How it happens with an Online Literacy Intervention Program
by Hannah MacLellan
If you google the term ‘self-checking’, and discard the waffle, you get a definition with words to the effect of the following:
Self-checking: Taking a moment to reflect on the intended action and its expected outcome.
What does this mean in relation to the student working on reading, spelling and writing exercises on an online literacy intervention program?
The intended action would be the proposed answer. So, in other words, it is important for the student to look again at the work (before marking it) and judge how likely it is to be correct when marked.
Let’s put this into a completely different context. What do we do before leaving the house to go on a trip or to work? Most of us do some sort of check, often out loud: “money: check; passport: check; keys...”. It might be at this moment, as you’re opening the door to leave, you realise you have left your keys lying on the kitchen table, which, thankfully, saves you the annoying situation of being locked out of your home. Alternatively, you may not remember in time, the door closes shut (doh), and you make a mental note to always keep the keys in the hallway in future.
With reading, spelling and writing exercises there is a similar check process to go through when self-checking work:
Pause and focus >>>> Reflect >>>> make changes >>>> mark >>>> review result
When reviewing the result, students should ask themselves - is there an error? What would I do differently next time?
A good literacy intervention program will be designed in a way that makes the student go through this self-checking process with all exercises.
How does this self-checking happen on an online program?
Let’s look at reading. When a student reads directly to a tutor, the tutor can stop the student when they make a mistake, ask them to look again at the word and try again. The tutor is prompting the self-checking for the student….which kind of defeats an important part of the objective. How does the self-checking and correction process happen on a computer literacy program where the student is working alone? A great way to practise reading skills independently is to record the voice. A reading program that can record the student’s voice reading words gives great opportunity for self-checking. Rather than being prompted by a tutor, the student listens to their recording and compares it the correct version via the program’s ‘voice’. They can hear any errors, redo and check again. In this way, the student is forced to notice errors independently, without direct prompting, and it is this that is key to the self-checking and learning process.
With spelling, the same self-checking process can happen: listen to the word; type it out; listen again; reflect on the proposed answer; make changes if necessary. After marking, it is enough to simply notice any errors. Next time that word comes up, the student is likely to get it right. The same process can be used for dictated sentence writing and longer passages – the student will be checking not only spelling but also punctuation and sentence structure.
Why is all this self-checking necessary?
The reality is that 1:1 tutoring is not possible for the majority of students, but teachers also know the advantages of not having a tutor always looking over a student’s shoulder. Technology has made it easier for students to work well independently and this creates the opportunity for natural self-checking.
Self-checking helps the student focus and think about their answer (intended action), and this gives the chance to better understand the expected outcome – they examine if it is likely to be correct or not, before marking. The student can then check the result post-marking, analyse any errors, and decide what to do differently next time. In this way, self-checking becomes conscious, deliberate and routine.
Since self-checking gives the chance to identify errors prior to marking, the onus is on the student, and this is important. True learning only happens when we must think something through for ourselves. It is ok to make mistakes…in fact, it is necessary to make mistakes -this is part of learning and development.
Technology has the potential to offer in-built self-checking processes within the design of a program, and this is one significant advantage of working independently on an online intervention program to improve literacy.
Hannah worked as a Dyslexia & Literacy Specialist at Dyslexia Action for many years and now works with the Units of Sound development team. She has considerable experience working with and providing advice, training and support to schools, colleges, community centers and parents. Units of Sound has a home version, Literacy that fits, which is designed to get parents/guardians supporting their child at home without all the training that is involved with most intervention tools used in schools.
by Hannah MacLellan
If you google the term ‘self-checking’, and discard the waffle, you get a definition with words to the effect of the following:
Self-checking: Taking a moment to reflect on the intended action and its expected outcome.
What does this mean in relation to the student working on reading, spelling and writing exercises on an online literacy intervention program?
The intended action would be the proposed answer. So, in other words, it is important for the student to look again at the work (before marking it) and judge how likely it is to be correct when marked.
Let’s put this into a completely different context. What do we do before leaving the house to go on a trip or to work? Most of us do some sort of check, often out loud: “money: check; passport: check; keys...”. It might be at this moment, as you’re opening the door to leave, you realise you have left your keys lying on the kitchen table, which, thankfully, saves you the annoying situation of being locked out of your home. Alternatively, you may not remember in time, the door closes shut (doh), and you make a mental note to always keep the keys in the hallway in future.
With reading, spelling and writing exercises there is a similar check process to go through when self-checking work:
Pause and focus >>>> Reflect >>>> make changes >>>> mark >>>> review result
When reviewing the result, students should ask themselves - is there an error? What would I do differently next time?
A good literacy intervention program will be designed in a way that makes the student go through this self-checking process with all exercises.
Let’s look at reading. When a student reads directly to a tutor, the tutor can stop the student when they make a mistake, ask them to look again at the word and try again. The tutor is prompting the self-checking for the student….which kind of defeats an important part of the objective. How does the self-checking and correction process happen on a computer literacy program where the student is working alone? A great way to practise reading skills independently is to record the voice. A reading program that can record the student’s voice reading words gives great opportunity for self-checking. Rather than being prompted by a tutor, the student listens to their recording and compares it the correct version via the program’s ‘voice’. They can hear any errors, redo and check again. In this way, the student is forced to notice errors independently, without direct prompting, and it is this that is key to the self-checking and learning process.
With spelling, the same self-checking process can happen: listen to the word; type it out; listen again; reflect on the proposed answer; make changes if necessary. After marking, it is enough to simply notice any errors. Next time that word comes up, the student is likely to get it right. The same process can be used for dictated sentence writing and longer passages – the student will be checking not only spelling but also punctuation and sentence structure.
Why is all this self-checking necessary?
The reality is that 1:1 tutoring is not possible for the majority of students, but teachers also know the advantages of not having a tutor always looking over a student’s shoulder. Technology has made it easier for students to work well independently and this creates the opportunity for natural self-checking.
Self-checking helps the student focus and think about their answer (intended action), and this gives the chance to better understand the expected outcome – they examine if it is likely to be correct or not, before marking. The student can then check the result post-marking, analyse any errors, and decide what to do differently next time. In this way, self-checking becomes conscious, deliberate and routine.
Since self-checking gives the chance to identify errors prior to marking, the onus is on the student, and this is important. True learning only happens when we must think something through for ourselves. It is ok to make mistakes…in fact, it is necessary to make mistakes -this is part of learning and development.
Technology has the potential to offer in-built self-checking processes within the design of a program, and this is one significant advantage of working independently on an online intervention program to improve literacy.
Hannah worked as a Dyslexia & Literacy Specialist at Dyslexia Action for many years and now works with the Units of Sound development team. She has considerable experience working with and providing advice, training and support to schools, colleges, community centers and parents. Units of Sound has a home version, Literacy that fits, which is designed to get parents/guardians supporting their child at home without all the training that is involved with most intervention tools used in schools.
