TESTS: Writing & Spelling
Below are products utilized in testing and monitoring
Writing & Spelling
We also sell individual components for most tests.
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Products listed in our Catalog under "Writing & Spelling":

Diagnostic Screening Tests: Spelling (DSTS) - Third Edition
Handwriting Development Remedial Activities (HDRA)
Slosson Written Expression Test (SWET) Portfolio/Performance-Based Assessment
Stetson Spelling Program [SSP]
Test of Early Written Language - Second Edition [TEWL-2] 
Test of Handwriting Skills (THS)
Test of Written Expression [TOWE]
Test of Written Language - Third Edition [TOWL-3] 
Test of Written Spelling - Fourth Edition[TWS-4] 
Writing Process Test

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Diagnostic Screening Tests: Spelling (DSTS) - Third Edition
Thomas D. Gnagey

OUR PRICE-$110.00
Grade: 1-12 Administration: Administration and scoring time – 5-10 minutes. Individual or group.
   
The DSTS is designed in a flexible format, easy to administer and score, versatile enough to meet the individual needs and preferences of most examiners. The 78 test words are arranged in developmental sequence. Five diagnostically important problem areas can be explored: sight or phonics orientation for spelling instruction, relative efficiency of verbal and written testing procedures, analysis of sequential and gross auditory memory, and generally good or poor potential as a speller. A pre-test is included to determine an appropriate level of entry.

Several levels of data interpretation are possible from the results. One is to merely state the Grade Equivalent level achieved and suggest that the spelling instruction begin there. A second level would include a comparison of spelling mastery of strict phonics-proper words with sight words. Then, the student’s performance can be compared when required to write the words as opposed to spelling them aloud.

The total n was 12,000 in the 1981 revision project, with approximately equally-sized subgroups at each level. High substantiated validities and reliability studies in the .80s and .90s included in the manual.
 

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Handwriting Development Remedial Activities (HDRA)
Karen Gardner Codding, Morrison F. Gardner

This product has been REVISED COMING SOON
Ages 5 years to 11 years

These remedial activities were developed primarily to improve a child’s legibility of writing letters, words, sentences, and numbers; they were also developed to aid therapists (occupational therapists, resource specialists, classroom teachers, psychologists, language specialists, and other professionals) in treating these children who have problems in handwriting.

These remedial activities may remediate a child’s low performance on any one of the two subtests of the Test of Handwriting Skills. These remedial activities are divided into manuscript and cursive, upper case and lower case letters. These remedial activities also include activities for remediating a child’s problem in motorically writing numbers.
   
In developing these remedial activities a great deal of thought and consideration was given to the range of activities needed to improve a child’s handwriting. Each set of remedial activities is arranged in ascending order of difficulty: for example:
Preparation or handwriting letters and words and numbers (connecting dots to complete various geometric forms and copying various non-language symbols for the purpose of developing fine neurosensory integration skills); Connecting dots to form completed letters and numbers; Drawing lines between two parallel lines of letters and numbers (upper-case and lower-case manuscript only); Copying letters and numbers from a single stimulus
Connecting dots to form letters making words (excluding upper-case cursive);
Copying words (excluding upper-case cursive); Connecting dots to form letters of words and sentences (excluding upper-case manuscript and upper-case cursive);
Copying sentences (excluding upper-case manuscript and upper-case cursive).

These remedial activities are not difficult to administer since the directions are simple and easily understood. The remedial activities can be administered to an individual child or to a group of children or to an entire class. These remedial activities can be used on a daily basis as part of the class curriculum.

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Slosson Written Expression Test (SWET) Portfolio/Performance-Based Assessment
Donald B. Hofler, Bradley T. Erford, William J. Amoriell

OUR PRICE-$200.00
Age: 8 – 17 Administration: 15 minutes Scoring Time: 10 - 15 minutes Individual or group

The SWET is a screening test designed to measure children’s spontaneous written expression skills. The test allows for description of the individual child’s authentic written expressive skills, and a comparison of the child’s performance to his or her age peers. The SWET, differs from many writing tests because student responses are analyzed in the context of an authentic composition, rather than a close-ended or short answer format. This format reduces the effects of guessing which may elevate the child’s score and provides an analysis of the student’s genuine writing capabilities.
   
The SWET’s dinosaur, space, and shipwreck themes are highly stimulating picture prompts that help tap student’s creative writing skills and are ideal for Portfolio/Performance-Based Assessment approaches. Teachers may desire to evaluate the progress their students make over the course of the school year and decide to administer the three equivalent SWET forms during the beginning, middle and end of the school year.
 
The standardized scoring system, featuring specially designed, user-friendly scoring and profile forms, yield subscale scores for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, as well as two writing maturity measures: sentence length and type-token ratio.
 
