The Writing Road to Reading : The Spalding Method of Phonics for Teaching Speech, Writing and Reading

Paperback, Romalda Bishop Spalding, Walter T. Spalding

Originally published in 1957, this introduction to the Spalding Method has been received more and more enthusiastically in recent years as it has been shown to work--swiftly, inexpensively and efficiently.

Customer Reviews

4.0 average for 22 customer reviews

Useful for Phonics

I have used this book with the " Johnny Can Spell" program for ten years and my copy has worn out. Both the book and the program are very good for teaching spelling with phonics.

Carol Dyer -

Good information sprinkled between a lot of fluff

There is a lot of good info in this book but seems to have been written by Thurston Howell III, preparing his young child for Harvard. Here is an excerpt from page 60. "Clear the desk of books and materials not needed. Sit with hips against the back of the chair, feet flat on the floor and back straight, with head tall. The straight spinal column supports the head. Keep two inches between the body and the desk. Lean forward just enough to see the paper clearly, but keep the head high. Let the chair carry the weight of the body. Do not let the head fall forward because its heavy weight then would be carried by the neck and back muscles. Place both forearms on the desk with the elbows just off the front edge and comfortable close to the body. The typewriter is a machine with two separate parts for writing. One part (the roller) holds and moves the paper and the other (the tappers) puts the letters on it....." and it goes on and on and on. The author is very knowledgeable and bright but but doesn't seem to know how to put this information down on paper in a way that any child or many adults could put into a coherent lesson plan. It came with a 45 turntable floppy record but we haven't owned a record player since we were kids. While we appreciate the information given, it's presented in such a way that will require much studying for the teacher proceeded by several more hours of lesson planning. Imagine lesson planning to teach a course on the dictionary! Still, there is a wealth of unknown phonics rules that many of my friends who are teachers haven't learned before. It's exciting in the way that it will help you to finally make sense of the English language. It looks like something a college student would enjoy. I myself look forward to learning these rules but we are much happier with "Reading Pathways" and "Phonics Pathways" for our children. Teaching our children ages 9 and 7 was the goal we had in mind when purchasing this book.

T Wilson -

Spalding a must!

Best system for giving minds of all ages the tools needed to read, spell and write.

My mother-in-law used this at home to teach my husband when schools abandoned phonics 50 years ago. I used it with my children while home-schooling.

The Spalding method incorporates the least number of "phonograms" - 70 total, teaching from the beginning all sounds that a letter or group of letters can make, so the student is not limited to recognizing only short vowel sounds in his first reading effort. Spalding is much better than A Beka, which teaches multiple combinations of letters/phonograms as separate phonograms, rather than allowing the child to combine phonograms already learned to make other sounds. For example, A Beka teaches "sch" as a separate phonogram. Under Spalding, the child need not memorize additional phonograms -- he can combine "s" and "ch" on his own.

Unlike the whole language crowd, Spalding includes very few sight words -- rules for spelling practically every word in the English language are included. As a student in the 1950's, I was never taught that English words do not end in "u" or "v", thus the silent "e" at the end of those words. Spalding also teaches four other rules for silent e's --

Daily review of the flash cards included in the book helps the child memorize the sounds for fast, ready recognition. Handwriting posture, the spelling notebook, spelling rules, etc., make this a well-rounded curriculum for introducing and sustaining the reading experience.

As a result of using Spalding, my son was reading the newspaper at age 6. He may not have known the definitions of each word he read, but he could pronounce them. We reviewed the flash cards and spelling rules throughout elementary grades, but this system would be advantageous for even older students who were taught the whole language method used in public schools. Spalding will help them immensely.

b. bradley -

Just Do It!

Writing Road to Reading is an excellent phonics program. Catch is you have to read the Introduction! Yes, that part that you sometimes skip in a book, you need to read it. It explains the Spalding method and it makes a lot of sense.

I used this book with three of my children and then tried to duck out of the work with my next. It was spelling disaster for him and so I went back to the Writing Road to Reading and started over with phonics and spelling and the results were the same as before- fantastic.

This book has all the spelling rules I missed when I was in school like "one" doesn't make any spelling sense until you learn that it comes from the word "lone" and when the "l" is dropped you are left with "one". Or "two" again, not phonetic but we probably once said the "w" in "two" like we still do in "twin", "twice", "twain" which all refer to two things.

The spelling list is here in great detail and as a bonus in the back of the book is a great reading list through grade six.

Terri J. Rice - WA United States

LOVED THIS BOOK

I was a little worried about the book after reading some of the reviews. I find this book to be so incredible and easy to use. I think it covers everything you need to teach your children to read. I think every parent needs a copy. Please do not be scared of by the "complexity" of the rules, instead give you child the credit they deserve and the opportunity to thrive.
Judy Pryor

The Writing Road to Reading : The Spalding Method of Phonics for Teaching Speech, Writing and Reading

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