Alyssa Dekany

Assessment Paper 2
Monster Test
3/8/11

1. Monster – Moster – Transitional Stage

2. United – Uitde – Phonetic Stage
3. Dress – Drese – Transitional Stage
4. Bottom – Botmot – Transitional Stage
5. Hiked – hike – Transitional Stage
6. Human – humun – Transitional Stage
7. Eagle – Elage – Transitional Stage
8. Closed – Cloth – Phonetic Stage
9. Bumped – Bompt – Phonetic Stage
10. Type – Tepe – Transitional Stage

The majority of the student’s spellings show’s that she is most likely in the Transitional
Stage.

Purpose:

The purpose of the Monster assessment was to figure out what spelling stage the

student was at. Because most of the words spelled by the student, Jane, were in the

Transitional Stage, that’s most likely the stage in which she’s at.

Introduction of the child and setting:

Jane is a six-year-old kindergarten student. I asked her if she would like to help

me with my homework. I explained to her that I would need her to spell ten words for

me, but they were not going to get graded and there was no such thing as a wrong

answer. After explaining the activity, Jane and I sat at a secluded table in the hallway

where we completed the Monster Test. I read her the word, then used the word in the

sentence, and then repeated the word one last time. I did this for every word.
 Methodology for using assessment tool:

Because I told Jane that there was not a wrong answer and the activity was not

going to be graded, she was able to write what she thought the answer truly was. Also,

she was not afraid to guess if need be. Whenever Jane finished writing down one of the

words from the list, she would look up at me expectantly. I always said “good job” and

then read her the next word and sentence.

Description of findings:

My findings show that Jane is in the Transitional Stage. She thinks about the

words before she spells them out, and she knows conventions of English orthography.

Because Jane is only a kindergarten student, I thought this activity would be too hard for

her. I was under the impression that most of her spelling would be in the Semiphonetic

Stage, but I was wrong.

How you would use these findings to inform instruction:

Because I know that Jane understands ideas such as there are vowels in every

sentence and other English orthography, I know that she is on her way to the

Conventional Stage of spelling. These findings help me learn what Jane knows and what

she doesn’t, and it helps me figure out what needs to be done to make her a Conventional

speller.