1. Spenser White
EDEL 4309-04
October 7th, 2015
Checkpoint #1
Group: Lowest 4 students: Eric, Camille, Rashid, Desiree
After reviewing the Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory Classroom Composite
scores of the first grade classroom, the lowest scoring four students (Camille, Eric, Desiree, and
Rashid) were all classified under the middle or late emergent spelling stage. In this spelling
stage, students typically begin by learning to hold a variety of writing tools, such as pencils or
crayons, and proceed to write by scribbling or drawing pictures and stating that those creations
are their form of writing. In the early stage of Emergent spelling, students are also able to explain
to their peers or adults what their scribbles say or what their pictures are of, and tell stories along
with their work. As students graduate from this early stage of writing, they begin to learn
individual letters of the alphabet and attempt to write them while still aligning their work with
stories, events, people or things. In the later stage of the Emergent spelling stage, students are
beginning to understand that when individual letters are put together, it makes a word, and each
of those individual letters produces a unique sound that help to shape the word. Though students
at this stage cannot yet form actual words, they begin to sound out words and group letters
together in order to attempt to spell a word. In the case of Camille and Eric, these two students
scored the lowest on their classroom composite, and have both shown struggles with spelling
beginning in the Late Emergent stage. Therefore, I have placed both Camille and Eric as Middle
Emergent stage students, due to the fact that no information on their mastery levels of any stage

2. lower than Late Emergent have been given, so I have to assume that the Middle Emergent stage
is the best place for mastery to be exhibited for these two children. Desiree and Rashid, on the
other hand, have shown better scores in the Late Emergent stage, and both began to struggle with
spelling at the Early Letter-Name Alphabetic stage, which is typically where students start to
have a better understanding of letter sounds and their relation to words and objects. Due to these
signs of struggling, I have classified both Desiree and Rashid as Late Emergent spellers. In order
to accommodate for all four of these students, I intend to reintroduce the alphabet all together,
and give all the kids a chance to practice writing all of the letters of the English alphabet in order
to make sure that Camille and Eric both have exposure to the letters and manipulating tools to
write each individual letters, and to allow Desiree and Rashid the chance to master their skills in
writing each letter before proceeding to matching sounds with letters. I want all four of these
students to have a chance better understand the alphabet, the different letters, and how they are
written before any attempts to introduce combining letter sounds to form words or separation of
consonants and vowels take place.
A. Understanding of Literacy Development
a. Objectives:
i. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to recognize both upper
case and lower case letters of the alphabet in print form.
1. This objective will allow students to understand that one letter of
the English alphabet can take two standards forms; upper case and
lower case. Though the appearance of each letter will differ based
on the case form, the letter is still the same and makes the same
sound.

3. ii. By the end of this lesson, students should be able to match each individual
letter to its appropriate upper case and lower case match.
1. Once students have the knowledge that upper case and lower case
letters are products of the same letter and sound, it will be
important for them to automate their skills in matching upper case
to lower case letters so that when it does come time for these
students to start writing, they will understand that upper case and
lower case letters contribute to the meaning and sounds of a word.
iii. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to write each letter of the
alphabet in lower case form with teacher instruction.
1. At this grade level, students are typically beginning to focus on the
lower case writing form on alphabetic letters; by having them
practice writing all the letters of the alphabet in lower case form, I
will be catching them up to where the remainder of the students in
the class should be in terms of practicing writing lower case letters.
iv. By the end of this lesson, students will understand that each letter of the
alphabet makes its own special sound and will be able to repeat the
beginning sounds of all letters.
1. Though the classroom composite indicates that all four students are
most successful in Emergent stage spelling, all four students either
scored a 5 or a 4 when it came to spelling in the Early Letter-Name
Alphabetic stage, which indicates to me that even though they are
not yet entirely successful at matching sounds to letters, they at

4. least have had some exposure to the concept of letter-sound
correspondence. I feel that by combining letter writing practice to
some basic letter-sound correspondence practice, I will be
challenging them with their fine motor skills in terms of writing,
and expanding on their prior knowledge of letter-sounds.
b. The lesson designated for the four students will align with the following Common
Cores State Standards:
i. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1.A
1. Print all upper- and lowercase letters.
a. For this particular lesson, I will only be having my four
students print lower case letters, but printing upper case
letters could definitely be an introduction lesson to writing
letters.
ii. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.5
1. With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond
to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to
strengthen writing as needed.
a. This standard can be met when I instruct students on ways
to write their lower case letters, and if students ask
questions to the group on how they write the letters.
iii. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D
1. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the
alphabet.

