Spelling Power not working on day 1?

[brownie]

I just quizzed my boys on Spelling Power to find their first 5 words of the school year. I had placed ds8 in level E about a month ago when the book came in the mail. However after quizzing him today on over 100 words from level E, we had only found 1 word to work on. I skipped ahead to level F. I got half way through group 3 before finding 5 words.

My question is...does that mean this curriculum isn't going to work for DS8? Is level F going to get harder as it progresses or does it stay rather level within the level? The words just seem to be such a huge mix of levels within a group from 'lip' to 'arithmetic'. I love the idea of being able to work only on words he doesn't know but I don't want to spend the time to quiz him on 50+ words a day just to find 5 errors. Do you think it will get better as we get into it or has anyone else had this problem with a strong speller? I know there are plenty of words he could benefit from learning to spell...I'm just not sure that they're grouped together in this curriculum.

Brownie

[babysparkler]

I'm very curious to hear answers to your question because it is mine as well.

Sounds exactly like my ds9. He really loves to do the "testing", but we could go on for an hour just to find a couple of words he doesn't know... and he really likes the challenge of studying words he gets wrong, so I hate to stop him after the 15 minutes with no new words. He really loves the study methods of this particular program, so I don't want to switch, so I was wondering if I just need to move him up another level?

(On a side note, I gave him a "pretest" of the UIL spelling lists he will be competing with later in the school year and he was delighted to find 450 words out of the 800 on the list that he didn't know! He right away started studying that list (in SP style) and was so excited :) We plan to do these words this year to prepare for his competition, and now I am wondering if I will even need to do SP this year. Sorry to hijack! )

[brownie]

What is UIL? I would be happy to use the spelling power method...if I could just find a ready made list (preferably organized by spelling rule) that was challenging enough to use it on. I could make lists from ABC's and All Their Tricks, but that would be even more work! Spelling should be easy to teach! Brownie

[babysparkler]

What is UIL? I would be happy to use the spelling power method...if I could just find a ready made list (preferably organized by spelling rule) that was challenging enough to use it on. I could make lists from ABC's and All Their Tricks, but that would be even more work! Spelling should be easy to teach! Brownie

We do an academic competiton (PSIA - Private Schools Interscholastic Association) every year that is modeled after the UIL public school competitions. One of the tests is spelling, and that is where this list comes from. It is not at all arranged by spelling rules, unfortunately... just a random sampling of above-level words similar to a spelling bee, but in written form. For the most part they are designed to be a challenge.

I don't know that it is what you want because they really are random and not according to spelling rules, but I purchased the list for $3 plus shipping from PSIA (http://www.psiaacademics.org/pdfs/misc/psia-studyorder.pdf) He is a rising 4th grader, and ended last spring in Spelling Power level G, and the 4th grade words are challenging.

[ElizabethB]

While I'm not normally a fan of random lists, that might be best in your case, the $3 lists look interesting.

And, with "The ABCs and All Their Tricks" and a spelling notebook, you could make him figure out which rules/patterns the words he can't spell fall under.

"Tricks of the Trade" is a notebook already arranged that way, I think it's worth the price, but you could help him make his own if you prefer not to spend the money, it's $12. It's set up to make it like a fun puzzle/clue game to figure out how to group and spell your word.

CBD has some sample pages:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=62336&item_code=WW&netp_id=215895&event=ESRCN&view=covers

[Donna]

My youngest is a natural speller. Last year, at 6yo she tested into Level D then worked through Levels D-E of Spelling Power. She rarely got a word wrong. I didn't quiz her until she got 5 words wrong though. I tested her through a lesson and if she didn't get any wrong, she was finished with spelling for the day.

She tended to internalize the rule somehow and use it to spell the words on the list. She also never needed to entire Spelling Program method to learn the words. I told her how they were spelled correctly and then she knew the words and used many of them regularly in her writings.

What I do, in addition to Spelling Power lists, is to take those rare, misspelled words from her writing and assignments and add those to the next day's spelling test.

The lists on Spelling Power do get a bit more difficult as you progress through the levels. The first few lists on every level are with short vowel sounds which are the easiest and as you progress you'll hit some that have some more irregular spellings.

[Karin]

It sounds to me like Spelling Power is working. It's ruling out all the words you don't need to work on. I love Spelling Power for that very reason, and my eldest, who is a natural speller used it. I plan to use it again now that my 11 yo is starting to be able to spell decently and has figured out her way of remembering how to spell words when she studies them.

My eldest hasn't studied spelling in English for several years now because she rarely needs to, and that's okay.

[brownie]

It did work fine this morning...the words we came up with were definitely a challenge for ds...just took too long to identify them. I think I may 'filter' the lists myself as I'm quizzing him to speed up the process. I have a pretty good idea which words I need not waste my time testing him on. We'll see how it goes from here and re-evaluate in a month or 2 if it's not working. Thanks!

