This article was extremely helpful and informative. In fact, I’m making a point to put right here on my blog so I can reference it in the future. These teaching strategies for spelling are excellent. I’m delighted that the author, Judy Brown, went so in-depth when explaining these teaching methods. I absolutely needed a refresher course in phonics and this article really did the trick. She gave numerous examples of student work as well as day by day instructions on how to implement these instructional strategies. I can’t even begin to list all of the excellent points Brown made throughout her article. Do I use the word excellent too much? I’ll work on that. Anyway, I loved the detailed explanations of the spelling games that the students can play throughout the week to reinforce their knowledge of the week’s spelling list. Some of the games she mentions are totally new to me, so “hooray” for new ideas! I also found one of the Morris quotes that Brown uses to be especially meaningful:
“The idea of intervening early and intensively has been tried successfully with low-reading first graders. It is probably time that teachers adopt a similar approach with low spellers. The longer the teacher waits, the further these students will fall behind, and it should be obvious that the spelling achievement ‘‘gap’’ will be easiest to close before it starts to widen.”
That just hits the nail on the head. Nip it in the bud, people. Don’t perpetuate a child’s poor spelling ability by allowing them to continue to struggle with words they have NO idea how to spell. The groups are a great idea. I mean yeah, wouldn’t it be awesome if every child were at the same instructional level and no student ever fell behind or hesitated in understanding anything. Well, as we all know, that’s not how it is. It will never be that way, so we as teachers must accomodate to those lower level learners and do our best to get them on the path to success. Baby steps, folks, baby steps.
Honestly. I get a little overwhelmed when thinking about how it’s going to be MY responsibility to teach these vital learning skills to children. I mean this is important stuff, am I right? Reading, spelling, writing…essentially the basis of communication. Sheesh. It’s a daunting task. I’m fascinated with learning about how children learn these fundamental concepts and I hope I can become even more educated on these processes so I can be an effective teacher.
Sleep well.
Maggie
Yes, I will sleep well knowing there are preservice teachers like yourself so engaged in learning and committed to accommodating the different instructional levels of your students…thank you Maggie. I am truly excited for the students you teach/will teach!