Tips and insight into teaching with Spell to Write and Read http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:36:00 -0500 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:36:00 -0500 This post is available on the following site with pictures: FitzGerald Familog The Spelling Bee on Saturday was so much fun! We’ve never been to one in person before, so this was a new experience for all of us. Our homeschool support group, Home Schoolers Loving God, hosted the Bible Spelling Bee. We had three age groups: 5-8, 8-12, and 12-18. The U8 group only had two young guys, and because there was only one U18 speller, the judges opened up the competition to anyone who wanted to compete at that level. All available chairs were quickly filled with eager children trying to win the coveted gift certificate to a local ice creamery. In the end, the speller who had actually studied the list won that level, but he was surprisingly challenged by a younger girl from the U12 group who held on for quite some time. My 10-year-old daughter Shannon was in the U12 group along with twelve other spellers. Each word for the Bee was found in the Scriptures, and if the children needed context for the words they could ask for the verse to be read. The tough rules for this competition did not allow the children to self-correct if they realized they had made an error, and they would also be disqualified if they correctly spelled the wrong word. This is one reason the verses were so important as they gave the much-needed context for the words, some of which were homophones. Each child spelled one word per round. The children were not allowed to request definitions or information about word origins. Previous study and strength in spelling would determine the winner! I had the unique honor of being the reader for the Spelling Bee, thus relieving our two judges to be able to focus on listening carefully to the spellers. I had to work hard on pronouncing the words as in normal speech, not carefully with syllable breaks or any other emphasis as I am so accustomed to doing in SWR dictation. I had to remember I was testing, not teaching. By the eighth round of the U12 event, the field had been narrowed to only five spellers. These kids had studied hard, and the competition was strong. Entering the nineteenth round Shannon was still in the game with only two other students. The three of them spelled words correctly for another eleven rounds, each listening carefully to the words being read, each slowly spelling one letter at a time, each walking away from the microphone victorious. We wondered if they would exhaust our list! At round thirty, little Abigail listed the wrong vowel in the word palace, an easy mistake to make. She had been a tenacious and talented opponent! We were down to just two, Solomon and Shannon. Finally, in round thirty-three Shannon received the word justify. How many times had we practiced this word? As commonly happens in a competition like this, she slipped a cog. She proceeded to correctly spell: j - u - s - t - i - f - i - e - d.Wow! The Y’s Exchanging and ED rules had properly been applied . . . to the wrong word. When Solomon correctly spelled the next word qualify, he was announced the winner of this year’s U12 Bible Spelling Bee. Congratulations, Solomon!!! Shannon was a very gracious runner up, and several of the parents commented on what a great encourager she had been for the other children during the competition. We were so proud of her!!! One of the words Shannon studied was abundance. A technique we use to remember how to spell is called think to spell, in which we “think” the word in syllables as they are written, not necessarily how we speak them. While working on this spelling word, I promised my daughter that if she could place in the top four at the Bee, we would take her to get a Cinnabon cinnamon bun where she could do A Bun Dance. We all enjoyed the sweet fruits of her success later that evening! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/669302/ Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/669302/ My daughter will be participating in her first spelling bee this coming Saturday. We're busy preparing her for it, practicing the words, and reviewing like crazy. As we've been working, the questions other people have raised about spelling bees on our SWR Yahoo Group have come to mind. I thought I'd share about how SWR can help a student prepare for a spelling bee. Letter Names Not Sounds The first issue we've been having to deal with is that in a spelling bee, the student is required to spell words aloud using letter names, not the phonogram sounds which are second nature to SWR users. It is because of this element of bees, that I do NOT recommend having younger students or beginning readers participate in this kind of event. Brain research has indicated that the storage of letter names occurs in a different part of the brain than the sounds used in speech. When a student is learning to spell and read, the sounds of the words must be available for instant retrieval, not letter names. This is a strength of SWR as the phonogram