I recently reviewed Mindful of Words , Spelling and Explorations 4-8 by Kathy Ganske.

The book is a great resource for teachers and tutors who work with upper-level spellers. Based in developmental spelling research and vocabulary learning, the book helps teachers understand how to assess students’ word knowledge and how to teach in a way that encourages a love of words.

Mindful of Words picks up pretty much where her other book, Word Sorts and More left off, and covers the challenging topic of juncture and derivational constancy spellers.

As with all her books, this newest one is full of practical, teacher-friendly ideas for implementing within a classroom. Word sorts are provided for teachers, and the appendix includes 100+ important words for math, science and social studies.

In addition to those helpful timesavers, throughout the book readers will find “Did You Know?” questions that explain something about word origin (for example, where “Saturday” gets its name, the origins of the word survey and skyscraper).

So…this book can not only help you learn more about how to engage older students in a mindful way in word study, it will also give you ice-breaker material for your next adult gathering! For example, do you know the origin of the word pumpkin?

About the Author

Joanne Meier has more than 20 years of experience in the field of education, including serving on the faculty at the University of Virginia for six years where she trained reading specialists and future classroom teachers. Dr. Meier was Reading Rockets’ research-to-practice consultant from 2002 to 2014, where she wrote the Page by Page blog — sharing best practices in supporting young readers at home and in the classroom.

Publication Date
September 29, 2008

Related Topics

Content Area Literacy, Curriculum and Instruction, Developmental Milestones, Phonics and Decoding, Professional Development, Teacher Education, Vocabulary
Top