The Teaching of Reading and Spelling:

A Continuum from Kindergarten through College

by Don McCabe

Catalog #W900    $49.95        ISBN:  1-56400-650-6

364 pages, 8½x11   Loose-leaf Binder

Note: The e-version of this book is FREE with Membership in the AVKO Foundation. along with a FREE copy of To Teach a Dyslexic and the FREE e-version of Starting at Square One.

A Supplementary Textbook for College Education Majors with Practical Classroom Diagnostic Tests and Answers to the Phonics vs. Whole Language Controversy

For:

College Education Majors
Parents Who Want to HomeSchool Their Children
The Training of Adult Literacy Volunteer Tutors
& Especially College Reading Instructors Willing to Try New Approaches to Old Problems

Table of Contents

Preface:  Skip this and you'll flunk for sure

Section 1  The Nature of the Learning-to-Read Process

Chapters:
1.  Learn about the Learning-to-Read Process by Teaching Yourself to Read and Write Upside down.
2.  Definitions of Reading.
3.  Definitions of Dyslexia:  Official Definitions defined.  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.
4.  What dyslexia researchers should NOT be researching.
5.  What dyslexia researchers SHOULD be researching but are not!
6.  Common misconceptions about dyslexia.

Section 2 Phonics, Phonemics, Phonetics, and Phunny Ideas about Teaching Reading & Writing.

7.  A Phonics Test for Good Readers.
8.  A "Simple" Fonnix Ken Bee Phun Kwiz.
9.  A Comprehension Test for Good Readers.
10.  A, Ma, Mag, Magi, Magic, Magic--a dem, demo, demon, demons, demonstrative, demonstration.
11.  Is Professor AVKO Right?  A Challenge to Educators and Educational Researchers at Every Level.
12.  J.R.'s Rebuttal of Professor AVKO's Challenge and Professor AVKO's Rebuttal of the Rebuttal.
13.  First Things First.  How DO we teach the alphabet?  How SHOULD we?
14.  What Did You Learn in School Today?
15.  220 Dolch Words Are Too Many for Students with Memories like Mine.
16.  A Common Sense Approach to Controlled Word Lists.
17.  Statues and Sanctuaries or a Practical Use of Miscue Analysis:   Building Egos/Self-Esteem.
18.  Comprehension/Schema Theory:  A Practical Application

Section 3 The Nature of the Learning-to-Write Process.

19.  A Common Sense Approach to the Teaching of Handwriting.
20.  A Rationale for Teaching Reading/Spelling Through the Side Door of Handwriting.
21.  How the AVKO Approach Differs from the Traditional Approaches
22.  Developing a School-Wide Approach to the Teaching of Spelling Through Handwriting.
23.  Techniques for Teaching Handwriting.
24.  The Straw Dummy:  A Suggested Order for Presenting Spelling Patterns to be Used in Handwriting.

Section 4 The Nature of the Spelling / Reading Connection.

25.  The Mechanics of English Spelling
26.  Would you believe that suot, this, sit, cit, citter, shut, shet, chit, and chits are all misspellings of the same scatological word by 15-year-olds?
27. Ewe Kin Awl Weighs Spill Chick Awl Yore Dock You Mints.
28.  What Does a Gallop Poll on Spelling Reveal?

Section 5 Diagnostic & Prescriptive Tests.

29. An Almost Jargon-Free Reading & Spelling IEP
30.  The New AVKO Pre- and Post- Diagnostic Spelling Test on 100 of the Most Common Phonograms in the English Language.
31.  A Sentence Dictation Test That Covers Over 300 of the Most Commonly Used Words
32.  An L.D. Screening Device That Can Be Given to Entire Schools in Less Than 10 Minutes!!!
33.  A Memo to the English Department Chairman, Mott Community College.
34.  English Spelling:  The Simple, the Fancy, the Insane, the Tricky, and the Scrunched Up.
35.  Survey Tests for the Simple, the Fancy, the Insane, the Tricky, and the Scrunched Up
36.  Suggested Order for Diagnosis & Remediation of the Simple (e.g., cat, cent, back)
37.  Suggested Order for Diagnosis & Remediation of the Fancy (e.g., precious, unique, initials)
38.  Suggested Order for Diagnosis & Remediation of the Insane (e.g., was, laugh, Thames, lough, victuals)
39.  Suggested Order for Diagnosis & Remediation of the Tricky (e.g., read/reed/ read/red; except/accept)
40.  Homophonic Riddles
41.  Suggested Order for Diagnosis & Remediation of the Scrunched Up (e.g., wasn't, used to, shouldn't have)

Section 6 Activities & Materials for the Classroom

42.  Comparison of Standard Approaches to Spelling and AVKO's.
43.  How to Develop Your Own Sequential Spelling Tests.
44.  How to Evaluate Your Present Spelling System.
45.  An Index of Phonic Patterns by Vowel Types.
46.  The Three Different Words Spelled H-A-V-E
47.  The Three "TOOZE":  TOO, two, & to.
48.  The SQ3R Reading Formula Really Works.
49.  A Listing of Phonic Patterns for Older Students.
50.  Underlining or Highlighting:  Cueing the Computer Brain.
51.  The Proper Editing of Notes:  The Key to Successful Learning.
52.  Building a Better Vocabulary the Lazy Man's Way.
53.  Reading Improvement through SIT-DOWN:  Student Individualized Teacher Directed with Students correcting their OWN.
54.  Taking the sting out of Testing When Giving Word Recognition Tests to Special Education Students.
55.  Sample Word Family Puzzles that Special Education Students Can Create.
56.  How to Set Up a Community Education Course for Adults Whose Children (OR SPOUSES) Have Reading/Spelling Problems.
57.  The Case of the Invisible Y or Why is there a Y in You and Not in Union ("YOO'n Yun"), Eunice, ("YOO Niss") and huge ("HYOOJ").
58.  The Holder of the Folder, Each One Teach One 4th to 12th.
59.  NOTICE IS NOT NOT ICE AND NOT ICE IS NOT NOTICE.

Section 7 Miscellaneous Essays That Need to be Written:  Possible Term Paper Subjects or thesis proposals.

60.  Beware of Educational Studies.  You can find studies to support almost any viewpoint, no matter how bizarre.
61.  Beware of major school book publishers.  There may not be a conspiracy as such, but the very nature of publishing and marketing encourages a situation that is educationally unhealthy.
62.  How the federal and state departments of education waste most of their money.

If you would like to write one of these chapters and have it published in a subsequent edition of this book, please e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com for particulars.