Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding and Spelling Instruction

by Marcia Henry, Maryanne Wolf (Foreword)

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

promote students' print awareness and phonological awareness through letter naming, letter forming, and listening and speaking activities such as poetry and play

improve students' spelling skills by teaching the origins of English words, Anglo-Saxon base words, Latin affixes and roots, Greek combining forms, and multisyllabic words

help students understand and correctly use the components of the English language, including common consonant and vowel patterns, syllable patterns, common spelling rules, prefixes and suffixes, roots, nonphonetic words, and contractions

deepen older students' proficiency with language by introducing less common Latin roots and Greek combining forms, new words entering the English language, and lessons built around themes such as calendars and mythology
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, Teaching, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2010

Reviews

[Beth]

This book needs an editor. Henry quotes research which contradicts an assertion she made 3 paragraphs earlier, and draws faulty conclusions based on statistics from a biased source. Aside from these serious lapses of intellectual rigor (i.e. stating that Latin instruction improves SAT scores because students who study Latin have higher scores than the national average), this book is useful as one component of instruction for reading teachers. It has handy suggestions for lesson structure for word study, and a useful summary of the Anglo-Saxon, Latin and Greek layers of English, and reading and spelling implications for each. Besides the aforementioned lapses, the book provides a useful summary of research on reading development, and cites most of the major, relevant texts on the topic.

[Eileen]

Great! Found myself getting engaged in and distracted by the proposed activities, instead of evaluating their pedagogical value!

[Christine]

Good classroom based exercises and information on decoding

[Cecily Wright]

This was full of good information about teaching students with dyslexia.

[Alisha]

A great reference book for teachers and leaders. Some Americanisms, which we need to modify for Australian classrooms, but it's very comprehensive and full of practical ideas.

[Sophie Turner]

Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding and Spelling Instruction may not do any one thing spectacularly, but it does many things exceptionally well. It’s concise, accessible, and packed with practical guidance. The appendix alone makes this a 5-star resource—thorough, well-organized, and something I’ll return to often. Overall, it’s a little helpful book for any literacy interventionist.