(_a_) Call attention to the fact that the first two or three
letters will approximately locate a short word.
(_b_) The first four or five letters will approximately locate
nearly every word.
(_c_) Every word in the dictionary is arranged in exact
alphabetical order.
Words in Lessons 3, 17, 39, and 40 illustrate a third phase with the
development of root words and derivatives which will be taught formally
in the seventh grade. These lessons bring together words which have a
common root. The teacher should be continually on the watch for these
common roots and call the attention of the children to them. In
undertaking to develop a spelling consciousness there is probably
nothing that will help so much as this phase of the work. In _agree_,
_agreeable_, _disagreeable_, and _agreement_, _agree_ is the common
part. Children do not always recognize this, as shown by the fact that
children spell the derivative with a lower degree of accuracy than they
spell the root word. (See page 19 of this manual.)