Catherine Wood
Monster Spelling Test Reflection
November 21st, 2010
I chose to perform a Monster Spelling test as one of my assessments in the field.
The Monster Spelling Test is a Developmental Spelling Assessment that was created by
Richard Gentry in 1985.
The Monster spelling test was created to assess student’s
developmental spelling phase based on their ability to sound out words when spelling
them. Developmental spelling helps students to understand the use of print in order to
form words.
The student I chose to perform my Monster Spelling Test on was a six year old boy
who has been diagnosed as having Aspergers and moderate Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder, (ADHD). After getting a chance to observe the child for some
time, and seeing how they perform academically, I can see that the child has a hard time
with sounding out words. Right now in school, his teachers have taught him to tap out
each word on his fingers. The idea of tapping out the sounds on his fingers is the same
idea as pushing the sounds with pennies that the students use in Reading Recovery at
Dutch Neck Elementary School. The student has an above average math and reading
level, however the student has a hard time with spelling.
The Monster Spelling Test breaks down each word into one of the five levels of
spelling.
The five developmental levels of spelling are; precommunicative stage,
semiphonetic stage, phonetic spellers, transitional spellers, and conventional spellers. The
precommunicatove stage is mainly babbling stage of spelling, when children use random
letters of strings of letters to represent different words. The semiphonetic spellers stage is
when children can recognize that each letter represents a sound. The phonetic spellers
stage is when children begin to spell words exactly as they sound. The transitional
spellers stage is when children think about how words should look when written based on
their memory of spelling patterns. The conventional spellers stage develops over years of
writing.
Based on how the student performed in their Monster Spelling Test, which I have
provided, the student is between the semiphonetic stage of spelling and the phonetics
spellers stage of spelling. I have provided a scoring chart in which I have highlighted
each stage that I believe the child fell in based on their spelling of each word. The
phonetic spellers stage I would say that for the child’s age, 6, and his grade level, first
grade, I would say the student does well for his age. As you can see in the spelling test
itself, the student starts off strong, and then possibly due to him having ADHD, he does
not do as well towards the end of the spelling test. I am curious to see how the student
would do with spelling one or two words from the Monster Spelling List each day.
Because this child is classified and has an above average math and reading level, I
found it difficult to think of ideas as to why this child would have such difficulty with
spelling. I thought that in order to help this child with their spelling that it might be good
to do a personal word wall with this student. A personal word wall would help the child
to focus on difficult words that they may have trouble spelling. I would also recommend
that the student work on writing each letter and memorizing the sound that each letter
makes.