The SWET yields a Written Expression Total Standard Score (TSS; Mean of 100 and Standard Deviation of 15) and subscale scores (Mean 10 and SD of 3), each of which convert easily to percentile ranks. The SWET was standardized on 1,913 children, aged 8 – 17. Equivalent form reliabilities and validity comparisons with other tests such as the Woodcock-Johnson: Tests of Achievement-Revised and WRAT-3 warrant use of the SWET as a quick reliable measure of written expression for children.

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Stetson Spelling Program [SSP]
Elton Stetson & Ranae Stetson
OUR PRICE-$91.00

The Stetson Spelling Program (SSP) includes the 3,000 words considered to be the most important for both children and adults because, according to extensive research, they represent approximately 97% of the words written most often by children and adults in their daily writing. The second edition is much more user friendly for teachers and parents because the entire program, including the instructor¹s manual, word lists, screening tests, and forms are contained in a single volume rather than four separate volumes as it was in the first edition. Permission to duplicate and make transparencies of the word lists and forms is included with the purchase of the program. Unique features of the SSP include:

* 3,000 words in 30 units, each unit containing 10 lessons of 10 words each
* 20-word screening tests for each unit
* Four teaching strategies proven successful for both visual and auditory spellers
* Duplicable forms
* Detailed instructor's manual

The primary objective of spelling instruction should be to helping students spell correctly those words they already understand and/or use in speaking, listening and writing, but have difficulty spelling correctly. Therefore, many of the exercises found in traditional spelling programs are avoided, such as: looking up definitions; writing words repetitively without feedback or intervention; learning phonic rules that apply to reading but not spelling; filling in the blank or sentence completion activities; and other exercises that are questioned by many spelling experts. The four strategies of the SSP focus specifically on methods used by effective spellers:

* Pretesting before instruction to include immediate feedback and self correction
* Focusing only on words missed on pretests and reteaching words until they are learned
* Improvement of the visual memory for letter clusters and whole words
* Practicing spelling words using manuscript rather than cursive letters
* Development of mnemonics and other tricks to remember irregular spellings

Research on several thousand students who were first taught through traditional spelling textbooks and then switched to the SSP for eight weeks to six months showed average increases of 91% on weekly test scores, 42% on tests of long term memory for spelling, and 56% on standardize tests of written spelling. In addition to the positive quantitative impact on spelling achievement, teachers and students alike reported much greater enthusiasm for and attitude toward spelling instruction. Also, parents reported they found much more positive results when they replaced the typical homework of writing of words three or five times with the self-corrected test strategy outlined in the Letter To Parents that is included in the program.

The detailed instructor's manual contains an extensive review of the research on effective spelling instruction, directions for administering and managing the four strategies of the SSP, guidelines for using the program for whole-class instruction as well as peer teaching. Although most teachers begin the program using whole class instruction, they often find this method to be somewhat frustrating because the wide differences in spelling ability is about as wide as the differences in reading ability. Peer teaching allows two students of the same spelling ability to work together. Because the strategies are the same for all, student groups can work at different levels in the program and work at different paces as well. The instructor¹s manual provide detailed guidelines for managing peer teaching in a way that all students can be studying spelling at the same time, but working with words that are most appropriate to their ability levels.

SSP-PROGRAM: (B0052)-$91.00

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Test of Early Written Language - Second Edition [TEWL-2] 
Wayne P. Hresko

OUR PRICE-$285.00
Ages: 3-0 Through 10-11 Testing Time: 30 – 45 Minutes
   
The TEWL-2 includes two forms, each with Basic Writing and a Contextual Writing subtest. The test is a companion to the TOWL-3 for extending the assessment range to younger children. The TEWL-2 is suitable for research with children ages 3-0 to 3-11 and as an individual assessment instrument for children ages 4-0 to 10-11. It provides standard score quotients (M=100, SD=15), NCEs, percentiles, age equivalents, allows items to be profiled for diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses, and provides direction for interpretation and instruction.
   
The TEWL-2 was standardized on a 1,400 children. Internal consistency reliability coefficients of all scores meet or exceed .90 for all ages and stability reliability of all scores approximates or exceeds .90.

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Test of Handwriting Skills-Revised [THS-R]
Author: Michael Milone

OUR PRICE-$148.00

Visual-Motor (sensory) Integration
Ages 6-0 through 18-11
Individual/Group Admin.
Testing/Scoring Time: 25 min.

The THS-R is an untimed, clinical assessment of neurosensory integration skills evident in handwriting (both manuscript and cursive) that are often disrupted in students with learning difficulties. The THS-R provides standardized assessment of children's handwriting ability for both manuscript and cursive styles that can be used with any of the popular handwriting programs (such as Palmer, Zaner-Bloser, D'Nealian). The THS-R is not a classroom assessment of penmanship.

