Overview of Sharpen Spelling
Purpose of Sharpen Spelling
Sharpen Spelling is designed to complement the work students do in Sharpen Reading. Sharpen Spelling can also be used independently of Sharpen Reading for families and teachers who want to provide excellent spelling instruction to students in first and second grade.
Recommended usage
The instruction is divided into two levels, B1 and B2. Level B1 contains first grade level spelling words and Level B2 second grade level spelling words.
We recommend using Level B1 of Sharpen Spelling after a student has completed Level B1 of Sharpen Reading, and we recommend using Level B2 of Sharpen Spelling after a student has completed Level B2 of Sharpen Reading.
The material is organized into weekly units. Each unit contains 4 separate lessons designed to be done on 4 separate days. Each lesson will require 10-25 minutes to complete.
Structure of units
After a few introductory units in Level B1 that focus on learning 24 words with the most common vowel spellings, subsequent units are all organized around a short piece of text that students read at the start of the unit. These texts include excerpts from several Aesop’s Fables, some children’s poetry, and excerpts from a variety of folk tales from around the world.
Six words from the text are the focus of the student’s work each week. These words are practiced and analyzed in a variety of ways. In addition to working with these words individually, the student will copy several sentences from the text for the week and will spell one sentence from dictation (that is, from memory, without copying) at the end of the week.
Throughout the week the Instructor assesses whether the student can spell the target words correctly. A word is repeated in these practice sessions until the student has spelled it correctly in 3 subsequent lessons.