Teaching Literacy Across the Curriculum: EDUC 8516

Assignment 1: Analysis of Spelling Data A Case Study (40%)

Sarah Anne Dandridge 20501616

Word Count: 2400 words

Unit Coordinator: Valerie Faulkner

Friday, Aug 17 2012

8516: Assignment 1 Testing was conducted on a Year six/seven combined classroom. Within this classroom there were thirty-four students, of which only seventeen were within the classroom on the day of testing. Students ranged between eleven and thirteen years of age. Upon analysis of the students knowledge about spelling it was determined that four groups would be made. The highest spelling group consisted of two students who were already a part of an extension program, which meant that in fact there would be three groups present within the classroom for spelling lessons.

Group One: Within Word Pattern Stage:

Within Word Pattern stage is often known as the transitional phase between the beginning stages of spelling and the more advanced stages of being able to read and write in different genres with increased fluency (Bear et al. c2012). According to Tompkins (2010) spellers within this stage are between five and seven years old.

Spellers within the Within Word Pattern stage are working at the pattern layer of spelling. This layer focuses on not only isolating the phonemes to determine the sounds they need to represent, but there is also a focus distinguishing the right patterns that represent the correct phoneme. Typically students within this pattern layer should be taught the reasons why the same phoneme may be spelt with different patterns. Students will also be focusing on building knowledge about strategies like chunking which will allow them to read in phrases and with greater expression.

Typically a student within this stage will attempt to spell using self-constructed rules, allowing them to provide an almost perfect match between the letters and sounds of words.

In particular students within this stage will be looking at learning the long vowel patterns, r-controlled vowels, more complex consonant patterns, diphthongs and other less common vowel patterns. Other indicators of students being within the Within Word Pattern stage include; the addition of an incorrect vowel after a correct vowel and the indicator of letter reversal which refers to the reversal of the order of the letters, such as form for from.

One of the two main strategies used by spellers in the Within Words Patterns phase is the sounding out of words. For example Shadi represents the word disloyal by spelling it as disloile, demonstrating that loile is similar to the pronunciation of the word, thus indicating that Shadi is in fact using the sounding out strategy to spell this word. The other main strategy that is used by a speller in this stage of Sarah Dandridge 20501616

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development is the strategy of finding the base word, which refers to the students identifying and using their knowledge of similar sounds to attempt to spell words. This strategy also involves the students trying to create words by combining known sight words, for example mothers day might be spelt as Mathursday (Education Department of Western & Australia 1994).

Typically the students begin the Within Word Pattern phase when they are able to spell words such as fan, can, mat, fat, which are all short vowel one-syllable words. Students will then move through three phases of development within this stage.

The Early phase of Within Word Patterns stage focuses on revising concepts and patterns such as consonants, blends and diagraphs. According to Bear et al. (c2012) the Early phase of the Within Word Patterns introduces the students to vowel patterns such as; common and less common vowel patterns, r controlled vowel CVC word patterns and short vowel CVC word patterns.

Bear et al. (c2012) also showed that the middle phase of the Within Word Pattern stage should focus on revision of the early phase as well as the k, ck and ke endings. This phase should also focus on deepening the students knowledge of vowels as it aims to look at patterns of less common and ambiguous vowel patterns (Education Department of Western & Australia 1994). The late phase of the Within Word Patterns stage should focus again on complex consonants and diphthongs and other less common vowel patterns, with revision in previous vowel patterning (Bear et al. c2012).

When looking at developing students orthographic knowledge in the Within Word Patterns stage it is important to focus on critical features of words and visual patterns within the words (Education Department of Western Australia, 1994).

Effective teachers are able to teach the students to look for visual patterns and critical features of words. By teaching these two aspects it will help the children build their knowledge of spelling patterns thus developing their understanding of the pattern layer of spelling. Teachers need to emphasise the building up of a systemic view of spelling with emphasis on sounds being represented by more than one letter. Teachers will also need to expose the children to a wide variety of print material.

