A Quick Overview of Spelling Power
Spelling Power is a multi-sensory, multi-level, individualized spelling program. It is designed to help your student master spelling skills in just 15 minutes per day. These 15 minutes requires approximately five minutes of your time per student and little or no lesson planning. Your student will typically use this 15-minute spelling session to complete three basic activities.
First, you conduct a five-minute Daily Test session. You will use Spelling Power’s research-proven, special daily pre-test procedures. These unique steps accomplish several important teaching tasks: review of phonetic principles and spelling rules, check of retention of previously studied words and selection of new words to study. You will begin this activity testing words misspelled during the previous day’s daily test session. Then for the remainder of the five-minute session you will test new words from Spelling Power’s Flow-Word Lists, picking up where you left off on the list the day before. Spelling Power’s unique word list contains the 5,000 words children and adults most frequently use and misspell. These words are organized into 11 levels of frequency. Each of these 11 levels is further divided into word groups based upon phonetic principles and spelling rules. Your student will master these words because a series of six levels of review is built into Spelling Power’s list. You will learn more about these steps in Quick Start Steps Five through 8.
Next, your student will study on his own those words that he misspelled during the daily test session. You may also have him study additional words, such as words misspelled in his daily writing, during this portion of the daily spelling lesson. Spelling Power’s special 10-Step Study sheets guide your student through the steps that research consistently proves most effective for learning to spell words. He will usually complete these efficient, multi-sensory study steps in less than five minutes. You will learn how to introduce your student to the 10-Step Study process through Quick Start Step Six.
Finally, your student will spend the remaining five minutes of the daily spelling session involved in skill-building activities. These activities are designed to teach, reinforce, and drill spelling words and skills. The “Reinforcing Spelling Skills” section of the Spelling Power manual provides over 134 ideas and directions for hands-on games, drills, and activities to be used during this portion of the spelling session. The Teacher’s Online Resources (free access is included with your Spelling Power program) provides you with many of these activities as assignment sheets that you can print from your home computer. You will also find other skill-building activities in the Online Resources. The optional Spelling Power Activity Task Cards box is another source for skill-building assignments. All of these teaching activities are indexed so you can quickly and easily locate activities that will benefit your student. You will learn how to select which activities are just right for your student in Quick Start Step 7.
Spelling Power's individualized self-paced approach allows you to easily integrate your spelling program with the rest of your curriculum and especially with your composition program. A particular teaching model for grammar and composition instruction is introduced in Quick Start Step 11, but you can adapt the basic approach described and use it with whatever language arts curriculum you are currently using. You will see just how easy this integration can be when you read Quick Start Step 11.
Spelling Power is written to be user-friendly. Even if you are new to teaching, you will find that Spelling Power’s easy-to-understand, detailed, step-by-step directions show you exactly how to administer the program and how to adapt it to your student’s specific needs.
Spelling Power gives you everything you need to provide your student a comprehensive spelling curriculum from age eight through high school. You will also find helpful information for working with your younger students still learning their basic phonics and handwriting skills. While preprinted student record books and other convenience items are available, masters for every form described and directions for many skill-building activities are provided in the book and in the accompanying Teacher's Online Resources. Spelling Power truly is the last spelling program your family will ever need to own!