After speaking with Ms. Sox, I have begun to think about this experience as a whole. Mrs. Caudill is not a teacher I’d like to model myself after. As it turns out, I have learned a lot of what not to do instead of what to do. In Ms. Sox’s words, a non-example is sometimes the best example. I did enjoy finally getting into the classroom though! It’s nice to really get a feel for how an elementary school classroom is run. Now I have a glimpse at what I will be doing in the future! I do wish that we were able to spend more time at Moravian Falls. I can’t really agree that 8 days is enough.

            Mrs. Caudill was in meetings all day today, so we had Mr. Dillard as a substitute again. To be honest, I can’t really tell you who I prefer. Mrs. Caudill told us the other day that she doesn’t even let her substitutes teach her students. I think that is kind of messed up because she has missed every Monday to prepare for her National Boards. That means her students have been doing busy work every Monday instead of actually getting the opportunity to learn!

            I haven’t had any other opportunities to teach during my time at Moravian Falls. I did get to walk around every day and help the kids while they were working, but I only taught that one fractions lesson. I kind of felt like I was stepping on Mrs. Caudill’s toes though when I tried to help the kids, because when one of them would raise her hand she would rush over to them to answer their question before I could. It made me feel like she didn’t want my help.

            Our kids made cards for us and gave them to us today. They were so sweet. The cards said things like, “I will miss you,” “You are a great teacher,” “I love you,” I really appreciated the cards that the kids made. They put so much effort into them and it really meant a lot to me.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday our 2^nd graders were having their Universal Screening tests, so we were unable to get any of our interviews done. Mrs. Caudill didn’t explain to us much about the Universal Screening but I believe it is a test like the EOG to determine what level the students are on. She did say that our students have made a ton of progress this year, especially due to the pilot program, Fundations.

Thursday:

To be honest, I feel like I’ve really been learning what not to do from Mrs. Caudill. I did not like how Mrs. Caudill taught nouns, adjectives, and verbs. She was using words that were pronouns and adverbs and calling them nouns and adjectives. She also kept saying “a adjective” instead of “an adjective.” And she wrote this sentence on the board under essential questions, “What is divided syllables?” It’s hard for me to watch her say and do things incorrectly, especially when they are the opposite of what we have been taught to do.

During math, she was teaching the students how we have been taught not to teach subtraction. She was talking about “going over to Mr. Four to borrow a one.” The kids do not understand the concept of what they are doing when they are “borrowing.” They don’t have the conceptual understanding that they are regrouping and borrowing ten ones from the tens place. It’s frustrating to watch what she is teaching and not be able to intervene. I wouldn’t want to step on Mrs. Caudill’s toes or put my foot in my mouth by correcting her. Today Mrs. Caudill told us that the mistakes the kids made on the math part of the Universal Screening test were all because of borrowing, although none of the problems required borrowing. I think this is the red flag proving that the students do not understand the concept of borrowing!

Mrs. Caudill told us about a program that the school has to put on four times a year called Make & Take. Because Moravian Falls is a school on watch, the teachers have to invite parents to come after school to learn how to help their children with different content areas. Mrs. Caudill said that she put something together, and at first the new teachers wanted to do something else. Mrs. Caudill told us her attitude was that if the new teachers wanted to try something new and different, they could do that on their own time but she wasn’t interested in it. I found her attitude very discouraging that she wasn’t willing to be involved in something new or even help. I hope that when I’m a teacher I am willing to branch out try new things, and I don’t want to get stuck in my routine!

I was also disappointed on Thursday because Mrs. Caudill told the students they would be having an Easter party, but didn’t prepare anything for it. Hiley and I offered to get supplies for the party and we were very glad to help out. Hiley and I got three of our math interviews done on Thursday. We only have to do our last three and we are done with our assignments!

Language arts-

I have noticed that basically all of our students’ time is devoted to language arts! Most of the day is spent reading, writing, and practicing Fundations. I still haven’t seen a science, social studies or health lesson. This is a huge problem! It isn’t fair to provide such a lopsided education! Students can practice language arts during social studies and they can practice math during science class! I think the teachers at Moravian Falls should try to integrate subjects more thoroughly to provide a more balanced curriculum.

