A Closer Look At Spelling

In this book the authors take a closer look at spelling, the teaching and learning of which is considerably more complex than is often assumed. In order to spell well, children need to learn how to strategically use knowledge about phonology, orthography, morphology and etymology. It is also a visual activity that involves the laying down and retrieval of visual representations of words and word parts in memory. Children also need to learn how to use the metalanguage associated with spelling - words like phoneme, syllable, affixes and morpheme - as this will help them talk and think about spelling strategies. Thus, spelling is a language activity and also a thinking activity. Ideally, it should also be a meaningful activity that is engaged in with a positive attitude. The authors draw on the theoretical and research literature, as well as classroom examples, to explain how to teach primary school aged children to use multiple strategies to spell. They also consider the assessment of spelling, as well as how to assist those who have difficulties in learning to spell.The work makes links to the Australian Curriculum: EnglishThis book would help primary and preservice teachers by providing them with understandings, based on research and theory, which would help them choose and use appropriate pedagogical strategies (also provided in the book) to teach spelling to children with diverse needs, including children from EAL/D backgrounds and those with difficulties and disabilities that impact on spelling.

In A Closer Look, Lynne Dorfman and Diane Dougherty provide the tools and strategies you need to use formative assessment in writing workshop. Through Lynne and Diane's ideas, you will be able to' establish an environment where students will internalize ways that they can assess their own writing and become independent writers. Lynne and Diane share methods for collecting and managing information, and show practical, simple, and concise ways to document student thinking. In the accompanying online videos, they demonstrate conferences with individual writers, small groups, and whole groups. Quick, easy-to-manage assessment methods emphasize that formative assessment does not have to take a long time to be worthwhile and effective. Vignettes from classroom teachers, principals, and authors add a variety of perspectives and classroom experiences on this important topic. A Closer Look shows that when students are in charge of their own writing process and set and reach their own goals, writing becomes a vibrant, energetic part of the day. '

Qualitative approaches are now growing its popularity among novice researchers. Thus, they need to be well-informed step by step in conducting the qualitative studies. Particularly, this book will benefit students who keen to focus on finding solution on the language related issues and concerns. A number of features are provided for novice scholars and researchers in order to be able to select the appropriate design for their study. The first feature is detail characteristic information on each type of the research approach. Each approach is elaborated in detail manner so that readers will possess comprehensible input of what and when a particular approach will be appropriately selected and employed. The detail characteristics of each approach in qualitative have been discussed in many research methodology books published earlier. However, this book can be used as the supplementary resources for those who specifically focus on the qualitative approach when they are dealing for the first time and more specifically for the language research and its related issues. The second feature is the example of each approach. Since qualitative approaches have a lot of similarities, the researchers are supposed to have careful thought when selecting a particular approach. This can be very difficult for novice researchers. Therefore, in order to guide them selecting the most appropriate approach for their study, the examples of the previous research using similar approach are provided. The examples of the previous research on each particular approach are carefully chosen so that it possibly relates and represents Indonesiancontexts. Another distinguished feature of this book is supplied the information on several common fallacies that scholars or novice researcher usually argue about the qualitative approach. For example, many novice researchers in Indonesian context still believe that in qualitative approach, they are not supposed to use numerical data. That might not be true. The discussion on some fallacies like the above-mentioned example hopefully can guide them to have no more doubts of employing qualitative approach.

This new book by Malcolm Parkes makes a fundamental contribution to the history of handwriting. Handwriting is a versatile medium that has always allowed individual scribes the opportunity for self-expression, despite the limitations of the pen and the finite number of possible movements.The purpose of this study is to focus on the writing of scribes from late antiquity to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and to identify those features which are a scribe's personal contribution to the techniques and art of handwriting. The book opens with three chapters surveying the various environments in which scribes worked in the medieval West. The following five, based on the author's Lyell Lectures at the University of Oxford, then examine different aspects of the subject, starting with the basic processes of handwriting and copying. Next come discussions of developments in rapid handwriting, with its consequent influence on new alphabets; on more formal 'set hands'; and on the adaptation of movements of the pen to produce elements of style corresponding to changes in the prevailing sense of decorum. The final chapter looks at the significance of some customized images produced by handwriting on the page. The text is illustrated with 69 plates, and accompanied by a glossary of the technical terms applied to handwriting, which in itself makes a significant contribution to the subject.

Child Language: provides a comprehensive overview of language acquisition in children introduces students to key theories and concerns such as innateness, the role of input and the relation of language to other cognitive functions teaches students the skills needed to analyze children's language includes sections on the bilingual child and atypical language development provides classic readings by key names in the field, such as Brian MacWhinney, Richard Cromer, Jean Aitchison, and Eve Clark. The accompanying website to this book can be found at http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415281032

Literacy research has continued to develop at a rapid pace in these last five years of the millennium. New ideas about how children learn to read have led to a better understanding of the causes of progress and failure in the mastery of literacy, with repercussions for children's assessment and teacher education. These new discoveries also allow teachers to transcend the old debates in reading instruction (phonics versus whole language) and offer the path to a synthesis. At the same time, research with teachers about their own implementation of methods and the development of their own knowledge about the teaching of literacy has produced a fresh analysis of the practice of literacy teaching. Inspired by these developments, teachers, teacher educators and researchers worked together to produce this volume, which promotes the integration of literacy research and practice.

The past two decades have brought giant leaps in our understanding of how the brain works. But these discoveries-;and all their exciting implications-;have yet to make their way into most classrooms.In Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching , authors J. Richard Gentry and Gene Ouellette, bring their original, research-based framework of brain words dictionaries in the brain where students store and automatically access sounds, spellings, and meaning. This book aims to fill the gap between the science of reading and classroom instruction by providing up-to-date knowledge about reading and neurological circuitry, including evidence that spelling is at the core of the reading brain.Brain Words will show how children's brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage, including: Incorporating tools to recognize what works, what doesn't, and whyPractical classroom activities for daily teaching and student assessmentInsights about what brain research tells us about whole language and phonics-first movementsDeepened understanding of dyslexia through the enhanced lens of brain scienceWith the insights and strategies of Brain Words , you can meet your students where they are and ensure they gain confidence as readers, spellers, and writers.

Assessing Dyslexia guides readers through the design, administration, and interpretation of dyslexia assessments. Grounded in research on the linguistic and neural foundations of dyslexia, as well as the clinical outcomes of reading and writing processes, this concise volume provides a comprehensive framework for assessment, diagnosis, and intervention. Utilizing detailed examples to illustrate methodology and concepts, this book is critical reading for students looking to deepen their understanding of assessment, literacy, and the written language challenge.