Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding & Spelling Instruction

by Marcia K. Henry

The updated second edition of Unlocking Literacy is here—and now pre- and inservice educators will have the very latest research and practical guidance on teaching good reading and spelling skills. Developed for general and special educators of students from prekindergarten to middle school and beyond, the new edition of this bestselling textbook arms teachers with the most recent developments in reading research and shows them how to apply their knowledge in the classroom to help all students learn. Focusing on two interlocking skills—decoding and spelling—this textbook gets teachers ready to To help educators teach with confidence once they're in the classroom, this text is packed with practical, immediately applicable material. Educators will get engaging classroom activities (including 21 NEW activities suitable for use all students, including English language learners); lesson plans incorporating multisensory, language-based instruction; samples of student work; explanations of current research; and even more websites and reference material to strengthen their instruction. An essential text for college and university courses on reading instruction—and an ideal professional development resource for inservice educators—this new edition of a classic bestseller will help teachers unlock literacy for all their students.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2003

Reviews

[sharon jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical information for teachers and SLPs who want to work more explicitly with spelling and decoding.

[CanadianReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides some useful foundational information to educators who instruct in the language arts. The author looks at the origins and layers of history in the development of English as we know it from its Anglo-Saxon roots and Norman influences to later contributions from Latin and Greek.

Henry also addresses phonological awareness, syllabication, and morphology (meaningful units of language--including base words, roots, suffixes (inflectional and derivational endings), and prefixes. I was disappointed at how little was actually included about instruction and believe this is largely owing to the author attempting to cover too much. While there were a few valuable lists and suggestions, the book was not nearly as useful to me as I'd hoped. I wouldn't recommend it.

[Erin Mahollitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting approach to thinking about literacy - examining the historical and cultural roots of words to discover patterns that can help students improve their decoding and spelling skills.