On Tuesday, I got most of my case study work done. I chose a student named Luis to do my case study on and I interviewed most of his teachers to learn about him. He is from Mexico but his parents speak quiet a lot of English and prefer for him to speak in English. I learned that he is shy and not very confident in the classroom, but opens up during his free time. The way that Luis’  teachers talked about him, I didn’t think he would be on grade level. I didn’t have high expectations for him at all. So when he took the WRI test, I was pleasantly surprised by his scores. He was on grade level and I was so proud of him. I was really disappointed in myself and in his teachers afterwards though, because I listened to what the teachers thought about him instead of making my own judgements. I should have already had high expectations for him. This experience reminded me that we need to have high expectations for all of our students; no matter their background or grades.

On Thursday morning Jordan, Olivia, Hiley and I gave the spelling test to our students.  I thought it was so fun because I really felt like I was the teacher. It was really interesting to grade the student’s papers though since we have learned so much about spelling development. Every single one of our kids missed the words “stepping” and “chasing.” They wrote “steping” and “chaseing.” I thought it was so interesting to be able to connect what I have learned in my education courses to what is actually happening in the classroom! The kids hadn’t learned the double consonant rule or the drop the e rule.

I really enjoyed this week at school because we’re finally in the elementary school! I’m really looking forward to spending time with these kids and learning from Mrs. Caudill.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

There is a new phonetics program that Moravian Falls just implimented called Fundations. The students learn about digraphs, blends, consonant and vowel sounds, and glued sounds. It is very fast paced and Mrs. Caudill said that it has been very successful.

What have you taught in your internship?

I haven’t exactly taught anything, but I did get to lead a reading group on Thursday when our assistant teacher Ms. Barnett was out sick. It was neat because I finally got experience with learning how to control the kids, keep their attention and help them learn all at the same time!

Look at the summary of scores in the table on page 170.  Notice that there are scores for the grade-level lists of words from the Word Recognition Test (Flash and Untimed) and scores for oral reading grade-level passages (accuracy of word reading, e.g. percentage of words read correctly & rate expressed in number of words read per minute).

1. What grade is Curt in?

Third grade

2. What was the flash score for words at: first-grade level? second-grade level? third-grade level?

1^st grade score: 100 (primer), 95 (preprimer), 75 (1-2)

2^nd grade score: 50

3^rd grade score: 20

3. What was the accuracy score at:

1-2 level: 97

2-1 level: 90

2-2 level: 84

4. What was the rate score at:

1-2 level: 65

2-1 level: 44

2-2 level: 36

Look at the spelling scores in Table 5.2 on page 172.

5. What was the percentage correct score for:

first-grade words: 60%

second-grade words: 0%

Consider the following expected scores, then compare those expectations to the scores Curt produced. With the Word Recognition Test, flash scores are generally interpreted as follows: 90-100% indicates Independent Level; 60-85% indicates Instruction Level; Below 50% indicates Frustration Level.

With oral reading accuracy, scores are generally interpreted as follows: 98-100% indicates Independent Level; 95-97% indicates Instruction Level; Below 92%   indicates Frustration Level.

With oral reading rate, expected grade-level ranges are as follows:

Grade–Words per minute

1^st–45-85

2^nd–80-120

3^rd–95-135

With spelling scores, around 50% correct indicates Instruction Level.

6. Which grade-level flash score is the best choice for Instruction Level? (*Note: 92-94% accuracy is marginal; take a close look at Rate.)

1st grade. Curt’s accuracy scores were 97% (the top half of the instructional level.)

7. Which grade-level accuracy score is the best choice for Instruction Level?

Curt is instructional at the 2nd grade level. His scores indicated that he is sufficient in the 1st grade level. 

8. What do Curt’s rate scores indicate about his grade-level reading? Where is he instructional according to rate?

They indicated that he is sufficient in the first grade level.  He is instructional at the second grade level.

9. What do Curt’s spelling scores indicate about his Instruction Level.

Scores around 50% indicate the instructional level, so Curt could still be partially instructed at the 1st grade level according to his spelling scores. Then he could be moved into the 2nd grade level where he scored a 0%

10. Put all of these scores together, and what do they indicate Curt’s reading level to be?

Based on all of these scores, Curt’s reading level is at the late 1^st grade to early 2^nd grade level.

