Brown Case Study Victoria Brown Education 371:Field Based Reading December 7, 2016Brown Part I: Student Introduction During the fall semester, I was asked to work with a student one-on-one in reading. My student, Bailey, is a third grade student at a local elementary school. She is eight years old, and when I started to work with her in September, she was reading at a level ‘F” under the Guided Reading System. This system levels books that the student can read by alphabet. Level ‘A’ is the early emergent level, and each level gets more complex until the student reaches level ‘Z' (“A Parent’s Guide...” Level F books have simple short sentences and provide students with a lot of pictures to aid their comprehension. While working with Bailey, I learned that she is not fond of reading and often gets bored with language arts quickly. She also does not like organized writing that involves planning strategies such as brainstorming; the day that we used prewriting strategies she groaned and pouted through the entire lesson. However, she does enjoy writing small notes to friends and family members, and has shown me several of her notes throughout the semester (one is included in Part II of the case study). It quickly became apparent that she needs movement to focus, as I could not get her to hold still for more than a few minutes. It was very hard to get an idea of her interests because she tends get distracted when being asked questions. When she was paying attention to my interest inquiries, she wanted to know what I liked before responding to the question herself. I eventually learned that she likes cats and is very competitive, especially when it comes to her siblings. Overall, Bailey loves to talk and is great with speaking activities, especially when asked to share her opinion (she loves to argue). Bailey’s parents do not spendBrown a lot of time working with her on reading; she mentioned that her father is rarely at home and her stepmother has to split her time between three children. Her reading log often goes unsigned, so I know that she most likely does not read a lot at home. Part Il: Sessions Over the course of the semester, I taught a variety of skills, based on Bailey's needs. Each lesson was taught a little differently and had its own unique practice activity. Five of these skills stick out to me as most important: context clues, decoding, listening, text connections, and sequencing. I spent a couple of sessions going over and practicing context clues with Bailey. When I first introduced the topic, I wrote out a sentence and left one word out. Then I had Bailey provide examples of words that might fit in the blank. I asked her how she knew these words made sense. | then explained to Bailey that when she uses the words around an unfamiliar word to make a guess as to what the unfamiliar word might be, she is using context clues. We also talked about how using the first letter or syllable can help to narrow down the possible word choices. We went through a few more examples together and then read a book together. | had covered one word on each page and Bailey had to read the page, come up with a few words that might be the covered word, and then check her answer. [listened as she read, and even read a few pages myself, having her come up with suggestions for the covered words each time. | used this activity, a modified cloze passage activity, as an assessment. It was more engaging for Bailey than the usual cloze passage activity, and I was still able to assess how well she mastered the skill. We did this activity twice, with two different books. Bailey did well with this skill each time weBrown practiced it, although the second book was more difficult than the first. I wanted to make sure that Bailey practiced this skill, because I knew that it would help her improve her reading comprehension skills. [also taught decoding skills during the semester. Although | know that Bailey has learned decoding skills each year, I noticed that she was not always using these skills while reading, which was impacting her comprehension of the text. I covered breaking up words by syllables and by graphemes. During the syllable lesson, a fellow tutor and I wrote out our names and the student’s names and had them practice dividing the names into syllables. We reviewed syllables with the students and then read a story and had our students divide up several of the words from the story into their syllables. As an assessment, the students played Syllable Twister. Each Twister circle had a syllable on it. Students were given a word and had to break the word into its syllables and place their foot on one syllable and their hand on the other. The other tutor and I watched both of our students play the game and assessed them informally. I feel that Bailey mastered this skill because she was able to decode words using their syllables. During the grapheme-decoding lesson, I wrote difficult words on a whiteboard and explained that words can be divided up into smaller chunks. | modeled the decoding strategy by breaking up several words into their graphemes and sounding out the word, Bailey and I practiced the skill and then read a book that used several of the difficult words. The assessment for this lesson was informal. | listened as Bailey read the book and decoded difficult words. She did well with this,Brown but I feel that she could always benefit from more practice of the skill because it will build her reading stamina, comprehension, and vocabulary knowledge. Several of the later sessions focused on listening and direction skills. 