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FYI…Sounding Off about Spelling
by Sylvia Goldsmith and Emily Goldberg

A wonderful way to increase children’s vocabulary is to read to them stories that are above their reading AND speaking level. All children from first grade on enjoy hearing about knights in armor, King Alfred, King Arthur and tales of Robin Hood. Reading to children should not be interrupted for analysis…Since comprehension depends upon word meaning, the adult reading to the child should take care of this before the reading session. Anticipate words that the student will encounter and must know the meaning of in order to really understand what is being read to him.

SUGGESTED BOOKS TO READ TO CHILDREN:

Adventures of Robin Hood. Adapted by Eleanor Graham Vance.
Random House, Inc., New York, 1953. Grades 1-6. (Our favorite edition, perhaps found on the Web)

Knights in Shining Armor. Gail Gibbons. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1995.

The Kitchen Knight, a Tale of King Arthur. Retold by Margaret Hodges. New York: Holiday House, 1990.

Knight. Eyewitness Books. London: DK Publishing, Inc., 2004. Marvelous compendium of background information.

BOOKS TO READ TO CHILDREN:

knights and Castles. Magic Tree House. Research guide companion book to The Knight at Dawn by Will Osborne and Mary Pope Osborne. New York: Random House, 2000. Grades 2-3.

My Brother, the Knight by Laura Driscoll. New York: The Kane Press,
Inc., 2004. Grade 3.