This is a great chapter for me, super excited to read all the great activities and strategies for spelling. My big five is phonics and my students are working extremely hard with their spelling by sound. This chapter provides great information for me to implement with my students. I have been doing a lot of sound boxes and it is mention on page 313 and 314, figure 12.1. My kindergarten students have reaped in so many ways. They are so confident in their spelling since we have been using sound boxes. I also have seen our many benefits teaching word families have as well. We started with the –at family and did that activity several lessons ago the students are still adding to their –at mat. The activities listed on page 326-328 are wonderful. I especially like the magnetic letters, foam boards, ans word searches. I am going to use the word search activity and scale it down to my students level. I have my students write in their journals each session, it is amazing how much they have progressed.
Chapter 12 covers the topic of spelling. I have had many experiences working with students and spelling. The second graders that I worked with often used invented spellings and would then ask how to spell the words they did not know. I struggle with spelling in my tutoring at times because students are learning the phonograms and they often put the phonograms in place of one letter sounds in words. The English language is extremely confusing, especially when teaching spelling! I felt like the examples of the different spelling stages were helpful. It is important to learn where our students are at so that we can develop instructional strategies that will help them develop the skills needed to move to the next stage. The goals and strategies listed under each stage were also useful. I did not how to teach students to spell besides giving them the spellings for words and having them memorize it. This was the way that we learned to spell when I was in elementary school. I think it is important to have students use the words many times in context so they can develop a memory of the word, but it must be done in conjunction with the other strategies. I think that the game, Wheel-Of-Fortune could be a lot of fun, especially for the fourth graders that I am tutoring. Using phrases and words from the read aloud and guided reading books will also help develop their vocabulary and their comprehension because they will be using a category that is based on the story. I think that the students would really enjoy this, especially students who are struggling with spelling. I feel that all spelling activities should be done in a risk-free environment. The goal is to develop spellers who will use the strategies needed to spell on their own not to have students who can correctly choose one correctly spelled word in a list of four words.
Brooke, I am glad that you have experience with teaching spelling. I thought that the activities listed for word families and all other activities on pages 326-328 sounded like they would be very helpful when teaching spelling. I did not really know many ways to work on spelling with students and I feel like this chapter really helped me to develop some useful strategies.
Jaclyn, my invented spelling is the best and it allows you to see how their spelling evolves through out the year. I am seeing that in just the students that I am tutoring, how their spelling has evolved. Teaching students to spell is so rewarding!
Spelling is the topic of chapter 12. I like the scenario at the beginning of the chapter because the teacher has placed the students in groups according to the variety of abilities and she also works one on one with students. The five stages of spelling are something that I found to be very useful, especially for tutoring. My students have problems spelling very basic words and I'm not sure what to do to help them. But this chapter has given me some great ideas. The English language is a very hard one to learn. We have so many different sounds and different spellings that it can be very easy to become confused. Like the word ghost, my students usually spell it without the h; or phone they spell fone. After reading this chapter, I can understand why some children have such problems with spelling, even if they can read well. As a child, the one thing that I could do well was spell. It was never something that I had a problem with. But watching my students struggle so much, just breaks my heart. I know they can read the word, but if I ask them to spell it, they have no idea how. I think that some of the strategies in this chapter can help me to help them.
In response to Jaclyn: I also thought that the wheel of fortune game would be a lot of fun for my students and also help them a great deal. They still do spelling tests the same way, give the students a list and test them on it the next week. I don't think that this makes learning the words important to the students. You should expose them to the words in a variety of ways.
Chapter 12 covered spelling. My children take spellings tests each week at school. With states increasingly testing students on their writing sills, spelling has gained importance again. Rather than relying on word lists, some school districts are taking a different, more holistic method to spelling instruction. Schools emphasize word patters, roots and meanings rather than relying on word lists. Words are often paired into word families that have similar spellings so that students can relate the spelling of each word to the rest of the words in the lists with little change. Spelling is interesting to students if it is presented to them in a fashion that interests them. My sons teacher does different things each week with their spelling words. For example if they write sentence student have to use alliteration and other fun ideas.
In response to Brandy..... I liked the activity at the beginning of the book as well, but perhaps peer tutoring could be incorporated into the classroom as well. Students love working together so perhaps students who are more advanced in their spelling can assist those that may be further behind. Perhaps there is a trick students can teach to one another in remembering spelling rules and how to spell certain words. I can definitely see why students misspell words like the ones you gave as examples. As adults, we even tend to phonetically spell a word if it is one that we are uncertain of spelling. Spelling also becomes hard for students who mix up their letter sounds. I have one students who is struggling to recognize his g’s and j’s and his c’s and k’s.
Chapter 12 covered Spelling. It was very informational to me with the spelling stages, different languages' alphabets, traits of different types of spellers, and checklists for standards. Spelling can really be improved when students do activities, such as word searches, using magnetic letters, foam board letters, anagrams, and Wheel-of-Fortune. The Wheel-of-Fortune activity can be used as students guess letters individually, and grouping students up to be teams. Some spelling techniques I have seen have been the game "Sparkle", using paper letters, marker boards, chalk boards, and transparencies. Sparkle is a good way to have the whole class work on their spelling words. Another important thing for lower grade students to have is a dictionary that they can add to in their desk. Anytime they don't know a word, they can look in their dictionary, and if it isn't in there, they can have a friend or adult add the word for them. Now I can take a few techniques I've learned to assist students when spelling. Usually I help them spell not by straight spelling it for them, but saying the sound each letter makes.
In response to Ashley R.: What grades are your children in? I have seen first grade students take spelling tests and the teacher bases the spelling words on certain blends and other techniques. For instance, one week was over using -ed and -ing endings. This was by far the most difficult of the students.
Chapter 12 was about spelling instruction. This is the area of Reading and Language Arts that I feel the least confident in teaching. It drives me insane to see misspelled words and I want to constantly correct people on their spelling but I don’t really know how to teach a child to learn to spell. I really liked how the book explained the different stages of spelling and figure 12.2 on page 316 that bulleted stages by different theorists. I found it interesting that they didn’t just say teach the same thing to ELL students at a slower pace and with more attention to detail. It makes sense that they would have to start at the level of a child just learning basic grammar. The “I spy” activity that is mentioned several times through out the reading sounds awesome! I think that children will really love it and it will help them a lot! A print rich environment and exposure to lots of different words and stories seems like one of the best ways to teach children to spell. In the section about the derivational relations spelling stage it mentions hyphenating words. This is something I still struggle with. I do not recall learning when and why to hyphenate words, just that all the sudden when I got to college there were a lot of words that were all the sudden suppose to be hyphenated to be grammatically correct. About what age level are students suppose to learn this? And does anyone know the specific rules to hyphenating. Most often I have resulted to hyphenating words that sound like they should be when I say them aloud.
Chapter 12 deals with Spelling. I really liked the scenario right at the beginning because I feel like this is a very reasonable situation that many of us will encounter. I really liked the idea of the magnetic letters and sound boxes. I think the magnetic letters are great because you can easily build off of that activity by adding more letters and more challenging words. I have always enjoyed spelling, and I always felt at ease taking tests. Poor spelling is a pet peeve of mine, but I honestly wasn’t all that clear as to how to teach spelling. The five stages of spelling is something that I find very useful, and it will also be something that I will refer back to quite often. I will make it my goal to better understand English and Spanish spelling patterns. I know I will encounter several ELL students in my education career, and the more prepared I can be, the better. This chapter also made me realize even more how difficult learning the English language can be for students. I think English-speaking students even struggle sometimes with all the different meanings and pronunciations. The section over Good Versus Poor Readers helped me better understand what that truly meant. I just thought a good speller knew how to spell, and a poor speller didn’t, but this section quickly assured me it means much more than just knowing how to spell. When good spellers proofread their work they catch their errors, and when they don’t know how to spell a word they “generate sensible written alternatives that can be compared in order to select the one that makes the most sense.” The book also said that it is helpful to understand what good spellers can do because you can take what they know to better understand poor spellers. My question would be: can poor speller’s help you better understand good spellers? Or do poor spellers only benefit from this situation? I just really liked this chapter in the book because it was short, yet full of information.
I really liked a lot of the activities that you mentioned from the book. It sounds like the game Sparkle is a fun, yet beneficial way of learning. In my tutoring sessions I have my students keep a list of vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with. It is neat to see them recognize the word later on in the story. I sometimes catch myself spelling the word for my students. But, after reading this chapter I will be more aware of how to help my students when they encounter a word they can’t spell.
