The Gillingham Manual:
Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship
by Anna Gillingham and Bessie W. Stillman
"An extremely helpful resource for any special education teacher and/or director. Parents of children with dyslexia will also find this book to be a most valuable resource in their family library!"
~Jennifer Lewis
Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship
by Anna Gillingham and Bessie W. Stillman
"An extremely helpful resource for any special education teacher and/or director. Parents of children with dyslexia will also find this book to be a most valuable resource in their family library!"
~Jennifer Lewis
Think Spelling!
Anna Gillingham and Bessie W. Stillman compiled a textbook/teaching manuel, The Gillingham Manuel, for teachers remediating issues in reading, spelling, and written expression. The authors include a plethora of tips for teaching and bulleted lists including characteristics of dyslexia in the area of reading, spelling, and written expression; lesson layouts; teaching order of phonetic elements; and spelling rules. This book used in partnership with the Orton method has a well laid out approach of teaching the language arts skills as a cohesive whole while teaching students to be critical and systematic thinkers about their reading, spelling, and written expression.
In chapter one, Gillingham and Stillman present a basic history of written language which can be read directly to students to aid in the understand of the origins of our phonetic language. Chapter two outlines instruction in reading and spelling. Words that do not follow the phonetic rules laid out in chapter one and thus should be taught for reading purposes only are found in chapter three. Chapter five explains the sound symbols found in common dictionaries. Teaching written expression is discussed in chapter six, and chapter seven includes spelling rules and patterns. Helpful handwriting techniques and tips are listed in chapter nine. In each of these chapters the authors clearly establish the backbone of an effective reading and spelling program consists of the systematic teaching of applying logical rules and understanding those rules before students memorize pronunciations and/or spellings.
I have always been a poor speller and have never been satisfied with how I have taught spelling. Chapter seven challenged me to think through the rules and reasons for spelling patterns in our language and to apply that thinking to new words. This chapter also helped me to see the importance of understanding syllable patterns and divisions and how the placement of a phoneme within a syllable influences the sound of that phoneme. The clearly laid-out teaching tips and techniques are easy to follow as a lesson plan. Introduction to each spelling rule is explained, and a list of example words are given for classroom use. Exceptions to the rules are explained according to the origin of word or how previous spelling rules negate the current rule being used. Following this thorough discussion is a list of activities and charts to use with students to help them organize the concepts they have learned. The underlying focus of the spelling lessons is the association between the visual, kinesthetic, and auditory senses in learning to spell. The S.O.S (Simulatneous Oral Spelling) spelling program best represents these associations and will be used as soon as possible in my classroom. S.O.S involves the following steps: the teacher says the word; student echoes the word and divides the word into phoneme or syllables and names the letters in each syllable; finally, the student writes the word naming each letter as he writes it (Gillingham, Stillman, p. 35). The end result of this spelling system is a student who is learning to think about his spelling.
We have a phonetic language that has many interesting elements of language as we have added words from other languages. If I am faithfully teaching specific phonetic rules and patterns in a systematic and multi-sensory approach, and simulatenously holding the students accountable for explaining why a word is spelled or pronounced a certain way, the students’ word attack skills will become systematic and eventually second nature. When these students encounter subject-specific words in their jobs and experiences, they will experience success and joy in being life-long learners.
by Jennifer Lewis
Anna Gillingham and Bessie W. Stillman compiled a textbook/teaching manuel, The Gillingham Manuel, for teachers remediating issues in reading, spelling, and written expression. The authors include a plethora of tips for teaching and bulleted lists including characteristics of dyslexia in the area of reading, spelling, and written expression; lesson layouts; teaching order of phonetic elements; and spelling rules. This book used in partnership with the Orton method has a well laid out approach of teaching the language arts skills as a cohesive whole while teaching students to be critical and systematic thinkers about their reading, spelling, and written expression.
In chapter one, Gillingham and Stillman present a basic history of written language which can be read directly to students to aid in the understand of the origins of our phonetic language. Chapter two outlines instruction in reading and spelling. Words that do not follow the phonetic rules laid out in chapter one and thus should be taught for reading purposes only are found in chapter three. Chapter five explains the sound symbols found in common dictionaries. Teaching written expression is discussed in chapter six, and chapter seven includes spelling rules and patterns. Helpful handwriting techniques and tips are listed in chapter nine. In each of these chapters the authors clearly establish the backbone of an effective reading and spelling program consists of the systematic teaching of applying logical rules and understanding those rules before students memorize pronunciations and/or spellings.
I have always been a poor speller and have never been satisfied with how I have taught spelling. Chapter seven challenged me to think through the rules and reasons for spelling patterns in our language and to apply that thinking to new words. This chapter also helped me to see the importance of understanding syllable patterns and divisions and how the placement of a phoneme within a syllable influences the sound of that phoneme. The clearly laid-out teaching tips and techniques are easy to follow as a lesson plan. Introduction to each spelling rule is explained, and a list of example words are given for classroom use. Exceptions to the rules are explained according to the origin of word or how previous spelling rules negate the current rule being used. Following this thorough discussion is a list of activities and charts to use with students to help them organize the concepts they have learned. The underlying focus of the spelling lessons is the association between the visual, kinesthetic, and auditory senses in learning to spell. The S.O.S (Simulatneous Oral Spelling) spelling program best represents these associations and will be used as soon as possible in my classroom. S.O.S involves the following steps: the teacher says the word; student echoes the word and divides the word into phoneme or syllables and names the letters in each syllable; finally, the student writes the word naming each letter as he writes it (Gillingham, Stillman, p. 35). The end result of this spelling system is a student who is learning to think about his spelling.
We have a phonetic language that has many interesting elements of language as we have added words from other languages. If I am faithfully teaching specific phonetic rules and patterns in a systematic and multi-sensory approach, and simulatenously holding the students accountable for explaining why a word is spelled or pronounced a certain way, the students’ word attack skills will become systematic and eventually second nature. When these students encounter subject-specific words in their jobs and experiences, they will experience success and joy in being life-long learners.
by Jennifer Lewis