The Violent E and Other Tricky Sounds

From the rear cover of this 188 page book: "'The Violent E' provides a detailed description of spelling development that will help teachers recognize and monitor growth and plan effective spelling programs for their students. Using detailed descriptions, the book highlights what is really important in learning to spell, and while focusing on the uniqueness of each child, helps teachers attend to what children actually say and do as they come to understand spelling. Building on the extensive body of knowledge about early spelling, this book extends understanding of spelling into the less documented periods of grades 3 through 6. From beginning to end the authors keep a perspective on reading and writing and demonstrate the vital role that reading and writing play in learning to spell. By comparing characteristics of successful and unsuccessful spellers, they are able to show a direct link between observations of learning and specific approaches to instruction. The good spellers demonstrate that the basis for their success is their ability to understand the systematic nature of spelling, rather than the ability to learn a set of discreet spellings. This key understanding is grounded in their experiences as readers and writers. The book is filled with excerpts from children's writing and their conversations as they try to figure out and explain how to spell words. These conversations give insight into how children make sense of spelling and instruction. [This book] provides teacher and teacher educators with ways to teach spelling that are grounded in the reality of how children learn to spell. These suggestions for instruction include approaches to spelling that can be integrated with reading and writing activities as well as activities that allow children to investigate how spelling works in complex but systematic ways."