Teaching · Reading Intervention

Credit for every letter pair the student got right.

Type the words you dictated and what the student wrote. The tracker scores correct letter sequences word by word, the standard way, and adds the probe to the student’s trend.

Score a probeWhat you get
$19one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $19

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

The spelling probe

One probe per student and date. The example is made up.

Loading the form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

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

What you finish with
Correct letter sequences against the possible, words spelled correctly, misspelled words from weakest, and the trend toward a goal.
Who it is for
Reading interventionists, special education teachers and literacy specialists monitoring spelling.
Format
Browser form. One saved probe per student and date; printed with the scoring or as a blank form; CSV; 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.
shipfour letters, five sequences
Drawn for this page. Letter sequences give credit for the parts of a word a student already spells right.

How to use it

  1. Dictate the list the same way each time.
  2. Start a probe with the student’s code and the date.
  3. Type each target word and the student’s spelling exactly.
  4. Add earlier totals and a goal if you have them.
  5. Check any unusual spelling by hand before you report.

Score a probe

How the score works

The scoring rule

A correct letter sequence is two adjacent letters in the right order, with the start and the end of the word counted as positions. A word of n letters has n+1 possible sequences. The page matches the student’s letters to the target in order and counts pairs that line up.

Why sequences

Whole-word scoring treats “becuz” and a blank the same. Letter sequences show growth sooner, which is why curriculum-based spelling measures use them.

What this is not

A norm table. Compare the student with their own earlier probes and the goal your team set.

Sources

  1. Deno, S. L. (1985). Curriculum-based measurement: The emerging alternative. Exceptional Children, 52(3), 219–232.
  2. Hosp, M. K., Hosp, J. L., & Howell, K. W. (2016). The ABCs of CBM: A Practical Guide to Curriculum-Based Measurement (2nd ed.). Guilford: scoring spelling by correct letter sequences.
  3. Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., & Allinder, R. M. (1991). The contribution of skills analysis to curriculum-based measurement in spelling. Exceptional Children, 57(5), 443–452.
  4. National Center on Intensive Intervention, American Institutes for Research: progress monitoring resources.

The example student and probe are made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.