Iam not a parent but it dose have to do eith my little sister. I believe she might have dyslexia. She cannot spell at all and she is in 6th grade. I really feel bad for her and wanted to know if any one had ideas on how to help her become a good speller. she is a decient reader except at times she leaves out words or adds words, but other then that she is a good reader. she gets fusterated when she cant spell thiings correctly, I feel as if she might be getting made fun of in school and i dont want that for her, because i had to deal with being made fun of as a child. if any one knows anything i can do please let me know thank you in advance.
Nancy3
One thing I would suggest trying is Sequential Spelling from http://www.avko.org . The first book in the six-book series is about $12, I think. Most poor spellers do well with this approach and improvement in daily writing is usually seen about the first 60 lessons or so (there are 180 lessons per book). The lessons are very short — in the first book, most take 5 minutes or less. If you want to do more than one lesson per day, divide the book into two parts — e.g., do lessons #1 and 91 on the first day, #2 and 92 on the second day, etc. In the first book, patterns change every 10 days. Starting with the second book, patterns change every 5 days.
Nancy
question for Nancy
Nancy,
My son did the first half of the first book of AVKO about two years ago. It provided the foundations for him beginning to visualize letters. He then did Seeing Stars last summer, which helped spelling as well as reading. He still is below grade level though and I am thinking of returning to AVKO. Would you start over? I was thinking of starting over but doing two lessons a day.
He is finishing fifth grade but probably is 1 1/2 to two years behind on spelling. Reads on grade level.
Beth
Re: I need help
Beth,
Just out of curiosity, maybe you’d like to try the Spelling Through Morphographs placement test:
http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/school/schoolGraphics/sra_spellingthroughmorphographs.pdf
It is a more detailed program than AVCO, so he might not go for it. But I like to give the placement tests for Spelling Mastery and STM just to see where they place.
Janis
Nancy3
You don’t have to start over with Avko unless you want to. The patterns are repeated later.
Doing two lessons per day is a good way to work through the program faster, as long as you work out of different parts of the book. In the first book, patterns are repeated for 10 days before they change, so you could do lesson #1 followed by #31 on the first day, #2 followed by #32 on the second day, etc. You can divide anywhere you like as long as you catch the first day of the 10-day patterns.
Starting with book 2, the patterns change every 5 days.
Nancy
Re: I need help
Janis,
I printed the word list but haven’t given it to him. I think (I hope) he can do the A list OK but would have trouble with the B list. I didn’t actually look at their program though.
Nancy,
I recalled you saying something like this. Couldn’t remember the sequence though.
Beth
Nancy3
Spelling Through Morphographs is a really good program, and you can cover a lot more words in a year than with Sequential Spelling. However, the lessons take considerably longer. SS lessons are typically under 10 minutes. STM lessons run 20 to 25 minutes. Also, with STM, you may occasionally have to re-do a lesson (so it’s a good idea to buy an extra workbook). STM was originally written for middle-schoolers, and I think they tend to have the maturity needed for the longer lessons. SS is a great prequel to STM anyway.
You wouldn’t have to start over with SS unless you really want to. The patterns are repeated in a spiral fashion throughout the six books, so your son will encounter them again sooner or later.
Nancy
Leaving words out and putting words in and substituting words are all part of a general pattern where the student is not looking at the details of the writing. You can get away with this for a while but it starts to catch up with you in middle school, as it is catching up with your sister. And it really causes a lot of trouble with spelling as you have noticed.
I work with students like this. I review basic phonics just to get a good start, and teach advanced phonics (which they usually don’t know; they have been getting away with guessing from general appearances.) I teach spelling from the basis of knowing the phonic patterns and the word roots and all the regular words and word parts automatically, so you only have to work hard on the irregular bits. It takes time and work but it is a good thing to do, and yes it is effective, the only kind of approach that is effective especially with older students.
If you have the money, you can hire a qualified tutor to do this. If you have more time than money, you can buy good programs and do it yourself.
You can send me an email to ask for more specifics. You can also ask for all my old posts/book in progress detailing an entire reading program — you don’t need the first steps, but the advice for upgradign will work for you.
[email protected]