When Spelling Should Be Your Priority (and when it should not)

I get it! I'm a special needs mom.  All three of my children have unique needs: I have two with dyslexia and one with Spina Bifida. I'm only one person.  I only have 24 hours in the day. Sometimes something has to go.  And quite honestly, sometimes that something is spelling.  If you know me, that might surprise you because I wrote a spelling program.

Whether your child is learning in school or at home, if your student is a unique learner, a large portion of your time is spent choosing your battles.  What do you need to focus on?  What can you drop? What are your child's most important needs, and how can you help to meet them?

I understand that spelling is not always a priority, and I understand why it might not be a priority for your student. Here are three reasons why you might want to hold off on formal spelling instruction:

1. If your student is still learning to read, you might want to focus your time in reading instruction.  Many wonderful programs teach reading first, then they tackle spelling.

(Note: There are also many wonderful reading programs that teach reading and spelling in tandem.  This is my preferred way to teach reading and spelling, but this is a personal preference.  Use what works for your student.)

2. If your student is content to write using assistive devices (voice to text, Google, Siri) and can clearly get his or her thoughts on paper, formal spelling may not be needed.

3. If your student has had a bad experience with a spelling program and the thought of a formal spelling program gives him or her anxiety, you might want to wait a bit for spelling.

On the other hand, I believe that there are some important reasons why you might want to choose spelling to be a priority for your student.

1. If your student is struggling with self esteem because of weak spelling, teach your student to spell.

    Spelling is personal.  Whether we like it or not, whether it is right or not, whether it is conscious or not, some people judge others by their ability to spell.  Weak spellers sometimes need the written word to communicate.  This is different (and as I said, more personal) than being a weak math student.  Most people don't send each other math problems as a means of communication, but we need the written word.  I realize that we live in a changing world.  Texting abbreviations are becoming more acceptable on paper.  We have spell check, Siri, and  Google at our fingertips.  There are adaptations for weak spellers.  And I'm thankful for them.  But there are still many times when students need to write.  And if weak spelling causes students to think they are not smart, we need to help them.

I am dyslexic.  My first grade teacher told me I was the stupidest child she had ever met.  I believed her.  I believed her for years.  I believed her when I was in high school.  I thought there was no possible way I could be in accelerated classes because I was stupid.  Because I couldn't spell.  Those beliefs ran deep for a very long time. I have met many young students who think like I did.  I am passionate about teaching children to spell because I believe it is a confidence builder.  Many weak spellers and students with dyslexia have such creative minds, and spelling gives them the words to share their ideas with the world.

2. If your student is struggling to get thoughts on paper, teach your student to spell.

    Some students use inventive spellings beautifully.  They have big thoughts and they write them on paper without a care in the world that they can't spell those thoughts correctly.  (I was one of these students.) Writing and spelling are two different skills, and most experts suggest to not worry about spelling in the first draft of a composition. Students can fix the spelling mistakes in the editing process.  This works for many weak spellers.  But it didn't work for my daughter.  My daughter couldn't read her inventive spelling.  The spellings were so off that she had no idea what the words were supposed to say. And so she tried to recall the spellings of words she had studied in her spelling classes.  But that didn't work either.  She couldn't retrieve the words she needed, which frustrated her.  And by the time I helped her, she had forgotten what she wanted to say.  It was this tearful cycle that inspired me to write a different kind of spelling program for my daughter.

3. If your current spelling program is not effective, teach your student to spell.

    Most spelling programs expect students to memorize a list of 20 + words each week, retain them, and then repeat the process over and over again.  The problem with this traditional method is two fold: 1. Twenty words are too many for weak spellers, and 2. One week is not enough time for students to master the words.  This system is setting up weak spellers for failure.

Another issue that many students face is that many very popular spelling programs teach one rule or spelling pattern per list.  For example, the words might all end in a silent e:  "hope, tame, cute." These words all follow a spelling rule.  Or the words might all use the "ea" phonogram "dream, eat, bread." Research shows us that students do well on spelling tests with these kinds of lists. I'll tell you why: Many students mindlessly add an "e" to the end of the words or an "ea" phonogram in the middle of every word.  They might pass the test.  They might even ace the test. But most weak spellers will promptly forget the spelling of these words as soon as the test is over.   Again, this system is setting some students up for failure. (I realize that there are weak spellers who thrive with this kind of spelling program.  If it works for your student, great!  There are some wonderful spelling options that fit in this category.) 

