Using four pathways to learning (listening, seeing, saying, and writing) enables Spalding students to breeze through decodable readers straight to fine children's literature: first graders gobble up Where the Wild Things Are; second graders enjoy The Velveteen Rabbit; and, third graders race through Charlotte's Web. In today's global post-industrial age, teaching children how to read has never been more essential. "The Writing Road to Reading" guides parents and teachers through The Spalding Method, a research-based, total language arts approach that provides multisensory instruction in spelling, writing, and listening/reading comprehension that helps develop critical thinking skills children need for life. All language is composed of phonemes, fundamental speech segments. In The Spalding Method, children learn a foundational set of these sounds and how they commonly combine in words. Moving forward, they learn how to combine phonemes in spelling, using Spalding's specially constructed list of words compiled by frequency.
Their notebooks fill with hundreds of words they can see, say, and spell-a word-recognition reference and a record of their achievements-something most schoolchildren never possess. When thirty phonograms (sound/letter relationships) are learned, reading naturally begins. With "The Writing Road to Reading", every parent and teacher can help children develop essential critical thinking skills and instill a love of learning and reading that will last a lifetime.