Wordy Qwerty Assessment Module
As part of its ongoing commitment to excellence, Talking Fingers has created the Wordy Qwerty Assessment module you'll see on the Wordy Qwerty CD. This module was specifically designed to be used by academic researchers who will or would like to measure the effectiveness of our software. After adding the module, we realized that it might be of use to teachers and parents, as well. So, here are instructions on how to use the module and how to export, print and read the data it collects.
Upon launching the Wordy Qwerty Assessment module (clicking on its icon), you can choose one of four options to check how well they have learned the spelling:
- Pre-Test - You can choose to have students take a Pre-test of 22 spelling words before beginning Wordy Qwerty, so that you'll have a better measure of how much progress each child has made after he or she completes the program. If students score 100% on this pre-test, they probably would benefit from using a more advanced program.
- Post-Test - You can administer the Post-test of matched words, after the child completes the program. These are 22 words from the program, using the spelling rules that have been presented.
- Lesson Testing - You can choose to test a child on any of the 20 Wordy Qwerty lessons, by choosing the lesson number from the center pole on the main screen. They will spell ten words from the Pattern Activity of that lesson. This is a good way to see if they have absorbed the rule. If they do not score well, it might benefit them to play the lesson over, and learn the JingleSpell Song.
- Student Data Report - You can export and save a report of all data collected on each student, as of the date the report is exported.
Options 1-3
To test a child or group of children using Options 1 through 3, launch the Wordy Qwerty Assessment module, click on an existing student (or type in a new student's name), click "Go," then choose the test you'd like to administer.
After the test is completed, a score will appear on the screen displaying the percent of correctly spelled words.
IMPORTANT: The test results for Options 1-3 are recorded in the student's data file and will become part of the report for Option 4, explained in greater detail below.
After a student completes the chosen test, click "Stop," then begin the process again, with either another test or another student. Continue in this manner until you are finished with the testing session.
Student Data Report (Option 4)
Every time a student logs in and works with Wordy Qwerty, data for that session is added to the student's data file. To save a report of all student data gathered to date, click on the Wordy Qwerty Assessment icon, wait a few seconds for the main screen to appear, sign in as "Teacher," click "Go," then click "OK" when the window pops up and asks "Would you like to export the data?". It will ask you to choose a place in which to store the report and will automatically name the report "WQReport.txt." After you select a location to which to save the report and either change the name of the file or leave it the default name, click "OK" and the file will be stored in that location.
The WQReport.txt file is a simple, tab-delimited text file that can be used in a variety of ways. The simplest thing to do is open the file in either Note Pad on the PC or Text Editor on the Mac. It can, however, be imported into either a text editor such as Word, or a spreadsheet program like Excel, or, on a PC, a text editor like MS Word. (see pictures below)
Table 1: Opened in a simple text editor.
If you open the report in a simple Text Editor, it will look like the picture above. The first row of data is: 1) name of the student, 2) current score, 3) current lesson, 4) current activity within the lesson.
All the data gathered on each student, to date, is displayed in the rows and columns following the first row of data on that student. The six columns of ongoing student data represent: 1) date of session; 2) type of activity (one of the 6 activities in each WQ lesson - or one of the preset assessment tests); 3) lesson number; 4) number of correct attempts/choices; 5) total number of attempts/choices for the session; and 6) amount of time spent in the activity, in seconds.
Below is an example of how you can open the WQReport.txt file in a spreadsheet program and format the data so that it is more understandable to a third party.
Table 2: Imported into Excel and formatted with Title info and an added 7th column which tabulates percentage correct.