Professional Documents
Culture Documents
STUDENTS
Introduction
All classrooms are comprised of different types of students with different learning
modalities. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to identify the best way to engage
students and connect them with the content presented in the classroom. This is especially
essential for our Special Population students because they tend to struggle due to their
different learning styles and needs in the classroom. Learning is dependent on
experiences and it involves acquiring new knowledge and skills. Yet, there are some
students that struggle with acquiring this knowledge and retaining it. Memory and
learning go hand-in-hand in the classroom. As teachers, we strive to make sure students
learn concepts and retain them for future use. Unfortunately, there are students that have
a learning disability that makes it harder for them to retain concepts. In order for these
Special Population students to be successful in the classroom, teachers must provide
different ways of learning and employ different strategies in the classroom. This is why
I have decided to do my research on employing different daily strategies in the classroom
to help students retain information starting from their working memory to their long term
memory. The question guiding my research is: How will the use of different, daily
instructional strategies impact my Special Population students retention of classroom
information, especially in the academic subject of spelling.
St. Joseph School is located in Hawthorne, California. Its surrounding
community is a middle to lower socioeconomic status. It is a Pre-Kindergarten through
Eighth grade school. The school was founded in 1928 to serve the parish families of the
church next to the school. The Sisters of Providence became the first educators at St.
Joseph and dedicated their lives to the early education of children in the Hawthorne
community. The school is part of the Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles, which are schools committed to providing a Catholic education. The school is
comprised of about 350 students from Pre-Kinder to Eighth grade. It has a high student
to teacher ratio and each classroom has about 30-35 students, yet each teacher has a
teachers aide to assist in the classroom. The school population is comprised of 95%
Hispanic and 5% other races including White, African American, and Asian. The third
grade classroom is comprised of 31 students, 16 boys and 15 girls. Most of my students
live around the community, which, as described above, is a middle to low socioeconomic
status.
My focused Special Population student in this research is Andres, a third grade
student in my classroom. He is American-born, and lives with his mother, stepfather,
stepsister, and brother. Andres is a new student at St. Joseph School. He is a very shy
student in the classroom, but puts a lot of effort in his work. Through observations,
writing assessments, and classwork, I have come to understand that he struggles very
much with spelling and writing. He cannot seem to remember to spell words correctly
even after seeing them frequently in class material. Words that should have been learned
since Kindergarten seem difficult for him and he has been unable to retain them to use
them in his work. His poor test scores in spelling indicate that he needs more direct
instruction in these areas. In order for Andres to achieve competence in spelling, I will
use different strategies in the classroom to increase his retention of his spelling words. In
this way, he will be able to use them and spell them correctly in future class work. I will
use strategies that help the memory retain information to store in the long-term memory.
These strategies will not only be beneficial for Andres, but also for all learners in the
classroom.
Review of Literature
Spelling is defined as the formation of words through the meaningful
arrangement of letters (Wirtz, Gardner, & Kimberly, 1996, p. 48).
academic skills taught to young learners in schools today. In order to enhance reading
and writing, spelling is critical in the classroom, especially for Special Population
students. Spelling is a skill that needs to be practiced daily in order for long term
retention to occur. Nies and Belfiore (2006) state spelling is an essential and complex
skill involving multiple components, including visual memory, phoneme-grapheme
awareness, as well as, orthographic and morphophonemic knowledge (p. 163). Spelling
is made up of different components that need to be perfected constantly, which is why
exercising them in the classroom is essential. Yet, many students in the United States
receive very little formal instruction in spelling (Darch, Kim, Johnson, & James, 2000,
p. 15). Teachers are not dedicating the significant amount of time needed for students to
be proficient in this subject. In fact, research shows that only 60 to 75 minutes is the
maximum time recommended for spelling instruction each week (Fulk & StormontSpurgin, 1995, p. 16). This time frame is doable for teachers and should be implemented
daily for at least 15 minutes, especially for Special Population students.
Darch et al. (2000) states that most students with learning disabilities have
difficulty with all forms of written expression, and spelling problems rank as some of the
most common and difficult to remediate (p. 15). Why is it the Special Population
students are unable to retain spelling information? One explanation for why Special
Population students have difficulty in spelling is because they are less adept than
students in general education in devising and utilizing spelling strategies that allow for
the systematic application of spelling rules (Darch et al. 2000, p. 15). Special
Population students must be given the tools and approaches to succeed in the classroom.