1 directly taught listening skills by explaining to Bailey that it was important to stay quiet and listen to directions during our activities. The day that I taught this as the main lesson, I and another tutor had planned to do several experiment activities that the kids would find fun. [ explained to Bailey that listening would be extremely important for her own safety and for the sake of completing the experiments. | watched as she helped with the experiments and followed directions from me and the other tutors. She mastered this skill, but would still benefit from more practice, like most children her age. I also covered text connections with Bailey. One of the first lessons I taught covered comparing and contrasting two similar texts. I had Bailey tell me the story of the three little pigs. Then we read a different version of the three little pigs and completed a comparison chart for the two stories. | asked Bailey about the similarities and differences in the text. To assess her, I collected and checked her comparison chart to make sure it was accurate. Bailey mastered this skill and was highly engaged in it. Sequencing of story events was a large part of my lessons, both formally and informally. In my first few sessions with Bailey, I noticed that she had trouble recalling events of the day or of a story in order. To teach this skill, | read a book to Bailey and then together we worked together to sequence the events of the story into a story line. It took several lessons for Bailey to really seem to grasp this so IBrown kept revisiting it with different books and activities. As an assessment for one of my lessons, | had Bailey sequence the events in a story from beginning to end using cut out pieces of paper, and create a craft from the sequenced papers. Bailey was very engaged in the craft and enjoyed the story because of its repetitive nature. The following pages show some of Bailey's work over the semester. To save some time in our lessons, I had Bailey dictate what she wanted to say, so some of the work samples were written by me. Others are written by Bailey. Because movement was vital to keeping Bailey engaged, I felt that it was appropriate for me to write out what she dictated to me on these assignments, so that we could move on to more kinesthetic activities. Over the course of the semester | completed two Running Records with Bailey, these can be found in the Appendix.Brown Work SamplesNoll! UII bur ya oy bbs TMQ) ob HY INE + SPY DUR quaddey TE yurya nod op ey, Emoge aq [IM Yoo {poueddey Aqjenjoe yey | {tej os pauaddey seyreym | ay) yUTyI Nos op eyMPrediction and Sequence Sheet Predictions Bee mac ache So S * Ovy. Were you right? How was your prediction different from the book? What Happens? The Old Lady swallows, 1, leareS 2, net “OV 3, POM x , Nou 4) And Then... { She snecad a‘There was an Old Lady... There was an old lady who swallowed {| > v <7/ | don’t know why she swallowed flo perhaps She Co There was anold lady who swallowed (st pll + . She swallowed the Hort to Cat the flawer 1 don’t know why she swallowed the perhaps. She. Will cow There was an old lady who swallowed V7 She swallowed CY\nc ~ to «a . She swallowed 2s to don’t know why she swallowed perhaps_.Ch¢ ‘There was an old lady who swallowed) Da. -She swallowed Clie “Dy to__ hoa cle. d Allof a sudden,geaM WiolsulesgPast and Present Verb Tense SortSnsiman 00- fa apeep? laa ha iy Sa per ME coming be. Tew yew. eam gradBrown Part Ill: Analysis Over the course of the semester, many of our lessons focused on phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and oral language. Bailey showed strengths and weaknesses in each of these areas. The following chart reflects Bailey's strengths and weaknesses in each area. enced Pec atone ® Onset Identification While reading, Bailey easily identifies the onset of a word, especially if the onset isa single consonant. Segmenting Bailey did a great job at segmenting words into their phonemes or graphemes during practice, and when she focuses on decoding words, she is very successful at this strategy. Syllables Similarly to segmenting words by phoneme or grapheme, Bailey is a pro at breaking up words into their syllables, particularly when they are words with regular spelling and vowel patterns. Regular Vowel Patterns in Reading I think Bailey's strength in regular