Correcting the Spelling Errors - Case Study Example

Assignment 2:Case Study The I worked with is eleven years old and is currently in Year five composite mainstream of 23 He has a learning difficulty in the area of literacy, my contact with him was specifically to do with spelling. From the assessment and my meeting with the Michael’s teacher, I learnt that the student is two years behind the rest of the class in terms of his overall literacy skills. The student is not a native English speaker. His mother tongue is Croatian, and that is still the main language spoken at his home. The student originally attended a Croatian language school and then changed to an English language Catholic school. The main reason for this change was to improve his English language skills. Since the move the student has improved his English in terms of speaking and comprehension. In my meeting with his teacher they mentioned that the student was struggling with his spelling. I met with and spoke to the student in regard with his spelling problem. He found writing in English so difficult because English words are not spelled as they are spoken. This might cause a lot of confusion. In my interaction with the student, he remarked that he thought his spelling problems were a result of a problem with his memory. The student appeared frustrated at his lack of retention abiity. (short term, long term). The skill of memory seemed to directly affect learning.This was a main difficulty. (what he told you about memory, what you observed about his memory problems – how this affected his learning) In my initial contact meeting with the class teacher, I was alerted to the fact that the student suffered from dyslexia, which would have a negative impact on his literacy skills (Nicolson & Fawcett, 2008). Being quiet in the classroom could be as result of attention deficiency (Snell & Brown, 2008). Dyslexia causes serious intelligence disability for students in, especially, the area of reading. The fact is that if a student cannot read well or comprehensively, it is difficult for such a student to advance in his or her studies. The student under consideration may have been affected by many factors that are clearly linked with dyslexia: these include but not restricted to the inability of the student to produce cognitive link with what he reads in the classroom (Nicolson & Fawcett, 2008). There are different theories about how dyslexia could affect the learning ability in a students—it could make students show acute disinterestedness in reading because of the change in reading rhythm, teaching style, reading environment and hints for comprehensive understanding of what the student is made to read (Nicolson & Fawcett, 2008). The child seemed to lack attention span of any merit.He got angry when could not respond successfully.Michale was an eager student but his disability hndered education.He wanted to keep up with other students, Michale also gets angry or cries when he unable to remember the letters or the order of the letter in words. I have tried to make him feel confident and self assured. I patted on his back and reassured him that everyone forgets one thing or the other sometimes. So, he should not see himself as odd if he could not remember letters or their order. I gave a short story about how one of my friends who was a very brilliant student in my class forget his own house telephone number. Michael tried to laugh when he heard the story and got back to his attempt to remember the letters. I noticed that he looked a bit more confident in his efforts at solving his own problems. I guess this why periodic reassuring and motivation could make students overlook their shortcomings and try their best to be good at what they do. I could see how Michael attempted to find a solution to his problem once he knew that I had already created a comfortable environment for him (Meese, 2001). 2 The results of his year 3 NAPLAN test (2008) showed that the student had significant problems with his spelling (falling in the Band of 1.5). The assessment I was given on the original meeting showed that he has overall good oral skills, both listening and speaking, and he is able to understand and use words and phrases, and can recognise, identify and analyse both basic and complex spoken information. His reading and writing skills were satisfactory overall. He was able to read and write words, phrases and shorter sentences, however he struggled with complex sentences and paragraphs. The student already had a Negotiated Education Plan. His main strengths were that he is very friendly towards teachers, students. He respond well to positive comments.His weaknesses were writing problem Deb was concerned about his progress in the areas of literacy. The goal was( The student has a set number of words, they get all words correct over 2 weeks. The most interesting aspect of my interaction with Michael and his teacher is that I was able to discover some of his strengths in relation to Negotiated Education Plan, NEP. According to his teacher, Michael demonstrated the following strengths in the classroom: He possessed good oral communication which helps him to clearly express himself. He demonstrates good emotional relationship by showing his care and love to his teacher and classmates. He doesn’t hide his problem in the classroom, and he always happily asks questions about the things he does not understand in the classroom. Michael possesses a great quality of working independently and often bent on getting things done once he started working on them. He continues to show appreciable improvement in Math and recalling of facts. Although, Michael also has some weaknesses in regard to his involvement in NEP. These include but not restricted to: Michael is still not confident about his written English, and he still makes mistakes of spelling and has low-level reading ability. He sometimes looked frazzled and upset whenever he does not get things right. He sometime exhibit some stubborn behaviour and may be difficult to place among group assignments at times. So, after critically considering Michael’s strengths and weaknesses, I still realized that Michael is still working 2-3 years behind his peers in English, reading, spelling and writing. Though he is quite at one