Teaching Kids to Spell

Teaching Kids to Spell fills the need for a book to help teachers working in an integrated language arts program provide systematic, personalized spelling instruction. The authors provide a much-needed bridge between traditional spelling instruction and whole language approaches, showing teachers (and parents, too) how spelling ability begins to emerge in young children's invented spellings, how it grows as children pass through predictable stages of spelling strategies, and how eventually every student can reach a standard of correct "expert" spelling. The text includes wordlists, tips for teaching predictable patterns, and a variety of individual activities that prepare children to meet the phonetic, semantic, historical, and visual demands of spelling, plus strategies for implementing a spelling workshop in the elementary classroom. Teachers, school administrators, and parents who want to understand the complex process of spelling will find this book a valuable resource.