Below are examples of the Level 1 and Level 2 spelling inventories.  A spelling inventory assesses a child's knowledge of spelling rules and patterns.  It allows the administrator to identify the child's instructional spelling range, as well as the quality of his errors.  This information becomes a valuable tool in planning for the child's instruction, because it reveals patterns of difficulty in the child's spelling ability that need or need not to be addressed in his instruction.

When administering a spelling inventory, one should begin at the child's independent level of flash word recognition.  This is because spelling ability tends to lag behind word recognition.  Upon completing the list of words in each inventory, the list should be scored.  This is done by counting the number of words spelled correctly and multiplying this amount by 5.  If a student scores above 40%, the next level of words should be administered to him.  If he scores 40% or below the administrator should stop, because this would be considered his frustrational level.

On the examples below, incorrect spellings are marked with an arrow beside them and correct responses are left blank.  Spelling difficulties that were noticed have been listed.