Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program
Third Edition
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The Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program consists of 13 Student Workbooks grouped on three levels as shown below:
LEVEL I -- THE JEWELS SERIES
1. PEARL Workbook
2. SAPPHIRE Workbook
3. EMERALD Workbook
4. DIAMOND Workbook
5. RUBY Workbook
LEVEL II -- THE SHIPS SERIES
6. GALLEON Workbook
7. CUTTER Workbook
8. SCHOONER Workbook
9. CLIPPER Workbook
LEVEL III -- THE PLANETS SERIES
10. JUPITER Workbook
11. VENUS Workbook
12. SATURN Workbook
13. NEPTUNE Workbook
THE JEWELS SERIES (Workbooks 1-5) are introductory, and intended for all students who have had very little exposure, or none, to printed or written English. A Quick Placement Test (Workbook Entry Point Indicator) is provided on DISC 1. The Quick Placement Test enables teachers and parents to determine whether a student should enter the Bannatyne Program at the Pearl Workbook 1 of the Jewels Series, or the Galleon Workbook 6 of the Ships Series.
This set of Jewels Workbooks is for use with, and by, beginning children in pre-school, kindergarten or beginning in Grade 1. The Jewels Workbooks should also be used with ESL students with little knowledge of English. The Jewels Workbooks are also very effective for teaching foreign-language speaking students with no knowledge of English who live in their own native countries. Even those with another alphabet (e.g., Russian, Arabic, Hebrew or Greek) or no phonetic alphabet (e.g., Chinese) can learn English using the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program provided an English-speaking teacher or parent is available. All these situations are feasible because the Jewels Series of Workbooks assumes no prior knowledge of English--spoken or written. However, an English-speaking teacher or parent must teach the Bannatyne Program. Of course, English-speaking students with no or little exposure to printed or written English definitely do benefit greatly from working through the Jewels Series first.
The Jewels Series (Workbooks 1-5) teaches students how to articulate, speak, read and write the most common spelling of each of the five short vowels along with the 21 simple consonants. Only three-letter words (apart from an occasional added s, or words with qu) are used in the Jewels Series because research shows that three-letter words consolidate the necessary overlearning required for later successful syllabication in longer words.
THE SHIPS SERIES (Workbooks 6-9) are the main entry point in the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program for all students who are already familiar with the use of the 21 simple consonants in both spoken and written English. As the most common usages of the five short vowels are again taught and reviewed in the Galleon 6 Workbook it does not matter if some students are not familiar with these short vowels before they begin the Bannatyne Program in the Ships Series.
A very brief Quick Placement Test (Workbook Entry Point Indicator) is provided on DISC 1. The Quick Placement Test enables teachers and parents to determine whether a student should enter the Bannatyne Program at the Pearl Workbook 1 of the Jewels Series, or the Galleon Workbook 6 of the Ships Series.
The Ships Series of Workbooks teaches students all the most common spellings of the 17 vowel phonemes in English, the common pronunciations of the 21 consonants (e.g., cat, cent) and many digraph (two letter) consonants such as: sh, th, ch and wh. Numerous prefixes, suffixes and blends are also taught in the Ships Workbooks. All this content is taught in the context of more than a thousand frequently used English words--together with many that are less frequent. A rich developing vocabulary is one of our most important concerns because comprehension depends on it. Also note that comprehension itself is taught in a variety of ways throughout the Bannatyne Program.
THE PLANETS SERIES (Workbooks 10-13) includes all the additional English spellings, word construction, syntactical construction and grammar that students are likely to come across in popular books, magazines and newspapers. Students learn how our language works. Because the Bannatyne Program is designed to provide the student with the structural tools and popular content of the English language there is a huge transfer of training process that makes for the easy and quick absorption of new material and new vocabulary when they come across it. For example, one woman learning disability student who had recently learned both the soft c consonant and the -ic ending, immediately decoded and recognized the word "Ceramic" when she saw it on a shop-front. Note that on the completion of the Bannatyne Program students will have thoroughly learned over 5500 English words.
A brief summary plan of the content of the Workbooks is given in a series of Charts in Chapter 5 of the Handbook (DISC 1) to help the newcomer get an overview of the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program.