At Automatic Spelling, we believe that learning to spell is much more than passing a spelling test.  Our goal is to help weak spellers spell more words correctly in their writing outside of the subject of spelling so that they are free to focus on their thoughts.  Automatic Spelling is a spiral review spelling drill program that teaches students spelling rules, phonograms, and much more through video lessons.  Each lesson introduces just 7-8 new words. Spelling rules are cumulative and repeated throughout the lessons. Words from previous lessons are practiced each day to help students master the words and make them "Automatic." 

Many weak speller have gained confidence with Automatic Spelling's spiral review system.  Theses students are finally learning to spell.

Want to know more?  Watch these information videos.

You can purchase Automatic Spelling here.

Spelling may not be your priority, and that's ok. I've dropped spelling for a season, too.  But if you think your student might benefit from a different kind of spelling program, consider Automatic Spelling.

Harry Potter and the Nightly Read Aloud

*Read at your own risk.  This post has some Harry Potter spoilers. I tried to be fairly vague. 

My daughter was so excited to turn eleven.  It meant that she was FINALLY able to read Harry Potter.  For her birthday, she received a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter (obviously), a time turner necklace, and an illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

And on the evening of my daughter's eleventh birthday we began a magical journey together.

I've never been very good at reading bedtime stories.  My children are typically lucky to hear me read them a picture book.  My brain shuts off around 8:30. I have dyslexia. It's not pretty.  But Harry Potter was worth it.  I love the idea of parent and child bonding through books.  Listen to Sarah MacKenzie's Read Aloud Revival Podcast.  Read The Reading Promise.  They both encourage reading aloud to children, no matter their age.

In the beginning I thought I would read one book each year to her, (DON'T JUDGE! That's how I read them back in the day)  but as soon as we finished the Sorcerer's Stone, she begged me to read book 2.  And well, except for a brief hiatus between books 4 and 5, we just kept going.

We had a few house rules:
1.We could not watch the movie until we completed the book.
2. My daughter experienced things when Harry did. (She had to wait to get a wand and be sorted into a house until it happened in the book.)
3. She could not read any blogs or watch any youtube videos about the books or movies.
4. This was just reading for pleasure.  She did not have do any character analyses, book reports, or worksheets.  (This was a little hard for me because I create curriculum ALL THE TIME!  Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers page here.)
5.  No talking about Harry Potter in front of her younger brothers! They will turn 11 someday, too.
6.  We read 6-7 evenings a week. If we did not get home until 9:00 p.m. or later, we would not read that evening.
7.  She was not allowed to read ahead without me.

It took roughly 275 days for us to read all seven books. I imagine that we read for about 320 hours total.

Some highlights and observations:

My daughter was so excited to be sorted into her house on pottermore... until she was sorted into Slytherin.  At first she was crushed. "Slytherin! Why'd it have to be Slyterin?!"  But as the books progressed, she really started to rock the misunderstood house.  She proudly wears green and silver now.

I didn't require any work.  We just enjoyed the story.  But as we were reading, she started building her vocabulary, analyzing characters, and making connections.  Sometimes I would read a character's words, and she would correctly guess the character who spoke them.  She noticed parallels between Harry and his friends and enemies and James and his friends and enemies.  Her writing has become more descriptive.

My daughter is experiencing the moods and emotions that come along with being eleven.  On her particularly sad days, I would read earlier in the day, just the two of us, and it usually lightened her mood.

I started reading more bedtime stories and novels to her little brothers.  Her brothers requested that I read to them at night, too.

We have been trying to figure out how to make our relationship stronger. We home school, and she gets tired of me.  Harry Potter gave us a neutral place to just enjoy a story together.

This is the first time I think she has become friends with the characters in a book.  She made fun of my tears when characters died, but secretly she was just as upset.

She did not appreciate the romance. "This is a book about magic," she exclaimed disgustedly, "not a romance book!"

She was floored by a major plot twist.  Her reaction was perfect! "What!? I thought he was the bad guy! Everything I knew was wrong!!!!"

The two children's librarians at our library have watched this journey from the time I printed out the Hogwart's Acceptance Letter to our out loud reading of the epilogue.  She has enjoyed sharing her thoughts with them.

I almost always read the chapters to her, but she wanted to read the epilogue to me.  Here are some sweet pictures of her reaction to the ending of Harry Potter.

This is not some monumental thing we did.  I know of at least 5 other families that have read the Harry Potter series out loud to their kids.  Create some memories with your children. It's worth it.

We finished HP last night, and tonight we start Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga.  Book 1 On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. 

What are you reading?

