Spelling K-8: Planning and Teaching - Softcover

Snowball, Diane; Bolton, Faye

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571100741 ISBN 13: 9781571100740

Publisher: Routledge, 1999

Synopsis

Spelling K-8 meets the needs of schools and districts that want to put systematic teaching in place without compromising the principles of constructivist learning. Recognizing the professional expertise of classroom teachers, the authors consistently urge teachers to consider the suggested plan in relation to their children's spelling needs. Children are actively engaged in spelling explorations, being guided by their teachers, forming generalizations that reflect their current understanding about how written English works. Specific suggestions are also offered for children whose first language is not English. Spelling K-8 addresses the issues that administrators and parents are concerned about - especially phonics and learning high-frequency words - and offers teachers a wealth of strategies and resources to draw on.

Spelling K-8 assists teachers in:understanding current beliefs about teaching and learning and means of translating these into classroom practice;implementing specific types of spelling investigations, such as sounds, spelling patterns or suffixes, by clearly outlining the general process involved in spelling explorations;identifying the possible spelling focuses for children in each grade level, taking into consideration their needs and the explorations they have been introduced to in previous years;relating the teaching of spelling to reading and writing experiences in a variety of curriculum areas;knowing the generalizations children need to learn to enable them to understand how written English works.

Spelling K-8 will help you plan the teaching of spelling at a whole-school level and at each grade level.

About this title

About the Author:

Diane hails from Australia and travels a lot between her home and New York. In her long career, she's been a teacher of mathematics and science, teacher librarian, K-6 classroom teacher, assistant principal, and literacy consultant, among many other positions.

She has been a literacy consultant throughout the United States and Canada for the past fifteen years and co-founded Australian United States Services in Education (A.U.S.S.I.E.), a company of approximately three hundred literacy and mathematics consultants providing professional development for K-12 administrators, teachers, and parents.

She became a teacher because she was encouraged by her teachers in high school to do so. "We make a difference in children's lives, especially the neediest. It's a profession in which we always have much more to learn about, and the educational community is keen to learn collaboratively and to share ideas."

Diane describes herself as an avid learner who is very practical. "I enjoy learning about theory and understanding the implications for practice. When providing professional development for others, I prefer to give demonstrations of effective teaching and to combine this with explanations and discussion before and after teaching."

As an author, Diane does a bulk of the planning and thinking about ideas before she begins to write. "I may make some notes as ideas come to mind, mostly to remind myself about what I want included, but I've never kept a writer's notebook. Once I have decided what to write, I like to finish quickly and I like feedback for revision."

Faye is a native of Melbourne, Australia and she currently conducts onsite, ongoing professional development in schools in New York City and Australia. She has worked as an elementary school teacher and literacy consultant in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

She believes that professional development should be onsite and ongoing in order to be effective. Faye thoroughly enjoys working with teachers who are excited by the profession they work in and want to become more effective teachers so that their students become active, successful learners.

Her areas of specialty are literacy and integrated curriculum. She enjoys movies, theater, dining out, traveling, and playing tennis.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1571100741
• ISBN 13: 9781571100740
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280