These students must also be taught through different strategies in order for them to retain
spelling rules and implement them in their school assignments. It is important that
students with learning disabilities are taught to spell correctly in their early years, as these
students tend to frequently exhibit severe spelling deficits that worsen as they proceed to
secondary school (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995, p. 16). As teachers, we must
support students and implement numerous research-supported techniques to help students
remedy their spelling difficulties.
As a teacher, my classroom is focused on a progressive and constructive
instructional approach. I believe that all students learn in their own way through social
interaction and with the guidance of teachers. I am establishing this research on different
spelling strategies that have been proven to help students with learning disabilities. I
have come to understand that students learn to assimilate knowledge in their own way
though cooperative learning and hands-on activities. These types of activities are an
essential part of this research. Students also need explicit instruction in order for them to
understand spelling patterns. Butyniec-Thomas and Woloshyn (1997) state students
require the support of formal spelling instruction in order to become proficient spellers
(p. 299). Explicit spelling instruction is beneficial for all students, which is why it will
also be used as a strategy in this research. Through an array of spelling strategies such as
analogy strategy, peer tutoring/cooperative learning, team games, constant time delay and
error imitation modeling, students in the my third grade classroom, especially Andres,
will be able to improve and retain spelling patterns to help them in all reading and writing
assignments.
Cycle 1 Baseline Data
My classroom is comprised of 31 students. I am the sole teacher in the classroom
and work with a teachers assistant for the majority of the day. In my classroom I have
one ELL student and two Special Population students. I decided to focus on Andres for
this research because I felt that he needed more focused attention in his spelling work. I
would teach the daily spelling lesson to the class, but it seemed that he just was not
retaining the information. Since the beginning of the school year, he has had difficulty
with his spelling words and his high frequency words. When I taught first grade, it was
important for my students to learn all the spelling patterns for their English words, but
especially their high frequency words because they were the words they would encounter
most in reading, hence high frequency words. These words could only be memorized
because one is unable to spell them phonetically, which is why I stressed that my students
to memorize them. These words are mostly seen in first and second grade, so by third
grade all students should know how to use and spell them frequently in their work.
Unfortunately, Andres was unable to retain spelling patterns and high frequency word
spellings due to his visual memory disability. He is now in third grade and is still unable
to spell words correctly in his work. If I want him to succeed with his work and move to
fourth grade, he must be able to retain important spelling information for reading and
writing.
Andres has been struggling with spelling from the beginning of the school year.
His test scores have been in the low percentile, which is below a seventy-five percent. In
the classroom, I teach mostly in whole class instruction to introduce different concepts in
the classroom. Yet, as they learn the concepts they eventually progress to pair work and
individual work. The teachers aide in the classroom will work with the class, while I
take a small group of students to do one-on-one instruction for struggling students.
Andres is one of the students whom I help and teach one-to-one in reading and spelling.
He is a slow reader, but tends to make a lot of effort to read and grasp information he
read. He can read his spelling words as well, but when it comes to writing them and
taking an assessment, he does very poorly. His mother recently took him to see a
psychologist and she was informed that he had a learning disability with visual memory.
He struggles to retain information, so he must see it frequently in order to grasp it. The
school psychologist is currently working on a 504 plan to help Andres with succeed in the
classroom and an interview has been set up with the Hawthorne school district to initiate
the IEP process. His psychological report stated some recommendations for
accommodations in the classroom, which I follow as his teacher.
Although third grade is not a grade that should teach phonics, I do a weekly
lesson for students that struggle with decoding and spelling patterns. Since I was a first
grade teacher for three years, I know exactly how phonics should be taught and strategies
to help struggling students. Every day, students do a different spelling assignment to help
them learn the spelling pattern. These assignments are sometimes done with partners or
individually. Andres tends to do his work with ease, but tends to ask for help with certain
words. I have also noticed that he feels comfortable with his seat partners and I make
sure to pair him up with them, since he is not afraid to ask them questions or for help.
