Spelling Test Template

A numbered sheet for spelling tests, and a matching teacher copy

Choose how many words you are testing, from 10 to 25, and the page lays out that many numbered lines with room to write. Nothing else is printed, because nothing else should be — a spelling test sheet that shows the words is not a test.

Tick the teacher copy option and a second page prints with your word list numbered to match, so the sheet you read from and the sheet the class writes on cannot drift out of step.

Why the teacher copy matters more than it sounds

Anyone who has read a spelling test off a scrap of paper knows how it goes wrong. You lose your place. You read number 12 twice. Somebody asks which number you are on, and the whole room stops while you count back down the list.

A numbered list that matches the numbered sheet in front of the class removes that entirely. It also makes marking possible for somebody who was not in the room, which matters for cover teachers and for parents testing at home from a list the school sent.

What the form offers

Word count from 10 to 25. A worksheet title, an instruction line, optional Name and Date fields, and the teacher copy toggle. A4 or US Letter.

Paste your word list in and it appears on the teacher copy. Leave it empty and you get the numbered lines on their own, which is what you want if you are reading from the school's own list.

Running the test

Say the word, use it in a sentence, say the word again. The sentence is not padding. Without it their and there and they're are the same noise, and so are dozens of less obvious pairs that will not occur to you until somebody gets one wrong.

Leave enough time between words that the slowest writer is not still on number 7 when the class hears number 9. A child who falls behind starts guessing, and their score stops measuring their spelling.

Marking, and what the results actually tell you

A raw score out of 20 tells you very little. The errors tell you everything.

Sort them into three piles. Phonetically plausible spellings — "nite" for "night" — mean the sound is heard and the convention is not known, which is a teaching problem with a clear answer. Spellings that are not phonetically plausible mean the word was not heard properly, which is a different problem and sometimes a hearing one. And words left blank mean the child ran out of time or gave up, which is neither.

Three children can score 14 out of 20 and need three different responses.

A note on frequency

Weekly testing is the norm. It is not obviously the best pattern. Re-test the same words three weeks later and you find out what was actually learned, for the cost of one sheet.

Print at 100% on A4 or US Letter.