The fifth graders I tutor have excellent spelling skills, but I have overhead them talking during independent activities about the strategy that their teachers uses to teach spelling. Their classroom teacher simply teaches from a spelling book, and the students do a few activities from the book, like a matching section of the word and its definition, a fill-in-the-blank section, and so on. Their teacher also has them write the word five times to practice. I remember having to do this in elementary school, and I hated it. I don’t think students get the full potential of learning when they are just rewriting the word. I loved the strategies that were shared in the book, and will definitely use these strategies in my future classroom. The scenario at the beginning of the chapter was great; I loved how Ms. Jackson took the concept of guided reading and writing and made it fit the students’ needs with learning how to spell. The activity she did with the students that only had the concept of writing using only the initial sound was really neat. I have heard about sound boxes, but have never really read or observed them being used. It seemed to really keep the students actively involved in the process of spelling. Ms. Jackson didn’t simply give them the correct answer, she allowed them to spell the word in two different ways before letting them know which way was correct. I think she sounds like a great, dedicated teacher. An extremely great portion of this chapter that really stood out to me was the different spelling stages. I knew writing had the different stages, but I wasn’t sure about spelling. So it was important that I read about these stages.
The activities listed at the end of the chapter were eye-opening for me as well. Before reading this chapter I had never thought to use magnetic letters as an educational tool. My three year old daughter plays with her letter magnets on the fridge all the time, and we use them to identify the letters in her name, but I had never thought of continuing this practice in a school lesson. Also, word searches have always been a favorite of mine, and I actually included some within my lesson plans during my tutoring sessions. I would have to say my favorite suggestion is the mnemonics. I have always loved coming up with these and was always something I did to help me make it through many tests. Like the mnemonic I was taught to long ago to help me remember which principle/principal was the type in a school system. My teacher told me that the principal in our school is our pal, and after that I had no trouble at all deciding between the two’s definitions.
In response to Brooke W., before this chapter I didn’t really have an idea of what sound boxes were, so I was really glad to get to see an example of them in this chapter. I am really glad they work so well for you and your tutoring students. I think sound boxes could be incorporated into so many activities, as you stated by saying you’ve used them in a lot of sessions, but they just seem so valuable to me. I can’t wait until the opportunity to get to include them in an activity in my future lesson plans. My favorite activity that was mentioned in this chapter included the magnetic letters too. I liked how the teacher incorporated word families into the activity, and let the students choose the initial sound, such a fun, interactive activity!
I think your students described how spelling lessons go in 90% of classrooms. We have talked about that in a lot of classes but it seems like teachers still do it, probably because it is how they learned and because of time constraints. One fun spelling activity that I remember doing in elementary school was shaving cream spelling. Our teacher gave us all a pile of shaving cream to spread over our desks (it cleaned them too) and then we would write a word, re-smear the cream and do it again.
Chapter twelve was about spelling. I thought the scenario at the beginning of the chapter was very important to read because teachers are going to encounter that same issue in their classrooms everywhere. I liked how the scenario explained how Ms. Jackson used the sound boxes to explain the spelling of cocoon and how the different sounds went into each box. Sound boxes are such a great idea to use for students learning to spell! I liked how the chapter explained each of the different stages of spelling and talked about ways to improve the student’s ability at each stage. I also thought it was neat to see the alphabets in different languages. I had taken Spanish in high school so new it was close but the others were just interesting to see! The patterns section was also helpful and informative to read. I really liked the activities and strategies at the end of the chapter. I love using word searches and wheel of fortune games! There are so many great ideas and I know I will use these when I am working with students in the future!
In response to Shelby…I have also been good at spelling and never worried much about it. My brothers on the other hand struggle to this day with spelling and I have never been able to understand it. After reading through this chapter though, I understand a lot more about good/bad spellers and am glad that the chapter has so many suggestions and activities to use to help students improve their spelling skills.
Chapter 12 is very informative about teaching spelling in the classroom. I enjoyed both the instructional practices for the stages of spelling and the instructional practices for English learners’ stages of spelling because I have two students that only speak English and one ELL student in my tutoring group. I also found the complex patterns of English spelling section to be interesting. Learning to spell in English is a very difficult task because there are so many complex rules and exceptions. I appreciate the example provided in the book where fish is spelled “phonetically” as ghoti. Being reminded of the tricky spellings of words is great when working with ELL students. The teacher needs to be able to see it from an ELL student’s point of view. In my 1st grade internship class my students have alphabetical word journals. Students write their spelling and sight words in these journals each week, and the teacher also has students write other words at random as students come across new words. The students refer to these journals when they are writing and need to know how to spell a word. When I go work with my reading tutoring 5th grade students after school, it is very different when it comes to spelling and writing. All of my tutoring students read below grade level and they also struggle with spelling. They have a greater bank of words they can spell when compared to the 1st graders, but they still misspell many common words. I think that word journals and word walls are a great way to help students with spelling even in 5th grade. If my tutoring students had word journals, I’m sure they would feel more confident and be more willing to participate in writing assignments.
In response to Becky H… My mentor teacher in one of my internships uses sound boxes with her first graders each week during spelling time. Students learn and practice their spelling words using sound boxes. They “punch out” the sounds for each word as they fill in the sound boxes. It is a very cool activity and it is amazing how much it helps the students.
I liked this chapter. It was short and to the point. It contained a lot of good information on spelling for English and non-English students. I really liked the chart on the characteristics of good and poor spellers. Teachers need to be aware of those students who are struggling and then help them. Teachers need to be sensitive on how they help with spelling. They can’t just say “Oh, that wrong it’s spelled this way.” Teachers can have students spell as close as they can to the correct way and then give constructive criticism on how to better spell a specific word. Spelling is important to learn because you will use it for the rest of your life.
I agree with you about the scenario. Just because your students are at the same grade doesn't mean that they'll have the same spelling skills. I never heard of the sound box method until I read it in the scenario. I also took Spanish in high school and I can see why a person from another language would find learning to read, write, speak,and spell in another language hard work.
I found this chapter interesting in a couple of different ways. I never knew there was a way to test students to find out what level they are at in spelling. I knew there was a progression to spelling but had never thought about it enough to break it down into different levels. I also found the list about good spellers vs. bad spellers interesting. I find spelling very easy but my 8th grade son and husband are horrible spellers. We have an ongoing joke about who will create the grocery list because once my husband put down "cheeze". I tease my 8th grader that he was blessed with his fathers spelling genes. I have also heard rumblings throughout the school in upper elementary of teachers minimizing their time teaching spelling because they have to increase the time in reading due to a push to include more time on reading. I know for a fact some teachers are limiting science and social studies so they can focus in on reading. I'm a little worried about that trend and hope my own children do not get in a classroom that has such a limited focus on education. Reading can be taught within every subject and therefore science and social studies should not be thrown by the wayside.
In response to Emily K... I also enjoyed reading about the teacher who created guided spelling. I never had thought about creating small groups like that for spelling or writing. This would be extremely helpful in a classroom where the variance of ability was extreme.
This was one of my favorite chapters so far! I enjoyed reading about all the great activities and strategies that were shared for spelling. I have never been a great speller. I remember memorizing words back in elementary school but that’s it. So spelling is definitely an area I’m not all that comfortable teaching. However, this chapter included some awesome information to help me teach my students. I especially found the five stages of spelling to be very useful and something I will refer back to. Brooke, I am very curious to try the sound boxes. Sounds like they’ve worked wonderful for you! I have also seen the benefits of word families in my internships. I think word walls are a great visual for all learners. Jaclyn, I think the Wheel-Of-Fortune game looks like a lot of fun as well. We don’t have much time left in our internships but I hope I have time to try it!
This chapter focused on spelling. I liked the quote on page 314, Good spelling instruction is “teaching children how to spell, not what to spell.” I think this is such a great thing to put out to us prospective teachers. There are many stages of spelling. There is the emergent spelling stage the alphabetic spelling stage, the within word pattern spelling stage, the syllable and affixes spelling stage and the derivational spelling stage. There is also many stages for English Language Learners. Researchers suggest that good spellers understand orthography, which is letters and their sequence in words. This is so interesting to find out. I liked the section about word solvers and how they learn unknown words, through sound, through vision, through meaning, through analogies, and through inquiry. There are many differences between good and poor spellers. The section I read on this information was very good to know, and maybe it will help me pick those types of students out in my classroom later when I begin my career. Figure 12.6 and 12.7 were very helpful in learning about and understanding the Spanish phonemes in comparison to our English phonemes. No wonder why a child could get confused if it was their native language. The traits on good and poor spellers was very informational as well. The several activities this chapter introduced were also very helpful for my classroom later. I have always loved the word mnemonics and how they are good in the English language. I remember an episode of Full House when Stephanie was in the school spelling bee and she missed this word. There was another kid that was considered the human dictionary. He spelled it correctly and she was upset. She learned a lot about silent letters. It was a great episode for younger children to learn that there are many silent letters and how they can affect your spelling.
In response to Janet H– I thought this chapter was very informational. The part about testing to see the level a student was in their spelling was very interesting. I never knew this was possible either. I took so much from this chapter. My tutoring students have a big problem with their spelling. They are first graders and it seems like they should be able to spell a lot of words that they ask me about. I don’t spell it out for them right away, I make them sound the words and each letter out and see if they can figure it out on their own. Most times they are actually able to do that.
Spelling is intimately connected with writing, as well as reading. In order to spell, and write, in a way that is understandable, students must have a working knowledge of phonics and phonemic awareness. Along the same vein, the student needs these skills to read effectively.