During class he is very shy and does not participate very much. When he does
participate, I make sure to call on him and recognize him for his effort and good work.
Fridays is our test day because students are given a spelling and high frequency word
assessment. This assessment indicates students who have mastered the lesson and those
that need reinforcement. Andres is usually the only one with the low score.
After analyzing his spelling tests for four weeks, I noticed that he was doing
poorly. His scores were mostly below the passing level of a 75%, which you can observe
in the table below.
Story
Seal Surfer
of the Week
Test Scores
Dragons
6/12 = 50% (F)
Pufflings
6/12 = 50% (F)
(SP) Spelling
SP
SP
SP
SP
(HF) High
6/10 = 60%(F)
8/10=80% (C)
Frequency
HF
HF
HF
HF
His overall GPA is less than a 2.5 and he has an F in spelling on his Progress Report.
As baseline data, I will use Andres last four spelling tests scores from the stories
of the week. I will use these test scores to compare them to the test scores of the postintervention assessments. Spelling interventions will be done daily and in the same
organized manner for four weeks. From there, we will know if my spelling instructional
strategies will help my Special Population student, Andres, improve in spelling.
Review of Literature
academic skills taught to young learners in schools today. In order to enhance reading
and writing, spelling is critical in the classroom, especially for Special Population
students. Spelling is a skill that needs to be practiced daily in order for long term
retention to occur. Nies and Belfiore (2006) state spelling is an essential and complex
skill involving multiple components, including visual memory, phoneme-grapheme
awareness, as well as, orthographic and morphophonemic knowledge (p. 163). Spelling
is made up of different components that need to be perfected constantly, which is why
exercising them in the classroom is essential. Yet, many students in the United States
receive very little formal instruction in spelling (Darch, Kim, Johnson, & James, 2000,
p. 15). Teachers are not dedicating the significant amount of time needed for students to
be proficient in this subject. In fact, research shows that only 60 to 75 minutes is the
maximum time recommended for spelling instruction each week (Fulk & StormontSpurgin, 1995, p. 16). This time frame is doable for teachers and should be implemented
daily for at least 15 minutes, especially for Special Population students.
Darch et al. (2000) states that most students with learning disabilities have
difficulty with all forms of written expression, and spelling problems rank as some of the
most common and difficult to remediate (p. 15). Why is it the Special Population
students are unable to retain spelling information? One explanation for why Special
Population students have difficulty in spelling is because they are less adept than
students in general education in devising and utilizing spelling strategies that allow for
the systematic application of spelling rules (Darch et al. 2000, p. 15). Special
10
Population students must be given the tools and approaches to succeed in the classroom.
These students must also be taught through different strategies in order for them to retain
spelling rules and implement them in their school assignments. It is important that
students with learning disabilities are taught to spell correctly in their early years, as these
students tend to frequently exhibit severe spelling deficits that worsen as they proceed to
secondary school (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995, p. 16). As teachers, we must
support students and implement numerous research-supported techniques to help students
remedy their spelling difficulties.
As a teacher, my classroom is focused on a progressive and constructive
instructional approach. I believe that all students learn in their own way through social
interaction and with the guidance of teachers. I am establishing this research on different
spelling strategies that have been proven to help students with learning disabilities. I
have come to understand that students learn to assimilate knowledge in their own way
though cooperative learning and hands-on activities. These types of activities are an
essential part of this research. Students also need explicit instruction in order for them to
understand spelling patterns. Butyniec-Thomas and Woloshyn (1997) state students
require the support of formal spelling instruction in order to become proficient spellers
(p. 299). Explicit spelling instruction is beneficial for all students, which is why it will
also be used as a strategy in this research. Through an array of spelling strategies such as
analogy strategy, peer tutoring/cooperative learning, team games, constant time delay and
error imitation modeling, students in the my third grade classroom, especially Andres,
will be able to improve and retain spelling patterns to help them in all reading and writing
assignments.
