Chapter 4 Tompkins

In Tompkins Chapter Four, the stages of spelling development are laid out from age 3 to age 14 with all the different things that children should learn/be able to do at each stage. I am in a kindergarten classroom and the majority of students fall into this category. It says that students learn to make a distinction between drawing and writing, how to make letters, the direction of writing on the page and some letter sound matches. I think it is very interesting however, that some of our students still do not even know the directionality of text. I find them writing their name backwards, starting at the far right of the page moving left with the letters. I immediately correct them and tell them that in writing and reading you must always go from left to right across the page. (I also remind them that they have to write their number sentences this way for math as well.) I think that in my classroom so many of these simple things that the students are supposed to be learning are going un-taught. I feel that by this point in kindergarten the students should know the directionality of text as well as be able to write most of the letters (at least half). But sadly, many of them don’t know any letters but those in their name and they often don’t realize that the letters in their name are making the sounds that we hear when their name is read aloud. I find often students coming up to me and saying “There is an “M” in my name Miss H!” after we have learned the letter for the week. Up until we have discussed it, I don’t believe they have made the association that Mariam starts with an M and makes the “mmmm” sound. I know that the students are very young and they are still learning the basics of phonics however, I feel that they are very behind. It is sad to me that after 100 days of school they are just now learning the sounds in their name are related to letters. I think this had to do with the fact that the CT only introduces one letter per week. I have talked about this approach before and I think after seeing it implemented throughout the school year that it is not a good approach. Students should know more letters than they do now and they should be writing the letters they know much more often. It has been weeks since they have done a writing assignment and they are still so afraid to write that it makes me sad. Reading this chapter has given me some hope though, because I realize that at age 5 these students are not expected to be spelling correctly or even understanding the alphabetic principle completely. They are still learning and every experience is setting them up for further knowledge in phonics and reading.