sounds are emphasized in both reading and spelling. While letter names are certainly taught, they are learned in the process of analyzing words through reliable rules and the interaction between letters to make words. Shannon is doing well with the naming of letters to spell aloud, but occasionally she slips back into sounding a word out loud instead. Although this could be a problem during the bee, my overall goal for her is that she will spell well throughout life. It would appear that the foundation for that has been well laid! Spelling Dictation SWR has prepared us well for practicing the words on the bee list. I teach each word with the standard SWR spelling dictation, and Shannon writes them in a spiral notebook we are creating for this event. She is dividing words into syllables and using the SWR markings to analyze the words. Again, the work we've done with SWR is lending itself naturally to this further study. Understanding Roots A key to being able to spell is to recognize the root in a word under study and then to apply any spelling rules needed to create the derivative. For example, one of Shannon's words is mysteries. Before working on that word, we analyzed the root word mystery. Then we discussed the Y's Exchanging Rule which explains how the target ended up with the -ies ending. Whenever the word on her bee list is a derivative, we do this root work first. This not only improves her ability to accurately spell the target word, but it reinforces the work we've been doing in SWR with the rules. Syllable Breaks Anyone wanting to learn to spell accurately should first learn how to break words into syllables. This relates very strongly with the idea of perceiving roots in the target words. When Shannon can recognize the root of a word, she can easily apply the rules to transform that root into the derivative under study. Is there a prefix at the beginning of the root? Simply add the already-known prefixes. Is there a suffix at the end of the root? Apply the appropriate rule, and there you go! The simple act of breaking words into syllables can give cues as to the correct spelling. Is there a vowel at the end of a syllable? It is likely spelled with a single vowel instead of a multiletter phonogram. In addition, breaking a word into syllables first helps her mentally keep track of where she is in a word to be able to verbally spell it aloud. It breaks long words into small and manageable chunks which she can spell more carefully. Knowing and thinking in terms of syllable breaks is a huge advantage! Review, Review, Review There can be a lot of pressure on kids in a spelling bee. Everyone is looking at them. People hold their breath as each word is spelled slowly and carefully. One single letter out of place can disqualify the student in a moment. How does a student prepare for this? REVIEW!!! We are doing this in different ways. She practices saying the words aloud in syllable chunks. She practices spelling aloud. She practices writing the words. As she becomes more and more proficient at spelling them, my dictation and the pace quickens. This helps to replicate the pressure she'll feel at the bee. The words have to be so well ingrained that they will come out correctly when all eyes are on her. This is similar to our goal with SWR. We want the 2,000 Wise words to be so well learned that they are correctly and automatically spelled when the student's mind is occupied on the writing process instead of having to focus on spelling. We review while driving. We review while cooking dinner. We review while getting ready for bed. Review is the name of the game at this point. Complexity of the ListWe practiced today while working out at Curves. As we progressed around our circuit, the ladies overheard Shannon spelling her words. One of the ladies commented on how complex the words were that she was learning. That surprised me, but it shouldn't have. With SWR we are able to take apart any word in our language and reduce it to its most simple parts, syllables and phonograms. The phonograms and rules will apply to all words whether they are in a first grade reader or in a college Physics text. Our "think to spell" technique helps us remember those tricky parts of the words. For example, when the word enmity is pronounced in the flow of speech, the /n/ is often lost. Using "think to spell" we hear this distinctly while pronouncing the word in syllables. What about that I in the word view? We "think" this as a two-syllable word: vi + ew. No problem! With SWR spelling the words in our language makes so much sense! How do I think she'll do this Saturday? I have no idea as this is her first spelling bee. I have communicated that I am thrilled with her practice and her attitude regardless of how well she performs on Saturday. She'll be a winner in my eyes even if someone else comes in first. