I received this book last week. I'm really excited about it, honestly, and I think it's exactly what we need. But the teacher directions in the beginning make me nervous. How do you use it?
I give the daily tests, first testing on words missed in the last testing, we only test for 5 minutes...if we don't finish in 5 then we pick up there next time. For each word, I say it, give a sentence and repeat it, then the boys repeat it back to me, and spell it, then they say it again when they are finished spelling, then I spell it. If it's wrong they put in on the practice list. Then they spend 5 minutes or less (depending on words missed) doing the 10 step study. Then we do a game from the activity cards for 5 minutes (more if they are enjoying it)
I am using it with my son. I don't follow the steps though. We just go through the lists and I have him spell the words orally. I even skip some of the ones I KNOW he knows (he is 16). Then I mark the words he misses and I give him those words to write down 3x on certain days. We only do written spelling 2-3 a week. SO, I don't follow the program, but I like the organization it has. I think the instructions can be intimidating.
The directions are a real pain to read, but once you figure it out, it is no problem. We spend about 10 minutes per day on spelling doing the basic program (practice sheets, reviews, end of level tests, etc.) We have had great results with it. I like the fact that they have done a lot of research to try to figure out how children learn to spell and have developed this practice method for the words the student doesn't know (i.e. say the word and spell it, then close your eyes to say it and spell it, then write it very large with your whole arm in motion, etc). I recommend this program.
I started using this year too. I was scared at first as well...but, honestly it was easy to follow the directions. We do about a half list a day in that 5 mins. If they go two or three days with no misspelled words, we take th closest Review Test. If they get no words wrong, I go to the next Review Test. It is one of the easiest parts of my day.
We've been using it for 4 years and honestly, its been the best thing we've found. Now that my kids are somewhat older (13 & 14) we don't usually do the activity (unless its a alphabetizing or writing a paragraph using all the words misspelled, which we do occasionally). We probably do spelling 3 days a week. My dd has 3 more levels and she's done with the book. It's helped her so much. She was a horrible speller in 6th grade. Couldn't spell even the easiest words. Now she's a whiz. My son, who hates language arts, actually asks to do spelling power first.
I am not sure we follow the directions precisely, even though I did read through it all and "thought" I was! lol We start out a list, doing a "test" and seeing what she missed. I call off the words and she writes them all down and then I immediately grade and give back to her. She calls off the ones she missed and I tell her how to spell it correctly, all the way through the list of the missed words. Then she does the steps listed to practice. The next day we start off testing the missed words from the previous day and then add in the new list. We repeat the steps listed above. If I find she gets a lot wrong on a list and the next day misses the same words, we will practice and test on the missed words only without adding in a new list until she gets them all right. That has only happened a few times. It is working great for us. She has become much better in spelling too!
