Spelling Assessment and Grouping Decisions

1. Spelling Assessment and Grouping Decisions EDC424

2. Plan for today • Review key practices for assessing spelling development • Score and analyze individual results with a partner to determine developmental stages of two students • Using classroom profiles to group for instruction

3. Qualitative Spelling Inventories • Words Their Way Spelling Assessments • Primary Spelling Inventory (Gr. K-3 Emergent to Late Within-Word Patterns) • Elementary Spelling Inventory (Gr. 1-6 Letter-Name to early derivational relations) • Upper Level Spelling Inventory (Gr. 5-12 Within word pattern to derivational relations)

4. Using Spelling Inventories • Select inventory based on grade level and students’ achievement levels • Administer with brief introduction and know when to stop • Analyze students’ spelling using a feature guide • Organize groups using the Spelling by Stage form and/or a Classroom Composite form

6. How to Score & Analyze Spelling Inventories A. Use total accuracy to group with minimal information: • Mark words right or wrong on list (write correct spelling next to it) • Use the chart to tally the words spelled correctly in the right column and calculate a power score. Use power score to estimate a stage (see WTW, p. 34). B. Use feature patterns to determine individual strengths, weaknesses, and instructional goals: • For each word, check off features got correct and write in errors and circle. • For each word, add up the feature checks along each row and add up each column for individual features.

7. Power Scores

8. Common confusions to keep in mind • Handwriting errors: • Reverse letter formation (b/d/p; s/z; or just letters written backwards) • Reverse order of letters (was vs. saw) • Give credit for features gotten but if add extra letters, don’t mark word spelled correctly • FNWZTY for fan or FANE for fan • LOOKTED for looked

9. TRY IT OUT • Work with one partner to record the spelling patterns of your two students. • Use one Features Guide Form in your handout for each student. • When finished, look for patterns (similarities/differences) across your two readers. Make a list of what you might teach next for each student (based on what each knows and what is confusing) • Then, we’ll look at whole class patterns that can inform grouping decisions.

10. Make whole class grouping decisions • 1. Plot the students in “our class” on the Spelling-by-Stage classroom organization chart • 2. Make decisions about group size and composition • 3. Use the classroom composite chart to make more informed decisions about grouping and instruction (For the sake of time, we’ll explore the model on WTW, p. 41)

11. Homework – WORD STUDY • Read WTW Ch. 3 (Word Study) • Complete Reading Guide #3 (Part 1) • Read WTW Ch. 6: Within Word Patterns p. 216 • Early: long vowel digraphs (ee/ea/ai/) reg. & irreg • Middle: r-controlled vowels • Late: dipthongs, silent consonants • Complex consonants (knw, dge, scr, tch, etc) • Contractions, plurals, homophones • Note link to word sorts & activities (prepare for Word Study Demonstration)