Spelling

Purpose

Spelling a word requires students to write the correct spelling by locating it in their memory or to analyze the phonemes (sounds) within a word and choose graphemes (letters) to represent those sounds. Analysis of student spellings of words reveals much about the types of graphophonemic (letter-sound) connections they can make and their skill in storing correct spellings of words in their memory. Correct spellings are much more likely among students in the Full and Consolidated phases because they possess complete knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences and common spelling patterns.

The Benchmark Spelling Assessment provides this information. Each list in this tool includes progressively more complex words, requiring students to make increasingly more complete graphophonemic connections. By analyzing a student’s spelling of the words in the lists, the teacher can determine the phase in which that student is working (Pre-, Partial, Full, or Consolidated Alphabetic). There is an assessment for each phase of spelling development. The assessment can be administered individually or in small groups.

Instructions for Administering and Scoring

Say:
- "You are going to spell some words. Spelling these words will show what sounds and spelling patterns you know. I will say the word once. Then I will read it in a sentence. Then I will say it one more time. After that, you will write the word on your paper. Write the correct spelling if you know it. If a word is tricky for you, do your best and write letters for the sounds you hear in the word. If you need me to repeat the word, raise your hand."
Give each student a lined paper or a blank Student Test sheet.
- Make sure students write the words in the correct order and next to the correct number.
Read the word separately, and then read the word within the given sentence. Read the word once more.
- If a student raises their hand to repeat the word, use your discretion to decide how many times you will repeat the word before moving on. Some of these will need a student-friendly explanation of the word's meaning and sentence.
- Not every K–2 student will know what "wig" and "jog," or "chat," "information," "thread," and "invasion" mean. Even with solid grapheme-phoneme knowledge, it inevitably becomes somewhat more di cult for students who have no or little sense of the meaning. Be sure to model or explain such words as needed.
Complete all words in the list.
- If the student correctly spells ten or more words, administer the following more challenging list. If the student spells fewer than five words correctly, administer the previous, easier list. Do not administer this list in the same sitting.
- This assessment provides an alternate list of words for each phase. Consider using the alternate list to gather more information on a student as needed or to replace the first list if the words are too familiar to the student(s).
After administering the assessment offline, assign the assessment to students, and input each student's microphase using the Data Input Tool. Use the following rubric below to understand students' performance. View the following video to learn more about the Data Input Tool.

%	Microphase	Criteria
20%	Early Partial Alphabetic	Spells 5-6 words on the partial alphabetic list correctly.
30%	Middle Partial Alphabetic	Spells 7-8 words on the partial alphabetic list correctly.
40%	Late Partial Alphabetic	Spells 9-10 words on the partial alphabetic list correctly.
50%	Early Full Alphabetic	Spells 5-6 words on the full alphabetic list correctly.
60%	Middle Full Alphabetic	Spells 7-8 words on the full alphabetic list correctly.
70%	Late Full Alphabetic	Spells 9-10 words on the full alphabetic list correctly.
80%	Early Consolidated Alphabetic	Spells 5-6 words on the consolidated alphabetic list correctly.
90%	Middle Consolidated Alphabetic	Spells 7-8 words on the consolidated alphabetic list correctly.
100%	Late Consolidated Alphabetic	Spells 9-10 words on the consolidated alphabetic list correctly.

Analyzing Spelling to Inform Instruction

Annotating the student’s spelling provides information to inform instruction. Using the phonetic spelling underneath each word and annotation allows you to look for patterns in errors.

For example, consider a student who correctly represents just two out of three phonemes in many of the words in the Partial Alphabetic phase. Looking at the annotation, you may discover errors such as “weg” for “wig” and “sep” for “sip.” These errors suggest that targeted instruction to differentiate the vowels “e” and “i” is needed. Or you may discover errors such as “wg” for “wig” and “sp” for “sip.” This suggests that the student is not yet identifying and recording medial vowel sounds and needs targeted instruction in that area. This type of analysis allows you to home in on the specific lesson cycle used during differentiated small group instruction when you use the Assessment Conversion chart.

Some of the words in the Consolidated list contain underlined parts. This is provided as a reference when analyzing the student’s spelling. The underlined parts indicate the types of features in words that distinguish the patterns expected in Consolidated from those expected in the Full Alphabetic phase. Examining a student’s spelling of these features can provide information on which features may need targeted instruction. For example, if the student writes “condishun” for “condition,” instruction in /shun/ spelled “tion” is needed.

Grade 2 Skills Block Benchmark Assessments