Lower Elementary Reading Case Study (written Spring 2013)
Background Information and Context
Reason for Student Selection: I chose to work with this particular student (I will call her “Becky”) because my cooperating field teacher mentioned that she was an advanced reader for her age but did struggle with certain aspects of reading and writing. She was excited about working with me and did not seem to suffer academically if taken away from another lesson or two in order to complete the testing phases.
Significant Developmental History: Becky is a 2nd grader and is 7 years and 1 month old. From the information I was able to obtain from my cooperating field teacher I found out that Becky has been described as a very bright child from both current and past teachers. She is usually reading at or above grade level and has excelled in all of the other subjects as well. She is sociable and well liked by her peers and administrators.
School/Instructional History: This student attends North Hill Elementary in Rochester, MI. This particular school is not very diverse (all but one student in Becky’s class is Caucasian and it seems to be that way for the other classes I have observed in the hallways). The school is located in a very nice area of Rochester and seems to have ample funding for school activities and classroom needs. Becky has attended this same school since kindergarten and before that she did attend a pre-Kindergarten program in the same area.
Home and Cultural environment: My cooperating field teacher did not have many details about Becky’s home environment except for to say that her parents both seem very involved with Becky’s learning and school career. Her parents are divorced but have attended all parent meetings together and seem to get along quite well. Becky has mentioned that she stays with her dad on the weekends and her mom during the week. My cooperating field teacher said that she seems to speak of her parents equally (i.e., she does not favor being with one over the other). She has two siblings: one younger sister and an older brother. Her younger sister is three years old and her brother is a 5th grader at the same school as Becky.
School Environment: The classroom in which I am observing is a very bright and lively environment in which Becky really seems to thrive. My cooperating field teacher is firm but caring and really tries to do the best she can for each of her students. In terms of Language Arts, from the short periods of time I have been there it seems as though the teacher tries to integrate reading and writing into every subject. She places a high emphasis on spelling words correctly and writing neatly. She also stresses reading for comprehension and does a lot of activities which involve retelling a story or answering questions about something the students just read.
Assessment Documentation of Reading and Writing Abilities
Attitudes and Interests
It is important to assess a student’s attitudes and interests towards reading because it can give you an idea of where to start in terms of assessments. If a student is very excited about reading you would probably administer different assessments than you would if you found out that the student hates to read and gets very anxious when they have to, etc.
Findings:
Diagnosis: In terms of the Garfield test, Becky’s scores show that she falls in about the 50th percentile in terms of her attitude towards reading. If I had to pick a character on the rating scale that best represented her attitude toward the questions it would be the 2nd Garfield (the one a step down from the happiest figure). Her Academic score was slightly lower than recreational which I think is to be expected for most students. The Reader Self-Perception test was a little surprising for me in terms of the scores Becky received. I would have anticipated her being in the middle to high ranges, not the lower to middle. However, I did notice that she seemed to struggle with the questions regarding progress because I am not sure she has viewed herself as needing to improve her reading ability so I think the answers to those questions may have skewed her scores. I do think that she thinks she is a more advanced reader than other students and thinks that other people view her as an advanced reader so those two categories (Observational Comparison and Social Feedback) made sense to me.
Recommendations: I would recommend finding more “academic” text books that are fun for students to read and introducing them to Becky. She may have a narrow view of what a “textbook” is and I think it would be important to develop a stronger interest in reading for learning purposes. This may involve expanding the classroom library. I would also recommend discussing the idea of reading and writing as a process that needs to be continually improved on throughout a student’s career. Mini lessons explaining the importance of all aspects of the process of writing could be included. I think Becky has been told she is an “advanced” reader and writer so she does not necessarily try to improve her skills. There are aspects of her reading and writing that do need improvement so I think it would be important to stress this idea to her.
Visual and Auditory Discrimination
It is important to assess a student’s visual and auditory discrimination abilities because the findings will provide a starting point for where to begin oral reading assessments. If a student has obvious deficits in this area, it is important to work with them to improve those abilities before expecting them to succeed in further assessments.
