RUNNING HEAD: WORD STUDY ASSESSMENT

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Word Study Assessment Justine Thimmel Rider University

WORD STUDY ASSESSMENT Word Study Assessment

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Finding ways to assess a student and figure out where they are at with their writing and spelling may be different. You have to find a way that will accurately show how a student is struggling as well as succeeding. Luckily for teachers today, there are different assessments that allow teachers to figure out how a student is doing when it comes to their spelling. Figuring out what type of assessment helps teachers decide what works best with each student. The purpose of the Word Study assessment is to figure out what stage of literary understanding a child is at. In this assessment, a teacher is given the necessary evidence to see where a child is succeeding and where they are having difficulties. This type of assessment is extremely useful for students who are struggling because teachers can identify exactly what is that the student is struggling with. Some areas that a child could have some trouble with are short and long vowels, diagraphs, the different types of syllables and affixes, and derivational relations. Although this assessment works very well with struggling students, this also helps teachers with advanced students as well. This assessment helps teachers begin to find different ways to challenges those students and introduce more difficult words. In my field placement class, I was given the opportunity to choose any student in Miss Refsins class. For this, I wanted to choose a student that from my observation, struggles a lot when it comes to spelling. The student I chose is a girl named Ashleigh. Ashleigh is a determined student who struggles a lot when it comes to writing but has the attitude of wanting to progress. Ashleigh is originally from

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another district and has recently moved to Plainsboro. The type of word assessment that I chose to use on Ashleigh was Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory. The assessment took place during the students snack time. Ashleigh at first was more than willing to volunteer. We went out into the hallway and sat a nearby table away from the classroom so it was nice and quiet so she could focus. When the assessment began, Ashleigh did what she was asked to do and wrote down the words to the best of her ability. Even if the words were written wrong, she wrote them down with confidence. As the assessment went on, she began to become antsy. I dont know whether it was because I was taking her away from her snack time or because there were too many words, but she began to keep asking me after about 15 words, Are we done yet? When I saw that she really could not work anymore, I stopped early even though she only had one more word. The methodology was very simple for this assessment. I first read the word, used it in a simple sentence, and then read the word again. Ashleigh was given a piece of paper and pencil to complete the assessment. I gave her as much time as she needed to write out each word. I also let her choose how she wanted her list of words to look. After Ashleigh was done, I praised her for being so cooperative with working with me and I sent her back to the classroom. I then began to evaluate her mistakes. This allowed me to conclude that Ashleigh was in a literacy development area that was very low. As I continued to analyze Ashleighs assessment, I felt that Words Their Way was a accurate way to figure out how she is struggling. I found that she had most of her trouble with both long and short vowels. She also struggled with inflected

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endings and her blends. For example, when it came to the word coach Ashleigh added a tch. When I showed Miss Refsin this, she said that this is common of someone at Ashleighs level. They hear the word and spell it they way they completely hear the word, adding a t because they somewhat hear it when coach is pronounced. Also, with a lot of words, Ashleigh added the letters ck. When I asked Miss Refsin about that, she said it was because they had previously just learned about ck blend words in the students spelling groups. In evaluating Ashleigh, she would most likely be placed in the Letter Name stage. I feel this because since she struggles with both types of vowels, but it is more prevalent with short vowel so it would be smarter to start her there. Within this stage, she would most likely be considered somewhere between early and middle (leaning more towards middle). She still struggles with some consonant endings. An example of why she falls within that stage is in the way she spells shine. Instead of adding the e she only spells out shin. Having all of these findings, I have thought of some ways that I could potentially help progress Ashleigh. A way that I would implement instruction for Ashleigh would be to place her in a spelling group with other students that fall around the same area as her. This would allow for me to choose words that would really focus on short vowels. With working on her short vowels first, I can have her have a basis of one type of vowel so that when I move onto the next type of vowel I can have something to work off of so that she can see a difference in both spelling and pronouncing. To work on Ashleighs consonant endings is something that a oneon-one work would have to be put into place. Most of the other students in class

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have grasped this concept, so I would have to work with Ashleigh individually to teach her how to figure out the final consonant of words. Although these findings helped place a student like Ashleigh, nothing is really set in stone. Even though she fell into the Letter Name Stage, it should still be looked at that she fell between early and middle part. While doing this assessment, you should also take into consideration of how well you know your students. Knowing your students will help you see the difference between a student actually struggling or a student just misinterpreting what you just read. This assessment helps me think about teaching in a different way. Although it is important to use assessment to analyze where your students are succeeding and where they are having difficulty, it is also important to know your students well enough to know understand that there may be some other confounding variable. Overall, this assessment is a great way to gain an understanding of a students individual development, as well as map out progress for the rest of the year.