Second Student Survey

      This week I have constantly had at least 4 students absent each day. For the past three days, I have been trying to give each student a post-assessment. All but one student has taken the assessment. Today, I gave my second student survey. I have four students who have yet to take it. Ha ha! I think having students absent is just part of the action research journey.

     As I said above, I gave my students another survey. Based on the short responses I received on the first survey, I gave my students more instructions and directions when filling out the survey. However, I was clear not to give them ideas or suggestions. Overall, the students did not a much better job of answering my questions by adding more details. They were not perfect, but much more beneficial to me than the original survey. Below you will find some student responses I found interesting as well as my commentary.

First question: What strategies do you use to spell words when you write?

• Student #3 said"I put my hand under my chin and say the word out" - This student's group has been working on syllables. I am very impressed he wrote down this strategy as he has been struggling with syllables. I have been working with him on it.
• Student #8 said "I know how to spell a word because I sound them out and read." He is the first student to make the connection among reading and spelling. According to Reed (2012), “[p]roficiency in spelling actually supports reading” (p. 5). This student is a strong reader and enjoys reading. Student #21 falls into the same category. He scored 100% on both the pre- and post-assessments. In fact, I am always having to tell this student to put down his book and listen to my instruction. Ha ha. Ness (2010) states researchers “now understand the synchrony among reading, writing, and spelling development; the way in which a student spells a word provides important information about how the student reads words” (p. 114). When I think about my class as a whole I do see my stronger readers as my stronger spellers. I want to dive further into this topic to see what kind of data I have to support this theory.
• Student #17 said, "I sound out the words. I also think how the word is spelled and I write it." She is trying to pull spelling from her memory. She is thinking of spelling as rote memorization.

Second question: When you don't know how to spell a word, what do you do?

• Every student but one mentioned sounding out the word. Student #7 has been professionally tested and literally does not hear sounds phonetically.
• Student #4 said, "sound out the word, spelling carefully so I don't mess up" - This student puts a lot of pressure on himself to do well. He is upset when he gets a grade lower than an A.
• Student #11 said, "When I don't know how to spell a word I sound it out and then break it into smaller words so its easier to remember." I found this response interesting as it leans towards the implication that spelling is memorization.

Third question: What spelling patterns have you studied?

Here are some of their responses based on their spelling groups.

• Pink Group: aw, au, oddball, ou, ow
• Blue Group: past, present, nothing, -ing, -ed
• Orange Group: magic e, 1st, 2nd, VCCV, oddball, VC/V, V/CV
• Yellow Group: silent g, h, k; pre-, mis-, dis-

Articles cited:

Ness, M. K. (2010). Examining one class of third-grade spellers: The diagnostic potential of students' spelling. Reading Horizons, 50(2), 113-130.

Reed, D. K. (2012). Why teach spelling?. Center On Instruction.

Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment

     It is hard to believe that I am nearly finished collecting data. Since we only have a four-day week, this week is perfect to give each of my students a post-assessment and another survey. Today, I decided to give the post-assessment since I knew it would take the longest to gather specific data. Unfortunately, I had four students absent today. I thought cold and flu season was suppose to be wrapping up in early March. 

     For the post-assessment, I gave the exact same assessment used for the pre-assessment. I chose this assessment because I am using the Words Their Way spelling program. --> Schlagal (2002) states “[t]here are very few programs that engage students in activities designed to help them perceive, manipulate, and automatize the orthographic generalizations illustrated in the word lists” (p. 53). Based on the results I have so far from the post-assessment, I believe that Words Their Way is one of these programs mentioned by Schlagal. Students were able to manipulate and begin understanding the orthographic patterns as they developed through the defined spelling developmental stages. Each week students were given a spelling list of words following specific orthographic patterns. Throughout the week, students completed a variety of activities to better understand these patterns.   -->

Below you will find the results of my pre-assessment and post-assessment:

Pre-Assessment

Post-Assessment

During my analysis, here are a few ideas I noticed (It is extremely important to remember that 4 students have yet to be tested and will change the post-assessment results): 

•  Pre-Assessment: 4 students were in the Within Word Pattern spelling stage; Post-Assessment: 2 students are in the Within Word Pattern spelling stage (I am thinking only 1 more student will fall in this range when tested tomorrow.)
• Pre-Assessment: 6 students were in the Early Syllables &Affixes spelling stage; Post-Assessment: 2 students are in the Early Syllables &Affixes spelling stage
• Pre-Assessment: 7 students were in the Middle Syllables &Affixes spelling stage; Post-Assessment: 5 students are in the Middle Syllables &Affixes spelling stage  
• Pre-Assessment: 1 students were in the Late Syllables &Affixes spelling stage; Post-Assessment: 4 students are in the Late Syllables &Affixes spelling stage 
• Pre-Assessment: 1 students were in the Derivational Relations spelling stage; Post-Assessment: 2 students are in the Derivational Relations spelling stage  
• 4 students dropped in their total score consisting of feature points and words spelled correctly.
• #10 dropped 6 points!
• #12 dopped 3 points.
• #14 dropped 2 points. 
• #15 dropped 1 point.
• 2 students' scores (#18 and #21) remained the same on the pre-assessment and post-assessment. #21 received 100% on both assessments. 
• #5 made the greatest gain by increasing 10 points! He moved up to Middle Syllables and Affixes spelling stage from Early Syllables and Affixes spelling stage.
• #8 and #9  both increased by 7 points!

     Overall, I am extremely pleased with how my students' scores were illustrated on the post-assessment. For the students whose scores decreased, I will look further into their actual spelling of individual words as well as specific features. 


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Schlagal, B. (2002). Classroom spelling instruction: History, research, and practice. Reading Research and Instruction, 42(1).

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Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., Johnston, F. (2004). Words their way. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

 

Field Notes

     
      The picture above shows a portion of my field notes during the following activities: word sort, no-peeking sort, word hunt, speed sort, and assessment. These activities were chosen carefully after reviewing numerous amounts of literature. In one article Massengill (2006) states “memorization alone does not seem to [be] an effective enough method for learning words, which is the try goal of spelling (p. 422). Other articles I found supported Massengill's comments. Thus, I knew that when I chose these activities I needed students to focus on the orthographic patterns being studied that week in spelling. Reed (2012) states “[w]ord sort activities can reinforce the orthographic patterns” (p. 16).  Word sort allows students to work with me to determine which pattern each spelling word follows. No-peeking sort allows students to complete the sort by sound. Students are not able to memorize the sort because they are not looking at the individual word. The word hunt activity allowed students to find words following the orthographic pattern being studied that week in a variety of text, including their reading books. The speed sort allows students the opportunity to sort their words at a timed pace after studying the patterns for a few days. Finally, the assessment allows for students to show their knowledge of the spelling patterns.

     When looking at my field notes, I recognize that they provide extremely thin descriptions if any description. My students had a difficult time understanding the activities the first couple of weeks. Thus, I was having to walk around and help each group and student complete the activities. Luckily the last couple of weeks, the students are beginning to understand the activities and complete them independently. This independence has allowed me to walk around and observe more students at work. When analyzing the data, I will not rely heavily on my field notes, but may use them to help guide my commentary.

Massengill, D. (2006). Mission accomplished…it's learnable now: Voices of mature challenged spellers using a word study approach. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(5), 420-431.

Reed, D. K. (2012). Why teach spelling?. Center On Instruction

Quantitative Data

Each Friday, my students take a spelling assessment on the words they have studied for that week. In the beginning, I was giving the assessment as a whole group. By calling out four different group's words, the assessment was taking me over 45 minutes to give. The past couple of weeks I started having my aide give one group's test and then I would call back the other three groups one at a time to the back table. Without looking at the data, I thought my students were performing better by taking the spelling assessment at the back table. They were asking for less words to be repeated and appeared more focused during the assessment. However, I knew that these generalizations were not sufficient and decided to put my students' scores on a single sheet of paper for analysis. My analysis for the data can be seen in the following picture.