[zaichiki]

For my oldest ds, who has perfectionist tendencies, Spelling Power was a bust. We started at 7 years old, I think, and he tested into level E.

We worked on it a few months, but he rarely missed a word in the beginning. I had the same feeling others have mentioned -- that we'd spend the whole 15 minutes just spelling words he knew, or perhaps he had just figured out the rule from the list. (He's a gestalt learner.) Unfortunately, although I explained that we were trying to find *new* words for him to practice, he got so used to "getting them all right" that he freaked out the first time he got a few words he actually needed to study. He felt that he had failed when he found words he didn't know how to spell. Oh, believe me, I had talked it up the whole time ("Yeah! We found a word for you to study!"). I even stopped after 2 new words at one point, so he wouldn't feel a *lot* of failure. I didn't think he could emotionally handle 5 new words. Well, finally after a few weeks of that, something clicked and he was okay with 5 words to study, though he rarely collected that many in one session. (I would add words he had missed from his writing and whatnot.) But *I* was exhausted from it all. We ended up using Spelling Power for only 3 or 4 months, I think.

We didn't do any formal spelling curriculum the next year, when he was 8.

Last year, at 9 years old and a rising 4th grader by age, I gave him the placement test again and he tested at H (grade level 9.0 according to Spelling Power). I figured we didn't need to do a spelling program. He had obviously made more than a year's growth in spelling without ANY formal instruction... and we had better things to do with our time than 15 mintues a day of spelling. Of course, he HAD done copywork and dictation during this time... and we did keep a running list of words he had misspelled... but I never asked him to study.

I'm assuming his spelling growth will continue without a spelling curriculum. This year he goes to school for the first time, BUT if I do get the chance to homeschool him again at some point in the future, I'll go with vocab/etymology curricula instead of spelling.

With his sister I am using All About Spelling. She has stealth/Dyseidetic Dyslexia and, though she is a fabulous phonetic speller, she generally needs spelling rules spoonfed to her with LOTS of repetition. She's also a sequential learner and likes to learn things one bite at a time.

I remain, to this day, amazed at HOW DIFFERENTLY two intelligent siblings need to be taught in order to be good spellers. Really. (If they weren't my kids I'd think somebody was making this stuff up!)

:)

[jenadina]

I have doubts about Spelling Power, myself...ds-just-turned-6 is half-way through level D and only very rarely misses a word, but when he does, he completely loses it. I've explained to him that we are looking for words that he *doesn't* know how to spell so that he can learn to spell them, but it doesn't help. He's a perfectionist. What to do:confused:

[zaichiki]

I have doubts about Spelling Power, myself...ds-just-turned-6 is half-way through level D and only very rarely misses a word, but when he does, he completely loses it. I've explained to him that we are looking for words that he *doesn't* know how to spell so that he can learn to spell them, but it doesn't help. He's a perfectionist. What to do:confused:

Halfway through level D is, according to Spelling Power, equivalent to grade 4.7 (seventh month of fourth grade). If you're happy with that, you could drop a formal spelling program for this year and give him the placement test (survey and fine tuning) again next year. If he's made a year or more of growth without a spelling program (perhaps from his reading, or keeping a running list of his problem words, or copywork/dictation), then you might be happy to let a formal spelling program drop for now. You could always add in a roots and/or vocabulary program instead at some point.

I guess it all comes down to how much energy and time you're willing to put into the spelling program at this point. For me, it wasn't worth the exhaustion of dealing with ds's perfectionism in this area. That's not to say that we didn't deal with it in other areas (math, cello lessons, basketball and soccer), but I chose my battles.

BTW As he's gotten older he has really matured in this area and will frequently handle the anxiety/frustration of those perfectionist tendencies himself. It has taken a LOT of energy from me over the years, though, to get him to this point: a concerted effort to be welcoming of mistakes, keeping calm while he has a tantrum, accepting the fact that it might take him 3 hours to FINALLY decide to complete an assignment (during those 3 hours he ended up in his room to calm down, we talked and role played coping mechanisms, I fished out old work to show him how he has progressed over the years, etc.).

My younger two do not seem to be perfectionists. Yipee!:party:

[jenadina]

Halfway through level D is, according to Spelling Power, equivalent to grade 4.7 (seventh month of fourth grade). If you're happy with that, you could drop a formal spelling program for this year and give him the placement test (survey and fine tuning) again next year. If he's made a year or more of growth without a spelling program (perhaps from his reading, or keeping a running list of his problem words, or copywork/dictation), then you might be happy to let a formal spelling program drop for now. You could always add in a roots and/or vocabulary program instead at some point.
Thanks for pointing this out! Can you tell me where in SP you found that info? I didn't think the levels correlated to grade, but it's been a WHILE since I read anything other than the word lists.

Dropping it and doing a placement test again in a year sounds like a good idea; I'll def. consider that!

