Morning Star Learning - Spell to Write and Read vs. Spelling Power

Morning Star Learning

Apr. 2, 2006

Spell to Write and Read vs. Spelling Power

SWR vs

SWR vs. Spelling Power

From November 2003 SWR yahoo group

By Wanda Sanseri

Q. I am asking this for a friend of mine she is considering either Spell to Write and Read (SWR) or Spelling Power. Can anyone compare these two programs that may have used both of them? Also she said Spelling Power teaches 5000 words. How many are in the WISE Guide?

Wanda Answers: The biggest difference between Spelling Power and SWR is the way a child learns his words. In Spelling Power when learning to spell "knot" the student will see the word, say it, study the parts, say the letter names, close his eyes and spell the word out loud, look to see if he did it correctly, trace the word, write it without looking, and then check the written spelling. In SWR the teacher says "knot" uses it in a sentence, and guides the student to sound it out and write it before seeing it.

When a sound is spelled in a more unusual way, the teacher will clarify which phonogram to use based on phonogram language she has already taught. For example if the student is spelling "not" the student can easily say and write n-o-t. If the word is "knot" the teacher will tell the student to use "the two-letter /n/ used only at the beginning of a word." We do not use letter names in the process. Guided teacher dictation helps train the students to picture words in their mind before they see them in writing.

This is what we must do when we write out our thoughts. Those of us who learned with a visual foundation often have to write out a word and look at it before we know if it is spelled correctly. We have to labor in proofreading our work to weed out the mistakes that we make when we try to write thoughts as quickly as we think. Students taught to develop a sound picture as the base are not hampered in the same way. Teaching "from sound to image" helps build words to automatically and has been known to help reverse dyslexia.

Both programs provide placement tools but the determined groupings are different. Spelling Power organizes spellings lists by particular sounds in the word. For example the first 6 lists of words are grouped by short vowel sounds. List one is the short sound of A. List two is the short sound of E, etc.

Most teachers assume that children can more easily learn to spell words with short vowels. Leonard Ayres discovered that that is not true. Of the most frequently used words in the language, 99% of second graders could only spell two words correctly. Neither word had a short vowel sound. The words were "me" and "do." SWR groups high frequency words according to ease in spelling based on the Ayres List. In the same list they may have an O using all three of its possible sounds. The student has to think about each particular word.

The next group of words in Spelling Power is made of words that

say A using either ay, ai, ey, ei, eigh, ea, and a--e. Group 8 is all the word that can spell E, etc. Spelling Power focuses on particular sounds grouped by all their possible spellings. Some feel that it create confusion when we say, "These words all have the sound /A/ but don't forget which spelling goes with which word. "

SWR/Wise focuses on learning each phonogram and all the sounds it can make rather than by sounds and all the ways to spell them. When a student hear /A/ in a word that is not spelled with the single letter, the teacher will use the phonogram language to tell him which to use. If the word is "paid" the teacher will say, "Use the 2-letter /A/ at we may not use at the end of English words." If the word is "eight" the teacher will say, "Use /A/ 4-letter A." The precise pattern for that word is planted clearly without establishing any confusion with the other spellings of /A/.

Spelling Power has a daunting list (5,000 words) while SWR/Wise has a base list of 2,000 words but we teach the students how to enlarge this list with derivatives. The list is more than doubled in the process of doing the derivative assignments. For example, we have the students try to make as many words as possible from the base word "act." There are over eighty possibilities using a limited set of prefixes and suffixes: act, acting, acted, action, active, activate, transact, transacting, transacted, transaction, counteract, interact, enact, overact, react, etc. The words in SWR/Wise plus their derivatives compose more than 80% of what we read and write. Our goal is not to just teach a list of words, but we seek to teach the tools of the language so that a student can wisely break down any word they encounter.

The Spelling Power teacher will not need to learn phonograms, rules, or spelling markings. The methodology is familiar. Most of us learned using the methods she describes. If you were like me, that did not make you a good speller, but you did spell better than you might have otherwise. You did not see the logic of English nor could you explain why words are spelled the way they are. You thought that was because of a problem with the language. If you want to do something that matches what you experienced, does not require much planning, and that the student can do independently, this is the course for you. If you are not pleased with your own spelling experience or already know that your student does not do well with this type of methodology, then you may want to think again.

SWR/Wise requires an investment of teacher time. SWR contains much more than just lists of spelling words to memorize. We train the student's mind to think phonetically using a reliable foundation that most adults have never learned. We plant a love for language and all the ways we can use it. Our words form the basis for a dynamic elementary language arts program with grammar, composition, vocabulary development, and comprehension along with touches of other subjects, even some art. Students who complete SWR have a clear understanding of how the English language works and can usually explain why. The teacher will fill in many gaps in her own education. She will be inspired to teach logic and creativity as she teaches spelling. Spelling is usually rote and dry, but not with SWR/Wise. Work becomes a fun adventure for the students and the teacher.

Blessings,

Wanda Sanseri

Author of Spell to Write and Read

Q. I'm sure this question has been asked before, but would someone mind telling me what the difference is between SWR and Spelling Power? I hear great things about both.

A. The two programs are TOTALLY different. I heard great things from Spelling Power, and even used it myself and raved about it.

Basically, it was a no brainer to use and only took 5 minutes, no wonder I loved it! However, it didn't TEACH spelling. Basically it showed me how they couldn't spell, but it gave no feedback on how to LEARN to spell other than memorizing the word.

The words are listed in groups by sounds-spelled different ways, but no teaching on when to use which spelling for THAT sound. It started to get frustrating for me, because I had no way to help my kids and my kids could not improve their spelling very much with it. My girls have improved their spelling over the years by sheer use [lots of English classes and emails :-)] but for my younger kids I am switching to SWR.

SWR teaches spelling starting with the sounds- first the student learned all the sounds each phonem makes, then they learn when to use a phonem [ay is the /A/ that may be used at the end of English words; ai is the /A/ that can not be used at the end of English words, etc.] and it builds from there. Students are to NEVER guess, they are to be prompted until they can get it right each time- so that incorrect spelling is not imprinted.

In Spelling Power, my kids would write the word several different ways trying to find the right 'look.’ In SWR the student is taught 'why' each letter sound is used in each word, so while they may learn the right 'look' later on, at the beginning they are learning how to spell it by sound/rules only. There are very few exceptions- and even then they explain WHY its an exception [foreign word for example] Grammar is also introduced in a similar logical fashion. Though we are going much slower than hoped [procrastinating] , I am loving that I know how and WHY, I am learning sooo much and I know my kids will too.

Blessings,

Deborah

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