Base Words Level A eBook
Packed with lots of colourful illustrations and photos so you have the choice of printing in colour or B/W for students under Educational Statutory Licence provisions.
This is a "Down to Earth" spelling program. Level A is first in a set of two Base Words spelling program ebooks. Base Words A contains 34 units of spelling work (potentially 34 weeks) covering the first 400 commonly used words, in order of frequency, with easy instruction format (Junior Primary / Primary / Easy Secondary).
ASSESSING YOUR CHILD'S SPELLING/WRITING ABILITIES (without using Waddington Reading & Spelling Tests https://www.wadd.com.au/reading-spell-tests-3rdedu1-onetchr):
If Base Words A work is too difficult for your child, please check the related ebooks below, listed in order of difficulty depending on your child's current skills. For example,
1. If your child does not know the alphabet sounds, they may need the Alphabet Resource Book.
https://www.wadd.com.au/alphabet-resource-book-hardcopy
2. If your child knows the sounds of the alphabet and can write all the letters, then the next stage are C-V-C ebooks (3 letter phonetically regular words).
https://www.wadd.com.au/cvc-resource-ebooks-1-6-set
3. If your child can read and write any 3 letter words, the next stage covers words with 2 Letter Initial Sounds.
https://www.wadd.com.au/2-letter-initial-sounds-ebk-set-1-3
At this level, students are being gradually immersed in harder words and more complex phonetically regular and non-regular words. After completing all three 2 Letter Initial Sounds ebooks, students should be able to cope with Base Words A
4. If students find Base Words A too easy, or after completing Base Words A, then Base Words B is next, followed by practically any more advanced spelling program.
https://www.wadd.com.au/base-words-level-b-ebook
SUGGESTED PLAN/USE FOR BASE WORDS A:
- Print out a page at a time - aim for 1 page per week using the following routine.
- FIRST DAY (e.g. MONDAY): Conduct a pre-test before giving the child the sheet. See how many words the child can already spell. The first few pages of Base Words A are deliberately easy to get all students on-board and feeling a sense of early accomplishment.
After the pre-test, mark their words and give them the sheet to do in order, starting with Question 1 - student looks at the word, says it aloud, covers it, writes it, checks it. We call this the LOOK-SAY-SOUND-COVER-WRITE-CHECK method.
Complete more of the sheet and have it marked and any errors corrected by the student. It's also good to have the student next to you so the student can orally read out their answers, especially sentence type answers.
SECOND DAY (e.g. middle of the week) :
- Finish the work sheet.
- Add an extra activity (e.g. Pick 5 words to write in a story or in separate sentences, find pictures from magazines to match words...).
FINAL DAY OF THE WEEK (e.g. Friday) :
- Give the student the dictation test for the work sheet number, presented on pages 38 - 40 of the ebook. These dictations contain every word they studied over the week. So, if they completed worksheet 1, you give them dictation 1 only. Read it out fully first so they gain an understanding of the whole dictation story. Then read small amounts at a time as they write it down on paper. When you finish giving the dictation, read it back again in full so the child can check that they have written it in full. If not, revisit parts of the dictation. Mark the child's dictation writing, giving a mark for every word spelt correctly from the worksheet list. If they get all words correct for worksheet 1, they get 12/12. If they get any words wrong, they write them 5 times as corrections and maybe you can revisit those words again during next week's pre-test.
EXTRA NOTES:
- Some students may be able to do more than one page per week.
- Add a reward system to encourage long-term motivation and success (e.g. make up a card and draw or type lines of 10 happy faces or add stickers. Parent or teacher draws a happy face or colours in a happy face or gives a sticker, for every page of work finished and marked and corrected. When the child gets 10 happy faces/stickers, they get a "Lucky Dip" (make up a box with a hole in the top, containing special little wrapped mystery gifts containing things like:
- A card permitting one time excused chore.
- A card requesting parent do a no-cost activity for the child.
- 3 free foot or body massages.
- Something from around the house the child didn't know about.
- Something hand made.
- Card showing Time to play a game.
- Card with an outside activity.
- A packet cake or biscuit mix.
- A "ZuperDooper" ice treat to go in the freezer.
- A stationery item they could use to do more worksheets, such as textas, highlighters etc..
- Chocolate/lolly.
- A home-made gift voucher.
- Money. (We all like that reward, don't we?)
This same reward system can work with all other home and school activities, including curbing bad behaviours and promoting/reinforcing good behaviours.
An alternative reward system - Use our Raffle Ticket Machine program to create ticket tokens (e.g. 20c, 50c, $1.00, Special Play/Viewing/Access Time, etc..).
TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL ISOLATED/INDIVIDUALISED TEACHING & LEARNING:
- Simplify the learning program (e.g. limit it to 2 main workbooks e.g. English and Maths), for at least the first few weeks. Focus on what is essential rather than a whole curriculum. Ensure what is done by all, is done well. Parents must be engaged partners in learning and not over-loaded with information because most children will need 1:1 help when other forms of teacher-student communication is not available.
- Simplify expectations. Don't set yourself, or the students, up for failure. Set-up for success, so that confidence and application is maximized. You can always add more later.
- Follow up and mark work daily. Use any method to stay connected based on the technology available to each student. It may be as simple as a Facetime phone call or text message/email with a photograph they send of their completed page(s) of work.
- Implement a reward program all can follow (as above).
- The Waddington Diagnostic Math tests are an excellent resource for putting all children through to define their skill foundation and then build upon it gradually. Why not start from Test 1, regardless of age, because it's fun too! In no time you will have highlighted the test number level where your child starts to faulter. That is the time to get them working on that level and you can use the free downloadable math workbooks to do that, instantly available here: https://www.wadd.com.au/files/Mathstestguide.htm .
Base Words A is enhanced with many colourful drawings, photographs, puzzles, essential grammar and word building tasks. Bonus dictations for each unit. A particularly successful program for poor spellers, beyond the phonic instructional stages, who have tried nearly everything else. Tested over ten years with students grades 2 - 10 (6yo - 15yo).
This eBook PDF document can be used on any computer or mobile device. Please check your device (or Google instructions) for loading and using PDF files, including simple annotation (writing/drawing) on the PDF thus eliminating the need for printing.
Base Words Level A, BaseWords