I am a little concern that all of my students were not scoring as well as they had the first week. After much thought, I am beginning to wonder if the students are having to work harder to learn their words since the words are in their developmental stage. I am going to keep this idea in the back of my head as I analyze more data. My last spelling assessment will be given this Friday. I am curious to see how my students perform due to the snow day today and not being able to work with their spelling word patterns...only time will tell.

Spelling Sentences

     I am the first person that will tell you I am a Nervous Nelly. Ever since I was little, I have always over-analyzed numerous situations in which most people do not give a second thought. During this journey of my action research project, I am having a difficult time "trusting the process." As I begin to analyze more and more data, my comfort level does start to increase. Since I am looking at how students can become better spellers to improve their reading and writing, I decided after talking with my professor to have students write sentences using the spelling patterns being studied that week. I had done this experiment a couple of weeks ago when I interviewed two students. This time I decided to have all my students complete this task. Overall, I am pleased with the results. The one thing I will change for next time is to give the groups who are working on suffixes, the root word in which to add the suffix. I had a few students misspell words such as shove and doze. However, my point was not if the students could spell the root word last week, I was curious to see how the groups could manipulate the word to add the suffix -ing and -ed correctly. Below you will find four samples taken from this activity along with my notes.

Student 11 is in the blue group. His group was studying how to change the root word when adding the suffixes -ing and -ed. As you can see, he misspelled dozing. However, this student gave a detailed description as to how he knew to spell these words based on the patterns being studied.

Student 13 is part of the pink group, which is studying the same sound ou and ow can make. She recognizes that spelling activities help her become a better speller. The activities she listed above are the assignments students are currently completing for homework.

Student 12 is also part of the pink group. When writing her words, she took the time to sound out the words and recognized that the underlined words had the same sound she studied for that week.

Student 21 is part of my yellow group, which is studying prefixes un- and re-. He is a strong speller and always states he listens and sounds out words to spell. However, he does not recognize that this is a spelling strategy.

     Student 12 works hard to improve her spelling on a daily basis. She is quick to sound out words. Based on her remarks, she continues to use sounding out sounds and syllables as her main method for spelling unfamiliar words. She even goes so far as to make the connection of sounds heard to the current week's spelling patterns. Invernizz & Hayes (2004) state “that the process of comparing and contrasting orthographic features not only teaches the spelling of specific words but also encourages students to make generalizations about the spelling consistency of other words within a given category (p. 224).  Student 12 is recognizing that when she hears the ow sound that it could be spelled using the letters ow or ou. She made that generalization independently when writing this sentence. Student 13 made a similar correct generalization, however, she stated her generalization was made based on daily spelling activities.

     Student 11 made drew accurate conclusions when spelling the underlined words related to his spelling patterns. Schlagal (2002) states “[s]orting and manipulating these lists of words by their patterns provides a powerful dimension of interest and focus to a week’s instructional sequence and can help children to see and understand the orthographic structures they are studying” (p. 54). Student 11 immediately recognized and was able to clearly state the specific spelling patterns he was studying for that week and how these new words fell into the categories. Even though Student 21 stated it was due to sounding out sounds. I do believe he is seeing and understanding the specific features he is studying each week. However, I believe that he is subconsciously translating these new features into his writing.

     Both of these articles strongly support my decision to differentiate spelling among my students as well as choose lists that focus on specific features. With much practice, students are beginning to translate these spelling features into their writing. For more information on these articles, I provided the citations below. I am excited to interview my two students this week and ask more detailed questions.

