Assignment Checklist

Before You Begin

Task Assessment
Complete: Pre-Course Evaluation Survey

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Session 1

Task Assessment
Getting Started
Reflect: Expectations
Reflect: Prior Knowledge
Discuss: Get to Know Each Other
Reading, Writing, and Spelling Within an Integrated Language Arts Program

Read: "Reading and Writing Accomplishments of Young Children"

Read: "How Readers and Writers Use Phonics"

Watch: "Language Experience Approach"

Read: "Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory and vocabulary learning"

Reflect: Instructional implications of teaching phonics and spelling to students in grades K-3
Online Journal Rubric
Research about Spelling Development and Spelling Instruction
Read: "Questions Teachers Ask About Spelling"
Read: "A Weekly Procedure for Teaching Spelling"
Discuss: Advantages and disadvantages of a developmental model of spelling instruction. What does it mean to use a “systematic spelling program?"
Discussion Forum Participation Rubric
Spelling Debate: How Much and What Type of Instruction is Best?
Read: "What Is Our Responsibility in Helping Children Learn to Spell?"

Read: "A Speller's Bill of Rights: Teaching Writers to Spell"

Read: "Effective reading instruction for struggling readers: The role of direct/explicit teaching"

Reflect: What changes would you make to your methods of spelling instruction?

Online Journal Rubric

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Session 2

Task Assessment
Connecting Spelling Development and Literacy Development
Read: "Explorations in Developmental Spelling: Foundations for Learning and Teaching Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary"
Read: : Figure 1.14 "Developmental Stages, Characteristics, and Word Study Instruction" from Words Their Way
Discuss: Models of Word Study
Discussion Forum Participation Rubric
Identifying Developmental Spelling Stages: Analyze Student Writing
Explore: Analyze Student Writing Interactive
Read: "Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom”
Reflect: Is it more important to focus on word accuracy or content in grades K-3?

Online Journal Rubric

Integrating Spelling in Reading and Writing Activities
Read: "Teaching Rimes with Shared Reading”
Read: "Strategy Instruction during Word Study and Interactive Writing Activities"
Read: "Figure 1 in “Interactive Writing in the Primary Classroom”
Reflect: What are your experiences of using classroom discussions about print with your students? Or: What are your questions and concerns about using classroom discussions about print with your students?

Online Journal Rubric

Assessment of Student Spelling Assignment
Complete:
Examination of Student Spelling Samples
Explore: PBS websites for Home-School Connections

Examination of Student Spelling Samples Rubric

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Session 3

Task Assessment
Building a Knowledge Base in Spelling
Read: "Building a Knowledge Base in Spelling"
Discuss: Do you agree or disagree with Wilde that teaching spelling is not about teaching skills, but instead is aimed at building a knowledge base in spelling? State the rationale for your position and discuss its implications for your literacy curriculum.
Discussion Forum Participation Rubric
Integrated Spelling Instruction
Read: "Word Study Groups: Analyzing Words for Their Phonetic, Structural, and Morphemic Features"
Reflect: Whose approach, Wilde or Taberski’s, will best approach the needs of your students or prospective students? Write about the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches.

Online Journal Rubric

Instructional Activities for Letter Name - Alphabetic Stage
Watch: Phonological Patterns: Finding Patterns in Books
Read: Lesson Plan demonstrated in the video
Read: Summary of Sequence of Word Study for Letter Name – Alphabetic Stage

 

Within-Word Patterns Activities

Activity: Work on the Within Word Sorting activity. (This is self graded, no rubric.)

Reflect: Instructional Activities for Letter Name – Alphabetic Stage and Within-Word Patterns Stage

Explore: Technology Integration

Spelling Instruction at the Syllable Juncture Stage

Read: "Integrated Word Study: Spelling, Grammar, and Meaning in the Language Arts Classroom"

Complete: Spelling Instruction Activity Assignment for Peer Review

Spelling Instruction Activity Rubric

Peer Review Guidelines

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Session 4

Task Assessment
Assessments That Lead to Informed Teaching
Read: "Getting Started: The Assessment of Orthographic Knowledge" (pp. 23-47)
Discuss: Assessing students' spelling skills and planning for individual needs
Discussion Forum Participation Rubric
Using Assessment to Focus Instruction

Read: The remainder of “Getting Started: The Assessment of Orthographic Knowledge" (Words Their Way, pp. 23-47)

Activity: Sample Practice (Words Their Way, pp. 33-34) in “Getting Started: The Assessment of Orthographic Knowledge" (This is self graded. Upon completion, see results at the botton of p.34.)

Discuss: Your impressions about using informed observation and developmental feature spelling analysis as a means of planning differentiated instruction. What do you see as the advantages and the disadvantages?

 

 

Technology and Young Students
Read: "Technology and Teaching Students to Read"
Read: "The Issues: The Internet and the Early Childhood Classroom"
Explore: Apps for Supporting Phonics and Spelling Instruction with Struggling Students

 

Planning for Instruction Using Spelling Features

Complete: Planning for Instructiong Using Spelling Features

Informal Assessments with Interactive Games

Explore: Interactive games from PBS

Spelling Feature Analysis and Instruction Plan Rubric

 

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Session 5

Task Assessment
Increasing Literacy Achievement for All Students

Read: "Balanced Literacy"

Read: “Critical elements of classroom and small-group instruction promote reading success in all children”

WatchVowel Teams: Examples and Best Practices
Discuss: Methods that enable teachers to implement balanced literacy and direct instruction, particularly for those who do not learn word level skills readily.
Discussion Forum Participation Rubric
Instructional Interventions for Struggling Students

Read: "Beginning to Decode"

Read: "Analyzing Words and Making Discoveries About the Alphabetic System: Activities for Beginning Readers"

Reflect: Reflect on specific methods you might use to support the literacy skills of students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles.

Online Journal Rubric

Supportive Environments for English Language Learners
Read: "Focus on Research: Using What We Know About Language and Literacy Development for ESL Students in the Mainstream Classroom"
Meeting Students' Individual Needs
Complete: Lesson plan for an ELL or struggling reader and post for peer review.

Lesson Plan Rubric

Peer Review Guidelines

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Session 6

Task Assessment
Final Project: A Case Study of a Student in Grades K-3
Complete:
1. Summary of student's background, attitudes, and progress in developing literacy
2. Analysis of data, determination of spelling stage, instructional needs
3. Develop one-week lesson plan based on assessment

Discuss: Review peers' lesson plans

Submit: Final Project

Final Project Rubric

Discussion Forum Participation Rubric

Peer Review Guidelines

Look Back
Reflect: What knowledge did you acquire?
Reflect: How does this new knowledge affect your professional goals and expectations?
Complete: Post-Course Evaluation Survey