It was interesting to note the number of theories of developmental spelling stages, although most were variations of the others. The stages are also linked to those of writing skills. The pre-communication stage is linked to the scribbling stage (which is also called scribbling in some spelling theories). In fact, it is not surprising that the stages are similar, as they are closely linked.
I appreciated the strategies for teaching ELL students. It makes sense that, if a student is not fluent in their native language that they can be taught English spelling in the same manner as native English speakers. Developmental stages for spelling and writing are universal. It is the alphabets and orthography that are specific.
I wish that I had studied this chapter closer to the one on phonics. The “rules” given for teachers to assist students would have been immensely helpful with my tutoring students, as both struggle with phonics, and the connections between reading and writing are so close. However, I plan to incorporate a short lesson this coming week, before summative testing, using the Internet resources. My two students love to use the computers, and I feel this would be a great motivating activity for them.
In response to Hannah B. I love the idea of alphabetical word journals. This strategy would easily scaffold into personal dictionaries in high grade levels.
Chapter 12 is all about spelling. I have never been very good at spelling. It is definitely one of my weaknesses. The chapter suggests that teachers need to develop background knowledge about the developmental stages of spelling, the orthographic patterns of words, and the complexities of English spelling. I really enjoyed reading about the developmental stages of spelling. I guess I didn’t realize that just like other skills there are different stages. The first stage is the emergent spelling stage. The children in this stage make scribbles and letter like shapes. This is very similar to the first stage of writing. The second stage is the alphabetic spelling stage. The students are aware of the initial sounds of words in this stage. The third stage is the within word pattern spelling stage. The teacher helps students discover patterns within words during this stage. This usually comes with the instruction of phonograms. The fourth stage is the syllable and affixes spelling stage. The teacher’s goal in this stage is to help students see chunks within words so that they learn to listen for these groups of letters and spell them. The fifth and last stage is the derivational relations spelling stage. Here the students are spelling most words correctly so the teacher encourages the students to check one another’s spelling. I really liked how the chapter also listed the stages for ELL students and described how they learn to spell. It is important to be able to understand how the ELL students learn. I really liked the activities for spelling in this chapter. The foam board letters would be such an easy station during small group time. I also love word searches! Although I do believe that some teachers use to many word searches. I also really liked the Wheel of Fortune game. The game would be a fun way for the students to learn their spelling words other than memorization.
I agree I really enjoyed the section of the chapter about the ELL students. I founds it very interesting how learning spelling and writing is basically the same in any language, it's just different symbols. I am so glad we have such a great resource in this text book that we can come back at a later time and review how to teach ELL students spelling or writing.
In response to Brandy: It breaks my heart to see my students struggle with spelling too. I find that the same students who struggle with spelling the words also struggle with reading the words. I too found the ideas from this chapter helpful.
In response to Jaclyn C.: I think Wheel of Fortune would be a fun way to teach spelling too. I think that spelling is hard to teach because they students aren't interested in it or feel invested in it, but a game like Wheel of Fortune would both interest the students and help them feel invested in it.
I found this chapter very interesting. Today I feel that students want the easy way of just asking someone how to spell a word. I feel that students should try to spell the word at the best of their knowledge and if it is not correct then look the word up in the dictionary. At my last job as a case manager working in the school students would ask the how to spell a word and I would tell them to look in the dictionary and they would respond “What’s that?” But the student had a smirk on his face. Also the book provides great activities to use such as the Wheel of Fortune. Building vocabulary with students is very important and we worked on this goal with one of our activities for my Read Aloud of James and the Giant Peach. A booklet was provided and the students had a Vocabulary page where they would place a word that was related to the story. It was very beneficial for the students.
I agree on wordsearches I love them also but teachers do use them to much. I'm a teacher for my church and the students tell me each time please no wordsearches they see them to much. :) Also the Wheel of Fortune game would be a great game for students.
I think that the scenario in the beginning of the chapter is very good. I liked how she grouped the students by spelling ability level. Many teachers do this for reading and even math, but not many have thought or decided to this for spelling. I wish more would though because I think it would benefit all students. I thought the sound boxes were a neat idea and could be very helpful. My kindergarten daughter’s teacher has the students use inventive spelling, which from what I can see is writing the words as the sound using only the sounds they hear. My daughter has learned some of the phonograms and she is starting to know when to use them. I think that the table with traits for good and poor spellers is helpful also. I have been in classes that used the Scrabble cheez-its to spell the spelling words, much like the anagrams with alphabet cereal activity found in this chapter. I think the Wheel of Fortune game is a great idea. My friend who teaches 2nd grade plays Boggle with her spelling words, the kids really like that too. In our house we have Scrabble Jr. and Scrabble Slam that we play with our kids, jut to help introduce new words and practice spelling with our kids. They also play other family members in words/spelling games on our phone over the internet. I don’t think the extra practice is a bad thing at all!
Chapter 12 was about spelling. The scenario with Ms. Jackson sounds all too familiar. I have a boy in my group who will not write a word if he cannot spell it. Often times he will get so angry if I ask him to just do his best that he will not participate the rest of the day. I started letting him “ask a friend” and together they would sound out the word correctly most of the time. I learned in chapter 12 that there are stages to spelling. I guess I hadn’t ever thought about there being a particular order that children go in. It makes sense now though because there are stages for writing and reading and everything really. I also didn’t put much thought into all the different types of stages that have been proposed. There are so many models! I got some great ideas on how to assess students on spelling from this chapter as well. This chapter had a lot of great information that will be very useful in the future.
in response to Kim D: I think it's great that you have spelling type games for your kids! I can remember playing scrabble with my mom when I was young and always getting beat because I didn't have the vocabulary range she has. It's great to introduce your kids to spelling at home so they are getting the extra practice!
I think it's great you keep a journal with your students so you can see the improvements that they are making. It's always fun and encouraging to know that we have made that difference.
This chapter was a lot of fun to read because it gave so many great activities for spelling. There are a lot of children out there that are terrible spellers and hate spelling. There are also a lot of adults that hate to write because they are terrible spellers. Maybe if we make spelling and writing fun for our students at an early age, it will help them retain the information better. I really liked the wheel of fortune game. That game can be played with any grade level. The teacher will just have to make quite a bit of time to come up with different phrases for her students. I also liked the anagrams. Using different words like the childs names, they can create a ton of different words out of other words. This is great for them to see that there are so many ways to write words and to make words. I also never thought to use the auto correct spelling on word documents as a learning strategy. A teacher can give students a bunch of misspelled words and have them find the correct spelling for the word. Students may enjoy this because the answer is right there in front of them. They just have to pick the correct spelling.
Chapter 12 talks about spelling and the skills necessary to teach spelling to students. Children do not come in one developmental stage, so having strategies to focus on and identifying patterns within words so students can learn was what this chapter dealt with. What I have noticed with even my 8th grade daughter is she brings home her spelling, has a unit where she writes the words to sentences in three different places, and then has a test over it at the end of the week. I do not see how these students are ‘learning’ the words. I do know her teacher has taught for almost 20 years, so maybe that is the problem. The ‘new way’ of teaching spelling isn’t being taught? Half of the students have their parents help them with their assignments.
In response to Alisha G…. I agree with you on these students taking the easy way out. When I sub I am constantly asked how to spell words. These students do not want to look them up..it is too much work for them.
I really enjoyed the activities in the back of the chapter also. There are so many great activities today to work with these students there is absolutely no reason they are not better spellers.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter because during my formative assessments I realized that my students were having a bit of a tough time spelling some words so it was great reading all of the wonderful strategies in this chapter. I liked the quote, "Merely reading words does not ensure that students can spell them." I think this is a great quote that many teachers need to take note of. I really liked reading about all of the different stages in spelling as well as the "within word pattern stage." This stage related to ESOL students, and since I have 2 of them in my group, this section really gave some wonderful ideas. The activities and assessments were such a big help as well! Overall, another good chapter. Does anyone have any spelling activities or games that have helped their students?
In response to Debbie M- I really enjoyed reading about your experience with your daughter who is in the 8th grade. I would assume it is because her teacher has been teaching for 20 years or more and maybe does not focus on spelling as much as she should be. There were so many great spelling activities and assessment ideas in here. It is a shame that your daughter is not getting the practice she needs, but maybe with you reading this chapter you will be able to help her out in the long run :) Great post!
I know exactly what you are talking about when some students do not attempt to write a word unless they know the correct spelling! I love how you have handled that situation by having them work in pairs to help each other spell!
I also love the activities and ideas in this chapter (the whole book!)! I love the Wheel-of-Fortune activity on page 328.
Chapter 12 was fun because I am a spelling geek! I always loved spelling tests when I was younger. I know, I am silly!!! I enjoyed reading about the different stages of spelling because I have witnessed each stage in my own children. I love reading their writing in the younger elementary grades because the spelling is so cute and funny! I never knew that there were so many different stages! WOW! I also thought that the section on spelling assessments was great. I always just related the traditional spelling tests as one of the only ways to really measure spelling. I was wrong! I thought that the checklist for spelling standards on page 325 was super.
