Miss Mundy's Blog

Integrating subjects in the classroom is a very important thing but I think a lot of times it is hard to do.  From this article, I learned that a big reason that teachers don’t integrate in their classroom is because it is hard to find books that deal with all these various subjects in social studies.  I’m glad that this article includes lists of books that can be used with the topics of the Middle Ages, Colonial America, Slavery and the Civil War, and World War II and the Holocaust.  

As teachers it is important to make sure that we have students reading on the right level, the “challenging level.”  A lot of times I think teachers make all the students read the same book which results in the struggling students becoming frustrated.  If a child is having to read something that is too hard for them, then 1) they are not enjoying reading and 2) they are falling farther behind in their reading.  Whenever students are reading books that are too hard for them they read a lot slower than their classmates which means they cant read and get through the books as fast as others.  It also presents a problem whenever students are asked to read aloud.  Students can become embarrassed whenever they can’t read as well as their classmates.  When students are placed on their instructional level, teachers can “increase students’ word recognition automaticity and comprehension, as well as improving their motivation for reading and academic self-esteems” (pg 7).  

When a teacher integrates language arts and social studies, students are not only learning about social studies topics, but they are also able to strengthen their comprehension as well as strengthen their writing skills when they have to write about these topics.  

The quote I liked best in this article was that “what a teacher should “see” is a group of individuals, unique unto themselves” (pg 15).  I feel like this is so important for teachers to keep in mind.  Not all students are the same which means that we cannot use the same teaching strategies to reach every student in our classroom.  We will have to make modifications based on our different students’ needs.

I knew that spelling was important, but I had no idea how important!  Spelling is the basis for reading and writing.  There is definitely a positive correlation between spelling and reading and writing.  If one is good at spelling then chances are that they will be good readers and writers and vice versa.  It is important that as primary teachers, we do not let students fall through the crack.   As primary teachers, we need to address the issue of spelling head on.

Students go through three different stages when they are learning to spell.  The first stage is known as the semi-phonetic stage where students have the initial and final consonant sounds but they do not have the medial vowel sound.  The second stage is the letter-name stage where students begin to hear the vowel sound but they may make substitutions for the vowel instead of using the correct vowel sound.  The third stage that many first graders and most second graders have is the within-word pattern stage.  This stage is where students to show the correct vowel sound and they are also inserting vowel markers but the markers may be putting the marker in the wrong place.

I remember when I was in school, my class did not have different spelling groups.  I remember having different reading groups though.  I remember feeling so bad for students who didn’t pass the spelling test on Fridays because they would have to write their words 5 or 10 times each.  As a future teacher, I know now that that is not the correct way to address this because the students aren’t going to learn anything by just writing the words over and over.  Chances are students will come to hate spelling.  These words were never revisited so there was no way of checking to see if the students eventually understood how to spell the words or not.  

I enjoyed reading this article because it gave me insight into how to set up spelling groups in my classroom.  A teacher can start out by giving the class an initial spelling assessment.  Through this assessment, students are given a list of below, on, and above grade level lists.  The teacher decides which level the student is on based on the percent correct on the list and then the teacher also looks at what kind of mistakes were made to decide if he/she thinks the student has an adequate grasp of that spelling list.  You then place your students in their spelling groups.  It is important that teachers factor in enough time to work with on spelling everyday.  The article gave an example of how to set up the weekly schedule.  On Mondays teachers can give a pretest and then self-correct the words they misspelled.  Teachers can post a list of the spelling words in the room and then have students to correct how they spelled their words.  I had never thought about having students to self-correct their words, but I feel that this would be a lot more beneficial to them than just giving them a paper back where I had written the correct spelling down for them.  On Tuesdays, students will sort, make, and write words in their notebook.  One would begin with a group and have them to do a word sort in a pocket chart sorting the words by their vowel sound.  After you have done this in a pocket chart, then have students to go back to their desks and write their words on a card.  After the words were written and then cut out, students would do their own word sort on their desk.  Then students will draw their word sort columns in their notebooks.  On Wednesdays, the students will play games with a partner like matching, racetrack, Bingo, or a speed sort.  On Thursdays, students will have a partner and one student will read the words one by one while their partner writes the word in the correct “pattern” column.  On Friday, students will take their weekly spelling test.