September+19

Discussion page!

Feel free to respond to these questions or some of your own clever creation. You don't need to respond to all of these; pick one! Remember to post your own response and respond to a peer by Sunday at midnight. Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Some discussion questions you can respond to....

1.Kiel (1998) tells us that studies show that explicit, direct instruction of spelling has no impact on children's spelling achievement: "Rice concluded that there was little or no correlation between the amount of spelling instruction a student receives and that student's spelling competence. Cornman (1902) produced similar results and also pointed out that a student's ability to spell improved over time whether or not the child received direct spelling instruction....This same conclusion has been drawn again and again by researchers. Hammill, Larsen, and McNutt (1977), in their study of the effectiveness of three basal spelling series, concluded that by the completion of fourth grade, students who had received no special spelling instruction spelled as well as, and sometimes better than, those who had direct spelling instruction" (p. 11).


 * Using information you've learned about language and how language develops from both Kiel or Thomas & Tchudi (1999), explain why you think this is true. What reasons might these authors give to explain this finding? How might this finding influence your practices as a teacher.**

OR

2. Thomas and Tchudi (1999) tell us, "Learning language is initially subconscious, quite different from a capability like learning to use a computer or learning to bake, in which someone must explicitly explain the steps of a process so that the learner grasps them and succeeds in learning the new skill. This is not how children develop competency in their first language(s); further, most humans do not possess the ability to explain why a particular sentence is part of their grammar and why another one isn't. But intuitively or subconsciously, they know" (p. 36).


 * Is this different for writing? Why/why not? What would Kiel or Thomas and Tchudi say?**