Jamie Black

Assessment Report for Case Study Student

EDU 429
Baker College
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Introduction

Student Profile
Student Name: ​ Nicki B.
Grade Student is Entering in the Fall: fourth
Age: 10
Nicki has anxiety. In the beginning of third grade she was diagnosed with dyslexia. Her
body is smaller than the typical fourth grader. Her parents are actively engaged in her life, she
does have shared custody and travels from Grand Rapids to Indiana. Her mother is responsible
for Nicki during the school year and most of her academic learning. Dad is supportive and visits
school when needed. Grandparents are active in her life as well.

Student Interests
Some of Nicki’s general interests include: animals, playing Wii, gymnastics, Fort Wayne
and playing on the computer or iPad. Her favorite movie is 8 Below, a story about sled dogs. If
she could chose what she could learn about in school she would want to learn about gymnastics,
dogs, and Fort Wayne. Her favorite type of animal is a gray wolf, she talked a lot about visiting
different zoos. If given the choice she would rather play indoors than outdoors because she likes
to play Wii. When given the choice of yes or no if she liked certain activities she said she likes to
draw, dance, sing, and be on the computer. She said she does not like to write. Her favorite
things outside of school are playing on the iPad, Super Mario, Minecraft and watching videos on
Youtube. Her favorite place to go is Fort Wayne’s children’s zoo because it is big and there are
so many different animals that her friends have never seen in real life.

Multiple Intelligences
Nicki was read statements and she had to respond 3 if the statement strongly describes
her, 2 if it mostly describes her, or 1 if it somewhat describes her. Below are her intelligences
ranked in order from highest to lowest point value as a result of this assessment.

Naturalistic 18 points

Bodily/Kinesthetic 16 points

Musical 13 points

Mathematical/logica 13 points
l

Intrapersonal 12 points

Interpersonal 12 points
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Visual/spatial 8 points

Verbal/linguistic 7 points

When giving the multiple intelligences assessment Nicki appeared confident in her
answers and the examiner noticed that they greatly aligned with her interests from the interest
inventory. It was clear when reading the statements in the verbal/linguistic section that she does
not like working with words, writing, or reading for enjoyment. One of the intelligences that
scored the greatest points was the bodily kinesthetic in which she said she likes to watch sports,
play a sport rather than read, has good balance and coordination, and likes physical games. From
her interests that she shared earlier, the fact that she enjoys gym class very closely aligns with
these results. She was equally scored for both mathematical/logical and musical which are two
topics that were discussed in depth during the interest inventory. Her highest score, naturalistic,
includes enjoying animals, recycling, taking care of plants and the environment.

Observations
Her attitude towards reading overall was not positive. One of the first questions asked
was whether or not Nicki enjoys reading, to which she answered no because it is boring and
hard. When asked how she learned to read she said that after recess her kindergarten teacher said
they were going to learn to read and all the kids in the class cried “no.” In order to be a good
reader Nicki thinks you need to read a lot and not just look at the pictures. The examiner asked
her if she reads at home and who she reads with and she said she reads at home if her mom
makes her and that she doesn’t like it. Provided some book genres to circle that she likes she
circled: mystery, poetry, funny books, how-to books, science, magazines, animal stories,
folktales, series, and chapter books. If she could read a topic about anything she would choose to
read a book that she showed me which was an American Girl doll chapter book.
The examiner was also able to gather some insight into her feelings about school as well.
Her favorite subject is math because it is easy for her. Something that makes her happy at school
is gym class. Something that makes her mad or sad at school is when other kids waste time in
computer class by playing games and not listening to directions. Her favorite subject is computer
class because they have fun assignments and get rewarded with time to play games on the
computer.

Ability Level
Throughout multiple literacy assessments it was determined that Nicki is below grade
level in reading, but appears to have a greater strength in mathematics. Below is some data from
assessments given at school.