The first dimension of reading fluency is accuracy in word decoding. You can assess this dimension by calculating the percentage of words a read can accurately decode on grade-level material. The second dimension is automatic processing. You can assess this dimension by looking at the student’s reading rate. The third dimension of fluency is prosodic reading. The best way to assess this dimension is to listen to a student read a grade-level passage and to then judge the quality of the reading using a rubric that scores a student on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace.
2.    Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?

Fluency is the connection between decoding and comprehending. A student cannot decode or understand a text without being about to read that text with fluency. Reading fluency refers to the student’s ability to develop control over surface-level text processing so that they can focus on comprehending the deeper levels of meaning within the text.
3.    What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

Teachers can help students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading by doing assisted readings and repeated readings.
4.    Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe briefly what each refers to (p. 49).

There are four components of MFS. There is a four point scale within each component.

a. Expression and volume:

            1: Reads words as if simply to get them out; voice is quiet

            2. Begin to use voice to make text sound like natural language; voice is quiet

            3. Text is still read in natural language; volume is appropriate

            4. Reads with good expression.

b. Phrasing:

            1. Read in monotone voice

            2. Reads in two- and three-word phrases; choppy reading

            3. Reads with run-ons; some choppiness

            4. Good phrasing and expression

c. Smoothness:

            1. Extended pauses, hesitations, false starts, sound-outs, repetitions when reading

            2. Several rough spots

            3. Occasionally breaks smooth rhythm

            4. Generally reads smoothly; self corrects errors

d. Pace:

            1. Reads slowly and laboriously

            2. Reads moderately slowly

            3. Reads with an uneven mix between fast and slow pace

            4. Reads at conversational pace

 Understanding informational texts requires accessing accurate, relevant knowledge, managing mental processes during reading within the boundaries of a limited working memory, and constructing a logical and understandable mental representation.

2. Specify the effect that background knowledge may have on constructing mental representations from informational text. Why should teachers be concerned about activating prior knowledge?

Background knowledge helps children develop concepts and mental representations. Background knowledge can be developed through experiences, social interaction, and language development. Also, understanding written texts plays a huge part in forming concepts and mental representations. This is an understanding that children and adults alike will continue developing throughout their lifetime. Different experiences and situations that occur in text and stories create representational models that replace real life experiences.  

3. What are the three instructional approaches that can be used to help primary-grade students comprehend informational text? Describe their common (p. 365) and distinctive features (p. 363-5).

Three instructional approaches that can be used to help primary-grade students comprehend informational texts are Picture Walk (PW), Know-Want to Learn-Learn (KWL), and Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRT).

Common features among these three methods are:

            -All three place an emphasis on reader engagement and social mediation

            -Although in different ways, all three help students activate their prior knowledge about the story or topic

            -All three methods have children make thoughtful predictions about what is going to happen in the text

Distinctive features:

Picture Walk:

-Preview the entire text before reading it while making predictions

-Teacher provides prompts to scaffold students’ discussion

-This is the only method where the teacher preselects and preteaches new vocabulary words (two-four)

KWL:

-This method is more open ended than the other two methods

-Ask students to share what they already know about a topic, allows room for discussion

-Students can get off task because focus isn’t directly on the text

DRTA:

-Doesn’t include extensive build up to reading a text like the other two methods

-Students and teacher have a brief beginning discussion, with the students forming justified predictions.

-Then, students alternate reading the text aloud section by section

-Teacher stops at crucial points in the story to ask questions, allows opportunity for students to make personal connections to the text and to clear up confusion

4. What is the purpose of the experimental study reported?

The purpose of the experimental study is to explore how the PW, KWL, and DRTA might influence reading abilities and content acquisition with informational texts in the primary reading group setting.

5. Who were the subjects?

The subjects were 31 struggling 2^nd graders from two demographically similar schools. 

6. Describe the reading materials used during the intervention.

 The reading materials used during the intervention were informational books on topics 2^nd graders are familiar with, such as insects, spiders and the moon. Three different informational texts were used each week that contained common information about the same topic. There were twelve total texts used that were all on the students’ instructional reading level.

7. How long did the experiment last?

 The experiment lasted ten weeks.

8. What were the experimental conditions?

 Groups 1 through 4 received the intervention during the first cycle, and groups 5 through 8 received the intervention during the second cycle.  There were two days of individual screening before the experiment started to make sure that the studentes shared a common instruction level. Next, there was a 45 minute orientation for each group.  There were twelve days total of intervention in each cycle.  Each group received treatment for three days, and data was collected on the 3rd day.  On the day after the conclusion of intervention, interviews were held with the students to find out which strategies they preferred.