Top 5 Ways to Know Your Spelling Program is Working

Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner?  I took our youth group out to eat last week, and the restaurant was already decorated for Christmas.  I think most of us like to evaluate our curriculum choices about this time in the year.  I do.  Last year at this time, I was finally happy with our spelling program. 

After trying several spelling programs with my dyslexic daughter, I decided  to write my own that catered to the way she learns.  My daughter needs a lot more repetition than any other spelling program was giving her.  

Here is a Top 5 list to help you know if your spelling program is working for your child.

1. No tears.  If the idea of spelling brings legitimate tears to your child's eyes, it might be time to shop around for something else. (Note: I did not say manipulative tears. My son is the master at crying when he would rather do something else.)

2. Your child can finish a spelling lesson in lesson than 30 minutes a day.  If your child takes more than this, it may be time to switch.

3. Your child is consistently getting As and Bs on spelling tests.  Way to go! However, if your child is struggling to master the spelling of words, you might want to try something else.

4. Your child is spelling words correctly in his or her writing.  If your child can remember how to spell a previously studied spelling word naturally in another context, you have a good speller. If your child can spell for the test, but cannot remember to spell the word correctly in a different context, he or she has not actually mastered the spelling of that word.

5. If your child is confident in their writing, you may have a good spelling program for that child.  However, if your child is hesitant to write because of spelling errors, you might want to find a different program.  My daughter was so embarrassed by the way she spelled words that she sometimes did not want to write at all.

If you said no to 2 or more of the Top 5 list, you might be interested in some of the Issues that Weak Spellers Face Every Day.

If your child is struggling to become a confident and accurate speller, please shop around for a spelling program that works.  If your child has to use the spelling program adopted by the school, consider tutoring your child in how to spell outside of the classroom.  

There are some great spelling programs on the market.  I love Spell to Write and Read and All About Spelling. They both teach spelling rules and phonograms. If your child needs more embedded practice for mastery consider the program I wrote for my daughter: Automatic Spelling.  It comes with video lessons and more practice and review than any program I have seen.

Scaffolding with Automatic Spelling

In my last blog post, I defined educational scaffolding and explained how to use it in the classroom.  Today, I want to focus on how Automatic Spelling uses the scaffolding technique.  It is scaffolding that makes Automatic Spelling so different from other spelling programs.

Automatic Spelling (AS) uses scaffolding in several ways.
*  AS continually repeats what is easy.  (Remember the Easy +1 idea?) Each list contains 7 new spelling words which are repeated 3 times in a grid of 60 words.  That leaves almost 40 words that are review from previous lessons.

*  AS teaches spelling rules, which are repeated in every lesson.  It takes a while, but the students memorize the rules and learn to identify which rules each spelling word follows.

* AS teaches students to identify phonograms.  This helps tremendously in helping students master letter order within a word.  If you have a student who cannot remember whether a word is spelled with an ae or an ea, learning the phonograms will help. (For example, is it baer or bear? We know that bear uses the ea phonogram.)

* AS teaches students to memorize the definitions of homophones so that they can use the word correctly.  It only introduces one of the homophones in a homophone pair or triad to allow students to master that meaning and spelling before learning the other words and definitions with the same sound.  For example, students learn to spell "a location" where and practice it for several days before learning "to put something on" wear.  After they have practiced both words, they start to use them in dictation sentences.  The teacher might read, "Where did I wear that coat?" and the students will be able to use both words correctly.

* AS teaches students how to pluralize, use possessives, and add suffixes with every word possible.  They practice this over and over again until it becomes automatic. Check out this great

suffix game.

Help your student lay a firm foundation in spelling, build upon that foundation, and soar into new heights with Automatic Spelling!

Educational Scaffolding

I was first introduced to the term scaffolding in my education classes in college.  It has shaped the way that I teach.

What is scaffolding? 
A physical scaffold is a series of platforms that you must build one layer at a time.  
An educational scaffold is a method of introducing topics so that they build on each other.  

Students learn best when they add to what they already know.  Andrew Pudewa, the founder of the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), calls this concept “Easy + 1,” in which students do what is easy, then just add one new thing to their papers until that new thing is mastered.

Scaffolding is a wonderful tool that works across the subject areas, works with nearly any kind of teaching method, be it classical, traditional, Charlotte Mason, or even “unschooling,” and encourages growth and knowledge in students with learning delays, gifted students, and every student in between.  Not only that, scaffolding is a natural progression of learning; it is quite easy for trained teachers and  homeschooling parents to implement.

What does scaffolding look like in the classroom? 

