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| Review of The Writing Road to Reading (5th edition) by Spalding Education International (SEI) |
As far as a language arts program, I highly recommend the Spalding Methodology. It is an
explicit, systematic, and proven approach to teaching children to spell, write, and read. To
provide some idea of its effectiveness, based on the California Achievement Test, my daughter
(7th grade) was spelling at 13.6 grade level with a reading comprehension also of 13.6. My son,
(5th grade) was spelling at 6.8 grade level with a reading comprehension of 10.2 grade level -
both well above grade level.
This latest edition of The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Spalding of Spalding Education
International (SEI) is a wonderful program. While it is true that the older version was extremely
difficult to follow and implement, this caused a few other unauthorized Spalding spin-off products
to be written by other companies to provide a companion to the WRTR. However, some put
their own spin on the methodology and implementation of it, thus, in some ways changing it's true
value. Realizing that they needed to make their program easier to follow and use, SEI spent 5
years on revising The WRTR. And now with this latest edition now available, there is no need
for anything else.
In my humble opinion, there is absolutely nothing else on the market that can compare to the
thoroughness and quality of this program and this latest edition. WRTR is the original and it's
the best. See Comparison Chart.
Spalding recently came out will very detailed lesson plans. Even though Spalding is a diagnostic
teaching method - meaning you continually observe and evaluate your child'd progress and
modify your teaching accordingly - Spalding has come through for those who felt that creating
their own daily lesson plans was too difficult. A review of the Teacher's Guide is underway.
Even though they have this wonderful teacher's guide, I still highly recommend that you take the
time to read the WRTR book so you have an appreciation and understanding for this
methodology. And should you need even more help or have questions, their customer support is
phenomenal.
As an overview, this program is geared toward K-6 grades and includes everything you need to
teach your children language arts (spelling, writing, reading) through those years. It also
includes full grammar taught in a sequential flow building on prior lessons. The details in this
book are outstanding. I can honestly say there is no extraneous information in the book. It's all
necessary and very helpful, and it's presented in such a logical flow. To make the best use of
this program, its advisable to read the book in it's entirety, study it, and absorb it. This is truly a
great program, and it gives me pleasure to highly recommend The Writing Road to Reading.
Pros: I can't say enough great things about this multi-sensory methodology in terms of spelling and
reading. It's outstanding, and my children have done well with both spelling and reading
comprehension.
Cons: For us personally, the writing wasn't working for my children's learning styles. Both of my
children were reluctant writers, and just thinking up stuff to write about was just not their thing.
Simply being given prompts would make them freeze up and wonder how to start. We needed
something that taught them the "how" of writing. If your child likes to write, then this product will
likely work well for you.
Bottom Line: You simply cannot go wrong with this program.
Footnote: We use Excellence in Writing as our writing curriculum as a better fit for my children's learning styles.
explicit, systematic, and proven approach to teaching children to spell, write, and read. To
provide some idea of its effectiveness, based on the California Achievement Test, my daughter
(7th grade) was spelling at 13.6 grade level with a reading comprehension also of 13.6. My son,
(5th grade) was spelling at 6.8 grade level with a reading comprehension of 10.2 grade level -
both well above grade level.
This latest edition of The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Spalding of Spalding Education
International (SEI) is a wonderful program. While it is true that the older version was extremely
difficult to follow and implement, this caused a few other unauthorized Spalding spin-off products
to be written by other companies to provide a companion to the WRTR. However, some put
their own spin on the methodology and implementation of it, thus, in some ways changing it's true
value. Realizing that they needed to make their program easier to follow and use, SEI spent 5
years on revising The WRTR. And now with this latest edition now available, there is no need
for anything else.
In my humble opinion, there is absolutely nothing else on the market that can compare to the
thoroughness and quality of this program and this latest edition. WRTR is the original and it's
the best. See Comparison Chart.
Spalding recently came out will very detailed lesson plans. Even though Spalding is a diagnostic
teaching method - meaning you continually observe and evaluate your child'd progress and
modify your teaching accordingly - Spalding has come through for those who felt that creating
their own daily lesson plans was too difficult. A review of the Teacher's Guide is underway.
Even though they have this wonderful teacher's guide, I still highly recommend that you take the
time to read the WRTR book so you have an appreciation and understanding for this
methodology. And should you need even more help or have questions, their customer support is
phenomenal.
As an overview, this program is geared toward K-6 grades and includes everything you need to
teach your children language arts (spelling, writing, reading) through those years. It also
includes full grammar taught in a sequential flow building on prior lessons. The details in this
book are outstanding. I can honestly say there is no extraneous information in the book. It's all
necessary and very helpful, and it's presented in such a logical flow. To make the best use of
this program, its advisable to read the book in it's entirety, study it, and absorb it. This is truly a
great program, and it gives me pleasure to highly recommend The Writing Road to Reading.
Pros: I can't say enough great things about this multi-sensory methodology in terms of spelling and
reading. It's outstanding, and my children have done well with both spelling and reading
comprehension.
Cons: For us personally, the writing wasn't working for my children's learning styles. Both of my
children were reluctant writers, and just thinking up stuff to write about was just not their thing.
Simply being given prompts would make them freeze up and wonder how to start. We needed
something that taught them the "how" of writing. If your child likes to write, then this product will
likely work well for you.
Bottom Line: You simply cannot go wrong with this program.
Footnote: We use Excellence in Writing as our writing curriculum as a better fit for my children's learning styles.
| See another homeschool mom's review of The Writing Road to Reading at Shalom Ranch |
Country Hills Academy
| Our Grade: 7/09 A+ |