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Modifying Spalding’s Rules

By Rodney Everson • Updated Jul 27th, 2023

OnTrack Reading Phonics Program

Teach your student the phonics advanced code in as little as 8 weeks with our 170-page workbook and instruction manual.

Before you can get started with actual instruction using the revised phonograms and coding, you need, review the 29 rules in The Writing Road to Reading (WRTR) and drop or modify a few of them as described below. If you adopt the OnTrack Reading Multisyllable Method, you'll also have to add the Main Rule and Three Exceptions to the curriculum.

Drop or Modify the Following Rules:

Drop Rule #5, Rule #6, and Rule #7 for reasons explained here, and Rule #15 and Rule #16 for reasons explained here.

Modify Rule #8 as indicated here, and Rule #28 as indicated here.

And if you adopt the chunking method advocated here, drop Rule #4 as explained here, and drop Rule #29 as explained here.

Add the Main Rule and Three Exceptions (optional)

You will need to teach the Main Rule and Three Exceptions if you adopt the OnTrack Reading Multisyllable Method.

These are all located here, on the page Chunking Multisyllable Words.

You should now probably take some time to go through the first several pages of the Ayres List in WRTR, noting which rules you don't need to refer to as you dictate the words to your child. Just mark them out so you know you can safely ignore them later. Now you should be ready to start Teaching the Phonograms.

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