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Results
Teachers’ Increased Knowledge of Alphabetics
The teachers spoke of the rigor and thoroughness of the summer training and how their knowledge increased as a result. Michelle said prior to receiving professional development, “I had some alphabetic knowledge, but I forgot it or couldn’t explain it to the students.” Jennifer said, “I couldn’t tell them why.” After the professional development, these teachers felt empowered to present alphabetic concepts in meaningful and powerful ways for their students to master. For example, the teachers spoke about their experience teaching first graders multisyllable lessons and how these concepts were so new to them as teachers, especially schwa. A schwa is the /uh/ sound found in unstressed syllables, and it can be spelled with any vowel. For example the schwa sound in balloon is in the first syllable while the schwa is found in the second syllable of mountain. Schwa is found in most multisyllable words because we can’t stress or accent each syllable when we speak since our voices have natural highs and lows, nor would it sound right to accent each syllable. Prior to this lesson the teachers taught students about syllables, specifically accented syllables. For the schwa lesson they showed students how to draw a thin line (unaccented) and thick line (accented) under each syllable for the word alone, that Mr. Schwa (upside down “e”) was lazy and simply said /uh/ for the first syllable, and schwa wasn’t spelled as it sounds so the spelling needed to be memorized. Students practiced underlining with thin/thick lines, placing the upside down “e” on the unaccented syllable and reading/spelling more words (e.g. belong, comma, connect, potato).
The teachers contributed much of their learning to Tamara’s four visits. She went into their classrooms and modeled instruction during the first two visits, and during the last two visits, she co-taught small groups with the first grade teachers. For the last two visits, Tamara let the teachers instruct, but she would support them by saying, “You can question this way,” or “Now what would you say?” After each visit, there was always discussion and
reflection. Tamara also had online videos of herself teaching children that were accessible whenever the teachers felt they needed support. Gina said she relied on the videos and replayed them many times. All four first grade teachers said the training was excellent and powerful. Their knowledge was enhanced to a much higher-level; they clearly stated they will never return to teaching reading how they previously taught it. They recognized that having a rationale for phonic concepts, along with child-friendly hooks and strategic questions that respond to student errors are potent for student learning and mastery of foundational skills.
Quality of Teacher Instruction
The teachers talked about their instruction during the interview with specific mention of their past practices and the quality of scaffolding. They reflected on their prior teaching by saying they previously taught alphabetics through a phonics book, but it was not explicit. They had also used an alphabetic program with characters and songs for each letter that focused on letter names, and that curriculum “didn’t do justice.” Lori said, “There was a hook…but it just wouldn’t transfer as well as we liked.”
Prior to receiving professional development,
"I had some alphabetic knowledge, but I forgot it or couldn't explain it to the students." ---Michelle
Donita Shaw is a professor of literacy education at the University of Kansas. She is passionate about helping teachers gain the knowledge they need so they can differentiate instruction and ensure all children learn how to read.