This is for me as I organize and sort this out…
– Spell to Write and Read: this is the teacher’s guide and includes lesson plans and placement tests for kids and a TON more information. I’m just getting started with this.
– WISE Guide: this is the spelling book. It lists 2000 spelling words (K-12) with lesson plan ideas for each set of 20 words. It’s divided two pages per lesson and includes dictation work, enrichment ideas, quotes to put the words in context, etc. You do not start the WISE guide until after lesson 12 in the Spell to Write & Read book.
– The Phonogram Cards: these are the sound flashcards with rules written on them. They can be used for the kids to be quizzed or to play games with. Example: the a says /a/ and /A/ and /ah/ which is short a, long a, and ah sound. There’s a card for each letter of the alphabet plus the most common phonograms in the english language, so 70 cards total for the 45 sounds in our language. (Kit pointed out this is stuff he learned in college level linguistics class.) These are used first.
– The Spelling Rule Cards: 28 cards cover the english language rules. With the phonograms they compose the 98 “keys” to the language. Spelling Rules are not introduced right away, these come after the phonogram cards are started.
– The Phonogram CD: this teaches the proper way to pronounce the phonograms and includes pauses so you (or the kids) can practice along. This isn’t crucial but wow, I really needed it! I also like that it’s beneficial for Moira to hear the phonograms and I consider this a speech investment as well.
So, the flashcards you could make for yourself but I was willing to buy the kit and have them ready made to save me the hassle.
Then you also need a learning log per child. The rest of the stuff can be used for all the kids and across grades – the spelling book (WISE guide) goes through 12th grade. Like SAT prep stuff. 🙂 It’s an investment ($95 for kit plus $5 per learning log and you need one per child and Cursive First is another $15. But then that’s it! For all the kids for all grades, we just need to buy lots of composition books and those are cheap.)
This is so much more than just a spelling program though… their premise is that kids are often taught to read first with the presumption that if they see a word often enough they’ll learn to spell it correctly. And judging by my own spelling abilities, that’s not always accurate. 🙂 I still have to double check a lot of words. BUT if you teach them how to spell with these phonograms and spelling rules then they can not only learn how to spell most any word in the language just by hearing it, they’ll be able to read those words as well and pronounce them correctly. (Not that it guarantees reading comprehension but that’s another issue.) This covers spelling, handwriting, phonograms, plus gives chances for dictation and covers some grammar. It also has lesson ideas for compositions. We are using this in combination with our First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. We plan to do SWR 2x a week and First Language Lessons 2x a week. First Language Lessons covers narration, dictation, memorization, grammar, and some writing.
Back to the learning logs. So the older kids can use a regular composition book once they get the hang of it. The first year the kids (and you) will probably want to be the Primary Learning Log – it’s $5 and creates essential your own reference guide because the back has spots for each of the lists and rules and phonograms, etc, etc. The kids fill it in as you go through the lessons and the front of the book is used for spelling words and writing sentences. They advise you to create a learning log as well so you can get some hands on experience and understand what you are teaching. Now that I see it, I agree (and will be ordering more learning logs.)
I also bought the program Cursive First which explains in detail why to introduce cursive before print, how to assess when your child is ready, has pages for practice that you are allowed to copy, and includes flashcards of each letter with detailed explanation of how to form it correctly.
So, step-by-step.
1) Check out a bunch of movies from the library and tell your kids no lessons this week.
2) Collect supplies: binders, page protectors, red pencils, a chalkboard or dry erase board to demonstrate for the kids and proper writing utensil.
3) I took the staples out of the Cursive First book, hole punched it and put it in a binder. I cut up the flashcards and will laminate them and I put those in one page protector. I added another page protector per child and copied the writing practice pages, cut them apart (they are half page each) and put each child’s set of pages in a page protector.
4) Read through the explanation with the phonogram and spelling flashcard packs. Cut apart the flashcards for the phonograms and spelling words and use red pencil to color in the spelling rule parts specified (like coloring in some letters, arrows, the circle that slashes things out – they tell you which cards.) Laminate flashcards and store them in page protectors in another binder. So two binders – one for SWR and one for Cursive First. I also added the front and back sheets that came with the flashcards, they have some reference and explanation on it.
5) Flip through the WISE guide so you understand how it’s laid out but otherwise don’t worry about that one yet. You start using it after lesson 20 in SWR book.
6) Read through Cursive First. It’s pretty straightforward and explains what to do if your child already knows manuscript or how to get started with a younger child. You’ll want to create the salt box and use the dry erase board or easel before your child starts to put pencil to paper. Don’t start too young! They don’t give a set age but advise that you read through the “readiness” signs and assess your child accordingly.
7) Start reading the teacher’s guide, Spell to Write and Read. (Or do this step first, but I did all the other prep first so I would be ready to jump in…)
The Cursive First corresponds to the SWR program – the first half of the pages are teaching the kids the cursive letters. The second half of the pages list on them what lesson they follow in the WISE guide so you can have the kids learn the phonograms in cursive, as they learn to say the /sh/ sound they practice writing sh in cursive. Did that make sense? It all works together and as they are writing the letter a the cursive book has them say, /a/ /A/ /ah/ and the cursive flashcards include the phonograms. The phonogram cards include reminders for how to write the letter in cursive. I love it, how it all connects and reinforces each other.
I’m attending a mini-conference of sorts to learn more about SWR next week.
I admit that I was in the camp thad had no formal plans for spelling. I assumed they would just pick it up. But these books explain why spelling first and why cursive first and it makes sense to me. I’m convinced and I’m excited – it’s not just sit down and write this boring work and memorization. It’s fun games and interactive ideas, they have tons of suggestions for making this creative and challenging and engaging for the kids. I think this will make the kids stronger spellers and readers and give them nice handwriting! 🙂 And when I look through these spelling rule cards and phonograms and realize I don’t know these things – that no one ever told me these language rules, then I know I’m heading the right direction. Anytime I am learning from what I’m teaching the kids then I’m grateful because it means when they are adults they’ll already have this foundation. They will be better spellers than me and thus better writers and hopefully better readers…
This is a very big investment of time and money up front – learning the program, prep, figuring it out for myself. It’s also pricy, just over $100 for the SWR and Cursive First and I need to get the Primary Learning Logs but that’s just $20 to get 4 more for the other kids. But I’m confident that this will be a really good investment for all the kids.