This week I was able to conduct two assessments. I completed the Spelling Inventory using the Wonders Curriculum Spelling list. As I mentioned previously, it is aligned with Words their Way. The second assessment I completed was a Fountas and Pinnell Running Record. I chose to include the writing portion with the F&P because I believe this is an area where my student could use focused/targeted instruction.

Spelling Inventory Words Their Way

I administered the Elementary Spelling Inventory (Bear et. 2014) in order to assess Jake’s spelling/orthographic development. On this assessment, Jake spelled twenty-six spelling words that I read orally. I then analyzed his spelling words for specific features and patterns. From this I determined his overall spelling/orthographic developmental level. Analysis of Jake’s spelling indicated that he had solidly mastered features and patters at the Emergent and Letter-Name Alphabetic stages: consonants beginning (6/6) endings (4/4), beginning digraphs/blends (/5), short vowels (6/6), final digraphs/blends (4/4). Jake “used but confused” features and patterns in the middle within-word patterns: common long vowel patterns (2/5). Jake had difficulty spelling features and patterns at the early syllables and affixes: other vowels (2/5), plurals and inflected endings (3/6), syllable junctures and final unaccented syllables (0/4), harder affixes (1/8), bases or roots and absorbed prefix (0/6). Based on Jake’s spelling performance, I would place him in the middle within-word pattern stage of spelling/orthographic development.

Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment

I started at a level Q in the F & P Benchmark Assessment. It was a nonfiction text titled Not Too Cold for a Polar Bear by Kitty Colton. Jake studies animal adaptations in science this year so I was confident he would be able to pull from his background knowledge. Jake read at a 97% accuracy rate, with a total of 8 errors. He made two self-corrections and I gave him a 2/3 on the fluency score. Jake’s reading rate was 109 wpm. When Jake began reading he sounds like a robot. He was doing this to be silly so we had to start over to get a more accurate measure. Jake scored a 9/10 on the comprehension conversation. He needed several prompts throughout but was able to add additional understandings during the conversations. Jake made several mistakes with sight words. He read ‘they’ for ‘and’ but self-corrected. He read ‘and’ for ‘as.’ He also read ‘the’ for ‘that’ and ‘the’ for ‘its.’ However, it did not take away from meaning. The miscues show that Jake is reading for meaning. These did not affect the meaning of the sentences. Jake read ‘world’ for ‘word.’ This tells me he is relying on visual cues. It was interesting because the word arctic followed world. He may have been thinking arctic is a place in the world. Jake read ‘Antarctic’ for ‘arctic.’ Here he is relying both on visual and meaning. The miscue analysis allowed me to see that Jake is reading for meaning! He may have made errors but the passage made sense and he was relying on visual and meaning to understand.

The writing portion is where Jake had the most difficulty completing. His initial response to me asking him to write was a groan and “Nooooo.” He finally looked at me and said, “Can’t you just write it for me?” In order to capture his true response I decided to write for him. I truly believe he lacks motivation when it comes to writing. He wants to put down as little as possible, never adding details!

My next steps:

I would like to start a targeted word study for my intervention. After reviewing his scores I will start with common vowel patterns. He will complete various activities to practice these skills in his Wordsmith Notebook. I would also like to focus on writing with Jake. I am not sure on what type of intervention to do with Writing, yet. Are two interventions okay to do with a student? Should I focus on the word study first? Suggestions and advice?