Like each chapter, I love to go through each activity. They provide so many fun and creative ways to teach. My favorite activities this week were the magnetic letters and wheel-of-fortune.
Chapter 12 places emphasis on the topic of spelling. I student teach 3rd grade and I see a lot of invented spellings when I am grading papers. I think it’s important that we teach our children to spell but learning phonics ties into this piece. When I was in school, we had spelling tests every week but it seems that schools have gotten away from that. It’s important that children learn how to spell in order to prepare them for creative writing which takes place usually around the 4th grade. I feel that schools should emphasize word patterns, root words and meanings rather than relying on spelling lists. I have no questions concerning this chapter.
What a great quote good spelling instruction is “teaching children how to spell, not what to spell.” I’ve always loved spelling and growing up playing scrabble was a Friday night ritual. Spelling is an important skill for students to learn because it helps them become proficient writers. Last year, my mentor teacher used magnetic letters as one of her centers. She mainly used them for phonics but as the students progressed, she had them use it for their spelling words for the week. I thought that was a better strategy than writing them three times in their notebook. This semester I’m interning in a 6th grade class and their spelling is horrible! I’ve noticed that both teachers don’t correct spelling. This drives me crazy because how else are they going to know that their spelling is incorrect. It doesn’t have to be marked in big red letters, but a gentle reminder of how to spell the word is important. I like the different strategies the book describes for teaching spelling. I didn’t see the game “sparkle” in the book. I saw this technique last year in my internship class. The students all stood up and the teacher said the spelling word. One by one the students called out each letter of the word. After the last letter was said the next student said “sparkle.” If a student said the wrong letter, they had to sit down and the spelling continued. It was a fun activity for the students.
In the internship class I observed last year the teacher had the students write their spelling words three times and each time in a different color. They have a test at the end of the week and then those words are long forgotten.
I too am a Scrabble person. My parents and I would play all the time when I was a kid and now I play quite a bit with friends. I haven't gotten my kids quite into playing yet. I think that playing that so much made me such a stickler for misspelled words. To me it is like nails on a chalkboard! Seriously though the other thing was about Sparkle. At our school the children love to play and they do play it quite a bit in 1st and 2nd grade.
This chapter talks about spelling and when I was growing up it was one of my favorite subjects in school. I can remember having to write the words 5 times each when the teacher gave out the list. I don't believe that the words are forgotten though. In the second grade, one teacher uses a spelling workbook that has a list and the other two teachers use something different. I like the workbook that the students have because even though they do write the words at least once, they sort the words into families so the children can associate the family with the spelling. Then the workbook uses the words in different skills such as dictionary skills, proofreading, and phonics skills. I think that it can always be added on as well, in fact, the teacher will usually go over what other words are in the family that are not listed and will talk about word meaning as well.
Chapter 12 deals with spelling. I will admit I am a less than desirable speller, especially when I was younger. I absolutely hated it! I had weekly spelling tests and never did very well. The classes I help in at the school currently still has weekly spelling tests. Spelling ties directly into phonics as others have previously stated. There are too many kids that just come up and want you to spell the word for you. The majority of our classroom teachers at the school I am at, give the students their own spelling dictionary that they can write words they need to know how to spell. They are required to try to sound it out first and look it up in the real dictionary then ask a friend, if they still need help they are able to go to the teacher. I used to get angry when my teachers told me to look it up and sound it out--my thought process was if I knew how to spell it then I wouldn't need to look it up. As I have been going through this program I have learned how vitally important that was for me. The games in this chapter or activities are phenomenal. I have highlighted so many of them. I can't wait to try them.
In response to Royce, I am so happy that spelling was one of your favorite subjects in school, it was not for me! I like you idea on spelling in the work books and including them in the word families especially for the younger grades. I can see how that can help. I have a 5 year old and she is learning to read and loves word family books because she can sound out the words and then she tries to write all of the words she can think of in that word family. Until you just stated this I never put the two together. Thank you for this.
Chapter 12 discussed spelling. This is I think is an important chapter, especially since spelling is in everything we read and write. During my tutoring sessions, my students are really good about sounding out the words when they are trying to spell them. If they still have trouble and cannot figure the word out, then I will help them. I have to admit this does not happen very often. My mentor teacher from last semester had her students write their spelling words 5x each, do ABC order, and use their words in a sentence. I think this is a good way to help students learn the word but also help them remember the words. I have always been what I think a decent speller. Growing up, my mom was an English teacher so learning to spell and doing it correctly was not a choice.
In response to Debbie M... Like you, my 8th grade daughter has a spelling test each week. At the first of the week they are given the words to fill in a "mad-lib" type story, then are given worksheets to complete using the words. Most of the time the words that they use for the other worksheets are not the words that will be on their test at the end of the week. My daughter is one that struggles at spelling, so doing it this way I don't feel she is really learning what the words are in order to prepare her for her test at the end of the week.
In response to Jen...I have been in classrooms in the same situations as you when the students keep asking how to spell this and that. Keeping their own spelling dictionaries is an excellent practice, and one I would like to implement in my own classroom. Thanks for sharing! Julie
Another great chapter from DeVries. Spelling can be tricky for emerging readers and writers, so this chapter was very timely - especially with a few more tutoring sessions still to go. I apreciated how the chapter broke strategies up by stages (emergent, alphabetic, within word pattern,etc.) I was just an average speller myself as an elementary student, and could have benefitted from many of these strategies. Figure 12.7 broke down the characteristics of poor vs. good spellers - that is helpful information for us in monitoring, assessing, and determining effective strategies. My absolute favorite suggestion from the chapter is the Wheel of Fortune game based on a particular book. I can't wait to try this one out! One thing is evident from the chapter, spelling is an important skill and quite crucial for the writing process.
Spelling is a very complex developmental process that is part of the overall understanding and mastery of the English language. Spelling is a combination of keeping a young speller motivated and encouraged. The speller will soon learn that spelling becomes interesting when learning to express themselves through writing poems and stories when moving on to spelling skills.
Reading aloud and pronunciation are also an important stage in spelling. These are all skills that students seem to be a little lacking in these days. It really seems like we have been made to place so much focus on the subjects and skills that are part of the standardized tests, that we no longer have time to focus on some of the other equally important skills such as writing, spelling, and handwriting. I remember having weekly spelling bees in class to practice spelling words. I loved it and I hope to try to find a little time in my own classroom to incorporate some of the good old stand by strategies that I enjoyed so much from my elementary school experience.
I agree that spelling can be extremely tricky for children to grasp. The English language really is complex when you think about all the rules and variations of words that we have. I often wonder how on Earth we decided some of our spellings and nutty rules made sense when the language was passed off and okayed! This language is definitely the last I would want to master spelling in if I were from another language speaking region. No wonder children first learning tend to struggle with it!
Chapter 12 In the scenario portion of this chapter I loved the idea of guided spelling. I think that this is an area in younger grades that is often over looked. The purpose of these sessions is to mentor students as they progress from one spelling stage to another. Last semester in 2nd grade reading and language arts internship I observed students writing in their journals. I thought that these journals would lend well to guided spelling sessions. If a student or even a small group of 2 or 3 students would choose a passage in their journal and then the teacher would use this time for the revision of the passage this would be a great way to introduce guided spelling. Having a word wall as well as word cards for students to use during writing would also be a great way to serve the spelling needs of the students. Many times I think teachers use the spelling list as the only instruction. In this text it is apparent that teachers need to intervene and use direct, explicit spelling instruction when students need it. They need to be taught how to spell not what to spell. The best part for me in this chapter was reading about the instructional practices for each spelling stage. Having specific strategies and activities that are specific for each stage is a great! It is already apparent to me during my tutoring sessions that just like reading levels are very diverse in a classroom so are spelling abilities. I have also noticed that being a good reader does not make you a good speller. Students need to be taught spelling strategies just as they are taught reading strategies. This is something that I need to educate myself on. Does anyone know a book that will help with these spelling rules. I feel that when I was taught I was never really taught the rules I was just taught to memorize the words. This week my son brought home a spelling list that consisted of –ed and –ing to root words. I was struggling with how to communicate why certain consonants were doubled and others were not. WOW! I need to brush up on my spelling knowledge. At this point it is just automatic but students need to know why and how word are the way they are spelled. In response to Margaret: I too think that spelling is an important part of a students day. I have been tutoring 1st graders and this is something they struggle with. We have been creating an everyday word list made out of words that we see and use everyday and then we add to the list words that we see and will use when writing about what we read in our guided reading books. I make it very clear that using the resources in the room as well as their books and each other are okay when needing to know how to spell a word.
