Holly+M.+Hachey+Journal+2

Journal #2 February 9th

Every Monday at the beginning of the class a spelling pre-test is given out. The pre-test allows students to see if they know the words before they study for the actual test, which is on Friday. The spelling test is handed out on a folder cut in three sections. The first section is the actual spelling of the words on the test. The second section is the pre-test while the last section is the final test.

The first five words on the test were actually given the previous week. The list consists of ten words plus five enrichment words at the bottom. After the students are finished with their work they move clockwise to correct another students work with a correcting pen. They change counter clock wise to another student to double check. The students are checking which five words the student they are correcting got wrong. They will circle the words to study for. If the students have all five words on the top correct they study the enrichment words. On Friday, when they have the test they are only tested on five words.

This week I actually gave the pre-test to the students. I said the word following with a sentence with the spelling word in it. After they finished we went over the enrichment words together as a class. Before I said the word they had to pronounce it first. If no one knew the word and its meaning they were to look it up in their dictionary. Each student has a dictionary in his or her desk. This helps the student learn words they might not have heard of or knew the definition. The students will benefit from this test by learning five words a week. Even seeing the words on paper will help the students remember how to spell the word. I did not see the results of the vocabulary list. However, the students are trusted to do their own corrections and circle the words that were not correct.

When I was in elementary school, I had a list of ten words each week. I did not have a pretest. I was handed the words and had to write them five times each plus had to write each word in a sentence. I liked how the teacher I observed presented this test. The students also see next weeks words, which lets the students be prepared and see the words before. Instead of learning ten words a week, the students are learning five. The words are carried over to the next week, which will keep the words in the students’ head more than ten words they would never revisit like what happened to me in elementary school.

Back to Holly M. Hachey