Case Study

The results from the Elementary Spelling Inventory revealed that the spelling abilities in this Year Seven class ranged from Middle Derivational Relations to Middle Syllable and Affixes. According to Words Their Way (2012), Students in the Middle Syllable and Affixes stage are able to correctly use consonant doubling, Syllable juncture, and e- drop with inflected endings. Students will also attempt to use vowel patterns in accented syllables and unaccented final syllables, but not use these features correctly. Students in the Late Syllables and Affixes stage correctly use vowel patterns in accented syllables and unaccented final syllables. During this stage, students will also attempt to use certain suffixes and prefixes and reduced vowels in unaccented syllables. However students will often confuse these features during the stage, resulting in mistakes. During the Early Derivational Relations stage, students spell most words correctly as well as correctly use vowel patterns in accented syllables, and doubling and e drop at syllable junctures. During this stage, students will attempt to use suffixes and prefixes, unstressed vowels in derivationally related pairs, and others spelling meaning connections. Again, like in previous stages, students will often confuse these features during the stage, resulting in mistakes. During the Middle Derivational Relations stage, in addition to the skills from the Early Derivational Relations stage are able to correct use common Latin prefixes and suffixes. Students will also attempt to use some silent letters, and Greek and Latins, but will sometimes make mistakes when using these features.

Group one consists of Drew, Quinn, Ellen, and Iyan; all of these students showed performed strongly, scoring 84 or above, and all falling within the Middle Derivational Relations stage. Possibly, I would retest this group using the Upper Spelling Inventory to see if reveals any particular spelling idiosyncrasies amongst the students. For this particular group, learning

activities would be focused on the bases or roots, as well as have students examining the semantics of words, particularly those in content area specific language. Words Their Way (2012) provides examples of general spelling activities can be used to improve spelling of students in this stage of spelling development. The Vocabulary Notebooks activity, as suggested by Words Their Way (2012), could be used quite effectively for my subject area of Society and Environment. One option is to create pre-set vocabulary list pertaining to a relevant topic for the students to study. In addition to giving the students a pre-sent vocabulary list pertaining to the topic, Words Their Way (2012) suggests that older students could collect their own words. They suggest that students note any words which they find difficult when reading, a task that would be particularly effective in History, where students read primary sources which frequently contain interesting language. It is then suggested after the students have finished reading the entire text, they go back to the difficult words and try to comprehend their meaning through contextual clues and write the whole sentence down. Students are then encouraged to look at the different word parts to see whether the base or any affixes give a hint regarding the meaning. Additionally students could be asked to write down words that they think may have a similar meaning or have similar word features. Then students should use a dictionary to confirm the meaning of the word and write down which definition is most suitable for the word on their card. In addition to writing down the meaning, it is suggested that students write down any synonyms that the dictionary provides and also note the origin of the word. Every week, students should review the words they have collected and should aim to have approximately ten new words per week. Then every week, try to think of another word which is related to the words they have listed. Similarly the You Teach The Word strategy could be an effective strategy for both this particular group and for the Society Environment curriculum. This strategy consists of having one student being response for teaching a particular word to the class. Words Their Way

(2012) suggests that the students should make a small poster which not only defines the word, but also provides extra details which will help create further meaning such as synonyms, etymology, and the word used in a sentence. Semantic webs could be a useful strategy as well for this, particularly for expanding the vocabularies of the students, and also caters to students who learn from visual aids. Words Their Way (2012) suggests that teachers should introduce the activity through modelling; firstly by showing them a completed webs and then having a whole class discussion regarding students understandings of words in the web that are already familiar to them. In this discussion, ask the students to use these familiar words in sentences, to confirm their understandings. Next, examine through class discussion whether the students have ever seen any of the unfamiliar words before and whether they can predict what these words possibly mean. Then have the students look up the definitions of the words in the dictionary to see whether their predicted meanings were correct. Finally in this modelling stage, ask the students if they can think of other words that could be placed in the web. Once the students are comfortable with this task, I would have them create their own webs, either individually or in pairs, regarding a concept relevant to my content area. Words Their Way (2012) also suggests that when students create their own webs, that the teacher also contributes a couple of words to that web in order to aid in the expansion of the students vocabulary. Semantic Feature Analysis could used to consolidate the students understanding of affixes and reinforce their knowledge of bases or roots. Students are given a semantic feature analysis chart with a variety of prefixes, base words, affixes, suffixes and root words listed the far left column. The top row of the chart lists the semantic features of cannot stand alone, comes before a base word or a root word, usually comes from Greek or Latin, can stand alone, and comes after a base word or a root word. Students are then required, either individually or in small groups, to mark the different boxes with either a plus sign or a minus

sign. A plus sign would indicate that there was a definite relationship between the semantic feature and the word listed, and a minus sign would be used to show that the word did not contain that semantic feature. After the activity is complete, Words Their Way (2012) stresses that is important that it is made clear to students that they are now aware of how much they know about the words, and what they still need to learn. As with many of the other activities, it has been recommended that this activity should be modelled to the class before students are asked to complete it independently. The Joined at the Roots activity could be used with this particular group, as they are the stage where they are consolidating their knowledge of bases and roots. In order to effectively use this strategy, firstly I would have to model the activity to the class by showing how words can be placed in different categories according to their roots. After modelling, the activity can be undertaken as a whole class until the students have comfortably grasped it, before they are then split into pairs. Each pair is responsible for categorising a group of words, and in addition to merely categorising the words; they will also have to justify their categorisations. These can be written in their vocabulary lists, and the words selected could easily be content area specific. Finally, a whole class discussion of the categorisation of the words would conclude the activity. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) provides examples of activities which are focused at developing content-specific academic vocabulary, and some of these activities are more suitable for secondary school practice. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) states that generative instruction is important in specific content areas as students need to have knowledge of how meaningful word parts combine in order for them to understand important vocabulary pertaining to the subject area. Two activities involving generative instruction that are suggested are Word Sorts and Generatives Roots and Affixes. Regarding Word Sorts, for the Society and Environment subject area, it is suggested that words used be those with the Greek

