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Sequential Spelling – How does it work?
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I’m hoping someone can help me understand Sequential Spelling a little more. I asked for advice on this forum and was guided towards SS. We started their free sample this week (on day 3 of 8) and while i really want to like it bc it receives so many wonderful reviews, I just don’t understand it! We went from IN to PIN to PINNING without any explanation for why you double the N. They don’t give the rules…and that confuses me. Why not? I’ve read their ‘What Makes SS Different?’ page and it doesn’t tell me much. I’m just confused as to how it actually teaches spelling.
I do want to like it, I like that the boys can do it at the same time and I like how little writing there is (bc my boys hate to write) and I like how little time it takes. I just want to understand how it works.
My fall-back is AAS and while I think it is…dry, at least I understand the logic. Is this something like ‘You’d understand if you were dyslexic’? Is it something I need to give a few months in order to see the results for myself and then I’d get it?
Thanks!
That’s my beef with SS, too – that there are no rules given. So, in that case, I give the rules while doing the spelling lesson.
Currently, my daughters are doing SS on their own, with the DVD. And now that you’ve reminded me about that missing element, I think I need to stick a little closer to the computer and step in to tell them those rules.
I think SS’s biggest plus is that it’s word families – it gives you a hook to hang a memory on. And it gets young students spelling impressive words early on, which is an emotional boost for them.
We are just about to start it, so take this with a grain of salt….
No, you don’t teach the rules. The students learn the patterns (something dyslexics are generally pretty good at actually) in the words by seeing/writing the pattern over and over in different words. (But not the just trying to learn spelling by writing the same word over and over, as that doesn’t work….) I think that they will sort-of end up visualizing the pattern…. which is why you need to write the patterns in a different colour. (And I admit I wish the book was colour, so I could always see what I’m supposed to write in another colour.)
Part of the theory is that the rules add another layer of thought needed, which slows down the thinking and adds a spot where confusion could add in a mistake.
So instead of ‘pinning’ just being spelt out going p – in – n – ing , the student that has learned it by the rules would have to think more of pin…. ok, now when do I double the letter? is it when it is a short vowel or a long vowel? I think maybe it is the short vowel… was this a short vowel? where was I? oh yes…. n – ing….
We are just switching from AAS. And it has really helped my dyslexic son so far…. he can now spell CVC words correctly, as well as others with short vowels. He has started to learn long vowels with the VCE pattern, and also the EE pattern….. but I’m starting to see the rules go around in his head more…. I can see him have to think of the rules each time he spells a word. Yes, it has helped him – but I worry as things get more complicated.
Everything I’ve read, it does take a bit of time for the spellings to become automatic. Make sure they are attempting the word. Make sure they correct each word immediately.
Honestly, SS does remind me a bit of the working with word families that CM recommended in early years….
SS does say you can explain the rule if the student asks too….
hth
We are trying this too. We just finished day 3 of the sample and I ordered it. My dd is loving it. She reads well and has done ETC for a few years, but never paid much attention to those rules. So I don’t see her paying attention to any spelling “rules”. But she does love to play games and word search puzzles. So I think she will figure out the patterns. She is doing well so far and we had a lot of fun with the optional “aye” yesterday, a word she says Felicity (American Girl) uses. But it will take more than the sample to know how well it will work.
Today was better for me getting the hang of teaching it:
1. “thin. My father was so thin… thin.”
2. Watch for them to finish writing the word.
3. Green marker, write “in” on board. “I hear ‘in’ in thin. Don’t you?”
4. Pick up blue marker, “what letters make the th sound? t-h.” Write th on board in blue in front of green in.
5. Have student check/correct word on paper.
6. Say and use finger in the air to spell together: “t-h-i-n” (I forgot this yesterday.)
Move on to next word.
At the end, discuss some homophones and have student make up sentences to use them in correctly. Write various spellings on board, with context drawings where possible.
