Information on Scoring Spelling and Reversals

This information is from An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (2005) by Marie Clay, pg 108.

How should we grade spelling in first grade?  

• Correct Spelling: Each completed word scores one point if it is correctly spelled.
• Incorrect Spelling: If the child accidentally writes a word that is correct but spontaneously tells you that it is another word.  Then, it is incorrect.  For example, student writes ‘am’ and says without prompting that it is ‘me.’

What should we do about reversed letters?  

The formation of individual letters (including the reversal of letters) does not influence the scoring except when the letter form represents a different letter.  

• Correct Spelling: Words with one or more reversed letters are correct when the intended letters are clear (for example ‘bus’….with a reversed ‘s’). ALSO, capital letters are acceptable substitutions for lower case letters and vice versa.  We are grading spelling not penmanship.
• Incorrect Spelling: Words are not correct if the reversed letter could be a different letter (for example ‘qop’ for ‘pop’) and they are not correct if the intended letters are not clear (e.g. reversed ‘e’ looks like ‘g’, or ‘run’ looks like ‘nun’).