Case Study

Case Study Stacy (Godin) Small EDU 741: Literacy Assessment University of New England Linda Lacasse December 12, 2010

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Part I: Identification of Student Karl is a struggling reader in my classroom and when I looked at Karls past records, he has been persistently behind at least one grade level with his literacy. Upon entering third grade this year, Karl was a DRA level 18, which is the expected reading level of a student ending first grade. This places him approximately a year below grade level. He is an identified Title 1 student in both Mathematics and Reading and has been since entering the first grade. Karl has severe deficiencies in many areas of literacy. The largest deficiencies are in oral reading. Karl is a word-by-word reader who does not read fluently even when reading below grade level text at his level. He also demonstrates low decoding skills in spelling, limited comprehension, difficulty organizing writing, and restricted vocabulary. These deficiencies hinder the effort Karl puts into his academics. Karl also has been having difficulties this year with incontinence and is missing at least one day a week due to this situation. Karl is being pulled out of the classroom as well, for approximately forty-five minutes a day, for Tier 2 intervention to help with his decoding and spelling skills. Although, I believe this pullout will be beneficial to Karls literacy development in the long term, it is concerning that he misses half of our literacy instruction everyday. The daily pull out and frequent absences make it difficult for both his Title 1 tutor and myself to ensure we meet his literacy needs in the classroom. Therefore I chose Karl as my case study so that I could clearly assess his needs and in doing so provide clear and direct instruction to meet those needs.

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Part II: Evidence Collection I used the following three assessments to demonstrate Karls current literacy level and to analyze to determine Karls strengths and areas of need. The first assessment was an informal reading survey that I created which was modified from a variety of sources. The reading survey had Karl assess himself as a reader- sharing his reading motivation, strengths, and areas of improvement. This assessment gave me the chance to see how Karl viewed himself as a reader and it allowed me to see what Karl viewed as his own strengths and areas of improvement. It also gave me the opportunity to learn about Karls reading appetite and the kinds of books he enjoys which will help me to give book recommendations in the future. The next assessment was a Developmental Reading Assessment, or DRA, which is a literacy assessment that is mandated by the school and must be given to each student at least three times a year. It is a comprehensive assessment that assesses the students in multiple areas of literacy and provides an overall picture of the student as a reader. This assessment is where many of Karls strengths and goals are determined and is used to design Karls instructional plan. The last assessments I used with Karl are Reading conference notes. I use these notes as records of Karls literacy strengths, his goals, and also his progress at meeting these goals. I try to have the Title 1 tutor and myself meet with Karl at least once a day to work on his literacy goals and to make note of his progress. The following pages are scanned copies of these artifacts.

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Part III: Analysis of Evidence Based on the three assessment artifacts Karl has several strengths as a reader. His first strength is that Karl has developed a satisfactory reading stamina and he can stay focused on a text for at least twenty minutes. He demonstrates a desire to read and enjoys reading books. He often has a large selection of books in his book box and is always eager to read books that are suggested by others. Karl is also a reader who is very conscientious about reading the words as they are written on the text. He uses many problem-solving strategies independently to read the text accurately. These strategies include sounding out words by tapping individual sounds, rereading, beginning letters, and flipping a sound (changing the vowel sound from long to short or vise versa). Karl also has good recall of the books that he reads and he can retell what he has read. He has a good sense of story sequence and retells a story in the order the events occurred and often uses language from the story. He is able to reflect on his reading and is beginning to support his ideas with details from the text.
Based on the three assessments given Karl has several areas of need as well. The most concerning need at this time is Karls oral reading fluency. It hinders Karls ability to move up to the next DRA level because even though he can comprehend level 20 text, he is unable to meet the rate and phrasing requirements in the oral reading assessment. Karl currently reads at a rate of 55 words per minute on his level 18 DRA and 60 words per minute on a level 20. Karl also reads word by word and does not chunk his reading into meaningful phrases, which in turn affects his ability to read with expression. Karl also has difficulty selecting books that are a good fit for him and often selects books that are too challenging for him because he wants to read what his peers are reading. Karl also needs to think more about what he reads. He is able to retell in sequence with good detail, but has difficulty using the text to support his thinking about the story like when he makes a prediction or tries to interpret the text.

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The first area of need I addressed with Karl is how to select a book that is a good fit for him. Although Karl seems to enjoy reading and has many books in his book box, he quite frequently abandons books and when I have Karl read a little of the books he is choosing he often struggles to read many of the words correctly. Current research shows that students should primarily be reading books at their independent reading level and that, according to Richard Allington, those books should be ones in which the child can read with 99% accuracy (Boushey & Moser, 2006) which is a shift in thinking as the DRA and my school determines the independent reading level at 96%. To teach Karl how to select books that will help him to become a better reader I will use a variety of mini-lessons. The first lesson I will use will help Karl comes from Gail Boushey and Joan Moser and it is their I PICK lesson that will teach Karl not to just choose a book by readability, but also by purpose and interest. They also have a lesson that compares choosing a good fit book to choosing the right shoe. This lesson will show Karl how good readers choose books that are right for them not only for purpose, but also because they are a good fit for them. I will also teach him the 5 Finger Test which is a quick way to assess if the words in the book a child is trying to read are too difficult. If a child reads a half a page of text and finds less than one word that he or she does not know then the text is too easy. If there are 2 or 3 words the child does not know the book is just right, and if there are 4 or more words, then the book is too challenging. The final instructional activity I will do with Karl is to determine the difference between an Easy book, a Just Right or Good Fit book, and a Challenging or Hard book. This lesson comes from the book Guiding Readers and Writers Grades 3-6 by Fountas and Pinnell. Together we will develop the criteria for each of these books and create a reference chart in his reading log that he can refer to. Teaching Karl to pick books

