A structured series of  phonic dictation sentences with corresponding letter-shape grids, following  the  teaching sequence of Beve Hornsby's Alpha to Omega       

Box dictations are an effective way of providing visual support for spelling for children (and adults) who experience the common dyslexia-related problem of failing to map the sounds of letters onto their shapes.

EXAMPLE: You dictate          " Children love writing in boxes"

Children write in the boxes:

THE BENEFITS OF BOX DICTATIONS

• Children enjoy them. Given the choice, they will nearly always opt for a box dictation than a normal one.

• The presence of the boxes gives the child valuable clues as to the shape of the word and the number of letters in each word.

• The shapes provide vital clues as to which letters to choose.

• Children are more likely to put in capital letters.

• They are more likely to get the spellings RIGHT and thus increase confidence.

HOME AND SCHOOL USE

• The dictations follow a structured order, and can be used effectively by parents at home.

Hearing the words, children see the shape and the quantity of letters required to make it up, and are thus better able to segment the sound of the words into the correct letters. Box Dictations are best used with the photocopied "boxes" page either inside a plastic file pouch or covered by a clear plastic (eg overhead transparency) sheet, with the child writing with a wipe-clean marker pen. Using this method, children are able to make as many attempts as they need at spelling a word until they are satisfied with the result - ie they have the correct sounds mapped onto the correct box shapes in the correct places. The author has developed this approach over many years of teaching children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, and now an increasing number of teachers are discovering the benefits of Box Dictations for their own students.

Each book is fully cross-referenced with separate teacher  (sentences to dictate) and  pupil  (box grids) sections

BOOK ONE:   SHORT VOWELS, CONSONANT DIGRAPHS, CONSONANT BLENDS, VOWEL-CONSONANT DIGRAPHS, W-RULES, FF/LL/SS, MAGIC E, SOFT C, SOFT G.  $24.95           

BOOK TWO: LONG VOWEL DIGRAPHS, MIXED LONG VOWEL PATTERNS,
7 RULES OF SUFFIXING, PLURALS.  $24.95      

            A multisensory phonics resource for teaching vowel digraph spelling

   "I love this book. It's brilliant." Philomena Ott, author of "How to Detect and Manage Dyslexia".

Nonsense illustrations enhance text and add effective visual prompts for reinforcing phonic content. Suitable for older students.

24 vowel digraph spellings are covered  in  a bank of resources using the limericks themselves, cloze passages, tracking and wordsearches. A "memory-jogger" section repeats the pictures in smaller format along with the first line MINUS THE LAST WORD, to prompt memory of the key word and its spelling. If possible, students should be encouraged to learn the verses fully. As well as being fun, this exposure to rhyme reinforces phonological awareness and is an aid to spelling . The cloze passage are repeated in a separate section with the gaps filled in  and some simple comprehension questions, so they can be used for student self-checking, dictation or homework. Suggestions are included for using the book. See the sample pages for more detail. Digraphs covered: AI AIR AR ARE AW AY EA EA EAR EE EW IGH IR OA OI OO OO OR OU OW OW OY UR. Spellings EA OO and OW are repeated to allow for head/eat, moon/look and cow/snow variants. Pages  app. 72

NORMALLY  $24.95  SPECIAL OFFER: ONLY $9.95

                                     Click HERE for Sample pages (print these off for free). 

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