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
I like how you have your field notes organized. It makes it very easy to read and compare from week to week. I am glad your students are getting better at the activities each week!
ReplyDeleteI think I will do the same thing with my field notes too- use them to back up or prove what my other data says.
I have gone back and looked at research from my lit review too. It is fun to see that the data we are finding aligns with previous research!