201824%20-%20no%20pictures.pdf as I like the way it's broken down into syllables. I also think it would help her reading.

[Lori D.]

Lots of struggling spellers don't start to "click" with spelling until age 12, even age 14. Also, poor spelling is not helpful to SAT/ACT test essay scores. And people usually assume -- especially when all they have to go by is something in writing, no phone or face-to-face contact -- that if a person has poor spelling that they are also unintelligent. That can be a difficult hurdle to clear as an adult in the job market.

 

 

We have a struggling speller, and we have seen small incremental steps forward for him, starting at about age 12. We do three things that seem to help:

 

1. Make our own spelling/vocabulary with the spelling resource book "The ABCs and All Their Tricks".

 

2. Practice spelling in several ways each day (Out loud me to him, then he to me. Work with the words/vowel patterns/syllables etc. on the white board. Practice spelling the words while writing by dictating a short sentence to him with several spelling words in it.)

 

3. Megawords as supplement. (Megawords teaches vowel patterns and syllabication rules to help students see the root and prefixes/suffixes/endings, or basic syllables in a word, for spelling attack. Designed for grades 4 and up, and can be used into high school, as the word lists contain great vocabulary words.)

 

 

If nothing else, I highly recommend just using Megawords, which can be your solo spelling or a supplement. We have seen definite improvement in spelling since using it. BEST of luck, whatever you go with! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Lori D.]

PS -- I found this article on "Stealth Dyslexia" extremely helpful: http://mislabeledchild.com/html/Library/DyslexiaReading/Stealth_dyslexia.htm

 

It describes our struggling speller very closely.

[Tenaj]

PS -- I found this article on "Stealth Dyslexia" extremely helpful: http://mislabeledchild.com/html/Library/DyslexiaReading/Stealth_dyslexia.htm

 

It describes our struggling speller very closely.

 

 

Wow! This article describes Eli to a "T".

[Lori D.]

Spelling and writing simultaneously just doesn't happen for our struggling speller yet. Both are processed in different parts of the brain, and he still struggles to do these simultaneously. He is 15yo. He has to write. And then go back later to look for errors.

 

 

Just wanted to add that when our struggling speller was about 11yo, we used the Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual from the Stevenson Reading Program (read about the technique here: http://www.stevensonlearning.com/Language_skills/description.htm). It is a very visual (mnemonic) method of seeing a picture to understand the vowel and letter patterns. For example, the "ck" at the end of words such as "pack" or "luck" -- the "c" by itself is drawn as an open mouth and flies would get in, so "k" always stands next to "c" at the end of the word to use his arm and leg to wave away the flies.

 

Springboarding from the Stevenson, we have developed our own visuals and "stories" to help our struggling speller with homophone words (sound the same but spelled differently). For example: "meet" and "meat". It takes 2 people to meet and there are 2 "e"s in "meet" (on whiteboard write "meet", and draw a cartoon of the 2 "e"s shaking hands). Now write the word "meat" with the "a" written to look like a heart, or inside of a heart, and say "I LOVE to eat "meat". And look, the word "eat" is even inside of "meat"!

 

For showing how, when you add an ending to words that end in "e" you have to drop the "e", or for the rule of "drop the "y" and add "-ing" " -- make it a story. "Vowels can be very touchy and get into fights with each other you try to make them sit side by side at the end of a word and when you add a word ending, like "-ing", or "-ed" or "-y". So you have to drop the "e" off the end of the word and let the vowel at the start of the ending do the "e"'s job. Consonants, however, don't ever fight with vowels, so if the word ending begins with a consonant, such as "-ness" or "-ly" or "-ful", you don't have to drop anything."

 

We also use techniques from Sequential Spelling on the whiteboard, such as building up larger words from a single root and adding prefixes, endings and suffixes, or start with a single syllable and add syllables and endings:

 

at

bat

batter

battery

 

 

These 3 techniques are a big part of what we do with our whiteboard time. I shoot for 5-10 minutes of this kind of whiteboard time 3x/week, working with our spelling words in a variety of ways.