5. a. Students will be asked to match upper case and lower case
letters and group them based on letter name.
The troubles that I faced when aligning Common Core State Standards to the lesson that will
be implemented with these four students is that they are not necessarily meeting complete first
grade standards, but they are able to complete some Kindergarten standards. I think that by using
the Kindergarten standards as a basis followed by a list of first grade standards that are relevant
to the lesson, it will act as a guide for ways to further challenge these students or improve their
writing skills.
B. Knowledge of Effective Literacy Instructional Practices
a. The purpose of this activity is to provide the four “emergent stage” students with
opportunities to work with all lower case letters of the alphabet. The lesson that
will be used with Camille, Eric, Desiree and Rashid is based off lesson 4.19 in the
Words Their Way text on page 132. This lesson asks students to sing their ABC’s,
point to letters as they sing, name letters on the strip and list the letters that come
before and after a selected letter, ending with an activity of matching uppercase
and lower case letters. This lesson will follow similar guidelines, but I am
choosing to add in the letter-writing practice so that students have the chance to
observe all letters of the alphabet and write them in lower case form as an extra
challenge. The following materials will be required to instruct this lesson:
i. Magnets or block letters of all 26 letters of the English alphabet (provide 4
sets of each letter in BOTH upper case and lower case form)

6. ii. Four individual letter strips, which would have all 26 letters of the English
alphabet printed in upper case form on one side and lower case on the
other side.
iii. Dry erase board, markers, socks (for erasing)
iv. Pre-assessment: Ask students to write their name on a piece of paper.
Once their name has been written, ask them to write as many letters of the
alphabet as they can.
1. Ask students if they know why it is certain words are spelled the
way they are. Explain that every single letter makes its own sound,
and all sounds compose words when put together.
2. “Before we get to working with matching letters to sounds, let’s
practice writing each letter of the alphabet in lower case form.”
a. Provide students with this verbal transition so that they can
know that the focus will shift from talking about letter-
sound correspondence to writing individual letters, but that
it will be a topic that will be reviewed later on.
v. Provide all four students with the letter strip. Ask them to look on both
sides of the strip and state what differences and similarities they see in the
sides.
1. One side has uppercase letters, and the other side has lower case
letters.
2. Both sides have the same letters, but the letters are written in
different ways.

7. vi. Recite the ABC’s as a whole group. Ask the students to point to each letter
on the letter strip while reciting the song. Sing at a slower pace to allow
for the students to point without rush.
vii. Once the ABC song has been finished, let the students know that you will
be asking them to point to different letters on their strip. This will allow
me or any instructor to tell if students are able to connect letters from their
oral to written form.
1. Before asking students to point to letters, create a checklist that has
a slot for lists each student’s name, and an open slot for checking
off it students were able to correctly point to a variety of letters.
When asking a student to point to a letter, ask them to hold their
finger on the letter and check off if they are pointing to the correct
letter that was stated.
a. EXAMPLE: (Have boxes available for all letters of the
alphabet)
A B C D E
Camille
Eric
Desiree
Rashid
viii. Once all letters of the alphabet have been pointed to and checked off on
the checklist, provide students with a sack of letters of lowercase letters,

8. and ask them to match each lowercase letter with its uppercase match on
the letter strip.
1. Once all students have matched the letters, check off that they have
completed it, and provide them with the next sack of uppercase
letters, asking them to match the uppercase letters to the lowercase
letters on the other side of their sentence strip. If some students
complete both sides early, ask them to mix up all upper and
lowercase letters and have them match the uppercase letters to the
lowercase letters on the sentence strip, and vice versa.
2. After all student have matched their letters to their upper and
lowercase matches, ask students to place their letters back into
their sacks (they do not need to separate uppercase and lowercase
letters at this point), and to look at the teacher’s sentence strip. Go
through pairing uppercase and lowercase letters on the letter strip
once as a group. Make mistakes a couple of times, such as by
placing a lowercase G in the uppercase F column, and ask them if
that is where the letter goes.
a. This will allow them to generate more confidence in
identifying the appropriate matches. Once the group has
matched letters on the strip with the teacher, let them know
that we will be transitioning to writing the letters in lower
case form.

