Linking my Inquiry to the Literature....

Share academic or professional readings and explain how they and other sources helped you form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning.

Teaching Spelling in Primary and Intermediate Schools - Link to article

'Spelling is key to success in writing... In the intermediate years, spelling and handwriting combined (together labelled ‘transcription skills’) account for 41% of the difference in students’ writing fluency. Working memory is limited in its capacity which means that if transcription skills – spelling and handwriting – have not been practised to automaticity, these will likely occupy all of working memory and prevent the student from thinking about other things, such as the ideas they wish to express.'

Reasons why spelling impacts on students’ writing:

• Misspelled words may blur the writer’s message and could influence teachers perceptions of the student’s ability.
• Lack of spelling knowledge may lead to a student avoiding certain words
• Spelling difficulties may affect student confidence about their ability to write, which in turn may impact on motivation and cause them to avoid writing practice

• Spelling supports decoding as it allows students to hear sounds in words and represent them with letters and orthographic patterns (the ways sounds are spelt).  
• Key learning in a spelling program (explained here) should include phonemes, graphemes, vowels, consonants, syllables, digraphs, morphology, and etymology. A challenge because of the 44 sounds (phonemes) in spoken English, the 250 ways to write those sounds (graphemes) and the facts that many of these sounds can be represented in more than one way.
• Teachers should follow a spelling programme to support teaching of spelling patterns and rules.
• Students need to practise retrieving knowledge from memory before it needs to be taught again. 
• 10 minutes of spelling instruction every day is more effective than longer less frequent lessons - guided reading allows opportunities to revisit this learning at the right level.

What to teach...

• Phonemic awareness (listen for sounds and syllables in words)
• Sound-to-letter patterns and relevant spelling rules.
• Use lists of words with the same sound-to-letter correspondences (not randomly spelt ‘essential words’).
• Morphology– the study of meaningful word parts (eg: adding prefixes and suffixes and how they change word meanings)
• Latin and Greek roots
• Etymology– the study of word origins.
• Identify the anomalies of written English

Joy Allcock' example of senior primary spelling program...

• Day 1: Sound or rule for the week
• Day 2: Word meanings
• Day 3/4: Segmenting and write words with the spelling pattern
• Day 5: Dictation

Effective Vocabulary Instruction - Link to article

'Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension; one cannot understand text without knowing what most of the words mean... The amounts of difficult words in a text predicts text difficulty, and a reader’s general vocabulary knowledge predicts of how well a reader can understand text.... The goal of all vocabulary teaching is for students to be able to use new vocabulary fluently and purposefully in speaking, reading, and writing. This is best achieved through a combination of explicit instruction and opportunities for meaningful practice,  both during literacy instruction and across the curriculum'

• Vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension by Year 5, and by Year 8 it is the main predictor of success. Research has shown the gaps and disparities between high and low achieving students widens as students in these year levels require higher levels of word knowledge in order to infer new word meanings, make meaning and find success. 
• Whole class teaching has been shown to be just as effective as small group and one-on-one interventions, and short sessions (of 20 minutes or less) can be just as effective as longer ones.
• To achieve students need to learn about 3,000 words per school year.
• Vocabulary knowledge is the key to progress in literacy, and in all other curriculum areas. 

Incidental learning and explicit instruction

• Incidental word learning occurs within the context of reading
• Teachers should model use of sophisticated vocabulary across the curriculum and in instructional language
• Use the think aloud strategy to define words and reflect on the author’s use of a word in a text.
• Explicit instruction in word meanings is essential as a deficit in vocabulary knowledge will prevent inferences from being made.

Selecting words to teach during literacy instruction and across the curriculum

• When planning a unit consider vocabulary challenges to identify which words that need explicit instruction.
• Use a three-tiered system to decide which words need to be taught explicitly:
• Tier 1 words are common, everyday words used in oral language
• Tier 2 words are more wide-ranging, specific used in written language more than in conversation 
• Tier 3 are content specific 
• Tear 2 words are the words that will need to be targeted for explicit instruction.

What to teach...

• Correct pronunciation, the written form, and an understanding of the word’s meaning are key priorities
• Greek and Latin roots
• Affixes

How to do this...

• Be clear and explicit when discussing word meanings
• Repetition to consolidate
• Use visual representations of words to aid memory
• Provide opportunities for students to pronounce the words themselves
• Finish a sentence which uses the word
• Act out word meanings
• Unpack sentences with the word that do and do not, make sense
• Identify examples and non-examples of the word’s meaning. 
• Find synonyms and use in context

The Role of Motivation in Learning - Link to article

Motivation is what ‘moves’ us and is the reason we do anything at all. It is an orientation towards learning. Motivation can be intrinsic (motivated by enjoyment) and extrinsic (motivated by reward). For teachers, a lack of motivation has long been one of the most frustrating obstacles to student learning. 

How to do this... 

• Set goals - performance and mastery
• Be aware of self efficacy - the extent to which a student values learning a skill or concept directly impacts their effort and mastery of that skill or concept. 
• Normalise the struggle 
• Encourage the importance of asking for help
• Students who believe that they can succeed are more likely to reach their goals.
• Use the analysis of the student survey 
• Remind students of the purpose behind the learning
• Allow for visual connections to be made

How these readings helped me to form a hypothesis... 

My hunch at the start of the year was that my learners opted for the safe and known when selecting vocabulary to use when asked to write independently. It is the fear of making errors that decides the levels of self efficacy. If you begin school with a vocabulary deficit the gap only widens as the depth of learning increases. To help overcome the low self efficacy and reliance on the use of everyday words I see from these readings that I need to be actively planning for more opportunities for word consciousness to be explicitly taught. This term I did the training and will be introducing 'The Code' spelling programme to support the teaching of spelling patterns and rules, something suggested in the article, 'Teaching Spelling in Primary and Intermediate Schools'. 

Much of what I have read affirms the direction I am taking, with my biggest takeaway being the amount of time I need to spend focusing on word consciousness. To date we have been spending longer but less frequent periods of time on these lessons, so I will be increasing the frequency and decreasing the amount of time spent on each lesson. I now need find out if I am motivating my students to want to use more challenging vocabulary, not because I want them to, but because they realise they know how to do this and want to take risks in their writing.