Reading Comprehension Success (Skill Builders Series (New York, N.Y.).) Review

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(More customer reviews)The author provides the complete toolset essential for reading comprehension. For example, the author shows exactly what a "main idea" is, provides definitions and examples, provides hands-on practice and tests reader understanding, and then ties several related tool-skills together in a later review chapter with further integrated practice materials. This sensible approach was missing or lacking in every other book I read; the first grade reading comprehension books I browsed at the bookstore were more helpful than those books. I have been out of formal education for many years and I read several top-brand books trying to get solid help. None of those books were nearly as helpful as this one book. In fact, (Elizabeth L. Tesla) the author's series of books is a must for every personal reference book shelf- even appropriate for younger children. This one book answers all of the questions and solves all of the problems related to reading, but the author also points out correctly that a reader must practice in everyday situations by reading a variety of materials and applying the tools in this book. Reading is a lifelong enjoyment and acquired skill. Buy this book and then practice, practice, practice.

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Anyone preparing to take a job-related exam that tests for basic language, math, and/or critical thinking skills. High school or college students and adults who need basic skills improvement to perform better in the classroom or on the job.

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Banner Days (Harcourt Trophies) Review

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(More customer reviews)I truly love Harcourt Trophies' Reading Program. They made big improvements in the text from 2003 to 2006, so make sure you purchase the 2006 (or newer if available) edition. There are several reasons I love this curriculum as a homeschooling family (though I would love it as a classroom teacher, too).
Pros: Reading comprehension questions are included at the end of each story.
Simple activities that support students learning are included for each lesson as well as journal prompts and sample testing questions.
Cons: I don't have any.
These texts can easily be used by homeschoolers without the teacher's guides.
I use the Practice Books and Spelling book alongside the texts to round out the curriculum.

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Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction, 4th Edition (Book, CD & DVD) Review

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(More customer reviews)My children attended a public school where this program was used. When I brought them home due to their various LDs/allergies, I balked at the $40 price tag of this book and opted for the less expensive Spectrum Spelling books for their grade level. I found those to be rather annoying because often my children already knew the words. And the ones they didn't know, they would spell correctly on the tests, but they didn't necessarily continue to spell the words correctly in their writing. Mid-way through the year I abandoned the Spectrum books and purchased this one.
My favorite thing about this approach is how the kids really think about and interact with the words. It is a disciplined program, I require my kids to do a word sort and an activity in their spelling journals every day -- their choice. However, this typically takes less than 10 minutes a day.
The other thing I do is pretest the kids every week to find out which words they need to study. If they already know a spelling pattern, then I don't give it to them and move on to the next one. Sometimes I pull misspelled words out of their writing, and then find the pattern that applies and give them those words for the week.
I will say, that for most homeschoolers, this book is pretty heavy on the theory, and the "how-to" is mixed up with the theory so it may take more work up front to start the program if you are unfamiliar with the idea of spelling notebooks and word activities. But it is quite fascinating, and will give you a new appreciation for a young child's emerging spelling skills, as well as concrete strategies for helping older students with more complex words.
As for content, the book covers spelling from pre-K through at least middle school, perhaps early high school.
And the CD-Rom is a real time-saver too, with its words for sorts and activities.
All in all, quite effective, very interesting, and a great value - you buy this once and then purchase simple notebooks or composition books for their spelling journals, and you are set for years to come.


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Words Their Way's developmentally-driven, hands-on instructional approach has been a phenomenon in word study, providing a practical way to study words with students. The keys to this research-based approach are to know your students' literacy progress, organize for instruction, and implement word study. This streamlined book and the DVD and CD-ROM that accompany it gives you all the tools you need to carry out word study instruction that will motivate and engage your students, and help them to succeed in literacy learning. Ordered in a developmental format, Words Their Way complements the use of any existing phonics, spelling, and vocabulary curricula.

