Splrs at Wrk - Monitoring progress in spelling using developmental information
This book provides a useful tool for professionals who monitor children's progress in written spelling. Parents who wish
to understand how children's written spelling develops will also find it a helpful overview.
The book discusses the development of spelling skills in primary-age children and summarises a five-stage developmental
sequence. The focus is on assisting teachers to monitor progress: the book provides a number of examples of children's
writing along with analytical commentaries and there is an easy-to-use monitoring sheet which can be reproduced for
classroom use.
The book gives plenty of detail about the developmental sequences in spelling. A deep understanding of these will help
teachers both to plan their programmes to meet the learning needs of students and to make valid assessments. If the
assessments are maintained from about age five to age eleven, they will provide an ongoing indication of whether
individual children are keeping abreast of well-established milestones of spelling development.
Te rerenga a te pirere
A longitudinal study of kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Maori students - Phase I Report
Te Rerenga a te Pirere (The Flight of the Fledgling) is a longitudinal study of 111 kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Maori
students. This project is perhaps one of the first in-depth research projects of children in kohanga reo and kura
kaupapa Maori, their educational and social environments, and their learning. This is the report for the first year of
the study.
Te Rerenga a te Pirere tracks the development and progress of three cohorts of children and is unique in that it aims to
report on areas identified, by those involved in these movements, as the important features and goals of kohanga reo and
kura kaupapa Maori. For example, Maori language development, knowledge of tikanga Maori, and pangarau (mathematics). The
study children, parents, kaiako, and tumuaki were interviewed and the children also completed a series of assessment
tasks largely designed specifically for this project.
Children in the study who spoke te reo Maori more often, and had greater exposure to quality Maori language in kohanga
reo, kura, and home environments tended to perform higher overall on the measures that were used than those who did not.
ENDS