9. Describe the procedures specific to the Picture Walk, KWL, DRTA, and the Control Group conditions.

 PW: Researchers presented a brief overview of the text before reading. Next, the researcher and child engaged in an interactive discussion about the story as they looked through the pictures together. They came up with predictions, activated prior knowledge and talked about the book. Researchers drew the child’s attention to two to four new vocabulary words. Then the child mumble read the book on their own. After reading, together they discussed if their predictions were correct or not and they summarized the text.

KWL: One Day 1 and Day 3, the students and researchers created a KWL chart together. The topic was introduced and discussed. What the children knew about the topic was written under the ‘K’ column. On Day 2 and Day 3, the children created their own KWL chart and wrote what they personally knew about the topic under the Know column. The children then categorized the information that they knew about the topic. Next, the children came up with questions that had about the topic and placed them under the Want to Learn column on the group chart. Children then mumble read the text. After a discussion, if the text answered the student’s questions from the Want to Learn column, the researcher wrote the answers in the What I Learned column. On Day 2 and Day 3, students wrote what they learned on their own charts before the group chart was shared.

DRTA: Based on the cover, title, table of contents and prior knowledge, students came up with predictions about what they thought the text was going to be about before reading it. Then, students would predict what would happen for the next two or three pages before mumble reading that section. After each section was read, a discussion followed to see if predictions were correct, summarize what had happened, and to come up with new predictions about what was going to happen next. A brief discussion was held at the end of the text.

Control group: This group read the same informational texts as the students in the other groups. Before they read the books, they received the same brief overview that the other groups received. The children then mumble read the entire text independently. After they read, they drew a picture or wrote something down based on the text that they wanted to share with the group.

10. What measures were used to determine the relative effectiveness of the treatments? Describe the measures briefly.

Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT): This is a yes/no task that was group administered on Day 1 and Day 3. It is used to estimate vocabulary recognition in a content area and to confirm that groups had similar levels of prior knowledge of the topic. On the 3^rd day,  kids categorized the words they selected on the VRT on Day 1 under headings on a concept map.

Maze: This task was a multiple choice cloze modification. It was a timed three minute group administered task. The original text read by the groups was reprinted without ten words. The score students received was the number of correct responses.

Free Recall: Individually, each child provided a free recall of the day’s text. Retellings were analyzed using coding sheets.

Cued Recall: After Free Recall, each child was asked to answer three explicit and three implicit questions based on the day’s text. They were scored as correct/incorrect and then a four point scale was applied to their answer.

Post-intervention Interview: Students were asked to reflect on which approach they preferred for helpfulness and personal enjoyment. 

11. Which treatment(s) were found to be more effective in increasing students’ vocabulary knowledge and maze performance (p. 381)?

Students in all intervention groups made vocabulary gains and worked equally well.  

Picture Walk and DRTA both achieved significantly higher than the control group on the maze.

12. Students’ comprehension of the texts was greater under the DRTA condition than KWL and the control conditions. What do you think explains DRTA’s advantage over the KWL condition (p. 382)?

DRTA is more successful at helping children understand texts because of the close reading facilitated by this approach. During this process, the teacher directs student’s attention to significant ideas and helps them with complicated concepts.  

13. It was found that the treatments did not differ in the quality and quantity of students’ retellings (p. 384). In other words, students were not differentially affected by the treatments in the way they integrated textual information with prior knowledge. What does this finding mean in terms of the different emphases employed by experience-based (KWL) vs. text-based (DRTA) treatments?

This finding means that the emphasis placed on experienced based treatments does not have an impact on the quality and quantity of student’s retellings.  

Answer the following question AFTER you read the article.

14. In light of the findings from this study, what conclusions can you draw about the role of teacher support in children’s construction of mental representations from informational text?

When teachers provide support and facilitate children’s reading using Picture Walks, KWL, and DRTA, the children develop a better sense of understanding and are better able to reason with the new information they learned through the text. Also, the support that the teacher provides by asking purposeful text-appropriate questions requires the students to think critically about the text.

-A Preliterate speller pretends to read and write.

-When they write, they are making scribbles, letter like forms, or random letters that have no relationship to the words they believe they are writing.

-When they read books, they are really just saying what they have memorized.

