Under Your Spell

There was once a fourth grade class that was working on their spelling. They already learned many tips and tricks for spelling, but there was still more to learn, since English is a tricky and has few consistent rules. And so it was that they continued to study spelling each day they attended school. Their next lesson was about singular possessive nouns. Rather than jumping in right away, their teacher chose to review with them their previous lessons before continuing on. So on the first day of their lesson, the class went over several other rules and sounds that had been talked about before. To begin, the teacher used a SMART airliner to roll virtual dice. These dice were projected on a screen large enough for everyone to read, and each side had a sound they had recently worked on written upon it. As the sounds appeared,

mansion unreal

breezes

the students chorally read the sounds back to the teacher, until none were left. Then the teacher read out the following sounds: /e/, /a/, and /er/, and the students wrote

upon their whiteboards all possible combinations of letters that could make these sounds. The teacher checked these as she moved around the room, giving assistance where needed, and more often praise. Next, students were called upon to read out the words which appeared one at a time upon the board, each an example of a rule that has been previously learned. After each word had been read, the class fingerspelled it together.

The students then got out their bingo supplies. Once the students were prepared, the teacher read from a list of twelve words from previous lessons one at a time. As a class, they fingerspelled the words, then wrote them down in their folders. As they wrote, the teacher moved among the desks and verified that their spelling was, in fact, correct. Once checked, students filled in the words on their bingo boards. After the boards were filler, the teacher rolled another virtual die, with bingo words written on each side. But once the game was over, the hour had grown late, and so the teacher decided they would continue the lesson tomorrow. The next day, students and teacher jumped right in to the main lesson: singular noun possession. The teacher explained that if a word refers to a single person or item, but ends in an s, it is indicative of ownership, as in the sorcerer's apprentice. Words exemplifying this rule were presented one at a time, and students were called upon to read them as they appeared. After the words initial reading, it was fingerspelled as a group, and its meaning was explained. After this, students were asked to spell out words upon their whiteboards. The teacher read the first word to the students and fingerspelled it with them. The students then wrote it down, and the teacher checked them for correctness. The first student to finish was given the list, and they read the next word to the class and lead them in the fingerspelling. They then gave the book to the next person in their group, who read the next word; and so on, until no words remained. Next, the students were asked to take out their reading packets and highlighters. The teacher had the students follow along in their reading packets as

she read them a passage containing many words illustrating their new spelling rule. When they came across one, the students used an auditory signal to let her know they had seen it, and highlighted it in their packets. At the end of the passage, the students and teacher together counted how many exemplary words they had found and wrote the number at the bottom of their pages. Finally, the teacher asked them to please take out their cursive writing packets. She read them three sentences, one at a time, containing words that fit into the rule they had just learned. Students repeated each sentence back to her and would write it on their sheet. Using a projector, she modeled for them how the sentences should look. Once all three were written, the students traded with a partner and checked each others work. Upon being checked and returned to their rightful owner, the paper were put away, and students were finished with their spelling until the next day.