Knowing Your Students

Streamlined Chapter 2 provides step by step guidelines for assessing students.
Words Their Way Word Study Resources CD: Assessment Planning and Additional Interactive Word Sorts contains computerized assessments to gauge students' developmental levels.
Word Study with English Learner sections in each chapter help you organize and adapt instruction to meet the needs of students whose first language is not English.

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Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction (3rd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I needed this book for a literacy class. THere are many useful ideas for encouraging literacy, teaching phonics, and building word analysis skills amongst students in primary school. However, there is nothing terribly unique about this book. I've seen many of these ideas in other publications. The CD-rom that comes with the book is difficult to navigate. WHile the CD-rom has good print outs of games and phonics sheets, the templates were embedded in a mass of advertisment and product information.
I would reccomend this book to student-teachers/teachers with little or no experience in the classroom and with little or no knowledge of language acquisition and linguistics.

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A core text or supplement for phonics and reading methods courses.Words Their Way, Third Edition is designed to help teachers address the needs of all readers and spellers, by setting out a clear way to accomodate each student's developmental level, then providing the best methods for teaching to that level. In support of this philosophy, the authors provide more than 250 ready-to-use activities for teaching word study, spelling, vocabulary, and phonics. The text is organized by developmental sequence, and activities appropriate for each level are inclusive within each chapter. Additional word sorts and directions for games are located in the Appendix.

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SPELLING WORKOUT LEVEL B PUPIL EDITION Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this for my 7 year old who is in second grade (homeschool). He really loves the workbook and wants to do all the activities for the week in one sitting. The words are not too hard. I can easily see him finishing and moving on to the third grade level before finishing second grade.
Each week has a spelling tip/rule which the words fall under. For those who would like to know. . . the words in the first lesson are fox, cut hill, wind, put, all moon, saw, tell, new (which seem very easy for 2nd grade). Week thirty-five's words are hole, whole, no, know, not, knot, ate eight, to, too, two, right, write, one, won. I think our local public schools did these type of words in 1st grade. My son did not have "formal" spelling last year so I don't mind starting him off with easier words. I've found it is better to start easy and build confidence than to ruin a child's self-esteem with something too hard. I do believe; however, that if your child has already had formal spelling it would be easy to move on to level C and skip level B.
I have tried many spelling programs over the years (with my oldest son) and my children rate this one as the best. It has interesting activities such as crossword puzzles, find the missing letters, proofreading, etc. My favorite part is that each week the child has a short story to read that uses all of the week's spelling words. The stories are usually educational too! If your child enjoys short activities to reinforce what he/she is learning, I believe you will find this program a perfect fit.

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Spelling Workout 2002 Edition
Level B Student Edition - 2nd Grade
Spelling Workout has all the components you need to lead students from simple sound-letter relationships to more complex spelling patterns.

Students learn spelling skills based on phonics through unique, cross-curricular reading passages, practice, and high-interest writing activities.Packed with flexible lessons, motivating activities, including fun riddles and puzzles, this dynamic program leads students to spelling success!

The Teacher's Edition:

Provides detailed lesson plans for either a 3-day or 5-day plan.
Offers strategy activities for reinforcing and analyzing spelling patterns.
Includes Dictation Sentences for a Pretest and Final Replay Test.
Suggests tips for meeting the needs of English language learners.
Features Take-It Home masters to help foster home involvement.
Follows the same scope and sequence of MCP "Plaid" Phonics.

Features and Benefits

Engages students in cross-curricular reading passages that develop key spelling words.
Masters spelling words through riddles, puzzles, and interactive activities.
Reviews and reinforces what students have learned throughout, and puts students' word power to the test with final reviews in standardized test format.

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Word Matters: Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading/Writing Classroom Review

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(More customer reviews)Clear, to-the-point, and full of great ideas to help those who work with elementary children learning to read. The feature I like best is the built in professional development suggestions to use the book within a building, a grade or a district as an inservice tool. Don't miss this one!

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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.

