This photo shows a Dictation Sample, one part of the Developmental Reading Assessment for Fall of 2004. The students are to listen to the teacher dictate two sentences, and then they are to write what they hear, without receiving assistance from the teacher in spelling.

I selected this photo because it demonstrates which spelling strategies this student is presently utilizing. As we can see, the student writes most of the sounds he hears in his invented spelling: “rote” for wrote, “letr” for letter, and “sone” for soon. It also gives the teacher information on strategies for which the student may need more assistance.

I want prospective employers to notice how I have scored this child based on his awareness of letter sound relationship, and his ability to write the sounds he hears in words.

If I were to perform this assessment with another child, I would assess his/her writing based on his/her natural writing samples. Some students may feel intimidated by having to write a dictated sentence in front of a teacher, and this may interfere with the student’s ability to utilize writing strategies he may normally use on his own.