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Riggs is a multisensory method of teaching that is called the "Writing and spelling road to reading and thinking." Instead of beginning with reading, Riggs systematically teaches phonograms through writing and spelling (encoding), and then introduces the concept of reading those phonograms and words (decoding). It is based on decades of research.
Other than phonograms, the mnemonic marking system of Riggs is the most salient feature of our Riggs program. Below you will find a guide to help you understand better what Riggs is all about. Please refer to it often for clarification with Riggs homework, as well as marking at other times, such as with IEW homework.
1. Single vowels are underlined when
they say their names in a word.
2. Multiletter phonograms are
underlined to show that the letters are not pronounced separately,
but stand for one sound in a word.
A. Please note that just because some
letters are together, they are not necessarily a given phonogram (you
must think while you spell!): ear does not have ear
(the “er” of early) in it; it has ea and r.
3. All letters that are silent are
double underlined.
A. When there is a syllable break at
doubled consonants, typically the first of the doubled
consonants is silent in pronunciation.
4. If a phonogram has more than one
sound, a small numeral is placed above the phonogram to indicate
which of its sounds should be used in that word. The numeral
indicates order of frequency of use in the English language.
A. The first sound is unmarked (we
never put a 1 over a phonogram).
B. If it is a vowel saying its name,
it is underlined.
C. If a spelling rule explains its
use, it is not numbered. Gentle, charge, cent, chance do not need 2
over the g and c saying their second sounds because it is a spelling
rule (Rule 20).
5. Some words are bracketed [ ]
in spelling notebooks to show similarity or peculiarity.
6. If a word forces us to “think to
spell” because of a schwa (an unstressed central vowel), we put a
caret ^ above the vowel. We must always ask ourselves, is that a
genuine schwa or is it a result of the sloppy application of the
language? If we can enunciate more clearly and avoid the thinking
cap, then we should.
7. Double underline phonograms that do
not follow the “rules.” These are phonograms that are not saying
any of their sounds.
