danielle_journal4

__ Journal Assessment #4 __ Today, a substitute teacher gave students in my cooperating teacher’s class their weekly spelling test. Their weekly spelling tests reflect words that students learn throughout the week. Each week students are given more words that build on their vocabulary and knowledge of the English language. The spelling words used in this particular assessment included: sink, yank, into, pink, thank, two, winks, only, banks, and about. This past week my cooperating teacher focused on the –ink and –ank suffixes, trick words, as well as adding the –s suffix to make words plural.

Students were given a white piece of paper, numbered one through ten. Next to each number was a line for the words that were called. After students moved their seats so everyone was spread out, I passed out the blank tests for students to write down their answers. Once the class was ready, the substitute began stating the weekly spelling words. After stating each word, she would make up a sentence using the word, so students would hear it in context; and then she word re-state the particular word. A couple examples include, “sink,” “I filled the sink with water.” “sink;” “yank,” “I am going to yank my cat’s tail.” “yank.” Another was, “banks,” “I keep my money in two different banks.” “banks.”

The spelling words given to students to study at home are in a different order than how they are given during this assessment to ensure their comprehension of how these words as spelled. During the assessment the substitute stated each word one at a time, however, she was not doing this at a pace that was appropriate for these students cognitive levels. The lack of time provided could therefore affect the results of the students’ spelling assessment. This teacher was saying each word and their sentence very quickly, so that students would get confused and began writing the words out of order or incompletely to catch up. She was not giving students enough time to think, or mark up their words as they usually do. Marking up these words is something that students do in the Fundations program to distinctly inform them of what word concept is being used. For example, consonant digraphs are underlined to inform the student that those two consonant letters together are making one sound, instead of their individual sounds. I was unable to walk around the room for this assessment to see how students were marking up their words because I was assisting a student who was struggling to keep up with the spelling list. The teacher continuously needed to repeat words from the list and the entire list for students to complete the assessment.

I usually walk around the room looking at multiple students’ work, or assisting them if they are missing a word; however, during this assessment, I remained by one student’s side. He kept giving up because he thought he could not catch up with the words being said. I was trying to restate the words and sentences as the teacher had, giving this students enough time to think of how these words were spelled. But, it was still confusing for this student because of all the added background noise. At a point during this assessment the student told me that even though the endings were written on the board he still couldn’t figure it out. As I was reading off the list and repeating the sentences, I noticed that this student was writing the wrong endings for the –ing words. Instead he was using, the –ank suffix because he understood that he had learned about both of these endings during the week, he just did not know the difference between the two ending sounds. However, once I said a word ending using –ank, he stopped me because he realized what he was doing. He then knew that he needed to switch the endings for the words he wrote with –ank, to be –ink.

This particular class uses a Fundations program to teach students’ about the English language. During the week the teacher models the particular concept(s) that she is interested in having students learn, using the spelling words that students are assigned for the week. She also provides guided practice and individual practice for the students to learn their particular spelling words (specifically focusing on these), as well as words relating to each new concept. Students learn to tap these words, except for trick words, on their fingers; and then use their magnetic boards to spell out these words using letter magnets. For independent practice, students are given two separate worksheets using their weekly spelling words. For example, “Word of the Day.” The teacher picks one of the words, has students write it four times, create their own sentence using the word, and then draw a picture to match their words. As a result, students receive a significant amount of practice learning to spell these words that are necessary for them to learn in order to read and write (communicate with others).

I believe that this assessment is a practical assessment because even though it does not reflect a real-world situation, where students will be timed and pressured to spell a word correctly; the teacher is gaining important feedback from her students. She is providing these students with a list to take home and study from, and makes sure they practice spelling and writing these words throughout the week. However, she is not always able to circulate the room during her instruction on word concepts, or while students are spelling out these words on their magnetic boards. Nor is she able to assist all of her students during their independent practice. As a result, she is using these weekly spelling tests to obtain feedback from her students about their word concept and spelling comprehension, reading and writing progress, as well as her teaching, in whether or not it is effective for students. I am certain that this particular spelling test will not be reflective of the students’ comprehension and abilities because of the way the assessment was given, however the teacher will be able to grasp whether students are understanding her teaching style as well as the content. She will also consider the performance of the students in her classroom overall while considering the result of the spelling assessment.

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