DSA Developmental Spelling Analysis ASSESSMENT FOR SPELLING AND WORD STUDY

Principles of Word Study “Those who learn how to walk through words with sensible expectations, noting sound, pattern and meaning relationships, will know what to remember, and they will learn to spell English.” Henderson, 1990

Purpose DSA Enables teachers to identify children’s stage of spelling development Highlights specific strengths and weaknesses in featural knowledge so instruction can be timely and appropriate Word Journeys ch.2

Screening Inventory Guidelines DSA Be familiar with the inventory. Minimize distractions and encourage a relaxed atmosphere. Instruct students to print on reproducible response sheet. Speak clearly but avoid over emphasizing target word. Dictate the number item, say the word, read the sentence, and repeat the word before moving to next item. Allow sufficient time for student response. Encourage reluctant spellers to write what they can. Stop when a child has spelled 0 or 1 word correctly out of any set of five.

Feature Inventories Two feature inventories A and B 1st-5th use one for the beginning of year and one in January Kindergarten administer Winter and end of the year. Each inventory has separate lists for the Word Knowledge Stages Letter Naming Within Word Syllable Juncture Derivational Constancy

Q & A

Feature Inventories Dictation and Scoring Make a list of which students will start at which stage Once the list is compiled, start dictation and scoring Oral directions are included at the beginning of each feature inventory form The same guidelines for the screening inventory apply to the feature inventories Score all answer sheets

Scoring (DSA) The following point system is used: 2= entire word is correctly spelled 1= targeted feature is correct; entire word is not 0= targeted feature is incorrect Notes: The targeted feature is underlined Letter reversals such as b for d, are not considered errors

Scoring Continued (DSA) Tally (count, not add) the number of correctly spelled words (those with a score of 2) and note the result at the top of the paper The tallied result is the overall score for the stage. Stage scores can not exceed 25, since there are only 25 words. Stage Score (correctly spelled words) 22-25: Secure understandings (administer next feature inventory) 12-21:Stage of development (plan instruction) Below 12 (but with strong scores, 22-25 on the previous stage) Early Stage of Development (WW, SJ, DC) (Plan instruction) Below 12: Too Much Is Unknown (if score in LN, plan instruction; if score is in WW, SJ, OR DC drop back a feature)

Class Record Sheet Global picture of student readiness for word study instruction What percentage of students are ready for Core Instruction? Group options for intervention Note:(Core instruction determined by grade-appropriate CCSS) Isolate the cause of spelling problem & determine instructional approach Lack of interest Lack of a method of attacking a word when encoding or decoding Improper self correction practices Correct visual image of the whole word Record of progress Awareness of correct pronunciation Awareness of spelling patterns (six patterns) Development of generalizations of words Rate of growth over time periods

Sources of Spelling errors Common Error Patterns Alternate vowel or consonant w/possible orthographic representation (wate for wait) or (chace for chase) Incorrect representation- (fented for fainted) or (junp for jump) Omission of phoneme (pl for pull) or (begn for began) Addition of phoneme (raine for rain) Near Misses (fine for vine or oat for ate) Real word but not the intended word Misspelling of blend or digraph (skram for scram) Misspelling of an inflectional ending (bugz for bugs or helpt for helped) Reversal of the order of phonemes (fisrt for first) Reversal of letters (wed or web) Homophones (there for their) Spelling errors are reasons for mismatch of the child’s spelling and the dictionary spelling.

Procedural Steps to Analyzing DSA Step 1: Collect a sample of spelling assessments from students in the classroom. Step 2: Examine the student’s spelling of each spelling pattern to determine which spelling patterns are most frequently misspelled. These are the spelling patterns that will be targeted with explicit word- level instruction to remediate specific language deficits. Step 3: For each spelling pattern identified and selected in Step 2, carefully analyze the nature of the spelling errors. These errors can be caused by phonological awareness, knowledge of orthography, vocabulary, morphological and semantic relationships or mental images of words. Step 4: Write an instructional goal for each selected spelling pattern, indicating the most appropriate instructional method for the individuals with spelling errors. Example: Student will improve spelling of derived words by developing knowledge of letter-meaning relationships for derivational suffixes and rules for modifying words when adding suffixes.

Q & A

Essential Questions How do I plan word study instruction to meet the needs of my students? What does Word Study Instruction look like?

Scheduling Where does Word Study fit into my weekly schedule?

A place to trace a student’s journey! Word Study Notebook A place to trace a student’s journey!

Explicit Instruction Direct Explanation Modeling “Think Aloud” Guided Practice Application

Components of Word Study Lesson Review Phonemic Awareness Activity (picture sorts & sound activities) Review of Previous Phonics Skill Teach a New Concept Reading Strategy (anchor chart) Word Reading Echo, Chorally, Individually Word Sorts Word Building Writing Strategy (anchor chart) Finger Stretching, Sound- spelling mapping Sentence Dictation I say, We say, You say (emergent & early stages) Transfer to Text Highlight skill words in a passage Read passages with words highlighted Read unmarked copy of passages (without the skill words highlighted)

Q & A

Remember…. All the word study in the world will not help if children are not doing plenty of reading. Words Their Way , First Edition, pg. 248

Reflection 3 things I’ve learned today..... 2 things I’m unsure of….. 1 thing I can do immediately….