This is a great chapter for me, super excited to read all the great activities and strategies for spelling. My big five is phonics and my students are working extremely hard with their spelling by sound. This chapter provides great information for me to implement with my students. I have been doing a lot of sound boxes and it is mention on page 313 and 314, figure 12.1. My kindergarten students have reaped in so many ways. They are so confident in their spelling since we have been using sound boxes. I also have seen our many benefits teaching word families have as well. We started with the –at family and did that activity several lessons ago the students are still adding to their –at mat. The activities listed on page 326-328 are wonderful. I especially like the magnetic letters, foam boards, ans word searches. I am going to use the word search activity and scale it down to my students level. I have my students write in their journals each session, it is amazing how much they have progressed.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 covers the topic of spelling. I have had many experiences working with students and spelling. The second graders that I worked with often used invented spellings and would then ask how to spell the words they did not know. I struggle with spelling in my tutoring at times because students are learning the phonograms and they often put the phonograms in place of one letter sounds in words. The English language is extremely confusing, especially when teaching spelling!
ReplyDeleteI felt like the examples of the different spelling stages were helpful. It is important to learn where our students are at so that we can develop instructional strategies that will help them develop the skills needed to move to the next stage. The goals and strategies listed under each stage were also useful. I did not how to teach students to spell besides giving them the spellings for words and having them memorize it. This was the way that we learned to spell when I was in elementary school. I think it is important to have students use the words many times in context so they can develop a memory of the word, but it must be done in conjunction with the other strategies.
I think that the game, Wheel-Of-Fortune could be a lot of fun, especially for the fourth graders that I am tutoring. Using phrases and words from the read aloud and guided reading books will also help develop their vocabulary and their comprehension because they will be using a category that is based on the story. I think that the students would really enjoy this, especially students who are struggling with spelling. I feel that all spelling activities should be done in a risk-free environment. The goal is to develop spellers who will use the strategies needed to spell on their own not to have students who can correctly choose one correctly spelled word in a list of four words.
Brooke, I am glad that you have experience with teaching spelling. I thought that the activities listed for word families and all other activities on pages 326-328 sounded like they would be very helpful when teaching spelling. I did not really know many ways to work on spelling with students and I feel like this chapter really helped me to develop some useful strategies.
ReplyDeleteJaclyn, my invented spelling is the best and it allows you to see how their spelling evolves through out the year. I am seeing that in just the students that I am tutoring, how their spelling has evolved. Teaching students to spell is so rewarding!
ReplyDeleteSpelling is the topic of chapter 12. I like the scenario at the beginning of the chapter because the teacher has placed the students in groups according to the variety of abilities and she also works one on one with students. The five stages of spelling are something that I found to be very useful, especially for tutoring. My students have problems spelling very basic words and I'm not sure what to do to help them. But this chapter has given me some great ideas. The English language is a very hard one to learn. We have so many different sounds and different spellings that it can be very easy to become confused. Like the word ghost, my students usually spell it without the h; or phone they spell fone. After reading this chapter, I can understand why some children have such problems with spelling, even if they can read well. As a child, the one thing that I could do well was spell. It was never something that I had a problem with. But watching my students struggle so much, just breaks my heart. I know they can read the word, but if I ask them to spell it, they have no idea how. I think that some of the strategies in this chapter can help me to help them.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jaclyn:
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the wheel of fortune game would be a lot of fun for my students and also help them a great deal. They still do spelling tests the same way, give the students a list and test them on it the next week. I don't think that this makes learning the words important to the students. You should expose them to the words in a variety of ways.
Chapter 12 covered spelling. My children take spellings tests each week at school. With states increasingly testing students on their writing sills, spelling has gained importance again. Rather than relying on word lists, some school districts are taking a different, more holistic method to spelling instruction. Schools emphasize word patters, roots and meanings rather than relying on word lists. Words are often paired into word families that have similar spellings so that students can relate the spelling of each word to the rest of the words in the lists with little change. Spelling is interesting to students if it is presented to them in a fashion that interests them. My sons teacher does different things each week with their spelling words. For example if they write sentence student have to use alliteration and other fun ideas.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brandy.....
ReplyDeleteI liked the activity at the beginning of the book as well, but perhaps peer tutoring could be incorporated into the classroom as well. Students love working together so perhaps students who are more advanced in their spelling can assist those that may be further behind. Perhaps there is a trick students can teach to one another in remembering spelling rules and how to spell certain words. I can definitely see why students misspell words like the ones you gave as examples. As adults, we even tend to phonetically spell a word if it is one that we are uncertain of spelling. Spelling also becomes hard for students who mix up their letter sounds. I have one students who is struggling to recognize his g’s and j’s and his c’s and k’s.
Chapter 12 covered Spelling. It was very informational to me with the spelling stages, different languages' alphabets, traits of different types of spellers, and checklists for standards. Spelling can really be improved when students do activities, such as word searches, using magnetic letters, foam board letters, anagrams, and Wheel-of-Fortune. The Wheel-of-Fortune activity can be used as students guess letters individually, and grouping students up to be teams. Some spelling techniques I have seen have been the game "Sparkle", using paper letters, marker boards, chalk boards, and transparencies. Sparkle is a good way to have the whole class work on their spelling words. Another important thing for lower grade students to have is a dictionary that they can add to in their desk. Anytime they don't know a word, they can look in their dictionary, and if it isn't in there, they can have a friend or adult add the word for them. Now I can take a few techniques I've learned to assist students when spelling. Usually I help them spell not by straight spelling it for them, but saying the sound each letter makes.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Ashley R.:
ReplyDeleteWhat grades are your children in? I have seen first grade students take spelling tests and the teacher bases the spelling words on certain blends and other techniques. For instance, one week was over using -ed and -ing endings. This was by far the most difficult of the students.
Chapter 12 was about spelling instruction. This is the area of Reading and Language Arts that I feel the least confident in teaching. It drives me insane to see misspelled words and I want to constantly correct people on their spelling but I don’t really know how to teach a child to learn to spell.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how the book explained the different stages of spelling and figure 12.2 on page 316 that bulleted stages by different theorists. I found it interesting that they didn’t just say teach the same thing to ELL students at a slower pace and with more attention to detail. It makes sense that they would have to start at the level of a child just learning basic grammar. The “I spy” activity that is mentioned several times through out the reading sounds awesome! I think that children will really love it and it will help them a lot! A print rich environment and exposure to lots of different words and stories seems like one of the best ways to teach children to spell.
In the section about the derivational relations spelling stage it mentions hyphenating words. This is something I still struggle with. I do not recall learning when and why to hyphenate words, just that all the sudden when I got to college there were a lot of words that were all the sudden suppose to be hyphenated to be grammatically correct. About what age level are students suppose to learn this? And does anyone know the specific rules to hyphenating. Most often I have resulted to hyphenating words that sound like they should be when I say them aloud.
Chapter 12 deals with Spelling. I really liked the scenario right at the beginning because I feel like this is a very reasonable situation that many of us will encounter. I really liked the idea of the magnetic letters and sound boxes. I think the magnetic letters are great because you can easily build off of that activity by adding more letters and more challenging words. I have always enjoyed spelling, and I always felt at ease taking tests. Poor spelling is a pet peeve of mine, but I honestly wasn’t all that clear as to how to teach spelling. The five stages of spelling is something that I find very useful, and it will also be something that I will refer back to quite often. I will make it my goal to better understand English and Spanish spelling patterns. I know I will encounter several ELL students in my education career, and the more prepared I can be, the better. This chapter also made me realize even more how difficult learning the English language can be for students. I think English-speaking students even struggle sometimes with all the different meanings and pronunciations. The section over Good Versus Poor Readers helped me better understand what that truly meant. I just thought a good speller knew how to spell, and a poor speller didn’t, but this section quickly assured me it means much more than just knowing how to spell. When good spellers proofread their work they catch their errors, and when they don’t know how to spell a word they “generate sensible written alternatives that can be compared in order to select the one that makes the most sense.” The book also said that it is helpful to understand what good spellers can do because you can take what they know to better understand poor spellers. My question would be: can poor speller’s help you better understand good spellers? Or do poor spellers only benefit from this situation? I just really liked this chapter in the book because it was short, yet full of information.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Loraimaro:
ReplyDeleteI really liked a lot of the activities that you mentioned from the book. It sounds like the game Sparkle is a fun, yet beneficial way of learning. In my tutoring sessions I have my students keep a list of vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with. It is neat to see them recognize the word later on in the story. I sometimes catch myself spelling the word for my students. But, after reading this chapter I will be more aware of how to help my students when they encounter a word they can’t spell.
The fifth graders I tutor have excellent spelling skills, but I have overhead them talking during independent activities about the strategy that their teachers uses to teach spelling. Their classroom teacher simply teaches from a spelling book, and the students do a few activities from the book, like a matching section of the word and its definition, a fill-in-the-blank section, and so on. Their teacher also has them write the word five times to practice. I remember having to do this in elementary school, and I hated it. I don’t think students get the full potential of learning when they are just rewriting the word. I loved the strategies that were shared in the book, and will definitely use these strategies in my future classroom. The scenario at the beginning of the chapter was great; I loved how Ms. Jackson took the concept of guided reading and writing and made it fit the students’ needs with learning how to spell. The activity she did with the students that only had the concept of writing using only the initial sound was really neat. I have heard about sound boxes, but have never really read or observed them being used. It seemed to really keep the students actively involved in the process of spelling. Ms. Jackson didn’t simply give them the correct answer, she allowed them to spell the word in two different ways before letting them know which way was correct. I think she sounds like a great, dedicated teacher. An extremely great portion of this chapter that really stood out to me was the different spelling stages. I knew writing had the different stages, but I wasn’t sure about spelling. So it was important that I read about these stages.