Invernizzi, M., & Hayes, L. (2004). Developmental-spelling research: A systematic imperative. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), 216-228.

Schlagal, B. (2002). Classroom spelling instruction: History, research, and practice. Reading Research and Instruction, 42(1).

Thick Description

       Pictures are worth 1,000 words. That statement could not have been more true for a student on Thursday. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera. It was just after lunch on Thursday and students were going to complete a speed sort to practice their spelling words.

     Student #13 is in the pink spelling group. She is a quiet girl, who lately has been having trouble focusing on class assignments. Her mother is extremely concerned about her spelling abilities. This student is aware of the comparison her mother makes between her older sister and her. Her older sister loves school and does very well. My student loves to hunt, draw, and play with her friends. She loves enjoys coming to school, but could do without the instruction part. Ha ha! However, she continues to try her best. 
      As she pulls out her spelling words, I notice she is struggling to find her headers and bold words. She asks me what will happen if she does not sort her words correctly. I respond that she will be given the opportunity to fix her mistakes until she sorts them correctly. Based on her lack of response and facial expression, I could tell this was not the response she wanted to her. She finally sets up her bold words and headers to be ready for the sort. The student looks around the room. Her hand is in her bag ready to grab the next word when I say go. I say, "Ready, set, go." She grabs her first word. I watch her lips as she sounds out her words to decide if it the word goes in the "ow," "ou," or "oddball" column. She continued to sound out each word and think about the placement of the word before setting the word in the column. This is the same student who is too shy to sound out her words quietly on Mondays. I was beaming as I was watching her! I continued to walk around the room and check students as they finished. Finally, she finished sorting her words. She looked over her words one more time, then she raised her hand. I walked over to her desk and looked at her words. She had sorted her words correctly! I was impressed she had found her oddball words correctly as she had struggled a little on Monday to tell the difference between through and though. She started smiling the second I told her her sort was correct. I told her she could put her words away since she finished. I am not sure that small smile left her face the entire time she cleaned up her words and waited for her classmates to finish. In the end, her team ended up winning the spelling sort.

Student Survey Analysis

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Out of the 19 student surveys given on February 4^th, 16 of the students stated that they used sounding out as a spelling strategy to spell unknown words. The first (#19) of the three students to differ on an answer stated, “I try my best to spell it.” Because this student did not specifically state how he tried to spell these words, such as sounding out the words or using known spelling patterns. The second student (#5) wrote “I practice my words every day.” Based on my prior knowledge of this student, I believe he miss understood the question and responded based on how he knows how to spell his weekly spelling words. The third student (#21) wrote, “I use no strategies.” I must admit he is my second highest speller in my classroom. However, I believe he does not know specifically which spelling patterns he uses to spell unknown words.

            While reviewing literature I found an article that discussed how students learn in developmental stages. Gehsmann (2012) states “ [t]he more students know about orthography-how words work, their structure, and how that corresponds to sound and meaning-the more rapidly they can identify words in print and generate words in writing” (p. 6). Since most of my students are wrote that they sound out words, obviously they have an understanding of how sound corresponds to meaning like Gehsmann stated. However, my students’ levels of understanding vary based on the pre-assessment results given last month. I do believe that by differentiating my spelling groups based on their spelling needs is helping my students. My students are learning how words work and what blends of letters make which sounds.

This week I am going to spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday calling back each spelling group and have them write a dictated sentence using the words being studied this week. I want to start collecting more data on the students’ writing and the effects of spelling. I only wish I had time to start this idea weeks ago.

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Gehsmann, K. (2012). Stages and standards in literacy: Teaching developmentally in the age of accountability. Journal Of Education, 192(1), 5-16.

