My DD 10 has always struggled with spelling. We have been using A Reason for Spelling with little progress. However, she loves to write! So I was thinking of taking her misspelled words from her stories and make them into a spelling list of her own. Has anyone done this before? Part of me feels like I should have some sort of workbook or something. I guess I feel like I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and feel a little unsure of myself. Any thoughts?
Sounds like a plan to me! You could even add to the list with similar words to the ones she missed (other words with same sounds, beginnings, endings, root words, etc. as the one(s) she missed).
Making a spelling list from her misspelled words sounds like a good idea. You might even begin to notice a pattern of misspelling. Like; misspelling the same word several different ways in one story; misspelling a word you know she can spell; misspelling words that she is copying from another source. Also, make sure she can spell the sight words. Google Dolch sight words for a list of the 200+ words that are common words but follow no spelling rule! Spelling City has free activities to practice these words and you can also add your own words. You might want to look into AVKO Sequential Spelling. Also, you can go here http://www.dys-add.com/. This is Bright Solutions for Dyslexia and there is a checklist for dyslexia symptoms.
My son was a horrible horrible speller at that age. We used Spelling Power (but I modified it a lot). One of the things I noticed when ds would write a story was that he had a great vocabulary. Are you familiar with Spelling Power at all? Spelling Power has lists of words that are broken into levels. After he wrote a story, I would write the misspellings on an index card. Then I would go check the lists in Spelling Power. What do ya know! This kid was using words on much higher levels than he was capable of spelling yet. So if he misspelled a word from a level that we had already covered, then I would add it back into his spelling words. But if we hadn't gotten to that level yet, then no biggie. We'll get there eventually. That way I didn't discourage him from using great vocabulary for fear that I would turn it into a spelling word.
I tried that with a student a couple years ago, pulling words from her daily writings to make a spelling list, adding back in words she'd already done, etc. But it was so much trouble for me to keep up with, it wasn't worth it to either of us. Sequential Spelling was much easier to do on a daily basis. Something worked, though, because when she left to go to an all-Abeka high school, her teacher there told me she was a better speller than anyone else in the high school...
I have a kid who is challenged by spelling. I went through many different programs and finally discovered a method that is working. It is called Individualized Spelling by AVKO. I just recently wrote about it here.
Karen I love the way you used Spelling power! I am using it right now with my 2 kidlets. We just finished Saxon Phonics Intensive, to help my struggling reader/speller. Going deeply into the phonics really helped both my kids to leap forward in their spelling. My oldest is reading on a 8-9th grade level. But was spelling around 3rd grade according to Spelling Power. Less then a year later, but after we had finished the Saxon, I retested him and he was spelling in the 6-7th grade. I would suggest Spelling Power, because it helps them learn how to spell the sounds and not just words. If you need the phonics background the Saxon is awesome in teaching the phonics rules, but it is indeed intensive.
I've looked at Saxon before, and it's waaaaay expensive for me! My DGS still has difficulty with some spelling/phonics, so I'm going to use R&S 2 Phonics as a separate course this year. Whole thing is just over $20. Very thorough. I've used it with other kids before this way.
Sequential spelling sounds like something that might fit, but how do you know what level to start with? Her word look like this: com - comb teth - teeth mack - make clen - clean giv - give litr - litter
Tara, I've used several levels of SS, before there were videos. The video takes the place of the teacher so the student can use it alone. I prefer teaching it myself -- it doesn't take that long per day. AVKO has soooo much more than they did when I discovered it!
