Commissioner Ix
When Commissioner Ix is one of the LRS-center series published publicly available test methods for learning level diagnosis in the field of spelling learning . The tests in this series are not to be viewed as an alternative, but rather as a supplement to established test procedures that is motivated by funding diagnostics. This means that they are less aimed at making selection-diagnostic decisions than at the planning of individual support measures for learners who have difficulty acquiring spelling, and they provide detailed information on how to carry them out. There are five test forms available for different levels of competence, which can be used from the end of the 1st year of primary school.
Theoretical foundations
The test procedures are based on the system of the Aachen funding diagnostic spelling error analysis (AFRA) by Herné & Naumann (2016). On this basis, the various peculiarities of the German writing system can be hierarchically structured according to linguistic aspects and with regard to their complexity in terms of the writing system, i.e. the requirements to be met when spelling.
It is known from longitudinal studies that the course of writing writing during regular school time is characterized by a continuous increase in correct spelling (cf. May 2010, 247). This applies to both those with average literacy skills and learners with above or below average written language skills, which seems to feed the hope that registered learning deficits could 'grow out' in the further course of learning development. A comparison of the various developmental courses shows, however, that lower-performing learners cannot catch up with their learning deficits compared to higher-performing children at any point in their overall development (cf. Herné & Löffler 2017, 51).
In order to better account for smaller differences in performance, it has proven to be useful not to assess spelling performance on the basis of correct spelling of entire words, but on the basis of grapheme hits, i.e. the correct spelling of the characters that make up a written word (cf. May 2010) .
Test construction
In contrast to other established test procedures (cf. Herné 2003), in the tests of the Commissioner Ix series, learners are only asked to write the type of writing that they can actually manage due to their developmental age and the school instruction they have experienced so far. The items of the various test forms are therefore characterized by a gradual increase in average complexity over the assumed five development levels. (cf. Herné 2003, 889).
| Test name | Normalizations | Number of items | Grapheme number | complexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commissioner Ix: Case 1 | End of class 1 - beginning of class 2 | 20th | 102 | .47 |
| Commissioner Ix: Case 2 | End of class 2 - beginning of class 3 | 30th | 171 | .69 |
| Commissioner Ix: Case 3 | End of class 3 - beginning of class 4 | 40 | 271 | .78 |
| Commissioner Ix: Case 4 | End of class 4 - beginning of class 5 | 50 | 366 | .85 |
| Commissioner Ix: Case 5 | from the end of class 5 | 60 | 496 | .86 |
The items of the AFRA tests are embedded in meaningful texts as blank sentences that come closer to natural writing situations than the writing of unrelated words or sentences. To check the spelling skills, the tests therefore use short, coherent fill-in-the-blank texts in which Commissioner Ix plays a leading role.
Based on around 9,000 tests from around 400 school classes in grades 1 to 9, the tests were last standardized by the LRS Center in 2017 . The quality criteria determined in this context for the individual test forms speak for a high degree of reliability and validity of the tests.
Test execution
The tests can be carried out from the end of 1st grade. For the selection diagnostic assessment of test performance, comparative norms are available up to the end of the 9th grade of regular school time for the last two months of a school year and the first two months of the following school year.
It is carried out either as a paper-and-pencil test using a test sheet provided by the LRS Center as a PDF file, or online using a publicly accessible web application. If a sheet of paper is used, the incorrect writing is recorded online after the actual test has been carried out and transmitted to the LRS center for evaluation. If a test person carried out the test online, this second step is not necessary.
Evaluation and reporting
The evaluation of the tests and the creation of reports are semi-automated by the LRS center . The multi-page funding diagnostic findings contain, in addition to the selection diagnostic specification of a norm-oriented T-value and percentile rank for the general assessment of the degree of need for funding, a transparent and comprehensive presentation of the results of the funding diagnostic analyzes as well as suggestions for the creation of individual funding plans and references to proven funding materials.
literature
- Karl-Ludwig Herné: Spelling Tests . In: Ursula Bredel, Hartmut Günther, Peter Klotz, Jakob Ossner, Gesa Sierbert-Ott: Didactics of the German language - a manual. Volume 2, Schöningh, Paderborn a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-8252-8236-8 , pp. 883-897.
- Karl-Ludwig Herné, Carl Ludwig Naumann: Aachen funding diagnostic spelling error analysis - AFRA. Systematic introduction to the practice of error analysis. 5th, revised edition. Alfa Zentaurus, Aachen 2016, ISBN 978-3-930335-37-4 .
- Karl-Ludwig Herné, Cordula Löffler: LRS: Recognize difficulties - promote skills. A practical handbook for teachers in grades 1-6. 2nd edition. Friedrich Verlag, Seelze 2017, ISBN 978-3-7800-4962-9 .
- Peter May: HSP 1 - 9. Diagnosis of orthographic competence. To record the basic spelling strategies with the Hamburger Schreib-Probe. vpm, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-923566-96-9 .
Web links
- Website of the LRS Center, Aachen lrs-online.de (visited on June 5, 2018).
Individual evidence
- ↑ test portal in the LRS-center lrs-online.de
- ↑ Funding diagnostic findings with detailed explanations in the download area of the LRS Center website lrs-online.de