Jul. 10, 2008 - John's review of SWR
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!
by
John FitzGerald
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!