roots of crat/cracy and arch/archy. Students are to work in pairs to match the base word and their derived forms. Then in their small group of four, students are then to discuss the meanings of the words and predict the meanings of words they havent heard of. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) suggests that students may be familiar some of the words before, such as monarchy and bureaucrat, but may not be not be sort of their meaning. After the students discuss possible meanings in groups, individually they can use dictionaries to check the correct definition of the words and write down the definition provided if needed. As well as the students own group discussion, it is also suggested that the teacher should facilitate a class discussion with the students regarding the origins of the word, which a part of the following activity. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) also examines the importance of doing walk-throughs of generative roots for language that is important for the Society and Environment content area. This activity involves examining the meaning of key vocabulary by breaking down the words and looking at their Greek and Latin origins. Both Words Their Way (2012) and Vocabulary Their Way (2010) suggest Etymological Studies as an instructional strategy. Eponyms are defined as being words that have been named after individuals, and these individuals usually have some historical importance. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) argues that be creating etymological narratives is effective hook and therefore serves an effective motivator for students vocabulary studies. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) also provides examples of how this strategy can be used in the Society and Environment content area, in particularly Classical History where a large portion of the vocabulary is Greek or Latin. Vocabulary Their Way (2010) also examines the merits of having students use Graphic Organisers, stating that they can be both useful to teachers as an informal assessment and for students as a study tool. For Society and Environment, particularly History, it is suggested that Power Maps are used as an instructional strategy, stating that they aid students in

understanding the relationships between key ideas. Conversely, other graphic organisers that are suggested for other subject areas can also be adapted for Society and Environment without any major difficulties. Concept Maps, Four Square Concept Maps and Vocabulary Cards could all be adjusted to be effective instructional strategies for Society and Environment Vocabulary. Group 2 consists of Liam, Kendell, Madeline and Genevieve, who covered a similar demographic of abilities as group one, all falling within the Middle Derivational Relations stage with scores of 83. They would complete the same activities as Group One. Group Three consists of Rhys, Amica, and Andrew, who again have similar abilities to Group One and Two, except they are all Early Derivational Relations Middle Derivational. They would complete the same activities as Group One and Two, however as there are students in the Early Derivational Relations stage, there would also be a couple of additional activities for this group which would consolidate their knowledge of harder suffixes. One such activity which would be beneficial to these students is the Which Suffix? activity suggested by Words Their Way (2012), which is also noted to be an effective follow up activity to the Semantic Feature Analysis activity. The fourth and final group consists of Bridget, Luke, Daiyaan and Ryan, who either fall in the Middle or Late Syllables and Affixes stage. The activities used for this particular group will be targeted at reinforcing knowledge about unaccented final syllables, as well as starting to introduce the concept of harder suffixes from the Early Derivational Relations stage. Like for all spelling stages, Words Their Way (2012) suggests Word Sorts as an instructional strategy, and states it is during this stage that words whose meaning may be unfamiliar to the students may be including in the word sorts to help increase the scope of the students vocabulary. Word Sorts for these students would be particularly focused on suffixes because, as mentioned prior, harder suffixes is an area which students in this stage tend to struggle

with and therefore is an area that needs to be targeted for improvement. Similarly, word sorts involving prefixes and unaccented syllables would be used. Semantic Maps are an activity suggested by Words Their Way (2012) for students in the Syllables and Affixes stage. It is suggested that this activity is conducted with a group, or in this case of this particular class, the three students in the fourth group. A word pertaining to the topic being studied should be written on the board by the teacher and students are asked to contribute any words they associate with this topic. Additionally, the teacher will write any other words that may be important that the students didnt think of. Then as a group, students are asked to sort the words into categories and to justify these categorisations. During this stage, students may continue to think of additional words to add to the map. These students will also complete all the Vocabulary Their Way (2010) activities discussed previously as those activities are flexible and can be adapted to suit learners at different stages of spelling. Although due to the small variation of abilities in this particular class, only minimal adjustment should be needed. Many of the Syllables and Affixes targeted activities suggested for students in Words Their Way (2012) are not necessarily suited to a secondary setting, so for this particular group, the focus would be on word sorts, semantic maps and the Vocabulary Their Way (2012) activities, as well as perhaps adapting some of the Words Their Way (2012) activities that were originally aimed at Derivational Relations students.

In conclusion, students spelling abilities develop along a continuum, as examined in detail by Words Their Way (2012). It is the teachers responsibility to ensure that the students spelling abilities continue to improve along this continuum by implementing a variety of instructional strategies, regardless of what subject area they are teaching. As shown in this

case study, the heterogeneous nature of classes means that the students are all at different stages of the spelling and need to be accommodated for by being split into appropriate groups which receive instruction that targets their weaknesses, while continuing to reinforce their strengths. After implementing the strategies described previously for a sufficient period of time, as suggested by Words Their Way (2012) and Vocabulary Their Way (2010), I would retest the class and hopefully would see improvement. Finally, I would devise and implement another plan of action targeted at their new stage in the spelling continuum.

Bibliography Templeton, S., Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., & Johnson, F. (2010). Vocabulary Their Way: Word Study with Middle and Secondary Students. New York: Pearson. Bear, D.R , Templeton, S.., Invernizzi, M., & Johnson, F. (2012). Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction. London: Pearson.