Primary Spelling Inventory

The primary spelling inventory is meant to assess the word knowledge that a

student brings to his or her reading and writing. Word knowledge is very important

regarding reading and writing. The more word knowledge a student has, the more likely

they are to comprehend what they are reading. An understanding of phonics aids students

in spelling familiar or unfamiliar words while writing. Spelling inventory assessments

allow teachers to design effective instruction that is based on the individual needs of

students.

In order to assess the word knowledge of students in my cooperating classroom, I

used the primary spelling inventory. The primary spelling inventory contains a set of

words, along with specific sentences, that the teacher reads aloud to the child. After the

child hears the word and sentence, he or she must spell that word on a piece of paper. In

order to get a true assessment of knowledge, the student cannot study the words

beforehand. The student does not have to complete the entire assessment however; the

student can do so if they wish. A score sheet should be copied for each student’s

assessment. Some features to look for while scoring are: initial consonants, final

consonants, blends, short vowels, etc.

I administered the primary spelling assessment to Sreeja, a 5 –year-old

kindergarten student. During quiet time, I took sreeja to a small table in the hallway and

explained that she would be helping me spell some words. Sreeja was very eager to spell

and completed all 26 words on the assessment. Sreeja’s assessment shows that, she can

use initial or final consonants to represent syllables or words. She can also spell short

vowels conventionally. For example, Sreeja spelled the words fan, pet, dig, rob and gum

correctly. This shows that she has a firm knowledge of the initial and final consonants

f,p,g,n,t,b,h,w and m. Sreeja also proved that she can use all of the short vowel sounds.

Although Sreeja only spelled 8 out of 26 words correctly, she proved to have a lot of

valuable spelling knowledge.

Sreeja’s assessment shows that she has a very developed understanding of

digraphs. Sreeja was able to spell digraphs such as: “sh”, “ch” and “th”. She recognized

the sounds of these digraphs both at the beginning and end of words. For example, Sreeja

heard the “ch” digraph at the end of the word “coach” and at the beginning of the word “

chewed”. Sreeja also demonstrated a strong knowledge of blends. None of the words that

included blends were spelled correctly however; Sreeja was able to sound out the

common blends. Lastly, sreeja was able to use phonics to spell past-tense endings. For

example, Sreeja spelled the word “wishes” with “is” as a past-tense ending. She also used

“id” for the past-tense ending of the word “shouted”. Some skills that Sreeja can work on

are using long vowel patterns, using other vowels and using inflected endings. In order to

work on recognizing long vowel patterns, Sreeja can use vowel markers to spell long

vowels conventionally. Sreeja can improve her knowledge of inflected endings by using

visual features to ending conventionally.

According to the Primary Spelling inventory, Sreeja is in the early within word

pattern stage. One way to inform instruction for this type of student is to work with word

sorts during guided reading groups. When working with a word sort list, students should

be able to read all of the words before sorting. The sort should match the students’

development and address words that they “use but confuse”. The most important thing is

to allow students to find patterns in the words that they are studying. For Sreeja’s spelling

stage and development, picture sorts are especially helpful. These types of sorts allow

students to sort by sound. This is important because sound is the first clue that spellers

use while reading and writing. Words can also be sorted by sight so that students can see

the different spelling patterns used to spell various sounds.

At the beginning of the within word pattern stage students, like Sreeja, benefit

from reviewing long and short vowels. Word sorts at this stage, should focus on the

difference between long and short vowel sounds (farm vowel sort activity). Later on in

this stage, students can focus on common long-vowel patterns (ae, ou, ie, ue, etc.). Sorts

can be done with large groups, guided reading groups and with partners. Teachers should

start each sort by reading every word and a discussion of unfamiliar words. Students

Sreeja’s age should start with closed sorts that already have organized categories. At first,

students should sound out words together and sort as a group. Teachers should probe

students to examine the way they sorted the words by asking the question “why did you

sort the way you did?” This challenges students to find patterns in words that they might

not have been looking for at all. For example, in the word sort attached, students may

notice after sorting long and short vowels that words with long vowels will often have a

silent e. After sorting the words “cap”, “cape”, “rid” and “ride”, students will see that all

of the long vowel words have an e at the end.

When a group is finished sorting a word list with a teacher, there are many other

ways to practice what was learned. Students can participate in a word hunt to find words

that fit the pattern they are studying. Students can use their word study notebooks, to

record words with similar patterns that they find in their independent reading. Older

students or more fluent readers can use reading materials such as newspapers or

magazines to word hunt. Homework is also an important instructional practice in any

spelling stage. Students should receive a copy of their words for the week with

instructions for extra practice. Each day of the week should have a different activity that

focuses on practicing new words that were learned in class. For example, on Mondays

students’ can sort words into the same categories they did in school. Later in the week,

students’ can practice writing words into categories as someone calls them aloud.

Working at a steady pace with plenty of practice, will allow students become familiar

with important spelling patterns that will make them more fluent readers and writers.