Engaging Language Kit by Brian McCabe Sample on Scribd

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@AVKO.org

Learn more about AVKO's Engaging Language Kits by Brian McCabe. Check out this sample of the various language arts activities that your students will have fun -- and learn -- with below.

381 Sample

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Handwriting Resources

Posted by Brian McCabe; Courtesy of Kate Gladstone

Kate Gladstone was gracious enough to pass along some handwriting resources that she thought everyone could appreciate and use.

Enjoy!

1. Getty Dubay whole series
   
2. Briem.net
   
3. Barchowsky Fluent Hand
4. The Complete Program for Better Handwriting (Getty-Dubay)
5. Write Now! Italic Handwriting
6. Stage-Write Paper

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Activities Inspired by Harry Potter

Posted by Brian McCabe, brian@avko.org

Today, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens in theatres everywhere. Regardless of your opinions of the films or books, it's undeniable what they have done to re-instill a love of reading in our nation's kids. In the spirit of Harry Potter, I'd like to propose a few summer activities for reading and language arts:

The Importance of Names:
One of the great things about the Harry Potter series is the ubiquitous presence of names that have some deeper significance or reference: Argus Filch, Minerva McGonagall, etc. See these sites for more information on the names and possible references:

• Harry Potter names
• What's in a Name? - very detailed
• Veritaserum
• Resource Room Word Parts Exercises
  

Challenge your students to pay attention to names in the other books, movies, and pop culture they take in. Names carry a lot of meaning and can be in homage to many things, and can give rich, though subtle, contour to an oeuvre.

Summer Reading Contests:
Summer is traditionally a time for lots of pleasure reading. Challenge your students to read as much as they can over the summer months. You may want to have a reward system for them. Or, you can have them set their own goals. Or, you can contact your local library or school district to see what kinds of competitions they have in place for the students.

Mythology and Personification:
Throughout the Harry Potter series, many mythological creatures and characters are referred to. We have werewolves, giants, vampires, references to Minerva and Argus, etc. How about giving a lesson on the popular myths (Greco-Roman, Norse, Native American, fables, fairy tales) that are pervasive in our culture? Knowledge of these myths is important for the understanding of much classical literature as they are referred to time and time again.

Manytimes, mythological characters are the personified forms of inanimate objects or abstractions (love, war, hearth, wind, fate, etc.) It's interesting to see how different cultures have personified these different abstractions. You can challenge your student to compare various abstractions across different cultures' mythology or even create their own mythological characters personifying an abstraction of their choice. These can make great art projects or creative writing projects. You can also challenge your students to think of a "creation myth" for some object, event, place, etc. This is especially common in the Native American mythologies (e.g., the creation of the Sleeping Bear dunes in Michigan).

• Mythology on Wikipedia - Scroll down to the "Lists" section.
• D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
• More Native American Mythology
  

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A New Material by Kate Gladstone of Handwriting Repair to Come Out Soon

Posted by Kate Gladstone of Handwriting Repair

A good friend of AVKO, Kate Gladstone, has an upcoming product launching. Since many of AVKO's members have problems with handwriting (and/or dysgraphia), and since Kate is a pre-eminent handwriting specialist, we are excited to share this new product information with you. We will keep you posted with updates:

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If "handwriting can't matter" in the Cyber Age ...

... why does the SAT exam now include a timed, handwritten essay?

... why do most employers still require applicants to complete one or more forms by hand?

... why do hundreds of blog entries and Twitter posts daily describe the blogger's or poster's poor handwriting or complain about the poor handwriting of others?

Computers will never completely replace other writing tools -- not unless someone can invent a computer the size of a pencil or pen, costing the same as a pencil or pen, and needing no electric power supply. (After Hurricane Katrina, millions of teachers and students who had supposed that "handwriting can't matter" learned otherwise when they had to spend a school year without computers.)

Computers and cell-phones haven't eliminated handwriting -- they have merely tempted people to stop teaching and learning the subject. This may change in September, though. As millions of schoolchildren head back to the classrooms, expect AVKO.org to announce a startling new product that may forever change the way we think about teaching, learning, and using handwriting.
Stay tuned ...

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Brain Rules by John J. Medina

Blog by Gloria Goldsmith

I was tickled pink when I stumbled across Medina’s website. I bought the book the very next morning. I was delighted by the 12 brain rules he has come up with though his scientific inquiry. Mind you, he is a developmental molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in the human brain development. He insists on his research being published in a peer-review journal and successfully replicated before he included the study in the Brain Rules book. That means the information he shares with us isn’t just theories that he has invented, it is real science, and I am delighted to say, presented in a meaningful and extremely readable manner. Plus, the biggest clincher for me was the fact that it parallels all the methods of teaching that we, at the AVKO Foundation, have been encouraging parents and teachers to use, recognize, and perform for over 35 years. It is great to see it confirmed in another form of scientific tests.

