I told him I would do some research and try to find some ideas for us to try and then I asked my wonderful facebook communtiy for recommendations. Several people mentioned All About Spelling. I checked out the product online; it looks very (VERY) thorough. But then I began to wonder "What would Charlotte do?" A quick online search led me to the answer in Simply Charlotte Mason's super helpful article and video "Homeschool Spelling the Charlotte Mason Way".
I decided to give prepared dictation a shot, so I began the next day with a simple sentence from a book Gerrick had recently read. I wrote it on the dry-erase board and underlined the words he told me he didn't know how to spell. Then he copied the sentence (copywork) and then circled the words he needed to learn. He then wrote those words again.
A couple of days later, he reviewed the words and copied them again.
We talked a lot about picturing words in the mind's eye like a camera takes photos.
The next day he made them with Bananagram tiles.
And on Friday of that week, I dictated the sentence to him.
He wrote on lined paper printed from Zaner-Bloser Online.
He was so incredibly proud that he wrote a whole sentence correctly by himself!
He was excited to show Rick when he got home from work, and
he decided to start a new three-ring binder for his dictations.
The next week, I chose another passage he had recently read.
Instead of Banagram tiles, I offered him a sand tray to practice the words.
I plan to add variety each week by offering many of the ideas Jimmie provides in her post
Later in the week, we did the dictation. I used the sticky notes as Sonya suggested in the above video to quickly cover errors. Since he didn't get the dictation perfectly (he had the right letters written in the wrong case and he totally blanked out and panicked on the word tail so I told him how to spell it), he wants to do the same sentences again this week. We will, but I think for the near future I will stick with just one good sentence. Two were a bit overwhelming for now, I think.
What approach do you take with spelling?
This is terrific!
ReplyDeleteI love it! I'm going to try this with H. I'm not thrilled with AAS. Maybe AAS is for older children?
ReplyDeleteThis kind of reminds me of Reading Kingdom. Well, sort of...
ReplyDeleteBenjamin is learning one new word each day. During the day's lesson he is shown the word, then he is shown the word again and a word similarly spelled.
After he clicks on the same word once or twice--whatever?--he is shown the word with letters missing along with three other similar words (with letters missing). He's prompted to select the word that can be made into the word of the day.
After he clicks on the correct word once or twice--however many times?--he is prompted to select the word AND fill in the missing letters.
Finally, he is asked to spell the word from memory.
All of this is "built upon" and the words are pluralized, etc. Like, he learned "kid," then "girl," then "kids," then "girls."
In Level One he learn like, 26 new words and they will all be part of the book he reads at the end of the level.
Okay...uh, maybe it's not at all like CM's Spelling. I think you get the connection I was *trying* to make.
I have some lined paper you are welcome to if you'd like it :).
ReplyDeleteWe haven't really gotten to spelling much yet :(. We are little behind but that's okay. Recovering from cancer is more important (I remind myself).
Mandy,
ReplyDeleteI had no intentions of addressing spelling until age 9 or 10. I am only doing this now because G specifically asked for spelling help, so please don't let this post make you feel like you're behind!
Thanks for the paper offer, but you guys keep it. We are only using one page per week (so that doesn't take much printer ink).
It is so good to see Spelling Wisdom up close and personal, so a big thank you Sherry. I really like that you are using various methods to practice the words during the week.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be giving Book 1 a go soon with my soon to be nine-year-old.
Best,
Richele
Stumbled across you on the 'not back to school bloghop'. My little guy is younger than yours, but we do a lot of scrabble tiles and we love our dry erase little board like yours! Thanks for sharing this "Prepared Dictation" idea!
ReplyDelete