Does Spalding teach word families in addition to the Ayres list of high frequency words?
A. No. Mrs. Spalding used high frequency words (the Ayres words) to study the structure of the language because the Ayres list accounts for 85% of the words encountered in daily speaking, writing, and reading. These words are used to teach not only spelling, but also meaning and usage. Children use these words to learn the parts of speech, how to build derived words, and how to write simple, compound, and complex sentences and apply capitalization and punctuation rules. In contrast, words listed in word families often are low frequency and therefore not of immediate use in students’ daily reading and writing. To read, write, and spell a year above their grade placement, students need to concentrate on high frequency words. However, students having difficulty remembering a particular phonogram may benefit from two or three similar words, (for example, paw, saw, and law,) to help them remember the sound. Q. In two-syllable words, if children cannot easily distinguish which syllable is ac
