Spectrum Work Texts: A Review

The Spectrum series has many subjects in it. I have used both Spectrum Spelling and Spectrum Reading . My daughter loved the funny characters and really excelled with these workbooks.

Each workbook has about thirty-six chapters. The Spectrum Spelling book has a dictionary in the back, which is perfect to help students with spelling and vocabulary. The students can reference the words that they are learning within the book, without having to look for the words in a one-thousand page dictionary. At a young age this is important so that early readers do not become frustrated with sorting through a very large dictionary with a lot of words. The Spectrum Spelling book also has an answer key in the back of it so that you do not have to purchase a separate answer-key book. The spelling books thoroughly cover phonics which is extremely important for children to have a solid understanding in by the time that they are in the third grade. In addition to the phonics they include compound words, plurals, abbreviations, various vowel sounds, and even descriptive adjectives.

The Spectrum Reading Book is another a book in the series that my daughter and I enjoyed using. It has over one hundred and seventy pages. The characters were funny and they captured and held my daughter's attention. The important thing was that my daughter's reading comprehension really improved. The books provides practice in sequencing and ordering. Students are given both fiction and non-fiction stories to read in the book. They put words from the story into alphabetical order. My daughter liked the rhyming sections and the opinion sections that are offered. Spectrum Reading Books teach children how to identify facts about the stories as well as to form their own opinions them. This book offers more than just a reading comprehension guide, it offers a language arts curriculum.

I highly recommend these books. You can purchase them at Staples for $9.95 or you can purchase them at Amazon.com for as low as $4. Of course at Amazon there are shipping and handling charges added to the purchase. For students in lower grades they are suitable as a whole homeschooling curriculum. For students in older grades they are a great resource for extra practice or summer work.