Sunday, December 21, 2008

All About Spelling

I think I have mentioned that I have two dyslexic children. We have spent 3 and a half years driving to the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for children for them to take part in a Dyslexic Remediation Program. This is a premier program. People come from all over the country to learn how to teach this method of dyslexia remediation in their own school districts. I am so very pleased that my children were able to take part in this program that allows them to learn the tools they need to overcome their dyslexia while other teachers learn how to incorporate this program into their own classrooms.

I bring that up because when I received All About Spelling, I was very, very impressed. It is an extremely thorough program that looked very similar to what my children have learned at the Scottish Rite Lab school.

When I first saw the material, I was a bit overwhelmed. It is a lot to take in. What I found, however, was that once you read through the material and get it set up, the prep time and teaching time is minimum and easy.

Personally, if i were going to start again with a new student (which we are clean out of now that my baby is in 4th grade) I would do the Reading Made Easy phonics program, which is a nice gentle intro to phonics, then slip right into All About Spelling level 1 and go through the All About Spelling yearly programs.

I am not a fan of spelling programs, and with dyslexic children, we've been through several. But this is more than just a random list at the beginning of the week with a test at the end. This program, using the Ortho-Gillingham method, explains the why of our language.

You can go here to read more about it. This is about the only spelling program you will see me give a thumbs up too. (Did I just end a sentence with a preposition? I wonder if this company makes a grammar program.)

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