Spelling Inventory

As a 5^th grade teacher at Matt Arthur Elementary School, I was already required to perform this assessment on my entire class. I did not expect, however, to have to administer the Elementary Portion of this assessment. I came to this realization after attempting to administer the Upper Level and realizing that only a few of my children were able to even complete the assessment without reaching their frustration levels and even fewer were able to score moderately well. After seeing this, I decided to administer the Elementary to the whole class (even to the few who did well on Upper Level) just to have two class composites to learn from.

                I did not expect the Inventory to be so enlightening. After completing the assessment, which I did not find difficult or time consuming, I was able to see that the majority of my class needed further remediation in the area of Harder Suffixes, Bases or Roots, and Unaccented Final Syllables. I also see that many of my students can be grouped and remediated in small groups in the areas of syllable junction, inflected endings, and other vowels. I was surprised to see that a couple of my children need remediation in areas as far back in the spelling stages as digraphs and long vowels.

                This will help to mold my teaching by allowing me to focus my instruction in very specific areas rather than taking a shot in the dark with my children need work with. I can pinpoint the skills that need further instruction and very adequately assign tasks that will improve that said skill.