vowel patterns is likely related to her strength in sight words (mentioned below). When vowels follow the rules such as CVCe, Bailey quickly recognizes the pattern and pronounces the word without difficulty. ® Focus Bailey's most influential weakness is her focus and dedication to reading. When | talked with her on her opinion of reading, she told me that she doesn't like reading, This was often reflected in how she reads aloud. Bailey often gets distracted while reading and has even gotten up and walked away in the middle of a story. Her lack of dedication to the reading also harms her ‘comprehension of what she reads because she often just wants to get through the book and doesn’t care how much she learns from it. Gaskin While reading, Bailey tends to jentify the onset of a word, and then guess at the rime. This is likely related to her focus and dedication weakness. As we are reading, | can tell when she starts to get bored and unfocused because these errors become more frequent and she will mispronounce entire phrases and not realize it (she stops reading for comprehension). ® Spellingee Fluency, Se EACLE eens Bailey loves to talk about just about anything, and is excellent at arguing her opinion. She has even gotten in trouble a time or two in class for arguing with the teacher, but the fact that she is outspoken is generally a strength in her case, She speaks with appropriate volume and pace when reading or giving an oral presentation. Brown Bailey tends to get thrown off on spellings of words. While writing, she uses the pronunciation of a word to spell it, which is a great tool, but sometimes she forgets the difference between the sounds a‘g’ makes and the sounds a ‘’ makes, or doesn’t realize that the word she is trying to spell has a silent‘e’ at the end. Although she often recognizes these patterns when reading, spelling remains a challenge. Irregular Vowels Bailey struggles a little with irregular vowels when reading and spelling. She may pronounce ‘most’ as we would say ‘cost’, where the difference is in the long or short vowel. Some of this comes from the fact that she is in third grade and it still learning these irregular patterns. I think another contributing factor is the fact that her exposure to words with irregular vowel patterns is limited since she doesn’t enjoy reading. Prosody. ‘The prosody, or flow and intonation, of Bailey's oral reading is a weakness in her oral language skills. She speaks with appropriate volume and clarity when reading aloud, but her speech is choppy and lacks emotion. She will need to work on this in the future to build her fluency and become a more confident reader. Content Vocabulary Even though Bailey's sight word* Bailey's skills with sequencing improved throughout the semester and now she can generally sequence the events in a story appropriately. Sometimes she struggles, but I think this comes back to her weakness in stamina and focus. ee texts Amazingly, Bailey does an excellent job at answering questions about what we read, even when she wasn’t giving the text her full attention. When she is really engaged with the text, she can answer questions everything from the smallest details to the main idea of the text. Tcan tell when I listen to Bailey read that she has a fairly large collection of sight words in her memory. ‘These words help her to understand the text and improve her fluency because she does not have to take the time to decode them like she does with larger, more complicated words. Brown, recognition is a strength, her vocabulary knowledge is lacking, particularly in regard to Janguage arts vocabulary that appear in the books she reads. She struggles with longer words, and when she sounds them out, she still needs someone to define them for her, or to look them up herself. Focus and stamina Many of Bailey's weaknesses stem from her lack of reading stamina and focus. On a good day, she will read for about ten minutes nonstop. Most days though, she can only read one or two pages before she loses interest. Her listening stamina is only slightly better, so I've stuck with shorter books because I know along book, or a book with multiple chapters, would be extremely difficult for her to pay attention to. Accur: i lf: corrections Bailey's lack of stamina leads to a weakness in accuracy and self-corrections. While reading, she will sometimes read a sentence and mispronounce several words, but because her focus is solely on getting through the book, she doesn’t realize her mistake and go back to fix it. My future recommendations for Bailey include avoiding long sedentary tasks, and books that are very long and/or text heavy. She looses focus and gets antsy when tasks and books are too long or don’t interest her. I suggest using crafts to.Brown teach or practice a skill because she loves creating things. Bailey also likes to cook and make things at home, so if there is any way to integrate cooking or cook books into a lesson, she would love