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Level D

About: In Americana, students will read nonfiction stories about American history and culture while learning to spell new words in an interesting context. Narrative stories provide a rich context for spelling instruction, making it easier for students to remember how words are spelled.

Why Spelling You See?: Spelling You See is a unique, research-based curriculum which follows the natural stages of language development. It utilizes methods which help develop pattern recognition and aids long-term visual memory of non-phonetic words through short daily multisensory activities. While other spelling programs use spelling tests and require word memorization, this program facilitates learning to spell words in a meaningful way within the context of short stories or nursery rhymes.

Note: These online resources are designed to complement and enhance your journey through Americana. Please understand they are a companion to the instructor handbook, not its replacement.

Pacing

Pacing Guide

Previous Level

Wild Tales

Placement

Placement Tool

Philosophy

About the Program

Try out a sample lesson! To better understand what a day’s work looks like, we have also provided a completed portion of the sample lesson.

Sample Lesson Completed Sample Lesson

Materials

  • Student Workbooks Part 1 and 2
  • Instructor’s Handbook
  • Colored pencils
Shop Americana

Printable Resources

Chunking Guide

Print the Chunking Guide to help your student avoid page flipping on their Day C chunking after copywork.

Daily Huddle Checklist

Daily huddles are focused discussions of challenging words, pronunciations, patterns, and strategies. The purpose of these daily discussions of the passages are to engage students in their learning, address challenges early and often, correct mispronunciations or misconceptions, set the tone for the day’s work, and keep the instructor informed of their student’s needs so they can tailor the assignments to support them.

Knotty Word Strategies

Some words can be more challenging to learn than others. Here we have provided instructional strategies and guides to support and enhance your experience with the program.

Completion Certificate

Hooray! If your student has successfully completed this level, celebrate their hard work and achievement, and reward them with a certificate of completion!

Practical demonstrations of each of the four activities outlined in the instructor handbook.

Methods you can use to help your student with tricky spelling patterns.

Course Developers

Meet Dr. Karen Holinga and Kim Wampole, the curriculum writers for this course. Dr. Holinga is a former elementary school teacher, homeschooling parent, and college professor with over 30 years of experience working with children. Kim is a language arts curriculum lead with Demme Learning and an educator with 18 years of classroom experience.

Our other presenters for this course include: Gretchen Roe and John Camilleri.

Dr. Karen Holinga

Kim Wampole

Support Center Articles

Looking for Spelling You See product support? Our Support Center has how-to articles, product tips, and answers for current Spelling You See users.

FAQ

Here are a few questions we commonly receive about Spelling You See. Feel free to contact us if you have additional questions!

Phonics is important for beginning spellers. The first two levels of Spelling You See reinforce the basic phonics that children have been learning in reading instruction. However, research has shown that focusing on phonics rules after the Phonetic Stage of spelling ultimately does not help children learn to spell.

Children need to develop a strong visual memory for how common words are spelled. This occurs in the Skill Development stage, which typically lasts for several years. By the time students arrive at the Word Extension and Derivational Constancy levels, they already will have a strong sense of how English spelling works and will be ready to focus on more advanced word study, including English spelling patterns that some might describe as “rules.” Learn more about the Five Developmental Stages of Spelling.

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Yes! Here are some tips to help you use Spelling You See with an older student.

  1. Use the Readiness Guidelines rather than age or grade to determine placement.
  2. Explain to your student that he should expect the reading level to be easy so that the focus is on spelling, not reading.
  3. If the placement guidelines suggest Wild Tales, but that level appears to be too young for your student, consider beginning with Americana. Be particularly careful to read each passage aloud before having the student read it back to you.
  4. Although the passages are purposely easy to read, the content of Americana through Modern Milestones is designed to be interesting for all ages.
  5. The progression of skills between and throughout the levels is gradual, so be flexible in choosing a student’s starting point.
  6. If your student finds Modern Milestones difficult, she is probably not ready for the Word Extension stage. Try starting at American Spirit or Ancient Achievements instead.
  7. An older student who is brushing up on spelling skills may be able to shorten a lesson by omitting a copywork or dictation page. The parent should monitor progress closely to make sure this is appropriate.
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Parental engagement is a touchstone of all Demme Learning products. Research has consistently shown that the regular involvement of the instructor/parent is critical to student success. And our curriculum is designed to empower parents to be engaged in their children’s learning.

Spelling You See requires regular parental engagement. This is especially true for the first two levels, Listen and Write and Jack and Jill. However, depending on the level, students will have some activities that can be done independently throughout the lesson.

Spelling You See lessons are designed to be short and stress free. And the beauty of the Spelling You See program is that once you have familiarized yourself with the handbook and mastered the process as the parent, there is no need for additional lesson preparation. You can just jump into each day’s lesson.

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Our program has successfully been used by many children with language-based learning differences. The use of color and writing help these students commit correct spelling patterns to memory, rather than depending solely on auditory cues. If the student has auditory dyslexia, components of our program will help the student be able to separate sounds. If the student has visual dyslexia, the kinesthetic components will allow the student to match the letter to the sound in order for the brain to make a visual connection.

Please contact our Customer Success team to discuss how it can be tailored to your student’s needs.

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