ReplyDeleteThe activities listed at the end of the chapter were eye-opening for me as well. Before reading this chapter I had never thought to use magnetic letters as an educational tool. My three year old daughter plays with her letter magnets on the fridge all the time, and we use them to identify the letters in her name, but I had never thought of continuing this practice in a school lesson. Also, word searches have always been a favorite of mine, and I actually included some within my lesson plans during my tutoring sessions. I would have to say my favorite suggestion is the mnemonics. I have always loved coming up with these and was always something I did to help me make it through many tests. Like the mnemonic I was taught to long ago to help me remember which principle/principal was the type in a school system. My teacher told me that the principal in our school is our pal, and after that I had no trouble at all deciding between the two’s definitions.
In response to Brooke W., before this chapter I didn’t really have an idea of what sound boxes were, so I was really glad to get to see an example of them in this chapter. I am really glad they work so well for you and your tutoring students. I think sound boxes could be incorporated into so many activities, as you stated by saying you’ve used them in a lot of sessions, but they just seem so valuable to me. I can’t wait until the opportunity to get to include them in an activity in my future lesson plans. My favorite activity that was mentioned in this chapter included the magnetic letters too. I liked how the teacher incorporated word families into the activity, and let the students choose the initial sound, such a fun, interactive activity!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Emily K:
ReplyDeleteI think your students described how spelling lessons go in 90% of classrooms. We have talked about that in a lot of classes but it seems like teachers still do it, probably because it is how they learned and because of time constraints. One fun spelling activity that I remember doing in elementary school was shaving cream spelling. Our teacher gave us all a pile of shaving cream to spread over our desks (it cleaned them too) and then we would write a word, re-smear the cream and do it again.
Chapter twelve was about spelling. I thought the scenario at the beginning of the chapter was very important to read because teachers are going to encounter that same issue in their classrooms everywhere. I liked how the scenario explained how Ms. Jackson used the sound boxes to explain the spelling of cocoon and how the different sounds went into each box. Sound boxes are such a great idea to use for students learning to spell! I liked how the chapter explained each of the different stages of spelling and talked about ways to improve the student’s ability at each stage. I also thought it was neat to see the alphabets in different languages. I had taken Spanish in high school so new it was close but the others were just interesting to see! The patterns section was also helpful and informative to read. I really liked the activities and strategies at the end of the chapter. I love using word searches and wheel of fortune games! There are so many great ideas and I know I will use these when I am working with students in the future!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shelby…I have also been good at spelling and never worried much about it. My brothers on the other hand struggle to this day with spelling and I have never been able to understand it. After reading through this chapter though, I understand a lot more about good/bad spellers and am glad that the chapter has so many suggestions and activities to use to help students improve their spelling skills.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 is very informative about teaching spelling in the classroom. I enjoyed both the instructional practices for the stages of spelling and the instructional practices for English learners’ stages of spelling because I have two students that only speak English and one ELL student in my tutoring group. I also found the complex patterns of English spelling section to be interesting. Learning to spell in English is a very difficult task because there are so many complex rules and exceptions. I appreciate the example provided in the book where fish is spelled “phonetically” as ghoti. Being reminded of the tricky spellings of words is great when working with ELL students. The teacher needs to be able to see it from an ELL student’s point of view.
ReplyDeleteIn my 1st grade internship class my students have alphabetical word journals. Students write their spelling and sight words in these journals each week, and the teacher also has students write other words at random as students come across new words. The students refer to these journals when they are writing and need to know how to spell a word. When I go work with my reading tutoring 5th grade students after school, it is very different when it comes to spelling and writing. All of my tutoring students read below grade level and they also struggle with spelling. They have a greater bank of words they can spell when compared to the 1st graders, but they still misspell many common words. I think that word journals and word walls are a great way to help students with spelling even in 5th grade. If my tutoring students had word journals, I’m sure they would feel more confident and be more willing to participate in writing assignments.
In response to Becky H…
ReplyDeleteMy mentor teacher in one of my internships uses sound boxes with her first graders each week during spelling time. Students learn and practice their spelling words using sound boxes. They “punch out” the sounds for each word as they fill in the sound boxes. It is a very cool activity and it is amazing how much it helps the students.
I liked this chapter. It was short and to the point. It contained a lot of good information on spelling for English and non-English students. I really liked the chart on the characteristics of good and poor spellers. Teachers need to be aware of those students who are struggling and then help them. Teachers need to be sensitive on how they help with spelling. They can’t just say “Oh, that wrong it’s spelled this way.” Teachers can have students spell as close as they can to the correct way and then give constructive criticism on how to better spell a specific word. Spelling is important to learn because you will use it for the rest of your life.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Becky H:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the scenario. Just because your students are at the same grade doesn't mean that they'll have the same spelling skills. I never heard of the sound box method until I read it in the scenario. I also took Spanish in high school and I can see why a person from another language would find learning to read, write, speak,and spell in another language hard work.
I found this chapter interesting in a couple of different ways. I never knew there was a way to test students to find out what level they are at in spelling. I knew there was a progression to spelling but had never thought about it enough to break it down into different levels. I also found the list about good spellers vs. bad spellers interesting. I find spelling very easy but my 8th grade son and husband are horrible spellers. We have an ongoing joke about who will create the grocery list because once my husband put down "cheeze". I tease my 8th grader that he was blessed with his fathers spelling genes. I have also heard rumblings throughout the school in upper elementary of teachers minimizing their time teaching spelling because they have to increase the time in reading due to a push to include more time on reading. I know for a fact some teachers are limiting science and social studies so they can focus in on reading. I'm a little worried about that trend and hope my own children do not get in a classroom that has such a limited focus on education. Reading can be taught within every subject and therefore science and social studies should not be thrown by the wayside.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Emily K... I also enjoyed reading about the teacher who created guided spelling. I never had thought about creating small groups like that for spelling or writing. This would be extremely helpful in a classroom where the variance of ability was extreme.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite chapters so far! I enjoyed reading about all the great activities and strategies that were shared for spelling. I have never been a great speller. I remember memorizing words back in elementary school but that’s it. So spelling is definitely an area I’m not all that comfortable teaching. However, this chapter included some awesome information to help me teach my students. I especially found the five stages of spelling to be very useful and something I will refer back to.
ReplyDeleteBrooke, I am very curious to try the sound boxes. Sounds like they’ve worked wonderful for you! I have also seen the benefits of word families in my internships. I think word walls are a great visual for all learners.
Jaclyn, I think the Wheel-Of-Fortune game looks like a lot of fun as well. We don’t have much time left in our internships but I hope I have time to try it!
This chapter focused on spelling. I liked the quote on page 314, Good spelling instruction is “teaching children how to spell, not what to spell.” I think this is such a great thing to put out to us prospective teachers. There are many stages of spelling. There is the emergent spelling stage the alphabetic spelling stage, the within word pattern spelling stage, the syllable and affixes spelling stage and the derivational spelling stage. There is also many stages for English Language Learners. Researchers suggest that good spellers understand orthography, which is letters and their sequence in words. This is so interesting to find out. I liked the section about word solvers and how they learn unknown words, through sound, through vision, through meaning, through analogies, and through inquiry. There are many differences between good and poor spellers. The section I read on this information was very good to know, and maybe it will help me pick those types of students out in my classroom later when I begin my career. Figure 12.6 and 12.7 were very helpful in learning about and understanding the Spanish phonemes in comparison to our English phonemes. No wonder why a child could get confused if it was their native language. The traits on good and poor spellers was very informational as well. The several activities this chapter introduced were also very helpful for my classroom later. I have always loved the word mnemonics and how they are good in the English language. I remember an episode of Full House when Stephanie was in the school spelling bee and she missed this word. There was another kid that was considered the human dictionary. He spelled it correctly and she was upset. She learned a lot about silent letters. It was a great episode for younger children to learn that there are many silent letters and how they can affect your spelling.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Janet H–
ReplyDeleteI thought this chapter was very informational. The part about testing to see the level a student was in their spelling was very interesting. I never knew this was possible either. I took so much from this chapter. My tutoring students have a big problem with their spelling. They are first graders and it seems like they should be able to spell a lot of words that they ask me about. I don’t spell it out for them right away, I make them sound the words and each letter out and see if they can figure it out on their own. Most times they are actually able to do that.
Spelling is intimately connected with writing, as well as reading. In order to spell, and write, in a way that is understandable, students must have a working knowledge of phonics and phonemic awareness. Along the same vein, the student needs these skills to read effectively.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to note the number of theories of developmental spelling stages, although most were variations of the others. The stages are also linked to those of writing skills. The pre-communication stage is linked to the scribbling stage (which is also called scribbling in some spelling theories). In fact, it is not surprising that the stages are similar, as they are closely linked.
