We’ve used Traditional Spelling for almost three years and it’s been a perfect fit for my natural speller and my struggling speller! I’ll admit I was tempted to switch my struggling speller to another popular program, but I decided to stick with Traditional Spelling from Memoria Press and I’m so glad I did!
Traditional Spelling’s Approach
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As a phonics-based program, Traditional Spelling includes spelling rules but it doesn’t focus on them as heavily as other programs.
In each lesson, we work on:
- phonics rules as they apply to spelling
- visualizing the phonetic chunks in each word
- phonological and phonemic awareness (hearing and manipulating words and doing the same with the sounds in words)
- understanding the full meaning of each word, including alternate meanings
- applying “usable spelling rules,” rather than rules that have frequent exceptions.
A Typical Week with Traditional Spelling from Memoria Press
Each lesson is divided into five days of work. We stretch this into ten days for my struggling learner, but I’ll describe the typical five-day week first.
What I describe below is how we use this program.
The Teacher Guide gives a detailed model routine in the front. There’s also a Teaching Guideline video available on Memoria Press’s YouTube channel.
I highly recommend looking at these resources before you decide how to implement the program in your own home.
Many moms say that the first day of each lesson takes about 30 minutes. If your child needs you to guide them for their written work, subsequent days would also be about 30 minutes.
If your child is truly ready to do some of the written work independently, mom time is only about 10-15 minutes per day for the rest of the week.
A Quick Note About Levels: some families love the look of Traditional Spelling but hesitate to use it because there are only two levels. The good news is that Level 3 is being released later this summer and Level 4 is in development!
Phonics & Word Study
Our first focus each week is the phonics concept.
While discussing this concept, we see it in practice with phonetically color-coded versions of each word. (Quick Tip: the Teacher Guide has color-coded lists in the back. When TS first came out, many of us didn’t discover these pages until later!)
This is also when we say, spell, say each word. We then review past phonics concepts and read non-list words that use the current concept.
After this, we discuss the definition of each word. I used to think this was a silly exercise, but I’ve since learned how important it is!
When I taught Traditional Spelling at our co-op, I found the kids intuitively understood most of the words; but they struggled to verbally define them.
Through these definition discussions, my son refines his understanding of each word. He also learns how to define a word without using the same word in the definition. This is a subtle, age-appropriate preparation for philosophy studies!
After this, we look at the list more closely, evaluating each word for the phonemes (sounds/blends/teams) it contains.
We then do an interactive activity (see below) before using the Student Guide to categorize list words according to their phonetic makeup.
Classification & Colorful Letters
The next day, we do another interactive activity. These activities allow him to see, hear, write, classify, and manipulate the words. They vary from day to day, but involve word building, sound manipulation, word sorting, vocabulary, and syllabication.
The activities are highly interactive but they take less than 5 minutes and don’t require any special equipment. You just need a small whiteboard (we use a personal-sized one), dry erase markers in red, blue, and black, and some index cards!
In the student guide, he then practices classifying the list words. The classification assignments vary. One week, the student guide may ask him to alphabetize the words. Another week, he may be sorting them in a particular way.
He then writes the words with the Colorful Letters approach. Each type of phoneme is traced in a different color so he can visualize the phonetic chunks in each word.
Words in Context
The third day involves reading the words in context. He then uses a word bank to place each word in the appropriate sentence.
I love that these brief readings are still meaningful, building cultural and scientific awareness. Some of the topics in Traditional Spelling I are:
Marco Polo
Photosynthesis
Johnny Appleseed
Snowy Owls
Betsy Ross
How to Play Dodgeball
The History of Candy
Meanings of Nautical Flags
How to Choose a Good Book
Life on the Prairie
Why We Have Seasons
Putting it All Together
Day four is Dictation Day.
First, I dictate the sounds we’ve been working on and he writes the letter, blend, or team for each one. I then dictate the list words.
If he spells everything correctly, we end our spelling week here. If not, I have him practice the incorrect words before the next day’s dictation.
Since he’s a struggling speller, we usually practice for a couple of days before doing that final dictation.
Using Traditional Spelling with a Struggling Speller
Struggling spellers need three things in abundance: time, repetition, multi-sensory input, and consistent review. Here’s how we do this with Traditional Spelling:
Time
We usually spend ten days on each lesson instead of five. This gives him more time to solidify the phonics concept and work with the words in various ways.