Attention | Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things. What we pay attention to is profoundly influenced by memory.

One method AVKO advocates which helps a student concentrate is ten to fifteen minute lessons. AVKO even encourages the use of a timer when doing lessons. Medina goes on and on about how humans need something to grab our attention about every 10 minutes in order to keep us interested. AVKO promotes that after any academic lesson students need some form of physical release. Exercise!

Exercise | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. The greatest predictor of successful aging is the presence or absence of a sedentary lifestyle.

AVKO encourages exercise of some kind, many times during the school day, especially for ADHD kids. We think a 15 -20 minute break helps to drop the anxiety levels some humans feel when attempting to learn something difficult. Coming back to a lesson after a refreshing energy boost pause, makes it easier to tackle. According to John Medina, ALL humans perform better with some form of daily exercise. Our memory is better with cardiovascular fitness.

Survival | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too. There is no greater anti-brain environment than the classroom and cubicle

Homeschoolers, you may well have a deeper connection to the truth of this rule than most parents whose children are in public school. It wasn’t just our bodies that adopted from swinging in the trees to walking on the savannahs, our brain also had to evolve to survive, solve new problems, learn from mistakes, and create alliances with other peoples in order to survive. Humans now rule the world because we learned to cooperate and formed teams with our neighbors. Yet if we do not feel safe with our neighbor, boss or teacher, we may not perform as well under their leadership. Isolation in learning does not create an open learning environment in which questions are welcomed.

Short-Term memory is Rule #5: Repeat to remember. The human brain can hold about seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds!

If you want to prolong the 30 seconds a few minutes or a few hours, you will need to re-expose yourself to the information again and again. Memories are so volatile that you have to repeat to remember. This fact has long been a staple in AVKO’s Sequential Spelling program. The presentation of word families (same sound/same spelling) teaches the student to recall using the logic of spelling patterns (in, pin, sin, spin), as well as the repetition of sequentially spelling the base word plus a different tense each day (pin, pins, pinned, pinning). AVKO also encourages parents to revisit the target word in The Patterns of English Spelling, Word Families in Sentence Context, and use the patterned approach of Let’s Write Right, or Individualized Typing. We encourage parents to let the student practice their spelling words in word games by going to SpellingCity.com where the student can type in current spelling words and Spelling City forms them into several different word games. Fun and repetition! AVKO supports all of these review methods which re-exposes the student to the target word repeatedly, just as Medina advocates for short-term and long-term memory to take place.

There are 12 brain rules. I won’t go over all of them here, but I do encourage you to get the book, and read this fascinating subject for yourself. I know it will create a clearer understanding of how people learn and what you can do to effect faster learning and how to avoid things that impair learning. John Medina also has a web site (www.brainrules.net) that explains a lot about his book. It is deliberately done in a very amusing style, because as he said, we recall things better when they have made an impression.

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Grammar Untied -- A Featured Website

Posted by Hajira Khan, AVKO Volunteer

Grammaruntied.com, formerly known as Tongue Untied, is a great website! It covers a wide range of topics, and offers instructions related to basic grammar, sentence structure, and word choice, as well as rules for punctuation. It covers all the aspects of English language and is an excellent online guide.

This website was originally developed for students who want to take Journalism as a major at college level. However, it can be used by people of all ages whether young or old.

The website’s layout is simple but effective, making it appealing. The website has information you need in a design that is easy to read and understand. This information can easily be navigated by using the clear instructions present for the users. There are two menus on the home page of the website; one is on the left side of the page and the other on the top of the page. The left menu provides links to explanations in each of the major components of English grammar while the top menu offers links to quizzes, curriculum, and discussion. There are seven tabs on the top menu, each one directing the user to another page that contains more information.

For each concept covered, it starts with a brief description of the theory and provides excellent examples and interactive quizzes. For example, the page on adjectives tells you what adjectives are, followed by a practice exercise on adjectives, and an interactive quiz. By doing such quizzes, the users can find out how proficient they are in English language. A very interesting element present on the website is an image that reads “Grammar Warning Ahead”, by clicking on this image the user is directed to a new page with topics like “Top Ten Most Commonly Confused Words.”

