A wonderful plan for teachers, starting with five-year-old students on up to secondary school, to create a community of students who love exploring language, starting with the written and spoken word.

Based on Ann Whiting and Lyn Anderson's beautiful books, A Field Guide to Words and A Year in Words. Children learn how the English spelling system, or orthography, works and how it is the foundation of reading, spelling and writing. Children learn to explore the three components of the spelling system, morphology (meaning), phonology (pronunciation) and etymology (history). They learn to build morphological matrices using word sums (con + struct + ion) as well as how to analyze the graphemes (letter or letters) that write morphemes. Handwriting instruction is woven into writing lessons. 

Language lessons are integrated into other areas with a strong emphasis on the words and concepts needed to understand science. Hearing how they weave the cycle , for example, across the curriculum will inspire you. 

Lyn Anderson and Ann Whiting 

BeyondtheWord International Consultancy

Caught in the Spell of Words