Spelling You See Review & Giveaway

Good morning readers! We’re nearing the end of the school year and I for one can’t wait until the break is here! I’m ready for sun, swimming, and relaxing! And yes, we do take a traditional summer break just to give everyone (including me) a little rest and recuperation before kicking off the new year!

But…

That time isn’t quite upon us just yet.

And one of the things that Turbo is needing a little more help on is his spelling.

 

As a result we’ve decided to continue on with spelling and possibly math over the summer. Mainly so they don’t do a brain dump of everything they’ve learned over the past year and forget it all!

So when the new Spelling You See product came for review I thought it would be a perfect time to try out something new, as well as give Turbo extra practice over the summer.

We’re still in the decision making process for our curriculum for next year for him, so I think this will help us decide what we’re going to do going forward.

What is Spelling You See?

For those of you who haven’t heard of Spelling You See, it’s a new curriculum recently released by the same folks as Math U See.

They have a unique approach where students search for things like vowel “chunks” and consonant “chunks” within an existing text. They also have copy work as well as dictation assignments to help students see and remember the words. As they progress through the lesson they start to memorize the text as well as the word spelling along with it.

What is their Philosophy?

The Spelling You See program follows a developmental philosophy that students move through these five stages:

• Preliterate
• Phonetic
• Skill Development
• Word Extension
• Derivational Constancy

 

 

I started Turbo off on “Level C” but really I think he could’ve gone up to the Level D program which is what I received for Strawberry Shortcake.

“Our program is research-based and based upon the finding that all students move through the same sequence of stages as they are learning to spell. Stages can’t be skipped or sped up. Although the stages children move through are the same, the pace at which they move through each stage is unique to each child.” ~ Spelling You See

 

 

One of the things I’ve noticed is that there are no spelling tests or word lists with this program. So I wasn’t sure how to evaluate how my students are doing as far as progress goes. However there is a weekly dictation lesson and so they suggest that you monitor progress through those assignments to see that words are being spelled correctly on an increasing basis. They suggest that you will also notice an improvement in spelling and reading in other areas of your students work.

I’ll do a follow up review of this program after the summer to see what we think of it at that time since we just started. But I do like their philosophy on learning through developing a visual memory for words as they study them in a “meaningful context”.

The lessons also come with a teacher’s manual for the lessons although the instructions are at the top of each student workbook sheet so it’s quite easy to administer. There is also a login with video tutorials to help you get started.

And much to my children’s excitement it also comes with a brand new set of Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils! I know, it’s the little things.

Interested in taking a look?

• Check out the Spelling You See Placement Guide  to see where your student fits in.
• Visit the Spelling You See FAQ page for more information.
• Visit the Spelling You See website.
• Follow Spelling You See on Twitter
• Follow Demme Learning on Facebook

Win it!

Would you like to try out this product for your own family? Spelling You See is offering a free copy  (level of your choice) to one of my readers! Just fill in the rafflecopter below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Disclosure: I received these products free for review on my blog. The opinions expressed in this post are my own, and were not influenced by the company or free product provided.}