Sequential Spelling - it works!

by Debora
(San Diego, CA)

Product: Sequential Spelling 1
Subject: Spelling
Levels Used: 1 (for K - 8th grade)
Dates Used: 2007-2008

This is the best spelling curriculum I have used so far. I have a child who is a natural at spelling, and one who really struggles with it. I tried this at someone's recommendation, and I really saw an improvement in my son's spelling in just a week's time. For some reason, his spelling improved overall, not just with the words we had in our lists.

Sequential Spelling is designed to be used with any age level, and there are several books. Older students could use two books at the same time if needed. The idea is that the parent reads a list of about 20 words/day to the student (before they study them) and the student writes them down. The parent writes it down too and then shows it to the student. Sometimes different colors could be used for different sounds like "c" in red and "up" in black to spell the word "cup". It emphasizes one sound at a time (like "up") and the words all use that sound in it. They gradually get harder. The first week had words like, "in", "inn", "be", "sin", "bin", "bins", "begin", and finally, "beginning".

They were learning to sound out the words and to use the sounds they heard. If they missed a word, they just corrected it when you showed them the word you wrote. At the end, if they had corrected all their words, they receive a sticker or whatever to show them they had done well. The words repeat and build on each other so the students are getting constant review.

My children did well with this method. I could see them thinking about how to spell the words, and the recognition when they corrected it. Also, when they corrected their own mistake, they tended to remember it right the first time on the next day.

I loved that I could use the same spelling curriculum with my kindergarten child (who was a good reader) and my 8th grade child. It was nice to do spelling all together. We used white boards (individual) and that made it more fun for them, and we didn't have the tons of paper all over the house.

I didn't like that my 8th grade student wrote much faster than my kindergarten student. That meant we were sitting around waiting for him to finish while the rest of us were done. We ended up splitting the group into the fast and slow writers and eventually my kindergarten child didn't join us anymore because of his writing ability.

Overall, I've seen how this has improved the spelling in my kids and I love how I can use it for multiple levels. I love how the lessons carry over to other words that were not on the test. It is especially good for poor spellers.