peers replies

Bry post

1. On page 274 I really loved this paragraph from Moats. “Make sense of spellings and demystify spelling patterns, with reference to all “angles” on orthography. National spelling bee contestants are allowed to ask about a word’s pronunciation, meaning, and etymology before they spell the word. Information about phoneme–grapheme links, orthographic patterns and constraints, language of origin of a word, morphology, and grammar and syntax may all be drawn upon at times as we explain why words are spelled the way they are. Again, we are more likely to remember something that makes sense. Gaining insight into how words work is also fun and intrinsically rewarding.” I like that it mentions spelling bee contestants, who I would claim most people think are smart individuals. By mentioning the spelling bee contestants it kind of gives the reader permission to accept questions. To let kids be curious and to break up words. To give them the information to connect all of the puzzle pieces. I also liked that the text said we are more likely to remember something that makes sense. It was something that really caught my eye, I definitely could use this reminder sometimes as a teacher. Its easy to rush through and just expect students to absorb your information then do the work. But its so important to slow down, break things down as needed. If things don't make sense, students are not going to remember it.

2. Moats point to minimize rule memorization on page 274 was a huge aha moment. Instead of teaching English rules and memorizing things, students should learn the pattern recognition that gives students permission to become more fluent readers and writers.Heres the direct quote of the section to give you more background on what I'm talking about. “Minimize rule memorization; emphasize pattern recognition and insight into language structure. Some systematic phonics approaches spend too much time on recitation and memorization of rules that ultimately do not transfer to fluent reading or writing. Examples of these—which are better left untaught and replaced with actual practice reading the words—are: •If a vowel letter is at the end of a word, then the letter usually stands for a long vowel.

•The letter w is sometimes a vowel and follows the vowel digraph rule.

•The letter a has the same sound when followed by l, w, and u.

Huh?

1. One Huh moment I had was reading the following sentence from page 272. “Instead of teaching that each letter has a sound, teach that phonemes are presented by graphemes and practice phoneme–grapheme mapping (Moats, 2020).” What I took from this was instead of teaching individual sounds put the sounds together to make combined sounds. However, I really struggle to grasp this concept. How can anyone put sounds together if they don't know them?

Rebacca - In our reading, although it is not fully an "aha" moment, it talks about how programs never tell us exactly what to say or do. We make hundreds of judgments every day about who needs what (Cook Moats, 2000). I feel like this validates teachers in what it is like every day in our teaching and how we work with the various needs of the students we work with. It helps us understand that it is okay to reteach a part or all of a lesson when it comes to structured language and literacy instruction, instead of just going on to the next lesson if the majority of the class is struggling. It also reminds me, when I look at my data, that I may need more opportunities for explicit modeling and scaffolding so students fully grasp what I am teaching instead of just imitating what I am doing in the lesson.

One "huh" moment I had was in watching the video An Overview of Structured Literacy when they discuss word, text, and meaning of texts. I was surprised that it discusses the overall meaning of the words, sentence and how sentences are constructed in reading and writing and overall meaning of texts itself ( An Overview of Structured Literacy, n.d.). It was surprising to me that there is that many pieces that are taught in a structured literacy lesson. It seems like it would be a lot for children to learn but while doing my LAB hours I have noticed that in using this system the students pick up pretty quickly each step of this process. I enjoy watching how not only UFLI but Heggerty Literacy curriculum can work together to really support mastery of literacy and linguistics.

Matt - Aha 1: When watching the video, at first I was not sure how the student decided what cubes to use when they were doing the word segmenting activity. After watching further in the video I could see that the cubes represented the different sounds in the word. What a great way to engage kinesthetic learners in the process of breaking down the phonemes in the words!

Aha 2: Research shows that once students reach kindergarten that there is no reason to wait to provide direct instruction of phonological skills even to students with limited English vocabularies. What a good reminder that no matter their current relationship with English skills, once students arrive in school it's important to begin that phonological skill development in order to prevent delays in learning.

Huh 1: I really like how the teacher in the video efficiently worked through her routine and provided hands on learning opportunities with her small group/individualized opportunity. I'm still wondering how some of these activities can be implemented efficiently when working with a larger group, or do you focus on those simple corrections just in your small group instructional times and then in larger group instruction focus on the larger concepts?

Huh 2: As students progress through grade levels, how do general education teachers determine how to proceed with learning for students who have deficits in their reading skills from previous grades? Do they lean on interventionists/special education teachers to provide instruction to close the gap while moving forward and progressing through the skills, or do they increase the number of small group instructional opportunities in order to accommodate and adjust their instruction to support both their learners with literacy skill deficits as well as learners who are accelerated learners and are prepared for something more challenging?