There is a ten week curriculum on the website. Each week a topic is extensively covered, with its explanation, and its types followed by homework and example quizzes. If this curriculum is properly followed, it can produce meritorious results by the end of the tenth week.

The website is very impressive and is recommended to anyone teaching, learning or polishing their English. The content is exceptionally good, and everyone can benefit from the enormous amount of material on it.

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Creative Writing Prompts: Ambiguous Stimuli

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

Psychologists have, for a long time, used ambiguous stimuli ostensibly to tap into the unconscious mind. By "ambiguous stimuli," we mean something that makes an abstract picture that can be interpreted in many ways. The most famous example of this would be the Rorschach inkblot test. The inkblots do not make up any one picture, but the person "injects" his own creativity, personality, and whatever's the most present on the person's mind into the stimuli to come up with an interpretation of the picture.

See this Wikipedia article for a list of common projective tests.

You can use these same concepts for creative writing prompts. Take an ambiguous stimulus of your own making or observation and have the student(s) write a short story or prose about what they see and can imagine happening in the picture. This activity is really fun to do with a group of students who can share, in turn, what they saw and what they wrote.

Here are some ambiguous stimuli you could use for creative writing prompts:

- Make your own ink blots by putting a smudge of ink or paint on a piece of heavy paper and folding it once or a few times.
- Toss a handful of pebbles, coins, twigs, buttons, etc.
- The clouds -- or a snapshot of a specific cloud.
- Patterns in the sand
- Patterns in the carpeting
- Freckles / scars on your skin
- Random dots on a piece of paper
- Patterns in a television's static.
- Other

Have fun, but try not to over-analyze results, especially if you give instructions to be creative.

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Getting Your Kids Interested in Current Events

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

- Make a collage or découpage old maps onto the wall, a table, or a poster board.

See AVKO's previous post on collage or découpage (with words) for information on how to do these crafts.

If your students are surrounded by the images of countries, cities, and cultures -- and learn about them -- they will be more interested in learning more about them in the future. You can find maps in old issues of National Geographic (you can always find back issues at used bookstores, estate sales, antique stores, etc.).

- Take advantage of the news sites for kids and adolescents. Many of them have worksheets you can use for your homeschooling as well.

Check out:

Nick News
Channel One
Scholastic News Online
Time for Kids

- Teach your kids how to read the newspaper

About.com has a nice introduction to newspaper terms that will help in navigating the newspaper for the first time. Explain how there is a difference in perceived importance of the articles based on their placement in the paper. What's on the first page? Are there big pictures? How much space is devoted to the piece?

Explain the difference between news articles, editorials, letters to the editor, and op-eds. Explain bias. You may want to do some high order thinking exercises with your students in helping them parse out what in a piece is biased, how its biased, and what you may be able to infer about the author based on the slant that is taken in a piece.

Use the political cartoons as additional exercises in abstract thought and discussion starters.

- Assign news reviews at least once a week

Have your students write a little recap of a news article at least once a week. You can choose to assign a topic (foreign affairs, politics, op-ed, environment, etc.) or have it be a free for all of what interests them.

- Introduce the Fake News sources, if you wish, to make the news more fun. Obviously, there may be more discretion needed here to decide what is suitable for your individual setting / student. However, political satire and "fake news" programs are extremely popular in today's popular culture. You may decide to take a more intellectual / analytical approach with these and use clips or excerpts as examples of satire, parsing out what is sarcastic (or sardonic), etc.

The Onion
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update
Chocolate News

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Storytelling with your Children

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

Younger students love to tell stories, even if it's just sharing what they did that day, what they learned at school, or a silly story they've made up. Take advantage of the children's natural curiosity and creativity -- and boost their language skills -- by writing the stories out.

For younger students, you can have them dictate the stories while you transcribe them. If you have a motor mouth on your hands, you may wish to use a tape recorder or your computer to allow their creative juices to keep flowing naturally (instead of halted waiting for you to finish writing/typing the last sentence). You may need to ask a few questions along the way to get them to elaborate on their descriptions, what happened next, how the characters relate to each other, etc.

Once you have it all written/typed out, put it in a binder. Have your child draw the illustrations and/or the cover. Collect the stories in the same binder or keep them stored together if they are in multiple bindings. A week or so later (and at later intervals, too), you can have the children read the stories back to you or read them silently.

This is a great way for the children to see their own vocabulary words in print, and in the context of full sentences that are syntactically and grammatically correct, reinforcing their language building skills.

They may decide that they want to revise the stories later on -- adding more detail, adding new characters, or creating sequels to the stories. Encourage this!