NWEA MAPs test scores

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Reading Language Usage Math

Fall 2015 168 (174.7) 163 (174.5) 180 (176.9)

Spring 2016 173 (188.7) 190 (189.7) 205 (192.1)

Fall 2016 174 (188.3) 197 (189.4) 205 (190.4)

DIBELS Scores 2016-2017 - ORAL READING FLUENCY

Words 23 (97) 48 26 47 (150) 43 29

Correct

Errors 6 3 9 8 8 11

Accuracy 79% (99%) 94% 74% 84% (99%)

Retell 8 17 11 25 17 16

Retell 1 2 2 3 2 2
Quality

The NWEA MAP scores indicate that in reading Nicki has been below benchmark, but
also that her scores are rising slightly. In Fall 2015 Nicki had not yet been diagnosed with
dyslexia and was not yet receiving intervention and accommodations, therefore language scores
were well below benchmark, as she was reading the test on her own. During the spring and fall
of 2016 the test was read to her and her scores were meeting and exceeding benchmark. The
DIBELS scores were taken during her second and third grade year and also show she is below
benchmark. There is a pattern that her accuracy starts low on the first reading, peaks on the
second reading, and then falls again on the third reading. Nicki uses so much mental energy to
decode that by the third reading much of her energy is exhausted. Her retell is growing, but still
below benchmark. With proper accommodation Nicki has great potential to succeed.

Assessment Results
Oral Language
Assessment Name: Phonological Awareness Assessment
Results:
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Overall Nicki did very well on the phonological awareness assessment. In the onset and
rime category she was able to correctly identify all 8 words based on the sounds administered.
She was also able to correctly identify all 8 words in the phoneme blending section where the
examiner gave each letter sound and she put them together to form the word. Next, in the rhyme
choice section the examiner told her two words and she needed to identify if they rhyme or not,
she was correct on all 8. In the rhyme supply the examiner gave her two words that rhymed and
she needed to come up with a third, she correctly supplied 7 out of 8. The only error was the
words “fun” and “run,” she thought about it for a while and said “mud”. The final exercise was a
phoneme segmentation where the examiner said a word and she needed to say what sound she
heard first, next, and last. On this exercise she was able to correctly identify the first, next, and
last sounds in all 8 words.

Rationale:
The phonological awareness assessment is critical in understanding Nicki’s reading
development because it shows the progress that has been made. Due to her being well below
grade level in her reading, she receives intervention at school and these are the skills that needed
to be developed and strengthened from the beginning. It is important to note she has developed
the phonological base needed to be successful in reading and this is an area of strength.

Assessment Name: Checklist of Oral Language Characteristics

Results:
Nicki has excellent reading comprehension and the ability to make inferences even when
the text is well into her frustrational level. Her symbol sound association and blending skills are
strong. When reading the IRI word list she fell below 80% accuracy when she reached level 3
words. Insertion and omitting of words occurred very seldom. Also, when reading she is able to
analyze words visually, her errors are usually visual miscues. Hesitations in her reading usually
occur at the beginning of a new sentence. Repetitions occur when she is self correcting her
reading. Her reading is very much chunked into words rather than whole phrases. Sometimes
Nicki ignores punctuation and does not pause at a period, rather she reads it as a run on sentence.
She is usually able to keep place while she reads and does not have to use a finger to follow the
text. She often shows tension and anxiety when reading.

Rationale:
It is necessary to examine the results of the checklist of oral language characteristics
because it leads to information about both strengths and weaknesses of Nicki’s reading abilities.
One strength Nicki has is being able to answer literal comprehension questions correctly even
when the material is at frustrational level, this shows she has developed comprehension
strategies. Another strength is that she keeps pace while reading without using her finger to
follow the text, this shows that she is familiar with text directionality and return sweeps.
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However, this assessment revealed a few areas for improvement as well such as her fluency and
attention to punctuation. Listening to Nicki read aloud shows that she uses a lot of mental energy
to decode words, therefore her reading is more word by word than it is read fluently in phrases.

Oral Reading and Comprehension

Assessment name: Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)
Results:
When administering the Jennings IRI word list the examiner started two grade levels
below where she might be, which was the first grade list. Nicki was able to read 22 out of the 25
words correctly which is 88%. The examiner continued to the level two list where she was able
to identify 19 out of the 25 words which is a 76%. From here the examiner went backwards to
see which list she read 100% accurately. On the preprimer word list she was able to identify all
25 words correctly.
As a result of her scores on the word list the examiner administered the preprimer
passage first. She was able to read the preprimer passage with 98% accuracy (independent level)
and answer all the comprehension questions correctly. She read this story at an adequate rate.
Next, she read the primer level passage and read it with 98% accuracy (independent level). She
answered all the comprehension questions correctly and the story took her 1 minute and 26
seconds to read. On the level one passage she read with 97% accuracy (instructional), answered
all 6 comprehension questions correctly, and read it in 1 minute and 9 seconds. Progressing to
the level two passage she read it with 96% accuracy (instructional), answered 7 out of 8
comprehension questions correctly, and read it in 1 minute and 47 seconds. The last passage she
read was the level 3 passage which she read with 88% accuracy (frustrational), answered 6 out of
8 comprehension questions correctly, and read it in 3 minutes and 46 seconds.

