Spelling Secrets

Spelling Secrets has been my passion for as long as I have a Speech Pathologist.

The book I have written, ‘Spelling secrets’, is different to other spelling books I have come across because it is a complete work-book for students in year K-8, written from a speech pathology perspective

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Spelling secrets’ contains lists of word families that are divided into syllables as well as points out any tricks the teacher and student need to look out for- such as silent letters, which are highlighted in green (calf) or double letters (bet ter), homophones, which are highlighted in purple (creek, creak) and unusual sounds, highlighted in blue (of-‘f’ sounds like ‘v’).

 

I have tried to underline all the digraphs and diphthongs as well (This is based on my training doing the Spalding Programme.) The concept behind dividing the words into syllables and underlying the digraphs and diphthongs is to reduce the memory capacity for the student. For example, instead of remembering a 12-sound word, the student needs to remember 5 syllables ‘organisation’ is divided into→ or ga ni sa tion. (The ‘or’ and ‘ti’ are underlined as they make one sound and the vowels saying their name ‘i, a’ are underlined showing they are making a long vowel sound).

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The book has many colourful pictures to make the lesson more exciting. It addresses concepts such as short and long vowels, plurals, homophones, homographs, double letter words and silent letter

words. It is also a great resource to teach children vocabulary with an image attached to most words. A teacher could focus on one goal per week and have many activities he/she could use to teach that goal. I have also tried to include all the exceptions to the rules, to help pre-empt students’ inquisitive minds.

The book is a resource that any teacher who has had to teach spelling rules, will love using. I hope you enjoy using the book as much as I do

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