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/667700/ Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/667700/ My 13-year-old son John will be joining me for the first time this weekend while I teach an SWR Seminar in Santa Rosa, CA. He will be busy today learning what all the materials are at the book table, how to write up receipts, and about adding sales tax. In the process of preparing him to be an SWR representative, he realized that he needed to have a way to explain why he likes learning the SWR way. He decided to write a paper about it. Wow! I just had to share with you all what my son had to say about the program. Enjoy! The Best Spelling Program by John FitzGerald      Ever wonder which spelling program is the best? Well, I think I have been raised on just that. My mother, Elizabeth FitzGerald, has homeschooled my older brother, Joshua; my younger sister, Shannon; and me since we began our education at age 5 with Spell to Write and Read. SWR teaches English logically in a way that makes it easy for children to understand while still having fun.      SWR builds a firm foundation with only a few simple rules that are easy to remember. These 28 rules are highly consistent whereas other curricula have many bizarre, complicated, or just plain wrong rules which result in multiple exceptions and contradictions. It is frustrating when you come across a word that doesn't sound the way it looks. However, the SWR rules and phonograms help me understand why words are built the way they are. English makes sense this way! SWR can be a simple, helpful curriculum that is logical and that the whole family will enjoy.      SWR is also fun. We like playing games such as “Guess That Word.” First, we take turns suggesting names of movies. Mom then says a line from or about the movie which includes the spelling word. This game helps us stay focused and interested. Writing sentences is fun, too. We practice adding strong verbs, who/which clauses, and other stylistic techniques we are learning from our writing class. It's a blast when I can think of crazy ideas, too. The fingergrams are sometimes funny because they involve weird hand and finger contortions. Try the fingergrams for “to” and “known” to understand some of my favorites. SWR can be enjoyable for kids like me.      I think Spell to Write and Read is the right way to teach kids. It is simple for them to understand, and the possibilities for fun while learning are endless. Both of these elements are important, but the most significant aspect of SWR is that it teaches children to sound out any word to know how to read and spell it. This is why I think SWR is better than any other spelling program! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/559239/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/559239/ 2/18-22/08 We are reading Carry on Mr. Bowditch. Monday, Part 1 We completed a reading in McCall-Crabbs today. Monday, Part 2 WARM-UP JJ had his turn flashing the phonogram cards for us to review today. Monday, Part 3 For the WARM-UP quiz, the children took dictation on the 20 words from S-3 in their spiral notebooks. They were instructed to double space in order to accommodate the next activity with those words. I wrote the spelling word on my white board immediately after everyone had written it so they could have instant feedback. Monday, Part 4 REINFORCEMENT I wrote the suffixes listed in the WG on page 180 at the top of the white board. I then modeled for the students how to figure out which suffixes could be added to the first several spelling words to create derivatives. The students were then to go through the list and create as many legitimate derivatives as possible. Another great activity because it required that they think through the various rules we have learned in order to add suffixes. Monday, Part 5 Later in the day, the students finished O-5 and S-3 by independently taking the TEST with the Companion CDs. Tuesday, Part 1 WARM-UP SE led the phonogram review. Again, this was helpful for me, and the children have a better understanding of how flipping cards quickly is not so easy! A REVIEW quiz followed from our stack of review cards. Several were able to be retired. I noticed that we haven’t reviewed our rule cards in a while. Therefore, the children took turns reciting the rules from the cards. For each rule the children could recite word perfect, they earned three chips in their cups. Tuesday, Part 2 DICTATION I dictated words from O-6. For each word, we set a timer for one minute. Every time we were able to go through the entire dictation process for a word before the timer went off, each student earned a chip in his/her cup. Also, each word I dictated was assigned to an individual student so that after I had taught a word only that student would dictate back to me and tell me how to do the markings. This entire process helped us keep on track and move through the list quickly. A POST-TEST on these words immediately followed. Excellent scores. For both the Review Quiz and the Post-Test, I dicated the word and then, after the children had written it, I immediately wrote the word on the board so they had instant feedback. Any words they missed were crossed out and rewritten correctly with red. Tuesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT I dictated the three sentences with alliterations from the bottom of WG pg 128. Since