The Teacher Guides are very comprehensive and easy to follow. One very detailed Teacher Guide is provided for each of the 13 Workbooks which means that the teacher or parent using the Bannatyne Program is left in no doubt about what to teach, when to teach it, or how to teach it--Step by Step and "bit" by "bit."
THE FOLLOWING MATERIALS are also included (on Disc 1) with the Bannatyne Program:
Handbook: The Handbook gives the prospective user a comprehensive overview of what the Bannatyne Program is all about and its many uses.
Glossary: A comprehensive Glossary is provided in Chapter 11 of the Handbook. The GLOSSARY is also on this Website. Please refer to it frequently if you do not understand some of the technical terms. Please note that some terms in common usage may be used with slightly different meanings in the Bannatyne Program and therefore it is a good idea to read right through the Glossary at least once.
Grapheme Book: The Grapheme Book lays out comprehensively the 17 vowel phonemes (sounds) and their 76 graphemes (printed/visual symbols) in color, as well as all the single and digraph consonants, and the capital letters in black and white. The Grapheme Book is an excellent quick reference for students and teacher (or parent) because the 76 vowel spellings all have a key sample word. It is usually a great surprise to most teachers and all students to learn that in English there are 17 vowel phonemes which are coded by 76 graphemes. The Grapheme Book also contains the consonants, capital graphemes, 6 modified graphemes, 15 silent graphemes, 7 common digraphs, as well as a section on Guidelines for English Phonetic Articulation of Consonants and Vowels with Audio (See next paragraph).
Audio Guidelines (Pages 20-28 of the Grapheme Book): The Guidelines for English Phonetic Articulation of Consonants and Vowels with Audio enables teachers, tutors and parents to read about correct articulation and also hear how these phonemes should be articulated. Examples of spoken splitting and blending (of a word) are included. These Audio Guidelines in no way alter the native accent of the teacher, but it does counteract the tendency many of us have to add extraneous vowel sounds to the individual phonemes we are articulating. For example, we tend to say /cluh-/ for /cl-/ and to turn the short vowel Copper /o/ into a longer more drawn-out sound /o-o-o/. Admittedly, while using the Program some teachers may have to articulate the short vowels and blends more briefly than they would habitually pronounce them (or even drawl some like Fawn /aw/), but this is not difficult to do. By keeping the short vowels short (brief) and the long vowels long (more drawn out), students are better able to discriminate between the two classes of vowel phonemes both auditorially and vocally.
Quick Placement Test: The Quick Placement Test (Workbook Entry Point Indicator) which, when administered to students about to enter the Bannatyne Program, designates their entry point into the Program. There are only two entry points--at the beginning of the Jewels Series (Pearl 1), or at the beginning of the Ships series (Galleon 6). A copy of the Quick Placement Test and the Instructions for its administration and scoring are to be found on DISC 1. Both the Test and its Instructions should be printed out for use with students.
Technical Information Book: The Technical Information Book contains much of the linguistic material, tables, categories and types of student characteristics (including a wide variety of handicaps and emotional disorders), as well as the results of my extensive language studies all of which serve as the basis for the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program.
Certificates of Excellence: Bannatyne Program Certificates of Excellence can be printed out and given to students whenever they finish a Color Vowel Section of the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program or when they do a specific Activity very well. A Bannatyne Program Certificate of Excellence can also be awarded to the students for the completion of each Workbook.
Certificate of Completion: The Bannatyne Program Certificate of Completion can be printed out and awarded after the entire Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program has been completed by any student.
Continuous Student Progress Record Form: The teacher may print this form, if desired. This Record Form provides a means of keeping track of each student's progress through the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program in terms of the language arts components and as Individual Education Plans (IEPs). This saves classroom teachers who are required to keep records a lot of work. Note, too, that the Teacher Guides provided with the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program are so comprehensive that they can also serve as ready-made formal Lesson Plans.
The Bannatyne Reading Program is a comprehensive, integrated reading program, writing program, spelling program, language program, and comprehension training program. The Bannatyne Reading Program is unlike any other reading programs currently available. This means you will find many features which are only in the Bannatyne Reading Program. In some Commonwealth countries the program may be referred to as: Bannatyne Programme, or Bannatyne Reading Programme.
Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program -- Copyright © 2003 Alexander Bannatyne, PhD
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