Before doing the lesson with my cousins, I reviewed the Yopp and Yopp (2007) article "Ten Important Words Plus: A Strategy for Building Word Knowledge." From this article I took away the importance of wide reading and word-learning strategies, so after doing the spelling inventory we played Scrabble for some time and afterward went to the library. While playing Scrabble, they both had trouble making words on their own, so I helped them with strategies to build words. By going to the library, I hope to have encouraged reading a variety of reading material, which I think was successful.
I also found an article by Cronnell and Humes (1980) called "Elementary Spelling: What's Really Taught." This article helped me when analyzing the spelling inventories and following activities. Both children did relatively well on the spelling inventory, the more advanced child spelling 20 of 25 words correct and the lower level child spelling 17 of 25 correct. Even the words they spelled incorrectly were very close to the accurate spelling. However, when given letters they were unable to create words, which supported by this article leads me to believe they need more help with organizing and other spelling strategies. Therefore, I worked on that while helping them play Scrabble. While at the library, I noticed that the lower level child chose books that had very little text. This may be one reason adding to his lower reading and spelling achievement compared to his twin sister. I think he would benefit from more text heavy reading about topics that he is interested in. What other ideas would you recommend for these children? Also, what do you think about using games to practice spelling and vocabulary?
I think it is really interesting to observe differences in twins. I have two sets of twins in my familiy and they are each so unique. In both instances, one always began talking before the other. I will be interested to see if that carries over into reading when they reach that age.
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