Spelling: Homophone Exercise
With McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book

Goal:  to practice and develop spelling, vocabulary and sentence structure skills at an appropriate skill level.

Materials:  McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, Revised Edition. New York:  Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. 1879. [Facsimile copy]

Procedures:

• Select from the facsimile texts a lesson for each of the reader levels previously determined for the day of the visit: 59, 60, 84, 85, 171, 172,173, and 174.
• Assign students to copy words and definitions either on their slates or in their copybooks and to study each word carefully.
• Announce that there will be a large group activity at the end of the study period using the words in the spelling lists.
• At the end of the study period (fifteen minutes or so) do one or both of the following activities.

Recitation and Evaluation:

1. Teakettle
   
   Scholars use the list of homophones from The McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book. Each then makes a sentence, substituting the word teakettle for the homophones in the spelling list. For example, "My teakettle is a little teakettle because he has a cough." A classmate must then correctly guess and spell the answers horse and hoarse. That scholar then takes a turn. By listening to the responses of different level scholars, the teacher reinforces learning in the same manner as in the one-room schoolhouse.
   
   (This game is attributed to Lois Divine, St. Charles, Illinois who played it as a girl.)
   
   
2. Spelling Bee
   
   Scholars close their Spelling Books and copybooks or erase their slates. All stand. The teacher reads from each of the assigned lists, mixing reader levels, and providing correct sentences for each homophone. In turn, the individual scholar must correctly spell the word from his or her spelling list. Anyone who fails to spell a word correctly is "out" and must sit down. He or she does not get another turn. The last scholars standing when all words on their respective lists have been exhausted are the winners and may be awarded with a prize if the teacher so desires.

Illinois Learning Standards 3.A.1, 3.A.2

Continue to the handwriting lesson.
Return to the Introduction.