It was difficult to relate the concepts discussed in the Tompkins chapter to my field placement because I feel that my students are well beyond the basics of spelling. I have seen students blend sounds together while trying to "sound out" a word, but they don't really sing songs and chants or participate in any of the activities listed in the chapter.
When I worked with Kelly* last semester, I noticed that the words on her spelling lists all rhymed. I feel that this is a good approach to teaching students new words because they are able to compare the rime part of the words even though the words have different onsets.
Towards the end of the chapter, Tompkins begins to talk about spelling tests and how some teachers feel they are beneficial in the classroom, while other teachers feel that spelling should be learned through reading and writing. In my field placement, instead of my CT giving his students a basic spelling test where he says the words and the students write it down, he gives them a list of 5 words and the students circle the word that is misspelled or they circle none of them if all of the words are spelled correctly. I feel this is a great way to test students on their spelling because this will connect to the students learning how to edit their own work in the future.
After taking the Digital Natives Quiz, I was surprised that I only received a 4/6. I wasn't sure what "modding" was or "smart mobs." I am not at the "emergent stage" of digital literacy because I knew what more than half the terms were, but I'm definitely not a digital native! It seems that someone at the emergent stage of digital literacy would not be familiar with any of the terms from the Digital Natives Quiz, and they would not know how to use a blog, wiki, IM, etc... They would be exploring through the programs but would need assistance from someone who is digitally literate. This is similar to the emergent reading/writing stage from the Tompkin's chapter (chapter 3) since students are just beginning to learn their alphabet and write scribbles that will eventually form into letters.
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I can completely relate to not feeling like a digital native after taking the quiz. I felt like there were so many terms and digital applications that I was not even aware of before taking the quiz. This class, is my first time even blogging, let alone do I know what modd or wikis are. I really felt like more of a digital native after I read the article on the website. I felt I could relate to always multi-tasking in reading and listening to music or writing a paper while talking on the phone like the article had said. Did you read the bit about "I'm not ADHD, I'm just not listening" ? I really found this interesting because I think some teachers could do more to effectively engage their students.
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