Assessment Assignment

READ 620
Sarah Wells
Longwood University
September 16, 2015

Class Overview
This assessment was completed on my 3rd grade class, which there are 18 students total.
The class spelling inventory has many different stages, from letter-name alphabetic to early
derivational relations. The class as a whole has a grasp on consonants, vowels, diagraphs, and
blends. Students struggled with long vowels and through bases or roots of words. Students who
were the late within word pattern stage saw the most complications at late syllables and affixes.
Students, who were in middle to late syllables and affixes, struggled in the harder suffixes and
basses or roots feature. The power scores for the class were from late letter-name to middle
derivational relations. For the elementary spelling inventory, my class features a variety of
stages, but after placing them in their instructional groups, their stages should increase working
as a whole.
Instructional Group #1
Instructional group #1 includes students who were in the beginning, approaching
transitional, stage of development. Their reading and writing stage was late letter-name to early
within word pattern stage. This group consists of: Caleb, Trevor B., Sam, Bridget, Steven, and
Anna. This group is at mastery with consonants, short vowels, digraphs, and blends. They are
using but confusing long vowels, other vowels, inflected endings, and syllable juncture. They are
missing completely unaccented final syllable, harder suffixes, and basses or roots. I grouped
these students together because when reviewing their spelling answers, they missed either the
same ones or similar grouping. Words like float, lump and shopping were consistently
missed in the group so I also created groups off of similar patterns of incorrect spellings. Trevor
B. is one student that is an outlier in the group. He is not terribly behind other students in his

group, but he is last with 7 points between him and Caleb. In his instructional group, he has other
classmates who are stronger in areas he did not receive any points in such as long vowels and
other vowels. Because those are areas that his group does need to work on, it will be encouraged
that they build up on each others strengths and weaknesses. The initial word sort that I would
use with them is the inflected endings, sorting for the sound of ed. Such words in the sort would
be trapped, mixed, stopped, chased, cracked, walked, asked, jumped, and yelled. Beginning with
this sort would help students with basic understanding the basic endings, along with the addition
of another consonant such as two pps. By the end of the year, the students in instructional
group #1 should be at the middle within word pattern stage. With instruction throughout the year,
students should receive it at an average pace. This group is not far away from being in the middle
within-word pattern but it should be encouraged throughout the year that they can do it and
working together helps their chances of understanding the material even better. Since this is the
weakest group, I would make sure that there are considerations for struggling readers and
English learners. For ELs, during test, I could sit by them and watch them as they answer each
question. This would provide more insight in their English language abilities. For ELs and any
student who might struggle with language, observations during assessments could allow for
deeper insight in what exactly they have difficulties with. Also, pairing ELs with other partners is
a good idea because it would allow for the EL to hear the student pronunciation words and
provide meanings as they review. Qualitative data would also benefit my instruction and could
allow for appropriate instructional grouping. The intervention would be needed at a moderate
pace. This group had steady results so utilizing weekly spelling tests to monitor their progress
would be the most ideal proposition. This will also help them with retention of the words.
Instructional Group #2

Instructional group #2 includes students who were in the middle transitional stage of
development. Their reading and writing stage were late within word pattern to early syllables and
affixes stage. This group consists of: Lexi, Kaylee, Molly, Brian, Lindsey, and Dana. This group
has a mastery of blends, long vowels, and other vowels. They use but confuse inflected endings,
syllable juncture, and unaccented final syllable. There were some 2s and 1s in the harder
suffixes and basses or roots, but the majority seems to have those areas absent. I grouped these
individuals together because they all had commonalities in the middle within-word patterns.
They have members in the group that balance both the higher and lower ends of the middle
spectrum, which helps builds companionship in the classroom with other students that are on
their instructional level. The word sort that I would use with this group is on unaccented syllable
junction, focusing on er,-ar,-or endings. Words that would be on the sort could be bigger,
freezer, dreamer, faster, dollar, collar, lunar, solar, and doctor. The reason I selected this word sort
is for the students to work on their identification and pronunciation of endings. From their
spelling results, they werent able to differentiate words like cellar, bottle, and favor.
Throughout the school year, I would monitor this group at an average place because they fell
between the two other groups in terms of progress with their spelling assessments. In order to
track their progress, I would use weekly spelling tests, along with spelling inventories to make
sure they don't fall behind.
Instructional Group #3
Instructional group #3 includes students who were in the late transitional stage of
development. Their reading and writing stage is early Derivational Relations. In this group is
Natalie, Ben, Trevor H., Callie, Edwin, and Miguel. These students have mastery in inflected
endings, syllable juncture, and unaccented final syllables. They use but confuse harder suffixes

and basses or roots. Students in this group seemed to be comfortable with the words under
Derivational Relations, but they still require additional instruction because a majority of students
scored an average of 2/5 for harder suffixes and basses or roots. The word sort that I would use
with this group of students is focused on sorting by roots and Latin stems. These words could
include judge, adjudicate, attract, suspect, traction, and contract. This would work for these
students because this was the area that they predominately struggled. Providing a specific sort on
stems might help narrow their focus and bridge their understanding on roots within words. Since
they are the most advanced group in the class, I would make sure that their instruction is not fast,
but slow so that way they arent getting bored because they have finished all their sorts but also,
solidifying their knowledge of each stage. I would definitely consider having these students be
tutors for other groups if they do need a break to slow them down. I dont want to pull them too
often because I want groups to rely on each other to help with individual development. Since this
is a higher level group, they might have opportunities that are finished with their material
already. I would encourage and have them create their own word sorts for each other. This would
require them to think of other words, using various resources like dictionaries or thesaurus, to
produce their own material. Together, they could bounce off various ideas with their group about
what works with certain words and what doesnt.