I have not given any formal spelling assessments in my own classroom. I mostly just have my kindergarteners write and encourage them to write down any sounds they hear. This is just to build their confidence in writing and spelling. When I was in my block 2 internship, I helped mt CT by giving some spelling assessments, but I never used the information to help instruct them. I was simply just giving the assessment out of a book.

I would like to try to use a spelling assessment around this time of year for my students to see where they are at with spelling and if they using spelling patterns that we have learned, like digraphs or if they are struggling to hear the medial vowel in words. Once I have the data, I can see where I need to direct my focus in my small groups and if I need to go back and reteach anything to the whole group.

Since I have not yet used a spelling assessment to help guide my instruction, I can't say for sure that I have seen improvements. I am sure that using the assessment to focus on spelling patterns that students are missing would benefit the student and would help improve their spelling.

Last year I gave the PSI to one of my students in third grade. We then did a unit on a target area of need. I was working on teaching the student "ai" vowel teams as well as "oi/oy". It was in her instructional area on the feature guide! It was really interesting to see her "deficit" areas so directly pinpointed but using a feature guide is so helpful!

The data on the feature guide gives you a very specific area of skills to improve upon. It will tell you which level the student is on and what areas are in their "instructional" range. You can then use a variety of different things to teach that pattern. One activity my students loved was "basketball" where they would throw a ball into a bin labeled with a pattern. I would call the word and they would throw it in to the correct one our of 3/4 options. They also love practicing spelling with letter shaped erasers because they feel like they aren't actually writing.

I was working one on one with my student but she showed so much growth. She just needed a little more time and attention to understand the patterns and actually use them in writing, not just her spelling tests. The student was motivated to learn and really felt accomplished by understanding those spelling patterns

Similarly to others, I administered my first spelling inventory to an elementary schooler in App State's undergraduate reading clinic. I don't remember all the details of the assessment, but I do remember reviewing the data, and while some parts revealed clearly what level he was at, other areas seemed less clear. There were a few different places where he had inconsistent results, showing he hadn't mastered the skill but also had some exposure to them. I have not administered this assessment at all during my student teaching, but I definitely could think of a few students it would provide helpful feedback about.

During my student teaching placement, I have worked on spelling with many different students, primarily at the 4th-grade level. The focus of these lessons is usually around suffixes, prefixes or which letter combination to use (e.g. -tch or -ch). I review/introduce the spelling rule and then the class and I take time to spell words that follow that rule. This seems to be more beneficial than having the students memorize the words, which is what I was familiar with growing up.

I definitely see growth in my students after using interventions. The level of growth ranges from student to student, but it seems that they all achieve the "ah ha" moment at some point for different spelling rules.

I gave my first spelling inventory during my first undergrad internship. I got to work with 4th graders. I pulled a group of students ranging low to high on reading/spelling performance. I delivered the inventory just as one would give a spelling test, except it was not a "test" and I made sure students' knew that! After, I practiced reading and trying to determine where students could benefit from my instruction for the first time. It can be tricky! In a second internship, in a 5th grade classroom, I gave the spelling inventory for the teacher. However, she was the one that reviewed it.

The feature guide is very useful for seeing who can be grouped up together for specific instruction. I am currently a 2nd grade teacher and I use UFLI Foundations for guided reading. I used my spelling inventory data to help determine who needs to be grouped with who and where to begin interventions. One activity that my students love doing is interactive word sorts.

Interventions give me time to meet my students on a more personal level to help meet their needs. Guided reading is my favorite time of the day. Although there are skills that take longer than expected to grasp, my students are showing growth!

I studied words their way in a previous class and we completed an inventory assessment via a case study. It was insightful to consider what my students are doing in the classroom and which skills they have mastered, use but confuse, and don't yet understand. This would be a helpful inventory to give my students at the beginning of the year and we settle into a new class. Additionally, even having background knowledge of the assessment allowed me to better understand the handful of students in my class who struggle with both spelling and reading.

Although I haven't formally used one of these assessments, I would find the data very helpful in a classroom setting. A child's spelling gives us a window into their reading abilities as they have to rely on so many of their reading skills to properly encode words. I would find it helpful to pinpoint what each student needs within their spelling instruction. Patterns and/or skills that are challenging could be more heavily incorporated into spelling instruction.