Friday, June 11, 2010


How to Get the Most Out of AVKO Spelling Program in 3 Easy Lessons:

Lesson 2 - How to use the Membership Books
to their Greatest Potential

Membership? What’s that? Why should I bother with it?
As a non-profit organization, AVKO exists to HELP adults and kids learn how to read and spell. AVKO has an annual membership which provides the REFERENCE MATERIALS every child’s classroom (even at home) should have available. Membership also gives you a 25% DISCOUNT on all AVKO books and DVD’s. For only $25, you can receive the E-book version of 6 books. We suggest you download the e-books to a CD, so no matter what happens you will have a copy of the six books.


The AVKO Philosophy: The Why
The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: A Continuum from Kindergarten to College
It contains the whys and wherefores of the AVKO philosophy and method of teaching spelling, reading, handwriting, and keyboarding. A book for the parent/teacher, it not only gives the background on WHY but lets you begin to see that the flexibility of AVKO is why this method works so well for all ages and people with spelling and reading difficulties. It is a common sense, down-to-earth book on teaching all the parts of learning to communicate through the English language. As a supplementary textbook for Education Majors/parents/tutors/teachers, the learning to read process is defined, phonics in teaching reading and writing is discussed, an explanation of what part learning-to-write-letters-and-words has in the reading process, plus the spelling and reading connection information is given along with practical diagnostic and prescriptive tests. The second part – the “how” of this book is Starting at Square One.


The AVKO Philosophy: The How
Starting at Square One – for Kindergarten and 1st Graders
The only curriculum ever devised to teach reading, spelling, handwriting and keyboarding AS the students are learning the alphabet NOT after!
This 313 page book is filled with lesson plans for teaching a Kindergartener/1st graders the letters, the sounds they make, how to print the letter(s) that represents the sound(s), beginning keyboard lessons, and reading using only DECODABLE words.
The alphabet is not introduced going from A to Z. McCabe introduces the letters intelligently according to common sense by the first few a child might know by rote and then the next few are the most common letters used. So it goes A, B, C, D, then R, S, T. With just these first seven letters student can begin to learn words and sentence parts, like /a cab/, or /a dad/ or /a car/, /a card/, /a bad cab/, /a bad car/ as well as names like Barb, Barbara, Cara, Brad, Bart and words like add, brat, arc, crab, radar, cars, sad, bass, scads, crass and lots more. This text can also be used for an older student who has some gaps in letter-sound recognition, such as the sound made by x , qu, digraphs or certain consonant blends. AVKO suggests you make yourself familiar with the entire book before starting to teach.
When done with this book, they should be reading at a beginning second grade level, the student is now ready for Sequential Spelling 1.


For Readers at 2nd & Up Using ANY AVKO Spelling Program
The Patterns of English Spelling and
New Word Families in Sentence Context - 10 Volumes
Recently combined, these two books are now over 1600 pages. McCabe was not content with just the word families that fit cleanly into rimes, he also explains spelling oddities of w- and r- controlled clans, basic suffixes, -y families and their relatives, advanced suffixes, advanced patterns of /k/ spelled –qu, -ch, and /sh/ spelled –ch and other miscellaneous relatives, and even Greek and Latin prefixes, roots and suffixes. It contains EVERY word family in the English language and is a universal resource for the entire list of spelling and reading books AVKO produces

How to Use: (alphabetic index pgs 23-93)
Pages are numbered 101A, 101B, etc. A pages: Word Family& Power Words. B pages: Sentences
1. Find and review the ENTIRE word family you are studying. Sequential Spelling has a selected grouping of the word family, NOT every word; therefore this book allows you and students to review all word family words, not as spelling words, as vocabulary.
2. Power Words - listed on the same page, these can be used for developing multisyllabic pronunciation and comprehension.
Great Vocabulary Game: Go over the words and their meaning in the dictionary. Students write the word on one side of paper, on the other they draw the meaning of the word. Be sure the drawing expresses some feeling of the word meaning. Hang up drawings around schooling area. When you have five or more pix start a weekly game where you either show them the word and they have to tell the meaning of the word by describing the picture OR they look at the picture and tell what word it represents.
3. On the opposite (B) page, you will find sentences using the word family words in context. Divide into four sections. Use the sentences for dictation, typing, handwriting and reading comprehension practice. Each of these functions is an important learning tool and beneficial for mastery of higher education. (For additional practice go to Spelling city.com (free website) enter words and play games or use new sentence writing selection.

Use with 4th Grade and above - Check What They Know and What They Don’t
The Reading Teacher’s List of over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
Parent/Teachers can create their own Sequential Spelling Tests based upon their own students' needs and difficulty levels. This book helps parent and teacher find students true reading level and can therefore be a wonderful tool for checking decoding and comprehension skills. It also contains the most recent National Spelling Survey results.

Autobiography
To Teach A Dyslexic
Don McCabe, the author of almost every book the AVKO Foundation sells, wrote his autobiography to help parents and teachers who are NOT dyslexic, better understand what their children who ARE dyslexic or learning disabled, may go through during their lives. He emphasizes the need for excellence in teacher training, and how he developed his own teaching strategies based on spelling patterns. Don is himself, dyslexic. He found ways of coping when learning and not only survived his own school days, but thrived as a teacher and Director of AVKO.
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