Sultan Qaboos University

College of Education

Educational Curriculum

English spelling course

Done by:

Shareefa Al-Harrasi

Huda Al-Belushi

Dalal Al-Hajri

The plan:

Submitting

day

TaskWeek

21\2a. Choose a course topic

b. Decide the context.

c. Set the rationale

Weeks 2 &3

6\3a. Decide the source of the needs

b. Decide how to get the information.

Weeks 4&5

27\3a. Write the specific learning outcomes.

b. Decide the procedure of knowing the

learning outcomes.

c. Decide the source of the material.

Weeks 6,7&8

3\4a. Decide the best way of delivering the

course.

Week 9

17\4a. Decide behavioral indicators and tools

for assessing the main intended learning

outcomes.

Weeks 10 &11

1\5a. Organize the resources.Weeks 12 &13

13\5a. Write the reflection sectionWeek 15

15\5a. Submit our project.Week 17

Description of the course:

Context:

The course will be designed for grade 10 students in Nizwa secondary school. It will

be twice weekly in four months and each lesson will take 45 minutes.

Rational:

We have noticed that 10 grade students lack the skills of spelling English words

correctly. This problem in spelling has become one of the major reasons for

misunderstanding of many words or mixing up the meaning of words which differ in

one or two letters. Most of the students have difficulty memorizing the spelling of

words in the right way. Therefore, it will affect their reading and writing skills

negatively. They ;also, do not have the courage to write anything without checking a

dictionary.

Gradually, this course will improve students spelling abilities. In addition, it will

teach them how to avoid misspellings by using spelling strategies and tips and by

recognizing spelling errors quickly. Moreover it will provide them with synonyms,

antonyms, homonyms, suffixes and prefixes.

Need Analysis:

We have distributed a questionnaire to students at grade 10 in order to find out their

needs . It consists of two parts; the first one is a spelling exercise, eight multiple

choice questions, to test the students' skills in spelling English vocabulary. We have

found out that 96.6% of the students answer the first question correctly, and 79.5% of

the students choose 'leaves' as the plural form of 'leaf' in the second question. 95.4%

students did well in the third question and 90.9% also choose the correct spelling of

the word 'because'. About 95.5% of the students choose the correct answer in the fifth

question and 90.9% did well in both the sixth and the seventh questions. Although the

students did very well in the previous questions, in the question before the last one

only 70.4% of the students chose the right adjective of the word 'respect'. It seemed

that almost all the students did well in the first part. That is because our questions

were very easy compared to their levels or maybe the students use a dictionary or ask

for help while answering. The second part of the questionnaire measured the students'

abilities and knowledge of spelling through scales questions..

The results that almost 55.1% were not good spellers. This gave us a clear idea that

the students have experienced some spelling problems. We also found out that they

are not familiar with affixes, silent letters. Surprisingly, not many students use

effective strategies to memorize words such as dividing the word into syllables, or

link it with sounds that they already familiar with. Some students tended to spell the

123456789101112130

5

10

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strongly agree strongly disagree

strongly agree agreedisagreestrongly disagree

questions number

respones

words according to their pronunciation, but they have difficulties with vowels, silent

letters . Thus, they prefer to use a dictionary while writing. All of them agree that

such course will help them in developing their skills such as vocabulary and writing .

Goals and Objectives:Goals:

By the end of the course students will:

1- Develop their spelling abilities in English language

2- Develop their English language

3- Build more vocabulary

4- Develop their writing skills

5- Develop their pronunciation skills

6- Know the basic rules of spelling

7- Apply spelling strategies and tips to memorize words.

Objectives:

By the end of the course students are expected to:

1- Break words into syllabus to memorize them.

2- Divide long words into prefix and suffixes to memorize them.

3- Identify different plural forms added to the roots .

4- Recognize common synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, homophones and

homographs easily.

5- Be familiar with compound words and derived.

6- Avoid misspellings by recognizing spelling errors quickly.

7- Distinguish between vowels and silent sounds.

8- Write a text without any spelling mistakes.

