Blog 6 Learning vs. Acquisition

Learning (L) vs. Acquisition (A)	Activity – Students	Explanation
L	Look up words in dictionary to write definitions	Teachers want students to have an understanding of unknown words before reading a text. Sometimes this consists of giving words and finding the definitions in a dictionary (28)
A	Make a Venn diagram to compare two stories	The goal of this is to help students develop higher levels of reading proficiency (28)
L	Practice sounding out words	Student in the learning view apply their phonics skills to sound out new words.
L	Read in round-robin fashion	“Another practice consistent with a word recognition view is to have to have students read aloud on a regular basis…” (28)
L	Correct peers when they make a mistake during reading	During the round-robin reading, teachers and students correct peers or provide peers with unknown words (28)
L	Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound	Students use their phonics knowledge to find words with the same sounds (25)
L	Group cards with classmates’ names by criterion on such as first or last latter	This goes along with the alphabetic principle that students would need to know in the learning view.
A	Write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound	Teachers help students discover the different spelling patterns.
L	Ask the teacher how to spell any work you don’t know	If the teacher gives the student the spelling, it is the belief that it helps the student learn that word.
A	Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher	Teachers help create an authentic writing experience for children and then they help them express themselves (29)
A	Work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences	Giving students familiar words lets them practice developing the skills needed to create a message (29).
L	Divide words into syllables	Students learn to break words into their parts to identify them. They also follow phonics rules (25)
L	On a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound	Students use their phonics knowledge to find words with the same sounds (25)
L	Make alphabet books on different topics	Teachers want to students to practice skills with repeated exercises (34)

Learning (L) vs. Acquisition (A)	Teachers	Explanation
L	Preteaches vocabulary	Teachers want students to have an understanding of unknown words before reading a text.
A	Does a shared reading with a big book	Teachers from this view read with and to students (31).
L	Makes sure that students read only books that fit their level	Since teachers are teaching how to sound out and recode words, students must read books at their level, otherwise they would not be able identify words (24).
L	Have students segment words in  to phonemes	When students can apply phonics rules, they will in turn be able to pronounce the word and then add it to their vocabulary (27).
A	Writes words that students dictate for a story and has students help with spelling of words	This view argues that when students write something that is for others to read, they want to write something that follows conventions.
A/L	Asks students to look around the rooms and find words starting with a certain letter	Teachers from both views teach spelling to an extent. For the acquisition view, students get to choose words that they know from their background knowledge that match the same sound, and for the learning view students will apply their phonics skills to help decide on words.
L	Uses decodable text	Since teachers are teaching how to sound out and recode words, they need books that they can decode.
A	Sets aside time for SSR each day	Students need to read silently in order to reach the level of metacognition.
L/A	Teaches Latin and Green roots	The learning view explicitly teaches these, while the acquisition view sees it as a part of a system to help them understand words.
A	Has students meet in literature circles	In the acquisition group, teachers like to have students work in collaborative groups.
L	Conducts phonics drills	“Students do drills and exercises to practice language” (33)
A	Chooses predictable texts	To help make language comprehensible, teachers use books with predictable patterns (34)
A	Teaches students different comprehension strategies	To help make language comprehensible, the teacher might teach students techniques such as using “gestures, pictures, and real things or reading a book with a predictable pattern and clear pictures of key words” (34).
A	Does a picture walk of a new book	Teachers want students to be able to communicate even if they have not yet acquired the words/linguistic resources to do so (34)
L	Used a variety of worksheets to teach different skills	Teachers in this group want students to have practice with language with multiple exercises to reinforce the learning (34)