Real Life Inquiry

For my real life inquiry project, I did the making words activity with ten children from my work. The age of the children was a mix of nine and ten year olds that were either going in to the fourth grade or the fifth grade. Overall, the activity went much smoother than I thought it would and the children really seemed to enjoy it. I was disappointed, however, because immediately after I handed the children their letters to cut out they began shouting out the ‘mystery word.’ Many of the children said they had done activities like this in their classes before, so it is a possibility that they had the same set of letters (or they were all just very smart and good with words). Even though the big event at the end had been spoiled, we continued to work through making words.

I noticed a couple children in particular struggling with the activity. I am guessing that these children need more practice with phonemic awareness because it seemed as if they were hearing different letter sounds and were trying to spell their word based on what they heard. One thing I noticed from all the children was when they were directed to spell the word ‘merit.’ Most of the children were confused when they heard this word and replied by saying they did not have an ‘a’ to spell ‘merit.’ This reminded me of what Cunningham & Cunningham say in their “Making Words” article about this activity: “…students listen intently for the sounds in words in order to make them.” I noticed the children listening eagerly for each word, and even collaborated with others near them in order to spell the word correctly.

After the activity, I discussed with the children whether or not they liked making words. The majority replied with a yes (which I was very happy to hear). I enjoyed doing this activity, but I feel like I need a lot more practice with instruction. I chose this activity because I, myself, enjoyed doing this in class and the Cunningham & Cunningham article really brought the strategies of making words to my attention. This activity makes learning fun without it seeming like work. 

Assessment

One of the two articles I read was the Lose article on early intervention and a responsive teacher. As I was reading this I felt as if the instructions on when to identify learning disabilities and how to help children through reading difficulties can be applied to any difficulty in learning and not just reading. The article also mentions that each child needs an individualized plan tailored precisely for their learning abilities. This is something that I feel teachers should already know, because all children learn at a different pace; however, I understand that those strategies for children with learning disabilities may be very different and more complex. As the sister of a younger brother who has many learning disabilities, I feel like it is important to catch the signs early on in order to develop the proper plan as well as provide the proper time it will need to take with that student.