to one communication but I discovered he needed more motivation in this area. Therefore, I quickly adjusted my lesson to accommodate Michael’s strengths by concentrating on his good behaviour and mannerism in the classroom. I used his willingness to ask questions to give him the opportunity to express himself in my presence. I am also interested in seeing him settle on his own class work independently without needing anyone to tell him what to do. I believed that such an attitude can help him to overcome his personal problems in the future—so, I decided to work hard on that area of his life. The results of the school assessment (as of February 2010) showed that the student had scored well below the expected level for a year five student in both his reading and writing. The student had a Westwood spelling age of 7.2 years, which is three years and eight months behind the expected level for a child his age. I also tested the student’s spelling as a part of my own assessment process ( Refer to Appendix #). Special education assessment is a complex, demanding and ongoing procedure which involves systematic work and collaboration of school personnel, parents, medical personnel, psychologists and other professionals (Goodman, 1990). There are several steps in the educational process, all of them necessary to create the Individual Education Plan, adjusted to abilities and needs of individual students I have used an informal assessment of writing language which is Error Analysis. “Examines student responses in order to determine whether there is a pattern of errors that indicate that the student has not yet mastered a specific skill”.(AnnaNobel) lecture notes. The first step towards developing an appropriate programme is to determine the type of the student’s spelling errors. (AnnaNobel) lecture notes. Carrying out the Error Analysis in the ability of students to grapple with the contents of a language involves several factors. What I did was to investigate the following factors as it affected Michael’s ability to read, comprehend and enjoy English a language. Although he does not exhibit much of linguistic error naturally as he is versed in another language, but his main problems with English are that of forms. When I assessed the student I found that the majority of the student’s spelling problems were the result of phonetically spelling non-phonetic words. Michael may have been a little confused understanding the differences between his native Croatian language and English. And this is the fact factor one must investigate when dealing with student learning a new language. Once this form error has been dealt with, the student can increase his proficiency in the language, which means that he can confidently express himself with the language through reading and writing it like a native. 3 The main objective was to improve the student’s spelling.( Michale will write words 10 out 10 correct). I planned to help the student by working through a list with a set number of words, the number of words on the list could be increased if the student consistently got the spelling right for all words. I worked through a word list in each session with the student. The words all had a common theme, which was determined by phonetics. This seemed successful. 4 The c hosen area of teaching was “Reading Comprehension”. “It is one of the most valuable skills a child can learn. Children can be apprehensive when it comes to reading and spelling for many reasons. Perhaps it can be embarrassing to read or spell in front of peers, or maybe the child is simply unengaged. A good approach to helping a child with reading is to find material that is interesting enough and applicable to the childs interests”. From http://math-and-reading-help-for-kids.org/helping_children_with_reading_and_spelling_problems.html (needs to be quoted or rewording into your own words) Reading comprehension is a tool that can help students build up their confidence in a foreign language they are learning. The purpose of including this kind of tool in my teaching is to see how students are naturally attracted to some interesting stories that they love reading. I monitored how students feel comfortable when the stories are about kids of their ages; they are naturally connected with the escapades and actions of their fellow children. Michael, as a person, seems fascinated about stories that have animals, toys and colours in them. I used the quote above to let the readers see the connection between teaching students what they are excited about learning and learning that using a foreign language. Interesting reading comprehension can help students remember what they may have been taught. In this way, their short-term memory will still be alive with the topics under discussion as well as working memory, if the stories in the reading comprehension are ongoing ones. The information acquired in short term and working memory “must be rehearsed or encoded in order to remain the focus of attention” (Corrie, 1995: 258). Teachers can gain students’ attention by using a variation in stimulus (Corrie, 1995: 259). Variation is very important.If one method doesn’t work a new technique must be applied.Some students respond differently to a scope of techniques.It is vital for the teacher to have these options. Through my study of this topic, I have learnt about teaching methods for short term and long term memory. I identified that the student’s memory problems stemmed from the fact he was not using the seven steps for long term memory. This resulted in the student being unable to retain the lesson, in this case, correct spelling. The seven steps can be expressed as: Reach, Reflect, Recode, Reinforce, Rehearse, Review, Retrieve, (Sprenger, 2005: 8-10). (pg 261 or Corrie reading) This program is useful in the sense that it helps students who have problems with their memory to quickly remember whatever they may have been taught. The program sets to remind students all they had learnt, the relevance of the lessons in their personal lives, the attractiveness of the subject-matter and the necessity to remember every detail of the lesson. Looking at this issue from another perspective, this program can also help teachers to establish a functional approach to teaching the students all lessons. That is, if one teaching style works perfectly, it is may be extended to teach other subjects like Math, Social studies etc. Moreover, using the model of Brothers and Holsclaw (1969) “suggest a spelling program designed to fuse five spelling behavoiors:(1) copying, (2) proofreading, (3) rewriting, (4) writing from memory consciously, and (5) spelling automatically without conscious thought”. Cited from book This gives the teacher options,depending on the childs needs. Here I will highlight taht Stahl (2005) because it is vital to acknowledge  stating that “while teachers are able to adapt materials for accessibility, the issues of adapting for instruction are much greater”.