I appreciated the strategies for teaching ELL students. It makes sense that, if a student is not fluent in their native language that they can be taught English spelling in the same manner as native English speakers. Developmental stages for spelling and writing are universal. It is the alphabets and orthography that are specific.
I wish that I had studied this chapter closer to the one on phonics. The “rules” given for teachers to assist students would have been immensely helpful with my tutoring students, as both struggle with phonics, and the connections between reading and writing are so close. However, I plan to incorporate a short lesson this coming week, before summative testing, using the Internet resources. My two students love to use the computers, and I feel this would be a great motivating activity for them.
In response to Hannah B.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of alphabetical word journals. This strategy would easily scaffold into personal dictionaries in high grade levels.
Melinda S.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 is all about spelling. I have never been very good at spelling. It is definitely one of my weaknesses. The chapter suggests that teachers need to develop background knowledge about the developmental stages of spelling, the orthographic patterns of words, and the complexities of English spelling. I really enjoyed reading about the developmental stages of spelling. I guess I didn’t realize that just like other skills there are different stages. The first stage is the emergent spelling stage. The children in this stage make scribbles and letter like shapes. This is very similar to the first stage of writing. The second stage is the alphabetic spelling stage. The students are aware of the initial sounds of words in this stage. The third stage is the within word pattern spelling stage. The teacher helps students discover patterns within words during this stage. This usually comes with the instruction of phonograms. The fourth stage is the syllable and affixes spelling stage. The teacher’s goal in this stage is to help students see chunks within words so that they learn to listen for these groups of letters and spell them. The fifth and last stage is the derivational relations spelling stage. Here the students are spelling most words correctly so the teacher encourages the students to check one another’s spelling. I really liked how the chapter also listed the stages for ELL students and described how they learn to spell. It is important to be able to understand how the ELL students learn. I really liked the activities for spelling in this chapter. The foam board letters would be such an easy station during small group time. I also love word searches! Although I do believe that some teachers use to many word searches. I also really liked the Wheel of Fortune game. The game would be a fun way for the students to learn their spelling words other than memorization.
In response to Sara C.
ReplyDeleteI agree I really enjoyed the section of the chapter about the ELL students. I founds it very interesting how learning spelling and writing is basically the same in any language, it's just different symbols. I am so glad we have such a great resource in this text book that we can come back at a later time and review how to teach ELL students spelling or writing.
In response to Brandy:
ReplyDeleteIt breaks my heart to see my students struggle with spelling too. I find that the same students who struggle with spelling the words also struggle with reading the words. I too found the ideas from this chapter helpful.
In response to Jaclyn C.:
ReplyDeleteI think Wheel of Fortune would be a fun way to teach spelling too. I think that spelling is hard to teach because they students aren't interested in it or feel invested in it, but a game like Wheel of Fortune would both interest the students and help them feel invested in it.
I found this chapter very interesting. Today I feel that students want the easy way of just asking someone how to spell a word. I feel that students should try to spell the word at the best of their knowledge and if it is not correct then look the word up in the dictionary. At my last job as a case manager working in the school students would ask the how to spell a word and I would tell them to look in the dictionary and they would respond “What’s that?” But the student had a smirk on his face. Also the book provides great activities to use such as the Wheel of Fortune. Building vocabulary with students is very important and we worked on this goal with one of our activities for my Read Aloud of James and the Giant Peach. A booklet was provided and the students had a Vocabulary page where they would place a word that was related to the story. It was very beneficial for the students.
ReplyDeleteIn response Melinda S.
ReplyDeleteI agree on wordsearches I love them also but teachers do use them to much. I'm a teacher for my church and the students tell me each time please no wordsearches they see them to much. :) Also the Wheel of Fortune game would be a great game for students.
I think that the scenario in the beginning of the chapter is very good. I liked how she grouped the students by spelling ability level. Many teachers do this for reading and even math, but not many have thought or decided to this for spelling. I wish more would though because I think it would benefit all students. I thought the sound boxes were a neat idea and could be very helpful. My kindergarten daughter’s teacher has the students use inventive spelling, which from what I can see is writing the words as the sound using only the sounds they hear. My daughter has learned some of the phonograms and she is starting to know when to use them. I think that the table with traits for good and poor spellers is helpful also. I have been in classes that used the Scrabble cheez-its to spell the spelling words, much like the anagrams with alphabet cereal activity found in this chapter. I think the Wheel of Fortune game is a great idea. My friend who teaches 2nd grade plays Boggle with her spelling words, the kids really like that too. In our house we have Scrabble Jr. and Scrabble Slam that we play with our kids, jut to help introduce new words and practice spelling with our kids. They also play other family members in words/spelling games on our phone over the internet. I don’t think the extra practice is a bad thing at all!
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 was about spelling. The scenario with Ms. Jackson sounds all too familiar. I have a boy in my group who will not write a word if he cannot spell it. Often times he will get so angry if I ask him to just do his best that he will not participate the rest of the day. I started letting him “ask a friend” and together they would sound out the word correctly most of the time. I learned in chapter 12 that there are stages to spelling. I guess I hadn’t ever thought about there being a particular order that children go in. It makes sense now though because there are stages for writing and reading and everything really. I also didn’t put much thought into all the different types of stages that have been proposed. There are so many models! I got some great ideas on how to assess students on spelling from this chapter as well. This chapter had a lot of great information that will be very useful in the future.
ReplyDeletein response to Kim D:
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you have spelling type games for your kids! I can remember playing scrabble with my mom when I was young and always getting beat because I didn't have the vocabulary range she has. It's great to introduce your kids to spelling at home so they are getting the extra practice!
Brooke:
ReplyDeleteI think it's great you keep a journal with your students so you can see the improvements that they are making. It's always fun and encouraging to know that we have made that difference.
This chapter was a lot of fun to read because it gave so many great activities for spelling. There are a lot of children out there that are terrible spellers and hate spelling. There are also a lot of adults that hate to write because they are terrible spellers. Maybe if we make spelling and writing fun for our students at an early age, it will help them retain the information better.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the wheel of fortune game. That game can be played with any grade level. The teacher will just have to make quite a bit of time to come up with different phrases for her students.
I also liked the anagrams. Using different words like the childs names, they can create a ton of different words out of other words. This is great for them to see that there are so many ways to write words and to make words.
I also never thought to use the auto correct spelling on word documents as a learning strategy. A teacher can give students a bunch of misspelled words and have them find the correct spelling for the word. Students may enjoy this because the answer is right there in front of them. They just have to pick the correct spelling.
Chapter 12 talks about spelling and the skills necessary to teach spelling to students. Children do not come in one developmental stage, so having strategies to focus on and identifying patterns within words so students can learn was what this chapter dealt with. What I have noticed with even my 8th grade daughter is she brings home her spelling, has a unit where she writes the words to sentences in three different places, and then has a test over it at the end of the week. I do not see how these students are ‘learning’ the words. I do know her teacher has taught for almost 20 years, so maybe that is the problem. The ‘new way’ of teaching spelling isn’t being taught? Half of the students have their parents help them with their assignments.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Alisha G….
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on these students taking the easy way out. When I sub I am constantly asked how to spell words. These students do not want to look them up..it is too much work for them.
I really enjoyed the activities in the back of the chapter also. There are so many great activities today to work with these students there is absolutely no reason they are not better spellers.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter because during my formative assessments I realized that my students were having a bit of a tough time spelling some words so it was great reading all of the wonderful strategies in this chapter. I liked the quote, "Merely reading words does not ensure that students can spell them." I think this is a great quote that many teachers need to take note of. I really liked reading about all of the different stages in spelling as well as the "within word pattern stage." This stage related to ESOL students, and since I have 2 of them in my group, this section really gave some wonderful ideas. The activities and assessments were such a big help as well! Overall, another good chapter. Does anyone have any spelling activities or games that have helped their students?
ReplyDeleteIn response to Debbie M- I really enjoyed reading about your experience with your daughter who is in the 8th grade. I would assume it is because her teacher has been teaching for 20 years or more and maybe does not focus on spelling as much as she should be. There were so many great spelling activities and assessment ideas in here. It is a shame that your daughter is not getting the practice she needs, but maybe with you reading this chapter you will be able to help her out in the long run :) Great post!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shaina G.:
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you are talking about when some students do not attempt to write a word unless they know the correct spelling! I love how you have handled that situation by having them work in pairs to help each other spell!
I also love the activities and ideas in this chapter (the whole book!)! I love the Wheel-of-Fortune activity on page 328.
Thank you for sharing!
Chapter 12 was fun because I am a spelling geek! I always loved spelling tests when I was younger. I know, I am silly!!! I enjoyed reading about the different stages of spelling because I have witnessed each stage in my own children. I love reading their writing in the younger elementary grades because the spelling is so cute and funny! I never knew that there were so many different stages! WOW! I also thought that the section on spelling assessments was great. I always just related the traditional spelling tests as one of the only ways to really measure spelling. I was wrong! I thought that the checklist for spelling standards on page 325 was super.
