Katie Oller

Tedu 426
Spelling Assessment
I.

Purpose:
After giving my second grade student her spelling assessment for
within word pattern, I found that my student was using but
confusing the other long vowels, complex consonants, and abstract
vowels. My student did very well and scored correctly the long
vowels and the R-controlled vowels, there were none that were

scored in the absent category.

The first step that I did to determine what word sort my student
needed was to calculate the featured score, which in her case was a
14, and then to calculate each individual score to find which areas
were either absent or using but confusing. Since my student did not
have any that were absent, I selected the easiest (the higher one
on the list) that my student was using but confusing. I found that
this was other long vowels. I then turned to the page with the
spelling assessment to find each letter for other long vowels, H, and
tried to identify the most common error used in other long vowels.
In this case, the student was frequently using but confusing long
os (using the word cost instead of coast). I then was provided a
word study sheet that provided differences between short o, long o

using e, and long o using a.

One reason it is important to conduct this lesson is to build
students spelling skills using a larger scale to target more words.

Teaching students general concepts for spelling will help them learn
more words at once rather than teaching them individual words.
Helping students develop their spelling helps build phonics, which

in turn helps students become better readers.

Reading SOL 2.5: The student will use phonetic strategies when
reading and spelling.
o b) Use knowledge of short, long, and r-controlled vowel

II.

patterns to decode and spell words.

Objectives
Given a word sort for short o, long o ending with e and long
o with oa, the student will be able to correctly sort cards into

appropriate categories with 80% accuracy.

Given a game constructed with long o and short o words, the
student will be able to match words that have the same long vowel

sound with 80% accuracy.

Given a blind written word sort for long o, students will be able to
correctly write and spell words given under the appropriate

III.

category with 80% accuracy.

Procedure
Before beginning the sort activity, I will ask the student if she
remembered the spelling assessment we completed last time we
met one on one. I will ask the student: how did you feel about the
words you did last time? Do you want to play a game and work on
the words some more? I will explain to the student that I brought in
some words that were not on the list, but are similar to the ones we
had on our last spelling assessment. To make the connection to the
spelling assessment completed before, I will lay out the word sort
with the headings and pictures (short o, long o ending with e
and long o with oa) and ask the student where the word coast

(used in the spelling assessment) would go. This will be a good way
for the student to understand how the word sort is done. To further
introduce the word sort, I will read aloud each heading to the
student while pointing at them, and give an example of two of each
of the words that would be listed underneath the word sort, pointing

and reading aloud each time.

After the student has completed the word sort (while reading each
word aloud when moving them under the heading) we will go over
them together. I will read aloud each of the words, and repeat the
heading after each word to show that they sound similar. If there
are any mistakes that the student made, I will ask do these two

sound the same?

Once the word sort is completed, I will explain the game to my
student. In the game that I have constructed for the student, all of
the words from the word sort will be listed on the board on
individual spots. The student will roll the dice and move however
many spots to a sort word. They will then have to say the word
aloud, and write it on the separate piece of paper under the correct
heading (long o/short o). If they get the word correct in the correct
heading, they can stay at that spot. If they get the word wrong,
they have to move back a spot and try to write that word in the
correct heading. The student will win when they come across the

finish line.
The last activity that I will do for the student will also be my formal
assessment. I will administer a blind written word sort. The student
will have a piece of paper in front of them with the headings on it,
long o with e, long o with oa and short o. I will read aloud

the sort word to the student without showing her the written word,
and ask her to place it under the correct heading. This formal
assessment will reinforce the objective because it will provide
feedback on how well the student understood the material that I
have taught her. Through her work, I will be able to see if the
student understood the differences between short o, long o with o
IV.

and e, and long o with oa.

Materials
To complete this lesson the teacher will need a word sort list that is
pre-cut up by the teacher for the student to do both their word sort
and their writing sort. The words included on the word sort are:
fond, prod, spot, lot, broke, dome, hope, rode, stone, boast, roast,
coach, roach, load and goat. To complete the game portion of the
lesson, the teacher will need the game board with new long o and
short o words written on the spaces, the worksheet for the student
to write their words on, and playing cards ranging from 1-4 for the
student to draw from. For the blind writing sort the teacher will
need paper, and the same list of words used during the word sort at

V.

the beginning of the lesson.

Evaluation Part A
To evaluate the word sort section of the assignment, I will not only
assess how many of the word sort words that have been sorted
under the correct category (at least 80% to pass), but I will also
evaluate and question the student about why they have placed
each word under the category they have selected. Formally for the
student to pass, at least 80% of the word sort terms must be
physically placed under the correct heading.

To evaluate the game, the student must correctly match the word
sort vocabulary with the correct heading with 80% accuracy. I will
formally assess the student by calculating if they have placed 80%
of the words in the right section. Informally, I will be looking to see
if the student has made the same mistakes as they have made in
the word sort, but also see if they have made new errors with some

of the new word sort vocabulary.

After the student completes the writing sort, I will formally evaluate
the student by calculating if they have correctly written the words
under the given category with 80%. To do this, I will calculate that
80% of the words are spelled correctly, and also are written under

VI.

the correct heading.

Evaluation Part B
My student met the objectives for the first two activities, the word
sort and also the game. However, she did not meet the objectives
for the blind word sort. During the word sort, the student received
an 80% accuracy rate, while receiving 100% accuracy on the game
board. However, when it came time for the blind word sort, the

student only received a 60% because of the multiple spelling errors.

To determine if my objectives were met during the word sort, I
watched to see how many errors my student made when sorting
the cards under the correct heading. When my student was finished
sorting, I counted that she had made three errors during her sort in
which she put three of the words in the wrong category. Once my
student was complete with her word sort, I went over each word
with her, repeating the heading aloud along with the word. Once we
got to the words that were incorrect, I paused and asked her if they

sounded right compared to the heading and the rest of the words in
the category. On each word that she had gotten wrong, the student
was able to correct the words and place them under the right

heading.
Assessing the game was similar to the word sort, but this time the
student had to write down words in the correct heading. On the
game board worksheet I also included an example under the
heading along with a picture. The student was to say the word
aloud and write it under the correct category. On this section, the
student received a 100% because she placed every word under the

correct heading.
Because of how well the student did on the previous two activities, I
decided to do a blind word sort where the student could not see the
words I was assessing her on. To assess the blind sort, I counted up
how many words the student correctly spelled and placed under the
correct category and divided it by the total number. The student
scored a 60% in this category because there were a number of
spelling mistakes, and also words that were not placed in the

correct category.
Some of the strengths that I used during the lesson was ensuring
that I read the words aloud to the student, but also requesting her
to read the words and headings aloud as she sorted the words into
the categories. Using this technique meant that the student was
processing this information and hearing the words and headings
being said aloud multiple times in order to make connections. One
weakness that I had during the lesson was making the decision to
use the blind writing sort compared to a regular writing sort.

To change the lesson and make it better, I think that I would have
first administered a regular writing sort in which I showed the
student the words written to place into the correct heading. The list
of words on my word sort also contained words that had multiple
ways of spelling, and even after giving a sentence as an example,
my student mixed up some of the spelling because she was
confused. In the future, I will begin with a regular word sort, and if
the student exceeds my objectives, I will continue on to do a blind
word sort.