we’ve been working on alliterations in our writing class, this was not a new concept. (It has been amazing to me how the Lord has been weaving these two classes together so that one builds on concepts taught in the other!) The children were then to write sentences which included all their spelling words and at least one alliteration in each sentence. Error words, which were few, were added to the word banks. Thursday, Part 1 We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading. Thursday, Part 2 WARM-UP We reviewed phonogram and rule cards. The children took a REVIEW QUIZ on the words which had been dictated on Tuesday. Thursday, Part 3 DICTATION I dictated S-4 to the children. Immediately after, I dictated the paragraph on pg 183 in WG as a POST-TEST. Whew! This was hard for them because they had to listen to and write out phrases from the sentences. We added any words from S-4 that were not included in this paragraph. All error words were added to their word banks. I realize that this is an activity I need to repeat, but perhaps not as a post-test. The process of thinking through spelling words while quickly writing sentences is a beneficial activity. The kids just need a bit more practice with the words before I expect the spelling at this level. Friday No spelling today as our day was filled with Writing Class and finishing AWANA Grand Prix cars! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/489123/ Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:38:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/489123/ 2/11-15/08 We did not read from our read aloud this week. Wednesday, Part 1 We started with a reading in McCall-Crabbs today. Wednesday, Part 2 DICTATION I dictated O-5 to the children who then took a POST-TEST. Wednesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT Error words were added to their word banks. Thursday, Part 1 We started with a reading in McCall-Crabbs today. For REVIEW, we read through our phonogram cards and the children took a REVIEW Quiz on yesterday’s new words plus a few from the review stack. We were able to “retire” some of our review words. Thursday, Part 2 DICTATION I dictated S-3 to the children who then took a POST-TEST. Tuesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT Error words were added to the word banks. Friday, Part 1 WARM-UP JD led the phonogram review today. He held the stack of cards where we could all see them (yes, I was a student today). Shifting each card, one by one, from the back of the stack to the front, he was able to tell what phonogram we should say when we saw the card. What a great review for me, one of the fellow students on this activity. Friday, Part 2 We added appropriate words from O-5 and S-3 to the following REFERENCE Pages: ER, SH/TI, IE/EI & Numbers. Friday, Part 3 Next, I dicated the words from O-5 to the students, who wrote the words down the left side of a page in their spiral notebooks. (We took a quiz score on this dictation.) The children then drew two vertical lines down their pages, creating three columns. At the top of the middle column they wrote “yes” and at the top of the right column they wrote “no,” just like the E’s Dropping page in their learning logs. Together decided whether the E’s Dropping rule applied to our words or not in order to add the -ing suffix. If the rule applied, we wrote the derivative in the “yes” column whereas if the rule either did not apply or the E would not be dropped, we wrote the derivative in the “no” column. This activity came from WG pg 126. This was a fantastic exercise as some of the words were tricky (i.e. tie-tying and picnic-picnicking). Friday, Part 4 The students wrote sentences for all 40 of their spelling words, trying to add a variety of sentence openers for each one, per our recent writing class lessons. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/483403/ Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:02:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/483403/ 2/4-8/08 In view of the elections in California this week, we read a book entitled The Voice of the People: American Democracy in Action by Betsy and Giulio Maestro. This was a great book for an overview of how our American government is run, the three branches of the federal government, and the voting system for our national elections. I got the book from Love-to-Learn. Monday, Part 1 We completed a reading in McCall-Crabbs today. Monday, Part 2 WARM-UP The children reviewed all 70 phonogram cards in unison, sounds only. Next, they took a review quiz of five multiletter phonograms and the words from Section S-2, which they covered last week. Monday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT We added words from both O-4 and S-2 to the following Reference Pages: ER, SH/TI, Numbers, Y's, 1-1-1, and Abbreviations. Wednesday, Part 1 We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading today. Wednesday, Part 2 REINFORCEMENT I dictated the words from Section O-4 to the children in a quiz format, having them write them down the left column of their spiral notebooks. After each word was dictated, I wrote