Placement Exercises

Overview

The tutor carries out Reading and Spelling Placement with the student in order for the program to be set at the right level for the student’s skills.

Students will be placed where they are comfortable, not where they are struggling, in this way the student can feel confident right from the outset.

It is easiest to screen one student at a time, and both Reading and Spelling Placement can be done in the same session.

However, it is possible to screen two students at the same time if necessary – one student can do the Spelling Placement independently, whilst the other does the Reading Placement with the tutor.

Reading and Spelling have separate placement exercises because they are two different skills – the student needs to be placed at the right level for each.

Students should always be supervised for Placement, this is not practice work.

Reading Placement

Once Placement has been set in Options, it will open automatically when the student logs on.

Ask the student to focus on the middle of the screen, while the tutor controls the mouse. Explain that you will need to show some words the student will find too hard in order to find the correct starting point.

• Click for the first word, which will appear in the middle of the screen.
• The student has 2 seconds to read the word aloud.
• If it is correct, click on the tick.
• It it is wrong, click the cross.

You are looking for automatic decoding. If there is a long pause or the student is sounding out the word, mark it wrong. If you don’t do this, the student will be working at a level that is too difficult, rather than comfortable.

Don’t give any feedback other than encouragement – treat it like a test.

The words presented will adjust according to the responses.

Placement stops automatically when the Reading program has been set for the student – save the results. Times vary according to the students’ levels, but you should allow 10 minutes for this exercise.

Spelling Placement

The student should wear a headset for Spelling Placement to ensure good quality sound.

The student clicks on the arrow to hear the word and then types it in. Encourage the student to check what he/she has typed before clicking for the next word.

The student can hear a word as many times as necessary using the replay arrow.

Placement stops automatically when the Spelling program has been set for the student – save the results.

The tutor should decide whether or not a student can be left to complete the spelling placement independently, but the exercise should always be supervised.