11
12
& Stormont-Spurgin, 1995, p. 17). Through this strategy students practice the spelling
pattern through rhyming words. They are able to identify the pattern and quickly change
out letters to make new words. Teaching with analogies or word families is particularly
beneficial for young students, who can quickly boost their spelling lexicons with only a
few letter changes (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995, p. 17). Students enjoyed using
white boards, as its a hands on activity. Andres was able to follow along and begin to
understand the spelling pattern of the week. He followed instruction throughout the
lesson. I also observed him throughout the entire lesson making eye contact with him to
make he was understanding. When I felt that he needed extra help, I modeled the lesson
again. On Tuesday, I used the Constant Time Delay strategy with all the students using
white boards. This method utilizes a systematic time increase prior to presenting the
correct spelling of a target words (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995, p. 19). I first started
by asking students to spell a word on their white boards, which I then immediately write
the correctly spelled word on the board. After a few times with a zero time delay, I then
employ a 5-second delay. Students have observed the correct model enough to initiate
their spelling attempts within a 5-second interval. Then, students compared their spelling
with the correct model on the board. This was very useful for Andres because as we
starting doing it, he began to catch on and understand the pattern quickly. It was a
strategy that helped to reinforce and retain words that he needed to know automatically,
especially for his high frequency words. During the lesson, I also used the Error
Imitation and Modeling strategy. In this strategy, the teacher copies the incorrect
spelling and then writes the word correctly, calling attention to features in the word that
will help students remember the correct spelling (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2011,
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p.359). As students wrote spelling words incorrectly on their white boards, I was able to
write their incorrect words on the board and point out details about it and refer back to
our spelling pattern. Then I wrote the word correctly so they could compare them and see
the differences. This is especially essential for students with learning disabilities, like
Andres, because they need to compare each incorrectly spelled word with the correct
spelling, thus having a visual of it in their mind.
On Wednesday, students were paired with other students for spelling peer
tutoring. Fulk and Stormont-Spurgin (1995) state that peer tutoring is a practice
technique that has been shown to improve spelling skills in a mainstream spelling class
(p. 19). For this activity, I paired Andres with one of his friends. His friend is a high
level student that enjoys working with Andres and helps him out during other classroom
activities. Andres feels comfortable with this student, which is why I decided to pair
them up for these activities. During this activity, students were asked to practice their
spelling words using letter tiles. The strategy of modality is one that I used during my
first grade teaching years. Students were able to have a better grasp on spelling patterns
when I used these, which is why I decided to use them with my third grade classroom.
All students benefited from his strategy, but Andres benefited the most. Students were
asked to spell the words by arranging letter tiles. Andres was able to do the activity with
ease, but he still misspelled words from time to time. His peer was a good teacher as
well, giving him feedback and helping him understand where he misspelled a word. I
monitored this activity by walking around and making sure students were on task and
writing their spelling words correctly.
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15
students with learning disabilities learned equally by typing the words at a computer,
thus preferring to practice their words this way (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2011, p.359).
After having students practice their spelling words for about 15 minutes, I would then
proceed to give them their spelling test. From the spelling assessment, I was able to
decide if Andres, as well as all the students, had a better understanding of their spelling
words and the weekly spelling pattern. This was also helpful to identify if the methods
and strategies used had been efficient in improving Andres spelling test scores. Overall,
the data collections used for this research were the pre and post assessment sheets from
students, student work, and observations throughout the lesson. Through this data
collection, I was able to infer which strategies worked in the spelling lesson and which
ones needed to be more challenging.
Cycle 5 Analyze Intervention and Reflection
In my research, I was able to deduce through my methods and data that overall
Andres had improved in his spelling and weekly spelling and high frequency test scores.
After executing a spelling instruction plan over 4 weeks, I was able to observe that
different spelling strategies had a huge impact on Andres understanding of spelling
patterns.
Initially, when looking at the pre-assessment scores, I noticed they were lower
than a 75% percentile. It was evident that Andres did not know the spelling words
introduced or its meaning, as he was unable to spell the words correctly. This gave me an
indication that he needed enrichment in this area. On the other hand, when I looked at
the post assessments each week, Andres had improved drastically from the initial preassessment. As shown in the table below, improvement was shown.
