Study Group Action Plan

1. Members will discuss reading assignments given in Words Their Way - Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling
Instruction by Donald R. Bear, et. al. and identify ways they can or already do incorporate the information in working with students with disabilities in the inclusive ELA classrooms and special education class settings. Each group member will implement at least one assessment or instructional strategy and share the outcomes. Following each meeting, the blog administrator will enter into the blog a summary of the notes taken by members at the meeting.

2. Group goals will be accomplished through reading assignments, group discussion and individual member presentations.

3. Outcomes will be measurable in that summaries of each meeting will be entered on the blog. Each summary will include reading assignment completed and ideas identified that benefit students with disabilities. Each summary may also include a brief synopsis of a member's report on assessment or instructional strategy implemented.

4. Success will be based on our identification of at least one way that this approach can be incorporated into inclusive or special education class settings. Copies of materials used or developed will be attached.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 - Final Report

There have been several successful outcomes due to our study group's actions that include:
  1. As was mentioned in the February 26th post, the 6th grade team had been using Words Their Way as the basis for their spelling curriculum. Since then they have given another "placement" test and have found some students to show progress such that they have moved up in their developmental level. Given a total of 79 students, 42% went up, 41% stayed the same, and 18% went down in level. The 6th grade teachers plan to pretest the current 5th graders so that they will have a sense of where to start with them at the beginning of the next school year.
  2. Another success is that our building's Literacy Leader has become a proponent of incorporating this approach throughout the grade levels.
  3. Currently, the fourth grade team at the middle school is in the process of establishing the use of Words Their Way as the basis for their spelling curriculum for the remainder of this year and beginning of next year. Each classroom teacher, including myself, the special education teacher, will work with one group of students @ a specific developmental stage based on the results of administering the "Elementary Spelling Inventory". When reviewing their "Classroom Composite", the 4th grade teachers seemed to identify some correlations between what skills their students have shown in the classroom to what features the composite identified as deficits for the individual students.
  4. The HS 12:1:1 teacher stated that, prior to our study group, she had given up on spelling, believing that if her students had not learned to spell simple words by HS then it was not going to happen. However, she has found the Words Their Way approach to give her students the opportunity to study words in ways they have never done before. Her students are taking ownership because of the process of thinking about, sorting, and analyzing words. They are engaged and enjoying the benefit of a hands-on approach to phonics, vocabulary, and spelling.
Articles read by study group members which support the Words Their Way approach:
  1. Harris, L.A. (2007). Adolescent Literacy: Wordy Study With Middle and High School Students. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 3(4) Article 4. Retrieved (date) from http://escholarship.bc.edu/education/tecplus/vol3/iss4/art4
  2. Malatesha, J.R., et. al. (Winter 2008-2009). How Words Cast Their Spell - Spelling Is an Integral Part of Learning the Language, Not a Matter of Memorization. American Educator - A Quarterly Journal of Education Research and Ideas, Vol. 32, No. 4.
Web sites found useful in coordination with the Words Their Way approach:
  1. spellingcity.com
  2. HendersonEdSoft.com
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