Spelling You See

Many of you are familiar with the curriculum Math-U-See by Demme Learning. But did you know they have also created a spelling curriculum called Spelling You See? We recently had the chance to review Ancient Achievements- Level F. 

What it is Spelling You See has a unique approach in how they teach spelling. Gone are the boring spelling lists that are mindlessly rewritten numerous times. They offer 7 different levels of spelling curriculum. Each level contains 36 weeks of lessons that are divided between 2 books. Each week splits into 5 sections labeled A-E. Each section is a 2 page layout and should only take about 10-15 minutes each day to complete.
What's included With each level you receive: 2 consumable student books 1 instructors handbook 1 pack of Crayola erasable colored pencils A special code that gives you online access to several different videos showing you how to use this curriculum as well as some PDF downloads.
How it works On day A, the student reads the passage out loud to the parent. In level F, they read passages that have to do with Ancient times and events. Some of the cultures talked about are Sumerians, ancient Chinese, Greeks and their war with Troy, King Arthur, Robin-hood, Leaning Tower of Pisa and so much more.
After they read the passage, they then are instructed to do "vowel or consonant chunks" with a colored pencil. There is a box on the page that shows a list of what the chunks are. The idea behind chunking is to help the student learn specific letter patterns which will help them learn to decipher words & sounds on their own eventually. 
After the student reads & chunks the passage on the left hand side, they move to the second page on the right where the passage they just read is printed out with a blank line under the pre-printed passage. The student is then to do copywork and write out the passage just as they see it written. The directions also state the student is then to chunk the passage they just wrote.
Day B & Day C do the same as the above instructions.
On day D, the student does the read aloud, chunks the passage and then on the second page, they have to write the passage out as it is dictated to them. They are allowed to ask for help with punctuation and capitalization as well as tougher words to spell out. At the bottom of the page, there is a place for the parent to write how many words were spelled correctly.
On day E, the student reads the passage out loud, chunks the passage and then on the 2nd page, they have to write the passage as it's dictated with no help. At the bottom on the page, there is a place for the parent to write how many words were spelled correctly, the goal being to have more words correctly spelled this day than on day D.
The instructors manual provides a wealth of info on how best to implement this program. It gives you an overview of how and why this curriculum works, it shows an over of each lesson and what is being taught, explains how to chunk certain combinations, resources for each lesson as well as an answer for the chunking in each lesson.
How we used it We did 1 lesson a week which meant we did one part each day that took no more than 15 minutes each. It was easy for my daughter to read aloud the passage as I was getting breakfast ready in the morning. From there, she went on to chunk the passage the first 3 days. Even though the directions said to then chunk the written passage, I usually let her skip this as she seemed to grasp the concepts. When it came to the dictation parts, either I or one of my other older children could read it to her while she wrote it out.

We really enjoy this curriculum as it combines so many things. The student learns interesting facts with each passage (can we say history?) They get to practice their penmanship with the copy work. The focus on the dictation passages is on how many words they got correct, not wrong. Positive reinforcement is always a good thing. I also love how everything is spelled out on how use it in the instructors manual so there is no work for me in prepping it. Also, each level goes by a letter and not a grade, especially good for those that might be struggling. This curriculum is based on ability level, not age or grade. To best figure out what level your student is on, you can have them take the placement test. Another thing to note, the student pages are perforated, so for those who like to remove pages either as they do them or for a portfolio, they come out of the book with ease.
You can read about our review from last year on Level E-American Spirit