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Spell to Write and Read: A Step by Step Guide to Foundational Language Arts
From their website:
How does Spell to Write and Read compare with other reading programs?
Wanda Sanseri’s Oregon Senate Hearing Presentation includes information on how most reading programs fail our nation’s students. She also discusses the way SWR provides students with tools for success in both reading and spelling. A transcript of this speech is on the Senate Speech page. A copy of this presentation can also be found in Appendix A of Spell to Write and Read. * SWR focuses on establishing from the beginning the basic tools needed for our language. A student who knows the core components of English spelling can use this information to build or recognize many words at all levels. We do not restrict a student to learning every word, one word at a time.
* SWR starts with spelling and not reading. A beginning, non-reader learns to write and say the symbols representing the sounds of speech. Next, with teacher guided dictation, he learns to sound out and write spelling words. He is not expected to read a book until after he can smoothly read the most frequently used spelling words he has written for himself.
* SWR presents the language in a way that has few exceptions. Most systems have long lists of rule-breaker words. With only 70 phonograms and a few spelling rules we can phonetically explain 93-97% of the most frequently used words in our language.
* SWR teaches from the known to the unknown, presenting the foundation carefully in such a way as to not overload with too much to confuse, or to leave with too little. The student is able to experience real life success.
* SWR covers many levels of language instruction. Our core list of high frequency spelling words are organized by difficulty in spelling ranging from K to12. We provide diagnostic testing so students can be placed by ability rather than grade-level.
* SWR students of varying levels can often work together without sacrificing the students at either end of the spectrum. The principles we teach with first grade words still apply to high school level vocabulary. We teach much more than rote memory.
* SWR avoids common practices that establish misleading expectations:
NO LOOK-ALIKE WORD MATCHING: Unless we enjoy being wrong a large portion of the time, we should not expect that if a word looks like another, it will sound the same. “May” might sound like “day,” but “heard” and “beard” do not sound alike. We need to identify the phonograms in a word not just the letters. HEARD has three phonograms /h-ear-d/ and BEARD three /b-ea-r-d/. A true word family is a base word with its derivatives (joy, enjoy, rejoice) and not look alike words with nothing in common (joy, toy, boy, soy).
NO PHONICS LADDERS: Students should not be given a list like “ba, be, bo” and expect to read it with the first two sounds as in “bat, bet, bop.” We don’t know the sound the vowel will make until you see the whole syllable. Vowels at the end more commonly say their name as in “ba-con, be-come, bo-nus.” Multiletter phonogram units can change the sound. Consider OA in boat, OU in bout, OW in bow, or OY in boy. Rules can also influence the sound. Think of bold (O can say O before two consonants), bole (O says O because of the E).
NO UNRELIABLE RULES: We do not teach cutsy sayings like, “When two-vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” While EA may say /E/ as in “eat,” it can also say /e/ as in “bread,” or /A/ as in “steak.” It can even sound like /er/ in “heard.”
* SWR can be effectively used in any teaching situation whether it be homeschooling, tutoring, classroom, or teaching ESL. The Teacher’s Manuals are written in a way any teacher– whether credentialed or just starting to homeschool–can understand and put into use. Other programs are geared specifically for the classroom setting and require teachers operating in different environments to modify the program to fit their needs.
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