Syllabus:This course focuses on helping students to improve their spelling skills in order to

adapt other skills such as reading and writing. Since this course focuses on spelling

skills so obviously the type of syllabus will be skills.

Strategy1: 'LOOKS - THINK - COVER - WRITE – CHECK' method

1. Write the word you want to learn on a piece of paper. (correct spelling! lowercase

with a capital for proper nouns - months/days /cities etc.)

2. Look at the word (See the shape).

3. Say the word. Can you break it down into syllables: Wed / nes/ day? Any silent

letters?

4. Cover the word.

5. Write the word. No peeking! Use other strategies to help: memory tricks, visualize

the word, syllables, word-within-words.

6. Check the word carefully. Check each letter is in the right place and correct.

Strategy 2 Develop Phonemic Awareness

Select words children know — from books, rhymes, songs, and so on — and

discover together how knowing one word can help with the recognition or

writing of others, just by changing the beginning letter(s). For example, when

reading the chant "Mary Mack" or the book Zoo-looking by Mem Fox

(Mondo, 1996), write the words Mack, black, back, crack, quack on a chart.

Invite children to suggest other words with the same sound: pack, sack, whack,

track. Ask children, "How will this help you with your reading and writing?"

Strategy 3: Explore Sounds

Tell children you have noticed them listening for sounds in words they are

trying to write — so you will help them discover how different sounds can be

written. Reread familiar books, rhymes, chants, and songs, asking children to

listen for words with a particular sound. List these on a chart; for example,

words with a /k/ sound: kite, cat, school, bike, Christine, truck, cake, back.

Help children to identify the letter(s) that represent this sound. Underline these

and ask children to group the words according to the different ways the sound

is represented. For example:

kite, bike, cake

cat, cake

school, Christine

truck, back

Reinforce how the same sound may be represented in more than one way,

depending on the word. This is important for children whose first language is

not English, particularly if their first is a phonetic language, such as Spanish.

During the next few days, ask children to find other words they know with this

sound and add them to the class list. I usually explain that kids must say a

word to listen for the sound, and I do not confuse them by referring to the

sound by a particular letter name. As other sounds are explored, ask children

how this will help them with their writing.

Strategy 4: Discover Spelling Patterns

Tell the children that thinking about what a word looks like is a useful spelling

strategy, so you are going to explore some common spelling patterns together.

Reread a familiar big book, poem, or so on, selecting a particular spelling

pattern to look for. For example, look for and list words with ea, such as:

bead, bread, dead, instead, great, read, treat, break.

Ask children to identify and underline the ea spelling pattern in each word, say

the words, and group them according to their pronunciation, such as:

bead, read, treat

bread, dead, instead, read

great, break

Select one of the words and show how knowing it can help with the spelling of

other words in that word family. For example, great: greater, greatest,

greatly, or break: breaking, breaks. Ask children to try this with the other

words you've found. Talk about how thinking about spelling patterns and

building on word families can help with reading and writing.

Students read passages to build their vocabulary and develop their skills which

will be tested through dictation quizzes. Students also will be asked to write a

short paragraph weekly and edit it after receiving the feedback from the instructor.

Moreover, Students will be given readymade texts containing spelling mistakes

and they are required to correct those mistakes and differentiate between similar

spelled words to help them in comprehension reading . Besides, students will

listen to lecture about word form, syllabus, vowel sound and the most misspelled

words. Not only that but also students will play small games and activities to

practice their spelling in a funny, interesting and effective way.

Course Schedule:

No. Week Content1. Week1 a. introduction to the course

b. pre-test to determine students' levelc. paragraph1: write about yourself and your hometown.d. Spelling tips:

LOOKS - THINK - COVER - WRITE – CHECK Develop Phonemic Awareness Explore Sounds Discover Spelling Patterns

e. List of vocabulary (10 words)f. game or activityg. homework ( reading passage)

2. Week2 a. Spelling Rules: Spelling Plural Nouns Possessive forms Contractions

b. Write the second draft of the paragraph 1c. List of vocabulary (5 words)d. Dictation 1e. Reading taskf. Task or activity or game (the teacher is free to choose).