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Brain Rules

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

Brain Rules, a new book, extolls the essence of what AVKO's philosophy is all about with psychological and biological research evidence.

AVKO recommends that you check out this wonderful and readable book about how we think, how we best learn, and what doesn't work in our present educational and professional systems for our own brains.

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A Review: Irlen Syndrome

or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, by Gloria Goldsmith, AVKO Foundation

The AVKO Foundation recognizes there is no one thing that will fix everyone’s problems. But we know our spelling program is a giant help for those with spelling difficulties, just like the Irlen Institute is a giant help for those with light sensitivities.

I was speaking to a Mom just yesterday who had a son with severe headaches, problems with concentration, visual tracking problems and I forgot to mention the Irlen Syndrome, a light sensitivity problem. I hope she finds this blog.

Irlen Syndrome is not an optical problem; it is a problem with the brain’s ability to process visual information. Often it runs in families and there is no standardized educational or medical test which can identify this syndrome.

It can affect both academic and work performance, behavior, attention, the ability to sit still and concentration. This syndrome is often mistaken for ADHD. Often the problem is white paper and dark ink – high contrast printing. Ordinarily, parents and teachers would think that high contrast is excellent, just the thing to make sure the printed words show up nicely on the page. But for most sufferers of the Irlen Syndrome it is the exact WRONG thing for their perception.

How is it evident in individuals? Each individual with Irlen Syndrome exhibits the problem differently. It is believed that forty-six percent (46%) of slow readers could be helped by the colored filters prescribed by the Irlen Institute. You or your child may experience some or many of these sensitivities: print looks different (blurred, spinning, dancing, rivers, etc),environment looks different, slow or inefficient reading, poor comprehension, eye strain, fatigue, headaches, difficulty with math computation, difficulty copying, difficulty reading music, poor sport performance, poor depth perception, low motivation, or low self-esteem. Glare, florescent lights, bright lights, sunlight and sometimes lights at night can bother those with light sensitivity.

The problem is not able to be corrected with remediation. But there is a solution, and that is colored filters. The filters can be bought in page sized overlays and for even better solutions, color filtering lenses for glasses. The remarkable changes that take place for those who have moderate to severe cases of this syndrome are documented in video clips on the Irlen Institute website. There is also a book available called “Reading by the Colors” by Helen Irlen, her first book describing the syndrome in detail and several other helpful books are offered on the web site for children and parents.

I recommend checking the Irlen Institute website http://irlen.com/index.php for more information about the syndrome, a self-test, samples of the distortions reported, research, testimonials, and to find an Irlen Testing Center. You can even change the color of the webpage to see how it affects your reading perception. (For my eyes ease, I prefer the light blue.)

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Make a Collage...or Découpage with Words

A fun summer activity you can do with your kids is to make a collage or découpage project. To make this education, you can use snippets from old encyclopedia, discarded (and tattered books) from the library, magazines, your own calligraphy or written out words, Word Art for Microsoft Word, or anything else verbal. This can be useful for vocabulary words you are trying to teach, examples of foreign words (a French vocabulary table top, e.g.), words of a certain word family (the -at words, e.g.), or just a hodgepodge of words that sound good to you.

Learn how to découpage at About.com

This can be very versatile if you make multiple word collages to fit the size of your table and then put a sheet of glass overtop of that. Then you could even use a washable marker to write on the glass -- cross of words that were learned (great for goal-oriented learning), write out definitions, or silly comments / messages among family members.

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Building Vocabulary + Activities with a Word Log

As your students are in the thick of bulking up their vocabulary, going through Sequential Spelling (or any other spelling program), or going about their normal routines, consider keeping a word log. Write down the words that your student (or have them do it) does not know: the meaning, how to use it correctly in a sentence, when it would be an appropriate word choice, etc. We are not focusing on spelling here.

So, as they read their pleasure reading books or encounter other unknown words in any of the contexts listed above, they or you write the words down in the log. From this log, you can do all sorts of activities:

• Spot check the student for meanings days or weeks later.
  
• Use the vocabulary illustration worksheet (PDF) to have the student draw a picture of the meaning (silly or serious) with the definition. Creating a more personal connection with the word (deeper encoding) aids in memorization.
• Make flash cards.
• Have the student make stories/poetry/prose using X number of these words.
  
• Use these words for handwriting exercises + discussion of meaning.
  
• Have the student look them up in the dictionary and/or thesaurus
• Other. Send us your other ideas.

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Kindle in the Classroom

By Gloria Goldsmith

AVKO's materials are available on Kindle.