it on our white board so they would have instant feedback and could immediately correct their work. Next, I wrote at the top of the white board the prefixes and their meanings which are listed in the WG on page 124. After giving some examples with the first few words, the children wrote a list of derivatives by adding appropriate prefixes to their spelling words. Wednesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT Later in the day: Due to being short on time, I had each of the children take a quiz on the words from list S-2 with the Companion CDs. Again, they wrote the words down the left column of their spiral notebooks. After everyone had taken the quiz independently, I wrote the words on our white board for them to self-correct. Then, I added the prefixes and their meanings which are found in the WG on page 179 at the top of the board. Again, they created derivatives from the spelling words by adding appropriate prefixes. How wonderful that the same activity was found in both of our spelling lists this week. Toward the end of their work on this second list, the children were having a lot of fun discovering new vocabulary by mixing prefixes with their spelling words. Another terrific benefit of this activity is that they could see for themselves why a word such as irregular has two R’s, but yet disappear only has one S but two P’s. We discussed how prefixes are simply added to the root word at the beginning, but suffixes require careful attention to rules when added at the end of a word. I could have explained that to them fifteen times, and it would have made no sense. However, building the words themselves in this way made the process come alive, and now they have a better understanding of how words are build in the English language. Thursday, Part 1 END-OF-THE-WEEK TEST The children took their test on O-4 and S-2 using the Companion CDs. All did very well. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/483384/ Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:50:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/483384/ 1/28-2/1/08 We have finished The Cat of Bubastes! HURRAY! It was a great book, and the last few chapters were intense fun. We have now started Carry on Mr. Bowditch, which ties into the American History two of my students are studying. Tuesday, Part 1 WARM-UP Review quiz on O-4 words and phonograms from Preliminaries (see WG pg 178). Tuesday, Part 2 DICTATION I dictated Section S-2 and discussed root words vs. derivatives and how some words as verbs can be turned into nouns or visa versa. A POST-TEST followed on Section S-2. I also added words from various Reference Pages which have been taught in the past. This caught the children quite unprepared, but it taught them a good lesson that any word we have covered is “fair game” for future quizzes. Tuesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT The kids added words they missed on the quizzes today to their word banks. This took a while, but it was excellent review. Wednesday My husband designs sleds and outdoor sports equipment for a living. Due to our recent rains in California, the snow was excellent today for much-needed product testing. Therefore, my children were whisked away to the snow for the day to help Dad field test his samples. Can you guess what didn’t get done today? Thursday Unfortunately, other classes again took priority today. We worked on finishing our writing class papers since not much was done on this ealier this week. Praise the Lord the children are much more independent this year on their writing, so they have a good deal of this done before I step in to help with typing and editing. Friday After our writing class this morning, I left for a weekend getaway to get caught up on my grading and recordkeeping. *sigh* After a weekend of going over our semester, I will be renewed in my desire to be consistent and persevere with spelling. Is anyone getting an idea why we have a hard time with consistency around here? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/483381/ Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/483381/ January 21-25, 2008 Our read aloud this week is The Cat of Bubastes by G. A Henty. Two chapters to go -- the excitement builds! Monday, Part 1 We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading. WARM-UP We started with a review quiz on last week’s words and 10 of the review words from our card stack. Monday, Part 2 We added words from O-3 and S-1 to the following Reference Pages: Numbers, ER, E’s Dropping, and Y’s exchanging. See WG pp 123 & 177 for instructions on this. Monday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT I dictated again the words from list S-1, which the children wrote down the left column in their journals (not the learning logs). They were then to turn each of these adjectives into an adverb by adding an -ly ending. Tricky! They had to watch out for Y’s Exchanging and E’s Dropping words. The question also arose as to what to do when a word ending with L has -ly added. The answer: double the L! Monday, Part 4 The students finished up by adding to their word banks