( need paraphrase it) Individual learning that mean 1:1 teaching and planing. (Nobel Anna lecture notes).With individualized instruction, which takes into account Michale’s interests, strengths, weaknesses, can easily be improved. The IEP can help Michale in two broad ways: (i) Increase his consciousness toward realizing that he could surmount his problems if he can work harder; (ii) making him to understand that the officials, teachers and his parents are working together for his good and not against him (Hannell, 2006; Meese, 2001; Knight and Scott, 2004). These two facts could produce unexpected positive attitude in Michael, which may be instrumental to increasing his memory retention and the ability to spell words correctly (Leanne et al, 2007). Disabled children are always suspicious of the activities of people around them—these include their own parents, teachers, relatives and friends. Frankly speaking, the reactions of these groups of people mean so much to helping the disabled child get over his or her fears. I tried my best to reassure Michael that his parents and teachers are like canoe that he needs to use in crossing the ocean of life. I could see his natural for his parents and his great admiration for his teacher. This step is quite necessary to relieve Michael of whatever misconception he may have been having about the actions of the people around him. Since I realized that Michael’s strengths include the ability to listen attentively to what I had got to say; so, I used this opportunity to encourage him to loose himself and follow his teachers and parents wholeheartedly. I also consider Michael’s weaknesses of reading and spelling while preparing my lesson for his class. I tried to present interesting stories that he would be fascinated with, and these stories contain easy-to-remember words. I watched him as he demonstrated a better understanding of the stories he was reading in English. This idea will help teachers not to overlook the needs of all students in their classes “Technology—and especially the subset of technology tools known as assistive technology—can be an effective element of the writing curriculum for students with disabilities. Assistive technology (AT) can be defined as a technology that allows someone to accomplish a critical educational or life task. Since writing is so integral to school success, AT is often indicated to assist students with disabilities. In this article, CITEd looks at how technology can support students writing. (By: Center for Implementing Technology in Education” (2006) from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/12769 In addition, I have found several websit that may supports struggling learners and helps them to improve their writing skills by presenting lists of word choices based on students’ attempts at spelling words. 5 I spent twelve sessions forty minute sessions with the student. We had a different schedule throughout the five weeks, meeting for two days a week in the first two weeks and the final week and three days a week for weeks four and five. Although the schedule changed over the five weeks I always conducted the sessions on either Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays (refer Appendix #). In each session we... (eg We started off with revisiting what we did last week, then we did a worksheet and then we practised rhyming words’) I met individually with the student during the twelve sessions. We had one to one spelling lessons, usually in the school’s library or break out room . Writing words down from the worksheet can be an effective way to enhance memorization. For example, I gave him a list of words from a book or worksheet that we had just read  together and asked him to write each word several times in order to become more familiar with it. This is especially useful for sight words, and familiarity with the student.   I usually think of some  activities on the computer, i have used some useful websites (eg,http://www.spellingcity.com)that were really useful for spelling improvement .A  good alternative is a “code words exercise”, in which you see some letters in the text and have to guess others to reconstruct it. For learners who find writing difficult this can make a great model for their own writing.Moreover, the school uses some computer programs to improve their students, it was useful and helpful. (I used a reward system with the student to motivate him to get the best results possible. In each session I would test the student to determine how he had progressed with his spelling (Refer to Appendix #). I would give the student a small reward, usually in the form of chocolate or a piece of gum, when the boy achieved a good result in my spelling tests. When he achieved a perfect result, ten correct answers, I would reward him with a larger reward, for example a box of chocolates.) I utilised different resources during the twelve sessions, sometimes using computer activities or working with the dictionary to learn spelling and connect that to meanings. I used a variety of computer resources with the student, which included the Westwood School’s spelling activity program and a website (Refer to Appendices #). The teacher, Deb, also provided me with some spelling activity sheets and resources. She was very helpful in guiding my lesson plans with the student and gave me useful advice for the sessions. In the first week I met with the student we worked over words that used ‘ck’ in the end or middle. We worked through the spelling of the words in the list and also some activities on paper. I also directed the student