I have read several articles in the last few weeks about the use of Kindle for general classroom learning and how they may well change our educational establishments, both in public schools and schools of higher learning.

The possibilities for Colleges and Universities to adopt the use of Kindles initially are greater since technology usage is higher among college students and they are always looking for an inexpensive way to snag the required texts for classes. The cost for a textbook versus a Kindle download is about 25 to 32% cheaper for the student and the savings to the environment means less paper used and printing required, so less energy used. That seems positive.

Some school districts have already been calculating the savings in textbooks that is possible. Schools are waiting with bated breath for the price of the Kindle to lower enough (dramatically) that it would make the acquisition of a few thousand feasible for their school district.

Some of the newest models, Kindle DX, and Kindle 2 have been criticized as less classroom friendly, which seems odd (heads up, manufacturer), since school district purchases would be a boon to the bottom line sales numbers of this newer device and could be the very trend that could make them inexpensive enough to become a mundane back-to-school expenditure.

What are your thoughts of this newest trend?

Here are a couple of articles voicing some other opinions.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/06/15/crowell

There are several articles at this website, http://www.edukindle.com/category/the-kindle-in-the-classroom/

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Teaching Handwriting and Vocabulary Through the Backdoor of Spelling

Many children need help with their spelling, especially if they have problems with dyslexia or other learning disabilities. Additionally, many children need additional help with handwriting. And, teachers are always looking for new ways to bolster their students' vocabularies. However, students can very easily feel infantilized or bored by repetitive exercises, busywork, copywork, and exercises solely devoted to one of these areas. For these reasons, AVKO recommends that short lessons be given. Further, we recommend that lessons serve as double-duty as much as possible. We call this teaching through the "backdoor."

Sequential Spelling is organized in clumps of 4 lessons, where 2-4 word families are taught in each clump. In those 4 lessons, the base words remain the same, but the various derivative forms (declentions) are taught in lessons 2-4 of the clumps. Instead of just teaching each of the lessons "in a vacuum," you can take advantage of the repetition to teach the other facets of language arts: handwriting, vocabulary, keyboarding, dictation, etc.


Teach the first lesson normally. You want the first lesson to be undiluted. Some handwriting practice, vocabulary learning, etc. will occur naturally because of the repetition of the word family patterns and the exposure to new words in their sentence context. We want the students to focus on just spelling the words the first time; let them do what they do automatically.

For the next lessons, you can instruct your student to focus on something additional -- making the strokes of the letters neatly, learning the vocabulary, typing speed and accuracy (you can have them type the words instead of writing them out), etc. As you progress through the lessons in the word family clump, you can divide their attention more as they will require less attention paid to the spelling.

For more tips on customizing Sequential Spelling, please see our Customization page.

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Homeschool Depot -- the Craigslist for Homeschooling Curriculum!

We just learned about this great new website that allows homeschoolers to buy and sell their used homeschooling curriculum. It's like the Craigslist for homeschooling curriculum. Here's a little promo e-mail that we received about it:

Dear Homeschool Families,

Do you happen to have some homeschool curriculum or resources that you no longer need? Do you need additional homeschool curriculum or resources and wish to purchase it pre-owned at a greatly reduced price?

If so, wouldn’t it be great if there was one single place where homeschool families across the nation could get together to buy and sell each other’s resources?

As a homeschool family ourselves, we think this is a great idea. In fact, we have taken the first step to create such a place. It’s an online access point called Storehousedepot.com. We developed it is a safe place for homeschool families to easily buy and sell resources and materials directly from other homeschool families.

We invite you to visit StorehouseDepot.com, sign up for free, and try it out for yourself. Just click on the logo below or type “storehousedepot.com” in your web browser…it’s that easy!

As you join the "Storehouse Community" we hope that we can help you connect, share, and save as good stewards of God's wisdom and knowledge.

Sincerely,

The StorehouseDepot Team

2972 Columbia St.

Suite #5448

Torrance, CA 90503

Where Homeschoolers Click!

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Follow-up from Josiah (Featured student in To Teach a Dyslexic Video)

We recently heard from Josiah about his latest academic success. Josiah worked with Don McCabe at the AVKO reading clinic in Birch Run for a few weeks and was featured in the AVKO video "To Teach a Dyslexic." We are so proud of him! Here's his e-mail to Don.

Hello Mr. McCabe. This is Josiah Holland. I hope this E-mail finds you well, and I hope you still use this E-mail address. I would like to tell you that I have graduated from Harding University with a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies. Also I would like to thank you for teaching me some of the basic reading and writing skills needed to complete my education; without them I probably would not have even been able to get into college. Hopefully we can stay in touch.

