Description

Apples and Pears

Teacher’s Notes A

ISBN 9781905174256 (3rd edition)

This is the appropriate book for absolute beginners (use our Placement Tests to find the best starting point). Children should be able to recognise most letters by sound before they start. They should also have enough co-ordination to trace a letter approximately ½ inch high with reasonable accuracy. Apples and Pears Book A contains some handwriting practice, but this may not be enough for a dyspraxic child. If this is a problem, see Handwriting.

In the first exercises, the pupil writes or traces the individual letters dictated by the teacher. Pupils are taught to spell basic digraphs (sh, ee, ar, ch, th, ck, or) and the trigraphs ing and all. They are taught the patterns represented by me, she, he, we, be and my, try, why. Carefully planned multi-sensory sound discrimination exercises ensure that children’s phonological awareness and segmenting skills improve rapidly.

Additional basic spelling patterns, such as ay, qu, and igh are introduced later in the book. Pupils continue phonological drills (saying the phonemes in a word), and they start to learn a morphological approach spelling with the use of prefixes and suffixes. Mastery Tests ensure that the pupil has mastered the material and is ready to progress.