Critical Reflection

In this critical reflection, the literacy skills in need of improvement that are focused on are spelling,
having correct punctuation all the time and improving my reading comprehension. These three
literacy skills need to be in improved as they will benefit my learning now in my university life and in
the future during my teaching career.

I chose to focus on spelling as an improvement area because, in week seven of this unit, there was
an online spelling test to complete, and I did not do as well as I thought I would. I initially thought I
was a good speller, but I have concluded that I rely on autocorrect a lot. Westwood (2008) stated
that word processors are making the task of writing more accessible, for people who struggle and
are not as confident with spelling; as computer text can be easily modified. I have identified that it is
not all words I struggle with just the long, complex ones that have repeating letters. For example,
words like millennium and accommodate, I originally got both these words wrong on the week seven
spelling test but after a second try and not rushing I got them correct. So, overall, I will use a whole
word visual approach to improve my spelling and become more confident with how I spell. The
whole word visual approach is like look-cover-write-check; it aims to visually strengthen and
enhance recognition and recall letter patterns (Westwood, 2008).

Secondly, I have chosen to focus on having correct punctuation all the time, this area I feel is crucial
as “punctuation can save lives” Gibson (n.d.). In weeks two and three as a class, we focused on
writing short stories. When it came to peer assessing and reading back over my story, I found that I
had missed a few essential items of punctuation. This motivated me to work on improving my
punctuation and reviewing my text numerous times before getting it marked or checked. I found
that I made the most mistakes with missing commas and using an apostrophe in the wrong context. I
had worked on improving my punctuation over each week, especially in week 6 when I wrote an
Easter weekend recap and had to include homophones and apostrophes of possession and omission,
and this helped a great deal in developing my punctuation use more frequently.

The last focus of literacy I have chosen is improving my reading comprehension. This skill I have
struggled with throughout my whole schooling and some of my university life. I have been slowly
working on improving my reading comprehension by reading books in my spare time that I enjoy.
This issue came up in week one as we had to complete a Naplan reading test. I got most of the test
correct when reviewing it, but there was one section I did not do well on. It was a text that I had no
interest in and struggled to comprehend what the message behind the text was. After reviewing that
section of the text where I went wrong, I was able to understand what the text meant. There are
some helpful models of reading comprehension that aided me to understand different skills and
processes involved with interpreting texts I found in the book Developing Reading Comprehension
(Clarke et al., 2013). I am still working on my reading comprehension, but I have improved on this
skill a great deal since week one.

In conclusion, this critical reflection has been a great deal of help in identifying literacy weaknesses I
have and establishing where I struggle and how I can improve on these skills. The literacy skills I have
issues with, as addressed above are spelling, having correct punctuation all the time and improving
my reading comprehension. In this reflection, I covered where I went wrong with each issue in
previous tasks I have completed while at university. Therefore, these are the areas of which I will
continue to focus on in my literacy development.
Learning plan

The first area addressed in my critical reflection that I will focus on in this learning plan is improving
my spelling. In week seven, I partook in an online spelling test, provided on LMS, and I did not do as
well as I thought I would. However, Westwood (2008) stated that spelling could be enhanced by
effective instruction and appropriate strategies for learning new words. This helped me to
understand that a spelling test is not the only way for learning and improving my spelling. I identified
a strategy that I will use every second day to improve my spelling throughout this course. It is a
whole word visual approach; it is like look-cover-write-check; and it aims to visually strengthen and
enhance recognition and recall letter patterns (Westwood, 2008). Each week I will identify 20 words
in the weeks reading item/s that I cannot spell without looking at them and write them down.
During the week, I will dedicate about 20 minutes to doing look-cover-write-check on the chosen 20
words. Then at the end of the week, I can attempt to type the words into spell quiz which is a
website to improve spelling and help practice spelling skills and build on my vocabulary and check if
I’m about to spell the word correctly.

The second area addressed in my critical reflection is improving my punctuation and trying to have it
correct every time I write. I identified this issue in weeks 2 and 3 when we had to write a short story
and then peer mark and review our story. When reviewing my work, I noticed I had a few
punctuation mistakes I believe most of my mistakes come from writing fast and not double-checking.
To improve my punctuation, I read a website called the punctuation guide, and it helped me have a
deeper understanding of the correct uses of different types of punctuation. Punctuation is so
important as it helps the reader understand written text (Wing Jan, 2009, p.37). Therefore, I believe
it is so vital for me to improve my punctuation as it is the key to understanding texts. To improve my
punctuation, I will do more writing practices like the task set in week six. Where I wrote a weekend
recount and made sure I included different types of punctuation such as apostrophes of possession
and omission and homophones. I will write at least one story or recap of my weekend each week
and include different types of punctuation; I will handwrite it and then type it into my laptop to
check if I have made any errors.

The last focus area to improve on is my reading comprehension. I discovered an issue with my
reading comprehension in week one when we had to do a Naplan reading test and did not do as well
as I expected. “As language conveys meaning and allows the sharing of information, ideas and
perspectives when written messages are understood reading can be wonderful” stated Clarke et al.
(2013). That statement proves to me that if I understood texts fully, I would be able to find the
meaning behind all texts, even the ones I find not interesting. Understanding texts and being able to
read without skimming out of disinterest, I would do a lot better in reading and answering questions
related to the text. I will work on this focus area by reading more books and texts that I find exciting
and then even ones I do not find interesting. I have already been improving my reading
comprehension in all my units by completing the weekly readings and answering the key topic
questions provided on LMS.
References

Clarke, P. J., Truelove, E., Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. J. (2013). Developing reading comprehension.
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.murdoch.edu.au

Gibson, B. (n.d.). This Is How Confusing Life Would Be Without Proper Punctuation.
https://www.rd.com/culture/how-confusing-life-would-be-without-punctuation/

Westwood, P. (2008). Improving Writing and Spelling. In: Westwood, Peter. What Teachers Need to
Know about Reading and Writing Difficulties. Camberwell, Vic.: ACER Press, 2008: 69-86.
https://search-informit-org.libproxy.murdoch.edu.au/fullText;dn=534480501564498;res=IELHSS

Wing Jan, L. (2009). Write Ways: Modelling Writing Forms (3rd Ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford
University press.

Appendix

Spell Quiz resource: https://spellquiz.com/spelling-test/adult

Spelling test resource: https://www.theguardian.com/books/quiz/2009/feb/09/spelling-society-quiz-

The punctuation guide reading: https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/top-ten.html