3. Week3 a. Syllabus: Breaking words into syllables practice with syllablesb. List of vocabulary (5words)c. Dictation 2d. Writing activitye. Task or activity or game

4. Week4 a. Vowels : Pronunciation Long and short vowels More practice

a. Topic: we write but we don't pronounce it The combination " ough" Swallowed syllables Silent letters

f. List of vocabulary (5 words)g. Dictation 3h. Task or activity or game

5. Week5 a. Consonant Blends: Words starting with consonant blends more consonant blends!

More tips on consonant blends

Word form: Root Prefixes Suffixes

List of vocabulary (10 words) Homework (write words and underline the suffixes and the

prefixes). Task or activity or game Writing Test 1

6. Week6 a. Special words: Compound words Derived words synonyms antonyms homonyms Homophones Homographs

b. List of vocabulary (10 words) Dictation 4c. Write their second draft of their writing ( test paper)d. Task or activity or game

7. Week7 a. Commonly Misspelled Wordsb. Games c. List of Vocabulary ( 10 words )d. Reading activity e. Dictation 5

Reading Test 18. Week8 a. Revise their prior knowledge of Grammar :

Past tense Present tense Future tenseb. Editing taskc. Dictation 5

c. Revisiond. games

9. Week 9 The Final Test

Course Textbooks and Materials:Kobayaa. Mohamad J. (2007). Correct Spelling and Dictation in English. Lebanon, Beirut: Dar El Rateb.

http://www.artofspelling.com/

http://www.skillsforlifenetwork.com/?atk=1335

Games:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/spelling/play.shtml

http://www.spellzone.com/games/against_clock/index.cfm?wordlist=119

http://www.spellzone.com/games/word_search/index.cfm?wordlist=119&width=13&height=10

http://www.spellzone.com/games/bouncing_anagram/index.cfm?wordlist=119&speed=2

http://www.spellzone.com/games/witch/index.cfm?wordlist=119&speed=2

Practices:

http://www.spelling.hemscott.net/puzzles35.htm

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/a/suffixp4.cfm

http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/external/read_write_think/practicing_homophones.pdf

Teaching Methodology: The course will be delivered in the classroom which requires students' attendance.

There will be lectures, but it will be students –centered learning approach so the

participation of students is very important to make the learning process more effective

and interesting. The teacher will use various methods in applying activities such as

individual, pairs and group activities as the tasks require. The theoretical part will

integrated with practical one (listening, reading and writing, dictations and

games).The teacher will employ a variety of materials such as visuals. For example,

writing the rules and spelling in the bored and displaying a video or pictures. She\he

will also use print papers which will contain the materials, tasks or games. Another

tool that can be used is audio like listening to pronunciation of the words. There will

be also listening tasks and dictations. Dictations will be based on the list of

vocabulary or on the short reading passages that the students are required to read

either as homework or in the classroom. The teacher will use free to use either aloud

or silent reading. There will be sudden writing tasks and sometimes in the same topic

to see their progress in spelling abilities. The teacher will use different games such as

word cross, word build, missing letters and so on.

Assessment:Students' work in this course will be assessed as follows:

component Weighting5 Dictation quizzes : based on reading that students are required to read and from the list of vocabulary that the students will learn

25%

2 Writing test 20%1 Reading test 10%The final test 40%Participation and attendance 5%

Course evaluation:This course will be evaluated through three elements. First of all, the final test in

which the teacher will compare it to the pre-test which has been conducted at the

beginning of the course. Secondly, the students will have a portfolio in which they

keep their whole activities through the course and the teacher will observe their

improvement. Finally, the teacher as well as the students are required to give their

feedback about the course and how we can improve it.

