I’m so glad to be able to review this curriculum for you! This ocean-themed spelling curriculum will teach your student word derivations, word roots and meanings, prepare for real-life writing opportunities and help reinforce a biblical worldview.
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The short version of this review is: I HIGHLY recommend this curriculum. And here’s why:
While we might remember writing our spelling words over and over in class, research shows that there are better ways to learn to spell words. Not surprisingly, using the words in meaningful sentences helps a student associate meaning with the correct spelling. This 6th grade Spelling Book uses this idea to enable your student to learn not only the spelling of words, but also word structure, meaning, and usage.
Biblical Worldview
Spelling is a part of every language arts curriculum but I want to talk a minute about why we teach spelling. We take in information (reading and listening) and we give out information (speaking and writing). So the teaching of spelling then is part of our testimony during written communication. This BJU Homeschool Press curriculum helps you teach your children to write in such a way so that they can effectively communicate to others in a God-honoring way. In a natural way, Biblical themes and truths weave in and out of the lessons.
Spelling: What Does a Week Look Like
Every lesson does have a list of words. And every lesson (except lesson one) has review words. Idea: For my children, we would also add a bonus word or two if we came across an unknown word in another subject. Each day of the week adds on to the students language learning: discussing of word patterns, using words in sentences, proofreading exercises, practice test, dictation sentences and real-life writing exercises.
Grading and assessment samples are included in the teacher text. While you might not follow these guidelines exactly, it is nice to see some examples.
Simplicity: Just the Teacher’s Edition and Student Text
I don’t know about you, but I appreciate simplicity for teaching and this spelling curriculum delivers: there is a Teacher’s Edition and a Student Text. That’s it! AND each page of the student text is reproduced within the teacher’s edition! Hooray!
Spelling 6: Teacher’s Toolkit CD
Materials for remediation (the struggling learner), enrichment (for the eager learner) and additional writing starters are included in the Teacher’s Edition: Teacher’s Toolkit CD. The CD is located on the inside back cover of the Teacher’s Edition. It took me only about 10 minutes to click around the different files to see what material would be helpful and useful for our family.
I especially liked the 25 writing starters included on the CD. The writing ideas are divided into categories: journal, research, persuasive, etc. so that your child gets the opportunity to try a variety of writing styles.
Also included on the CD are games and review activities. It is nice to have so much included!
Spelling 6: A Well-Planned Teacher’s Edition
The Teacher’s Edition begins with Goals for Spelling Instruction. The number one goal is to “Strengthen the student’s knowledge of God and encourage Christian Growth.”
YES! As a Christian mom, that is my number one goal, too!
And number two: “Equip the student to apply spelling skills in order to produce accurate, God-honoring written communication.”
Spelling: WHY TEACH DICTIONARY SKILLS?
You might be wondering, as I did, about the inclusion of the Dictionary Skills section in the Spelling Curriculum. Interestingly, there are a lot more of word skills taught via a dictionary format than looking up a word in a physical dictionary. These skills include pronunciation, parts of speech, different word forms with their correct spelling, definitions (which may be multiple), sentence use and word origin, just to name a few.
Additionally, I like the proofreading exercises in the spelling curriculum. I think this is a good way to prepare students to analyze written material and be able to find mistakes in spelling and usage. Sometimes we are so busy getting our students to READ, we forget that they need to be able to slow down to analyze what they are reading. By having specific exercises in proofreading, the reading process is slowed down and the analysis can begin. Also, this proofreading format will help the students to be ready for this type of test question during standardized testing.
For the reasons given above, I highly recommend the BJU Press Homeschool parent led curriculum, Spelling 6.
When you have a 6th grade student, they need to be going beyond the surface of “snorkling” learning and diving deep into the “scuba diving” of learning language! (AND YES, I am trying to incorporate my own little nautical-themed references here!)
For the reasons given above, I highly recommend the BJU Press Homeschool parent led curriculum, Spelling 6.
BONUS: Youtube review Spelling 6
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