ReplyDeleteLike each chapter, I love to go through each activity. They provide so many fun and creative ways to teach. My favorite activities this week were the magnetic letters and wheel-of-fortune.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Trisha W - I love spelling too! I just think word lists are not beneficial as teaching root words and word patterns.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 places emphasis on the topic of spelling. I student teach 3rd grade and I see a lot of invented spellings when I am grading papers. I think it’s important that we teach our children to spell but learning phonics ties into this piece. When I was in school, we had spelling tests every week but it seems that schools have gotten away from that. It’s important that children learn how to spell in order to prepare them for creative writing which takes place usually around the 4th grade. I feel that schools should emphasize word patterns, root words and meanings rather than relying on spelling lists. I have no questions concerning this chapter.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great quote good spelling instruction is “teaching children how to spell, not what to spell.” I’ve always loved spelling and growing up playing scrabble was a Friday night ritual. Spelling is an important skill for students to learn because it helps them become proficient writers. Last year, my mentor teacher used magnetic letters as one of her centers. She mainly used them for phonics but as the students progressed, she had them use it for their spelling words for the week. I thought that was a better strategy than writing them three times in their notebook.
ReplyDeleteThis semester I’m interning in a 6th grade class and their spelling is horrible! I’ve noticed that both teachers don’t correct spelling. This drives me crazy because how else are they going to know that their spelling is incorrect. It doesn’t have to be marked in big red letters, but a gentle reminder of how to spell the word is important.
I like the different strategies the book describes for teaching spelling. I didn’t see the game “sparkle” in the book. I saw this technique last year in my internship class. The students all stood up and the teacher said the spelling word. One by one the students called out each letter of the word. After the last letter was said the next student said “sparkle.” If a student said the wrong letter, they had to sit down and the spelling continued. It was a fun activity for the students.
In response to Debbie M.
ReplyDeleteIn the internship class I observed last year the teacher had the students write their spelling words three times and each time in a different color. They have a test at the end of the week and then those words are long forgotten.
In response to Christine:
ReplyDeleteI too am a Scrabble person. My parents and I would play all the time when I was a kid and now I play quite a bit with friends. I haven't gotten my kids quite into playing yet. I think that playing that so much made me such a stickler for misspelled words. To me it is like nails on a chalkboard! Seriously though the other thing was about Sparkle. At our school the children love to play and they do play it quite a bit in 1st and 2nd grade.
This chapter talks about spelling and when I was growing up it was one of my favorite subjects in school. I can remember having to write the words 5 times each when the teacher gave out the list. I don't believe that the words are forgotten though. In the second grade, one teacher uses a spelling workbook that has a list and the other two teachers use something different. I like the workbook that the students have because even though they do write the words at least once, they sort the words into families so the children can associate the family with the spelling. Then the workbook uses the words in different skills such as dictionary skills, proofreading, and phonics skills. I think that it can always be added on as well, in fact, the teacher will usually go over what other words are in the family that are not listed and will talk about word meaning as well.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 deals with spelling. I will admit I am a less than desirable speller, especially when I was younger. I absolutely hated it! I had weekly spelling tests and never did very well. The classes I help in at the school currently still has weekly spelling tests. Spelling ties directly into phonics as others have previously stated. There are too many kids that just come up and want you to spell the word for you. The majority of our classroom teachers at the school I am at, give the students their own spelling dictionary that they can write words they need to know how to spell. They are required to try to sound it out first and look it up in the real dictionary then ask a friend, if they still need help they are able to go to the teacher. I used to get angry when my teachers told me to look it up and sound it out--my thought process was if I knew how to spell it then I wouldn't need to look it up. As I have been going through this program I have learned how vitally important that was for me. The games in this chapter or activities are phenomenal. I have highlighted so many of them. I can't wait to try them.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Royce,
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that spelling was one of your favorite subjects in school, it was not for me! I like you idea on spelling in the work books and including them in the word families especially for the younger grades. I can see how that can help. I have a 5 year old and she is learning to read and loves word family books because she can sound out the words and then she tries to write all of the words she can think of in that word family. Until you just stated this I never put the two together. Thank you for this.
Chapter 12 discussed spelling. This is I think is an important chapter, especially since spelling is in everything we read and write. During my tutoring sessions, my students are really good about sounding out the words when they are trying to spell them. If they still have trouble and cannot figure the word out, then I will help them. I have to admit this does not happen very often. My mentor teacher from last semester had her students write their spelling words 5x each, do ABC order, and use their words in a sentence. I think this is a good way to help students learn the word but also help them remember the words. I have always been what I think a decent speller. Growing up, my mom was an English teacher so learning to spell and doing it correctly was not a choice.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Debbie M... Like you, my 8th grade daughter has a spelling test each week. At the first of the week they are given the words to fill in a "mad-lib" type story, then are given worksheets to complete using the words. Most of the time the words that they use for the other worksheets are not the words that will be on their test at the end of the week. My daughter is one that struggles at spelling, so doing it this way I don't feel she is really learning what the words are in order to prepare her for her test at the end of the week.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jen...I have been in classrooms in the same situations as you when the students keep asking how to spell this and that. Keeping their own spelling dictionaries is an excellent practice, and one I would like to implement in my own classroom. Thanks for sharing! Julie
ReplyDeleteAnother great chapter from DeVries. Spelling can be tricky for emerging readers and writers, so this chapter was very timely - especially with a few more tutoring sessions still to go. I apreciated how the chapter broke strategies up by stages (emergent, alphabetic, within word pattern,etc.) I was just an average speller myself as an elementary student, and could have benefitted from many of these strategies. Figure 12.7 broke down the characteristics of poor vs. good spellers - that is helpful information for us in monitoring, assessing, and determining effective strategies. My absolute favorite suggestion from the chapter is the Wheel of Fortune game based on a particular book. I can't wait to try this one out! One thing is evident from the chapter, spelling is an important skill and quite crucial for the writing process.
ReplyDeleteSpelling is a very complex developmental process that is part of the overall understanding and mastery of the English language. Spelling is a combination of keeping a young speller motivated and encouraged. The speller will soon learn that spelling becomes interesting when learning to express themselves through writing poems and stories when moving on to spelling skills.
ReplyDeleteReading aloud and pronunciation are also an important stage in spelling. These are all skills that students seem to be a little lacking in these days. It really seems like we have been made to place so much focus on the subjects and skills that are part of the standardized tests, that we no longer have time to focus on some of the other equally important skills such as writing, spelling, and handwriting. I remember having weekly spelling bees in class to practice spelling words. I loved it and I hope to try to find a little time in my own classroom to incorporate some of the good old stand by strategies that I enjoyed so much from my elementary school experience.
Julie,
ReplyDeleteI agree that spelling can be extremely tricky for children to grasp. The English language really is complex when you think about all the rules and variations of words that we have. I often wonder how on Earth we decided some of our spellings and nutty rules made sense when the language was passed off and okayed! This language is definitely the last I would want to master spelling in if I were from another language speaking region. No wonder children first learning tend to struggle with it!
Chapter 12
ReplyDeleteIn the scenario portion of this chapter I loved the idea of guided spelling. I think that this is an area in younger grades that is often over looked. The purpose of these sessions is to mentor students as they progress from one spelling stage to another. Last semester in 2nd grade reading and language arts internship I observed students writing in their journals. I thought that these journals would lend well to guided spelling sessions. If a student or even a small group of 2 or 3 students would choose a passage in their journal and then the teacher would use this time for the revision of the passage this would be a great way to introduce guided spelling. Having a word wall as well as word cards for students to use during writing would also be a great way to serve the spelling needs of the students. Many times I think teachers use the spelling list as the only instruction. In this text it is apparent that teachers need to intervene and use direct, explicit spelling instruction when students need it. They need to be taught how to spell not what to spell. The best part for me in this chapter was reading about the instructional practices for each spelling stage. Having specific strategies and activities that are specific for each stage is a great! It is already apparent to me during my tutoring sessions that just like reading levels are very diverse in a classroom so are spelling abilities. I have also noticed that being a good reader does not make you a good speller. Students need to be taught spelling strategies just as they are taught reading strategies. This is something that I need to educate myself on. Does anyone know a book that will help with these spelling rules. I feel that when I was taught I was never really taught the rules I was just taught to memorize the words. This week my son brought home a spelling list that consisted of –ed and –ing to root words. I was struggling with how to communicate why certain consonants were doubled and others were not. WOW! I need to brush up on my spelling knowledge. At this point it is just automatic but students need to know why and how word are the way they are spelled.
In response to Margaret:
I too think that spelling is an important part of a students day. I have been tutoring 1st graders and this is something they struggle with. We have been creating an everyday word list made out of words that we see and use everyday and then we add to the list words that we see and will use when writing about what we read in our guided reading books. I make it very clear that using the resources in the room as well as their books and each other are okay when needing to know how to spell a word.