I've been using Sequential Spelling this year with my 8 year old. We both like it well enough and he does well during lessons, but I'm not sure if he's retaining anything. I tried to give him an evaluation test yesterday, but he was already having a bad day, so I'm not sure if his really bad score was accurate. He enjoys spelling if I let him spell the words with magnetic letters instead of making him write a list, and it seems All About Spelling uses a similar method. Has anyone used both of these programs? Could you compare them for me? If you've only used one program maybe you can tell me how it's working for you. I'm wondering if it's worth trying something else next year.
I'm using Sequential Spelling and it's going great. Have you used any of the AVKO materials that go with it, or are you just using SS? All I've used so far is the SS books. Next year, we'll incorporate the other stuff (probably the Spring semester, actually). The only reason I haven't tried AAS is that it's SO much more expensive than SS.
We are using AAS. We never used SS, but used Natural Speller, Spelling Power and a few other I can't even remember. My kids are in 8th and 6th grades. We started with level 1 about 2 years ago. Yep. Level one with a 6th and 4th grader. They were pretty awful spellers. They moved quickly through levels 1 and 2, but I'm glad we did them. They are now in level 6 (8th grader) and level 5 (6th grader) and the improvement is incredible. Best wishes!
I've used both and as of yesterday am no longer using either one. They are both great programs, but they are too boring and not the best fit for my non-sequential learners. AAS teaches according to the rules of spelling. You learn all the sounds a letter can make and then start learning the different rules with different sets of words. You periodically review and only move on when mastery has been accomplished so it would be useful for not retaining. I stopped using it when my son kept getting frustrated with not understanding the rules when he could read and spell fine (whole to parts learner there). It goes through a word list and you have to keep practicing mispelled words and rules until you have them mastered. The tiles are useful for some kids - my kids chose to just write instead because it was quicker. If you get the tiles, get the with magnets. It is so much easier to have the tiles stored on a magnetic board then to have to set them all up every time. After AAS I moved on to Sequential Spelling and have been tentative. I started doing pre and post tests for each section to measure growth and everytime it did show a little growth. I just gave him the end of the book test and he missed several items from earlier on in the book. I gave him the end of the book test in the next book that he hadn't started to use yet and he missed several, but it didn't seem significant enough to warrant a year's effort when my son and I both were bored with the program. He used to love spelling when I used a workbook based program. So, I'm trying out Rod and Staff's spelling. It is rules/phonics based which is what my whole to parts learners need and it is a workbook. My son had a glimpse at the samples and gave it a thumbs up.
I'm using Sequential Spelling level 1 with Ben this year, sort of as a "morning warm up". He's taken the 40th day and 80th day assessments and scored 75 on both. We talk about, but I don't insist he learn immediately, meanings of odd words in the lists, but he has had and we do talk about homophones, prefixes and suffixes, compound words, and the rules for "drop the y and add ies" and so forth. He also is doing Christian Liberty grade 3 spelling which is based on phonics as his "spelling course" for a grade. He usually gets 90-100 but once in awhile an 85. It's hard to say what actually "works" for him, BUT I notice that when he needs a particular word in a sentence he's writing, he's more willing to ask me, then "guess" correctly when I tell him to sound it out. (Sometimes I'll tell him some clue like "4-letter O" or if it's one of those phonetically irregular words, I'll just tell him.) I don't think he's the type who would do well with rules-based programs. I've used SS before, too, and was pleased to note that all the kids' spelling subtest scores on their annual achievement tests went up, even the severely dyslexic teen's. Hers came up to grade level!
We have briefly used both. My son had no retention using SS, and since there is no real tests for AAS, I don't know how well he was retaining it, but he got kind of bored. So, now we use our spelling words from our LA curriculum and plug them into the free site Spelling City. I print off a few sheets from there, but the first day he just writes out each word on his dry-erase board. The second day he'll do sheet where you pick the missing letter in the word. The third day he'll do a sheet where he has to unscramble the words, then the fourth day he'll write them out again on a handwriting sheet. The 5th day he'll take a test where I call out a word and he will write it on the dry-erase board again. So far this has improved his spelling greatly!
