Teacher Professional Development: I need to attend this WordWorks Literacy Centre workshop for my professional development related to my students' writing, specifically their understanding of word morphology. <profdevpilot>
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
I teach a 4th grade Gifted Class of 29 students. A typical day in my classroom is full of inquiry and collaboration. My biggest challenge is to meet all the needs of this very diverse group and keep them excited about learning at all their varied abilities.
My students are 4th graders who were identified to be gifted among their like peers, thus they are not all on the same level.
The purpose of this class is to give them all the same chance to excel even though they may not all start at the same place educationally.
They are a very diverse group with more than half being English Language Learners from a wide variety of backgrounds...many different languages are represented in my classroom. I teach in a district of 40,000 students and my students actually were identified and come to my classroom from 6 different schools; only 5 of my students are from the school I teach at, the other 24 are bused from their home schools daily. The students are eager learners who come to school with an enthusiasm to learn and a great curiosity.
My Project
I am hoping to attend a workshop this summer that would help me help them solidify their understanding of the spelling of English words. The English language can be very confusing until you explore the morphology of the words and see where the word originated and how its spelling has been changed over time. When the students and I come across a word with a perplexing spelling we will turn to Etymonline to explore its morphology and learn why it is spelled how it is, even though it may not make sense. Phonics alone cannot help the students make sense of certain spellings.
I have followed the blog for the leader of this workshop (Peter Bowers) for several years and have been trying to implement some of the lessons I find into my curriculum but I know I would greatly benefit from attending this workshop and being able to learn directly from him, ask my questions and collaborate with others who are using Real Spelling in their classrooms.
This professional development will provide me the opportunity to learn how to effectively use a resource I have been trying to utilize rather inefficiently for the last few years.
This will then help me help my students, who are new to the English Language, understand the reason for certain spellings and in the long run become better spellers. If they can do this they will then also become better writers because their vocabulary won't be limited to only the few words they can spell correctly.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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