 

We also use the Phonetic Zoo technique of practicing spelling auditorally; Andrew Pudea (who helped develop the Phonetic Zoo program) has a great homeschool convention lecture on "Spelling and the Brain", in which he talks about spelling be a very sequential activity -- the correct letters must be in the correct sequence. Visual/random learners/thinkers see the word as a whole and don't get the sequence, so auditory spelling *forces* them to hear the word one letter at a time in the correct order. We practice this by I say the word and then spell it letter by letter to DS, then toss him a beanie toy. Then he says it and spells it back to me and tosses me the beanie. Tossing the beanie keeps him focused, expecting it to come flying at him. If he makes an error we *immediately* stop and I repeatedly spell it (4-5 times) correctly and then have him spell it correctly back to me so he doesn't get the incorrect spelling stuck in his mind. We do this outloud spelling practice daily. It only takes 5 minutes.

 

 

Hope something here is of help! BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Lori D.
added info

[Peela]

Why stop at 6th grade? I would use any program that is not demeaning to him- Spelling Power is good- and just plod away at it as a subject for as long as it takes. There is no magic age at which one is forever a failure at spelling and 6th grade is not that old.

 

Also, have him checked for dyslexia.

And, do dictation with him. I did repeat dictation with my son for years, and still do dictation with him although he is 13. He is dyslexic and we just did the same dictation over daily until he got 100% correct. It gives a motivation for noticing spelling. Nowadays he rarely makes mistakes.

Is your son lazy about spelling? Then he may need a motivation. Having to rewrite stuff that is spelled incorrectly was motivation for my son. Even though dyslexic, he now spells well.

However some kids, including dyslexics, have difficulty forming an inner picture of the word- they cannot see it in their mind's eye, let alone hold it there long enough to write it down. Dictation is great for helping with that as it trains the child to hold the words visually in the mind long enough to write it down.

There is a good dictation program that specifically teaches spelling, called Spelling Wisdom. Its downloadable.

[melmac]

Thank you for posting this. This describes my son so well, I had no idea, it never even crossed my mind before. There is dyslexia (not formally diagnosed) on my hubby's side of the family, though.

 

Are there any links to how to help these children? I may have overlooked them. Thanks!

 

 

PS -- I found this article on "Stealth Dyslexia" extremely helpful: http://mislabeledchild.com/html/Library/DyslexiaReading/Stealth_dyslexia.htm

 

It describes our struggling speller very closely.

[Tree House Academy]

All About Spelling was a bust here for us - my 9 year old laughed when we did the lessons and he told his dad it was "baby stuff." He was so insulted by the level of work that he would not take it seriously at all. I also found it teacher intensive and I skipped A LOT of stuff in level. Finally, I gave up and that is when we started Spelling Power at Level A.

[Tree House Academy]

Wow! This article describes Eli to a "T".

 

Much of that describes my son too. Unfortunately, there was no information there on how to help with this. :(

[EKS]

I'm using AAS for a 12yo boy in a similar situation. He had significant improvement using SS but that leveled off and for at least a year made no progress in spelling. So we switched to AAS about a month ago. We'll see if it helps.

 

He also has been typing most of his written work and using the spellchecker has been a lifesaver. I think you should make a last effort to help him improve his spelling *and* also start him on the spellchecker.

[PollyOR]

I promise that the frustration and embarrassment of not being able to spell well far outweighs the short term embarrassment of being at the same spelling level as your little brother.

 

I TOTALLY agree with this! My 8th grade dd just started AAS today. I don't care how much she complains, she is going to do it.

 

DD started writing a book and the spell checker was no help. I had to go back through her work after she had used the spell checker. Some of the words were nowhere close to what she wanted. This kid refuses to write in public situations (church functions, family gatherings, etc.) She comes very close to having a panic attack. Not being able to spell has been a huge handicap for her.

