The fourth lesson I taught, focused on spelling practice. Before the lesson began the student and I reviewed what good writers do when they are spelling words. After we went over the importance of stopping and thinking what sounds do I hear, we went through a couple examples before using the app. Words Free Free is the name of the app that was used for the lesson.
Words Free is a free app that has in app purchases if you want to buy more words for students to practice with.When you open the app you will see four colorful tabs at the top. The first tab is green and it says groups. Selecting this tab will show a drop down menu where you can select which group of words you want your student to work on. They can choose from pre-primer, primer, first grade, second grade, third grade, and nouns. The second tab is blue and says words. Once you select this tab you will see what words are in the list that you selected the student to work on. A check mark will appear behind the word once it has been successfully completed. The third tab is orange and says colors. This tab allows students to choose which color they would like to write in. The fourth tab is purple and it is labeled info. When click on this tab shows features of that app that you can turn on and off, such as the trace arrow guide and connect the dots. You can also change the tracing difficulty.
When students begin tracing letters to make words, the app first says the whole word. It then says the first letter the student has to trace. On the screen the student will see a dotted letter with number bubbles and arrows indicating how to correctly write the letter. While they're writing the app makes a bubble noise and if the student doesn't trace the letter right it makes another silly noise to let the student know that isn't correct. The app will make the silly noise each time the student starts going off the path for how the letter should be written. Once the student has traced all of the letters the app will repeat the word again and show the student the word they traced. To go onto the next word you click on "next", which is at the bottom right side of the screen.
When the student I worked with opened the app she was instantly excited to try it herself after I first modeled to her how it works. The student I worked with is a struggling writer so I selected the primer sight words for her to practice with. Once she would trace the word I would then ask her to say the word and spell it. After a few words I then started saying a sentence that used the word she had just traced. After I shared my sentence I asked her to share her own sentence using the word. I did this so she could practice spelling the word, saying the word, and using it in context. While working on the app she shared that she though it was so cool and at the end of the lesson she wanted to do it again.
We began with spelling words using uppercase letters and then switched to lowercase, so she had practice with both. At the completion of the word list, I gave her a spelling test not using the app. I wanted to see how her knowledge of the words she just practiced spelling would transfer onto paper and pencil. All of the words I asked her to spell came from the list that she had just worked on. Five words were given and she was able to spell three right on her own. I saw this as a big accomplishment because she often times struggles with spelling every word she writes. For the words that she had trouble with, we ended up working through them together. I made sure she really stopped and said the word out loud so she was able to hear the different sounds. After she said the word I would have her say it slowly and each time she heard a different sound I would have her put up a finger. This way at the end of saying the word slowly, she could look at her hand and see how many sounds she heard. I think that with repeated practice using this app she would learn to spell new words regularly, which in turn would help her grow as a writer.
I would definitely recommend this app to other teachers or parents who want to help their students with spelling. I think it provides a great way for them to practice spelling words that they need to know in a fun way. I like how the app encourages students to use proper form when creating letters. One thing that I don't particularly like about the app is that they don't provide a sentence for any of the words. I think that providing context for the words students are working on would be beneficial to their learning. Besides that one aspect of the app I think that students will enjoy using this tool to help them develop the skills required of them to become more advanced writers.
References:
[Untitled image of Words Free app]. Retrieved February 15, 2017, from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abby-write-play-dolch-sight/id526642951?mt=8
No comments:
Post a Comment