I have one not-so-natural speller (and so far, 3 VERY intuitive spellers). For this one child, spelling just isn't there. We've tried various spelling programs and most successful has been Sequential Spelling. However, this year we've decided to take a break from that and I pulled out my unused copy of Vocabulary Vine. (read the review in this link at Rainbow Resource)
It's a roots program teaching both Greek and Latin roots. Over the course of 36 weeks, at 3 roots a week, students will learn 108 roots (you do the math!!).
Students make their own root cards using blank index cards and Daisy does this program completely independently. The root and the definition are given for the day and then about 5 words using the root are given. On the root card, students choose 3 of those derivatives and define them using what they've learned about the day's (and past) root definitions. The definitions are always blatantly obvious and some thinking (and a little stretching) might be necessary to see how the definition of the root relates to the meaning of the word using it.
She said yesterday, when I asked Banana Boy if he'd taken his antibiotics, "I know what that means!!!!"
My hope in using this with my non-intuitive speller, is that by breaking the words down into their roots and parts, she'll begin to see the patterns, learn the spellings of the roots and be able to put it all together to spell longer, more complicated words (without fear!).
