Printable spelling test mini booklet. Contains multiple pages for spelling recording spelling test (tests of 10 or fewer words). See image of how mini book will look printed and cut. Larger version for longer spelling list (up to 20 words) is coming soon.

Introduction

Over the last decade, much has been learned about how children acquire the ability to identify words. Nevertheless, substantial disagreement remains as to the form that beginning reading instruction should take. Part of the difficulty results from the indefensible position that beginning reading programs must emphasize either meaning or skills.

Product Description Provides instructions on administering the Word Identification and Spelling Test (WIST). Includes general administration procedures, scoring procedures, interpreting norm-referenced results, interpreting informal analysis, normative information, test reliability, and appendices. SPECIFICATIONS: 137 pages.
Refer to Section 5 in this manual for additional guidance regarding the appropriate use of standardized test scores within the context of data thresholds. To identify dyslexia in a reliable manner, evaluation teams (e.g., educational diagnostician, speech-language.
The Test of Written SpellingFifth Edition (TWS-5) is an accurate and efficient instrument that uses a dictated-word format to assess spelling skills in school-age children and adolescents. It has two forms that can be administered in 20 minutes to either individuals or in groups.

The position taken in this paper is that beginning reading instruction must be meaning-based, involve students in frequent reading of informative and entertaining texts, and provide clear, explicit instruction of important word-identification strategies and skills. In an effective program of reading instruction, there must be an appropriate balance between teaching skills and strategies and reading and responding to a wide range of texts. After a comprehensive review of the research on beginning reading instruction, Adams (1990) concluded that whenever that “balance” is lost — when reading instruction becomes so skills-oriented that meaning and the joy of reading are lost, or when literature is emphasized to the point that important skills and strategies are not taught — students are likely to encounter difficulty in learning to read.

Definitions of Reading and Word Identification

Word identification and spelling test manually

Establishing a clear definition of reading provides an important perspective for evaluating approaches to teaching word-identification skills. Most educators would agree that the major purpose of reading should be the construction of meaning — comprehending and actively responding to what is read. Two of the most widely cited and agreed-upon definitions of reading are the following:

Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information (Anderson et al., 1985).

Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among: (1) the reader’s existing knowledge; (2) the information suggested by the text being read; and (3) the context of the reading situation (Wixson, Peters, Weber, & Roeber, 1987, citing the new definition of reading for Michigan).

Older, mechanistic definitions of reading as the translation of printed symbols into oral language equivalents are incomplete, given the progress made in understanding the nature of the reading process. There is widespread agreement that without the activation of relevant prior knowledge by a cognitively active reader and the melding of that prior knowledge with the text information, there can be no reading of text.

Even definitions of reading that emphasize meaning indicate that reading is activated by print. The reader must be able to translate the written words into meaningful language. Virtually all four- and five-year-old children can communicate with and learn from oral language, but very few can read, because they lack the ability to identify printed words. While simply being able to recognize or “say” the printed words of text without constructing the meaning of that text is not reading, constructing meaning from written text is impossible without being able to identify the words.

The terms word identification, word recognition, and decoding are frequently used interchangeably. The new Literacy Dictionary (Harris & Hodges, 1995) defines both word recognition and word identification as “the process of determining the pronunciation and some degree of meaning of an unknown word” (pp. 282-283). For words that are in a reader’s meaning vocabulary, unlocking the pronunciation leads to the word’s meaning. If a printed word is not in a reader’s meaning vocabulary, word-identification skills may allow access to the word’s pronunciation, but not its meaning. Being able to arrive at the pronunciation of a printed word constitutes word identification in the most minimal sense; however, if the reader is unable to attach meaning to the word, then he or she has not read the word, since reading must end in meaning construction.

Emerging Reading and Word-Identification Skills

Most children in kindergarten cannot read and write, although clearly some can. Most children who cannot read have nonetheless developed many language and cognitive skills that form the foundation for learning to read and write. These children tend to come from families that have provided them with many rich, early experiences with literacy. Other children, often referred to as “at risk,” have had fewer such experiences; these youngsters depend heavily on teachers and schools to help them become readers and writers.

A full discussion of emerging literacy skills would need to consider many topics. However, since the subject of this paper is word-identification instruction, it seems important to focus on two areas specifically related to success in that area: familiarity with print and phonemic awareness.

Familiarity with Print
Concepts of Print. Children who have had many experiences with language, especially the experience of having someone read to them regularly, may have some concept of what printed words and letters are. They may realize that the print on a page is the source of the text information needed for reading or know that a reader looks at print from left to right. These concepts, referred to as concepts of print, are important for success in learning to read (Adams, 1990), and children who have had limited preschool experiences with printed language will need to be taught them.

Teaching concepts of print should be approached systematically. After reading a favorite book, such as a Big Book version of Robert Kalan’s Rain, what could be more natural than for a teacher to point to the title and ask how many words are in the title, and to contrast the number of words in that title with the number in Mary Serfozo’s Who Said Red? As the teacher rereads the book, what would be more effective than to point to the words as he or she says them, moving from left to right across the page? Instruction in important concepts of print would be taking place but within the context of entertaining reading activities.

Letter Names. One of the strongest research findings in the field of reading is the high correlation between knowledge of letter names and success in learning to read (Adams, 1990; Adams & Pikulski, 1996; Durrell, 1980; Ehri 1983; Venezky, 1975). Young children need to develop the concept that printed words are composed of letters; they then can be taught letter names if they don’t come to school knowing them. While teaching children letter names does not in itself result in success in learning to read (Jenkins, Bausell, & Jenkins, 1972), it can facilitate memory for the forms or shapes of letters and can serve as a mnemonic for letter-sound associations or phonics (Adams, 1990).

Most kindergarten children learn letter names without difficulty. Many teachers introduce letter names by teaching emerging readers to sing the alphabet song. Thus, children often learn the names first and then attach them to the letter forms. There is now a wide variety of high-quality alphabet books such as ABC and You

Word Identification And Spelling Test Manual