In school, your child is beginning the first workbook in the Language Skills

component of the Open Court Headway Program. This Workbook provides

exercises in reading, writing, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, alphabetizing,

and related language skills. It stresses the correct meaning, spelling, and use of

words. It also gives exercises that set up the writing of original compositions.

I d like to tell you more about the spelling strand. The children in my class

learn to spell words correctly through a variety of activities. (Workbook exercises

always follow "live" classroom instruction.) First and foremost, they learn to

read and write the spellings of sounds. They learn to associate each spelling with

its sound (the spelling ow for the sound/ow/, as in how, for example) through a

Wall-Sound Card. This card shows both a picture of a situation in which the

sound is being made (a carpenter hitting a finger with a hammer-and saying

/ow/) and the spellings for that sound. We often review the names, sounds, and

spellings of these cards. We also drill with

of sounds.

smaller cards that show the spellings

The children learn to blend sound-spellings to form words. We build words i

on the chalkboard, sound by sound, and stress the spelling of each sound we use.

In the Language Workbook, the children take dictation of sounds, sounds in

words, words built sound by sound, whole words, and sentences. In dictation, we

again stress the correct spelling of each sound in specific words.

Another way in which the children learn to spell is by proofreading their

own writing. Whenever the children write a composition, I "lift" sentences with

errors and put them on the board. Under my direction, the whole class reviews

and corrects (proofreads) these sentences.

In spelling sessions, I teach the correct spellings of groups of words (such as

words that use the ea spelling of the/~/sound). After each of these "live"

sessi ons, the children complete Language Workbook exercises that give them

practice in these spellings. Through live and Workbook exercises, your child will

learn when to use s and when to use es to form a noun plural, when to double a

consonant before an ending(such as -ed, -er, -est, and -ing), how to form a

contraction (can t, won t, wasn t, and so forth), and many other spelling skills.

Each skill will be practiced many times.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this letter, the Language Workbook also

provides exercises in other areas. Your child will work on identifying words,

using homophones, alphabetizing, using quotation marks and other marks of

punctuation, capitalizing words, sequencing events in stories, and acquiring

other language skills. I ll be happy to describe these activities, as well as the

spelling strand, in more detail if you would like to discuss your child s education

with me. Please contact me at school.