would Marcia Henry's Words be right for dd9?

[Acadie]

I wish there were more samples and a MUCH more detailed table of contents online for this book! I'm really drawn to doing a combo spelling/roots program, and especially love that the book covers Anglo-Saxon words too.

 

Dd9 was a late reader and needed intensive phonics instruction, but she's reading like a champ now. Little Women is her current independent read.

 

We did AAS 1 & 2 and all of ETC, then dropped phonics and spelling when she was reading well. She's a reasonably good speller, but we do need to start formal spelling back up again. Also, since she's reading fluently, I see her backsliding to more guessing when she comes to very complex, multisyllabic words, and I think reviewing syllabication would be helpful at this point.

 

AAS is such a solid program, but the thought of buying and teaching all those levels exhausts me. I'm wondering if we could work through Words, speeding up and using a Spelling Power approach for the easier chapters by having her try to spell a list of words, and focusing on what she needs. I'm assuming later chapters she'd need in their entirety.

 

I'm also trying to figure out how long it would take to work through it and what grade level spelling it covers, i.e., does it take you through high school level spelling? Or what would be a logical program to follow it?

 

Thanks,

 

Amy

[ElizabethB]

Words would be good. It starts at the 3rd/4th grade level and by the end is 8th to 9th grade level words. The samples are from early on in the book.

 

Here are some words from the end:

 

Greek: autograph, phonograph, hydrogen, biography, autobiography

 

Latin: conferring, referendum (from fer) convene, contravene, preventable (from ven, vent) visualize, television, improvisation (from vid, vis)

 

It depends on the child, it could be several years worth of work or 1 year of intense study, there is a lot of information in the book. At age 9, it would take at least 2 years to work through the book unless you have a verbally gifted child with a strong phonics background.

 

For a quick review of phonics and syllables, I would quickly work her through the program on my how to tutor page, reading and spelling just a few words on each Blend Phonics unit and learning the associated spelling rules and doing the associated syllable division exercises.

 

Webster's Speller is also good for working with syllables and longer words.

 

Here is the 1908 version:

 

http://donpotter.net/pdf_files/websterspellingbookmethod.pdf

 

Or, if you want a hard copy, Don is now selling them through Cafe Press:

 

http://www.cafepress.com/donpottertutoring.610028815

[Acadie]

Thanks so much, Elizabeth! That helps a lot. I think I'll give it a try.

 

Off to check out your site first, though....

 

Amy