I already shared how IEW uses scaffolding (they call it "Easy +1") to gradually increase the dress ups in their papers. In the first paper, a student may need to add an adverb that end in -ly.  When that becomes easy, the student will add the adverb and add a who or which clause.  This goes on until each new dress up, sentence opener, and decoration is added with ease.  You can read more about IEW here.

In math, my daughter learned the multiplication and division facts by practicing what she knew (the ones facts and the twos facts, and just adding two new facts (3x3 and  3x4) on the timed test. When she mastered that timed test, the next timed test tested her on the 1s, 2s, 3x3, 3x4, and now 3x5 and 3x6.  You can read more about the program Kicking It Math here.  (I am not affiliated at all with Kelly Malloy, but I want to be her BFF!)

We do the same for Science, History, Literature, and more.  What do we know? How can we add to that? We know flowers have petals.  What is the purpose of a petal?  We know the story of the Lion and the Mouse.  How is it similar to Androcles and the Lion?

Scaffolding is not rocket science.  It is common sense, but it is one of the most effective teaching techniques I use. Scaffolding helps build synapses in the brain, something that struggling learners desperately need.

Scaffolding does more than just introduce a little information at a time; it forces students to review what they have already learned.  You can’t climb a scaffold without starting at the bottom and ascending one level at a time.  Brain research has shown that review is vital for long term memory storage.

 Some students just can’t make connections between two things without a little nudge.  For those students, parents and teachers can be the nudgers.  Many gifted students enjoy the challenge of finding connections by themselves. Scaffolding works for everyone!

Automatic Spelling uses scaffolding in many ways. To see how my spelling program uses scaffolding, click this link.

You can purchase Automatic Spelling here.

Treating Spelling Words like Math Facts

My daughter spent last summer mastering the multiplication and division facts. I was so impressed with the simplicity of the program we used.  You can read about it here.

I remember watching her confidence soar while her ability level in math grew.  She could finally understand fractions.  The key to her understanding was math fact mastery.

Spelling... that was a different story.  My sweet girl worked so hard trying to memorize spelling words, but they just would not stick.  Sometimes she did well on a spelling test.  Sometimes she did not. Either way the spelling test did not help her with word retention.  She could not reproduce a spelling word while writing.  It didn't matter what spelling program she used.  She still struggled.  Sometimes even the simplest of words like "what" and "said" caused her anxiety.  She was so focused on the spelling of words, that her thoughts: her beautiful, profound thoughts, stayed inside her instead of on paper where the world could enjoy them. 


I know that spelling and writing are two separate skills.  I had treated them as such for years.  Experts say to allow inventive spelling while children are writing.  You can fix the spelling later.  Experts say to allow children to dictate their thoughts while the parent or teacher act as a scribe.  These are great modifications that I have used in the classroom and with my own children.  But I wanted more for my daughter. 

And then I had a thought,

"What if I treated spelling words like math facts?"

It was such a strange idea.  Spelling is a different skill than math.

But what if instead of numbers grouped together, I taught Elli to group letters together.  Addends and factors became phonograms and spelling rules.  3 x 2 = 6 because it is three groups of two or two groups of three.  The word said = s plus the AI phonogram plus d. 

But still, this was just conceptual.  My daughter had always understood the WHY behind math facts. 

What she needed was consistent practice and gradual introduction of new words. 

Students spend hours practicing math facts.  They use flash cards, written tests, picture stories: whatever works to internalize them.  They need math fact mastery to go on to higher level math.  You can't reduce fractions without an understanding of factors and division.  Math fact memory is necessary.

My daughter after she completed Automatic Spelling Level 1

All my life I've been told that some students are just poor spellers, and it is a good thing that spell check exists.  This is true, but I was not ready to give up.  My daughter was starting to be embarrassed by her struggles.  I thought that she might be able to master the spelling of common words in the same way she learned the multiplication facts:  by learning just a small number at a time and by practicing previous words over and over again.

So I collected words: commonly misspelled words, Dulch words, Fry words, words that used certain phonograms, words that had to be changed before adding a suffix.  Words, words, words.  I showed her what rules each of these words followed.  I pointed out phonograms within the words.  I created a spelling program. 

And she practiced.  And practiced.  And practiced.  And slowly she learned how to spell.  She can write without the hindrance of a spelling block. She can add any suffix to a word and spell it correctly.  She drops Es, changes y to i, and doubles final consonants without batting an eye.




