Spelling You See {Review}

 

 

Spelling You See is a spelling program that uses the five developmental stages of spelling. It is geared towards elementary aged students or can be used for remedial work for older students. I reviewed Spelling You See: Wild Tales (Level C). This program is not like your typical spelling program. It does not use word lists. There is no memorizing. And get this, there are absolutely no tests! The child simply writes in an engaging fashion. Their philosophy here is that the repetition of correctly spelling words will result in success. Even though the focus is writing, there are other activities used throughout the week. This includes direct interaction with the teacher, drawing, and color coding special sounds. Even though there are no tests, there is an opportunity at the end of every fifth lesson for the child to see what they know. Rather than taking a "spelling test" where the teacher marks how many words were missed, the teacher instead focuses on the words that were spelled correctly. The teacher dictates the passage that the child has been working on all week and then marks how many words the child spells correctly.

Spelling You See offers five different levels A-E for your child. You can look at their placement guidelines to see which level your child is ready to begin with. Grade levels are not used to determined placement, rather you look at the skills your child already possess and work from there. The five developmental stages of spelling that Spelling You See addresses are:

Stage I: Preliterate

Stage II. Phonetic

Stage III. Skill Development

Stage IV. Word Extension

Stage V. Derivational Constancy

 

The different levels progress according to these five stages. 

I choose to begin my seven year old with Level C. This level begins by having the child go over familiar nursery rhymes such as Little Boy Blue, This Old Man, and I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Starting in the eighth week, the child begins to go over more complex and informative passages about different animals such as elephants, hummingbirds and crocodiles. 

 

Instructor's Handbook $14

Student Pack $30

HOW IT WORKS
Your child will work on a passage comprised of several sentences over the course of five lessons. In our homeschool we work on one passage per week. You begin each day by reading the passage aloud with your student and then you have the child read and point to the words as they read it. We received both student notebooks, the instructor book and colored pencils for this review. My son loved using the colored pencils to help him remember the letters or chunks that he was working on that week!
COPYWORK
The child receives 10 minutes to copy his passage, word for word on Days 1-3. On day one, the child learns a letter pattern and focuses on it throughout the week. Each pattern or group of letters are then marked with a specific color by the child both before and after they write the passage. 

NO RULE DAY

On Day 4, the child has the opportunity to draw their own picture of the story they are learning and to write a sentence in their own words relating to the story. 

DICTATION

On Day 5, the child goes over the passage one final time. Then, the teacher dictates the passage to the child as he write it in full. The teacher is able to help, guide and have the student rewrite any misspelled words. The teacher then counts up the words that were spelled correctly the first time around. 

HOW IT WORKED FOR US

Spelling has been quite a struggle for my seven year old. He is an excellent reader, excels at math, but spelling is not a strength by any means! I have been looking and searching for the perfect spelling program. I've tried online programs, I've purchased several different types of curriculum but to no avail. Sometimes he may excel on the tests but then in a few short weeks he had forgotten the correct spelling of the words! Spelling, with those programs, were always such a drudgery. He despised learning it and I wasn't fond of teaching it, we would simply try to "get through" the lessons each day. Spelling You See is different. It allows for a relaxed environment and for my son and I, we actually enjoy doing these lessons together. 

My son is a perfectionist. So in the past, when he would score poorly on a spelling test, he would be so down on himself.  After the first week of Spelling You See I could see his countenance light up when he was able to count up the words that he wrote correctly on his own. It was encouraging and uplifting for him. It doesn't mean we don't work on the misspelled words, just in a different light. Before spelling would almost seem to be punishment. If a word was spelled incorrectly, then I would have him write them three times each correctly. Now, the focus is taken away from the mistakes and placed on the achievements! Now after several lessons of this program I can definitely say that his confidence in writing has improved. Before he would be intimidated out of fear of getting a word wrong. Now, during his own free time I see him writing more and not afraid to make mistakes! I do see an improvement with his spelling but he still has a long way to go. I look forward to continuing with this program and seeing where it takes him!