Sincerely Josiah

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Using Spelling to Teach Reading

We just received this great testimonial for Sequential Spelling that emphasizes an important benefit of the series: its ability to teach reading ability (decoding) through the "backdoor" of spelling. Because of the patterned approach, which is emphasized by the use of color to break the words down into their constituent patterns, students will start to spontaneously do this themselves when they attempt to decode new words. They will see the patterns in words they aren't even learning through the course of the spelling program. This is truly powerful! And, this is all without having to drill on phonics, nonsense words, or choral readings.

This is the second AVKO Sequential Spelling book I've bought. We're just finishing the first one, and I have to say, I'm really impressed. My son has dyslexia and has a terrible time reading. Before we starting the Spelling One book, he could barely read at all. After finishing the first book, his reading has improved dramatically. I was truly amazed. I didn't get the spelling book to help with his reading, but instead because I liked the way it taught spelling. And he is learning to spell and doing great at it, BUT, the book also helped him with reading. - Sue M.

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Less is sometimes more…

by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com

I just finished writing an article for our hometown newspaper discussing the craze of “less” in our society. We have several examples of “things” that jump out at us insisting less is more: The Twitter 140 characters or less to describe your day or your moment. The book “Not what I was planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure,” that asks us to describe our lives in just six words. Cell phone texting that eliminates vowels and punctuation and gets the message across in the least amount of words as possible on the smallest contraption that is still readable.
Yep, we are being inundated with messages that tell us less is more and often I advocate that this is crazy, that we are teaching our children to stifle themselves. We are limiting their potential, limiting their creativity, and on and on. I can really get on a soap box about it.
Then, as always, there is something that brings me back down to earth and reminds me that sometimes less really is more. That is what has happened with the whole left and right thing at our house.
When my oldest son was a baby I kept a running monologue of what we were doing. “Ok, Baby, we are going to the kitchen, we go down this hall and turn left into the kitchen.” As he got older I would point out the horses on our left and the cows on our right (we lived in Texas, after all). Now, I give him directions; turn right at Nicole’s house, left at the school to get home. Then one day I asked him which is left and he raised his right hand.
Frustration, anger, more frustration, it is a simple thing is it not to tell your left from your right? It is the foundation for getting yourself anywhere, for reading a book, for driving a car, it is the foundation for goodness sake and no matter what I do, how much more I do neither of my boys can consistently show you left or right correctly.
I have tried; honestly, I have tried everything under the sun to teach them left from right. Then the other day I noticed that other kids were wearing these really cool looking bracelets. I had my own private “Eureka” moment – I bought two bracelets and placed them on each boy’s left wrist. Bingo! Problem solved with the least amount effort. Ask my boys which is left and which is right now. Go ahead, I dare you.
Don’t be afraid to use a simple, less complicated method to get our dyslexic kids to learn – sometimes less really is more.

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Community Learning Centers

There is no single way to homeschool. Several parents got together in Winnipeg, Manitoba to create a Learning Center for their homeschooling community. Sharing activities and knowledge weekly in small to medium sized groups offers learning programs and social opportunities. Parents and students commit to cooperative responsibilities and assist in running the center. The Learning Center can be a place to share science, art, friendship, resources and give and receive support. Read an article by the parents (also included are student's writings about their experiences) who have organized their own Learning Center.

-Gloria Goldsmith

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The Wide World of Words

by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com

Do you ever wonder how to make words come alive for dyslexic kids? It is so hard when the words just seem to float around in space. Well, there is a nifty way to bring them back down to the ground and tether them in some reality for our kids. My family calls it the Wide World of Words and it is so simple to do.

First, buy a cheap photo album. I buy the ones that are about 4”x8”. Check out your local dollar store for one. Next, charge up the digital camera and give it to your child. Join them in a photo tour of your home, your neighborhood and anywhere else you can think of that is “real” to them. Your ideas for photos will need to be a bit dependent on the age of your child but some ideas would be the mailbox, the flowers, the school, the grocery store, and anything and everything along the way to these places. Let them snap those photos till they are blue in the face.

Come back home, pop the disc in the computer and print those photos out. I just print them out on regular paper, not photo paper. You can usually get about four photos (4”x5”) on and 8 1/2”x11” piece of paper. My sons write down the words on another sheet of paper.

When you file the photo and the word in the album do so with the photo on the left hand side and the word on the right hand side (most of the time their eyes will fall naturally to the right hand page first).

Now, when you study sight words (download a free PDF here!) you have something concrete to use with them and it lots of fun to make!

