I wrote these tests when I was a teacher's assistant for Ms. Taylor's second grade class at Mary Scroggs Elementary School, in Chapel Hill, NC. We had a group of students who needed spelling words that were a little more challenging. Ms. Taylor was into differentiation. Ms. Taylor handed me the list of challenging words she'd chosen for the week, I'd add several of the most commonly misspelled words from previous tests and write a passage or rhyme incorporating both sets of words.  The kids really liked quite a few of these passages, especially "Weeee!".

On spelling test day, the students would be given a copy of the passage with blanks where the spelling words were to be written. The passage would be read aloud by an instructor once in its entirety while the students followed along with their copies. Then the passage would be read aloud once more, this time with pauses allowing the students time to write the missing words in the blanks. On the instructor's copy of the test the spelling words are underlined.

I hope you enjoy them.

If you'd like a custom passage feel free to contact me by clicking here

or email me at: dana[a.t]fitz-simons.org

The 2371^st Annual Leprechaun Rainbow Construction Contest was not going well for Shamus. Most people think rainbows are quite common and need no construction, but as everyone knows, leprechaun rainbows are special. Leprechauns must construct rainbows that are so vibrantly bright, people are forced to comment on them and we all know what has to be at the end of a leprechaun rainbow. Shamus’ main competition, Shaun, seemed to be getting things exactly correct, but something different seemed to go wrong with Shamus’ every attempt. At one point Shamus had a beautifully vibrant rainbow with a pot of sugar at the end. Shaun had a good laugh at that one. Finally the answer came to Shamus.

Before this event Shamus had not known the function of the Irish jig that every good leprechaun performs as the final step in rainbow construction. Shamus had done a little dance, but not a true jig as he’d observed in Shaun’s camp. Shamus leapt into motion, building the most colorful, stunningly brilliant rainbow to ever come into existence. Then he did a true Irish jig. Suddenly, a huge pot of gold sprang out of the ground at the end of Shamus’ rainbow.

Shamus’ was so happy he had tears of joy flowing from his eyes as he told me about his creation. I don’t know who won the competition. I don’t think it matters. Shamus didn’t care. He just glowed with pride over his perfect rainbow with its huge pot of gold.

The play opened with Christopher Columbus dropping to his knees while trying to convince Queen Isabella that the world is round. People used to think that the world is flat. The play was set in the 1400’s so the actors were in the styles of the clothes worn during that era. Christopher brought maps with him so that Queen Isabella could better follow his argument. He spoke eloquently for a long time but she and King Ferdinand still needed to be convinced. Christopher went over his argument once and then once again, after the third time they gave him the gold he needed. With the gold he bought his ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The play ended with Columbus landing in North America in 1492.

The day was very hectic anyway and now his humps were beginning to expand. Poor Fred, the camel, was having a dreadful day. Anjalic, his human, usually loaded Fred up with expensive spices every morning. Together they’d travel the gravel road to sell the spices at Market Square. Today was different. Samir, Anjalic‘s son, had to take his final exams. He would not graduate without passing those tests. All Anjalic could do was watch and worry while her son prepared himself for the tasks ahead of him. Like an answer to their prayers, an old oil lamp appeared outside their house. Anjalic rubbed the lamp and out came a genie.

"Wow, I guess genies really do exist!," mused Fred.

Of course the genie was in a wish granting mood, having just been freed from the lamp. Anjalic’s first wish was for Samir to ace his finals. Her next wish was for a larger quantity of costly spice, which appeared already loaded onto poor Fred. He almost dropped under the added weight. Fred started for the market before anything else could happen. He trotted as fast as he could under all of the spices so he could not hear exactly how Anjalic used her last wish but he could feel himself getting bigger, his nose was getting longer and now he had tusks.

"What has Anjalic done?," thought a frantic Fred, "Well at least my load is feeling lighter."

Keisha was very young and small for her age, but she had the determination of 50 elephants. She loved swimming and wanted, more than anything, to be on the swim team at her pool. Tryouts for the team were usually two weeks before the pool officially opened for the summer. It was only December but Keisha begged and begged until finally her father agreed to take her to the indoor pool across town. There she could practice for the tryouts in May. Now that is determination!

During the winter months Keisha practiced at the indoor pool every day. She met other swimmers there who had been on the team last year. Some took one look at her small stature and began to laugh. Keisha was not discouraged. She continued her steady regime under the watchful eyes of last year’s swim team members. Suddenly word began to spread of Keisha’s tenacity and building speed.

May arrived, time for tryouts. All of the swimmers trying out seemed incredibly fast to Keisha but she brought something different to the tryouts. She was as fast as the other swimmers, but what caught the coach’s eye was her beaming courage and tenacity. She not only made the team that year, she finished first in all of her events at the division championship meet.

 ( Contractions are a target of this test so explain to the students that they are to use a contraction for the terms "that is" and "who had". )

Every morning Sarah began her summer days by going to the pond before breakfast. At the pond many different geese and swans always greeted her. She loved both types of birds and played with them throughout the summer. Then one crisp autumn morning Sarah found that her birds were gone. Sarah’s mother explained that the birds flew to a warmer place to live during the winter. Sarah loved her birds so much she studied ornithology, or the study of birds, at school. As an adult, Federal Wildlife Agent Sarah goes to the marshes most days, keeping an eye on her birds as she does her job.

During your travels to the southwestern part of the United States, it is possible that you’ll encounter an odd little prickle covered fruit or vegetable. It is called a prickly pear and comes from a cactus. In Albuquerque, New Mexico you will see many rock gardens filled with gravel and dotted with flower and prickly pear covered cacti. Most people pickle their prickly pears or serve them up in salads. Sometimes sugar, honey, lime juice and various pieces of cut fruits are combined with prickly pears to make a delicious fruit salad. If this sounds good to you, get out your shovel and make your own rock garden from which you can pick fresh prickly pears.

George was almost through his second year of school. He was doing very well. He always made sure he had his homework. He always raised his hand when his teacher asked questions. He listened, was respectful of others and usually opened the door for his class during recess. But suddenly he changed.

George stopped raising his hand or even smiling in class. He rarely had his homework and would cry every morning when his mom made him go to school. The teacher thought he might be under the weather, but his behavior lasted too long for a simple illness. Finally his teacher, Miss Hilton, questioned him about his attitude change.

“They won’t stop teasing me about my clothes!” cried George. “I know that my shoes have some holes and my coat’s second hand, but I can’t help that. When the other kids tease me it really hurts and I just don’t want to be here anymore!”

George ran away sobbing. Miss Hilton spoke to the rest of the class. She explained, “we are all here at school to learn. Saying hurtful things, making fun of people, stops us from learning. If we don’t learn in school, it’s really hard to be happy when we grow up.”

The children that made fun of George began to understand what they’d done. They ran to George, apologized and never teased him again. George began to perk up and finished school with flying colors!

By the end of the year all of the students had completed the spelling book. I crafted original spelling tests for multiple groups. Often I would just write two passages but this is an example of a test to be given to both groups at once.