any words they missed on the warm-up quiz or the -LY dictation list. Tuesday, Part 1 We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading. I specifically chose one that was a bit lower in grade level than where we have been working lately to encourage my oldest. He actually scored the best of all three kids on this particular reading. Hurrah! Tuesday, Part 2 The kids have been a bit antsy lately, so I decided we needed to make spelling FUN today. Consequently, we turned each activity into a game. Not only did we review our spelling, but we worked on logic as well. WARM-UP PHONOGRAM REVIEW The kids lined up in front of me. I held the phonogram cards where they could not see them. For the first child, I gave hints about the phonogram I was looking at. For example, “It is a two-letter phonogram with one sound, and it MAY be used at the end of English words. Its sound is the same as a 4-letter phonogram.” The answer: AY After the student identified the phonogram, he got to keep the card and go to the end of the line. If he was not able to identify the phonogram, he’d go to the end of the line and the next child would try to name it. The kids counted up the cards they had “won” at the end of the game and received that many “Mommy Bucks” (a reward system we have just started implementing in our home). “Somehow phonogram review was more interesting today than usual,” she says with a big grin. Tuesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT The kids missed several words on yesterday’s review quiz, so I decided we needed to do something to review these words well before the end-of-the-week test, which was going to happen today. How could I get those kids to look carefully at their lists and study them? The answer: Spelling Wheel of Fortune (without the wheel) I drew a scoreboard on the white board where each child had + and - columns. We also had an overall tally scoreboard to keep track of their points from one round to the next. Next, I secretly chose a word from the current list, which the children were allowed to look at in their Learning Logs. (Ah ha! Mom’s got them carefully “studying” those logs.) I drew the number of lines on the board that corresponded with the number of phonograms in that word. For example, the word “fourteen” has 8 letters but only 6 phonograms; only 6 lines were drawn. The children took turns guessing phonograms. If the guesser chose correctly, he scored 1 point for that phonogram and could take another turn. However, if he chose a phonogram that was not in the word, I wrote the incorrect phonogram on the board (not on a line), he lost a point on his scoreboard, and the next child had a turn. A child had the potential of literally naming all the phonograms in the word if he could logically figure out which spelling word in his list fit the number of lines on the board after even one phonogram was identified. No words were repeated, so there was a process of elimination as the game progressed. We started out by showing syllable breaks, but quickly dropped this feature as it made the game too easy. Once a child figured out what the word was, he had to list the phonograms without looking at his log. Naturally, all discussion was done in phonogram language, not letter names. Once we were done with List O-3, we continued with S-1 as well. Another hit! Tuesday, Part 4 Note: A few hours transpired between Activities 3 & 4. This included getting ready for piano lessons, going to piano lessons, going grocery shopping, putting away the groceries, and starting dinner. While the chicken was cooking, we worked on the following . . . END-OF-THE-WEEK TEST Yes, you can give an end-of-the-week test on Tuesday. What this means is just that you’re done with the lists you’ve taught, and you’re ready to move on. That’s where we are; it just happens to be a Tuesday and not a Friday. Oh, well. So how did we turn a test into a game? -Each student dated and labeled a page in his writing journal. They each chose a color for a white board marker. -Student #1 stepped up to the white board. -I dictated a word from List O-3. -The students sitting down wrote the word in their journals. -When they finished, Student #1 wrote the word on the board in his color. -If the word on the board was spelled correctly, he received a point. If it was spelled incorrectly, no point was given. -The seated students checked their work and either gave themselves a red check (correct) or wrote the word correctly with a red pencil. -Student #1 sat down and wrote the word in his journal in either regular pencil (word had been spelled correctly on the board) or with a red pencil (word was spelled incorrectly and corrected on the board). -Student #2 stepped up to the white board, etc. -By the end of List O-3, we had 20 words colorfully written in various manners, angles, and styles all over the white board. How creative! We erased the board and continued in the same format through List S-1. -At that time dinner was almost ready, so I quickly gave them the rest of their review words from our card stack without the game format. In the end, I had a record of how each