Another idea I am working on with this concept is directions for my oldest son. He will be walking to school alone next year and is scared he will get lost. I am thinking about taking photos of his way to and from school so he can check to see if he is on the right track.

Be creative and let the world of words open to your child so they are not just these random symbols floating around!

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New, Lower Prices for AVKO's E-books

We have decided to lower the prices on our e-books to accommodate the tightened pursestrings of our members. Now, no individual e-book is more than $24.95 -- and they always have free shipping and handling. Check out our updated Materials Catalog for more information.

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New AVKO Materials: Engaging Language Kits!

AVKO is proud to announce that we have have introduced a new line of supplemental curriculum materials for language arts: Engaging Language Kits (by Brian McCabe).  Each of these seven kits corresponds to one of the levels of Sequential Spelling to reinforce the word families learned in that level.  Each kit has over 125 pages of activities for your students:

• Creative writing prompts
• Word games using the word families of the Sequential Spelling level
• Anagrams
• Word Searches
• Scrambled Words
• Missing Word Families
• Speech to Spelling Translation
• Dictation exercises
• Story writing
• Readings for Comprehension
• Helpful Appendix Items for Even More Activities and Prompts

Though these activities correspond to each of the levels of Sequential Spelling, one needn't be teaching Sequential Spelling to use these exercises with students.  They will complement any language arts curriculum or just for fun!  They ascend in level of difficulty with each volume (level of abstract thought, word families presented, etc.).

Each Engaging Language Kit costs only $12.95 and comes in a 3-ring binder for easy access to the worksheets.   Use the e-coupon code "blog" to receive a 10% discount on your order.  

Buy the Engaging Language Kit 1 now: 

or visit AVKO.org to purchase the other levels.

Resources for All Your Spelling Needs

Resources for All Your Spelling Needs

Pre-Packaged; Teacher Involved	Pre-Packaged; Limited Teacher Involvement	Specific Problem Areas	Completely Customized; Teacher Involved
Sequential Spelling 1-7 Learn more aboutSequential Spelling.	Individualized Spelling word lists on SpellingCity.com Use the lists as they are. The lists are ascend in level of difficulty. Access the lists now	The Tricky Words Learn More	Individualized Spelling word lists on SpellingCity.com Use the lists as diagnostic tests, teaching only the word families that need to be taught. Learn how to create your program
Sequential Spelling for Adults	Become an AVKO member to access supplemental materials, including readings for comprehension, worksheets, and the versatile book, Word Families in Sentence Context	The I Before E Set	Become an AVKO member to access the spelling and reference materials necessary to create your own Sequential Spelling-like tests, includingThe Patterns of English Spelling.
If it is to be, it is up to me to do it	Sequential Spelling on DVD	Speech to Spelling	Individualized Spelling

Other Resources:

• Customize Sequential Spelling
• Supplement Sequential Spelling with spelling rules
• Using Color in Sequential Spelling
• About Sequential Spelling Word Lists
• Articles and Essays about Spelling
• Spelling Research

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Homeschooling: Then and Now

by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com

                There is a group of parents that I originally thought I would be a part of.   This was before I had children and before I mentioned homeschooling to my in-laws and received the “not with my grandchildren” look. 

                I have to admit that when I considered homeschooling my friends and family looked at me as if I had stepped right out of the 1960’s.  Somehow I had magically transformed into a flower child that was bucking the system.  I wasn’t really bucking the system; I just wanted what I perceived was the best for my child.  But, then like I said I had children and realized that I would be a poor educator.  I could partner with a public school which is what I like to call what I do but I could not be the only one responsible for my child’s education – if so we would be counting Froot Loops and watching Oprah all day.   

                While I don’t homeschool I have many, many friends that do and it is amazing to see that what I and my in-laws thought about homeschooling is such a small part of it today.  Today, parents have become organizers of their children’s education.  Gone is that “kitchen-table” mentality and in its place is the “well-rounded” approach public and even private schools can only dream about. 

I see my friends who home school not as folks in isolation but rather as folks who have found a niche in small groups.  They get together with each other and even us public school folks.  They don’t limit their child’s educators to just themselves, they search out experts.  They go on field trips.  They live the education! 

Homeschooling is no longer the taboo is was when I first considered it.  It is an industry in and of itself today producing valid, sustainable results with children.  It is something that should be on the list for consideration when you have children, right next to public and private schools.  

And, now as the “school year” winds down they are looking ahead to next year and conventions are popping up everywhere!  Check out the AVKO schedule of conventions to find out where we will be at and definitely stop by and say hello. 

