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Dropping my endorsement of All About Spelling (AAS) & Returning to SWR
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missceegee – Would SWR be good for someone who can read and sound out longer words, but can’t spell short words? My daughter, 12 this month, has some dyslexia and/or visual perceptual problems, so her reading is not fluent. But, if she takes her time and focuses on each part of the word, she can usually sound it out. However, her spelling is very poor. We have been going over rules using Phonics Pathways and giving some to her if she needs help sounding out a word. But, she has some processing problems, so she has a hard time remembering a lot of rules at one time. I am going slow in PP, because it takes a while for rules to stick. For example, I gave her sack and sake to spell, to see if she would remember -ck for short vowel and silent -e for long vowel. She forgets even those words, but can decode some multi-syllable words. She usually remembers a silent -e makes the vowel long when reading, but she will forget when she is writing. Also, since there are a few ways to spell vowel sounds, like, silent -e, -ea, and -ee, I know that will make it harder for her to remember how to spell certain words. So, I am at a loss to know the best way to teach her spelling.
I am not missceegee, but I am working through the Barton Reading & Spelling prgm with my dyslexic 9yo dd. One thing the Barton program has the student do is to hear the word, repeat the word, finger-spell the word (which means to put up 1 finger for each sound that is heard in the word – a word like *find* would only use 2 fingers b/c it is a unit syllable), use letter tiles to spell the word, then the Student finally gets to write the word.
Obviously, all the rules are presented incrementally. But my point is that there is a lot of repetition using tiles (kinesthetic), using their fingers, finally writing the words. Perhaps your daughter needs some more repetition using something like that.
Just an idea.
Hi. Wow, this is an old thread. ? I think an OG program like SWR, Barton, even AAS can be helpful for dyslexic children based upon my reading. I so not have a dyslexic child, so I don’t have hands on experience
I recently found Reading Lessons Through Literature from Barefoot Meandering. This is an awesome resource very similar to SWR, but open and go and shorter term before moving to CM dictation only. I like it a lot and am using it with dd8 and will start with ds5 in the fall. There are 4 levels, I think. Could be used K-4th or more quickly with an older kid. DD8 has just started, she’s a natural and will move quickly, but I’ll be confident of phonograms and syllabication being covered fully.
Hope that helps somehow.
missceegee – Is Reading Lessons Through Literature something you recommend INSTEAD of SWR now…or together? Where would you, looking back, start out a 5 year old. Mine is staring with Cursive First and I’ve purchased SWR, but I don’t feel she’d be read to do the spelling lessons as fast as they recommend. It feels like we could spend half the year getting the cursive down! And do you recommend CM dictation (I don’t know what that is yet) instead of the SWR dictation? THANKS!!!!
Ds5 will start with RLTL this fall. We are using it instead of SWR and moving from RLTL into prepared dictation. Seems a good balance for us. I’ve taught two kids cursive at age 5 in two months. I taught my oldest when she was about 6 in just a couple of weeks. I teach letter formation and phonogram sounds at the same time.
HTH,
Christie
Hello missceegee – I know this is an ancient thread but I am new to SWR and am trying to find out before I put in all the money and time, if it can be used for multiple grade levels. On one post I read that it could be done in 30 minutes per day. But 30 min. per day for 6 levels plus 10 min. per day for prep comes to 4 hours per day just for spelling! There are other subjects that need my time.
Thank you for your thoughts, Annette
I am wondering if any of you have tips on how to implement SWR with multi grade level children. I am finishing up SWR for with my first grader and it often takes at least an hour and a half to complete our SWR lesson per day. Next year I will have a second grader and my daughter will be starting kindergarten. Thinking of SWR taking 2-3 hours of our school day with two students has me at a loss of how to manage our day. (I also have a 3 yo and 1 yo that keep things busy as well.) How do you dictate two spelling lists to two young students in a timely manner? I love the SWR program but I’m a little daunted by the amount one-on-one time it takes to teach it.
We started with SWR. We did not find success except for excellent phonemic awareness. We have changed programs several times for multiple reasons. We have found a significant eye tracking and visual memory problem as well. missceegee, my latest thoughts keep coming back similar to SWR. Do you think the word list is part of your success or do you think the dictation, rules, markings and any list would produce good results? I wish I could have a conversation with you. I just started today with my attempts at Rapid Recall approach to multiplication facts. I am curious a few years removed. Did the facts stick long term after you used Rapid Recall or what did you do to keep them fresh? Would you still recommend as you did in the past?
This is a really old thread! I’m not on the forum much anymore simply due to time constraints with my brood. However, I popped on for a few minutes tonight and thought this title rang a bell.
Nbingham – SWR is super effective, but crazy time consuming. Once familiar, I just set a timer for 30 min. and called it good. However, I am no longer using SWR because I LOVE Reading Lessons Through Literature the best of all. So very similar to SWR, but much, much easier to implement in my opinion. DS7.5 is in grade 2. We did some phonemic awareness with phonograms in K, but he wasn’t really ready to go until last year in first grade. This year in grade 2, we spent 3-4 weeks reviewing phonograms after summer break. Then I began the schedule below which takes us 10-20 minutes per day with ds7.5 who is my only one who does this.
- DD16 has no formal spelling any longer. She has improved much over the years. She is taking English at the local college through Dual Enrollment this year.
- DS13 uses only Phonetic Zoo at this point. I can’t say why exactly, but he does much, much better with this than prepared dictation and time wise, something had to go.
- DD10 is a natural speller. She does some dictation and some just gathering and learning words on her own.
Reading Lessons Through Literature Schedule I use for Grade 2:
– Monday: Dictate 1 list of 10 words. Read Word Lists.
– Tuesday: Reading Phonogram Quiz. Read Story from Monday’s list.
– Wednesday: Dictate 1 list of 10 words. Read Word Lists.
– Thursday: Writing Phonogram Quiz. Read Story from Wednesday’s list.
DS7.5 is redoing all words from last year and will add another 40+ lists this year. This translates to his spelling on his own very nicely and he naturally sees patterns (ie. we learn fast and he knows past, last, mast, cast, etc.).
Hope that helps.
Deloachkids4 –
Hi there. With my 4 kids, I think learning the phonograms first with all their sounds followed by marking the word lists and reading the words have made the most impact. Once you know the markings, you could, if disciplined enough, carry them into whatever lists or dictation. I’ve done some of both. At this stage, with only one still learning to read, I could do SWR, but see no reason to since RLTL is just as effective, if not more so thanks to the included stories.
Rapid Recall – Godsend to dd16 who really struggled with facts after trying everything! She used it for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Math is and will likely always be her most difficult subject. She has remembered most of them fine. There are a few multiplication/division that will cause her to get hung up sometimes, but a job in retail and dealing with money is helping her with review, too. Occasionally, she might do a timed test or game or something on the ipad. DS13 didn’t need this. DD10 probably did, but she’s being disciplined with flashcards and timed tests on the ipad and is doing well. Math is her hard subject, too. DS7.5 is more like his brother and anything works.
Blessings!
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