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Spelling Wisdom Placement & Pacing
- This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 11 months ago by
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Hi Everyone:
This was our second year doing Spelling Wisdom. At the time we started, my oldest, was about 5th grade. I started her with Book 1 and didn’t really have a plan or a goal to get her on track (up to the book and lesson that SCM suggests for each grade level). We do the 70 lessons they recommend a child do each year. (Copywork one day, dictation the next, twice per week). She just finished 7th grade. My question is…..should I start doing every other lesson to get her, caught up to the Book 3, lesson 70 SCM suggests…..or just keep pluggin’ away with where we’re at. At the close of this school year, she was at Book 2, 70. I put a lot of pressure on myself. Thinking we are so behind, (I know, I know, “Behind What?” A wise person on this forum once said!) what SCM recommends. I am not sure if my goal should be to close the gap a little? And if so, how? Thanks for listening.
Kelly
There’s no hurry! She doesn’t have to finish the entire series, just keep plugging away at a normal pace.
Thank-you. But it is very difficult to read in the Planning Section on the SCM site that we are so many lessons behind what is recommended?
Is there anyone else with any suggestions? Should I try to skip some to close the gap, make her do some in the summer? Or just keep going where we are?
Any comments welcome, as I am trying to do planning for next year.
Thanks
Teach the child, not the curriculum.
By that, I’m saying that if they are finding it really easy, you might skip ahead a bit. If it seems the right level, stay where you are to work forward – and don’t worry about what the suggested level is.
You want the right level for your child…. whether that is where your current book suggests you should be, or whether that is the recommended level for their grade, or some totally different level/place – that is up to you to decide.
ETA: I wrote this before suzukimom’s post was up (but didn’t click “post” so only after I got around to doing that did I see her reply), but I agree with her too. 🙂
I agree with Tristan, but understand the feelings you express as well. My first thought, before even reading Tristan’s comment, would be to consider if (irrespective of what the book level says on the cover) this is a good place for your daughter. To me, that would be the primary concern. Is it too easy for her? Just right? Pretend there are no book levels or lesson numbers — when you look at her spelling and grammar and accuracy with the passages, what’s the right place for her? Ask yourself: what is the point of doing dictation? The other consideration is looking what’s ahead. The earlier lessons tend to start out shorter, so don’t base your choice solely on what you see on the early lessons of a new level. I really would not worry about what the book level is — just look at what is a good match for your daughter.
One other thought, if you do decide this is a bit easy for her and want to move her forward but feel hesitant jumping: you could try doing a passage for copywork, then a new (next) passage for dictation, so on your schedule you’d be covering a total of four passages a week instead of two.
In our family, we actually only write a passage once for dictation, and do not copy it first. Of course, they must take time to *prepare* the dictation passage, studying it, noting words that they are not 100% confident on spelling and isolating those for study, paying attention to sentence/paragraph structure, punctuation, etc. Then after they’ve done that preparation, I read the sentence for dictation and they write it. Copywork and dictation engage the brain in quite different ways.
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