9. ix. Provide students with a dry erase board, markers, and sock. Have a
whiteboard, marker and sock ready.
1. When students have their markers, boards and socks ready, show
them your whiteboard and write each letter of the alphabet,
emphasizing that we always start our letters at the top and work
our way down. Include descriptions of how to write each letter.
a. Example: b= a straight line down with a little bubble at the
bottom
b. Watch students as they write their letters; address
misconceptions or provide alternative ways to think about
writing each letter if necessary.
c. Ask students to write the same letter on their board at least
3 times before erasing it. Check their work. See b. above.
2. When students have practiced writing all the letters of the alphabet,
ask them to write different letters of the alphabet. Use a similar
checklist shown above to check off if they were able to write
different lowercase letters.
x. End the lesson by letting the kids know that you have seen they have
worked very hard on writing their letters, give high fives to all students,
and let them the plan for the next lesson:
1. Practice writing lowercase letters again, but next time we are going
to see if they can write the letters on their own without a reference.
2. Talk about letter-sounds.

10. C. Understanding of Individual Differences and Strategies for Instructional Differentiation
a. According to the Words Their Way textbook, Middle Emergent spellers
experiment with letterlike forms which often resemble circles and lines as means
of writing, though their “writing” appears to be scribble-like (pg 97). Likewise,
Late Emergent spellers graduate into writing actual letters, begin to develop
phonemic awareness and connect some letters to sounds, and have consistent
directionality (Table 4.1, pg 98). Presuming that both Camille and Eric are
textbook-definition Middle Emergent spellers, they both may be a little slower
than Desiree and Rashid when it comes to writing letters or identifying them.
Additionally, if Desiree and Rashid are textbook-definition Late Emergent
spellers, they may not be able to write many letters on their own or make
connections between print and sound. By having all students point to letters as
they are called out on a letter strip, and having them practice writing letters on
their own, this will allow Camille and Eric to be challenged in writing letters
rather than scribbles, and will allow Desiree and Rashid to have a chance to
practice writing more letters of the alphabet that they may not be used to writing
on their own. In order to make sure that all four students comprehend letter-sound
correspondence and gaining insight on how to recognize and write letters of the
alphabet, it will be crucial to make sure that this lesson is taken as slowly as
necessary. If the students need more time writing different letters, take the time to
let them practice writing. Whatever is not accomplished from this lesson can be
transferred to the next day; the number of activities for this lesson is in case all
students are quickly and successfully completing prior tasks.

11. D. Understanding of Literacy Assessment and Relationship Between Assessment and
Instruction
a. Pre-assessment: Ask students to write their names on a whiteboard and show once
it has been written. Then, have students write as many letters of the alphabet as
they can. Make a note of the different letters that different students were able to
successfully write.
b. Post-assessment: ask students to write different letters that are called out orally
without a looking at their letter strip. Use checklist to see if they were able to
write different letters without a reference.
c. For the next lesson, I will begin by asking students if they recall writing the
alphabet in lowercase form from the previous lesson, then provide them with a
piece of paper and pencil and ask them to write the alphabet again. If students
require a review of writing letters, provide a whiteboard, marker and sock, and
have students practice writing the letters again following teacher instruction and
description. Once letter practice has been completed, ask students if they know
what sound C makes, what sound an R makes, and what sound an M makes. See
if students are able to make connections between letters and sounds. Inform
students that every letter of the alphabet has its own special sound, and that each
sound helps to make different words. Go over the sounds of the alphabet with the
students using the teacher letters strip as a reference. When reviewing the letters,
point to a letter, name the letter, and make the sound (short sound if vowel)
several times. Have students callback sound 3 times, followed by the letter name.
(Example: “uh, uh, uh, a”) After reviewing the letter-sounds as a group, ask

12. students to name off the sounds of random letters. Review sounds once more if
necessary. Once it appears as though the group has gained the concept of letter-
sound correspondence, ask individual students to share the letter names of random
letters on their own.
d. If tasks from the previous lesson are not complete, start the next lesson where the
group left off on the previous day. The number of tasks may be overwhelming for
some of the students (particularly Camille and Eric); the important thing is not
that tasks are completed in a timely fashion, but that the students are
comprehending the visual appearance of letters in the alphabet, are aware that
letters can be written in different forms, and that they are exposed to the practice
of writing.
E. Commitment to Reflective Practice
a. There is definitely a chance that some students in the group may not be able to
quickly grasp the concept of writing lowercase letters or matching uppercase to
lowercase letters. If such incident occurs, I will work with each individual student
on their struggling area while the remaining students continue to either match
their letters or practice writing their letters. The same will occur if 2 out of the 4
students struggle. If it appears as though all of the students are struggling with a
concept, I will address their confusion by asking them what they are not
understanding, and pausing any further instruction in the lesson to address the
current struggle. If students need multiple opportunities to match letters or write
letters, I will provide them that time rather than moving forward. If such happens,
any material that is not covered in this lesson will be addressed in the next lesson.

