Attending an inspiring four hour workshop from Joy has really refocused
and motivated my spelling programme. Starting off with a test, our group
certainly had some head scratching moments debating digraphs, blends,
phonology orthography morphology, spelling rules and conventions, and this certainly catalysed focused engagement for the rest of the afternoon!
Joy stressed how important it was for us as teachers, to
regularly look at our own skills in recognising how words sound and to practise
digraph analysis of words as a quick excerise in team meetings.
Another aspect covered, was how children perceive words –Chinese
learners who are visual and can tell if a word looks ‘right’ and Phoenician
spellers who spell from sounds (e.g. The Won I'd Doe c.f. The One-Eyed Doe). It is the Phoenician learner who is of concern. Her
description of these learners rang bells for me and I could now see why some of
my class produced words that defied interpretation and why some children could
not copy accurately.
The time was packed full of perceptive understanding of
how learners learn – or don’t. I am so glad I have a record of this and may
well blog all my notes –if I have time.
The first thing I have done is to conduct the Topic
Assessment 1 test to ascertain groupings, strengths and weaknesses. I will
administer the other tests once I isolate the ‘targets’ to further refine needs
and grouping. I am interested in pseudowords aspect as it will pinpoint those
students who cannot analyse sounds in words and translate them into appropriate
letters and letter clusters.
I will also be using the vowel phonogram test to identify
significant gaps in knowledge of sound-letter spelling patterns (SUS p62). My next
step from this test will be to administer Topic assessments 2 and 3 p75 (SUS)
I hope to keep adding to this post as a means of
recording how I have implemented this programme and the difference it has made.
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