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Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I acquired this book on the recommendation of one of my professors. I had heard great things about the program's effectiveness with younger readers, but was not convinced I could adapt it to suit the needs of older students with reading difficulties. However, because my students dislike worksheets as much as I do, I am constantly searching for hands-on activities that developed word attack and spelling skills. Donald Bear et al provided me with numerous games and word sorts to use with my reading classes. It has also been possible to extend the curriculum to a higher level by creating additional word sorts that focus on the specific issue of high school readers/spellers. In my opinion, this book is an essential resource for every elementary teacher, language arts teacher, reading specialist, or tutor.

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Designed as a text or supplement for reading methods course.With more than 15 years of extensive observations and experiences in real classrooms, the authors bring keen insight to this activity-based text. They advocate basing student learning on the appropriate developmental level. This philosophy is supported with more than 250 ready-to-use word study, spelling, vocabulary, and phonics activities presented in developmental sequence, from the Emergent through the Derivational Relation stage.

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Writing Road to Reading 5th Rev Ed: The Spalding Method for Teaching Speech, Spelling, Writing, and Reading (Harperresource Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first heard about this system, I kept hearing and reading that "flashcards are in the book". NOT in this 5th edition.
They are in the EARLIER editions (little 3 1/2" squares that you can either cut out and laminate or make copies and paste onto 3x5 index cards if you don't want to ruin the book). The info on the cards is in the book, but not in the flashcard format--they hope that you will buy a set from them.
Also missing from this 5th edition but present in earlier editions (via one of those floppy 33 1/3 speed records) is a recording of the phonograms--why they didn't include a CD with this new edition and raise the price a tad is beyond me. You have to go to their site to buy a recording.
As to whether the 5th edition is an improvement over the previous editions, I have mixed feelings. Yes, there is more "teaching info", such as the dialogues the teacher should use (which you may not bother with if you homeschool), but in some ways it makes it more difficult to actually get to the lessons per se. The word list is extended. It still uses their "clock method" of teaching handwriting, which makes for that very round, old-fashioned "school" look. Many schools now teach D'Nealian, which supposedly is easier to transition to cursive handwriting later (imho, they should teach Italic calligraphy instead). It still has samples of the notebook pages, but in a different part of the book than where the teaching dialogues are (again, they assume that this book/system is being used in a classroom, and you have the laminated posters, as well as laminated flashcards for everyone). The earlier editions have the full-size sample pages right next to the actual lesson.
I actually felt it necessary, after buying the 5th edition AND after borrowing an earlier edition from my library, to buy one of the earlier editions (4th) used on Amazon in order to get the flashcards and the recording, as well as to more easily understand the lessons, because in the earlier editions the information is more or less presented and you move on, as opposed to being discussed at length as it is in the 5th edition.
Also, I was disappointed that the 5th edition, unlike previous editions, is printed on newsprint (it resembles a smaller phonebook both in heft and feel when you turn the pages) and not on better quality paper--I'm skeptical as to how long it will last over time, and with what is essentially a reference textbook, you want something that will last for more than one child.
Bottom line: the system is great. However, this 5th edition seems to really be written for classroom teaching--I feel that for homeschooling parents and someone learning on his own, that they would be well-advised to get an earlier edition (4th or 3rd) with the floppy record if you have access to a record player. The 5th does have an extended "parts of speech" writing portion, that the earlier editions don't have, but there are more interesting grammar books out there, for example, some of Karen Gordon's books.

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The Spalding Method is a total language arts approach that has been used by teachers and parents for nearly fifty years to teach millions of students to spell, write, and read. Now fully updated to reflect the latest research on how children learn language, this newest edition is easier to use than ever.

The Spalding Method helps train the right and left sides of the brain as children see, hear, read, and write. It is cost-effective and efficient; students use pencils, paper, and their minds. The results are stunning: Children learn to connect speech sounds to print and begin to write and read almost magically. Spalding students perform well in the classroom and on tests -- and most important, they love to read and write.

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