Another question about spelling: filling gaps

[3Rivers]

My fifth grader is a voracious reader, but her spelling is atrocious. I fear that I am addressing this issue too late, and now we need to fill some gaps in learning. She has been in first private, then public, and now homeschool.

I need a brief, concise resource for reviewing spelling rules, i.e. all of those "i before e except after c" sayings and rules. I think that would work better than the Sequential Spelling we're doing now.

I basically need a list OR a spelling program that works from those rules to reinforce them.

What do you suggest? :bigear:

Jamie

[nmoira]

I think that would work better than the Sequential Spelling we're doing now.How far are you into Sequential Spelling?

[ElizabethB]

Here are some free and cheap spelling programs that teach rules:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html

and here's the most complete list of spelling rules I've found online:

http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml

My free online spelling lessons also have most of the rules, they're fairly short to work through.

[3Rivers]

We're up to about Day 20. She does fine when she's actually doing the spelling tests, but I'm noticing it doesn't stick, which is why I think the rules approach will work better for her, especially when they rhyme.

Thanks, ElizabethB. I'll try those.

Jamie

[nmoira]

We're up to about Day 20. She does fine when she's actually doing the spelling tests, but I'm noticing it doesn't stick, which is why I think the rules approach will work better for her, especially when they rhyme.Typically, no noticeable improvement is seen until about Day 60.

You might also want to look into Megawords.

[3Rivers]

Good to know about Avko's resource. I'll have to think about whether to continue or not. I can see why it would be good to stick with something. On the other hand, I'm just now becoming acquainted with all the great Classical resources, the Bluedorns, Jessie Wise and SWB. I like the "grass roots" practical approach sooooo I might take a look at the Webster Speller and the Handy Encoder/Decoder. Thanks for the info and links that led to that gem of a find. :001_smile:


Jamie

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

I have seen great improvement with my poor speller.


See samples:
http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?seriesonly=1825M

[ElizabethB]

We're up to about Day 20. She does fine when she's actually doing the spelling tests, but I'm noticing it doesn't stick, which is why I think the rules approach will work better for her, especially when they rhyme.
Jamie

I am the same way, I was a poor speller in general but could ace my spelling tests, a few weeks later I would forget the words on the tests.

Over-learning the sound spelling correspondences of English through phonics tutoring and learning the phonetic spelling rules really helped my spelling.

I find it helpful to write down words I can't spell and figure out the reason I'm misspelling them and trying to figure out if there's a rule for the word.

I misspelled truly 100's of times until I found this rule, I kept thinking it needed to have an e (I didn't misspell awful, however!):

The final e is dropped after a letter u or w: truly, awful

[Lovedtodeath]

Spelling Rules (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67356) Here is a link with more.

Also, IMO How to Teach Spelling is just what you are looking for. It is an OG method with the spelling rules, and one TM covers grades 1-12. You would only need one workbook (if you choose to get the workbook at all) workbook 2 for up to 5th grade. Half.com has some great deals. I go the TM and 2 workbooks for under $20 including shipping. I chose this program because I wanted to get through all of the rules quickly, and I don't have to spend money on 3 different sets per year like some other programs (AAS).

[cillakat]

We're up to about Day 20. She does fine when she's actually doing the spelling tests, but I'm noticing it doesn't stick,

Jamie

I found the same thing.

If she has trouble applying the rules that you'll be teaching her....(ie gets it when you teach her but doesn't use it in practical application), consider switching to All About Spelling.

:)
K

[Jenn in Mo]

Another vote for All About Spelling! (http://www.all-about-spelling.com/)

We were using Sequential Spelling and I loved it. It was the first book that had actually helped us achieve any progress. My sons are in 3rd and 6th grade. They read well, but it quickly became obvious that reading good books only creates good spelling if the child is a visual learner.

My oldest is a kinetic learner and, though he did respond well to Sequential Spelling, didn't show a lot of "clicking" until All About Spelling. The English language is so squirrelly, I didn't think there would be much success in learning actual rules....how many spellings actually fall into those "rules"? I'm realizing now that MUCH of our spelling falls under rules that are easily learned.

We have all four levels. We flew through book 1 in a couple weeks because I wanted to be sure we covered all the basics and didn't skip any stair-steps. We progressed rapidly through level 2 until about halfway through the book and then WHAM! we hit things that slowed them down. Now we are progressing normally.....and they're learning!

[MerryAtHope]

and here's the most complete list of spelling rules I've found online:

http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml


Helpful list but it has at least one error--in #2. It's not true that a 2nd vowel "must" be added to make a long vowel sound. When a syllable is open (no consonants after the vowel, as in the word "o-pen"), the vowel is long. There are tons of words that fall into this pattern.

Merry :-)