Word Crafting: Teaching Spelling, Grades K-6

At long last, a spelling and vocabulary book written by a classroom teacher who's a literacy specialist, too!

Cindy Marten responds to the demand for "direct, systematic, and explicit phonics and spelling instruction" that goes way beyond what to teach - she addresses the questions of how, when, and why spelling should be taught. More important, she situates spelling within the contexts of real writing and the individual learner's needs.

In Word Crafting, Marten offers an approach that is at once playful, intellectual, and artful, engaging students in inquiry and wonder about words. "Word crafting" is analogous to the ways fine woodworkers develop their skills - through collecting the right tools, item by item, until they have a toolbelt full of them. The same is true for teaching spelling and here Marten supplies the tools, each one carefully selected for her students. Dip into her book for tools to:

• assess and group students for effective instruction
• engage them from the start in smart word study
• help students learn high-frequency words, rules, patterns, and spelling demons
• align your teaching with school, district, state, and national mandates.

Use these tools to set up word-crafting contexts that connect the study of words to authentic reading and writing. Craft a word study program that turns your students into more than good spellers - they'll be fine word crafters.