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that are appropriate for his reading level and purpose will provide him with the ability to select his own reading materials in any setting. After Karl has learned to select books that are appropriate to his reading level, the next instructional goal we will work on is Karls phrasing. Karl reads word by word and does not chunk the words with in a sentence or text into meaningful phrases. I will start my phrasing instruction by having Karl read a list of sentences fluently. I will use the sentences from the Wilson Reading System and have Karl scoop the sentences breakings them into meaningful phrases. For example when given the sentence Will Jake and Pete compete in the contest? Karl will read the sentence in his head and then determine how to break up the sentence, if needed, into meaningful phrases such as Will Jake and Pete compete in the contest?. During this time I will also provide sheets for Karl to practice at home and with his Title 1 tutor. When Karl has demonstrated a clear understanding of reading in meaningful phrases at the sentence level, I will then move to the paragraph level and use a great resource I have called Fluency Skills Teaching Transparencies grades 1-3. I will start by using the phrasing teaching texts. For each text there are two versions of the text. The first version shows the student one way of dividing the text into meaningful phrases. The second version is just the text and it allows the student to practice dividing a text into meaningful phrases independently. I will start with the already divided text and have the student read that until he was able to read it with appropriate phrasing. Then I will give him the unmarked text version and have Karl divide the text into meaningful phrases independently. Karl would bring these texts home to practice and will also practice reading text with appropriate phrasing in his own independent reading book both at home and at school. The final instructional goal I will work on with Karl is to improve his fluency rate by using the Read Naturally Program. Currently Karl reads at approximately 6o words per minute.

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The average third grader is expected to read at a rate of at least 110 words per minute according to DIBLES assessment. What current research shows is that most students need explicit and direct, structured instruction to acquire reading skills (National Reading Panel, 2000). To help Karl develop his fluency rate I will use the Read Naturally Program. The Read Naturally Program
is a structured intervention program that combines modeling of fluent reading, repeated readings, and progress monitoring. The program starts with the student doing a cold read of the text. The number of words read in a minute is then recorded and used as a benchmark for improvement. The student then listens to a fluent reader read the text and read along sub-vocalizing at least two more times. After practicing with the recorded fluent reader the student then reads the piece independently practicing it again at least two more times. When the student feels he/she has improved on the cold reading score, he/she then does a practiced read or hot read of the text and the results are recorded. A bar graph is uses to show a students cold score (colored in blue), their hot or practice score (colored in red) and the growth. This graph is very motivating to the student because it shows measurable student progress immediately. The graph also measures gains made over time as it graphs the results of multiple stories. In the past I have not only seen progress from repeated readings of the text, but also an increase in the number of words a student reads during the initial cold read as well as the number of words read over all. The Read Naturally program also has a comprehension component that will help Karl practice his recall of text and inference skills.

Part IV: Reflection Completing this case study helped me gain a deeper understanding of Karl as a reader. In the past I would have given the DRA and informal reading inventory and analyzed them individually. By looking at these assessments together I was better able to see Karls strengths and areas of improvement. For example, when I was assessing Karls book engagement it helped for me to look back to the informal reading survey and see what kinds of books Karl said

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he liked reading. Many of them were not at his current reading level and also through checking the conference notes I was able to see that many of the current books he was choosing were also not at an appropriate level for him. Also by completing this case study I was able to clarify Karls strengths, areas of improvement (which became his learning goals), and what instructional methods I feel will best help him meet those goals. It helped make my instruction more clear and focused. Although I do not feel that writing a case study for each student in my class would be a beneficial use of my time, I do feel that the mechanics behind it- looking at several pieces of assessment or data together and analyzing them as a whole for student strengths and weaknesses would be beneficial. Instead of writing it out in this way, I can envision it more like a web graphic organizer with each assessment listed with strengths and goals noted for each. Then there would be an area for instructional implications based on the data. I feel these would be easier for me to utilize as a teaching tool. I also feel that writing a Case Study that way would also allow me to see similarities across students and to provide strategy groups based on common need.

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Reference(s) Beaver, J. (2006). Developmental Reading Assessment K-3 Second Edition. New Jersey: Celebration Press. Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2006). The Daily 5. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implication for Reading Instruction. Retrieved from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/upload/smallbook_pdf.pdf

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