Review: Phonetic Zoo from IEW

Institute for Excellence in Writing.  Andrew Pudewa.

Both names are well-known and well-respected. Anyone who knows me knows that Mr. Pudewa ranks up there in my top 3 as far as conference speakers go.  His approach to teaching is very common sense.  I trust him.  I believe him.

I was thrilled to receive his Phonetic Zoo spelling curriculum, but a little nervous, too.  I will admit up front that I've never used a spelling curriculum with Ben (4th grade) before.  I usually pull vocabulary words out of our unit studies and sometimes use those as spelling words, using the Charlotte Mason method for spelling, which is a visual method. I think this method has worked well for Ben, so I haven't really sought out another way to teach spelling.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about using a spelling curriculum.

I was nervous for no reason.  Phonetic Zoo is a great, common sense method to teaching spelling. Once again, Mr. Pudewa has not disappointed.

Before choosing which level to review, I was to give Ben a spelling placement test.  Phonetic Zoo comes in 3 levels: A (grades 3-5), B (grades 6-8) and C (high school).  Ben easily placed in Level B, so that's where we began.

Upon receiving Phonetic Zoo, I quickly discovered that it is mostly an auditory program. No problems there, Ben is a very auditory child. The set comes with audio CD lessons and lesson cards (47 lessons in all) for a cost of $99.

The lesson cards use animals for cues into spelling rules (thus the name, Phonetic Zoo).  For example, lesson 1 has a picture of a caiman for the "ai" rule and a manta ray for the "ay" rule. On the front of the card, along with the animals, are sample words from each level (A, B, and C) to show the rule.  On the back are the spelling words for the lesson, again, all 3 levels.  Each lesson has 15 words.

Ben worked very independently through the first 10 lessons.  He began by studying the lesson card. Then he popped in the audio CD to listen to the lesson. As he listened to the audio CD, he would write the words in list form. There is an immediate spelling check after the lesson.  If he missed any words, he would repeat that lesson the next day, only moving on after spelling 100% of the  words correctly for 2 days in a row.  Ben generally spelled the words the correctly by the 2nd day, so this easily makes this a program that can be used one lesson per week for a year.

Another awesome addition is that every 5 lessons, the spelling words come from a list of words your child has misspelled during the week in other subjects: writing, history, science...anywhere you have seen misspelled words. The words are recorded during the week on the blank cards, and then tested by mom, dad, or a sibling.

Phonetic Zoo also comes with a DVD seminar where you can sit and listen to Mr. Pudewa speak about how we learn to spell. It's very interesting, but is for you to watch, not your children.  And it's long, so set aside some time.  It's like attending a conference on spelling.

Ben enjoyed this method of spelling as much as any. He is a natural speller and I suspect would do well whatever method is used. But if I had to choose, I would choose Phonetic Zoo. The method makes sense to me, and I love anything that helps Ben work independently.

So to paraphrase Andrew Pudewa: "If you like the spelling program you are using, and that program is working well to teach your children how to spell, then keep doing what you're doing.  But if it's not, then do something else."

I highly recommend Phonetic Zoo as your "something else."


Disclaimer:   I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are those of myself and/or my son. This review is also posted at www.benandme.com --Marcy Crabtree