Silver Moon® Spelling Rules facilitates mastery of American English spelling rules/ generalizations. Silver Moon® is a research based supplemental spelling program that gives students the knowledge necessary to improve their spelling skills. This, in turn, benefits reading, and writing ability, promotes independence, self-confidence and builds understanding.

This program is cumulative, so you'll want to start with Set 1 (blue set) before teaching the concepts in Set 2 (red set). Each instructor will need their own kit, which includes one teacher's manual, one large set of spelling rule cards and one small set of spelling rule cards. It's smart to purchase extra sets of student cards if you are working with more than one student. Students earn their own set of cards as they work through the program.

Why do students love Silver Moon®? Students LOVE earning their own set of rule cards, and students of all ages are intrigued by the characters and hidden picture clues. Silver Moon®'s creativity and charm naturally reinforces learning and peaks student curiosity. The best part - it all makes so much sense!

Instead of memorizing a weekly word list using common methods such as writing words multiple times, spelling words with magnetic letters, or looking for confusing patterns within words; Silver Moon® Spelling Rules directly teaches American English spelling rules in a fun, logical, and memorable way. The lessons in the manual are explicit and multisensory. This keeps students actively engaged in meaningful learning. Directly teaching spelling rules takes the guess-work out of spelling and avoids unnecessary frustration and embarrassment for poor spellers.

Anyone can use this supplemental program and experience more success with spelling - even good spellers and adults! That being said, Silver Moon® Spelling Rules were specifically created for classroom teachers, specialists, and families who have children that struggle to spell despite hard work and having caring adults who work with them.

The Silver Moon® Spelling Rule Cards are designed to resemble direct instruction flashcards. Flashcards provide a research based, systematic, and effective means of teaching that can increase student knowledge in many different subjects. This type of systematic instruction has been proven in research to be effective for teaching all types of students, with or without disabilities, in a wide range of skills.

The sequence of lessons in this manual follow a “Model, Lead, Test” approach. When flash cards are used with an explicit approach, student learning will improve. Students are rewarded, after showing mastery of each rule, by earning the corresponding student rule card. Students get more excited and motivated with each card they earn.

Memorizing is turning something into a picture or turning something abstract into something more memorable. When spelling rules are paired with visual images and catchy rule names, it creates a memory trigger, or something for students to attach their learning to. Any time you can link items together in this manner, connections between neurons strengthen and help move information from short-term memory to long-term memory where it can be recalled for later use.

On average students who uses Silver Moon®, at our reading center, show a gain of 50 percentage points from pretest to posttest. Silver Moon® can be used on its own or as a supplement to your reading instruction.

Yes, we accept purchase orders. You can download the appropriate forms on our "Store" page.

The Silver Moon® spelling program is lightly scripted and supported with complementary resources. Training is not necessary to successfully implement this program, though; we do offer professional development courses in both online and in-person formats. 

The Teacher's Manual for Set 1 is organized in 3 parts. The first part teaches spelling rules/generalizations that are found in one syllable words that have closed syllables. Part 2 teaches spelling rules/generalizations that are found in two syllable words with open and closed syllables. Part 3 teaches schwa spelling rules/generalizations that are found in words with two or three syllables. 

The Teacher's Manual for Set 2 is organized in 3 parts. The first part explicitly teaches 15 "sticky unit" syllables using doodle-a-rule flash cards. Examples of Sticky Units include: ang, ing, ong, ung, etc. Part 2 teaches 7 reasons for silent E. Two new syllable types are taught - silent E and Consonant + le. Part 3 teaches 7 silent E sticky units. Examples include: ate, ite, ace, ice, ine, etc.  

The Teacher's Manual for Set 3 is organized into 3 parts. The first part teaches spelling rules/generalizations for common vowel teams. Part 2 teaches spelling rules/generalizations for bossy R and bossy W. Part 3 is a bonus section dedicated to reading words that contain both bossy R and silent E. Set 3 includes several optional mini lessons as well as 20 student practice pages.

Silver Moon® contains real words and nonsense words. Nonsense words are used as a means to evaluate if a student understands how to apply a given spelling rule. Students can't guess, spell from memory or spell by shape when using nonsense words. 

Silver Moon® does not include instruction on high frequency sight words. These words are called "rule breakers" because they typically don't follow a logical spelling pattern. We recommend using DOLCH or Fry sight word lists. Using your chosen list you need to pretest, identify words needing work (only do three words at a time) and assign meaning by having the student identify one tricky letter or group of tricky letters in each word. Students explain a reason for the "tricky letter(s)". Drills with high frequency sight words incorporate visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses simultaneously. If you'd like directions on how to teach sight words, email us and request the document, "Making Sight Words Stick: Red Letter Guide".

Yes! Our teaching manual will tell you exactly when you need to teach these concepts and which ones to teach. We have created free resources to support your teaching and learning. Downloading our free 7 types of Syllables Guide and our Syllable Division Rules Guide will give you all the information you need while using Silver Moon® Spelling Rules. 

Spelling instruction should complement reading instruction. Those with a background in Structured Literacy (Orton Gillingham) teaching methods will find that it's simple to use this program flexibly. Simply plug our spelling rules into your reading intervention's scope and sequence. *Note: If you teach Silver Moon® Spelling Rules in a different sequence, (different from the intended sequence) you'd need to modify the word lists to maintain the integrity of controlled word lists. 

Silver Moon® has been implemented by: General education teachers, English as Second Language Teachers, Special Education Teachers, Parents, Orton Gillingham and Structured Literacy Specialists, Private Reading Centers, Tutors, Teachers for Gifted and Talented and Dyslexia Therapists.

Those who use Silver Moon® most often comment on the "clarity of concept". "ease of use" and the "amazing artwork". Set one is appropriate to use with most students beginning in first grade and can be used through adulthood. This program was intended for use during one-on-one intervention or small groups. Every student has different processing and developmental abilities. It’s important to take individual needs into consideration when planning for student use.