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Anyone use Megawords?
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I found this as a possible follow up from Grammar Land; as a supplement to my son’s Sequential Spelling and as an in-between to using Our Mother Tongue in two years.
Anyone with opinions or advice? Thanks
I’ve used it some. It is really only a spelling curriculum — well, maybe some vocabulary as well. It uses a multi-syllabic approach, teaching kids how to take a word apart and spell syllable by syllable. It is very much a workbook approach. If you have a struggling speller and you need them to work independently it may be a good fit. I wouldn’t waste time on it with a good speller, it would be boring. I have found prepared dictation to be more effective with my struggling spellers, however it does require more of my time. With my really struggling speller I felt that All About Spelling was better than Megawords, but it required much more of my time.
It’s for my son, age 11 1/2, who, though an advanced reader and comprehends everything he reads, bumbles the multi-syllabic words. He would be doing it inependently. My dd doesn’t need it. It’s just for spelling; not concerned with vocabulary.
He does SW, too ,so we have the prepared dictation. However, he needs more review of the rules as they apply esp. to these multi-syllabic words. When he was learning to read, he advanced so quickly that he just flew past the rules. I can’t afford AAS, have a disabled husband that takes much of my energy, and from what I’ve read, it can be babyish and too simplistic for advanced readers and older children. When I looked at the Megawords samples, it started out with one-syllable rules and moved up from there, with lots of practice.
I just need to figure out how to schedule it.
I borrowed ASS from a friend thinking it might be helpful for my 11 year old struggling speller, but looking at it I decided it would definately not be the right fit for him. It is very basic starting out and I am sure he would feel really annoyed by the simplistic approach appropriate for a new speller, but not for a good reader. I have been looking for a good spelling program for him and like the idea of a prepared dictation program, but am concerned about the SW program having too many American selections where we are Canadian. I would also appreciate something that he could do more readily on his own where our time is limited and the more he can do independantly the better. I will have to keep an eye on this thread.
@4myboys: it’s that simplicity of AAS that isn’t needed in my son’s case. Here’s a page where you can download decent sized samples of Megawords:
http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?seriesonly=900M
The other one I’m looking at is How to Teach Spelling:
http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?seriesonly=900M and
http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?series=1847m
trying to determine which is the better deal, cost-wise, and which suits my purposes best. I’m leaning the most towards Megawords.
I have megawords, but we haven’t used it beyond the first lesson. I didn’t find it as independent as I had hoped. It still seemed too difficult for my struggling son. I may try to use it more next year, but I’ve recently been given three other spelling programs, so I may end up using one of them.
I went with Megawords. He’s able to do it independently; I’m only needed to dictate some syllables or words a couple of times within a section and if I’m not able, my dd steps in and does it for me (it only takes a few minutes). I do the dicated spelling test at the end of each section. He can also check his own work if necessary, though I don’t want that too much, then I can’t see any mistakes.
He does a page a day (I might increase this). I’m very happy with the mobility and independence of the book. The only thing I’ve decided to add is to have him write down the rules from each section’s lessons onto index cards and review like memory verses. I don’t use the rubric or any of the tracking materials; I just pay attention to common errors when I check his work. If I find him not getting a concept, I’ll take some extra time to review, but that’s only happened one time. He’s learning some valuable rules that he didn’t catch when he was younger. I don’t know how much is sticking quite yet; time will tell, but he’s going to move to the next book. He likes it, too; no complaining.
I also added in Word Roots recently since we weren’t able to start Latin as planned this past year. Another good independent book to help in the language arts dept.
I also ditched Seq. Spelling and Meaningful Comp. and am going to use R&S 5 starting this week; don’t know yet whether I’ll be using OMT after all. I like that R&S has both comp. and grammar in one resource and it seems to move more quickly through the concepts than MC.
Rachel, would love another update on whether Megawords is still going well for you? Still fairly independent? Seeing results?
Reading all of the posts above, I am in a bit of the same boat. AAS makes you start TOO basic (for kids that are 9,10+ anyway), requires too much parent/teacher time (for my liking) – and, most importantly my sons (10 and almost 9) prefer a program that cuts to the chase and doesn’t have Mama talking for too long (LOL). I had been considering Phonetic Zoo (saw a post, some time ago, from Misty on this forum that it was working very well for her kids so I started researching that program) but now I’m slightly concerned that my boys don’t even have enough phonics to get onto that! (Phonetic zoo says you need levels of AAS before you should begin…ugh)
So that leads me to Megawords.
I want a program that will help as much with reading/decoding as with spelling. My boys devour books – they are reading… All. The. Time. But I know for sure that they simply skip words they don’t know. Need to fix that! And this year/next year, when we start getting more into written narrations, I’d love to know that spelling is somewhat more solid than it is presently.
Again, any thoughts on Megawords (or phonetic zoo), most welcome. We have muddled a bit with studied dictation but needing to give that a bit more time, I think. And certainly for 9 year old, SW is not working/we’re not ready at all. But I would really like to be doing something that gets us moving on spelling/reading skills in the meantime…
Any suggestions/comments?
I started reading this thread, found myself entirely agreeing with the second post and then realized that I had written it!! duh.
Last year we used this for spelling and dictation:
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_modern_speller.html?id=MfcAAAAAYAAJ
It is free, it covers six different levels, it includes history, science and character building materials. I like the way it takes words that could be problems and offsets them and syllabizes them. Oh, and it’s free. Did I say that already?
Angelina, my son is still going through Megawords and will move into #2 in mid-Oct. It is very independent. He is slowly picking up on the rules. I have realized that he won’t apply them in other areas of reading aloud or spelling opportunities very well without my being insistant; in other words, they haven’t begun to be second nature with him and we have to work on that more. He’s going to keep a “rules notebook” to write those concepts covered in each lesson, with sample words for him to study and be reviewed regularly. I’m going to have to treat the spelling rules/syllabication rules like we drill his multiplication tables; drilling which his sister can help with, too if I’m not available.
SO, yes I am pleased with the material; I just have to require that he not just work through it only; he must have more drill/review/memorization of rules. I also am beginning to require that he sound aloud all the time, not just when he wants to. I haven’t been strict enough over the years; he tries to do spelling like he doesmath – in his head – and it’s not working. He must hear the words/syllables, whether he thinks it necessary or not. And when he knows I’m serious, it will be a habit and it won’t be like pulling teeth.
I also have the McGuffey speller that I may utilize in drilling as well as my Phonics made Plain cards to reinforce what he’s learning in Megawords (and to teach things I missed teaching before, like “g” pronuciation rules, which is covered in Mega6). Consistancy on my part in what I require of and from him is the key.
I like the way Megawords is laid out to helpmake this easier for me to accomplish; in addition to the independence and price.
HTH
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