She was already familiar with homophones from a great book called Dear Deer. We had fun with be/bee/Bea today. The sentence she made up was “Aunt Bea, thars a bee!” Then she had fun drawing a big bee flying towards Aunt Bea (of Mayberry). With all the drawings it took 25 minutes, but it was the most fun we ever had with spelling! Time will tell how well it works, but I did research before buying and read some great reviews at RR, CBD, and this forum. So I think you should give it a good try for a few months and see how well your boys do with it before switching to something else. It does work by word families and patterns and different colors on the board. We are not getting dvd, as I do not see it working as well.
Believe it or not, the DVD we have (SS vol. 1) doesn’t have the words spelled in color. The only date I see on the DVD case is 2009, so maybe ours is old or something. But, the screen backgound is green and the words are spelled from beginning to end (that is in correct order) in yellow.
I wish the DVD had them spelled just the way Wings2fly described.
AVKO is audio, visual, kinesthetic, and oral. So that may help explain why/how it works. When I purchased the book, I noticed there is a version 2.5 of the DVD-Rom released soon or recently. So maybe they included the color patterns.
We have been using it now for three years with great success. I rarely explain any rules to the kids. I just say, “double the consonant there,” and that seems to be enough for them. I think it’s because they are all strong readers and they know when the word looks wrong. I don’t use any videos or color coding. We sit there with the book and I call out the words and they write them down. I do believe that some people (including kids) NEED to hear those rules and need to understand the WHY of doubling the consonant. I have never needed those rules and apparently neither do my kids. I think it’s just a matter of people learning differently.
FWIW, both of my kids who have used SS wanted to switch to Spelling Wisdom after starting SS book 2, and that’s what we did. They have done great with SW.
I explain the rules as needed. Usually it’s just with a quick “ok, now I see you spelled ‘pinning’ as ‘p-i-n-i-n-g’… try reading that, it reads like a different word, right? (Long ‘i’ instead of short.) So you need to double the consonant so it’s still a short vowel sound there.” I always assumed SS didn’t include the rules because they figured we’d know them well enough ourselves… and knowing ALL the rules verbatim isn’t all that important–most of the time, words follow the familiar patterns that SS reinforces in their lists. The rules are just helps if you’re getting hung up with a particular pattern.
I have the DVD and did not realize that we were suppose to use different colors. Can anyone tell me where I can read more about this?
I think it’s in the front of the book wih the words – at least that’s where it is in my Seq. Sp. v. 1. In the explanation to parents section.
I was so skeptical when we first started for the same exact reason as you. I didn’t understand how they were going to learn anything by going in – begin – beginning. But seriously, it works. My daughter could barely spell cat a year ago. She’s spelling words like “recommend” now. And they figure out the rules as they go along. The patterning of the words make them suddenly notice “oh, you change the y to an i” and makes them understand it in a way that telling the rule just doesn’t. Stick it out. You WILL notice a difference.
I downloaded the full sample of Sequential Spelling 1, which includes the entire script for the first 8 lessons and more complete instructions than those below.
http://www.avko.org/sequentialspellingsample.html
All I have read on how to use is in this sample. I have my book 1 on order.
I have used SS in the past with my girls & they hated it! (Of course, they “hate” most of school, except when I read aloud. My 2nd born is not as good with sounding out words as the other 2 & her spelling has been less than great in the past. This year, they are doing better (youngest has no trouble). I’m using BJU
Press & like it pretty well. My association counselor has suggested going back to SS, because of test scores. But honestly, I’m not sure what to do because they’re doing so much better this year. If they miss words on the final test, I keep the test & make a list of the words missed. They must study the list & take the test again, fixing only the missed words. So far, they are scoring very well, but I want to be sure that information is locked in, not just memorized long enough to take the test. Any advice for me?
A quick question for SS users. Do you use the Student Workbook, Student Response Book, or plain paper, or a white board, or ??? It seems you can use any of those options and I’m wondering what works best for your children.
We used to use the Student Response Book (with one daughter).
Then I went to paper (when using with 2 daughters).
Now we use the whiteboards. The kids like them, I like them. They’re easier to erase and fix mis-spellings than paper. And it’s just plain fun to use a marker instead of a pencil or pen. I like that when they use whiteboards, they write bigger – so I can see at a glance whether they’re keeping up with correcting their words (or sometimes correct a word with them before the DVD corrects it.)
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