it (we made hot chocolate together this semester and she absolutely loved it). I would also recommend activities such as scavenger hunts and games where she practices a skill because they are active and don’t seem like ‘learning’ tasks. Bailey really does enjoy learning things that she can use in other settings, so it is a good idea to use a mix of fiction and nonfiction books at or near her reading level. Finally, | would recommend integrating oral language activities that allow her to argue her or opinion or talk about something she likes or has done. She loves to share stories with the group, but needs to practice reading the story before presenting or she gets self-conscious and nervous. In summary, Bailey really thrives on active and competitive activities and teaching methods, and long term sedentary tasks should be avoided Works Cited “A Parent's Guide to Guided Reading.” Scholastic.com. Scholastic Inc, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. “Grade Three Standards.” VDOE. Virginia Department of Education, N.d. Web 06 Dec. 2016. Appendix Standards of Learning Covered for a Third Grade student: “ 3.2 The student will present brief oral reports using visual media. > a) Speak clearly.* Brown > b) Use appropriate volume and pitch. >) Speak at an understandable rate. 3.3 The student will apply word-analysis skills when reading > b) Decode regular multisyllabic words. 3.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading. > b) Use knowledge of roots, affixes, synonyms, and antonyms. > ) Use context to clarify meaning of unfamiliar words. > e) Discuss meanings of words and develop vocabulary by listening and reading a variety of texts. 3.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fi poetry. > b) Make connections between previous experiences and reading selections. > c) Make, confirm, or revise predictions. > d) Compare and contrast settings, characters, and events. > ) Ask and answer questions about what is read. > g) Draw conclusions about text. > h) Identify the problem and solution. > i) Identify the main idea, > j) Identify supporting details. > m) Read with fluency and accuracy. 3.9 The student will write for a variety of purposes. > b) Usea variety of prewriting strategies. > c) Write a clear topic sentence focusing on the main idea.Brown > d) Write a paragraph on the same topic. > f) Include details that elaborate the main idea +All standards were taken from the Virginia Department of Education website.Brown Running Records ‘The following two documents are running records that I did with Bailey over the course of the semester. I have calculated the accuracy rate of each reading and included it in the document.(Leet F) Fred Helps, Too 7 J ky ye LoS Ae x YK Rosie put oft hér boots. “Look at my knees! Fred ran around and around Ce Pa Aa ad fF gp ‘Ithas stopped raining, /| They are muddy too, With the towel. Fret, OSA SI QS YO J Zw Ae Fred,** Iwill have to geta towel.” “Stop, Fred!” shouted Ro: cai Awol “stop! shé said. ses oy Stop x L 7 “We cai play outside now.” | Rosie puther boots on the You are all wet and muddy.” steps and went inside. J Fe 2 of Meith wey / Fre ra down the steps “*s | Fred went inside, too! Fred sat down. 4 se a 4 ff toe And onto the wat grass... | Rose looked at Fred. "Good dog, Fred,” said Rosie. { Hera around _ | She looked at the floor. “Thank you for helping me. eo he eo ay And arouiid thé yard “Oh, no! Fred!” she said. Please stay by thé door. “Look at the floor. Y'm goitig to clean the floor.” “Look out, Fred! shouted | You are wet and muddy, too. 7 j Bey Rosie. Go back outside!” Rosle said to Fred, wee { wee “Here Icome!” ~ “My hands and knees are LAS ee ~ - ¢ ov Rose rani down the steps. _—Fred looked at the big towel clean. Lf Ae SS oS ¥ ew Rose ran too fast On the chair. The floors clean. Jia v / Yew ‘And she fell He ran over to get it Now you are dean, toi “ase On thé wet grass. Rosie said, ¥ “Do you want to help me . Ys “es JY tonne Fred ran back to Rosie. clean the floor?” WD ee \ rare - wie ~ © Rosie looked at her hands. ap 8 Sr “My hands are muddy; 4 she said.Pete the Cat: A Pet for Pete Pete is going to the pet store. He is going to geta pet. Pete wants a bird, a Ahamster, ra liza. But then Pete sees a goldfish. “That’s what I want,” he tells his mom, “we Pete's mom gets fish food. v “Vm going to call you Goldi Pate says to his new pet. f ogfecie “You are my first pet,” Pete tells Goldie On the way hdine. we TY we Pete takes Goldie to his room. fie He feeds Her fish food. “Now what?” asks Pete. Caste 168 Levae: Level aa He can't play with Goldie. wo : He can’t swim with her. “ Pete knows what he can do! Pete paints a picture of Goldie. He paints four firis ‘Ahd ah orange tail. Ce “What a pretty painting,” says Pete's mom. “You can keep it,” says Pete. “ “Cool painting!” says Bob. “Can you make one for me?” “Sure,” says Pete. Pete paiiits 4 picture for Bob. “Wow!” says Bob. “It looks just like Goldie.” (13). Victories, -%