Reflection 4

12th -13th October, 2017

The ' link up '

We were never of the perception that reading and writing had a direct link to the way students spell because we often separate reading, writing, and spelling. However after completing a course in the summer our perceptions changed. We recognized that reading and writing should be done  in tandem or as expressed by the lecturer,‘ they are two sides of the same coin’. During this week, we were able to connect another link, spelling. Therefore,a student must possess the skills of reading, writing and spelling to function effectively in the classroom. This means for us as trainee teachers it is important that we see the connection between reading, writing and spelling.

Additionally when entering the classroom we must encourage the three aspects. There may be some instances where a student is better at reading, writing or spelling. So what do we do? We build on their strengths and provide opportunities where they are be able to improve in the other aspects.

Moreover as teachers we must provide the environment where reading, writing and spelling is fostered. Often times because of students’ socio-status,  they may not be encouraged to read by their parents. As a result may come to the classroom with little or no reading skills having not been exposed to reading at an early age.

On the contrary, there might be some students that are very good readers and writers. These are students who was exposed to reading at an early age, they were either read to or encouraged to read at an early age. Therefore since there is the existence of diversification within our classrooms, what should we do then as teachers?

Do we give attention to those students who are better at reading and writing and neglect the others because they are not at the stage they should be?. Certainly not, our duty as teachers is to bring books to the classroom, introduce students to books by reading to them, begin each reading and writing class with reading and foster print rich environment ( stories and newspaper articles). By doing this students are learning about print, they are becoming better at reading  also they are seeing models of good writing which would aid their writing. As students improve in reading and writing their spelling will also improve.

Furthermore it appeal to us that we must not assume that our students know how to spell. Spelling must be taught in the same way that we teach the content in the other subject areas.

Therefore it is important that we be teachers of spelling with the same focus that we teach other content areas. We realize that students cannot function effectively in content areas if they cannot spell, this interferes with their expression, even if they have understood what was taught. Spelling is taught in stages and it is important to note that similar to reading and writing the stages in spelling can overlap. What does this mean for us as teachers? It means that there will be students in our classrooms spelling above their age range and also below their age. For this reason, we must not perceive that if a student is spelling below their age range they cannot be assisted or they cannot learn to spell. The stages of spelling are as follows; firstly there is the  emergent stage (3-5), at the end of this stage students should know things like, the distinction between spelling and writing and also know how to write letters.

Secondly ,stage two (2) is the letter name or alphabetic stage (5-7). During this stage students learn about the alphabetic principle,consonant sounds,short vowel sounds and consonant blends and digraphs. Thirdly, stage three (3) is the within the word pattern stage (7-9), at this stage students will learn about long vowel spelling patterns and more complex consonant patterns. Fourthly, Stage four (4) is the syllables and affixes stage (9-11), during this stage students learn about inflectional endings ( -s, -es, - ed,-ing), rules for adding inflectional endings and syllabication. Finally, there is the derivational relations stage (11-14). During this stage students learn about consonants alternations, vowel alternations and greek and latin affixes and root words.

Furthermore for every stage of spelling there are activities that we can use to develop students’ competency at that stage.  This means that as trainee teachers, we must not teach spelling in isolation. There are different activities we can utilize within our classrooms to make spelling fun.

It was established that students interest may not be activated if spelling is thought in a dull manner. We must be creative in using the different activities at the different stages of spelling, since capturing and maintaining the students attention is of essence in teaching spelling. When students love and embrace the classroom environment their love for spelling will improve and as a result their spelling will also improve. As teachers we must set the tone for learning in our spelling class and all other classes on a wider scale.

For the first stage of spelling the activities are  Immersion in print, shared reading, emphasis on letter names, emphasis on concepts of print, correct terminology for letters, sounds, words and sentences.  For stage two (2) the activities are as follows: Exposure to print in natural and meaningful contexts, opportunities to experiment with writing and help children to hear initial, terminal and medial sounds in words. For stage three (3) the activities are as follows: Encourage writers to focus on patterns and to classify words, focus on word meanings and word derivations as a guide to spelling e. g. sign -signature and  teach strategies for spelling new words. For stage four (4) these activities can be used to enhance spelling: Continue the development of Word Banks and class alphabetical lists, continue to model and teach proofreading skills, encourage the use of words not previously used to enlarge spelling vocabulary and encourage syllabification. For the final stage the activities are as follows: continue to explore derivations of words - meanings of foreign words as a guide to spelling, using spelling references such as spell checker, use of dictionary appropriately and  emphasize social importance of spelling.

Finally, there are some aspects of this lecture that we thought could have been better. For example, the lecturer could have incorporated the use of a graphic organizer which would have given us a clearer picture as to show the linkages between reading, writing and spelling and also where an overlap may occur at these stages.

This was done in a previous lecture which helped in molding our understanding of the way the writing process and the six traits were linked. Similarly,  this should have been done in this lecture, for this acts as reference to us.  In this way we are reminded that children are at different stages as it regards spelling. In concluding, the aforementioned can be used for future lectures as this would not only act as reference to us but also would give us a clearer picture for the concept or concepts that are being presented.