Tag Archives: spelling

Posted on by

ALaN WA Newsletter May 2013

Welcome to edition 6 of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network of Western Australia Newsletter!

Views expressed by contributors to the newsletter are their own and, unless expressly stated, do not reflect the opinions of their employers/organisations.

This contents page links individually to each article enabling you to go immediately to those of your choice. Alternatively, if you go to the main blog link, you can access the articles by scrolling down the page.

We welcome your comments and contributions to our newsletter. If you are an Adult Literacy/Numeracy practitioner in Western Australia or indeed, anywhere in the world, we invite you to subscribe and comment. If you interested in joining the GoogleGroup for our network, please visit our “How to join” page and complete the online form.

Contents

1. Joining the conversation!

Commenting on discussion forums and blogs is a great way for you and your students to share your ideas and opinions.

2. CGEA is now re-accredited until 2018!

CGEA is newly re-accredited here are links for curricula downloads and links for finding National and State numbers.

3. CGEA network files.

A reminder and update for ALaN Network GoogleGroup members on accessing the shared documents

4. Literacy for empowerment?

The WA Adult Literacy Council Conference is coming up soon – find out about this year’s theme as well as checking the dates for your diary

5. Does texting help or hinder children’s spelling skills?

A great piece to make you think – and we hope you will add your comments and opinions too!

6. New online numeracy resources

Exciting new resource from VALBEC – checkout this review!

7. Foundation Skills Training Package (FSTP) released.

The FSTP has now been released and can be downloaded – discussion will continue!

8. Lino.it for learning!

An online sticky note tool that is easy for students to learn and use, as well as being fun and enabling them to write for an authentic audience.

 

 

Posted on by

Does texting help or hinder children’s spelling skills?

Last week I came across this article (admittedly from 2011) about the link between children texting and their spelling skills.  I found it really interesting as I automatically assumed it would demonstrate that texting has a negative impact.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8272502/Text-messaging-improves-childrens-spelling-skills.html

I have to confess that I have been called a grammar fascist in the past.  My school (in Cape Town) made grammar a priority (in all subjects, not just English) and that influenced me very strongly.  It made it easier for me to learn other languages later on, but it also means that I have to rein in my ‘red pen’ when I’m teaching as, while grammar obviously has its place (and a significant one at that), it’s not the only thing that matters.

It got me thinking though about how grammar is so important to some people, and not to others.  Is it just a generation thing?  is it a cultural thing?  Is it just personal choice?  I found this blog entry while I was thinking about it..

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/20548/just-how-important-are-grammar-and-spelling

What do you think?

 

Posted on by

Issue 1 – Free downloadable resource – a wordsearch activity

Introduction

It falls to me (JoHart – one of the current ALaN facilitators) to “kick off” our “Free downloadable resource” feature that we hope will become a regular part of the ALaN Newsletter. The intention is to share a small downloadable resource in each issue.

We invite YOU to contribute  a favourite small Adult Literacy/Numeracy resource that you have developed. We hope that each feature will provide; context in which the developer uses the resource; the resource itself; one or two tips/ideas on how to develop/generate similar resources.

Today’s Resource

Currently I am teaching CGEA entirely online. However I find that many of the small resources (especially games and puzzles) that I used in paper form are easily adapted to the online environment, particularly things like wordsearches. Here is today’s resource  as I use it in Elluminate/BlackboardCollaborate.

Originally this was a WordDoc ” Wordsearch Activity 1” just click on the title to download.

I have  a variety of wordsearch puzzles and other similar activities that can be used to help students with spelling and or vocabulary. This is just one of a number that use one of the reading age type vocabularly lists to source a large number of appropriate words. I have created most of these activities using the free wordsearch puzzle maker on the Discovery Education website. The site has several other free puzzle makers and lots of other useful ideas and resources.

Please comment on the resource and share ideas you may have for its improvement, use or extensions of the activity.

Jo Hart