Running Head: Assessment Assignment

READ 620: Assessment Assignment

Bethany Dancey

Longwood University

February 24, 2019

Running Head: Assessment Assignment

Class Overview

A second grade class at J.G. Hening Elementary School was assessed for this assignment.

There are currently nineteen students in the class. This class has one ESL student. There are no

students currently identified with a 504 or individualized education plan. See Appendix A for a

copy of one test and feature guide for a student from each of the three groups explained below.

Using sources from Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston (2015), I scored student

inventories and created three word study groups. A composite is included as Appendix B. A

classroom organizational chart is included as Appendix C.

First Group: Early/Middle Letter Name-Alphabetic

The first group includes five students (Trevell, Disaya, Aariana, Shannon, and Seemab). All

students in this group were independent in the emergent features. Trevell and Disaya were

instructional in the early part of the Letter-Name Alphabetic stage; the other three students were

either instructional or even frustrational at the early to middle part of the Letter-Name Alphabetic

Stage (digraphs). Two members of this group dropped from independent to frustrational in

adjacent stages, which surprised me. Trevell used features in the middle and late stages of

Letter-Name independently, so I recommend keeping him with the first group for review on the

two short vowels he struggled with, but placing him with Group 2 for common long vowel

review for the rest of the quarter (depending on his progress). Seemab used features in blends

and common long vowels independently, but just needs review on two digraphs. I will move her

to one of the other groups within a few weeks depending on progress.

Three of the five students were using but confusing digraphs, but the other two needed to

practice short vowels more. There is a perfect sort for this in Appendix D from Bear et al
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(2015)- Sort 19 has short vowels with digraphs. This sort (as well as other initial sorts) is

included in Appendix D of this paper as well. After the initial sort I would use a ch/sh sort

because that is where they struggled the most, then move to a comprehensive digraph sort before

giving a small reassessment and checking writing samples to see if anyone needs to proceed to

group 2, which was only slightly higher than this group. This group is likely to move at an

average pace, though three of these students are progressing slower than we had expected in

reading. It is possible they will need extra support.

Based on their spelling stage and Table 2-5 from Bear et al (2015), one would predict

these students to be early-middle beginning readers. However, two of the students are not. In

fact, Seemab is pretty far along in the transitional stage of reading. She is from a bilingual home,

but did not qualify for ESL services due to a high score on her language entrance exam. Her

language skills may affect certain parts of her word study knowledge.

Second Group: Late Letter Name-Alphabetic

The second group has six students (Lucas, Caydence, Neziriyah, Afdol, Aidyn, and

Antonio) who were instructional in blends (late Letter-Name Alphabetic stage). All six were

independent in the emergent features and the first two steps of the Letter-Name Alphabetic stage.

One other student (Jeremiah) was in the adjacent stage, instructional at the Common Long

Vowels section (early Within Word stage). Isabelle is a minor outlier, as she was frustrational in

the two Within-Word categories right after being found independent in the Letter-Name stage.

She is using but confusing some features of Syllables/Affixes also. Since she needs practice in

both Within Word sub-sections, I would keep her with this group. It is possible she could move

to group three when they reach sorts with inflected endings.

Running Head: Assessment Assignment

Most errors for those in the lower part of this group were found with r-blends and the -mp

ending blend. Therefore, I would start with Sort 21a from Appendix D, which supports all of the

blends well, then progress to a sort focusing on r-blends, and then move to one like 22a, which

focuses on the ending Preconsonantal blends like -mp.

Using their inventory results, one would predict the students in this group to be late

beginning readers. However, most are in the transitional reading stages already. Afdol is an ESL

student who is, in fact, in the beginning stages. He may require some extra support in the form

of visuals or vocabulary discussions for some of his words. Because of their strong skills as

readers, I predict this this group will progress at an average or fast pace.

The teacher may require extra support for the lower two groups to ensure she understands

the word study sorts. This class has had a substitute for most of the year. A lack of core

instruction early on could be causing the larger than expected gap between word study and

reading levels.

Third Group: Middle Within Word

The final group will consist of six students (Jermaine, Jenny, Faith, Zaniyah, Ashton, and

Jahari). Almost all of these students are independent in the word study features through the

middle of the Within-Word stage. Jahari is an outlier on the lower end here. I may have him

study with group two when they reach common long vowels. He uses, but confuses those

patterns, but did very well in the late Within-Word features. Almost all errors from these

students in the other vowels category consisted of trouble with -er and -or. Thus, I would start

their study with a sort that focuses on r-controlled e words like Sort 38.
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The students in the final group are reading in the middle transitional levels, as one would

predict. I would expect these students to move at an average pace through this word study stage.

I may find another class with a higher word study group if Ashton is too far beyond his peers. He

struggled with inflected endings, but did quite well on the other features. He even showed a

readiness for study in Derivational Relations, which is advanced for a second grader.
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Appendix A

Student from Group 1:

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Student from Group 2:

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Student from Group 3:

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Appendix B
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Appendix C

Appendix D

Initial Sorts:

Group 1: Sort 19 from Letter Name

that, chat, than, shall, shack, ship, chill, whip, this, whiz, when, check, shed, shell,
chap, wham chip, thin, thick then, them

Group 2: Sort 21a from Letter Name

cram, crab, crash, crib, brag, slip, slid, slap, clock, blob, spill, spin, spot, snap
brat, grip flag, flop, flock

Group 3: Sort 38 from Within Word

her, fern, germ, jerk, near, clear, dear, cheer, deer, sneer, bear, pear, wear,
herb, herd, perch year, spear, beard queer, peer swear
Oddball- heart
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References

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2015). Words their way: Word study for

phonics, spelling and vocabulary instruction (6th Ed.), Boston, MA: Prentice Hall/Pearson.