As it says at the beginning of Chapter 7, it is definitely true that many teachers who teach intermediate orthography find a lot of material they are unfamiliar with. It becomes a learning experience for them as well as their students. Much of the writing and spelling skills covered in the rest of the reading are things that I would consider common knowledge for myself, but I am not sure I could accurately explain the various rules to another who had yet to master them. For example, the rules for changing base words when adding suffixes seem obvious to me, but I would never have thought to explain them as well as they are laid out in the book. I don't even really think about the rules; I just... spell things.
(And yes, I rely on spell-check far too often, or else I ask myself the question "Does it look right?")
Examining the consonant/vowel sequence of a word can certainly help students in the intermediate stage figure out how a word is spelled and how a prefix or suffix might be properly added to the word.
Even at the college and post-college level, keeping this knowledge in mind is important for those who are thinking of applying to graduate school. I looked at a list of common prefixes and suffixes and their meanings while I was studying for the GRE last year.
By staying familiar with the reasoning and the patterns that are behind the spelling and pronunciation of words in the English language, teachers can be better prepared to pass on this knowledge to their students.
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