Based on the active and innovative approach of making words that teachers and their students have grown to love from Cunningham, "What Really Matters in Spelling" presents teachers in grades kindergarten through eighth grade with a clear approach to what really matters in spelling.

The book narrates the history of English spelling from the Anglo-Saxons to the present-day. It also examines the changing attitudes to spelling, including numerous proposals for spelling reform, ranging from the introduction of new alphabets to more modest attempts to rid English of its silent letters, and the differing agendas they reveal.

Shows teachers how to nurture writers and build student confidence in their ability to writ and to spell well. It argues that children learn to spell by investigating how words work and recognizing the unique structure and patterns of words.--back cover.

Fresh new cover, same great content In 1996, Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas presented Guided Reading, the most comprehensive guided reading resource ever published. Hailed for its practical, systematic approach, the book showed hundreds of thousands of teachers how to address the needs of the whole classroom as well as individual readers. Now, with the publication of Word Matters, Pinnell and Fountas offer K-3 teachers the same unparalleled support, this time focusing on phonics and spelling instruction. Word Matters presents essential information on designing and implementing a high-quality, systematic literacy program to help children learn about letters, sounds, and words. The central goal is to teach children to become "word solvers": readers who can take words apart while reading for meaning, and writers who can construct words while writing to communicate. Where similar books are narrow in focus, Word Matters presents the theoretical underpinnings and practical wherewithal of word study in three contexts: word study that includes systematically planned and applied experiences focusing on the elements of letters and words writing, including how children use phoneme-grapheme relationships, word patterns, and principles to develop spelling ability reading, including teaching children how to solve words with the use of phonics and visual-analysis skills as they read for meaning. Each topic is supported with a variety of practical tools: reproducible sheets for a word study system and for writing workshop; lists of spelling minilessons; and extensive word lists, including frequently used words, antonyms, synonyms, and more. Armed with these tools-and the tried-and-true wisdom of Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas-teachers can help students develop not just the "essential skills," but also a joyful appreciation of their own literacy.

Sixty-five lessons to help children become more proficient spellers.

Written by an authority in the dyslexia field, this is the first accessible guide to the close interplay of spelling and dyslexia. Kelli Sandman-Hurley talks the teacher or parent through why kids with dyslexia find spelling so hard, and what we can learn from the spelling mistakes in their writing samples. Introducing key terminology around morphemes (smallest unit of meaning in words) and phonemes (smallest contrastive units in language) in an accessible and clear way, Sandman-Hurley goes on to explain how we can identify, and learn from, kids' spelling miscues, and use them to further inform our teaching and instruction. Shedding much-needed light on an under-explored tool for classroom or home learning, Dyslexia and Spelling is essential reading for teachers and parents alike.

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.