It worked so well for her that I thought it might help other students.  I was right.  More than fifty students have tried this program.  Fifty children who might struggle with spelling otherwise.  Fifty children, some who for the first time believe that they are capable of learning to spell.  Some of these students ask to do spelling as their first subject. They are seeing results.  Your child could, too.


You can purchase Automatic Spelling here.

Top Ten Issues Weak Spellers Face Every Day

Note: I am more than qualified to compile this list because I, my friends, am a terrible speller.  I have dyslexia.  I am also a teacher who tries to reconcile spelling issues with teaching methods that work. Welcome to the mind of a terrible speller. 

10. Traditional Spelling Homework.

Copying spelling words can be a mindless activity for poor spellers.  (Not all spellers, obviously.  We will not be talking in absolutes today.) When I copied spelling words I didn’t have to think about the spelling of the word because the spelling of the word was right there in front of me.  I went on autopilot.  (For me, it was a very similar sensation to the feeling you have when you drive somewhere familiar and you zone out for a few minutes, and when you finally zone back in, you look around and think, “I’m already this far?! When did I pass that one landmark?”) When the test came, I couldn’t recall the spelling of the words I copied because the spelling of the words were no longer in front of me.

Cross word puzzles, word searches, and unscramble the word puzzles are busy work.  Personally, I’m great at unscramble the word puzzles because that’s what words look like to me ALL THE TIME. But they don’t help me spell. If anything, they reinforce bad habits.  I can tell you how many letter Is and Es are in the word ExpErIEncE, but don’t expect me to get them in the correct order on my first attempt.  Some students just can’t find the word yellow in a word search sea of letters, and they spend hours trying to find every y, and then make sure an e is next to it, and so on.  When I had to do these kinds of activities, in the back of my mind I was thinking, “I am just wasting time.  I still have to actually practice my words.”  Spelling homework took me HOURS every day.

9. Hours of studying produce little results. 

As I was saying, homework took me hours every day.  I was lucky to scrape by with a C on a test.  Guys, most weak spellers are not lazy.  Usually they work the hardest in the class, and they have nothing to show for it. They just learn differently than the norm.

8. Passing a spelling test does not equal mastery. 

If I did spell a word correctly, I was typically unable to retrieve the spelling of that word in my writing.

7. The amount of new spelling words every week is overwhelming for many students. 

You guys, weak spellers are drowning in new spelling words.  We expect them to learn 20 new words every week, when they usually haven’t mastered the last week’s list, or the week before that, AND SO ON.  We don’t expect a student piano player to play a recital piece after one week of practice.  We don’t expect a student basketball player to master layups in a week. Why do we expect this of our spellers? 

And don’t get me started on the six week unit review tests, in which every complicated word for the last six weeks was required.  The teacher would say, “Oh.  This will be an easy lesson.  You have spelled all these words before.” Dude.  I got most of them wrong, by the way.  And I’ve slept since then.  I haven’t thought about those words for six weeks.  Review lessons always felt like a new lesson: usually the hardest new lesson of the six week spelling period.

6. English doesn’t always follow the rules. 

You say to me,“i before e except after c.”

 “Oh yeah?” I say, “ what about weird?  Huh? Height? Foreign?”

You say to me, “When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.” 

"Ok, so what about bread? Boa? Field?"

“The silent e makes the vowel say its name.”

“Then why on earth do we pronounce have with a short a?” (P.S. when I found out the answer to this one, I cried literal tears.  I’m not even joking.)

Here’s a truth bomb for ya: Most spelling programs are teaching the WRONG rules. Bam.

5. Learning phonics isn’t enough.

Fonix uloan duz not a gud spelr maik.

4. Homophones. Contractions.

Their, there, they’re.  It’ll be ok. Maybe.

What’s the difference between its and it’s?  I didn’t know until COLLEGE.  College.

3. Suffixes and prefixes. 

AHHH! Why is hurrying spelled with a y, but hurried isn’t?  It was enough to pull my hair out.  And I’ve got very thin hair to begin with.

This struggling speller has improved immensely!

2. Many poor spellers are not great readers.  It’s tough to know how to pronounce though, thought, and through if you can’t remember how to spell them.

1. Bad spellers are some of the most CREATIVE people I know, but spelling inhibits them from getting their thoughts on paper. 

 

Many poor spellers have a lot to say, but they look at a blank page and they have to focus their entire mind on the spelling of each and every word.  By the time they figure out the spelling, or at least a close enough spelling that they can decipher it later, they have forgotten what they were going to say.

Is there any hope for these weak spellers?  Yes.  I have created a program that addresses these issues. You can read about Automatic Spelling here. You can purchase Automatic Spelling here.