Too Many Wars

Here is a list of the wars the USA has fought in:

Afghanistan War (October 7, 2001 to present)

U.S. Casualties: 1,098 deaths; 2,379 wounded in action

Irag War (March 20, 2003 to December 15, 2011)

 U.S. Casualties: 4,404 deaths; 31,827 wounded in action

Vietnam War (1959 to April 30, 1975)

U.S. Casualties: 58,193 deaths; 153,303 wounded in action

Gulf War (August 2, 1990 to February 28, 1991)

U.S. Casualties: 378 deaths; less than 1000 wounded in action

Korean War (June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953)

U.S. Casualties: 54,246 deaths; 8142 wounded in action

World War II (December 8, 1941 to August 14, 1945)

U.S. Casualties: 407,300 deaths; 670,846 wounded in action

World War 1 (August 1914 to November 11, 1918)

U.S. Casualties: 53,402 deaths; 204,002 wounded in action

Spanish-American War (April 25 to August 12, 1898)

U.S. Casualties: 332 deaths

American Civil War (April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865)

Casualties: 203,000 deaths; 412,200+ wounded in action

Mexican-American War (1846 to 1848)

U.S. Casualties: 13,271 deaths; 4152 wounded in action

War of 1812 (1812 to 1815)

U.S. Casualties: 20,000 deaths; 4505 wounded in action

American Revolution (1775 to 1783)

U.S. Casualties: 4435 deaths; 6188 wounded in action

This information comes from americanveterans.homestead.com website.

There has been too many wars causing too many deaths, wounded soldiers, and destruction of land and property.

On Memorial Day, we remember all the soldiers who have died or been wounded in the many wars that the United States has fought in.

Maybe you know a Spanish-speaking veteran who wants to learn English.  Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to obtain information about our workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn how to read, write and speak English.  

Spelling Rules

Did you know there are 44 English speech sounds. These sounds are used for reading and spelling. Eighty percent of the words in English follow these speech sound spellings. The word cat is made up of three speech sounds. The word eight is made up of two speech sounds. If you know how to spell these 44 speech sounds, it will greatly help your spelling and reading.

 The 44 speech sounds are presented in our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker. Practice with these speech sounds are provided in this six workbook series. Different spelling rules are also taught in the series. Did you know these different spelling rules?

The FSZL rule. The letters f, s, z, and l are doubled after a short vowel sound, for example: pass, puff, jazz and bell. Each of those four words has three speech sounds.

The ck rule. The /k/ sound is spelled with ck when the /k/ sound follows a short vowel sound, for example, back, pick, deck, puck, pocket.

The v rule. No word in English ends with a v so a silent e is added to the end of the word, for example: love, give, have. Each of these three words has three speech sounds.

E is the most used letter in English. When e is added to a three phoneme word the first vowel becomes a long vowel, for exampe: cap becomes cape; bit becomes bite, hop becomes hope. The words cap and cape each have three speech sounds.

The words horse, cheese, and house have a silent e at the end so they do not look like plurals. Every syllable has a vowel sound. The word horse is one syllable but the word horses is two syllables.

The above are some of the spelling rules that are presented in our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to get more information about this workbook series and other series that are excellent for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn how to read, write and speak English.

English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker

Our new series English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker helps Spanish-speaking teens and adults increase their English vocabulary. Vocabulary improves listening and reading comprehension and writing composition. This new series is great to use with our other series for Spanish speakers: English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker, English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker and English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker because it reinforces the vocabulary presented in these three literacy series. Vocabulary is learned through the many uses of new words. Multiple encounters of a new word is required before a word is really known. Repeated exposure to a word in a variety of contexts can add dimension to what is known about the word. “The more opportunities students have to think about and use the words they are learning, the more elaborate their mental representations of the words will be.” (Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck.) Vocabulary knowledge is also related to writing proficiency. Word choice is one of the features included on rubrics used to evaluate student writing. In the book Bringing Words to Life, Beck talks about vocabulary comprising of three tiers. The first tier consists of words most often used in daily conversations. The second tier contains words that are found in written text and are used across a variety of domains. Examples of tier two words would be precede, retrospect, and contradict. Tier three words are the content words for science and social studies. In our series English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker, we expose the learner to all three tiers. Spanish speakers need practice learning tier one words for daily conversations. Tier two words are necessary for reading comprehension and writing composition. Tier three words are included in the science and social study activity pages that are included in the workbooks. Through May 31, 2014, we have a special offer for books from our new series, Buy 2, Get 1 Free. Visit our website at www.fisher-hill.com to get more information about this special offer.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet.  Mine is to eat less sugar.  That won’t be easy because I’ve heard surgar is more addicting than tobacco and alcohol.  I believe it!  I gave up meat (not fish) two years ago and that was not difficult to do.  But giving up sugar, impossible!  So my New Year’s resolution will be to just eat less sugar.

Maybe you know someone whose New Year’s resolution is to learn to read.  Our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker is a very good place to start.  I wrote the six workbooks.  I used my Orton and Gillingham training to write the workbooks.  I use Orton and Gillingham methods when teaching my kindergarten stuents to read.  In the 1930’s, neurologist Dr. Samuel T. Orton and educator, psychologist Anna Gillingham developed the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction for students with dyslexia. This approach combines multisensory techniques along with the structure of the English language.  The items taught include: phonemes and morphemes, such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Common spelling rules are introduced as well. Multi-sensory education incorporates the three learning pathways, which are: auditory, kinesthetic, and visual. This approach is beneficial not only for students with dyslexia, but for all learners. 

 

When a student uses the six workbooks in the English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker series, it is important for the student to not only read the words but to say the words out loud and to write the words.  The workbooks use a direct, systematic and sequential approach to teaching the forty-four English speech sounds which is the foundation for reading and spelling.

If you know a friend or someone who wants to learn how to read and spell in English, tell them visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our workbooks for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.