writing/spelling help needed

Check out Looking Glass Spelling, level 3 at my website www.gwhizresources.com. It’s a multisensory spelling book for older kids. It teaches digraphs, r-controlled vowels, and multisyllable words and vocabulary, too. The sample that’s on line is the lowest level of the book. Level 3 is much more advanced in terms of the concepts taught, but the format is the same. It is extremely easy to use. I’m not sure what you mean by an over-reliance on phonics and decoding for spelling, because research and my experience shows that decoding/phonics work best. Perhaps he is misapplying the phonics rules and not remembering exceptions. Anyway, if you like what you see, give me a call or send me an email after New Years. I can make a special price for a parent.

Sincerely,
Fern Goldstein

Your report is a classic from a confused and misguided school system. First they tell you what his phonics weaknesses are, and then they tell you he relies “too much” on phonics. Does anyone else smell a fish here? This is a report written by someone who doesn’t really like using phonics and keeps the topic at arm’s length. When the child has trouble reading, they teach a number of guessing strategies and put phonics at the bottom of the list. Then, when he doesn’t use phoincs skills, having been taught not to, they downgrade him for doing exactly what he has been told.
In most cases, the solution is a good tutoring program that is logical and consistent (something you clearly are not going to get from this school!). He needs to learn the advanced phonics systematically, and to learn the habit of analyzing words automatically, not playing guessing games until forced to look at the word as a last resort. A lot of the tutoring time unfortunately has to be spent unteaching the bad habits and confusions he has been taught. The good news is that improvement can often be seen in a month of tutoring, and many students catch up to grade level surprisingly fast when actually taught.

Micki,

Victoria has given you excellent advice. If you are looking for something to use at home, pick up a copy of the book, “Reading Reflex” by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness (Amazon.com about $12). It is a program to use at home, but there are certified tutors in it as well. It’s reading method is called Phono-Graphix. There are tests in it which will help you know where to begin. Other programs which you could have him tutored in are Lindamood Bell LiPS and Orton Gillingham.

Janis

I couldn’t agree more. Please check out my website at www.gwhizresources.com. My own frustration with commercially made products and a request by my supervisor to supplement phonics-based reading instruction for my dyslexic students led me to write my own spelling books based on strategies for decoding and spelling (Glass Analysis). It’s called Looking Glass Spelling. It’s easy-to-use for parents, new teachers, and over-worked teachers, and it works!!
Fern

Please check out Looking Glass Spelling on my website www.gwhizresources.com. It’s easier to use and cheaper than Phonographix. It doesn’t require a tutor or special program like Orton or Lindamood. Lindamood is great for hard-core non-readers, who have not benefitted from other methods. My school uses it for our young students and some older non-readers with good results, and I have taken their workshop. However, in our experience, it is very involved to teach, and the results taper off at intermediate and higher levels, so you don’t get much bang for your buck once the student has mastered the beginning levels. Orton is the way to go for severe dyslexia. My materials fit in with low-to-advanced readers who can’t spell. They are more strategy-based; whereas Orton spelling is more rule based.
Fern

Fern,

It does look interesting from the site. I think you should post prices on the site, though. I wish I could compare yours to AVCO Spelling and possibly even Spelling Power. That’s the problem, teachers don’t have millions of dollars to just buy all the programs to look at!

Janis

My humble apologies, Fern. I did find the price list on the site. The prices were not where I thought they would be at first.

Janis

So you would tend to think that OG would be the best follow up to LMB? My daughter received 2 yrs of LMB from 8-10 yrs old. She is doing really well, but not as well as I would like on the MS words. I have been told OG is the way to go for follow up after LMB. BTW, this would be paying for a private tutor, I would not be doing it myself (She already knows more than me if you know what I mean).

Janis,

If you are interested in more information, please contact me at 201-791-4335. Each Looking Glass Spelling binder contains enough material for a full academic year if you do 20-40 minute lessons 3 to 5 days a week. You make as many copies of each lesson as you want, and you can tailor the lessons because it comes in a reproducible binder. Hope you liked what you saw.

Fern

If you are planning to have your daughter do Orton, you must go to a specialist. It isn’t something a tutor can just pick up and teach. The instructors get very intensive training. Make sure the tutor has the right credentials. A teacher can take some workshops, but really good instructors have taken several years of training equivalent to a second masters degree. It will e expensive, but worth the result.
Fern