Education and demonstration – Language – Spelling – phonics – word recognition – or sentence formation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-06
2004-01-13
Cheng, Joe H. (Department: 3713)
Education and demonstration
Language
Spelling, phonics, word recognition, or sentence formation
C434S30700R, C704S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06676412
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to diagnostic testing and assessment. More particularly, the present invention relates generally to diagnostic testing and assessment regarding spelling.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the study of language development has broadened over the years to include the recognition of reading and spelling as language skills, so, too, has the need to develop systematic and informative procedures for determining deficiencies in literate language development. Unfortunately, unlike the readily available literature on the assessment of early language skills, few specific guides for comprehensive literacy skills assessment are available. This is most notably apparent for spelling assessment. Without a well-designed method for determining the presence of a disability and the possible factor(s) that may be causing the disability, language and literacy specialists may be less effective in their spelling intervention.
There are three basic methods used to determine the status of a student's spelling skills. In the first, dictation, the examiner reads aloud a list of words and the student is instructed to write the spelling for each. In the second, connected writing, the student is asked to generate text in response to a picture or as a story retell. In the third, recognition, the student is given a group of words that contain the correct spelling along with a few misspellings, or foils. The student is asked to indicate which spelling is correct.
Dictation—Standardized Tests
There are several standardized tests or subtests that employ dictated word lists. A raw score is calculated from each test or subtest and then converted into derived scores, such as a standard score/quotient, percentile, age equivalency and grade equivalency. These tests meet the minimal standards of the American Psychological Association for technical adequacy. Consequently, clinicians or teachers who must have a standard score for justification of placement in special education services may benefit from administration and scoring of one of these tests or subtests. However, Moats judged the tests inadequate for sufficiently sampling the domain of spelling, or the child's knowledge of English orthographic patterns.
Dictation—Word Inventories
The use of word lists to evaluate spelling skills has been in practice for decades. Many spelling text books have short test lists that precede each instructional unit. Approaches that are based upon typical spelling development often employ word lists to elicit data for. Examples include the inventory lists that appear in Tables 1 and 2. These lists are valuable because they are designed to elicit words that represent specific types of spelling knowledge that occur at various points in the developmental process.
The domain of spelling is large, incorporating knowledge of orthographic patterns, sound-symbol correspondences, homophones, compounds, and morphological constructions (e.g., contractions, Latin plurals, and assimilated prefixes). Table 3 illustrates a content domain in English spelling. However, there is no single, comprehensive list that can be used to gather all pertinent data. Further, the nature of data that would be desired would be dependent upon the developmental level of the student being evaluated. Other such lists can be helpful with students who are in the earliest stages of spelling acquisition or when assessing students who are at the intermediate stages of spelling acquisition. These lists are scored by a variety of methods, including calculation of the number correct; identifying levels of mastery, instruction, and frustration; and analysis of the types or features of the spellings that are used. Many of these methods yield some type of developmental level, which can be used to determine whether a student is at the expected level of spelling proficiency. Regardless of which list is chosen, the wise language and literacy specialist will realize that it likely represents a starting point for data collection, and, depending on the profile of correct and error spellings used by the child, additional data will likely be necessary.
Connected Writing
Some language and literacy specialists may be concerned about using only word lists in spelling assessment because lists are decontextualized and have no communicative value. Further, performance on word lists often does not mirror spelling during actual classroom writing tasks. Parents and professionals often lament the fact that children will score high on weekly spelling tests, yet continue to misspell numerous words in connected writing. Spelling accuracy may be influenced by the writing topic, motivation to write accurately, attention to task, and response mode (e.g., computer versus handwriting).
There are a few standardized tests with subtests designed to measure spelling skills in connected writing. For example, on one such test, the student is asked to generate a written story in response to a stimulus picture. Data are scored by subtracting the number of different misspelled words in the story from the total number of different words in the story. The raw scores may be converted to a percentile or standard score. Unfortunately, such subtests simply do not contain a sufficient number of words representing the necessary orthographic patterns to make the scores meaningful or helpful.
Another type of test involves the use of retellings to gather additional data on error patterns initially identified through single-word dictation tasks. Words are selected that represent three or four error patterns of interest and construct a story that contains those words. The child writes the story as it is told by the examiner. The examiner tells the story in narrative fashion, pausing between story elements so that the student has time to write each portion. The student's completed version of the story is then dictated in subsequent administrations for the purposes of charting response to treatment. This approach seems to have promise, as long as a sufficient number of exemplars representing each targeted pattern are included. Limiting the number of targeted patterns to four or five it possible to construct a story of reasonable length. Coupled with the data gathered from inventories, the opportunities for target pattern use in connected writing hold promise for valid measurement of spelling skills.
Recognition
Although recognition is commonly used in formal assessment of spelling, its value has, at the least, been questioned and, at the most, been dismissed altogether. The spelling subtest of the Peabody Individualized Achievement Test-Revised is typical of recognition tasks. It consists of 100 items, which, according to the authors, address basic visual discrimination, phonological awareness, and sound-symbol association. Each of the spelling items contains a correct spelling of the target word along with 3 misspellings. For each item, the examiner reads the target word and uses it in a sentence. The student is instructed to mark the correct spelling, and each item marked correctly increases the raw score by one point. Raw scores are converted into typical derived scores, such as a standard score/quotient, percentile, age equivalency and grade equivalency. Certainly the task of identifying misspelled words is different from formulating spellings. However, proofing is an important component of spelling skills and, whether through standardized identification tests or individualized tasks, the language and literacy specialist will likely want to see how the student responds to correct and incorrect spellings of target forms.
Description of Spelling Skills
Determining that a student's spelling skills are below expected levels and that intervention is needed is only the first part of the assessment process. The data will need to be further analyzed in order to optimally formulate goals for instruction or treatment and establish appropriate baseline information for measuring the effectiveness of intervention. Conseq
Apel Kenn
Masterson Julie J.
Wasowicz Jan
Cheng Joe H.
Christman Kathleen M
Learning by Design, Inc.
Michael Best & Friedrich
Saret Larry L.
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