Parent Spelling Survey Analysis

When analyzing the spelling surveys I gave the parents February 4th, I decided to use the following categories after a lengthy discussion with my professor: spelling, sentence structure, attitude, and names. All the surveys were returned to me by offering the students candy upon the return of the survey. Since all surveys were returned, the reward was an effective incentive. Here are my findings:

Spelling:
Seven parents referred to their children learning spelling words through writing them numerous times to know how to spell them. These parents were referring having their children memorize the words through repetition. Only one parent actually stated that her child memorizes the spelling. It is this connotation that spelling should be memorized that has led me to develop my inquiry.  Reed (2012) states, “[s]ince the 19^th century, many educators have believed that learning to spell depends on rote memorization of words” (p. 10). Based on the parents' responses, I feel that my students' parents learned how to spell through memorization thus feeling the need to continue with the tradition. However, current research shows their are other more beneficial methods, which I hope I am able to share my results with my parents to help prevent this unnecessary rote memorization idea from being passed on to other generations.

Sentence Structure:
Out of 21 surveys, only 6 parents responded to the questions using complete sentences. Two more parents started to fill out the survey with sentences, but then switched to jotting down notes. Four parents filled out the survey using periods when only fragmented thoughts, including single words, were used. I did notice that the parents who wrote fragments or limited information correlated to my students needing more assistance in spelling.


Attitude:
All parents stated they felt that weekly spelling words were helping their children become better spellers. One parent did comment that the improvement of her child's spelling words depended on the words given. However, she did not provide further insight as to whether she was referring to the differentiated spelling lists or previously whole class spelling lists given. Another parent commented on how her child has not made as much improvement in spelling as she would have liked her child to have made by now. (Side note: However, this is the same parent who does not help her child with homework and makes her daughter babysit her younger siblings, so the parent can relax.)

Names: 
Only six parents used their children's names when filling out the survey.  Overall, the parents who used their children's names in their responses were the parents who provided lengthy responses in complete sentences.

Obviously, these are only my first level of observations for these surveys. However, my next step will be to analyze my students' surveys. I am hopeful that I will be able to make connections between the parents' responses and the students' responses.

Reed, D. K. (2012). Why teach spelling?. Center On Instruction.

Interview Analysis

Last night in class, we learned about grounded analysis. The first level is to use gerunds to describe what is occurring in the qualitative data being analyzed. I decided that I would look at my interviews to try out this new analysis technique. It was extremely tough trying to find gerunds as I read through the interviews. I know my interviews are short, but as I analyzed these interviews I realize how meatless they are. Thus, I am going to make sure to include more questions in my next round of interviews as I cannot reach level 2 categories with my current interviews. Below I have provided pictures of my interview analysis.

Thick Description

On Mondays, I sort the words with the students to go over the spelling patterns being studied that week. As I meet with each group, some students understand the pattern faster than other students. Sometimes, I have to remind these students to let other students have time to think about the pattern and in which category to place the current word being discussed. Originally, I thought orange group would have a difficult time sorting words as they had to differentiate between VCC/CV words and VC/CCV words. However, my blue group showed more signs of difficulty reviewing –ing words. These students had to identify the root word and then decide if the root word doubled the consonant, did nothing, or dropped the silent –e before adding –ing to the word. Throughout the group, there were only a few hiccups. In particular, I watched one student (#5) organize his words based on the words he knew in which category to place them. With a big grin, he placed the first three words in the correct category. When it was his turn to say his last word, he mouthed it to himself. Then, he said “begging” as “beginning” slowly and quietly. I told him to find the root word. He said, “-ing.” The rest of the group members were watching this little boy quietly. A couple of the students had their hands up ready to tell me the word. I asked them to give this boy a chance, so they needed to lower their hands. My next question to him was “Where do you find the root word?” He quickly stated at the beginning of the word, so I asked him if the root word could be –ing. He said “No. It is beg.” After congratulating him, I asked him what had been done to the word beg to make it present tense. He quickly said the consonant had been doubled. I was pleased with my group for taking the time to allow this little boy to sound out the word as well as figure out the root word. I was also pleased in the fact that I was able to review root words with my students.

