<p> RE 5100 Teaching Beginning Readers and Writers</p><p>Final Exam</p><p>Cheryl L. Gaines 1a. Sue is in the semi-phonetic stage of spelling. She represents whole words with one or two letters using alphabetic letter-names to identify sounds. Sue spells “peeked” and “picking” by using the initial letter (P) and “back,” she spells (BK) identifying beginning and ending sounds. Sue uses letter “C,” not </p><p>“S,” when hearing the “Sss” sounds at the beginning of “step” and “side” because the letter-name (C) has the same sound. Sue uses the letter “B” to represent the beginning sound in “feet” because she hears “fe” </p><p>(F + long E) which sounds close to the letter-name “B.” She also uses a “J” to represent the beginning sound in “dress” because the pronunciation of “dr” is close to the way she would pronounce the letter “J.”</p><p>John is in the phonetic spelling stage. He is beginning to recognize vowel sounds, medial consonants and make one-to-one sound-letter matches. He spells “back” as “BAC,” attending to each sound in the word including the short vowel. In “step,” John correctly hears the beginning and ending sounds, but hears the medial consonant and vowel sound as one (tE), which he interprets as the letter “D” to phonetically spell the word (SDP). John correctly identifies long vowels because the letters sound like their names as in </p><p>“feet” (FET) and “side” (SID). However, he uses phonetically related letter-names when identifying short vowels as in “dress” (JRAS) and “picking” (PEKN). Hannah is in the within-word pattern stage, a transitional stage in which visual patterns begin to influence spelling. She is able to generalize spelling from known sight words. Sue represents short vowel sounds correctly as in “dress” (DRES) and “picking”</p><p>(PIKEN). In “picking,” she attends to vowels sounds in both syllables. Hannah also uses markers (though not always correctly placed) to designate long vowel sounds as in “feet” (FETE) and “side” (SIED). She is able to identify consonant blends and digraphs correctly as in BACK, STAP, and DRES.</p><p>1b. Sue has basic phonemic letter-sound knowledge and is able to identify some beginning sounds; </p><p>However, she does not identify all sounds correctly so she would benefit from a review of beginning consonant sounds, by matching pictures to the corresponding alphabet letter. This will help Sue begin to recognize the letter which makes each sound. Once this has been mastered, she should move on to short vowel families which will help her begin to recognize the vowel and reinforce ending sounds. John is attending to vowel sounds, as well as, beginning and endings; however, he spells both long and short </p><p>2 vowels based on the phoneme letter-name. Therefore, John would benefit from a study of short vowel word families. Word sorts using rhyming words will help him recognize short vowel sounds and which letter represents each sound. He should start with one short vowel. Once he becomes proficient with the first vowel family, move on to the next. Soon vowels can be mixed, teaching vowel discrimination. With column sorting practice and word games, John will also develop a larger sight vocabulary. He should then move on the short vowel patterns to further his understanding of short vowel sounds and patterns. </p><p>Hannah seems to understand beginning, ending and some vowels sounds. She has very little trouble with short vowel patterns and uses markers to identify long-vowel sounds. However, the markers are placed incorrectly. She is obviously having trouble with long vowel patterns. Hannah would benefit from a study of high-frequency one syllable vowel patterns. Through this study, Hannah will use her knowledge of short vowel patterns to distinguish between short and long vowel patterns and sounds. She will learn the proper placement of vowel markers and begin to recognize r-controlled and other patterns.</p><p>1c. Hannah probably has a larger sight vocabulary than John because she has been exposed to a larger amount of print. She knows about vowel markers. Silent “e” and double vowels markers cannot be </p><p>“sounded-out” but are recognized visually. This happens through exposure to print. She still uses phonics to identify some sounds, like writing “T” for “ed” in “peeked,” but you can tell that much of her spelling comes from visual memory of words she has been exposed to in reading. This would cause her to be a better reader. She not only has the ability to “sound out” words, but her sight word base is larger and allows her to recognize and read more words on her own</p><p>2a. Phonics is better taught in small groups rather than whole group, because students need to be taught at their individual instructional levels of learning. In a classroom of 20, there may be many different instructional levels represented. If students are taught below their instructional level, they will get bored and lose interest in learning to read. If taught above their levels, students will become frustrated and give up. So, to meet the need of every child, phonics instruction needs to be individualized. This can only be done one-on-one or in small groups. Logistically, small groups work better in the classroom.