Mod 3 Unit 2 Activity 1 Blog: Written and Oral Language in a Digital Age

This is my blog for activity 1 of the Unit 2! In this week's class and activities we as a cohort researched, discussed and have written about phonology and what it means within literacy in the classroom. I remember working with a co-worker on small group instruction (we each were given a group and center from the teacher to review literacy topics such as reading and fundations) and she was quite honest in how doing fundations would be hard for her and the students because of her accent and how she pronounced letters differently when it came to the English language (she was a native Spanish Speaker). I think she touched on a topic that is reoccurring in English--how it is tricky especially when it comes to the rules of phonemes and letters and overall phonology/reading. I feel that even for Native English speakers this language is hard because there are rules that apply to a majority of words in certain contexts yet in certain contexts no, and vice versa. I also feel as though this could have been a 'teachable moment', a moment of encouragement: the students will understand and they can even learn the difference between how letters are sounded out in Spanish or another language versus how they are pronounce in English. As it pertains to reading/literacy, phonology is quite important. When breaking down the sounds in a word, students are able to read out the words more--for example, this summer I worked in a summer camp and broke down words through their phonemes to 3-4 year-olds when it was initially tricky to pronounce them--the kids got it down once the phonemes were broken apart and sounded out.

In the classroom I have observed and used myself the strategies of 'tapping', 'air writing', and call and response. These methods, especially tapping out sounds, have really assisted in the learning for the students I have taught. I do plan on using these methods in my own future classroom!