Sarah Dandridge

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8516: Assignment 1 Students need to expand on their bank of spelling strategies therefore teachers at this stage need to introduce strategies related to finding the meanings of the words. Skills in using the dictionary will also aid in the development of the look for meaning strategy.

Individualising the teaching of this stage to suit the needs of this class would be highly recommended. These students will require activities that allow for exploration of topics via shared and guided activities. Activities such as word study notebooks, word studies and brainstorms will allow for the students to draw on their prior experiences and maturity levels. Most of the students within this group have displayed areas of misunderstandings, yet they have also displayed knowledge well beyond some of the characteristics of this stage. It is therefore recommended that implementing this stage within this class should be done with these factors in mind.

Group Two: Suffixes and Affixes

Prior to the Syllable and Affixes stage, students developed an ability to read and write words of more than one syllable, yet the students developed little understanding of the composition of the words. It is within this stage that the students develop their understandings of the structural analysis of words.

This stage aims to emphasise strategies such as the identification of visual patterns, critical features and meaning. The Syllables and Affixes stage often takes students a lengthy period of time to move through, due to the change of focus from graphophonic relationships into structural components of language.

Throughout this stage students are not only able to represent all vowel and consonant sounds, but they are also able to apply their knowledge of word meanings, diagraphs, r controlled vowels and word parts such as; prefixes, suffixes and compound words. This phase of spelling intends to teach the students about pluralisation, inflectional endings, syllabification, homophones, affixes and the patterns for doubling letters (Bear et al. c2012).

Within the Syllable and Affixes stage of development there are three phases. In the earliest phase students build confidence at knowing what blends, diagraphs and short vowels are thus they should be confident at spelling words that contain these features. Students should also be able to recognise and spell one syllable vowel patterned words such as wrap (Education Department of Western Australia, 1994). Students within this Early phase tend to struggle with words that contain; ambiguous vowels, words that use consonant doubling and words that have open and closed syllable patterns. Sarah Dandridge 20501616

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The students in the middle phase have now grasped the concepts related to the rules for inflectional endings such as doubling and dropping the e on specified words. Students should also now be competent in open and closed syllables. Typically students at this stage are learning about vowel patterns in accented syllables and unaccented final syllables.

The Late phase of the Suffixes and Affixes stage requires students to have mastered vowel patterns in accented syllables and unaccented final syllables. Students within this phase are starting to learn and grasp the concepts and meanings behind suffixes and prefixes, which is preparing for the final Words Their Way stage.

Teachers need to concentrate on the classification of words through identifying common patterns. This will allow the students to develop the necessary knowledge for spelling complex words without having to rely solely on strategies such as sounding out. Within this stage teachers should focus on not only developing the students abilities to focus on critical features of words but also focusing on the development of their strategies. Enabling the students to discover and explore a variety of words that can be categorised by the same pattern will allow the students to develop a deeper understanding for spelling.

In addition to focusing on the instructional needs mentioned above, the teachers of Lemonhill Year six/seven class should focus on activities that aim to allow exploration and guided discovery. Activities such as words sorts and word study pursuits allow the students to feel more independent whilst still learning the content. Individualising the spelling program would be necessary for Grace in particular. Assigning activities such as concept maps will allow her to see the progressions of spelling. Although Grace is slightly behind with some individualised teaching there is no logical reason as to why she would struggle with the higher phases of this spelling stage.

Group Three: Derivational Relations stage

Students within this stage have developed a sound understanding of the patterns and rules that are characteristic of the English spelling system. The Derivational Relations stage is an advancement of the Syllables and Affixes stage, thus this stage has characteristics similar to those of the previous stage. Errors continue to occur at the syllable juncture and with the vowels on unaccented or unstressed Sarah Dandridge 20501616

8516: Assignment 1 syllables, however unlike the previous stage errors generally occur on words that have two or more syllables.

Students within this stage have a sophisticated bank of spelling strategies and are able to draw on a range of semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological information. When spelling unfamiliar words students will also draw on a variety of spelling strategies such as visual patterns, sound patterns and meaning. Students in the Derivational stage have developed a large bank of sight words, which can be automatically recalled.

