+ Partner Journal Review

Teaching Spelling in

Language Arts

+ Presented By:Molly Schnaible & Mary Seidler

ECEL 3220DR. BRANT1/26/13

+What is Language Arts?

•Spelling•Vocabulary•Word study (or phonics)•Reading (or literature)• Writing (or composition)•Grammar

Language Arts is the area of the curriculum in which students are taught the range of skills needed to become proficient in using the language.

+Our Focus in Language Arts Research is…

SPELLING!Weekly spelling meetings:

Improving spelling instruction through classroom-based inquiry

By: Kimberly A. Wright

Our Journal was called:

+What is Spelling?

Spelling: is the forming of words from letters according to accepted usage; a sequence of letters composing a word; a statement of rules or conventions on how words are to be written.

+How it got started…an inspiring story from a teacher

Kimberly A. Wright

•Kimberly Wright was a new 4th grade teacher at MapletonElementary in Maine, and had a heart to help her students with spelling.

•After working with other teachers, and hearing about the “spelling meeting” from another school. SHE WANTED TO TRY IT

•The spelling meetings were to replace a traditional spelling book, but produce the same results in a non-traditional way.

“We tackled the topic of spelling, an area of literacy where we as teachers felt

more consistent instruction was needed in order to help improve students'

spelling practice.”

+How to have a spelling meeting

•Kids are given a journal to record their words that they learn about

•They need to pick only 3 words

•Kids are to find words that they want to know about or are interesting to them. They are to bring them in and share them with the group

•The kids find out the meaning of the words and the proper spelling

•The students meet once a week as a group to have their meetings

+The Pros Vs. The Con’s

The Cons Kids would:

Forget the journals Not participate Did not care Do the work in

class right before the meeting

The Pros Kids would: Find spelling

patterns as they shared their words

Kids had a visual awareness of words

The kids knew homonyms

Help the teacher come up with ideas to make the spelling meetings better

+Our Classrooms and the spelling meetingsMolly’s Classroom: It would be called “Spelling Club” instead of spelling

meeting. Seems like it would be more fun.

Notebooks would go home so that kids can find words at home everyday If kids remember to bring their notebooks, it adds up

to points for a classroom party (ex. Pizza, movie, etc)

Once words are shared, play a game with the word

+Our Classrooms and the spelling s meetings Mary’s Classroom:

Spelling Club: “Paperback Writer,” by The Beatles would be our theme song. It

would alert the kids to grab their notebooks, and head for the meeting center in the classroom. There would be kids that would designated each time to grab our “spelling club” materials (posters, word wall, markers).

There would be a weekly theme of words and a fun activity to do with those words (write a funny story with the words you found or play hangman)

If the kids do not know the meaning of the word or how to spell it, we would look it up on the computer so that it could be displayed on the big screen.

We would have a word wall so that we could add our words to it each week

+Conclusion…The End

We’re going to pick up tools during our careers as teacher and we have found

Teachers learn by trial and error, like the teacher in our article

We want our students to enjoy reading, and excel in language arts (LIKE SPELLING!!!)

We think by using the spelling meeting, our students will reach the goal of becoming excellent spellers.

+References

Kimberly, Wright A. "Weekly Spelling Meetings: Improving Spelling Instruction

through Classroom-based Inquiry." Proquest. Proquest, Jan. 2000. Web. 22 Jan.

2013.

"Mapleton Elementary School Faculty." Mapleton Elementary School Faculty.

N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2013.

"What Is Spelling?" What Is Spelling? N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2013.