Integrated Morphological Awareness Integration as a Tool for Improving Literacy
from UC website
by Cecilia Kirk and Gail Gillon

'Thus as children encounter longer, more complex words, morphological awareness becomes critical for developing good literacy skills.' (Carlisle 1993)

Goal of the study was to evaluate effectiveness of an intervention programme that aimed to improve reading and spelling in children with specific spelling difficulties by teaching them to coordinate morphological awareness with other types of linguistic awareness; phonological awareness, orthographic awareness (ability to translate written into spoken) eg hopping, hoping and syntactic awareness (meaning of new words)

Study was of 16 chn 8.07-11.01 with specific spelling difficulties

METHOD
needed poor spellers of normal intelligence, so did tests to check.

Focus - mastering a few frequently occurring morphological patterns instead of learning to read and spell particular words.

Sorting words to find similarities and patterns eg. 'those with a short vowel contain an extra consonant eg, huge, hedge .... ed sounds /t/  /d/  /ed/
Adding a suffix: when adding a suffix to a word with a short vowel you need to double to last letter
eg mop - mopping

A Typical Session

• identifying long & short vowels with pictures
• sorting morphologically simple words
• prompted spelling with morphologically simple words
• sorting morphologically complex words
• prompted spelling with morphologically complex words

'I'd like you to spell the word 'trick'. I'll use the word 'trick' in a sentence .... Now before you write anything down tell me if the vowel sound is short or long. That's right, it's short. So if it's short how do we spell the 'k' sound? That's right 'ck' because short vowels are greedy and like an extra consonant. Now write the word 'trick''

RESULTS:

the group showed better reading and spelling performance that the control group on both experimental and standardised measures of testing and it was maintained when tested 6 months later.

Morphological awareness if the ability to analysis words into their component morphemes eg unimportant

With weekly spelling lists consider the linguitic properties of the words.

I have not come across the word morphological. It would appear that pre-teaching of long and short vowels would be essential before starting this programme. It sounds like a good idea.

RTLit Meeting - 5/11/15

This meeting was a Chch East School for SENCOs. We meet the RTLits for our area; Anna-Marie, Pene (Breens) and Liz.

The RTLit service focus on students 2 years or more below their age. There is 1 RTLit for every 7 RTLBs. Their focus is reading/writing/oral language.

They provide advice, modeling and guidance. They sometimes might provide direct instruction to individuals or groups.

They mentioned Gail Gillon: rhyme - syllable - onset&rime - phoneme

They also named a few very good resources -

7+ www.sharpreading.com (short-term reading intervention programme for students who are reading at least at the average age of 7 and sho are behind the National Standards.

Storytelling Schools  www.storytellingschools.com  3 texts storytelling, storytelling myths and fables and storytelling in science. Great for getting oral languague of writing going before students write.

Progress in Learning  www.progressinlearning.co.nz/about.html

Trugs - Phonics game which is apparently great fun. would be great to have in classrooms.

Clicker Sentences

Peter & The Black Cat - assessment for oral language; it is not a norm-referenced text but gives a descriptive profile of the student. Also an app but is $30 and takes a while to analyse.

ESOL Cluster Meeting Term 4

This cluster meeting was at Clearview Primary in Rolleston.

The HotSpot was done by Westburn School who had been doing an Inquiry into English Language Learners in Innovative/Modern Learning Environments. The important thing I got out of her talk was  that it is best to keep withdrawing the students as it is important for their emotional well being.

Jenny Tebutt's Numeracy Workshop

I need to find out the name of the maths test we do at school.

3rd wave learners all have cognitive weaknesses which need to be worked on before progress can be made in academic areas.

3rd wave learners need lots of concrete items to help them understand Math concepts. They have difficulty with rote learning so need to be shown regularities and patterns in the number system.

Dienes (1964) states ' bad teaching practice is the introduction and manipulation of symbolism before the use of concrete materials has been developed.  Move through from concrete - visual - imaging

Two teachers; Bath and Knox (1984) noticed two different teaching styles 'grasshopper' and 'inchworm' Inchworm students have good visualisation, good working memory and a good knowledge of basic number facts. Inchworms prefer to do the algorithm. Grasshoppers work it out by manipulating the numbers in their heads. They know how and why they got the answer that they got. All students need both strategies

3rd wave learners need longer in the concrete stage. A good session starts with revision of the last session, concrete learning, language and is followed by games to reinforce the skills or concepts.