-“Read” things by recognition, not the actual process of reading or decoding.

-Lack or barely understand the alphabetic principle.

-Prealphabetic, logographic, selective cue stage.

2. How does a Letter Name-Alphabetic speller read and write?

-This is a beginning reader, actually reading (not just pretending), uses systematic letter sound matches to identify and store words in memory.

-Partial alphabetic phase

-These readers require a lot of support in the form of predictable books.

-When writing, these students often use but confuse vowels.

-When reading, use entire letter string to decode and store words- but reading isn’t fluent and is often word by word

-Need to read aloud to vocalize letter sounds, can’t read silently.

-These readers still benefit from repeated readings of predictable books.

-Stage: initial reading and decoding, students are “glued to text”

3. How does a Within Word Pattern speller read and write?

-Transition from Letter-name to Within Word pattern when single letter sound units are consolidated into larger chunks or patterns, and when other spelling regularities are internalized.

-This speller learns basic letter sounds in the onset position (initial consonants, consonant blends, consonant digraphs), then focus on the vowels and what comes after the vowels.

-Short-vowel rimes are learned with consonant blends, learned as a chunk

-These spellers use but confuse long vowel patterns

-Spellers are in an orthographic stage; consolidated alphabetic stage; confirmation and fluency stage,

-Reading is supported by familiarity with frequency occurring letter pattern units

-At the beginning of this stage, readers will need support materials, and by the end they will be able to read independently. They don’t need to finger point and can read silently.

-Transition to phrasal reading, not word by word reading anymore, can read faster

-These writers have a larger sight word vocabulary so they can write more quickly and in greater detail

4. How does a Syllable and Affixes speller read and write?
-Read most texts orally and silently with good accuracy and speed

-Success in reading is due to familiarity and experience with the topic being read.

-Develop reading styles, may begin to obsess over certain books (ex: Harry Potter)

-These writers enjoy writing essays, editorials, poetry, fantasy or realistic fiction

5. How does a Derivational Relations speller read and write?

-Broad experience base, which allows these spellers to choose among many different reading styles based on the text or their purpose for reading

-Read according to their own interests/needs

-Develop and practice a variety of writing styles

6. What is the existing research evidence on the relationship between spelling and reading. Briefly describe research findings discussed on page 20.

-In 2000, Ehri reviewed six correlational studies where students from first grade to college were asked to read and spell words. Correlations ranged from .68 to .86.

-In other studies, spelling measures have accounted for as much as 40%-60% of the variance in oral reading measures.

-Students who receive additional spelling instruction do better on a variety of reading tasks such as oral reading, silent reading comprehension and other reading- related measures in addition to spelling.

-Perfetti (1997) found that practice with spelling helped reading more than practice with reading helped spelling.

-Morris and Perney (1984) found that first graders’ invented spellings were a better indicator/predictor of end of grade reading ability than standardized reading readiness tests.

-Ellis and Cataldo (1992) found in a two year study follow students from 1^st grade to 3^rd grade that spelling is the most consistent predictor of reading achievement.

-Sawyer (19970 found that childrens’ scores on a developmental spelling inventory was a stronger predictor of decoding than phonemic tasks (such as segmentation.)

-Curt is in the Letter-Name stage of word knowledge because he is spelling what he is hearing. He is not including all of the markers in his spelling and is getting some long vowels wrong. Although he did represent some short vowels correctly and spelled many consonant clusters correctly (which would imply he is in the Within Word Pattern stage) Curt reverted back to too many errors made in the Letter Name stage.

2. Describe partner reading.

-Partner reading is an example of guided reading which begins with a preview of the book to speculate what is happening in the pictures and what could/may happen in the story.

-Partner reading means that the child and tutor alternate reading pages aloud, with the tutor usually starting.

-Every so often the tutor will pause to pose comprehension questions.

-This is a psychologically appealing and safe, comfortable way for struggling readers like Curt to begin reading stories.

-An advantage to partner reading is that the tutor can model fluency for the student.

-Also, the student is reading aloud provides the tutor or teacher with an opportunity to assess their reading skills.

-A disadvantage is that there is a lack of focus on comprehension

3.Which is harder for a student, partner reading or DRTA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity)?

-DRTA: the teacher directs or guides the reading in such a manner that the child is led to interact with the story in an active, problem solving manner. The student makes three predictions during the course of the reading about what is going to happen.