Below is a table of results recorded from each passage:

Passage Level Words Recognition Accuracy Comprehension

Preprimer Independent Independent

Primer Independent Independent

1 Instructional Independent

2 Instructional Independent

3 Frustrational Instructional

Rationale:
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The informal reading inventory is beneficial in understanding Nicki’s reading

development because it gives insight into which level she can read independently and also gives
vital information about her comprehension abilities. It is very important for teachers and parents
to know which level stories Nicki can read successfully and also which ones she can read with
assistance. When she can read accurately Nicki will feel like a confident reader, but when the
material is too difficult she may shut down. As a part of this assessment there are also
comprehension questions that go along with each passage that ask literal and inferential
questions. Even when the text was at the frustrational level for her, she was able to answer the
majority of questions correctly. Therefore, Nicki shows the ability to use comprehension
strategies and this is an area to build up and make her feel good about.

Writing
Assessment Name: 6+1 Traits of Writing
Results:
Nicki’s writing was evaluated using the 6+ 1 Traits rubric for grades 3-12. The following
areas are applicable to her writing and were scored as so:

Main idea 4 capable

Reasoning/thinking 3 developing

Awareness/engagement of reader 4 capable

Lead/conclusion 1 beginning

Sequencing 4 capable

Pacing- 4 capable

Purpose/text structure 3 developing

Title 4 capable

Engagement with reader 2 emerging

Individual expression 2 emerging

Fit with audience/purpose 3 developing

Word meaning 4 capable

Word Quality 3 developing

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Word usage 3 developing

Sentence structure 2 emerging

Sentence variety- 1 beginning

Spelling 3 developing

Punctuation 3 developing

Capitalization 1 beginning

Rationale:
Among the several writing assessments administered the scoring of Nicki’s writing using
the 6+1 Traits rubric gives the most detail about what areas of her writing work well and which
areas could use improvement. With this data teachers can use the areas of improvement to teach
mini lessons on those topics.
Spelling
Assessment Name: Assessing Spelling Development
Results:

Nicki’s Spelling Correct Spelling Scoring

sater setter 3 phonetic

shove shove 5 correct

grasre grocery 3 phonetic

botin button 3 phonetic

saler sailor 3 phonetic

prisin prison 4 transitional

nacher nature 4 transitional

peted peeked 3 phonetic

spashel special 3 phonetic

preaer preacher 4 transitional

slowed slowed 5 correct

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saled sail 3 phonetic

fecher feature 4 transitional

bater batter 4 transitional

Rationale:
From the beginning Nicki expressed her anxiety over spelling to the examiner, so it is a
perceived weakness in her mind. Nicki said that she gets a modified spelling list that is shorter
than her peers in the classroom and that she hopes no one notices. Her attitude towards spelling
is important to note especially to teachers that work with her because she would like her progress
to remain confidential. As long as she is not publicly made to feel different from her peers, Nicki
has the mindset to keep improving. Also, her spelling patterns are important because it shows
what sounds she struggles to form and read.

Assessment Analysis
Oral Language
Nicki’s was very confident and quick in all of her responses on the phonological
awareness assessment. She did not need the examiner to repeat any of the words or sounds. She
has mastered onset and rime because she is able to take a beginning sound and add it to an
ending sound and say the word fluidly and correctly. She has mastered phoneme blending which
means she can hear individual sounds and piece them together to make a whole word. Her
rhyming abilities are also very good, she was able to identify whether words do or do not rhyme
and for the most part give the examiner words that rhyme with a given word. Without seeing a
word she can also segment the phonemes and say what sounds she hears first, next, and last.
Nicki does a remarkable job comprehending a text, even when it is beyond her
independent reading level. A strength of hers is using background knowledge and context to
decode words in a passage. Further phonics testing shows that she knows letter sound
correspondence and can blend and rhyme words with ease. Many of her miscues that occur both
look like the actual word and hold a similar meaning. Her eyes track the reading very well and
she does not need to follow with a finger. Overall her fluency is compromised because she uses a
lot of her energy to decode the words and this causes most of her sentences to be read in strings
of a few words at a time rather than longer phrases. Hesitations are common at the beginning of
sentences because the ideas are new to her and she needs time to process the words she is seeing.
The tension and anxiety is shown by stuttering over words and fidgeting with her hands.