It’s a funny thing to miss something you never had but often I find myself missing that life. If you are at all considering homeschooling one of these conventions would be a great place to stop by for lots of information.  And, if you can’t make one of them do a search in your city for a homeschool association, you might be surprised to find that your city is home to lots of homeschoolers!  

Editor's Note: Homeschooling conventions (and indeed, resources "for" homeschoolers) needn't only be used by homeschooling parents.  School educators are under a lot of the same pressures as homeschooling parents (time constraints, budget--or lack thereof, lack of a support system, inadequate training in all domains, etc.).  School teachers should take advantage of opportunities like homeschooling conventions, homeschool blogs, and all of the free and low-cost resources and downloads that these places have to offer.  Educational resources do not discriminate! 

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The Benefits and Features of Sequential Spelling

AVKO's Sequential Spelling program is very effective and is very simple to use. No preparation required on the part of the homeschooling parent or teacher. The student doesn't have to do any copywork or busywork in order to get the benefits of the program -- but these may be used to reinforce or review the words or the lessons.

This new graphic shows how the word families presented in Sequential Spelling build both vertically and horizontally. See how there are teachable moments embedded in the lessons -- contractions, tricky words, possessives, names, etc. See the cross-referencing to The Patterns of English Spelling (available for free with membership as an e-book) and important rules or spelling notes in the footnotes.

Learn more about Sequential Spelling | AVKO and SpellingCity | New Sequential Spelling DVD

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AVKO's Book of the Month for May

Each month, AVKO selects one of its materials to feature and discounts it by at least10%. Members receive even more discounts. This month, the special is on the Advanced Student Speller Pack, Sequential Spelling volumes 5-7.

Another month, another new special. This month, we are highlighting the advanced levels of Sequential Spelling, Volumes 5, 6, and 7. If you have an advanced speller or if you just want to stockpile your Sequential Spelling books until you are ready for them, take advantage of this offer from AVKO!

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Workshop Recorings Now Available on CD!

These recordings of popular topics on which Don McCabe speaks are available for FREE with AVKO Membership or you may order them on audio CDs for $2.50 each. Free Shipping on Audio CDs!


Available Topics:

• I Think My Child Might Be Dyslexic -- Does it Matter?
• Spelling -- Accentuate the Positive; Eliminate the Negative
• The Mechanics of English Spelling
• Phonics -- The Most Misunderstood Approach to Teaching Reading
• Create Your Own Spelling Program That Really Works
• You Don't Need a Master's Degree to Teach Your Kids -- Just a Degree of Caring

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Inspirational Quotes About Success and Literacy

Here is a collection of some of the most recent, great quotes I've come across -- for your inspiration, encouragement, or bit of whimsy for today :) These (and other pithy) quotes can also be used for Readings for Comprehension.

• "The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug. "-Twain
• "Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
• "A book is like a garden carried in the pocket." -Chinese Proverb
• "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." -Mark Twain
• "A room without books is like a body without soul." -Cicero
• "The biggest block to any man's success is in his head." -Anonymous
• "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -Will Rogers
• "Don't agonize. Organize." - Florynce R. Kennedy
• "To escape criticism--do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." -Elbert Hubbard
• "Beaten paths are for beaten men." -Eric Johnston
• "The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." -Walter Bagehot
• "The man who wins may have been counted out several times, but he didn't hear the referee." -H.E. Jansen
• "All glory comes from daring to begin." -Eugene F. Ware
• "To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil, you're overdoing it." -J. Jenkins

Do you have any great quotes that you want to share? Send 'em on.

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AVKO Recommends These Books

AVKO recommends these books to supplement your educational, homeschooling, and grammar experience. Let us know if you recommend any other books. We will be adding to this list continually.

Check out the list of AVKO-Recommended Books

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Sorry for the delay in AVKO blog posts

Sorry for the delay in AVKO blog posts, but we are back up to date and have added the posts for the past week. Be sure that you didn't miss any exciting AVKO news, specials, or resources in the last weeks' posts.

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Last Chance for the Book of the Month Special

Today is the last day to get your copy of Starting at Square One at a drastically reduced price. The special ends at midnight tonight (the special has been extended to end at midnight of May 1st!). If you need a language arts curriculum for your kindergartner or first grader (K-1), ESL, or older student who needs help with phonemic awareness and/or word attack skills, this is the book for you. As the alphabet is taught, your student will learn reading, spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding. The book uses completely decodable words as the letters of the alphabet are taught.

Learn more about the Book of the Month special and Starting at Square One

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