All About Spelling and prepared dictation

[hs.mama07]

We are using All About Spelling and my son is doing really well with it—we’re on level 2. I’m wondering whether I should also have him do HOD's prepared dictation when he’s ready for it. Does anyone else have experience with this?

[mrsrandolph]

We did both.

[Nealewill]

Before finding HOD, I used AAS for my oldest. She has mild dyslexia and really struggled with spelling (and reading for that matter). We had done word lists in the past and it was a complete fail. When she was in 3rd grade I decided to try AAS. I was glad I did. I used levels 1-2 for 3rd grade. Then in 4th grade I completed level 3. She in 5th grade now completing CTC. I started level 4 this year but in this level, it is now onto lots of site words. I have always wanted to do dictation since find HOD. I am so glad I made the switch for her. Because English has so many sight words, the dictation really helps with this. It is absolutely perfect! Now....I will also say this....my middle child is WAY different than my oldest. AAS was a terrible fit! He needed to see the words more. We are doing the HOD plans for spelling - words lists and then he will move into studied dictation. That is his perfect. I don't talk much about my youngest. She does what ever my middle child does. She is a natural speller already and so I know studied dictation will be great.

I am not sure how old your child is or what level you going into with HOD. I personally think that if you have never done word lists, then there is some value there. However, if you have done word lists in the past and it went terrible and that is why you are using AAS, then that is a great reason to stick with it. Regardless of either, I have found that if you can complete up through level 3 of AAS, that would be comparable to the end of studied dictation level 2. But the word lists and studied dictation are a completely different scope and sequence. If you were to drop AAS after level 2, then you would want to complete at least the second half of the word lists in Bigger because many of those sounds aren't covered by AAS until level 3. For me, that is exactly what I did with my middle child. AAS was such a bad fit that I am just having him do ALL of the word lists for Bigger. I have already noticed his spelling has greatly improved in his writing in general. It has been a perfect fit for him.

I do know some moms have done both AAS and dictation at the same time. I did try at one point but it was just too much time. AAS takes enough time and it has it's own merit. Same for dictation, even though it takes 5 minutes, it takes time to switch gears and get started so you are looking at adding more than just 5 minutes to your day. If it were me, I would only do one of them. For my oldest, since she completed half of level 4 with AAS, she started at the beginning of Level 4 dictation. She has done very well here. If you do decide at some point you want to make the switch, you would just have to look through the passages and pick where you think your child places. You want to start where your child already knows most of the words but is learning how to spell (or refresh/practice) one or two words per passage. For me, that was starting at level 4 with my oldest. It was a smooth transition and I feel like switching her at the time that I did was the right move for me.

[hs.mama07]

Thanks ladies. I'm curious, what would we be missing out on if we didn't do studied dictation? I guess I don't really know much about it.

[Mumkins]

We did AAS 2 and 3 last year. We started dictation as well after Christmas. We will continue with dictation and start AAS 4 in the fall.

My daughter had some learning challenges, which us why we do AAS (and did AAR). Having her do dictation as well for learning to copy from memory what she sees and paying attention to grammar and punctuation patterns.

[Nealewill]

The dictation (IMHO) gives a wider variety of language than AAS. It also teaches kids to memorize words in context helping them take a mental picture of the word. What sold me on switching to dictation was that HOD has the kids do a ton of copywork. The copywork is already helping the kids to take mental picture of the word. For me, when I used AAS, my dd already knew how to spell all the words before we got to them. So I decided to switch to dictation. The one great thing that I do love about dictation above AAS is that it reinforces grammar rules. So the kids are not only focusing how things are spelled but they are also focusing on the structure of the dictation.