Spelling Test Success

Previously, my spelling tests were taking 45 - 60 minutes on Fridays to give to my students. This was due to the fact that I called out one word for each of my four groups until all words had been called out. Then, my students could ask me to repeat words, if necessary. After talking with my professor, I decided to have my instructional aide give my highest spelling group their weekly assessment. She was more than happy to help me and the students both scored A's. One student earned 100 and the other student missed one word meaning he earned 96. Then, it was my turn to give the other three groups their tests. It only took 32 minutes! I could not believe how much time was saved by having my aide give a test. Last week, it took me 53 minutes! After even more thought, I am going to give my reading test on Thursday. Then, I will be able to have students completing assignments while giving spelling tests at the back table. My aide will still help me :) In previous weeks, I have given the reading tests on Friday, which meant absolute silence was needed in the room. However, if students are reading in their book study groups, correcting tests, and completing any other reading assignments, then I can pull them to the back table without creating huge disruptions.  I am excited for what lays ahead as I must admit the last couple of weeks, I have felt like I was drowning in the middle of the ocean.

On another note, I was hoping to post about my analysis of my spelling surveys. However, I have had a few obstacles this week and will need to post about the surveys and the transcriptions of my interviews later.

First Interview

      After much anxiety, I finally conducted my first set of interviews today. Originally, I had intended to interview three students but only had time to interview two students before chaos struck. One student had a physical melt down while another student had not taken his strongly needed medication. Despite these obstacles, I was very excited overall as to how the interviews went. Unfortunately, I have not had time to transcribe them, but wanted to share my day's reflection about them. For each interview I had the students write down a sentence that I dictated. These sentences were created using at least one word that followed the spelling patterns being studied this week. My first student (#18) wrote the sentence "It is starting to snow." Initially, I had a different sentence created, however, she was so excited about the snow coming down that it was all she could talk about when we were together! Her group is studying the spelling pattern "-ing" in which root words drop the "e" or nothing happens. As she started to write "starting," she stopped at the word "start." I waited to see what she was going to write next. At first, I thought she might have misunderstood the sentence. Then, she slowly started to write "-ing" correctly. I was beaming inside! After finishing writing the sentence, I asked her how she knew to spell "starting." She started telling me about how she learned it during the initial "pre-assessment," the test I used to divide my students into appropriate groups. After further questioning, she was able to tell me it was because of the pattern her group studied last week. She continued to tell me that she learned last week that when words end in two consonants, a person just adds "-ing." Her line of thinking was absolutely correct! Even though "starting" fell into the category of do "nothing" when adding -ing, she connected the word to a previous spelling pattern studied.
      When interviewing my second student (#12), I was semi-successful. I asked her to write the sentence, "The moth had a long yawn." Her group is studying the "au" sound found in cause, lawn, and cross. When she initially wrote the sentence, she misspelled the word "yawn" as "youn." I then asked her questions about the spelling pattern she was studying this week. She gave a clear explanation of the pattern. Then, I asked her if there were any words in the sentence that made the "au" sound. She identified "moth" and "yawn." Then, I asked her if these words followed her spelling pattern. With a few more questions, she was able to change the word "yawn" to the correct spelling by using her current spelling pattern.
      Overall, I would call today a success. Schlagal (2002) states “[s]orting and manipulating these lists of words by their patterns provides a powerful dimension of interest and focus to a week’s instructional sequence and can help children to see and understand the orthographic structures they are studying” (p. 54). Both students were able to make connections to their spelling pattern when writing their sentences. These students were able to refer back to the vowel patterns and suffix patterns being studied for the the current week. Instead of being given 20 words that follow a variety of spelling patterns, these students were able to find success by being given 24 words that follow one or two patterns. 

For more information on spelling, you can read the following article that I quoted from in this post.

Schlagal, B. (2002). Classroom spelling instruction: History, research, and practice. Reading Research and Instruction, 42(1).