 

I had a wonderful, smart roommate in college who still can't spell to this day (40's). Her career options have been limited by her inability to spell very basic words.

 

I hope you find something to help your son. Let us know what works. :)

[MerryAtHope]

I own Level 1 because I used it with my first grader last year, but I haven't tried with my sixth grader because I know he would be completely insulted. I'm trying to preserve his pride a bit but his second grade brother really spells more confidently than he does. If I go with AAS, would I start with level 1? I'll have to go check out their website and see what I can figure out? Thanks for the suggestion, that one wasn't on my radar.

 

Reversals like wnat for want could signal dyslexia (yes, even with reading well, that's very common--check out Stealth Dyslexia and symptoms of dyslexia), or an eye tracking or visual processing problem (look up COVD stuff), or some auditory processing issues (can go with either of the other two or be all on it's own).

 

Whatever you decide to do, you need to work on things like segmenting and getting him to say the sounds as he writes. He may not want to (let him whisper when he copies, but when you work on spelling together or he does copywork, it's really crucial). My son used to spell the word FROM, FORM, until I got him to consistently do this. I still catch FIRST as FRIST when he's tired. But he's so much better than he was a year ago, and I attribute his success to AAS and really focusing on segmenting & saying sounds as they write them.

 

If you want to do AAS, here's something you can do--start him in level 2, but work in the lessons from level 1 that include learning all of the phonograms he might not know (don't review the consonants, but if he doesn't know all of the sounds for the vowels, or for y, s, ch etc..., review those), and then especially work on segmenting with him. He might also need the C vs. K lesson from level 1, or CK, or maybe consonant blends--you know what he knows & doesn't know. Find a way to make it palatable for him. Tell him you want to make spelling really easy for him to get right, would he like that? And then say, well, in order for me to do that, I need to figure out where you might have any gaps. So, if you already know something, we'll skip over it (you can teach a lesson & let him demonstrate a word or two instead of making him do all the words he knows). You don't have to do every word in every lesson with him, fast track through what he knows, you are just looking for comprehension and understanding, and to fill in gaps. Here's an article on teaching older students.

 

I started my son in Level 2 but picked up what he needed from Level 1 as we went last May. As I said, he was always misspelling FROM. This past January he spelled emergency correctly, all on his own--we never studied it. He's come a huge, long way in a year. He even came in 6th out of 12 in our HS spelling bee--he's always been last before (but doing AAS gave him the confidence to try again when I thought he wouldn't want to--several people noted that his confidence had totally changed from the last bee to this one). He received an award for the most improved speller.

 

I wrote more on my blog, I do get excited because it helped us so much.

 

I see later in the thread that you think it sounds like dyslexia--do something Orton Gillingham, whether AAS or something else. I hope you find what will help.

 

Merry :-)

[anniet]

Since it sounds like AAS would be too time consuming for you right now, I REALLY think Sequential Spelling would be beneficial. It's quick and my son was very receptive of it who was in 7th grade at the time. The fact that they have a CD coming out will make it even more time efficient for you.

Ann

[Tenaj]

I have to admit that I'm leaning toward SS right now because of the time factor. If time wasn't a factor, I would probably go with AAS but I have to realistic about what will actually get done :)

[mamaof2andtwins]

Is there another student in your house that could also work with your struggling speller. Honestly, he has a weakness, and it will be time consuming to help him. You don't necessarily have to be the teacher for it if you can't be. Or you can assign an older child to work with a younger child on something else to free you up to tackle this problem with your child.

 

Dictation is a time tested method for improving spelling, but you will have to plan how to do this. I like the AAS has dictation, and the dictation matches where they are at in their spelling.

 

I can also tell you that I started AAS with almost 9 year old twins. At first it was a lot of things they already knew. I told them they had to "learn the program". However, now they are into new territory.

 

My 15 yo complained that AAS is a little kids spelling program because he sees his sisters use it. I told him that it is a spelling program and since he doesn't know all there is to know about spelling he fits the criteria to use this program. He couldn't argue with that.