to use the computer rescources, in this case the website. The aim of the activities was to get the student to write the words and use them in context to reinforce the words and the correct spelling in their memory. The activities for this first week were to write the words in sentences and also to construct “word art” using the words (see Appendix #). In the second week with the student, I worked over words that had the ‘qu’ combination of letters in the beginning or middle (see Appendix #). During the three session I had with the student that week we worked through the words on the list, writing them out and committing them to memory. They also worked on some activities, to write the words into sentences and on the computer at different times. In the third week, I worked with the student on a list of words that all contained the long ‘a’ sound (see Appendix #). The objective in these sessions was to learn the correct spelling of all the words on the list and to complete activities that would help the student to correctly use and remember the words. During this week, the student used the same resources that we had been working with previously, activity sheets, the school spelling program and the internet website. During the fourth week, the student concentrated on a list of words that all contained the long ‘i’ sound (see Appendix #). The objective for all the sessions in the fifth week was to work through the words on the list and learn how to spell them correctly. In order to do this, I had the student write out the words in their work sheet each day I met with them. We also practiced the correct spelling by using those words in written activities and on the computer program. In the fifth week, I worked with the student on words that used the long ‘o’ sound (see Appendix #). The sixth week’s objective was to practice the correct spelling of the words on the ‘o’ list. The student would work on word games and other activities, both on paper and the computer that would assist the student to recall the correct spelling and usage of the words. This positive reinforcement of good study practices and assessment results would motivate the student to improve in each session or to maintain his progress. 6 For effective teaching you have to understand the pupils  specific difficulties,  how they may affect the student performance. This enables the teacher to adopt teaching methods and strategies to help the  student to be successful. Considering Michael’s difficulties of understanding some unrhymed, non-phonetic and uncommon words. This difficulty makes it impossible for him to follow its reading exercises and discourage him from making the necessary effort at reading well. Michael’s spelling problem also makes it impossible for him to spell new words he has just come across with in his reading classes. The sad news is that if a student cannot spell a new word, it will be difficult for him or her to pronounce the word and understand it in the future readings. Having been aware of these main difficulties, I discovered that lesson plans should find solutions to these problems while emphasizing on the student’s positive attributes. If these problems are not timely resolved, it will be impossible for the concerned student to improve its reading, spelling, and comprehension ability. Although it is not generally advisable to isolate the students suffering from these problems, but they should be included in the classes and encouraged to show their interests in what they are being taught in the classrooms. By doing this, the goal of education for the disabled could be achieved without much stress. It was reward for me when The student improved his spelling test results improved. Week 1 – 9/10 Week 2 – 10/10 Week 3 – 10/10 REVIEW - 11/12 Week 4 – 10/10 Week 5 – 9/10 Michale’s spelling was successful which was evident by the result above, also Deb agreed that student had to be improved.The student was enthusiastic about learning when I used the reward system. It was an excellent way to engage student in lesson and homework. It is interesting that using rewards could encourage students like Michael to improve dramatically in his spelling and reading activities. Once I noticed that Michael liked reading stories about animals, colours, toys and others, I prepared some stories for him that contained these characters. Initially, he was shy but soon got going with the stories at an unexpected rate. Then to make him improve on his spelling, I devised a plan that I will always give him some beautiful seals or stickers each time he correctly spelled a word. Although he took him some time to get used to my system, but I am sure he was motivated by the rewards I had promised. I paid a close attention to him as he tried to arrange the words in a way that he could easily spell and pronounce them. His teacher also helped a lot in letting him concentrate on the words chosen out of the interesting stories he had read for the day. When I noticed that he was getting tired of the system, I let him rest for sometime before we continued again. Each week, I could sense that Michael was improving gradually in the areas he was quite weak in before my arrival. The only requirement that could make this system functional for a long time is that Michael must be constantly kept interested in the stories he would be given to read and the stickers or seals must not be of the same designs and colors. Due to my prior experience working with children with special needs, particularly children with autism, I found that working with Michael’s learning difficulties was easier than the student’s with more complex learning disabilities. Know the importance of patience and tolerance from working previously with learning disabilities, and that this is what is required from the teacher for effective teaching. Michael’s learning disabilities are not different from the ones that had affected other children I had come across in my professional life. However, what makes his conditions more interesting is that he is in a class that uses a language which is entirely different from the language he was exposed to when he was born. Therefore, I quickly put in a position of someone struggling with a language that is not native to him. Even though I realized that he was 