40
Rate this Article!
The teachers said there is a direct connection between reading, spelling, and writing, and they are able to hold students accountable now. Jennifer said, “My expectations are higher because they know how to segment sounds in a word and spell each sound.”
Michelle said,
"I feel freer to circle words [on students’
writing] they should be able to spell that in
the past I might not have circled. Now I think
‘you know how to spell a five-sound word.
You should be able to do that and get a little
closer at least.’ That is definitely
empowering."
Gina said, “My first graders can spell better than third or fourth graders.” Jennifer illustrated this by sharing an example of a game called Guess the Covered Word, which she had played throughout the years with her students. They put all of their spelling words (or sometimes sight words) on the board. A leader was chosen and s/he said, “Now you see it.” The class took one last look at the words on the board before putting their heads down and covering their eyes. While the students were hiding their eyes, the leader removed/covered one of the words and then said, “Now you don’t.” Then the students uncovered their eyes and raised their hands to guess the covered word. Once a student correctly guessed the covered word, then s/he had to spell it correctly. If the student guessed the word and spelled it correctly, that student was the new leader. Otherwise another student was called on to correctly spell the word. This particular school year she invited her former students who were currently third graders to join her first grade students for the game. Jennifer said the third graders,
did not want to raise their hand for ‘guess
the covered word’ with our spelling words.
You could tell they were self-conscious
about not being able to spell correctly. We
had words like unhappy, these multisyllable
words. I think they were nervous they
weren’t going to get them right. I felt bad for
them, but wow! This [seeing students know
alphabetics and apply the knowledge] is
exciting stuff!
The teachers spoke of a change in their philosophy. They felt they had always given a foundation for phonemic awareness and phonics, but they realized it was insufficient because their former students started to struggle in third or fourth grade. They stated their former first grade students could use a picture or context clue better, but the current first grade students could read words with better accuracy and fluency.
Concluding Thoughts
Research has shown that both beginning teachers (Cheesman, McGuire, Shankweiler, & Coyne, 2009) and practicing teachers (Bos, Mather, Dickson, Podhajski & Chard, 2001; Moats & Foorman, 2003) who are directly responsible for teaching children to read do not possess adequate alphabetical knowledge. This study showed teachers conceptually learned about alphabetics and were able to use this knowledge to teach their students.
Knowledge must be specifically taught to teachers in supportive and coherent ways that require them to apply the knowledge to practice. As the teachers said, knowledge has the power to change instruction forever and thus impact many students. The teachers said all of their students (regardless of ability level or progress) were better readers as a result of explicit, systematic, and purposeful alphabetic instruction. Further, these teachers knew when to differentiate phonemic awareness and phonics instruction based on students’ needs (NGACBP, 2010).
The importance of this study is that teachers need to realize what they don’t know and ask for explicit training in those skills. This study documented that teachers become empowered when they are given quality professional development on the topic of alphabetics. The results also showed that teacher knowledge impacts instruction in observable ways. Lastly, the results illustrated that alphabetics is important for student literacy development. In sum, teacher knowledge about alphabetics can be strengthened, and this knowledge is critical and significant for teachers of beginning readers.