Dyana_Journal+6

Dyana Brown Journal Assessment #6 The teacher gives the students a new list of words to learn how to spell every week. She boxes the list of words into two lists. The first list that contains four words are words that have the same vowels in the middle. The next four words on list two are words that have different vowels and are sometimes words that are carried over from the first list of words also. In the beginning of the week, the teacher gives the students a pre-test of the words from one of the lists (usually with a special bonus word). After assessing the students’ reading the first list, the teacher goes around the room, checking the children’s knowledge of these words. If the students seem to have gotten all of the words right on the first list, then they are allowed to move on to the second word list. If the students spell words wrong that are on the second word list, then they are still allowed to move on and copy the words down from the second list of words. The teacher reads these words out loud to the group as a whole, going over all of the words once the students are finished writing the words. If students get words wrong from the first list, then they have to respell these words before moving on to the second spelling list. The teacher has the students writing these words in their blue spelling books where the format of the pages guide the students in how to set up their spelling lists. For example, the pages have boxes on the left side of the page so that the students can have a place to number the page. The pages are also divided in half so that they can rewrite their words on the next column of the same page for the second list of words. The teacher uses this way of assessing the students’ learning so that she can have a better sense of what words her individual students know and do not know. When her students do not know specific words, they themselves can also see which words that give them a problem and need to practice. If the teacher sees that the students do not want to practice spelling some words that they continue to have trouble with, the teacher can then develop alternate ways to integrate these words into her individual students’ assessments. For instance, the teacher mentioned that she could develop a game for her students as a way to motivate the spellings of these words that some of her students may be having trouble with. I think that this is a great way to assess the students because not only does the teacher see which words her students know, but this gives the students a way to self-assess their own learning. I also like the format of how the pages in the spelling book are set up because it gives the students a guide and encourages them to follow this guide until they are able to eventually learn how to set up their pages themselves. Though I have not been present for the post spelling assessment, I would probably try to incorporate an activity where the students can learn better strategies on how to practice spelling words that they have difficulty with. Though I am sure the teacher may already have these activities integrated in her classroom, I would also implement these activities so that the students can further self-assess the way in which they learn and prepare for these spelling tests.