Story
16
Yunmi and
of the Week
Test Scores
May
10/14 = 71%
Gift
12/14 = 86%
Halmonis Trip
14/14 = 100%
(SP) Spelling
(C) SP
(B) SP
(A) SP
(A) SP
(HF) High
10/12 = 83%
11/12 = 92%
12/12=100%
Frequency
HF
(B) HF
(A) HF
(A) HF
By the end of the week, Andres had improved in his spelling knowledge and
patterns. This meant that the weeklong period of daily spelling instruction helped to
improve his spelling. This also indicated that the steps taken daily, such as the peer
tutoring, the spelling games, and the reduced spelling word list had been beneficial for
the teaching of the spelling words and created awareness, recognition, and understanding
of the spelling patterns and words.
I also observe the interactions the students had throughout the week, especially
Andres when it came to playing spelling games and doing partner work. I was able to
notice that Andres was motivated and engaged in every lesson, specially the hands-on and
visual lessons. I noticed that he enjoyed working with his friend on whiteboards and the
computer activity. During these lessons, Andres was very positive and enthusiastic about
partnering with his friend and practicing the spelling word. Observing this made me
realize that he did not realize he was learning, to him it seemed like playing a game, yet
the results indicated that he was learning through this process. I noticed enthusiasm in
every lesson I used to help with his spelling. Overall, using the different spelling
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strategies were very useful in this research and improved overall the results of spelling
retention in the classroom.
Throughout this research, I learned that with a good thought-out plan, one could
increase and improve spelling instruction in the classroom. Spelling is primarily a
phonological skill and a reading visual one; to spell correctly one must normally be able
to hear a speak, to learn the written form, retain that in ones mind and then recall and
reproduce it accurately (Narang & Gupta, 2014, p. 84). It is important to tap all these
skills during the spelling instruction in order for students to understand how to spell
words and retain them in their memory for future use. Spelling is important for Special
Population students, but little time is dedicated to it in classrooms, which is something
that needs to change in every classroom. If spelling is taught daily since Kindergarten,
then reading will increase and state tests will also increase overall. Fulk and StormontSpurgin (1995) state that students with LD who had explicit spelling instruction resulted
in improved spelling performance (p.489). Steps must be taken by teachers to help all
students improve in this area.
A new research question that could arise from his research is how this spelling
instruction can help increase test scores for writing assignments. I would have liked to
compare writing strategies with spelling strategies to see how writing score rise for
Special Population students. I did see an increase in spelling application in reading tests,
but I would like to see this is his writing assignments.
In conclusion, I felt that the use of different spelling strategies made a huge
impact in my Special Population students spelling. He understood words that were
difficult for him at first, but by the end of the research, he was able to spell them
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correctly. He could apply his spelling in other areas of academics, which was great to
see. As a teacher, it made me feel proud that my Special Population student was learning
his spelling words through my daily instruction and through the different spelling
strategies performed. He was open to learning and was successful academically.
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References
Fulk, B. M., & Stormont-Spurgin, M. (1995). Spelling interventions for students with
disabilities: A review. The Journal of Special Education, 28 (4), 488-513.
Narang, S., Gupta, R.K. (2014). The effect of multimodal remedial techniques on the
spelling ability of learning disabled children. The International Journal of Special
Education, 29 (2), 84-91.
Fulk, B. J. M., & Stormont-Spurgin, M. (1995). Fourteen spelling strategies for students
with learning disabilities. Intervention in School & Clinic, 31, 16-20.
Nies, K. A., & Belfiore, P. J. (2006). Enhancing spelling performance in students with
learning disabilities. Journal of Behavior Education, 15, 163-170.
Wirtz, C. L., Gardner, R., Weber, K. (1996). Using self-correction to improve the spelling
performance of low achieving third graders. Remedial & Special Education, 17,
48-58.
Butyniec-Thomas, J., & Woloshyn, V. (1997). The effects of explicit-strategy and wholelanguage instruction on students spelling ability. Journal of Experimental
Education, 65, 293-302.
Darch, C., Kim, S., Johnson, S., & James, H. (2000). The strategic spelling skills of
students with learning disabilities: The results of two studies. Journal of
Instructional Psychology, 27 (1), 15-26.
Vaughn, S. R., Bos, C. S., & Schumm, J. S. (2011). Teaching students who are
exceptional, diverse, and at risk in the general education classroom. New Jersey,
NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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