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Ilyssa Knoblach EDC 452 Assessment Journal 1 2/9/2009 Every Friday my third grade class is given their weekly spelling tests. This week’s words varied in the different sounds of ‘e’. For example, ev__e__rybody, mayb__e__, skat__e__board, and bask__e__tball. The spelling assessment test was given as a whole class. All of the students were provided a small piece of paper, containing twenty lines. Before the test started, my cooperating teacher gave the students five minutes to look over their spelling words. I saw the students working in pairs, quizzing one another on the words. I saw other students take this time to organize themselves, spending less time studying the words. But than once the ‘bell’ the teacher calls for silence, and order in the classroom rang, the students sat silently in their seats while waiting for the paper passers to handout their tests. The teacher actually had me call out the words to the students. First, I read the words (out of their given order) twice. Than, I said the word in a sentence, repeating the word one last time. This test consisted of fifteen words. After each word was called out, all the students had to look up at me to let me know they were finished. After all of the words were given, the teacher gave one last bonus word, ‘groundhog’. Many of the students knew how to spell this word correctly since Groundhog Day were just a few days before the test. This test was given right before recess/lunch, so once they left I graded the tests. Overall, most of the students did very well on this spelling test. What I did notice although, is that since they are still learning and working on cursive, any students spelt words wrong which seemed only because they did not know how to properly write in cursive. For example, one of the words was ‘myself’. One of the students made the f, a t, making the wrong spelled wrong. Although, my teacher called upon this student and re-asked them how to spell the words, reminding the students to always check their work. The word I saw the most struggles with would be skateboard. The ‘e’ was often left out, or the ‘oa’ part was missed spelled. I agree with when giving a spelling exam, it sometimes helps when the teacher puts the word into a sentence also. There were two words that were very similar (everyone, everybody) and stating these words in a sentence could often unconfused the two. I would maybe consider giving this spelling test at another time than right before recess because all of the students I could tell were just very anxious to get out of the classroom (watching the clock). Possibly giving the test just a little bit earlier could grab the students focus more. Spelling tests I find to always be an effective way of learning how to spell words, and also the different sounds of the words. In the younger grades especially, learning how sounds go with words (phonics, phonemic awareness) and understanding them, provides a larger range of knowledge and fluency. Also learning how to spell new words, will also teach the students how to read these words, which is very important.

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