Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Spelling vs. vocabulary

We LOVE All About Spelling. It teaches the REASONS for spelling words, rather than give kids lists of words to spell, which we all know is ineffective.

I've been very happy with it.

I even wrote a blog post about my struggles with teaching spelling in an efficacious manner:

[url=http://www.homeschoolinflorida.com/what-curriculum-to-buy-for-phonics-spelling/][/url] http://www.homeschoolinflorida.com/what-curriculum-to-buy-for-phonics-spelling/

DD's school mentioned that in 1st and 2nd grades they have three spelling groups. A small group of the spelling challenged, a large group of average spellers, and a top group of photographic memory spellers who get vocabulary, Greek and Latin instead of lists. They said that the first group of children are generally spelling from the 3rd grade lists.
They also promised us that they don't have names or leveling for the groups but they also told us that the kids figure it out pretty quickly. LOL!

I give my daughter additional spelling exercises at home. I registerd her on beestar for vocabulary and reading pros. It's pretty cool. The text has nice simple fonts and the pictures and graphs are to the point not distracting. DD has got remarkable progress.
Lisa

As somewhat of an aside, for my oldest DD, who is likely dysgraphic, combining spelling and vocabulary for a grade would be a nightmare. She can tell you the definitions but can't spell her way out of a paper bag. (In fact, her VCI was her highest score on the WISC with all of the subtest being equal.) Unfortunately, the emphasis on spelling and her perfectionism actually hindered her writing. She had an extensive vocabulary even as an infant, but when it came to writing, especially in early elementary school, she wouldn't use a word she couldn't spell.

For my middle DD, I am currently not happy with her teacher's choice of combining vocabulary with spelling since instead of enrichment it becomes a punishment. Specifically, they take a spelling pretest on Monday. If they miss 4 or more words on the pretest, they then have to define every single spelling word. If they miss fewer than 4 words, they only have to define the words they misspelled and 5 bonus words. Then, they are never evaluated on vocabulary. So, what this means in her class is that there are natural spellers who don't necessarily know what the words mean (and don't have to learn), and others who know every definition but have to spend quite a while defining words.