Blog #6
Copy and complete the activity at the end of chapter two of:
- Freeman, D., and Y. Freeman. Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach: reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
- Determine Learning (L) vs. Acquisition (A) and explain your answers on your blog.
As I was reading, Written and Second Language Acquisition, I
had many thoughts and feelings about the two styles of learning. When teaching reading, I see both components
(learning and acquisition) being done in the classroom daily. In the primary grades, teachers really focus
on the phonics and word recognition part of reading. Students have to learn how to decode a word
or recognize it as a sight word, in order to increase fluency and overall
acquire comprehension. They also,
however, read big books with illustrations or have students read familiar songs
and engage them in poetry in order for students to acquire their own meaning to make connections between oral reading and
the print. With this in mind, I think
students need both learning and acquisition to become successful learners. Sociopsycholinguistic learning for reading is
a bit higher level, because students are learning how to read and comprehend by
making meaning from the text and using background knowledge. Word recognition is taught by the teacher in a
set curriculum or daily routine and allows students to learn strategies. When dealing with these two views, I feel Sociopsycholinguistic learning can only happen for those students who have solid
background knowledge and a good vocabulary bank from their home life. I feel sociopsycholinguistic makes learning
for Sped students and some ELL students hard.
They need more of a word recognition and direct instruction to help them
learn decoding , vocabulary, and phonics.
When teaching, I feel I do a pretty good job at balancing
the two views. As I was looking at this
list, I can see that some of these activities can fall under both views as
well. However, some of the activities
students are learning though direct teacher guidance. Other activities are focused on helping the
student understand what they read or hear.
The students:
L look
up words in the dictionary to write definitions
A make
a Venn diagram to compare two stories
L practice
sounding out words
L/A read
in round robin fashion
L correct
peers when they make a mistake
L/A identify
words on a big book page that start with the same sound
L/A group
cards with classmates’ names by a criterion on such as first or last letter
A write
rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound
L ask
teacher how to spell any word they don’t know
A read
a language experience story they have created with the teacher
A work
in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences
L divides
words into syllables
L on
a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the
same sound
A make
alphabet books on different topics
The teacher:
L preteaches
vocabulary
A does
a shared reading with a big book
L make
sure that students read only books that fit their level
L has
students’ segment words into phonemes
A write
words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling
of difficult words
A asks
students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter
L uses
decodable text
A set
aside time for SSR (sustained silent reading) each day
L teaches
Latin and Greek roots
A has
students meet in literature circles
L conducts
phonics drills
L/A chooses
predictable texts
A teaches
students different comprehension strategies
A does
a picture walk of a new book
L uses
a variety of worksheets to teach different skills
posted by Unknown @ 7:48 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Amberlyn - I find it interesting that you mention that Sociopsycholinguistic learning can happen only when the home life has helped establish solid foundational skills. When I first started teaching many years ago, I thought the same when teaching at the high school level. Only students that came into the building from the middle school with solid foundational skills would be able to write and articulate higher order thinking and learn through acquisition methods. Then I started working with IEP, 504 students in a co-taught environment. This changed much of my philosophy. The co-teacher started to create and promote more inquiry method lessons. These lessons allowed students to use context to perform using their strengths while having to add to the weaknesses. IT was amazing the quality of work that many of them produced. It was far higher then anything they could have produced in a highly structured lesson. Did they still need structure to help with foundations, you bet. But, I started to realize that I was limiting students with what I expected of them. I had to change in order to get the most out of them. By infusing more of a balance between the two learning styles, students began to demonstrate higher skills and have greater success.
- Matt
Hi Matt,
Thank you for your response. It sounds like I am cutting my students short of their capabilities. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your experiences. I will have to start using more inquiry method lessons. I always learn so much from you :)
I too see an increase in student achievement when strategies that lean toward the acquisition model are used. Not only is the work better, but motivation and engagement increase. Working in a middle school, these last two are sort of the key to any kind of achievement. Middle school aged kids are just learning to test the boundaries, and will do so until they push too far. Consequently, they will always want to know the purpose for an activity, and what the answer is. If an activity requires their input of prior knowledge, and uses inquiry to generate a response, students will be far more willing to engage. When I read the list, I felt like many of the activites were learning-theory based, and nearly all of the activities I listed as acquisition are activities I prefer to use to learning-activities like worksheets. Just an interesting correlation that I see supported in my classroom practices. Thanks for sharing Amberlyn!
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