</p><p>3 2b. There are several reasons children find it more difficult to master vowels than consonants. First, some vowels sound similar when being pronounced, making it hard to distinguish between the sounds. </p><p>They come from the same region in the mouth. Second, the physical movement of the mouth is similar with some vowels. When pronouncing consonants, the mouth movements make it easier to perceive the differences. The third reason is co-articulation. This is when vowel sounds are disguised by consonants because they are pronounced together as one sound. And finally, children have a difficult time with silent vowel markers like the silent “e” or double vowels where one is not audibly detectable because it is silent.</p><p>2c. Short vowel patterns are important benchmarks to reading and writing because they give a basic knowledge against which other vowel patterns can be compared or contrasted. When a child has beginning/ending sound knowledge, the next step is to fill in the middle sound. In simple short vowel words, children learn to “map” letters to sound making one-to-one matches. This is the simplest form of spelling. Once a child understands short vowel patterns, he can use them to figure out other spelling patterns. Short vowel patterns bridge the gap between consonant sound knowledge and long vowels patterns (where the one-to-one rule no longer applies.)</p><p>3a. Revision is the process of reviewing writing to change the content of the paper. When revising, the focus is on clarifying information and adding details which can give further explanation. Editing is the process of correcting mechanical errors such as misspelled words, punctuation, and capitalization. </p><p>Revision should be done first and is the most important. The content of a child’s writing should be clear and understandable, as well as, interesting. Through revision, gaps found in the first draft can be filled and thoughts completed and expanded using more detail. Editing is adding the final touches, like icing on a cake; it basically makes the writing looks smoother. </p><p>3b. In mid first grade, there could be many spelling errors in a child’s writing. This is because a child will want to use words of which they only have verbal knowledge and no written knowledge. Knowing this, I would not mark all misspelled words. It would overwhelm the child and discourage them from writing. Instead, I would only hold them accountable for high frequency words which they have encountered in their reading and should know and word patterns already studied in class to reinforce </p><p>4 those patterns. In this way, a child will begin to feel confident about their writing and continue to write freely. </p><p>3c. I think Judy Brown meant that spelling patterns are reinforced and memorized through repetition in reading and writing. After studying a specific spelling pattern, it is reinforced when encountered by a student reading at the correct instructional level. Coming across word patterns in reading allows a student to attend to them, reinforcing the systematic instruction. The student will then copy these patterns in their own writing. This process of repetition helps to drive it permanently into the child’s memory. Thus, reading and writing becomes the “practice field” which automatizes spelling patterns in a child’s memory.</p><p>4. My thinking about how reading should be taught has been influenced by gaining an insight </p><p> into the history of reading instruction, reviewing what has worked and what hasn’t through </p><p> the years. Not having worked with younger children, I had never analyzed how reading </p><p> should be taught in the primary grades and which methods worked. I knew there was division</p><p> between whole language and phonics advocates, but didn’t understand the specific </p><p> differences. After looking at the history and discussing each stage and its results, it seems </p><p> obvious to me that elements from both whole language and systematic phonics instruction </p><p> have to be utilized together in order to provide children with well-rounded reading </p><p> instruction. Children need to be given a method in which to “figure out” the language system.</p><p>This is comes from systematic, leveled phonics instructions. However, without the inclusion </p><p> of the interesting literature of whole language and developmental writing, phonics instruction</p><p> may become tedious and boring to a young child discouraging them from wanting to read. </p><p>A concept which has definitely changed my thinking is the use of developmental or inventive writing in the classroom and how it can be used to assess and compliment a child’s reading instruction. </p><p>Prior to this class, I was under the impression children must learn to read before they could write, and viewed inventive spelling as pointless. Now I understand that a child’s level of knowledge and instruction can be determined by examining their writing; a child’s own writing can be used to teach new sight words and phonics skills as in the language experience; and encouraging students to write before they can read </p><p>5 proficiently helps build confidence in the reading and writing process. I have come to believe writing is a crucial part of reading instruction because it reinforces studied phonics skills and gives children an outlet to practice those skills in a creative, interesting way.</p><p>6</p>