Nicole Volpi
As a teacher, it is important to recognize that no two students are exactly the same. This refers to their personalities, learning styles, development and much more. Most schools today have inclusion in their classes, or are moving toward it, making the learners in each classroom even more diverse. It is important that teachers are constantly using assessment to discover where students are developmentally, which helps them plan their lessons accordingly.
Spelling Inventory and Word Study Assessments are some tools teachers are using in their classrooms today. The purposes of these assessments are to see where students are developmentally in spelling, and their recognition of language patterns. Once teachers recognize the level their students are at, they are able to provide them with words to expand their knowledge and help them grow developmentally.
Mrs. Kuhn’s first grade class at Constable School has a diverse group of learners. It is an inclusive classroom, but both classified students are pulled out during the time word study takes place. Mrs. Kuhn has her class divided into four different levels for word study. Each group gets a different set of words each week. Some of the groups have similar words that they are studying, but others you can see a clear difference. When Mrs. Kuhn and I discussed this assignment, she asked what level student I would like to see. When I told her a student who is somewhere in the middle she suggested I observe Marie.
Marie is one of the most outgoing, and talkative students in the class. She loves attention and was eager to help me with this assignment. Using the Primary Spelling Inventory provided,
Marie and I went out in the hallways and began the assessment. I gave her a sheet of lined paper and asked her to write her name at the top. I instructed her listen to the word I say, and how I use it in a sentence, and then write how she thinks that word is spelled. I made sure she knew she

wasn’t being graded and she didn’t have to worry if she spelled anything wrong. This would help remove any anxiety if she had any. The words I asked her to spell were: fan, pet, dig, rob, hope, wait, gum, sled, stick, shine, dream, blade, coach, fright, chewing, shouted, spoil, and growl. If I knew a word was going to be challenging I would let Marie know. She was overly confident and would always say no that’s easy, even if she spelled it wrong.
Following our spelling inventory, I looked over the words Marie had spelled for me and used the Feature Guide for Primary Spelling Inventory and the Developmental Continuum for
Vocabulary/Word Study to interpret my findings. I asked Marie to spell 14 words in total. She correctly spelled four of those words. All but one word she started and ended with the correct consonant. If the word ended in a vowel like the word shine or blade, she only started with the correct consonant but did not end with the correct vowel, instead she spelled the words s i n and b l a d. She used the correct short vowel in five of the eight words that have short vowel sounds in them, but did not use the correct long vowel pattern, or vowels with other patterns in any word. Marie also struggled with consonant digraphs and blends.
Based on this information, it appears Marie is in the Letter Name Spelling Stage.
Students in this stage spell according to the most obvious sounds. We see Marie doing this when she spells blade, b l a d. Marie seems like she will shortly be moving to the Within-Word Pattern
Stage, where students begin to recognize the role of medial vowels but are confused with their combinations. In this spelling inventory Marie spells spoil, s p o u l. It is clear she has a brief understanding of the role of medial vowels, but was unsure how to properly use them.
Since Marie has a strong grasp on initial and final consonant sounds but struggles with vowel patterns and consonant digraphs and blends it is important to focus on those aspects during her word study. Sorting activities are great ways for students to begin recognizing

patterns. It is important to first work at recognizing one pattern at a time. The first week using words with the ai vowel pattern like bait, wait, rain, main, paint etc would be a good start. Once the student has been focusing on long vowel patterns for a few weeks introducing consonant digraphs and blends would be next. Words like dream, scream, cream etc incorporate both long vowel patterns, which they should be close to mastering and then consonant blends. Slowly each week the teacher should be scaffolding so that the student is sorting words with vowel patterns they recognize but have some sounds in them like sh-, ch- or dr- that they are unsure of. This will help expand their knowledge and move into advanced spelling stages.

Rationale: I chose to do a word sort because I feel it is a simple and effective way for students to recognize patterns with words.
Common Core State Standards:
RF.1.2.aDistinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
RF.1.2c- Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
RF.1.3c- Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds
Objectives:
The student will be able to match words according to their vowel sound.
The student will be able to sort words by their correct long vowel pattern.
Materials:
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Word Study words cut up in a Ziploc bag
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Worksheet
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Glue
Procedure:
Before:
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During Daily 5 be sure to remind the student that her words are going to be focusing on their vowel pattern.
 “Make the sound of a long a.” “Now make the sound of a short a.”
 “Remember, long vowels sound like their name.”
 “Take out your word study bag, we are going to do a different sorting exercise this morning.”
During:

Hand her the worksheet
 “On the left side, I want you to place all the words that have a long vowel pattern. So, if the vowel sounds like its name, or if two vowels next to each other sound like the name of a vowel like ai- sounds like a in the word brain, those words will go on the left as well.”
 “On the right side, you are going to place all words that have a short vowel sound.”
 “When you finish sorting, raise your hand and I will come check it.”
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Student sorts words and raises her hand.
After:
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Check her work.
 “Great job! Now I want you to read each of the words out loud to me. If you think some of the words sound close to the same, I want you to put them in a pile together.” (This is to help recognize the vowel patterns)
 “Nice job! In your notebook I want you to write five of your words.”
Assessment:

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The student correctly sorting the words into the long vowel or short vowel section will show her understanding of the difference between short and long vowels.
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The student correctly reading the words and identify similar vowel patterns will show her understanding of long vowel patterns.
Differentiation:
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This same activity can be adapted for any student.
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By changing the words you can adapt the lesson to focus on what that individual child needs.
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You can also change it to a matching activity, have similar vowel patterns, or consonant digraphs etc and have student match the similar words.
Future Connections:

Correctly spelling words.
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Understanding the relationship between letters and their sounds helps students when reading.
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Learn decoding patterns to help identify future difficult words.