Fifteen years ago I began writing my complete language arts program for second through twelfth grade students (what is now Character Quality Language Arts, CQLA). I based that program, loosely, on six programs (language arts, editing, writing, vocabulary, spelling, etc., programs) that I had been using for a dozen years with my older children. I wanted to take all of the best “part language arts” books and put them together in one. And I did that!
One of the programs I had used with my kids was a spelling classification book, a book in which students record their spelling words on pages that are labeled with the various word families and other commonalities. I loved this program and had used it in conjunction with the other aforementioned books. When I created my complete language arts program, I created a book similar to the one I had used—with several changes. For one thing, mine was longer and more detailed. I found myself having to add columns and pages too often. Additionally, I didn’t feel that the book that I had used had enough explanation of the various sounds (for those using it with random spelling lists, I thought it should give more “teaching” on the sounds and spelling patterns).
Also, I had, had some success using that spelling categorization system with my emerging reader (who also enjoyed writing/penning). Therefore, I knew that I wanted my Spelling Notebook to go through all of the sounds/patterns/word families that a new reader would encounter (in the order they are usually taught) so that students could use it to record words as they learned sounds for reading.
So I knew what I wanted for spelling to go with CQLA right away. And The Spelling Notebook was created.
Fast forward fifteen years later. The Spelling Notebook is still available from Character Ink (our small press publishing company) and Rainbow Resource Center. This summer my graphic designer and I put a new cover on it and made it into a download that public, private, and homeschools could download for their students so that even more kids could benefit from this systematic resource. (To see how to use this book, check out this demo video!)
This product can be purchased in black and white (with a colored cover) with heavy paper for the pages (for years of use by the same student). (Call 260-433-4365 to order.) It can also be purchased as a download from Teachers Pay Teachers, Teacher’s Notebook, and CurrClick. For more information, continue reading the forward of The Spelling Notebook below.
FROM THE FORWARD OF THE SPELLING NOTEBOOK
This Spelling Notebook was designed to be used to further cement spelling learning by providing “learning hooks” upon which to base the student’s spelling experiences. It uses a word family/phonetic approach to help students classify words with spelling commonalities together. This gives them the advantage of using prior spelling knowledge (previously recorded words and families) along with new spelling words.
Spelling Uses
The Spelling Notebook may be used in two different manners to assist in spelling learning:
1. Students record their new spelling words (already based on spelling commonalities) onto the proper SN page.
2. Students record misspelled words from their essays, spelling tests, and dictation quizzes onto the corresponding SN page.
These two methods are as follows:
1. Recording Weekly Spelling Words—
a. After students copy the spelling words in their weekly lesson, the teacher should tell him which page (or pages) he will need to record that week’s words.
b. The student should turn to the indicated pages in his SN. There, he will find columns of lines with a word above each column.
c. He should record each spelling word from his weekly list on the pages indicated beneath the spelling pattern that each word follows.
d. For example, if he is working on the ei and ie spelling patterns in his weekly lesson, he will turn to the SN pages given. He will then place the words from his spelling lesson in the correct columns:
i. Cei—In this column, he will place the words receive, conceive, and perceive.
ii. Ie—In this column, he will place the words believe, relieve, and belief.
iii. Ei says ay—In this column, he will place the words vein, rein, and veil.
2. Recording Misspelled Words—
a. In this approach, the teacher chooses words that the student misspelled during his weekly dictation quiz, spelling test, and essay/report. (This may be three or four words or ten words, depending on his skill level and how many of the spelling words he will be working on from the weekly spelling lesson.)
b. The most productive way to use these spelling words is for the teacher to analyze the spelling problem of each word with the student. For example, if the student spelled happy with only one p—hapy, she would point out what the spelling error was. (The student failed to double the consonant in a two syllable-first vowel-short word.)
c. The student and teacher would then look up this rule in the SN and the student would record the word in the correct column of the corresponding page.
d. Obviously, when a student misspells a word, he may just copy that word and study it for the next week. This is fine, too; however, if the student actually has experiences with the spelling problem (the exact part of the word he misspelled) and copies it over in the SN with words containing that same spelling, the spelling rule will be further cemented in the student’s mind.
For Reading Instruction
The SN is a valuable tool for emerging readers who enjoy writing. As each word family is studied/learned through any word-family-approach phonics program, have your student write the words that he or she has learned to read on the coordinating pages under the correct word family.
