21 August 2012

All About Spelling With An Older Student

I thought I'd post something about using AAS with an older student as sometimes we get asked , or see posts asking how others use AAS with their older students.
(AAS purists may like to just ignore this post  ☺☺)

We are doing AAS with 12 year old Jay our way, he'll have completed all the books by the end of this year.... unless something very untoward happens. 

We go for just covering the rules in AAS, no completing the whole lesson with tiles or spelling through the simpler word list, or writing out the easier dictation pieces. (Jay would baulk!)

Getting an older student to read through the lesson first works well!

Then:
1.   Review spelling rule cards, along with any other cards that may need reinforcement.
2.   Discuss the rule being covered in 'todays'  lesson together.
3.   Work through testing some words that are more suited to the students level.
4.   Write a piece of dictation, sans AAS, but with a more complex sentence structure.  Again, suited to the student.

I like to reinvent the AAS word lists with a more involved variant, often using word lists out of Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout.
ie: For words that end in C+le we'll go for words like scramble, triangle, etc.. taken from the Grade 7 list in Natural Speller. 
Or, I'll ramp up the base words in the AAS word lists. 
ie: For a base word like reach, I'll have Jay spell unreachable (which also reinforces previous lessons).

With the dictation I generate a longer, more involved, portion of dictation at the end of each spelling session.
I prefer to invest in a Charlotte Mason inspired piece of writing here with the dictation piece being a snippet relating to a history topic, or from a read aloud we are currently going through. 
This piece of dictation is also a chance to review grammar concepts.

Jay is doing AAS only 3 days per week, covering 1 lesson a day.
That's it. All done.... until next the lesson.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing Chelle.
You make it sound so doable.
Yve %-}

Anonymous said...

That just make *absolute* sense.
thanx
syg

Ellen said...

Are you using one level or multiple levels with your son when you say that you're getting it done in a year? The reason I ask is that I bought the entire set (overkill, I'm sure), but my boys (12 & 14) needed a basic review of phonograms, etc in order to help their struggling spelling problems. We'll progress pretty quickly through some levels and then settle in. Not sure about the tiles and doing all - it seems a little too babyish for them. I do want to encourage, not discourage. So I like your ideas, thank you.

Chelle said...

@ Ellen.

I don't think purchasing the entire set is over kill when one is going to be moving through the levels at a much quicker pace.
It's exactly what I would have done if I'd known that "yes" the program was definitely going to work for our dd :-D

With Ds we cover one level(1 book) at a time before we move to the next level.
We will be finished all the books by the end of this year (working through levels 3-7).

I like to pull in the rules Ds has learnt in previous levels into our 'customised' AAS lesson times. Since he has the rules as a spelling base, now, Ds will refer to them during writing assignments - which makes my marmee's heart happy!

Ds does not like using the tiles either, never has, so we just don't use them as prescribed for him.
At the beginning of a lesson, thinking in particular of the teams and etc.. tiles, we may refer to the tiles; but he doesn't move those little plastic squares around on the white board ☺

Happy spelling!
And hoping you can work out a method that works best for your family.