Spelling Matters: Building Correctness through Understanding. Leslie Chalmers Gravel, speech & language therapist, is offering an informative and interactive workshop for parents of struggling readers. We will begin to see that the foremost purpose of English spelling is to convey sense and meaning in text. We will learn how to analyze English words—break them apart—for meaningful, sensible spelling, improved reading, and vocabulary enrichment.
Leslie Chalmers Gravel, MA, CCC-SLP is a licensed and certified Speech & Language therapist working in private practice in the Pioneer Valley.
Date: November 14, 2013. Time: 6:30-8:00pm. Place: Deerfield Business Center, 110 North Hillside Road, So. Deerfield, 01373. Please contact Leslie at 413-330-4118 or leslie@takewingwithwords.com to reserve a spot. There is no charge for this workshop.
Spelling Matters 
Seems like Ms. Chalmers-Gravel is taking a somewhat different approach to spelling than is popular phonology (speech sound) based programs such as Wilson or Lindamood-Bell. I’ve seen kids get a real boost with Wison & Lindamood-Bell, but for others it seems like diminishing returns once you get past the basics: too many rules to remember, and too many exceptions. I remember reading an article by Carol Chomsky (wife of the famous Noam, and respected linguist in her own right) on Lexical Spelling, which looked at spelling more in terms of morphological (root words, affixes, etc). It was really compelling, and it seems that kids would need to understand something about this once they get past the first or second grade. Should be interesting workshop!