Whether you call it a spelling assessment or a spelling inventory, they can provide teachers with a generous amount of information about students' literacy skills. Rather than just slipping the test results into a filing cabinet, it's important to look at the data to uncover strengths and areas for improvement. Let's turn that data into actionable steps to boost your students awareness of spelling patterns.
Wait, I Need an Assessment?
Don't worry, I've got one for you. As a matter of fact, I have two spelling tests, which are both included in this resource.
The first covers initial consonants, final consonants, short vowels, digraphs, and blends. The second covers silent e, vowel teams, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, and endings. The purpose is to give the second assessment to students who are clearly beyond blends without intimidating those that are not ready.
Read Still Looking for the Right Spelling Assessment to learn more.
Now What?
OK, so now you've given this test and you're wondering, “Now what?” I'll tell you what. And it will be life altering. Not you've won-the-lottery-jackpot life altering, but “oh, this is helpful” life altering.
Score the Assessment
First of all, look over each student's assessment and begin scoring. Chances are your assessment will have a scoring sheet and it might have labels for the levels your students fall into, which is fine. But I have an alternative way to label the levels.
Spelling Levels
Now that you've looked over the spelling tests, you've probably noticed that there are varying levels of spelling within you class. You're likely to have students who write the initial and/or final consonant, students who are able to write CVC words, students that know digraph sounds, and so on.
Let me tell you, I love color coding so it will come as no surprise that I use colors to label spelling levels. The levels that make most sense to me and many teachers are the following:
- beginning and final consonant
- short vowels (CVC)
- digraphs
- blends
- silent e (CVCe)
- vowel teams
- diphthongs
- r-controlled vowels
Once the assessments are scored, make decisions about each student. Think about the spelling errors you noticed and place students in the group that would be most beneficial.
For example, if Sam spelled all of the CVC words correctly, spelled all but one word with digraphs correctly, but missed all of the blends, Sam would fall into the blends category. You might make a note of which digraph needed reviewing, but your focus would be to work on blends with Sam. The beauty is that Sam won't be the only student in this group, so you can instruct more than one student at a time.
Here is a tool to help organize your data. Get it here.
Spelling and Writing
Now that you have this information in a spot that can be referenced easily, here's how you can use it to hold students and yourself accountable.
Let's say you're walking around the room as your students are writing and you notice Sam has misspelled ten and had, remind Sam that he knows the sounds in those words and to try again. But let's say Sam has spelled tower incorrectly, well that's OK. Not only is tower a two syllable word, but it also has a diphthong and an r-controlled vowel in it. Sam isn't there yet, but he can be held accountable for what he does know.
Phonics Instruction to Improve Spelling Assessment Data
Simply correcting students while writing isn't enough. We know that. Phonics is the key ingredient to tying reading and writing together.
If you're anything like me, differentiating your phonics instruction is just another thing on your already full teaching plate. However, it's also something your students need. So it occurred to me that having something that was ready to go would make my life easier, and yours too!
These small group phonics lessons include sound fluency warm ups, decoding practice, sentence fluency, and spelling/encoding practice. Everything you need. Right here. In one spot. Read Ready-Made Phonics Lessons for Small Groups that Save You Time to learn more.
Spelling assessments/inventories/tests are a valuable tool in the classroom. They provide insights into your students' understanding of language and their progress in literacy. However, simply assessing students is only the first step. The real benefits come from analyzing and utilizing the information gained to inform instruction and support each student. So what are you waiting for? Get to analyzing!