We looked at the NUMPA test and this would  be great to do and then work through with Casey and Katelyn.

Some good resources can be found at:  www.nzmaths.co.nz

Jenny's email is: jtebutt@xtra.co.nz
Her website is:

RESOURCES:

• colour in the 100s chart to look at patterns formed.

Other games are: www.raisingachievement.co.nz

   It was a good course, the food was delicious. 

Inclusive Education by MasseyU

An Inclusive School leads to an Inclusive Community.

The meaning of inclusion;
Focus on the transformation of schools so they are better able to meet the needs of diverse student populations.

In 2010 ERO found only 50 % approx of NZ schools demonstrated inclusive practice.

How are schools in NZ excluding students?
Denial of enrolment or full time attendance
Denial of access to, and participation within, the curriculum

Intersectionality is the understanding that every individual is intertwined in multiple domains of diversity such as gender, culture, ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status.

Bullying:
If peers are part of the problem they should be part of the solution
Peer disapproval has the potential to reduce bullying in any context.
Use anonymous student surveys and establish a confidential reporting system.

01/09/14

Session 1 (ORS 1 + Josh) - If concentration starts to wane halfway through I need to look at integrating a short 'brain gym' like session. Students enjoyed the mazes, possibly look at buying Operation, when it is on special. Ideally I would have visual cards for the programme, which students could stick up as I named them at the start of each session.

Session 2 (R&S) Sam very inquiring mind. We need to look at getting things written down as a means of turning this into a writing activity. Rachel puts her hand up now when she has finished her work.

Session 3 (ESOL 2) Beomsik still talks a bit but is better with the teddies. I still need to think of a way of ensuring the students working hard consistently get Ipad time.

Session (ESOL 1) I want to draw this session out more and focus on the sentence structures, both oral and written. More practise with writing set structures

16/09/2015

Trip to Auckland - Reflection

6 schools in 3 days:

Robertson Road School

This was the first school that we went to. We started with a warm welcome in the hall. The school had no European Kiwis, most were Maori, followed closely by Samoan, then Tongan. There  was a Samoan bi-lingual class of 180. The walls of the hall and room oozed culture.

One room we went into had a Maths lesson happening. The teacher used lots of pre-vocab activities, including oral cloze. The maths sheet was a problem solving sheet which was passed on an experience.

Organising Time

08/09/15

I have started up a rolling sticky  note system. I just keep adding 'Things To Do' to the list in the appropriate space and then delete them when they are done. I feel that I am getting more things done using this system.

I am also trying to check my emails less frequently especially at home. I do not need to respond immediately so there is not point in checking constantly.

I am looking forward to the trip to Auckland tomorrow. I want to pick up new ideas and make new contacts!!

02/09/2015

ESOL Cluster Meeting @ Riccarton Primary

Things to try/look out for:

• Accell  -  online programme for Foundation learners 
• writing words in a word family then ticking words as teacher says them
• the Chain Game - put words out in a column (taking turns) if your word is the same as the one above you get to take all the words (could use this one and the one above with Katelyn)
• read Effective Literacy Practice
• Rapid Readers - Anne from Ilam - great easy readers suitable for older students, with great teaching points
• http://chchesolplc.blogspot.co.nz

Thoughts to ponder;

Could I use the MoE extra funding to do some one on one reading sessions with Beomsik, Jamila and Shin and maybe some oral language with Supriya?

I seem to be on track with reading, but should read Effective Literacy Practice to get more ideas so my lessons can be the BEST. Possibly I will be able to share a few notes with classroom teachers at a staff meeting.

31/08/2015

Train the Brain Presentation at St Michael's school

www,trainthebrain.co.nz

Speakers: Richard Collins & Brian Taylor 

What I learned:

LANGUAGE IS THE TRAIN OF THE BRAIN

Primary Processing Functions; motor, visual, auditory
Learning Disorders are a result of problems of any one or more of these areas

Brehm's Preparatory School (USA) - 5 students per teacher,  use of remediation and technology

Look around school and identify your;

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

Programmes to look at - Kurzweil (reads to students, highlights words)
                                        Inspiration (graphic organisers)

What this means for my teaching practice:

Make a 'collage' of -  What are you good at?

Restoration;

1)    I feel

2)    because ...

3)    What can I do to fix it (student's responsibility) 

Student needs to learn to advocate for what they need to be successful

Celebration of Learning - Wall of Brains

Extras: A Flashdrive