This third edition of the popular Waddington Diagnostic Reading and Spelling Tests is supplied as an ebook and now contains advanced reading tests and advanced spelling test subsections that will take your reading and spelling ages beyond 11 years of age, through the teenage years to adult level. Available as Single Teacher or School registration - select in Version tab and see explanation below
These group based tests are easy to administer and provide very detailed diagnostic information beyond a student's reading and spelling age. Teachers will quickly obtain a valuable snapshot of all students in a class/school, as well as critical diagnosis for special cases.
The reading tests have a combination of letter, word, rhyme, phonic, picture to word and picture to text recognition. All tests embody scope and sequence of learning to read / spell skills, which is why they are widely used in Australia, particularly by staff faced with difficult student cases. Chapters explain links to teaching and learning theory and practice in a very logical down-to-earth manner. Norms are based on over 30,000 combined student testings across Australian states, according to a carefully balanced skill sample, after review and approval by all Australian state Departments of Education. There are two of each test, in parallel form, so that student custom and/or fatigue is minimised.
Once administered, the tests will not leave you simply with derived reading and spelling ages for students. It also provides detailed support and pointers to extra resources which will extend or remediate students. We won't leave you in the lurch. In most cases, we supply the precise back-up resources that will work within a classroom environment to directly assist students in an integrated environment. Chapter 5 provides further assessment and diagnostic procedures. Chapter 6 provides several case examples. Chapter 7 of the publication provides very interesting trends from the sampling, comparing results over 3 decades from 1988 and 1999 to 2011.
The introduction to the publication points out that the tests and accompanying diagnostic procedures and referrals to other resources have been constructed for the following purpose: "To assist with the identification, diagnosis and intervention for students with learning difficulties or advanced skills, by bridging the gap between those teachers who rely mainly upon observation and personal judgement in assessing a students performance and those who naively accept the limited information of derived scores provided by tests as being the major indicator of a student or schools performance."
This ebook is easy to read and provides clear guidance with back-up case examples and hands-on materials. It is written by a classroom teacher of 30 years teaching experience and twice over Advanced Skills Teacher, who is also married to a current state school junior primary trained teacher/librarian with the same years of in-school teaching experience, thus reflecting realistic coalface issues from the ground up. Easy readme instructions for also installing on iPads.
Single Teacher vs School Registration
The Single Teacher registration is exactly what it says. It means that only you (the person whose name is digitally stamped within the ebook) can use the tests with your students and it can be taken with you if you change schools (which would leave the school without the tests) or if you need to use the tests/document outside of the school.
The School Registration allows a school/site/campus to place the ebook on a central server and allow staff in the school/site/campus to access it. Anyone in the same school/site/campus can access the tests, including new teachers who come and go, whilst they are in the school/site/campus. Large schools with multi-campuses need to buy school registration for each campus given campuses are either satellite schools or they are spread over more than one site, usually containing their own number of classes.
Please decide carefully according to the intended use. Some schools buy both forms of registration so that their Principal/key literacy person maintains a personal teacher registration when they change schools or use the document outside of the school.
Key Changes Introduced in this 3rd Edition
The publisher's terms for replacement eBooks/software are as follows:
"We’ll provide software replacements at any time, and for free, if the problem is due to our fault.
We allow at least 30 days for customer to download their software and we explicitly instruct to make a back-up copy. We generally allow around 60 extra days as a grace period.
However, if the need for a replacement is not of our making, then we will only provide replacements if the item is of the same main software version and the request is made within a reasonable time-frame (e.g. up to 2 years) and that service cost will be at half price. If the request is for an item outside of these parameters, the customer has to buy again at full price.
The 50% costs reflects the time and effort involved in re-stamping and re-uploading software, including its hosting (which is not free), as well as our time and personnel dealing with these types of requests."