Oral Reading and Comprehension

Nicki shows that she can read independently at the primer (kindergarten) level. She only
had three errors on the level one passage which is classified as instructional. She had 5 errors on
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the level two story which was also instructional. The main area of strength for Nicki is her
comprehension, even when the story was at her frustrational level for word accuracy she was
able to answer instructionally in comprehension. Her literal and inferential comprehension are
equal. At her independent and instructional level she answered all comprehensions correctly. Her
persistence is also a strength, she was able to self correct many times during each passage.
It appears that Nicki is still developing her metacognition, there were times when she
read something incorrectly and the examiner could tell she thought it did not sound right, but did
not know how to correct it. There were also a couple times where she lost her tracking of which
line she was reading and made a comment that she liked the bigger text better. As she was
reading the examiner noticed she inserted words semi frequently and omitted words on occasion.
There were a few times she sounded out the first letter of a word and then would self correct. Her
errors while reading fell under all three cueing systems (meaning, syntax, and visual). Overall
most of her errors were visual (examples: first/friend, shouted/showed, that/what). Frequently
she confused the digraphs th and wh. An example of a meaning error she made was she said “this
was his first day of camp” instead of “this was the first day of camp.” Another observation was
that she sometimes ignored punctuation or inserted words to reorder a sentence. For example, she
said “Ben had to put away his toys and he had to make his bed” instead of pausing at the period
“Ben had to put away his toys. He had to make his bed.”

Writing
Strengths of Nicki’s writing include: communicating the main idea, sequencing, and
pacing. The story she wrote a timeline of her dog’s day and has a easy to follow order. When
writing she had a clear vision and knew exactly what she wanted to communicate to the reader.
The title is clear and succinct. One area to improve is the capitalization, she follows the rule of
capitalizing names and the beginning of sentences but it is not always consistent. Another area of
improvement would be word choice and sentence variety. Nicki uses vague verbs and could
move from telling to showing the reader. The punctuation is very simple using periods at the end
of each sentence. Spelling is mostly transitional and does not interfere with the comprehension of
the writing. Nicki lacks nouns in her sentences, so it is unclear who the subject of each line is.
Finally, the lead and conclusion do not give much detail, without having her explain it you
cannot tell the story is actually about a dog.

Spelling
Nicki appears to be between the phonetic spelling stage and transitional spelling stage.
Evidence that the phonetic spelling stage is clear in words such as “spashel” for “special” and
“botin” for “button.” In these words she has all essential sounds present and chooses letters to
represent the sound she hears. Some examples where she reaches the transitional spelling stage
are in the words “bater” for “batter” and “prisin” for “prison.” Those words show that she is
aware of patterns that make the sound she is trying to achieve. In batter she is only missing the
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double t, and in prison she confused just the vowel sound at the end. There are a couple instances
where she spelled the word correctly “shove” and “slowed.”

Overall Student Strengths Overall Student Needs

● Comprehension recall ● Improve reading fluency

● Rhyming
● Identifying onset and rime
● Phoneme blending
● Phoneme segmentation
● Ability to self correct frequently
● Sequencing her writing
● Perseverance
● Visually tracking her reading
● Review of vowel digraphs
● Review of consonant digraphs
● Spelling practice to close the gap
between transitional and correct
spelling
● Self assessing in writing

Assessment Plan for Student

Improve reading fluency
One research based strategy that would help Nicki increase her reading fluency would be
reader’s theaters (Gipe, 203). A reader’s theater would allow her to have repeated readings of the
same text and also help to develop proper phrasing and intonation. As a bodily kinesthetic
learner this would also be a great way for her to act out what is being read and be physically
involved.
Another researched based strategy to improve fluency is echo reading (Gipe, 202). Echo
reading would allow Nicki to hear a sentence of a passage read fluently by her teacher and she
would try to repeat it. If this were done as a whole class Nicki could read grade level text, but
still have extra support.
A final strategy that can be used to increase reading fluency is to read books on tape
(Mather and Goldstein). Mather and Goldstein also suggest a resource for students with learning
disabilities or dyslexia, Learning Ally, that has a large selection of audiobooks available. If Nicki
could follow along with the same book she could read high interest books at her grade level and
hear proper phrasing and intonation.

