17th October, 2017

LIT Reflection #4

During this week’s lecture, there was a lot learnt and discovered. The lecture was based on making connections through reading, writing and spelling. At the beginning of the class we were reminded that reading and writing are the two sides of a coin (Vacca &Vacca). What this is simply saying to us is that, the more you read, you will become a better writer. Therefore, students who are poor or apathetic readers more than likely would be poor writers. Also, we were told that children writing are children reading, and once they are doing both reading and writing they are exposed to language. As children read they expose themselves to the language, learning different vocabulary and sentence structures. They interact with the English language, thus being able to reproduce good writing. As teachers, is it our duty to help student develop both their reading and writing skills. First and foremost, it is wise that you introduce students to a variety of books. Allow them to hear what good literature sounds like by reading to them, and allow them to read different books, newspapers and other articles every day.

Moreover, we learnt that spelling is intrinsically bound up in both reading and writing. This means, when you read you are exposed to spelling and when write you now have to display the words you learnt. A child will learn to spell through reading and he or she will communicate that skill through writing. Prior to this lesson, we were unaware of the different stages of spelling. We learnt that there are five (5) stages a person undergoes as their spelling skill develops. These stages include the emergent stage (3-5 yrs), letter name alphabetic spelling(5-7 yrs), within word pattern and spelling ( 7-9 yrs), syllables and affixes spelling (9-11 yrs) and derivational relations spelling (11-14 yrs). What we liked about this lesson is that it provided the necessary information on all the stages and how students at that stage would spell. It also provided us with tips or activities as novice teachers can use to help students at a particular stage.

As prospective teachers, being aware of these stages would be beneficial. We would have an idea of what stage our student are supposed to be based on their age and grade and how to cater for each student. In addition, this would help in the planning of our lessons where we would employ teaching strategies, student activities and materials that would improve our student’s spelling skills which would result in an improvement of their writing. For example, if we are teaching grade two (2), then base on these stages we know our grade two students would most likely operate at stage three: Within Word Pattern Spelling. At this stage students are expected to be able to spell most one-syllable short-vowel word, and learn how to spell long-vowel patterns. They experiment with long-vowel patterns and learn that words such as come and bread are exceptions that do not fit the vowel pattern. At this stage and age they have a tendency to confuse spelling patterns and reverse the order of letters such as gril for girl. Students also learn about complex consonant sounds such as -tch (batch), and less frequent vowel patterns, such as aw (saw) and ow (now and cow). Students also become aware of homophones and compare long-and-short vowel combination (hope-hop) as they experiment with vowel patterns.

What stood out most for us is the earnest reminder the lecturer gave for us to make sure that we learn that which we are to teach the students. Moreover, we learnt that students at this stage learn spelling concepts such as: long-vowel spelling patterns, more-complex consonant patterns and diphthongs and other less common vowel patterns.

          With this in mind, as the grade two teacher, we would know what type of words to introduce at this stage and also the problems that a likely to occur as students learn to spell. In addition, if our student are not at this stage we would have to plan out lesson in a way that word improve their spelling skill. We would encourage our students to focus on patterns and to classify words. By doing this, they would get familiar with the different spelling patterns and know which rule goes with which word. Furthermore, we would have to teach students strategies for spelling new words. A strategy that we would employ in our classroom is LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK. With this strategy, students would look at a word they do not know how to spell as yet and observe the letters and the sequence in which they come, say the word, cover the word, write the word and check to see if they spelt it correctly.

          Importantly, it does not matter what grade we are placed, we would ensure that we become familiar with the spelling stage associate to that grade level and students’ age. As teachers we have to make it our business to straighten students reading, writing and spelling skills.

Another aspect that stood out to us, is the earnest reminder the lecturer gave to make sure that we learn that which we are to teach the students. This shows us the importance of always reviewing lecture slides to ensure our understanding.

Additionally, we liked the self-monitoring activities that was provided to help students with their spelling. When students conduct this activity the will be exposed to new words and it will help broaden their vocabulary. Gone are the day when students will use words that is well known by others. As technology advances, so should our student’s knowledge.

For the next session, we would appreciate if the lecturer provide videos or images that would help up make the connection between the theory learn and real life situation. This would make the learning more concrete and we would get other teachers perception on these stages and see how it works for them in the teaching and learning process.

Additionally, the lecturer can give us the opportunity to recap what we did in the last class before we start a new session. By doing this she can assess our learning and clarify any misconception we might have.