Reflection:Shareefa Al-Harrasi:

Designing a curriculum is a marvelous idea for us because it consists of several

important skills. First of all the selection of the course topic; it is important to look

deeply to the need of the target audience in order to choose an effective topic and

beneficial for them. Then when we distributed the questionnaire we come across

several difficulties such as the conflict of the member's free time, the conflict with

other projects and assignments and the place of living is far from each other. With our

cooperation and time management, we could solve these obstacles and it was

interesting, too. The skill of evaluating a curriculum is also important especially for us

as a future teacher. Our job not only to teach the available curriculum, we need to

know our students needs and their level instead of only lecturing a blank minds. This

will be helpful to fill the gap of the students minds and then start giving them new

information and skills. By the end of the course, I remembered that I used to give my

relatives a course in English in summer, and I thought that applying these steps will

be very efficient in order to succeeds and achieve my goals. I am thinking also of

suggesting our course to ETS (English& Translation Society) to apply it next semester

for foundation-program students.

Huda Al-Belushi:

This project is a novel idea which I like. The process of making curriculum is not as

simple as I thought before. It must be related to students' needs, backgrounds, levels,

interest and so on. Actually I have learned many useful things from designing this

course. First, the project helps me in understanding the contents of the curriculum

course. The practical part always makes learning process more effective and

beneficial. I have no doubt that low spelling competence is affect students'

performance in reading, writing and other skills. I addition, most of the time students

achieve low grades writing because of spelling’s mistakes. This course will provide

students with huge knowledge about how to improve their ability in spelling.

Moreover, this project gives me the opportunity to learn about how to design a survey

and test it among school students. Designing a survey is a step which requires

background about the subject of the project and its objectives. In the process of this

remarkable experience, my colleagues and I have faced many challenges in designing

our course especially in the analysis part. At the beginning we hesitated which tool is

appropriate as it is known that students don’t answer questionnaires seriously while

answering its questions ,so we tried to put simple questions that students in grade 10

will be able to answer .

Dalal Al-Hajri:

Actually , this project gives me a great chance for the first time to have deep look through designing a new course. It allows me to think how to start designing a course according to our students’ needs .After we have noticed that student are struggling much to spell various words even the familiar one ,we have decided to help them to overcome this problem in short time and with less effort using different techniques. Starting with a plan of this course encourages me to achieve a suitable course for my students; though it was somehow difficult to set a plan for the whole course with deadlines for each stage in designing our course. As a course develops , I gain more inspiration to complete my work. Moreover , I have learned how designing a course goes through several stages and in each stage I have to come up with new thing which will lead me to the following stage. All in all ,it was very beneficial opportunity to practice what I have learned in Curriculum class. Also, I improve my ability of critical

thinking an how to see things deeply and to relate different ideas to each other .

Spelling Skill Questionnaire

This survey is conducted to design a course for spelling skills. Honesty is

required in answering this questionnaire, in order to analyze the main

needs. Its aim is to measure grade 10 students skills in spelling English

vocabulary correctly. Also it will illustrate their needs in spelling English

Vocabulary.

Spelling exercise:

1. The plural form of "party" is:

a. Partys b. parties c. partyes

2. The plural form of leaf is :

a. Leafs b. Leaves c. Leafes

3. The plural form of beach:

a. Beachs b. Beaches c. beachies

4. The correct spelling :

a-Because b. Becouse c. Beacause

5. The correct spelling is :

a. Necessary b. Neceessary c. neceessary

6. The correct spelling is :

a. Independent b. Indipendent c. Independant

7. The adjective of the verb 'respect' is

a. Respectful b. Respective c. Respected

8. The correct spelling is :a. University b.Univercity c. Unvercity

Spelling Ability:

disagree

Strongly disagree

agreeStrongly agree

Statements No.

I am a good speller. 1.

I spell the word according to my pronunciation.

2.

I add (s) to the plural of the following words , book , child ,person.

3.

I divide the word into syllables to be able to spell it correctly.

4.

Dividing the word to its affixes helps me in memorizing English vocabulary .

5.

I misspell words because of the similarities between English vowels.

6.

I cannot write without using a dictionary.

7.

I misspell words which contain silent letters such as environment and knife.

8.

I miscomprehend texts because of lack of spelling skills .

9.

Misspelling of English vocabulary is a major obstacle in my writing ability.

10.

I am familiar with the silent letters.11.

Learning how to spell English words correctly will help me in my study.

12.

Learning how to spell English words correctly will help me in building my vocabulary.

13.