Thelinguisticsurveyprovedtobeverychallengingthefirsttimearound.Althoughmanyofthe differentthingswehaveknownforyears,forexample,howtoread,howtodecodegraphemesand havethemmakesenseasmorphemes,ourskillsweretestedwhenweworkedontheassessment.Idid notknowallofthedifferentrulestodifferentspellingwords,orhowtonecessarilywritedownwords usingdictionaryrespellingsandphoneticrespellings,butamnowmorefamiliarwiththelinguisticprocess becauseoftheseactivities.AsastudentinElementaryschool,ourfocusneverphonics.Therewasa largefocusonspellingbutrarely,ifany,phonicsinstruction.Thisiswhytheactivitychallengedme. ManyoftheseconceptswereentirelynewtomeandwerethefirsttimeIwashearingaboutthem,like consonantdigraphs,consonantblends,consonantsounds,diphthongs,andschwasounds.Itbecame verycleartomethatmyElementaryschoolteachershaddonemypeersandmeadisservicebynot teachingphonics.AlthoughIwasstrongspeller,manystudentscouldhavebenefittedfromthephonics rulesputtoworkwhenhelpingthemtospellorreadtrickywords.ThoughIstruggledwiththefirst linguisticsurvey,Iworkedhardandbegantounderstandallofthedifferentconceptsandtherolesthey play.Boththeoriginalsurveyandthemakeupsurveydisplaysmyerasermarksandscratchouts, whichshowstheevidenceofmyfrustrationandhardwork.

Ienjoyedthedictionaryrespellingand phoneticrespellingactivity,asitwaslikeapuzzleIhadtofigureoutbylookingatthephoneticrespelling chart.Bytheendofthemakeupsurvey,Ihadthemajorityofthesymbolsalreadymemorized,which madeitmucheasiertocomposethephoneticrespelling. AsIwashavingdinnerwiththefamilyInanny,Ihadanopportunitytohelpthemunderstandthe rulebehindthehardgsound.IwassothrilledtosharenewinformationIhadgainedandthatIwas abletoexplainwhattherulewasbehindtheirchildsmisspellings.ThisshowedmehowmuchIlearned inEE324.Aftermanyyearsofschooling,Iwasfinallyabletopullfromrealknowledgeinorderto

answeramindprocessingquestionthatotherswerehaving.IfeltlikeIhadfinallylearneduseful knowledgethatisapplicabletorealisticsituationsandindividuals.Duringmyfieldworkexperience,the studentsinmyclassareincrediblyskilledatfindingdifferentphoneticpatternsanddefiningwhattheyare andwhattheydo.ThisimpressedmeandmotivatedmesomuchsothatIwouldbeabletoexplainit aswellastheycan.Thismademefurtherrealizethatchildrencanlearn,process,andusethesepatterns andrulestobecomestarspellersandavidreaders,whichfurtherangeredmethatmyteachersfailedto teachmyclassthisinformation.Asateacher,Iwillemphasizetheimportanceofspellingalongside phonics,sothatmystudentsgrowtobegreatlinguisticdetectivesandhappyreaders. Throughmypreteachingcareerandintomyteachingcareer,Iplantobecomemoreawareand understandingofdifferentreadingdisabilitieschildrenmighthaveandwherethatputstheminrespectto phonicsinstruction.Iwouldliketolearnhowteachingphonicstostudentswhohavetroublereading andmighthavegreathurdlestoovercomeprocessphonics,andiflearningrulesandusinginventive spellingwillhelpthemmosttounderstandlinguisticpatterns.Ihopetolearnthisthroughdeeperreading andanalysis,alongsideactualexperimentationandevidence.