On Sequential Spelling Word Lists
by Brian McCabe

AVKO's Sequential Spelling presents many words throughout the course of a level-many more, than most other spelling programs. This is especially true for spelling programs that are based on the theme of the curriculum, have twenty words studied throughout the week, and test those twenty words on Friday. Even with more than five times as many words as these traditional spelling programs, the Sequential Spelling's method is easier on the students and the teachers and shows incredible gains in a short period of time. However, we will explore a bit about Sequential Spelling's word lists, the philosophies of AVKO that guided their creation, and how the word lists can be adapted.

Though there are 25 words in each day's test in Sequential Spelling, there is an incredible amount of flexibility the user has in adapting the list to his own needs. If the student he is teaching has only enough patience for 15 words or 10 minutes, the lists can be pared down. If the student knows many of the words of a word family presented in that day's test, other words can be substituted in easily. These adaptations require no brainstorming on the part of the teacher or frantic searching for themed words out of the curriculum or themed lists online. The teacher can simply turn to the word family being tested in the spelling program in the resource book The Patterns of English Spelling. There, one can find all of the words in the English language organized by word family. If one needs more examples of words in that word family to really drive it home or harder words in that family to be used for vocabulary building, he can find it all in one place. Now combined with Word Families in Sentence Context, The Patterns of English Spelling now also allows the user to get a sentence context for the most common of words per page of a word family.

In Sequential Spelling, you may come across many words you would never see in a traditional spelling program. These include names, cities, other proper nouns, foreign expressions (especially French, Spanish, Yiddish, and Latin), and some archaic words. These words are included for a whole host of reasons. Names and cities are included because they are never systematically taught; however, one encounters many names and cities during the course of a day. Although there are many potential variations on names, there are nonetheless many common or traditional spellings that should be known, if for no other reason than to avoid potential embarrassment at a dinner party or luncheon. Foreign words and expressions are included because English borrows from so many different languages. These foreign words are frequently encountered but also not systematically taught in English courses. There are many spelling rules and etymologies that can be gleaned from the learning of these foreign words - the value is not simply cultural. Finally, some uncommon or archaic words are presented throughout the Sequential Spelling program. These may be other examples in a word family to help reinforce the pattern. These may be used for vocabulary building. These may also be used for confidence building. When a child spells a word correctly that he never recalls having heard or seen before, it is a huge confidence boost. Finally, many uncommon words may be, by sheer occurrence in the language, uncommon, but nonetheless have a fairly common phrase. (E.g., “wee” in “wee lad/lass”).

Sequential Spelling is non-traditional in many ways and for good reasons. However, one of its biggest strengths is its inherent ability to be adapted so easily to meet the needs of the instructor and the student. The list can be easily be shortened to accommodate attention deficits; less standard or vocabulary words can be omitted and the teacher can choose to stick with just the need-to-know words to learn the word family. Words from the same word family can easily be swapped in for more practice and avoid repetition. Other word family members can also be used for other exercises, like dictations, handwriting, or keyboarding.
If the student is fluent in the endings (-s, -ed), these word forms may be omitted and the spelling can be tailored more to their problems with the individual word family's patterns. With AVKO's resources, you can easily tailor Sequential Spelling or make your own program. More information, please contact us or read more of the website.

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