student had done on the test, the kids had instant feedback on their words, we were able to “retire” many of our review words, and the kids were actually encouraging one another. It did get a bit loud a few times, but they were having a great time and spelling turned out to be fun today. In the words of Cornelius Robinson, we will just "keep moving forward!" Wednesday, Part 1 WARM-UP We were very short on time today, so I skipped any warm-up activities. This is okay to do now and then, but it shouldn’t be a regular practice. Wednesday, Part 2 DICTATION I dictated Section O-4 to the children. Since working at this higher level for a while now, and especially after working on S-1 words last week, these words seem so easy now. The kids seem to be finding that to be the case as well. POST-TEST I gave a post-test on the words I had just dictated as well as on all of the words in our review stack of cards. Scores: 95%-100%. I’d say they’re doing well! Wednesday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT The kids wrote sentences with their spelling words around the theme of a holiday at the beach. They could either write individual, unrelated sentences with this theme, or they could compose a paragraph. See WG pg 125. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/466794/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/466794/ January 14-18, 2008 Our read aloud this week is The Cat of Bubastes by G. A Henty. We’re almost done, and we’re in the most exciting part of the book! Tuesday, Part 1 MC-CALL-CRABBS We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading. Tuesday, Part 2 WARM-UP We reviewed all phonogram cards with the round robin format and with full spelling dialogue. Tuesday, Part 3 DICTATION I dictated Section O-3 to the children. One of the things ways we do dictation is that the children take turns dictating the words back to me and telling me how to do the markings. We do this so that one child does not dominate the process, to keep them alert and attentive, and so I can tell who is understanding the material. Here’s how it works. Let’s say it’s JD’s turn. After I dictate the word and the children write it in their logs, JD will then dictate it back to me. The others are to be listening quietly. Next, JJ (sitting to JD’s left) will tell me how to do the markings. On the next word, JJ will dictate it back to me and SE (sitting on JJ’s left) will tell me the markings. We continue this way until we’re done with the list. A POST-TEST followed on the 20 words I dicated today as well as the words from lists O-1 and O-2, which were never tested back in December. Because a lot of time has transpired since we worked on those words, I gave “think to spell” clues on these words as needed. Tuesday, Part 4 REINFORCEMENT The children added error words to their word banks and wrote sentences with today’s new spelling words. The only special requirements for the sentences were to write 10, using two new words in each sentence. Thursday, Part 1 MC-CALL-CRABBS We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading. Today was the tenth reading recorded on the students’ current record forms. Therefore, we took an average of the ten scores, drew a red line across these last ten scores on their point graph, collected the record forms and point graphs, and set up these forms for starting the next reading at our next lesson. By the way, I’ve been doing these readings along with the children which helped greatly as I was able to discuss with them the more difficult questions. I’m pleased to say all three increased their average scores. Thursday, Part 2 DICTATION We have increased our words per week to forty. However, I want to challenge the children even further, especially considering how well they did with the advanced spelling words Wanda gave them last week. Therefore, I have decided that we’ll do 20 words per week continuing in Section O, but we’ll also do 20 words per week starting in Section S. It’s going to take a bit of work on my part to be prepared ahead of time with my understanding of the words, but also to coordinate any Reference Pages that will need to be done. Let’s see how this goes. I had the children format their Black Logs so that section titles were added from O-4 through S-1. The children folded pages and added titles per instructions. I then dictated Section S-1, again using the round robin format explained above. A POST-TEST followed with all 40 words dictated this week and 10 from our review stack of cards. Thursday, Part 3 REINFORCEMENT Error words were added to the word banks, and the students wrote 10 sentences with today’s spelling words. Goals for next week: (1) Actually teach all five days! (2) Finish up on this week's lists and keep moving! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/465628/ Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:13:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/465628/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/461547/ Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:44:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/teachingkids/461547/