Anna Lise Kunkel-Jure Professor Rich ELD 307 Spelling Inventory The purpose of a spelling inventory is to determine what

areas of spelling the student is struggling in. Once you have determined that then you can focus on creating lessons that reflect that and teach the student what strategies to use when spelling. This can also be important so that the students can be grouped together based on ability and have the same spelling list for spelling tests. Having one spelling list for all students in the class does not accommodate for the diversity that exists. I tested a student named Harshini in Mrs. Bowes third grade class. The classroom has a very diverse make up and there are students who are just learning how to read and write and the majority who are much more advanced. Harshini is at the pretty standard level for third graders where spelling is concerned, of course she makes errors but her writing is generally easy to decipher. I pulled her out into the hallway to test her on her spelling ability, there were little to no distractions at this time because most classes were in the middle of teaching so there was no one out in the hallway. The Elementary Spelling Inventory (ESI) from Words Their Way was used. I followed the format of stating the word, reading the sentence, and stating the word again. Harshini would spell a few words right and then get a couple wrong, but then go right back to spelling words wrong. Afterwards I thanked her and then later on I analyzed what parts of each word she had difficulty in. While testing I did realize that I should have stopped her around cellar but I was curious to see how she would attempt to spell the last five and most difficult words. I found that she was comfortable with the task, about ten words in she said this is easy. I also found that she was able to spell many of the words correctly. She was able to write out all of the initial and final consonants. She was able to spell out most of the short and long vowels. She knew all of her digraphs and most of her blends. Where she began facing difficulty was with other vowels (for within

word patterns) and for unaccented final syllables. She also demonstrated that she did not have a full grasp on the concepts involved in words with ing endings; she knew that you add it but did not know that with words like shop you have to add an extra p before attaching the ing. The last five words were completely spelled wrong demonstrating that she has no grasp on harder suffixes or bases or roots. Harshini has a very good basis for spelling strategies. During future lessons I would teach strategies on how to spell words that have other vowel with word patterns. Incorporating poems that demonstrate the different ways that the other vowel sounds can be presented can be helpful. Use of poems to teach spelling rules can potentially help students remember them better by seeing the words in context rather than just listing the words. Another important area to work on would be teaching inflected endings with a focus on ing endings because she does not seem to understand the rules in that area. There are several lessons online that help with reviewing and practicing the rules for this ending, many specify when to add the consonant and when not to. I would also focus teaching on unaccented final syllables. What could be helpful would be explaining the different types of syllables and giving examples of words whose final syllable sound the same but have different spelling (other vs. color). Incorporating the concept of words that have different endings but the same sounding syllable could also be incorporated into spelling lists to reinforce how those words are spelled. Working on this part will help her prepare for the harder spellings of the other words (the last five), which I think are more appropriate for fourth graders or really advanced third graders.

Harshinis Spelling