Teaching · Reading Intervention

Which common words are automatic, and how to teach the rest.

Show each word, count about three seconds, and mark it on the grid; then dictate the same words to spell. The summary separates the words that follow the patterns from the ones with a part to learn by heart, so you teach each the right way.

$19one-time · every device you sign in on

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Reading Intervention toolkit, $49 for 34 items.

The word inventory

One record per student and date. Arrow keys move across the grid; A, S, X and N mark a cell. Use initials or a code, never a name. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Reading Intervention$19 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
For each student and date, reading and spelling marks for 24 common words, error patterns, and a split list of words to teach with each heart part named.
Who it is for
Reading interventionists, special education teachers, reading specialists and classroom teachers in the early grades.
Format
Browser grid with keyboard entry. Several saved records; printed with the summary or as a blank recording sheet; CSV with one row per inventory; export and import a file.
Access
$19 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Reading Intervention toolkit ($49) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Reading Intervention space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
said
Drawn for this page. Most of said follows the sounds; the ai is the part to learn by heart.

How to use it

  1. Start a record with the student’s initials or a code and the date.
  2. Show each word on a card and mark Read: A automatic, S slow, X incorrect, N not tried.
  3. Dictate the words, use each in a sentence, and mark Spell the same way.
  4. Mark the error patterns you noticed.
  5. Read the summary: teach decodable words through their sounds, and heart words by mapping the regular part and marking the irregular one.

Start an inventory

What the inventory is for

Not just sight words

Many high-frequency words follow the spelling patterns children learn first: and, in, it, that, with. Others have one irregular part, such as the ai in said. Readers store words for instant recognition by connecting their sounds to their letters, a process called orthographic mapping, so even irregular words are taught through their sounds, with the odd part marked as a heart part to remember.

Why automatic matters

A word read correctly but slowly still takes attention away from meaning. The inventory separates automatic words, read within about three seconds without sounding out, from correct but slow words, which need more practice rather than first teaching.

What this inventory is not

It is a criterion check of 24 words, not a standardized test, and it gives no grade level or norm. Which parts count as irregular depends on what the student has been taught; the tags follow a typical early phonics order. Records use a code, never a name, and stay in this browser.

Sources

  1. Ehri, L. C. (2014). Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5–21.
  2. Kilpatrick, D. A. (2015). Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties. Wiley.
  3. Miles, K. P., Rubin, G. B., & Gonzalez-Frey, S. (2018). Rethinking sight words. The Reading Teacher, 71(6), 715–726.
  4. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 34 CFR Part 99.

The example student is made up. The inventory is a classroom check of 24 words; it gives no grade level or norm and does not diagnose a reading disability. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.