What I never realized with spelling is that kids learn to spell by (1) copying what they see, (2) reading, and (3) practicing. HOD already has the kids read a ton and they do a lot of copywork regularly. With AAS, I felt like they did teach a lot of rules up front and that did jump start my oldest to being able to spell quite a bit. But by the time she finished level 3, she was already familiar with the words presented. In addition, I ordered in levels 4-7 at the same time so that I could see them. It seemed like it was to the point where it was becoming a word list anyway. The last half of the program spends a lot of time on exceptions. For me, my dd was already noticing many the exceptions or at least groupings of words anyway (like phone - she already had noticed several words that used a "ph" for the f sound). And if she missed something, she was going to just keep on missing it consistently. It just became apparent that she had outgrown the program and she needed something different. That is where dictation was a much better fit. She was practicing her spelling here. For her, she needed to see words more and focus on what she saw rather than trying to use a rule. The rules were to the point they were actually impairing her spelling. She was spell things like such as sutch and there were a few other words she was consistently getting wrong. That was ultimately what made me switch. I was scared at first but am not really happy and have never looked back. Looking back, I found that she kept trying to apply rules where she shouldn't. For her, I felt like she already knew the words presented and she was getting common consistently wrong. So I guess I felt like AAS was no longer working for us as well as the dictation was. Now, with the dictation, I love that she is practicing many words that she uses and being exposed to focusing on what a words looks like. I didn't realized this but 46% of the English language is made of site words or words that don't follow a specific pattern (like mail and male for example - we know these and AAS does touch on them but there is not specific rule). These were the things she needed to see. Dictation has done this for her. For me, I am glad we switched and feel like this is has been a better fit.

[hs.mama07]

Thanks! That is good to know. We're doing really well with AAS so far and it sounds like he's not quite ready for dictation, so I guess we'll just hold tight for now! It'll be good to look back on this as he gets older.

[my3sons]

Great dialogue already! Dictation begins with Level 2 in Bigger Hearts for His Glory or Preparing Hearts for His Glory, and it is important to begin it in one of those guides. The benefits of doing dictation are widespread! I have seen the positive impact on each of our dc, but especially on my oldest who has completed Levels 2-8 of HODs CM-style dictation. He has gone from being a poor speller to being an excellent speller that rarely makes mistakes. I credit this to the daily dictation we did through the past 7 years. Carrie has this to say about dictation...

Charlotte Mason's style of studied dictation emphasizes the studying of the passage in order to fix it within one's mind, in essence practicing the habit of making a mental or a photographic image of the text (paying special attention to how the words are spelled, where the capital letters are found, and which punctuation marks are used where).

I found this so interesting, as in my days as a public school teacher it was that very skill that was lacking for poor spellers. They had no idea whether a word looked right or not, which is often the technique used by natural spellers to tell whether a word is spelled correctly. The poor spellers had seen the word spelled incorrectly so many times in their own writing that the wrong spelling actually looked right. It is amazing to me how many spelling programs have a section where kiddos are asked to find the incorrectly spelled word within the spelling exercises (in essence taking a mental picture of the incorrect spelling). Charlotte Mason would find this to be a poor activity, as it reinforces incorrect spelling. She was very adamant that any word spelled incorrectly be covered up and fixed immediately, so as not to fix the wrong image within the mind.

Training the mind to capture a correct image of a word, sentence, and eventually passage is a powerful tool in spelling. It is often a tool that does more for kiddos who have struggled with spelling in the past, than any amount of memorizing rules does. This was an amazing idea to me, and one that I had never heard during my years of training as a teacher, yet it makes so much sense. And, what's more it really works!I was so surprised to find that studied dictation was the method used for spelling here in America in the early 1900's.

So, looking at the passage and studying it is part of the process of committing the words to memory. The brain is like a camera snapping a "picture" of the words and eventually storing the "picture" so that it can recognize when the word "looks right" and when it doesn't. This is why when we don't know how to spell something, we generally jot it down on paper and look at it, to see if it "looks right". Sometimes we try writing it several different ways, but usually we can tell which of the ones we wrote "looks right" if we've seen the word written correctly enough times. This is also why it's important the brain does not continually see a word spelled wrong over and over, because then that misspelling begins to "look right" to our brain, simply because we've seen it that way so many times. CM methods have a child immediately correct misspellings, erasing them and fixing them as soon as possible by looking at a model of the word properly spelled, thus hopefully effectively erasing the memory of the misspelling from the brain before it is committed to memory. This has been incredibly effective over the years with our sons, as evidenced by this week's standardized testing we are doing. There is a purpose for everything HOD includes in a guide. Dictation teaches important skills that develop strong spelling/writing habits in our dc, and they should not be missed! I think of dictation as the best 5-10 minutes we spend a day for helping our dc write with proper spelling. I want to encourage you not to skip it, but to begin reaping the benefits of it by starting it in either BHFHG or PHFHG! It is worth the little time it requires, and IMO and Carrie's, much more effective than AAS. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[hs.mama07]

Thank you so much Julie! That was exactly what I was trying to figure out--what the benefits are. Sounds wonderful...we'll definitely do it!

[my3sons]

Oh good - I'm so glad to have helped, and I hope you have a fantastic year homeschooling with HOD!

In Christ,
Julie