Repetition
In addition to the Student Guide, we use the Traditional Spelling I Practice Sheets from Memoria Press. These provide more Colorful Letter practice so he can imprint the phonics patterns in his mind.
(Practice sheets are also available for Traditional Spelling II)
We also use the Supplemental Workbook which has him work with list words in crosswords, charts, fill-in-the-blanks, riddles, etc.
These activities give him additional ways to think about the spelling of each word. Thinking about them in different ways helps solidify memory.
Multi-sensory Work
In addition to the activities scheduled in the Teacher Guide, we also use the Elkonin box method from Phonics A to Z .
Note: This book is used in Simply Classical Level 1 and sold by Memoria, but I linked to Rainbow Resource because it’s less expensive there; it’s a topic for another post, but I only recommend doing this with products that aren’t written/published by MP.
For Elkonin work, we draw 3-5 boxes on a whiteboard or piece of paper. We then place one stone or lego brick above each box. The board is then ready to use in a variety of ways.
- See and Pull: my son will look at the word, say it, and then pull down one lego for each sound in the word. He will often repeat the word a few times, isolating each sound as he goes. (Model breaking the word into its sounds if your child has a hard time with this.)
Then, using the written word as a reference, he places alphabet tiles below their related sound boxes.
This helps him see which sounds are spelled with one letter and which sounds are spelled with a team or blend of letters.
- Hear and Pull: this activity is more challenging because we remove the written word. You’ll want to avoid this version until your child can break a word into its sounds independently.
I’ll say the word, then he pulls a brick for each sound he hears. Again, he’ll usually repeat the word and its sounds as he goes.- Extension 1: after pulling the sounds, he spells the word with alphabet tiles, from memory, placing the letter(s) below their related sound boxes.
- Extension 2: instead of using alphabet tiles, he writes the letter(s) below each box.
- Extension 1: after pulling the sounds, he spells the word with alphabet tiles, from memory, placing the letter(s) below their related sound boxes.
Review
It’s really important for my son to review past lessons, otherwise he forgets what he’s previously learned. There are a couple of ways to do this:
- Dictation sentences from previous spelling tests can be given as a way to review the words from an earlier lesson. I would only do one or two at a time.
- Elknonin work can be done with past spelling words.
- Go-Fish or Memory can be played with homemade word cards. When a match is made, they say/spell/say the word.
- DIY task cards are a great way to give independent review.
How to Encourage Better Spelling Outside of Spelling Lessons
Whether or not you have a struggling speller, you’ve probably noticed that what they learn in spelling doesn’t always transfer to their other work.
This is normal!
The way we handle this is to encourage “word study” like in our spelling lessons. I don’t do this all the time, especially outside of schoolwork, but my son really wants to improve his spelling so he’s receptive to it — as long as I don’t go overboard.
For example, if he spelled the word battery as “batere,” I would ask:
- “What letter makes the /ee/ sound at the end of a word?”
- After we corrected that portion, I would say, “How many syllables are in this word? Let’s clap them out.”
- Once he told me there were three syllables, I would ask him to say each one slowly, “Do you hear the /t/ sound in the first syllable? What do you hear at the beginning of the next syllable?”
- If he could hear the second t, I would ask, “So how many t‘s do we need in this word?”
If he’s wasn’t able to hear that second t, I would give him time to listen again and think it through before telling him the answer.
What do you think? Can you see Traditional Spelling from Memoria Press working in your home?
Just curious, do you only use the student book and teachers guide then? I don’t believe you mentioned flash cards or the other book they recommend. I’m asking as I’m leaning toward this curriculum but only purchasing the student and teacher books. Thanks for the review.
Hi Angie, we do use the Practice Sheets and Supplemental Workbook, but my description of that was further down the post and easy to miss. I’ll copy/paste it here!
Traditional Spelling doesn’t have word flashcards, but we make our own so we can play Go-Fish and Memory. We do use the MP Phonics Flashcards sometimes to review sounds. Other times I just write the phonogram on his whiteboard and ask for the sound; trying to get away from that shortcut though! The cards include exposure to other words that use each phonogram so I need to start using those instead. The Teacher Manual lets you know which phonics cards to pull for each lesson.
Thanks, friend, this was helpful!! You’re awesome.
Thank you for spelling of your methods! I’m going to implement some of the multi-sensory activities with my 7yo.
I’m so glad it was helpful, Carrie!