The Teacher Books (Revised) for each Level hold introductory teaching information, and an overview of the approach. Next follows the 180 word lists which include sentences for the homophones (same pronunciation, different spelling; i.e. bare and bear) and heteronyms (same spelling, different word and different pronunciation; i.e. bow your head, bow and arrow). The first several days of lessons are laid out in detail - completely scripted. In addition to the teaching process, a positive can-do attitude is modeled in these lessons. After the eighth day, the process is continued as established. In the lists, common words appear in bold typing. Homophones , heteronyms , and words that do not follow the normal pattern (like "gyp") are all marked. Review and repetition is built in as you progress through the days (lists). Reproducible test forms are provided along with an answer key. The teacher book includes answers to the tests and student activities in levels 1-4, and only the test answers in levels 5-7.
Volume Levels are progressive but do not really conform to grade levels. For instance, the ending lessons of Level 1 include words like breathless, hedging, horrifying, and basically which would never be seen in a first or second-grade spelling book. Because they are introduced as parts of word families, they become doable for the early grades. This also means that an older child starting at Level 1 doesn't feel like he's way behind. (By the way, the parent is given complete freedom to drop some words from the lists if they feel it will be preferable for their child.) So, the bottom line is that you can start any grade level child at Level 1 and proceed through the books in order. It is recommended that children are reading at a second-grade level before beginning Level 1, so children in first grade may or may not be ready to begin, depending on their reading skill. Older children may or may not need to start with Level 1 so you may want to check out the placement test available on our website.