Results of the THS-R can be used to:

identify neurosensory integration problems
monitor progress of students with disabilities
determine if neurosensory integration difficulties are contributing to students' learning problems
guide instructional or rehabilitation practices

Changes to the new edition include:

norms extended through age 18 (manuscript and cursive)
nationally stratified norms
simplified scoring procedures
clarified scoring criteria
handwriting exemplars that reflect current styles including D'Nealian, Handwriting Without Tears, Universal, and Zaner-Bloser
abbreviated administration procedures
scoring examples
scoring training video

The Manual now provides guidance on how the THS-R can be used for progress monitoring. Also included is a video tutorial to assist practitioners in the scoring process. Subtest scores are reported as scaled scores and percentile ranks, and an Overall standard score has been added. The THS-R was normed on 1,500 U.S. individuals.

THS-R Practical Guide to Handwriting
Available separately, the reproducible Practical Guides to Handwriting: Cursive and Manuscript provide numerous exercises for students who may be experiencing visual-motor difficulties.

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Test of Written Expression [TOWE]
Ron McGhee, Brian R. Bryant, Stephen C. Larsen, & Diane M. Rivera

OUR PRICE-$205.00

Ages: 6-6 Through 14-11    Individual or Group
   
The TOWE provides a comprehensive yet efficient norm-referenced assessment of writing achievement for students. Two assessment methods are used to evaluate a student’s writing skills: the first involves administering a series of 76 items that tap different skills associated with writing; the second method requires students to read or hear a prepared story starter and use it as a stimulus for writing an essay.
   
The TOWE reports raw scores, standard scores (M=10; SD=15), and percentile ranks. It was standardized on a sample of 1,226 students representative of the US with regard to gender, race, and geographic region. Evidence of validity and reliability (internal consistency, test-retest, interscorer) is provided in the test manual. Content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity are explored.

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Test of Written Language - Third Edition [TOWL-3] 
Donald D. Hammill and Stephen C. Larsen

OUR PRICE-$310.00
Ages: 7-6 through 17-11 Testing Time: 1.5 Hours
   
The TOWL-3 contains eight subtests that measure student’s writing competence through both essay-analysis (spontaneous) formats and traditional test (contrived) formats. It can be administered to individuals or small groups and has two equivalent forms (A and B) which allows examiners to evaluate student growth in writing using pre-testing and post-testing that is not contaminated by memory. Composite quotients are available for overall writing, contrived writing and spontaneous writing.
   
The TOWL-3 was standardized on a 26-state sample of more than 2,000 public and private school students (grades 2 through 12), The test provides percentiles, standard scores, and age equivalents. Internal consistency, test-retest with equivalent forms, and interscorer reliability coefficients approximate .80 at most ages, and many are in the .90s.

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Test of Written Spelling - Fourth Edition [TWS-4] 
Stephen C. Larsen and Donald D. Hammill

OUR PRICE-$121.00
Grades: 1 Through 12 Administration Time: 20 Minutes

The revised TWS-4 is a norm-referenced test of spelling administered using a dictated word format. The TWS-4 now has two alternate or equivalent forms (A and B) which make it more useful in test-teach-test situations. The TWS-4 is appropriate for students in Grades 1-12 as well as for those in remedial programs. The TWS-4 was developed after a review of 2,000 spelling rules. The words to be spelled are drawn from 10 based spelling programs and popular graded word lists.

The results of the TWS-3 may be used to identify students whose scores are significantly below those of their peers and who might need interventions designed to improve spelling proficiency; to determine areas of relative strength and weakness in spelling; to document overall progress in spelling as a consequence of intervention programs; and to serve as a measure for research efforts designed to investigate spelling. The TWS-3 was standardized on more than 4,000 students.  

 

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Writing Process Test
M. Robin Warden and Thomas A. Hutchinson

OUR PRICE-$250.00

The norm-referenced Writing Process Test (WPT) is a direct measure of writing that requires the student to plan, write, and revise an original composition. The WPT assesses both written product and writing process. The test can be administered individually or in groups for people 8 through 19 years of age (or in Grades 2 through 12), and administration usually takes 45 minutes (plus another 30 minutes if the student revises).

The test rates the writer's effort on two scales, Development and Fluency. The six Development Scales assess Purpose and Focus, Audience, Vocabulary, Style and Tone, Support and Development, and Organization and Coherence. The six Fluency Scales assess Sentence Structure and Variety, Grammar and Usage, Capitalization and Punctuation, and Spelling.

Two different prompts were normed during standardization, and percentile ranks and standard scores (M= 100,SD= 15) are provided for Development and Fluency and for the sum of the two (the Total Score). The scales are applicable to virtually all written compositions. The following are some of the WPT features: Analytic scoring provides diagnostic information that holistic scoring cannot; ten 4-point scales for precise scoring; uses one score protocol for all grades; score protocol also works well for grading most teacher-assigned writing; normed on 5,000+ students in Grades 2 to 12 in class-size groups; internal consistency reliability averaged .84 (interrater averaged .75).

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