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.