Spelling Assessment

For my spelling assessment, I decided to use the Gentry Spelling Assessment on Leo. I believe it was appropriate because while Leo cannot yet write words independently, he appears to have enough phonetic knowledge to know beginning sounds of most words. I wanted to see if he had any knowledge of consonant sounds or ending sounds as well. The words on the left are the conventional spellings, and the words following are Leo's interpretations of those same words. The words in parenthesis indicate which stage of spelling development these words indicate.

1.) Monster = MsTR (Semiphonetic)
2.) United = tn (Semiphonetic) He heard the T first, and then the N upon repeating the word.
3.) Dress = S (Semiphonetic) He couldn't figure out what it started with, but he knew end sound.
4.) Bottom = B_______d (Semiphonetic) He left a space because he knew there were other sounds, and the B represents the T sound, as they are often confused in early spelling development. 
5.) Hiked = T (Semiphonetic) He could only figure out the end sound - d/t.
6.) Human = 0 (Precommunicative) "I'm going to write a zero because I don't know that one."
7.) Beagle = B___g (Semiphonetic) Heard some sounds and left a space between then purposefully
8.) Closed = L (Semiphonetic) He said he also heard the beginning sound K, but he couldn't remember how to write it.   
9.) Bumped = B____T (Semiphonetic) Similar to #4
10.) Type = T (Semiphonetic) Knew beginning sound - I'm not sure he knew what this word meant

Leo shows mainly semiphonetic knowledge, but it's apparent that he has trouble with beginning sounds. This makes sense, because his teacher has placed him in the reading group that works on this skill. He was inventive during the assessment by placing spaces between sounds he knew, because he knows that there were other letters in the words. He repeatedly told me that the sounds he was writing down were the only ones he knew, which also shows that he's aware there are other letters - he just doesn't know them yet. Once he has mastered one-to-one matching, he will have a better understanding of the way words look and the sounds that they start and end with.

Leo does have a lot of knowledge about writing in general. Orthographically, he knows how to write most letters (and most definitely recognize them) and has a good sense of directionality. He knows what a letter and a word is, and understands the function of many kinds of writing. He also uses talk and drawing in his writing, which I learned from reading Kidwatching, create meaningful messages. Drawing, which he always does in his writer's notebook, "helps children rehearse and develop ideas for writing, supplies information about characters, settings, and events; and disambiguates text; and it helps others understand what has been written" (Owocki and Goodman). Although he has not yet started to add complex text, I learned that drawing is a precursor to what will eventually develop into conventional writing.