I'm pretty sure, that where and when I was being taught English at school, the fad was the Whole Language approach to literacy. I'm not sure if it was this approach, the way it was applied or a mixture of both, but there sure seems to be a large group of adults that left their schooling with poor spelling and poor grammar. Myself included.
I remember while beginning my degree in Education at university there was a mandatory basic spelling and grammar test. Over fifty percent of us didn't pass the spelling and the grammar test had similar results.
I'm trying to avoid the same thing happening with Mr. R.
Although I can appreciate the benifits of meaning and strategy instructions (the components of whole language), I don't think it's enough. I know it sounds boring and mean, but I do give Mr. R phonics, spelling and some grammar activities as well.
Fortunately, we have come across and frequently use the Dr. Best Learn to Read program. It comes with 42 fun color talking books and 38 activity books and covers reading ages from 3 to 8. It's easy to follow for both parents and children, but most importantly it works. We also use the program for spelling. Now that Mr. R is speeding along with his reading, we revisit the first books in the program and use the old reading words as the new spelling words.
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