Typically a student will be within the Derivational Phase if they are able to accurately spell prefixes, suffixes, and contraction/compound words. Similarly students are able to use a variety of different contexts to distinguish homonyms and homophones. Students are within this stage if they are able to correctly identify and use double consonants and silent letters as well as less common letter patterns. Typically students will use spelling references such as Dictionaries and syllabification when spelling a new word.

According to Bear et al. c2012 students that are within the Early phase of the Derivational Relations stage will be able to spell most words correctly. They will have developed a deeper understanding of some of the patterns and concepts taught in the Suffixes and Affixes stage of development. Concepts such as accented syllables and identifying the vowels patterns on accented syllables are correctly demonstrated within this stage. Students within this stage will continue to move towards the meaning layer of spelling, as they will focus on unstressed vowels in derivationally related pairs as well as a focus on other spelling meaning connections.

The second phase of this stage is the Middle Derivation Relations stage. Within this phase the students will have developed an understanding of some common Latin suffixes and prefixes, allowing them to move onto the development of Greek letter sound relationships.

The last stage is the Late Derivational Relations stage, whereby the students will be learning absorbed prefixes and advanced Latin suffixes. At the end of this phase students should be merely refining their spelling skills.

Teachers with students scattered throughout this level of spelling development should aim to focus on two main areas: their reading and writing. Within both areas teachers should aim to extend the Sarah Dandridge 20501616

8516: Assignment 1 childrens vocabulary by planning to teach language that will cover the entire curriculum, as this will allow the students the opportunity to explore the way words can be combined, extended and changed.

Teachers essentially should focus on the idea that the students reading and writing is their responsibility, therefore the teacher needs to provide plenty of opportunities for this independent selfdiscovery to occur. A teacher can do this by looking at ambiguous and controversial topics and allowing the children the opportunity to do further research to formulate an individualised opinion. Within spelling teachers need to try and focus on meaning and derivations of words, which should continue to strengthen their understandings of spelling concepts and patterns.

According to Bear et al. (c2012) teaching students the rules is often less effective as self-discovery and pattern discovery. This is due to the deeper level of understanding that is built as a result of discovery. It is therefore extremely advantageous for the teachers of Lemonhill Primary to keep this idea in mind when individualising this program to suit the students within their classroom.

The students of Lemonhill Primary indicated a fairly high level of understanding, with few misunderstood areas, which will now be addressed as a result of the inventory test. The students of Lemonhill Primary are all unique and as such they have their own speed of learning. It is therefore no surprise that students of Lemonhill Primary do not follow the optimal consistency between their stage of development and their respective age levels. It is consequently apparent that any teacher wanting to use a program such as Words Their Way Spelling should do so with the students individual needs in mind.

James will need additional support within this program as his spelling inventory suggests that he has one area of misunderstanding in the Within Word Patterns stage, despite being competent at the word patterns and rules of the Derivational Relations stage. It would therefore be highly recommended that James receives some additional tuition to help clear any misunderstandings about the concept of complex consonants.

The student Grace will also require some additional help, as she too has an area of misunderstanding. The gap between Graces current knowledge and her area of misunderstanding is within the same stage of development and is therefore less of a concern. Never the less it is important to address Graces lack of knowledge about Affixes which is within the Middle phase of the Derivational Relations stage. It is

Sarah Dandridge

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8516: Assignment 1 recommended that Grace receive additional help on Affixes via extra activities addressing this area of weakness.

Sarah Dandridge

20501616

8516: Assignment 1

Bibliography:

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (c2012). Words their way : word study for phonics, vocabulary and spelling instruction. US: Pearson Education.

Education, Department, of, Western, & Australia. (1994). First Steps Spelling: developmental continuum Melbourne, Australia: Addison Wesley Longman Australia Pty Ltd.

Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: a balanced Approach (5th ed.). USA: Pearson Education Inc.

Sarah Dandridge

20501616