2-3 years behind his classmates in reading, writing, speaking, spelling and understanding English, I took him aside and patiently studied his optimism. From there I could observe three important facts: (I) Michael has a natural ability to commit himself to his studies; (ii) he is of the opinion that asking questions can help him overcome his disabilities; (iii) and, he is very kind in the classroom, making him approachable by his teachers. Once again, unlike children suffering from autism or other chronic psychological problems, Michael’s conditions are not permanent. The reports from his teacher is that he is not suffering from ay disabilities when reading or speaking his Croatian language. Therefore, given some time, Michael should be able to overcome his odds and become a fluent reader and speaker of English Language. From all indications that he could improve during the weeks I had spent with him at his school, I noticed that what Michael needed was something to help boost his confidence in the language and the creation of inclusive and comfortable environment for learning so that he would never feel out of place among the other students. I think I would like to adopt several educational systems or programs in helping Michael get over his disabilities. Of special note is the use of continuing programs that would help him improve in his spelling, reading skill. Or I can decide to take advantage of the several educational options like computer assisted instruction, so that more teaching strategies are learned. .(I have noticed that the student was  enjoying  computer activity more than the rest). I hope to be as successful. I know how hard the teachers job is and respect her immensely. I will take such a positive attitude into my teaching. I shall be encouraging my colleagues to engage in similar  teaching activities. My view, I am proud to say, was that I think I had a positive influence on the child in an extremely creative learning atmosphere. I think I will be a better teacher after my 12 sessions with Michael under Debs influence. These two attributes make good teachers stand out among the pack: being optimistic and creative. Disabled students are easily put off by teachers that lack patience, good mannerism and the desire to believe in their abilities. It takes optimism for a teacher to believe that a disabled student can improve in his or her academic pursuits. Lack of tolerance or focus can make a teacher lose his or her cool and unintentionally discouraged the disabled students from gaining anything academically. In the same way, being creative, as a teacher, helps in designing the appropriate lessons for the disabled students. Sometimes giving all students general lessons may not solve the problems of the disabled students among them. Hence, when lessons are tailored after a particular student, the teacher could successfully monitor how the student in doing. This attempt can only work if the lesson given are creative enough and possess the power to catch the interest or attention of the disabled student. In conclusion, I noticed that Michael’s kind of intelligence disability is not a permanent one: there is every possibility that he could get over it if his future teachers could undertake the following steps: (I) Give him things that are interesting and that will surely catch his attention (II) Reward him for every successful effort he makes at reading, spelling or comprehending the contents of a story or his lessons—this practice will constantly keep his mind on the goal of collecting more rewards, and thereby will improve on his academic standards. (III) Creation of a comfortable environment for learning, or the provision of an inclusive strategy that will encourage to act more in order to feel as a part of the entire class. (IV) If necessary, the use of educational programs or assisting technologies may be used in the classroom to help him understand his lesson very well. (V) There must be good cooperation between Michael’s teacher and his parents before any new academic program could be successful, because it takes the extra efforts of his parents at home to help him understand the things that he was taught at school. (VI) The service of a school guidance officer may be requested whenever Michael loses his patience for group work. He seems to cherish working alone without requiring the contributions from his friends at school. References: Snell, M.E., & Brown, F. (2006). Instruction of students with severe disabilities (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Leanne, S.H., MacLeod, S.K., & Rawlings, S. (2007). Effects of behavior education program (BEP) on office discipline referrals of elementary school students. Journal of positive behavior interventions, 9, 94-101. Meese, R.L. (2001). Teaching learners with mild disabilities: Integrating research and practice (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Knight, B.A. & Scott, W. (Eds.). (2004). Learning difficulties: Multiple perspectives. French Forest, NSW: Pearson. Corrie, L.(1995). Extract from chapter 8 ‘ Memory, cognitive processing and transfer of learning.’ In Educational psychology: an Australian and New Zeland perspective. Edited by F . Maltby , N. Gage and D . Berliner. Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons. Pages 257-264. Sprenger, M. Extract from introduction ‘ How to teach so students remeber’ Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Pages 8-11. Nicolson, R., & Fawcett, A. (2008). Dyslexia, learning, and the brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Nobel, Anna. Lecture notes(Creating Inclusive Classroom: Adapting instruction) EDSP9026/EDSP4002. 30 March 2010 Nobel, Anna. Lecture notes(Creating Inclusive Classroom: Effectiv teachers and teaching) EDSP9026/EDSP4002. 23 March 2010 http://www.spellingcity.com http://www.readingrockets.org/article/12769 http://math-and-reading-help-for-kids.org/helping_children_with_reading_and_spelling_problems.html (Learning disability: how did learning disability affect his learning, how does it make it harder for the teacher, what does the research say about it, how did you approach it in your lessons, did it present any problems during your lessons, etc. English as a second language – see above Memory – see above Read More