How to Teach Spelling is an easy-to-use, spiral-bound manual for all of the How to Spell workbooks. It is a valuable resource containing 176 pages of information, including a detailed index and a table of contents with grade level recommendations, skills, spelling generalizations, and word lists. This spelling program reflects an Orton-Gillingham based approach in that it is systematic and rule-based.
Recommendations of what and how much to teach at each grade level are made at the beginning of each lesson or section. The manual must be used for all grade levels for dictation, but will probably be most useful in grades three through eight and for teachers and tutors whose students in grades seven through twelve are having difficulty with spelling. First- and second-grade teachers will find the sections on sounds, consonant blends, and beginning spelling rules extremely useful.
The manual is not grade-level specific; it can be used to with any of the workbooks, which do correspond to a specific grade level.
Words, phrases, sentences for dictation, and material to be written on the chalkboard for students to copy are clearly indicated by large type. Student teachers, new teachers, and tutors will find the suggested method especially useful. Experienced spelling teachers will find the sample words, lessons, and exercises helpful.
Skills Addressed
| • Spelling rules and generalizations • Sight words • Consonant blends • Soft c and g • Syllabication and syllable types • Affixes and roots |
• Digraphs • Diphthongs • Homonyms • Silent letters • Possessives • Contractions |
How to Teach Spelling is an excellent program for helping students learn to recognize the sounds in the English language, to decode words, and to spell words correctly by relying on spelling rules and patterns rather than on memory.
