As teachers, we always hope to see evidence of concepts our students are learning reach into other content areas—especially when it comes to spelling.

The activities in Guided Spelling require students to think before they spell and while they are spelling. The daily occurrence of these activities helps the students form habits that carry over to all of their writing both in school and at home. When writing, students apply the spelling strategies learned during Guided Spelling lessons to:

• Anticipate which parts of a word are troublesome. For example, they need to think about a long /a/ sound: is it spelled a_e, ai, or ay? Or a polysyllabic word ending in /əns/: is it -ance or -ence?

• Determine which strategies to use in particular situations. For example, they look at the vowel and consonant pattern when deciding whether to double the final consonant.

• Consult resources when they don’t know how to spell a word. For example, the first grader who forgets how to spell the vowel sound /ŭ/ knows to look at the wall card for the cat under the chair.

I hope that as you continue using Guided Spelling you will see these characteristics in your students. Please let us know how it's going with your class!