First Spelling Assessment

     Today, I gave my first spelling test with four groups! Overwhelming does not begin to describe the feeling. I had to give my spelling assessment today due to the snow day on Friday. As if missing a school day wasn't bad enough, our school system had an hour delay. The students were super excited and had a difficult time focusing. Despite telling them Thursday that if there was no school on Monday, the spelling test would be Monday. I was concerned how my students would perform as well as giving four tests at once. Four groups is too many! I am going to see if I can find a parent volunteer or an aide to help me give a test. I feel bad outsourcing, but there is no way I can handle giving all the tests. Throughout the test, I had to remind some students to focus on the test!
    Overall, the scores were much better than I expected. Both students in the yellow (high) group got As despite one of the students playing war with his pencils and the other student staring out the window. I learned looks can be deceiving! In my orange (medium-high) group, I had 6 As and 1 B. The one student who received a B is going to be devastated. This grade is his lowest on a spelling test. I will be paying close attention to his reaction tomorrow. This student is the same one who thought he should be in a higher group. I am hoping that he will strive to join the yellow group and maybe pull up some of his other group members. In my blue (medium) group, three students earned As, two students earned Bs, and 1 student received a C. I am not sure what to make of these scores yet. I am copying these students tests to analyze at another time. The pink (low) group had two students earn As, one student earned a C, and one student earned a D. I am so excited that one of my worst spellers in the classroom scored an A on her spelling test. She is working so hard on trying to sound out words and become a better speller. This A will really help her self-esteem! The student who earned a D was very unexpected. However, I know that she is experiencing less assistance at home due to family situations. Unfortunately, I have not been made aware of these factors. Overall, I expected students to score where they did.
    I finally have sent home the parent surveys. Unfortunately I have been trying for about a week but due to weather and other school obligations, I have not been able to send them. I told the students their parents were going to have homework and to make sure they did it. I am going to be curious to see how many parents fill out the survey as well as what comments the parents make. Hopefully, I will not take any of the comments personally! I am looking forward to having a full week of spelling activities and to really start collecting data. Have a great week :)

Word Hunt

Yesterday, I taught my students new activity called word hunt. Students are expected to find words in their reading books that follow the current week's spelling pattern. It was an interesting experience. As I explained the directions, most of my students had blank stares. As a whole class, we found examples of words that followed a particular pattern. After numerous examples, I let my students divide into their spelling groups to hunt for words. Below is a picture of a student looking for words in her reading book.

I was pleased to see her using her finger to look for words carefully.

As I walked around to help each group (as well as take pictures), I found it interesting to see how each group was working. I started working with the blue group (medium level). They were having a difficult time getting started. Therefore, I helped them find a couple of examples for each category. I was pleased to see how successful my ELL student was looking for words and taking a leadership role in helping his group.
 

A student example from the blue group.

As I examined the blue group's work after school, I was pleased to see they found appropriate words to fit each spelling pattern. In fact, the blue group finished first during the activity, which concerned me that they might have rushed. However, I was wrong. These students worked as a team helping each other find each word that they were able to work accurately and correctly.
 

A student example from my orange group.

My orange group (medium-high) had the most trouble getting started. They could not figure out which book to use despite me giving the directions numerous times. Then, some students started to copy their spelling words while two other students talked. The orange group only had two patterns to search for as their third spelling pattern was "oddball" words. Obviously, this group came close to finishing but did not complete the second column. 
 

A student example from the pink group.

The pink group (low) did not need my assistance during the assignment. They used a variety of previously learned strategies to find words. Even though they did not finish the first pattern, I was extremely pleased with their effort and work. They only missed one word in the third pattern. "Only" does not have a long "o" sound. When I originally wrote my lesson plans for this activity, I had planned to spend my time helping this group. However as I observed their group, I felt that I was more of a nuisance than a help. The pink group's strategy was to start in the glossary then work page by page to find words. They were so pleased with themselves and cannot wait until next week!