[zaichiki]

Thanks for pointing this out! Can you tell me where in SP you found that info? I didn't think the levels correlated to grade, but it's been a WHILE since I read anything other than the word lists.

Spelling Power Fourth Edition
p.46 Chart at the bottom

They say that this chart will help you to approximate grade level abilities. They also state that their flow-word list (the actual level in each program -- not the survey/placement lists) is not based on grade level, but word frequency. Each level contains words that are both above and below grade level. Still, they DO give you grade level approximates.

Cheers!

[brownie]

I do disagree with the grade level approximations though. DS8 is now trucking through level F...and I don't think the majority of the words are 6th grade spelling. He was in public school last year and it doesn't line up. 3rd-5th grade probably with a bunch of 2nd grade thrown in for review (at least in the first 5 lists we've done so far). The ones he's missing might be 6th grade level.

However if you're looking at level D for a 6 year old...your ds is probably learning to spell on his own just by reading. My ds6 is doing level B now, and based on ds8, I'm expecting some day this year there will be a leap in spelling ability and he will hurdle over a couple of levels. Most 6 year olds can't spell much of anything (probably why spelling power says not to start until 8yrs old) so your ds is WAY ahead.

[brownie]

Since we're discussing Spelling Power, I wanted to express a concern I have about the spelling rules. I looked ahead last night and saw that they give 7 ways long a can be spelled. I don't know if this is an issue isolated to long a but I have a problem with that. Referencing ABC's and All Their Tricks, there are only 3 words in the english language where ea says long a. Why would you teach ea as an option for making long a? It's an exception and 3 words can be memorized.

The fact that I'm already editing a curriculum that was supposed to be pick up n'go has me frustrated. I guess I can't accept anything the way it is :tongue_smilie:

Brownie

[zaichiki]

I do disagree with the grade level approximations though. DS8 is now trucking through level F...and I don't think the majority of the words are 6th grade spelling. He was in public school last year and it doesn't line up. 3rd-5th grade probably with a bunch of 2nd grade thrown in for review (at least in the first 5 lists we've done so far). The ones he's missing might be 6th grade level.

Brownie,

I was a middle school teacher for a few years and I do not disagree with Spelling Power's grade approximations on that chart. Obviously, there are different levels of spelling words that can be taught depending on the teacher, classroom, school, curriculum used, and child's ability. But Spelling Power's grade level approximations DO seem, from my experience, to be correct.

Remember, though, that the flow-word lists are NOT grade level. It's the placement test where they give the grade level approximation. And, you're right: some of the words in each level are below the grade level approximation and some are above.

[jenadina]

About the spelling rules...I think they could have been done better, too. I don't bother to give my son the rule, it just confuses him. I simply tell him "The sound of today's words is __," and that seems to work better for us. I really am debating dropping SP now, especially since we do spelling analysis in CW!

[Karin]

I have doubts about Spelling Power, myself...ds-just-turned-6 is half-way through level D and only very rarely misses a word, but when he does, he completely loses it. I've explained to him that we are looking for words that he *doesn't* know how to spell so that he can learn to spell them, but it doesn't help. He's a perfectionist. What to do:confused:


That's not Spelling Power so much as your ds being a perfectionist. I have three dc. One who rarely missed words and two who did, because they're not natural spellers. Spelling Power didn't work for my middle dd for a few years because she is not a natural speller and was missing so many words. Also, that approach to learning words did not work for her. I prefer Spelling Power for natural spellers or for dc who can learn with that method.

The only other suggestion I have is to only study words your ds doesn't know as you do your school work. I personally wouldn't waste money on programs designed to teach spelling to a child who can already spell or who picks it up simply from reading.

[alexfam]

Spelling Power didn't work for us nor did Spelling Workout (same situation here as yours). What I have done is when he is doing his writing assignments I circle the miss spelled words and then those are his spelling words for the next week.

[wendzu]

Funny my daughter has the same reaction, but we've been able to work through it. She is in level E and went through 4 - 5 lists before missing a word. When she did misspell a word the first time she was devastated. I had to talk her through it and tell her that no one in the world knows how to spell every word, even brought out the 'ol Websters dictionary to show her how many words are in the English language. That comforted her and we are progressing in Spelling Power.

[zaichiki]

brought out the 'ol Websters dictionary to show her how many words are in the English language. That comforted her and we are progressing in Spelling Power.

Hey, that's a good trick. I'll store it away if I ever come up against this issue again.

[CleoQc]

Based on my limited experience, the first few lists of a level contain a lot of review words. They are therefore 'below' the level in question.
I did Spelling Power two years ago, but we will be going back to it this year.

[Ammiddeon]

Im wondering if anyone else is like this or if its just me...I do well during the day busy with my job, housework, all that stuff but towards evening I get this headachy almost-need-to-barf feeling. I know its because I miss Bob. We see him as often as we can, his Dad and I.

But...does it ever get any easier?