-A DRTA is harder for students because it is silent reading, not reading aloud. They are not provided the support and modeling from partner reading. Students have to pay closer attention to the text to create meaning and be able to answer comprehension questions.

4. In planning a DRTA, what is important about selecting places to stop?

-The tutor should select three or four breaks in the story where it would be appropriate to ask questions about what has happened so far and what might happen in the future.

-The tutor should choose places that he/she is able to anticipate an important or plot turning event.

5. In planning a DRTA, what is important about deciding questions to ask? What kind of questions? How many?

-As the tutor chooses stopping points, they should plan questions for the stopping point at this time.

-The tutors should pose about four questions per stopping point that ask the reader about what has happened so far in the story and that ask the reader to make predictions about what may happen in the furure.

-The predication questions help faciliate conversation between the tutor and reader.

1. What was the hypothesis tested by the researchers?

-Researchers were testing a hypothesis that states that students will learn the pronunciations and meanings of new unfamiliar words better when accompanied by the spellings during study periods than when they are not accompanied by the spellings.

2. Who were the subjects?

-20 2nd graders; mean age 7 years 7 months; enrolled in an urban school with a large minority population; on average reading at a 2nd grade level; vocabulary level was below average

-32 5th graders from the same low SES school as the 2nd graders; 14 higher level readers and 18 lower level readers

3. What were the experimental conditions?

-The researchers worked with students individually. Each student was taught the pronunciations and meanings of unknown words.

-Students were given a minimum of six and a maximum of 9 trials to learn the pronunciations and meanings with a criterion of three perfect trials in a row.

-All subsequent trials tested the student’s recall of the words introduced during the initial trial and after each recall attempt, students were given the correct responses.

-Students were taught the meanings of the unfamiliar words with pictures, definitions and multiple sentences that used the words. These all helped clarify the words’ meanings and use.

-In one group, the spellings were provided with each word, and in the other group the spellings were not provided.

4. What did the treatment involve?

-In the treatment condition, students learned unfamiliar spoken words that were accompanied by spellings during study periods.

-In the control group, students learned unfamiliar words spoken words without the spellings.

5. Which group (spelling-present vs. spelling-absent) gained more in vocabulary learning?  How were the groups’ recall of pronunciations affected by the treatment?

-The spelling-present group gained more vocabulary learning than the spelling-absent group. Recall of meanings and recall of pronunciations was greater when spellings were seen than when they were not seen.

-2nd graders: In recalling pronunciations, the benefit of seeing the spellings of words increased over the course of multiple trials

-2nd graders: “Pronunciations and meanings of vocabulary words were learned better on the one-day delayed posttests when students were exposed to spellings of the words than when they only practiced speaking the words.”

-5th graders: Recall of pronunciation was also better for the 5th grade group that was provided with the spellings of words.

-5th graders: High level readers outperformed lower level readers.

6. Why do you think that fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers with less orthographic experience and knowledge, even though the two groups did not differ on receptive vocabulary knowledge?

-5th grade readers on a high word reading task probably benefited more from the spelling aids than lower level readers because of their more developed knowledge of grapho-phonemic and of larger syllabic spelling units. This greater knowledge may have given the higher level readers an advantage in forming connections to store the new multisyllabic words in their memories.

7. What general conclusions were derived from the study findings by the authors? What implications were offered for vocabulary learning and instruction?

-The group of 5th graders that was exposed to the spellings of new and unfamiliar words learned the meanings and pronunciations better than the group that was not provided with the spellings.

-Students with greater orthographic knowledge benefited more from being exposed to the spellings than students with lower orthographic knowledge.

-Grapho-phonemic connections are created when students are provided the spellings of new words.

-The spellings of words are connected to pronunciations in memory. Spellings secure pronunciations earlier during the course of learning.

-New vocabulary words that are better secured in memory because of their pronunciations create a stronger base for learning the meanings of the words.

-Instructional suggestions:

 Teachers should take time to show the spellings of new unfamiliar vocabulary words to their students when they encounter, pronounce, and explain the new words.

Teachers should display the spellings of new words at all grade levels, not just for beginning readers.

Also, when students do not know a word, teachers should encourage them to look up the definition and spelling of the word. This will help them learn the meaning and spelling of the word and help them to become more avid readers in the future.