A student example from the yellow group.

I only have two students in my yellow group as they scored the highest among their classmates. Due to their strong spelling abilities, I expected them to breeze through this assignment and had an enrichment activity for them to complete when they finished the word hunt. However, I did not need this extra activity. These students goofed off and stated they could not find the words. After a short discussion and assistance from my, one student got to work and he found the words in the above sample. However, the other student waited for the first student to do the work. I am going to need to reevaluate these students work in a partnership because based on this assignment they are not being successful. Luckily, I have a week to bounce ideas off of my teammates.

Overall, the word hunt activity was a great success. I learned not to auto-assume that my higher achieving students will perform the best and finish first. I need to give all my students a fair chance!

Student Assessment

Originally, I had planned to give my students their spelling assessments last Friday. However, weather forced us to have a snow day. Thus, I had to assess my students yesterday. I gave the assessment in the morning hoping to have it graded by the end of the day. Unfortunately, I was not able to grade all of the assessments before the students left yesterday. Thus, I had to change plans. My students received their spelling words today and I met with each group to go over the spelling patterns being studied for this week. Despite starting a day later than planned, our class is back on the timeline schedule.

After much research, I decided to use the program Words Their Way to provide my students with differentiated spelling. In order to differentiate spelling for my students, I need to pre-assess my students. Using the spelling inventory from Words Their Way (Pearson, 2004), I called out 25 words for my students to spell.

A student sample of the pre-assessment given Monday.

Once I collected the pre-assessments, I used the spelling inventory to determine what spelling patterns each student needs to study. Based on the spelling pattern areas in need, the inventory places students into stages: Emergent, Letter-Name Alphabetic, Within Word Pattern, and Syllables & Affixes. 

Using the above spelling assessment, the spelling inventory placed this student in Middle Syllables & Affixes.

The maximum number of feature points a student could score was 78 points. In my classroom, I had students score between 27 and 78. Thus, the pre-assessment data confirming the need for differentiated spelling in my room. Using the feature points, I had four students fall into late Within Word Pattern, six students fall into early Syllables & Affixes, seven students fall into middle Syllables & Affixes, and two students fall into late Syllables & Affixes. Based on this information, I was able to form three spelling groups. The first weekly spelling test will be Friday. I will post in a couple days to let you know how the students performed in their various spelling groups.

Putting A Plan Into Action

Each week, my students receive a new set of words and practice these words nightly in preparation for their spelling assessments on Fridays. Overall, my students spell these words correctly and earn A's. However, my students do not transfer their spelling patterns into their writing. Thus, my students know their words on Friday and forget them by Monday. As a teacher, I understand the necessity of spelling to be successful as strong readers and writers. Thus, my research action plan is designed to find out if my students will learn and understand spelling patterns better by following the differentiated spelling program. 

This week I use a pre-assessment to determine how to divide my third grade students into three groups. Based on their scores, I will group them based on similar spelling stages and needs. This is a great undertaking as I have never completed an action research inquiry. I am extremely nervous that I will not be able to find common themes or make appropriate modified changes to my plan based on student performance. However, I know that I am determined to be the best teacher to my students as I can be for me students. My strong motivation and attention to detail will allow my research inquiry to be successful.

Below you will find a tentative timeline (Win Calendar) in which to guide my action research inquiry. Due to snow days or other professional requirements, I know that I might need to change days. However, I will complete the required tasks that particular week. I will post my journey on this blog twice a week with my goal being on Sundays and Wednesdays. I look forward to you joining me during this journey.

Welcome to my new blog. In my last graduate class, I am completing an action research inquiry on spelling. My research question is, "How can developmental word study instruction help improve my students' spelling?" This blog will be used to track my progress through my journey this semester. I hope that you find my research and commentary helpful and are able to use it in your classroom. Let the research begin!