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individually. And then again, more questions should be asked to check for subtle

meanings. Students’ comments should be elicited. The PP & CC should be referred

to. Lastly, students should “write” a sentence or two about the story, as one skill
reinforces the other. Of course, at first there should be no emphasis whatsoever
on grammar or spelling, just on a semblance of neatness. The idea is to get

students used to writing and well on their way 2B TOTALLY LITERATE!

Step Four: After having read the stories for several weeks, students should now and then drill
on the titles of the hundreds of stories found immediately after this introduction.

This drill, although harder than the Phonics and Family charts, will add variety to

the daily routine and further enhance students’ ability to sound out words. Also,
after several months, the class should be ready to review the Spelling Rules in the

back of the book. And when students are ready for a more difficult task they
should be guided to the “Derivatives” in Adobe PDF format.

Step Five: Now and then parents and teachers should test their students’ comprehension and

vocabulary. Also, Parents and teachers should periodically give oral vocabulary and
spelling bees. Spelling should be given some attention but not nearly so much as

vocabulary building.

Note: The 2B TOTALLY LITERATE PROGRAM will soon offer several supplemental products – work
books, CDs, games in hard copy, The Red Well-Read Reader in hardbound and the several other

products.

How Is Studying the Charts of Families Helpful?

Looking at Family 1, for example, children will notice one word, Arab, in red. It stands out from
all the other words in this chart because it is pronounced differently; and being a proper noun, it

is capitalized. There are two words here in grey: habit and rabbit. These words contain the root

“ab” added as a suffix rather than a prefix, as it were; thus, these two sounds start rather than
end a word. As an aside, there is no apparent reason why one word has one “b” and the other one
has two “b”s. Such words are best remembered by some mnemonic device. Here are two possible

examples: a habit is a singular behavior or garment oft repeated or worn; whereas a rabbit may be

remembered as a bouncing bunny.

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