Review of vowel digraphs

One research based strategy that is beneficial to understanding vowel digraphs is teaching
phonics generalizations (Gipe, 213). According to Gipe, some vowel digraphs (ee, oa, ay, ea,
ai) can be taught by establishing the pattern that the first letter of the digraph usually represents
the long vowel and the second letter is usually silent. Having this generalization presented to
Nicki again and then working with vowel digraphs would be beneficial for recognizing these
words when they are seen in context.
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Another research based strategy that can help Nicki become familiar with these vowel
digraphs would be through reading literature with these patterns present (Gipe, 213). Through
reading books and discovering these patterns Nicki could become familiar with the sounds the
vowels make within words that she hears naturally.
A final strategy to help see the sounds that vowel digraphs makes is using Elkonin boxes
(Gipe, 149). If Nicki sees the word written out then she can use the Elkonin boxes to move a chip
in there for each sound she hears. This will reinforce that two letters together can make one
sound. Physically moving the chips would be a great use of her bodily/kinesthetic intelligence.

Review consonant digraphs

One activity to increase awareness of consonant digraphs is dictate a word using say,
touch, spell (Phonics: In Practice). In this activity students place a tile for each sound they hear
in a word as they spell it. This would be a great activity to do with a partner and also help Nicki
physically manipulate her learning tools.
Another activity that can be implemented to practice consonant digraphs is paddle pop
(Reading Rockets). In paddle pop students have a paddle (popsicle stick with cardstock attached)
and each paddle has a consonant digraph on it. The teacher will say a word and students will
hold up the corresponding paddle.

Spelling practice
Nicki’s spelling is mostly transitional spelling, but with practice she can move that to
correct spelling. Below are a few suggestions about instructional activities that can be used to
help (Gipe, 182):
● Five or six words of personal interest
● Word games (such as hangman, boggle, spill and spell, scrabble)
● Say, write and say, trace and say, write from memory, check

All of the above would be beneficial to Nicki’s spelling development because they would engage
her multiple intelligences. The words of personal interest could be from her naturalistic
intelligence that include animal and nature words that she could feel confident using in her own
writing. The word games could play on her logical intelligence and engage her in word patterns.
Tracing would offer a kinesthetic touch and help her remember the words long term.

Self assessing in writing

In her writing sample Nicki lacked proper capitalization and punctuation which could be
improved by using a self assessment strategy. A great self assessment strategy for Nicki would
be to have a postwriting questionnaire in the form of a checklist (Gipe, 184). Having a checklist
of specific edits to look for can help Nicki focus on her writing. Also, in a writing workshop
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model mini lessons on punctuation and capitalization would help Nicki examine these in her own
writing.

Conclusion
Overall Nicki has many strengths in her literacy development and when given the right
tools she can refine some areas that she struggles in. Allowing her to use her multiple
intelligences in learning will give her the motivation needed to help her persevere. As a student
entering fourth grade she can read independently at a kindergarten level and instructionally at a
first grade level, which shows there is progress to be made. Her dyslexia certainly makes reading
harder for her, but she has been very willing to participate in the various assessments and reading
activities. In order to help Nicki progress, her strengths should be capitalized while also working
on her weaknesses. Phonics skills such as the digraphs should be reviewed first before she can
begin to read fluently. If instruction of spelling and writing are strongly integrated with reading
instruction she will be able to make connections in all subjects.

Reference

Gipe, J. P. (2002). Multiple paths to literacy: classroom techniques for struggling readers. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

“Phonics: In Practice.” Reading Rockets, 9 Sept. 2016,

www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101-course/modules/phonics/phonics-practice​.

Reading Fluency. (n.d.). Retrieved August 02, 2017, from ​http://www.ldonline.org/article/6354

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