can someone compare Natural Speller & Sequential Spelling for me please?

[Pster]

This would be used for an upcoming 3rd grader.....

they both teach using "word families" right?

How do you schedule a general week of lessons for either Natural Speller or Sequential Spelling if you use them?

thanks

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I use Natural Speller with my 6th grader and my 4th grader. This is our 3rd year, I think.

I just "pretest" like crazy. I go through the graded word lists (yes, they're grouped by common sound), and they write the words on a lap size white board (this lets me see both of their work, since I alternate between them)

For my 4th grader, if he misses a word, I tell him how to spell it correctly, and have him write it two more times. I also circle the word on my list. I go back to that word a couple of times the same day, and then I re-visit the word the next session. I keep throwing it in there until I'm sure he remembers how to spell it. He's a pretty good natural speller, so there are usually only a few words (out of about 20) that he misses in a day. We just plug along through the lists, re-doing the missed words as necessary until we can eliminate them, adding new missed words, and glossing over the ones he already knows how to spell.

For my 6th grade dd, I do it a little differently. I give her the list words, and she spells them. I also ask her to define them if I suspect she doesn't know. I circle mispelled words, and vocabulary words. When she has 12 - 15 words on her list, I have her write them all down (from the book). Then, she alphabetizes them. She looks up the definition and gives an example sentence for each vocab word. She adds prefixes and suffixes to any words that will take them. Then, we retest. Usually, just working with the words so much will cement the spelling and meanings into her mind. She's a good speller, also, so it sometimes takes weeks just to come up with a spelling/vocabulary list.

[Kathy in MD]

This would be used for an upcoming 3rd grader.....

they both teach using "word families" right?

How do you schedule a general week of lessons for either Natural Speller or Sequential Spelling if you use them?

thanks

a word, ds writes it down, I spell it, ds corrects it and rewrites the word if he missed it. I then read the next word. The lessons cover 25 words and take 10 minutes or less. Spelling's over for the day, unless you want to double up.

There's no studying, no stress and it works even for the child who struggles. It even carries into general writing, which is something that never happened for the traditional spelling program I used in school. And I recieved straight A's on the tests. :mad: However, don't expect to see improvement in your dc's spelling until after lesson 60 or so.

Here's a link to the web site: http://avko.org/sequentialspelling.html If you scroll down you'll find a link to 7 sample lessons you can try.

It would help if your child has a good vocabulary because the words build into advanced words relatively quickly.