 

I would encourage you to find away to work with him even if it isn't you actually doing the teaching. It looks like you have a lot of "teacher assistants" in your house.

 

Jennie

[Staci in MO]

...which may not be much. :)

 

I took a quick glance through the scope and sequence of AAS, and compared it to the scope and sequence of Megawords, and it appears to me that they cover the same thing. Here's a link to the Megawords program overview: Megawords Program overview

 

Granted, Megawords doesn't have the letter tiles. And it doesn't have dictation, but as far as I can tell, the scope is similar. Megawords also starts out with syllabication, and goes through all the phonograms, rules, etc.

 

I don't have a horse in this race (in fact, I'm thinking hard about AAS for my rising 2nd grader), but Megawords is designed for older students, and can be worked independently, so it could meet Jan's needs better.

 

A good curriculum that gets done beats the perfect one that sits on the shelf any day. On the other hand, the one-on-one aspect of AAS might be just what her son needs right now. :)

[MerryAtHope]

I have to admit that I'm leaning toward SS right now because of the time factor. If time wasn't a factor, I would probably go with AAS but I have to realistic about what will actually get done :)

 

I've done both & AAS doesn't take me any longer. I set a timer for 15-20 minutes & go through what we can, then pick up the next day where we left off.

 

I would look at how your child learns. If he likes a discovery-oriented method and picks up on patterns, Sequential could be a winner. If your child likes to be shown what to do, to know the reason why something is the way it is, to be shown when and how to do it a certain way, then All About Spelling is going to give you that.

 

HTH! Merry :-)

[MerryAtHope]

...which may not be much. :)

 

I took a quick glance through the scope and sequence of AAS, and compared it to the scope and sequence of Megawords, and it appears to me that they cover the same thing. Here's a link to the Megawords program overview: Megawords Program overview

 

Granted, Megawords doesn't have the letter tiles. And it doesn't have dictation, but as far as I can tell, the scope is similar. Megawords also starts out with syllabication, and goes through all the phonograms, rules, etc.

 

I don't have a horse in this race (in fact, I'm thinking hard about AAS for my rising 2nd grader), but Megawords is designed for older students, and can be worked independently, so it could meet Jan's needs better.

 

A good curriculum that gets done beats the perfect one that sits on the shelf any day. On the other hand, the one-on-one aspect of AAS might be just what her son needs right now. :)

 

I really like Megawords, but the problem is that it starts with multi-syllable words right off. If a child is misspelling want like "wnat," I think they need to back up and start before the point that MW starts.

 

Merry :-)

[siloam]

Is your son lazy about spelling? Then he may need a motivation. Having to rewrite stuff that is spelled incorrectly was motivation for my son. Even though dyslexic, he now spells well.

 

Agree 100% here! It must be less painful to stop and think about it, and ask if needed than to skip over it.

 

However some kids, including dyslexics, have difficulty forming an inner picture of the word- they cannot see it in their mind's eye, let alone hold it there long enough to write it down.

 

Actually it is worst than that. Dyslexic students usually see in picture not text, so it is difficult for them to recall a word at all let alone how one is spelled. If they do manage to be able to recall it they may very well remember it wrong. More often done just go for it and write out the word and hope it is spelled correctly. They also have no reliable sense of it "looking right." I can't count the number of times I could swear a word looked wrong, and I look it up to find I spelled it right. Let's not even get started on the problem of thinking you spelled the word correctly and run spell check to figure out you have it wrong in your head. It has taken me years to figure out how to spell words like literature and sentence (sheesh! there went spell check I spelled sentence wrong again).

 

I too, would encourage you to keep on going. I would prefer to see you use a multi-sensory program like AAS because that words best for dyslexics students, but Megawords will do for now, IMO. Later on I would recruit him to to teach AAS to one of the little ones...funny how much you learn when you teach something. :D

 

Heather

 

[Lizzie in Ma]

I used the phonogram flash cards for The Writing Road to Reading to do some remedial work a few years back and had excellent results.