Spelling, grammar program recommendations needed

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I’m looking for ideas on teaching spelling and grammar to my dd, currently in fifth grade. She is an excellent reader but poor speller (while writing, not on spelling tests) and her writing is full of punctuation and errors capitalization mistake. She did the Sound Reading Solution computer program last summer and that has helped some. I think the main problem is that she spent first through third grade in a school that taught “balanced litereacy” and did not explicitly teach any grammar. Her spelling errors include failing to double consonants before adding endings and sometimes just failing to translate all spoken syllables into the written word (e.g., compition for competition). She scores mid to high 90th percentiles on all aspects of the Terra Nova standardized test except on spelling (28th percentile). Apart from these areas, I would consider her NT.

I’ve decided she needs some explicit instruction in spelling and grammar—I can’t find any on point computer programs (her preference) and she has rejected the idea of a tutor so it will have to be me. For spelling programs I’m considering “How to Spell” Book 3. Megawords also looks like an option based on reviews but some of the sample pages looked like a lot of endless fill in the blanks. These are both available through EPS Books, where I also notice a book called Capitalization and Punctuation, which looked like it might attack the areas of grammar she needs work on. Any views on these programs or suggestions for others? Would there be any merit in having her redo the SRS computer program?

Thanks, Mariedc

(P.S. I tried Sequential Spelling with her last summer and she simply hated me seeing her have to cross out words she spelled wrong so we had to abandon that. Ideally, a program would have a nice mix of things she could do on her own and others that required me.)

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/01/2004 - 4:11 AM

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“Spelling Through Morphographs” would fit all of your needs. Each lesson takes about 20 minutes and contains a variety of exercises — some oral, and some short written exercises. This is a teacher-directed program (teacher being you, of course). Everything is scripted, so it is very easy for a parent to just pick it up and start. There are about 140 lessons in all.

This is a really excellent program designed for middle schoolers, and is used even for college-level spelling remediation in some places.

You would want to have your daughter take the placement test for STM before purchasing the program. You can print out the placement test at http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/school/schoolGraphics/spellingthroughmorphographs0.pdf

This program splits words into morphemes — the smallest units of speech that have meaning. The rules governing how to combine morphemes are few and very consistent — unlike traditional spelling rules, which often have many exceptions.

I much prefer STM to Megawords. As you noted, Megawords has tons of workbook pages. It is very slow compared to STM.

Now for the bad news. STM is used primarily in schools, so the publisher’s cost is high. Last time I checked, it was about $200 for the teacher’s guide and a workbook. Ideally you want to buy two workbooks. You can use the second workbook to copy a lesson if it needs to be reviewed at some point, and then you can re-sell the program as a set complete with TM and workbook.

Nancy

Submitted by Mariedc on Fri, 04/02/2004 - 2:16 AM

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Thank you Nancy—I tested my dd and she made three part B errors—the minimum for Spelling Through Morphographs. The cost does seem very steep, but then a tutor would be even more so. BTW I had difficulty finding the program on the SRA website but finally found it under Direct Instruction (not under Spelling). I’ll probably order it tomorrow—how long would it take to do the entire program? Mariedc

Submitted by Fern on Sun, 04/11/2004 - 4:11 AM

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Try Looking Glass Spelling, if you haven’t made a commitment to the other book yet. It is designed for middle and upper grade students with LD and can be used independently by the student with input as needed from teacher or parent. It also has age-appropriate vocab. and lots of practice with carryover and generalization.

Fern

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/11/2004 - 5:25 AM

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Spelling Through Morphographs is designed for about 8 months’ worth of lessons (one per day for 140 lessons), so you can figure on about one school year to get through the program.

Does your daughter type? If not, you may to start on keyboarding skills also. The program I like best is “Keyboarding Skills” by Diana Hanbury King (http://www.epsbooks.com ). Typing is a great skill to learn anyway, and it often has the side effect of improving spelling.

Nancy

Submitted by Janis on Sun, 04/11/2004 - 6:20 PM

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Nancy,

I really appreciate your contributions on this list. I carefully read before I add new programs to my collection, so that I hopefully make wise choices.

I need to understand something, though. I was under the impression that REWARDS and MegaWords were similar but now you are suggesting STM as a preference over MegaWords. I believe you also like REWARDS, though. So my question is, do you recommend completing REWARDS before STM?

I have a couple of students who will be entering 4th grade next year. They are fine on basic decoding skills after being taught with PG instructional methods. But one still has great difficulty with word reading accuracy and fluency. So we are doing a lot of oral text reading as well as some Seeing Stars decoding practice. Besides that, would you say he would be ready for REWARDS? I don’t have his scores handy, but I think word attack is at about 3.3 grade and words ID is maybe 2.8. I was thinking that was a little low for any of the above mentioned programs. But I am feeling like we need to move on if there is something that would benefit him in developing fluency and automatic word recognition.

Just in general, is there anything that you find especially good for 4th and 5th graders? It seems from your post that STM is best for middle schoolers. But if I can teach decoding at 2nd or 3rd grade (by the time they come to me), it seems that there should be something to use for that 3rd-5th grade group who are still not up to speed on basic reading and spelling skills.

Thanks,
Janis

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