By: Cynthia G. Oplenaria

Sumpong Elementary School,

Malaybalay City North District

 

The readers are warned that this article doesn’t have religious or biblical trappings as it may seem but if deals on the spelling difficulties of pupils in the classroom as experienced by teachers in their day to day work. More often than not, teachers discovered that pupils usually have difficulty in spelling correctly words such as those with “ei” and “ie” as in the words receive and receipt with that of review and interview. These and other words constantly baffled our pupils when they are to write them on paper or notebooks.

These difficulties are branded as “spelling demon”. As teacher, our main task is to turn these “demon” into “”angel”, a teacher who is successful in converting these difficulties into something that will not give the negative label of being difficult into something that will facilitate and help the pupil to spell the word correctly would be tantamount to creating an “angel” of that difficulty.

What makes them demons?  According to the Pitman College List of 120 Worst Spelling Demons (http://home.vicnet.net.au/) there were nine categories of features that make these words become problems for spellers:

1. Surplus letters that do not help to show meaning or pronunciation, and can even mislead

2. Doubled letters which cannot be predicted

3. Unpredictable spellings of vowels

4. Unpredictable spellings of consonants 

5. Misleading spellings of morphemes (units of meaning)

6. Problems in spelling unstressed vowels

7. Regular spellings when you don’t expect them.

 

The following are suggested strategies based on the result of the action research conducted by the writer of the article to help teacher turned the “spelling demon” into “angel”.  This article deals only with the “ei” and “ie” difficulty.

Building spelling skills: ie or ie

Spelling strategy – a famous rhyme tells when to use ie and ei- although there are exceptions.

•             Put i before e except after c

Or when sounded like a as in neighbor and weigh

                Examples: chief    field deceive receipt neigh veil

•             Here are some exceptions to the rhyme:

Either     financier    foreign   forfeit   height    heir   leisure    neither

Protein   seize   sheik    sovereign   stein    their   weird

•             The rule also does not apply when the e and i are not in the same syllable.

Examples:    de.ity       sci.ence      see.ing

 3.            The rule also does not apply when the e and i are not in the same syllable

Example:       science   seeing    deity

 

“There’s no harm in trying” as the saying goes. Try these rules the next time you teach spelling to your pupils and together let us forged that concerted effort of turning “demon” into “angel”.

By: Cynthia G. Oplenaria

Sumpong Elementary School,

Malaybalay City North District

 

As   classroom teacher I have been in the government service for almost 23 years. This time of my life is like a journey for me.  It’s a journey of mixed emotions: happiness and sadness or in simpler terms, joys and pains.  Teachers are happy when they could see the improvement of the pupils in the academics as well as in other co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. Undeniably however, teachers are sad when pupils performed less than what they expect. It pains for a teacher to see that some of her pupils cannot read.

When this instance is being observed, teachers could not help but feels the pain of being a failure in her part.  This feeling is aggravated by the mere thought of subsequent throes of shortcomings as it will normally have a systemic effect. It is so in the sense that the pupil’s inability to read will lead to inability to comprehend a written text, and the inability to comprehend will lead to no learning at all.  Teachers at this time could feel that pain which is so patent and undeniable and even so excruciating to the conscience as the feeling of pain will sometimes linger for quiet sometime.

The challenge of a teacher then is how to help the pupils learn taking into account the psychological consideration. Per experience, non-reader pupils developed negative attitude toward learning further how to read when they are exposed to their classmates who instead of being expected to sympathize in their struggle to read, ridiculed them oftentimes. If the situation is left unchecked by the teacher, chances are the pupil will drop out of school forfeiting the opportunity to learn. Oh it’s heartache!

Lately, I have tried to use a reading kit. This kit is a self-learning kit designed for the non-reader pupils to learn to read not needing the constant watchful eye of the teacher. I have observed that pupils learned faster to read when they are left alone and no classmates are watching.  It seems they have confidence in their struggle to produce the sounds of the letters and the combinations of sounds to read a whole word into sentences, so on and so forth when they have nothing to be conscious of, like the unwanted laughter and comments from apathetic classmates.

The material is truly worth trying and for me, it has given the chance to experience the joys and pains of teaching.

By: Amy G. Capacio

Teacher 3, Casisang Central School

 

Various images of floods, polluted rivers and lakes and endangered species – we are repetitively being blasted by different problems of our times. These will never stop bothering us unless we start doing something we could in order that, though not completely eliminate, would reduce them gradually. We need to have an array of schemes to which this inconvenient reality will be put into a momentum for change.

Schools have their part in the conservation of the environment and improving its state. But first, there is a need to recognize the problems in the environment to come up with the solutions to address them. Constantly exposed to heavy media and technologies, we are presumed to be completely aware of the highest agenda of today’s issue, the climate change. We utilize resources, pollute them with waste or trash and we never care what would it be like in the future, hence, developing awareness among children and educating them on how to conserve the environment would mold them into better environmental stewards. For example, teaching them about the 3Rs: reuse, reduce and recycle would really make an impact.

Going further, children may be taught how to conserve energy, paper recycling, waste segregation or gardening. It is also ideal to develop environmental policies and slogans for the school or integrating environmental themes to the school curriculum to promote knowledge and consciousness. Children could also be encouraged to become more actively involved in environmental issues in a practical manner, such as recycling trashed materials. Through this, they will not only participate in saving mother earth, they would also develop their skills and creativity. In addition, it is also a good concept to consider the collection and selling of recyclable materials, particularly empty bottles or tins. As a result, the school will not only help the environment, but benefit as well because of the income generated through the activity. Given the solutions, though simple and easy, could open a new window for a fresh and new start as “every bit counts”.

Centering our attention in conserving the environment is like putting the children into a safer and better place in the future. They could also be the powerful vehicle for change if properly shaped by environmental values and awareness, which is part of what a school portrays. Ultimately, school communities are the best places to carry out the advocacy of promoting an echo-friendly environment, driven by the support of teachers and the community.

The mother tongue –based multi lingual framework for teaching and learning in the kindergarten and elementary education affirms its importance in linguistically and culturally diverse countries, including Philippines. It has on its foremost principle the use of teaches first language for as long as possible. Accordingly, its representation has proven to inculcate cognitive, academic, language and socio- cultural development, which would, as a result, make way for easier learning process of some other languages.

International research in education shows that for the second language learning and academic success to take place successfully, the first language needs to be strengthened and developed for 12 years. It also takes for 6-8 years for a child to learn a second language in school. In addition, language education models that retain the first language as a primary medium of instruction for at least 6 years can succeed under well reserved conditions only. Learners get discouraged when beginning their education in a language they are not familiar with; hence, the situation could become an obstacle in setting them up for long- term learning. On the other hand, it would build their confidence and develop a strong foundation on the language if they begin it with the language they understand.

Success and sustainability of the MTB-MLE depend on cooperation among those involved, including a variety of stakeholders and the local community. Its effectiveness depends on how it is being incorporated in the existing education system and active involvement of both teachers and children in the classroom setting. However, the very notion in this program, besides its outputs, is on how it awakens children’s knowledge and love for their own language and culture.

By: Amy G. Capacio

      Teacher 3, Casisang Central School