Knowledge and Skills Statement
Administer a Spelling Test
Spelling assessments should range from five to ten words a week with possible bonus words if necessary. Use words that follow the spelling pattern being focused on, but do not limit the list to a set of words studied during the week. For example, if students worked with the words cape, hike, rope, cube during the week, then they could be assessed on the words tape, bike, hope, tube. The spelling pattern is the same, but the words are different. This ensures understanding of the spelling pattern is occurring.
Research
1. What Works Clearinghouse. (n.d.). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade: practice guide summary. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Science. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/21
Summary: This practice guide provides four recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common obstacles. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared towards teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ foundational reading skills.
2. Bear, D. R. & Templeton, S. (1998). Explorations in developmental spelling: Foundations for learning and teaching phonics, spelling, and vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 52(3), 222–242. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20202044
Summary: Bear and Templeton addresses two broad questions in this article: What is our understanding of spelling development and how does this understanding fit within a broader model of litearcy development? What are the implications of the developmental model for spelling instruction and word study?