Spelling Through Phonics

I love this book! It gives me a great way to drive my spelling instruction. It matches up with my district's curriculum requirements and aligns with my district testing. My students feel so successful when they get to complete the Challenge words and complete the dictation sentences. I recommend this book for every primary teacher!

McCracken materials are excellent! I used this book a number of years ago, when I taught 1st grade. The students wrote on a white board and used a white board marker. I am now working as a Teacher Assistant for a Reading Specialist and she uses the book with her students. The students learn to listen, sound out, & spell using phonics. What a way to teach or improve reading skills.

Thanks, Marlene and Bob, for giving us this how-to...kids catch on so quickly, and they love the power of learning and succeeding. I especially like basing their learning on their own language and interests. I feel like this book gets to what we knew was right, but just couldn't seem to pull together. THANK YOU FOR HELPING US BE BETTER TEACHERS! But most of all, thank you for giving children the power to learn well. They really enjoy themselves!

The first grade lessons are simply phonemic awareness exercises. Spelling implies being able to write the word correctly and using the phonetic approach makes a lot of sense but this book does not.

I was truly perplexed by the choice of words that were chosen for the 'dictation'. The authors make no attempt to ensure that children learn the patterns of the words that they suggest for their spelling lists (this begs the question how do you expect children to spell words that they don't have the phonics knowledge to attempt?). The idea that spelling consists of writing the initial and final letters of a word is skewed at best. Spelling should reinforce reading and the phonics used in reading should be taught before having children attempt their proper spelling.

There are also the instructional flaws in the book. On pg. 124 the authors' say, "With each of the vowel-r combinations, tell the children to spell the sounds as they hear it: /er/=er, /ar/=ar, /ir/=ir, /or/=or, /ur/=ur. It is clear that a word like 'perch' does not sound like 'e' 'r' (e has two sounds, short e=egg and long e= see). You do not hear the 'e' in the r-controlled vowel. You only hear the 'r', i.e. perch. Another obvious example is 'car'. Do you hear the 'a' in car?

I would strongly suggest against using this book with struggling readers (any reader but especially struggling readers). This will do nothing but confuse them. This book is neither systematic nor sequential and the phonics is so misplaced that I would call it accidental.

Sadly, the authors' whole language approach to phonics is a dismal failure.

WOW! When I first read "Spelling Through Phonics," my whole attitude towards teaching spelling was radically changed. The McCrackens clearly and concisely lay out a spelling program that can work for anyone in any school-- no matter what! I have used it from the inner city school, to the county school, to the private "college prep" type school. It works. Rather than teach a child to "hear" the sounds for spelling, the McCrackens advocate using how a sound "feels" to write. We can actually feel more sounds than we hear. But not only does the book lay our a plan, but it also gives you everything you need to run the plan-- including word lists, sample lessons, and hand outs to go with the lessons! What an incredible program!