13. As for the remainder of the first grade class, I have separated the students into groups of
about 5 of 6 students. Cristi, Javon, Alex, Kelsey P. and Anna were all placed in the same group
as they have demonstrated a master of the Early Letter-Name Alphabetic spelling stage
according to the classroom composite. Daniel, Brandon, Kelsey T., Maria, William and Doug
were all placed in another group; Daniel, Brandon, Kelsey T. and Maria all were classified under
the Middle Letter-Name Alphabetic stage, whereas William was Late Letter-Name Alphabetic
and Doug was in Early Within-Word Pattern stage. Though there is a long range of student
abilities in this group, I chose to place Doug with the middle to late letter-name alphabetic
students to allow him the chance to master the skill of forming four or five letter words with
hidden vowels, and allow him to assist his peers in learning if necessary. Lastly, I placed Nicole,
Gabriel, Steve, Sarah and Molly in the highest scoring group. Molly was the only child in this
group who scored higher than her four peers; she actually has the highest score out of anyone in
the class. Molly has shown mastery throughout the Early Syllables and Affixes portion of the
composite. Molly can also assist her peers in learning if necessary as well. Nicole, Gabriel, Steve
and Sarah all scored in the Middle Within-Word Pattern stage, which presents similar vowel
spelling skills as Molly’s level of spelling, though Molly’s spelling level requires an
understanding of blend, digraphs, and short vowels (Table 7.1, pg 249).
Group 2: Cristi, Javon, Alex, Kelsey P., Anna: Students in this group will work on
activity 5.6 from the Letter-Name Alphabetic activities section of the Words Their Way Text. All
five students have been categorized as Early Letter-Name Alphabetic spellers, which indicates
that students in this spelling stage are starting to make connections between letters and sounds
and beginning to use that knowledge to form simple words. (BD=bed, SP=ship/ Table 5.3 pg.

14. 156) This activity will ask students to sound out the beginning, middle, and end sounds to short
words then name the word by putting all sounds together. Students will first be asked to solve ten
words provided by the teacher. Each student will have two turns to be the leader in presenting
words, or being in charge of turning over individual cards to reveal letter sounds. The reason I
chose this activity for these five students is that because Early Letter-Name Alphabetic spellers
exhibit the skills to match letters to sound and begin to form words, they will learn that words are
composed of many individual sounds rather than just two or so letters. Once the group has
sounded out and named the provided ten words, students will then be challenged to think of their
own words with beginning, middle and end sounds, make new cards for the game, and present
this to their peers.
Group 3: Daniel, Brandon, Kelsey T., Maria, William, Doug: This group of students
will be playing Go Fish, as seen on page 192 of the Word Their Way text, activity number 5.25. I
will provide the students with a series of game cards with different words families, and ask them
to see which of their peers has cards that rhyme with a word family card of their choice. Once the
students have completed my version of the game, they will be asked to extend the game by
thinking of new word families on their own, creating new game cards, and playing once again
with their peers. The reason I chose this game for these students is that children in the Middle
and Late Letter-Name Alphabetic stage as well as students in the Within-Word Pattern stage all
have a better understanding of phonological awareness that students in the Early Letter-Name
Alphabetic stage or children in the Emergent stage, but all students in these stages show
struggles when forming various four to five letter words with silent vowels and letters or
unaccented syllables. This game will allow for students to recognize that there are a great

15. number of words with similar spellings and common silent vowels/words and/or unaccented
syllables.
Group 4: Nicole, Gabriel, Steve, Sarah, Molly: This group will be doing activity 7.5 on
page 264 of the Words Their Way text in the Syllables and Affixes activities section of the
chapter. Students will be provided with a game board, game pieces, a die, paper and pencils. The
game asked students to separate a list of words based on e-Drops, double consonants and words
with no change; I will change the game by asking students to find words with double consonants,
words that end in –ed or end in –ing. The reason I am taking the e-drop section out of this game
is that students in the Middle Within-Word pattern stage are not yet introduced to the concept of
e-drops, and students in the Early Syllables and Affixes stage are confused by this concept.
Rather than asking all students to learn a concept that is not yet adopted until the Middle
Syllables and Affixes stage, I will ask them to focus on endings of words and doubles of
consonants. This will let the Middle Within-Word Patterns students know that words such as
marched and with –ed and not a –t, which is a common misconception among this stage. It will
also allow Molly the chance to master the skills of doubling consonants and assist her peers
when it comes to understanding this concept.