Using the Assessment Tool

Assessment

Overview

Learn how to create, manage, and interpret spelling assessments in Spellcaster, including comprehensive guidance on understanding performance charts and student placement.

In Depth

Understanding Assessments

The Spellcaster platform includes a fully featured spelling assessment tool. It can be used as a standalone spelling assessment, or as a placement assessment to help determine which level of the Spellcaster scope and sequence to start a learner at.

Assessments evaluate learners against individual phases of the scope and sequence — rather than the entire scope and sequence in one sitting, which would take too long. You can also use the screener option, which gives learners a battery of words across phases 1 to 3 to help determine the right phase to place them in. This is a great option if you're unsure which phase to start your learners in.

If you'd like to know more about how our assessments work under the hood, click here.

Key Features:

Assess individual students or multiple learners against specific phases of the scope and sequence
Use the screener to automatically determine the right phase for learners
Choose between typing and card-based word building as the response method
Optionally auto-place learners at the assessed level based on their results
Detailed performance analysis at both grapheme and word levels

Viewing and Managing Assessments

Access all assessment information through the Assessments page in the dashboard sidebar.

Assessment Dashboard Features:

View complete list of all assessments with creation dates and assigned learners
Access individual assessment pages for detailed management
Modify assessment settings including phase level and control type
Track completion status and access results for completed assessments

Individual Assessment Management:

Modify assessment phase for specific scope and sequence levels
Choose between typing (recommended) or click-to-place control methods
Toggle automatic placement settings for each learner
Add or remove learners from existing assessments

Creating New Assessments

There are a number of ways you can create an assessment for a learner or learners in the Spellcaster platform.

Creation Methods:

From a learner's menu: Click the three dots beside a learner's name and select "Create Assessment"
From the learner table: Check the names of multiple learners you'd like to assess and click "Create Assessment" to set up assessments in bulk
From the Assessments tab: Navigate to the Assessments tab in the sidebar and set up assessments for individual learners from there
When adding learners: Automatically set up assessments as you add learners to your Spellcaster account by choosing to use a placement assessment to set their level automatically. Click "Let us find the level" and the assessments will be created for them when they are added to your account

Configuration Options:

When you create an assessment, you will need to configure the following:

Phase selection: Choose which phase of the scope and sequence you want learners to be assessed against, or select the screener option to let Spellcaster determine the right phase
Control type: Choose whether learners type their answers or use letter cards to build their answers
Automatic placement: Decide whether you'd like learners to be automatically placed at the level determined by their assessment results. Leave this unchecked if you don't want to alter the learner's level based on their performance

Note: Learners can only have one assessment assigned to them at any one time.

What Learners See During an Assessment

When a learner with an assessment assigned to them logs into Spellcaster, they'll see a "Start Assessment" button. They need to click this to begin the assessment.

The assessment takes place in the Spellcaster game engine. Depending on the control type you've selected, learners will either be given a set of letter cards to build words, or they will type their answers directly.

During the Assessment:

Learners are asked to spell particular words
They can hear the word used in a sentence, hear a definition of the word, or replay the word as needed
Once the assessment is complete, learners are automatically taken into the game
If automatic placement is enabled, they will be taken to the level determined by their assessment results

Control Types:

There are two control types available in Spellcaster: typing and click-to-place.

Typing is the default and recommended control type as it more closely simulates the writing process and forces learners to draw on their spelling knowledge.

Click-to-place allows learners to click on grapheme cards to build the word. This is a simpler method and is useful for learners who are not yet familiar with keyboarding or require more scaffolding.

Viewing Assessment Results

Once a learner has completed an assessment, there are several ways to view their results.

How to Access Results:

Click on the learner's row and navigate to the assessment in their activity feed
Go to the Assessments tab and click "View Results" for that learner
Navigate to Assessments in the sidebar, find the relevant assessment, and click "View Results" for that learner

From the results page, you can see the learner's answers and how they performed across the assessment.

Understanding Student Placement

Spellcaster uses a systematic approach to determine appropriate student placement based on assessment performance.

Placement Rules:

Students are placed at the earliest level where they made three or more word mistakes
Perfect performance results in placement at the highest level of the assessed phase
Automatic placement can be enabled or disabled per student
Placement recommendations are available even when automatic placement is disabled

Important Notes:

Students can only have one active assessment at a time
Assessments must be completed or removed before starting new ones
Individual settings can be modified until assessment completion
Results and placement recommendations are available immediately after completion

Reference

Knowledge Base