Component 3 Rough Draft

Janea Irby
Explanation and Description of Assessments
In order to find students stages of spelling development, teachers must observe their
level of development through assessment and provide opportunities to explore and manipulate
words through instruction. Spelling Inventories help teachers to pinpoint areas where students
need instruction and support in what they know about words. Many teachers find these spelling
inventories to be the most helpful and easily administered literacy assessments in their
repertories (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2012). For accurate results, teachers must
select the appropriate inventory, analyze students spelling using a feature guide, organize groups
using classroom composites, and monitor progress of the student using the same inventory up to
three times a year (Bear et al., 2012). Students will make mistakes and that is acceptable because
teachers need to see patterns in order to make the best instructional decisions.
Vocabulary knowledge is critical to understanding grade-appropriate reading material.
The CORE Vocabulary Screening measures how well students know the meaning of grade-level
words they read silently and it is a pure measure of reading vocabulary in that there is no need to
comprehend text in order to complete the task and there is no context to provide clues to the
meaning of the word (Michael Milone, Ph.D., 2008). Students are tested in groups or
individually and they are told to read a word in a box and choose one of the three answer choices
by circling or underlying the answer that is most like the word in the box. The correct answer is a
synonym or near-synonym from a lower grade level and the results of the reading vocabulary
screening assessment are reported as the number of words correct (Michael Milone, Ph.D.,
2008).

Overview of Assessment Administration

The Primary Spelling Inventory and the CORE Vocabulary Screening were both given in
a small, empty, and quiet room often used for one-on-one instruction for students needing
interventions. The spelling assessment was given three weeks prior to the vocabulary screening
and during the spelling assessment the student behaved as her normal self; very shy and quiet.
The test was administered as stated on the directions and there were no accommodations
provided. During the CORE Vocabulary Screening, the test was administered explicitly using the
directions on the Administration file and there were no accommodations provided as well. The
student was a little more vocal and expressive, being that it was the day after Halloween and
many students were still very excited from the previous school day activities and long nights of
trick-or-treating.

Summary of Results
According to the feature guide, my focus student was able to give the correct initial and
final consonant sound, identify short vowels, digraphs, and blends while spelling the words
correctly. The student started the spelling inventory very strong completing the first 11 words
correctly. Unfortunately, she only correctly spelled 13 out 0f 26 words correctly and began
making significant errors in the early within word pattern spelling stage. Her first error was in
the common long vowels section with the word coach, she spelled the word coch missing the a-e
long vowel association. The within word pattern stage is a transitional stage of literacy
development between beginning stage when students reading and writing are quite labored and
the intermediate stage when students can read and write a variety of genres fluently (Bear et al.,
2012).

On the vocabulary screening, the student correctly identified 23 out of 30 words and their
near-synonym. Her results were 76.6667% proficiency which placed her in the benchmark
performance level, the highest performance level. A student that scores at the Benchmark level
has adequate vocabulary knowledge for typical reading (Michael Milone, Ph.D., 2008). As stated
before, the student was more vocal and expressive today which could have lead to her getting the
best score on this assessment than any other assessment I have done with her so far. There is not
a cause for concern but because vocabulary is an unconstrained skill, there will be vocabulary
instruction and development continued throughout the school year.

Instructional Decisions
Even though there are not any concerns with the students vocabulary screening results , I
believe the following instructional strategies will help the students word knowledge of spelling
and vocabulary. According to the spelling inventory results and the within word pattern stage
placement I would begin picture sorting to contrast short and long vowel sounds, use word sorts
to study long vowel patterns, study complex consonants, homophones, and inflectional
morphology. I would focus on the common long vowels, other vowels and inflected endings of
words because this is where the student began to make almost all of her errors in the spelling
inventory. Because students will encounter many homophones during this stage (Bear et
al.,2012) , I think it is great decision to introduce and study these words. According to Words
Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction, lots of experience in
reading is crucial during the within word pattern stage. Read alouds will allow the student to be
exposed to more vocabulary and its correct spelling.

Reflection

These assessments definitely helped me to better understand my focus student and her
strengths and areas of growth. Because she doesnt communicate much and I can only observe
her once a week for a limited time, the assessments gave me information that I would not have
been able to access directly from internship. I noticed her expression and ability to be more vocal
after a fun activity lead to better results and more confidence in her answer choices. I would
love to be able to talk to her and figure out what motivates her to learn and have confidence in
herself. I learned to look for any signs of improvement as progress through this assessment.
Although I didnt think my focus student would progress to the next reading level this soon
according to her district reading comprehension, I am able to see her improvements in certain
areas such as vocabulary which will certainly help her comprehension. I know now, that I will
need to continue to access and monitor students, as well as, make sure that I am using the
appropriate instructional strategies to get them to their next level.