Findings: I started Becky at List E (second half of second grade) on the McCracken Word Recognition test (because her teacher said she was a fairly independent and advanced reader for her grade). I was able to ascertain that Becky’s Independent reading level is the second half of second grade. Her Instructional reading level is between the first half of third grade and the second half of third. Finally, her frustration level is a fourth grade reading level since I had to stop after List H because her scores fell below 70%.
Diagnosis: Becky struggles with Blends and Diagraphs, Double Vowel Sounds, Long Vowels and Short Vowels. These struggles occur at the beginning (or close to the beginning) of a word (i.e., she does not have the same issues with blends if they are at the end of a word). This tells me that she is able to use her knowledge of phonetics to figure out blends at the end of words by understanding the beginning portion. However, when the situation is reversed she does not use this knowledge to figure out the beginning by going to the end of the word.
Recommendations: I would recommend conducting a lesson having to do with Analytic Phonics to address the issues Becky has with blending. In this lesson, we could focus on beginning, middle or ending blends by choosing a passage that contains words with the same blend (i.e. a sentence for a beginning “gr” blend could be “the green grapes were grabbed quickly.”) and having the students discuss the similarities between the words. Oral reading of the passages would be helpful as well and students could then come up with other words that contain the same blend. Another recommendation I would have for working with Becky on these areas is to complete a “Making Words” activity that focuses on making words with different long and short vowels sounds. For example, I would have her construct words with a long e and a short e and then discuss the differences (then repeat for all vowels). Then I would have them try to create a word using each blend and then discuss the pronunciation and meaning of the different words.
Oral Language Development and Reading Fluency
It is important to assess a student’s oral language development and reading fluency because these aspects directly relate to vocabulary acquisition, comprehension and ability to read text in the way it was supposed to be interpreted.
Findings: Interestingly enough, the IRI concluded that her independent level of reading matched the Words in Isolation level of 2.2 (second half of second grade). Her instructional level matched the Words in Isolation level of 3.2 (second half of third grade) and her frustration level was definitely apparent when we reached 4 (fourth grade). During that passage I had to aid her with a significant amount of the words. She seemed frustrated and was ready to stop the testing at that point, which I did.
Diagnosis: I think there are two aspects to consider when providing a diagnosis for Becky in terms of her oral language and fluency. The first is when looking back at the errors she made, many of them were similar to words she missed on the McCracken test. Blends and long/short vowels seemed to trip her up in the IRI as well so I think this assessment just solidified the fact that she struggles with those concepts. The other aspect has to do with the fact that I believe Becky made certain errors, such as multiple substitutions, because she was rushing through the passages a little too quickly. I think that many of the words she replaced with other words were simply because her mouth was moving more quickly than her thinking at that point.
Recommendations: A recommendation I have to improve Becky’s oral reading ability is to have the class participate in a Guided Reading experience. The reason I think this would be important is because if the teacher reads out loud (while the students follow along in their own books or with an overhead projector) the teacher can model fluency and the correct speed in which to read orally. Since Becky struggles with reading too quickly sometimes it would be helpful for her to have a model of correct speed during these guided readings. The teacher could extend the lesson by having students read a paragraph aloud at times during the guided reading in order to assess the fluency and speeds in which the students are reading and correct any bad habits that do not match up with the way it was modeled to the students.
Comprehension
Comprehension is a very important component to assess because if a child does not comprehend what they read or hear, then the rest of the aspects (like fluency, vocabulary recognition, etc.) do not really matter! The reason we want children to improve their reading and writing abilities is so they can build on those skills as they grow and continue to retain content information that they may read or hear. If there is a problem with comprehension, it needs to be addressed immediately.
Findings: Becky’s Oral Comprehension scores concluded that her independent level was a 3.1 (first half of third grade), her instructional level was 3.2 (second half of third grade) and her frustration level was 4 (fourth grade). In terms of Silent Reading Comprehension, her independent level was a 3.1 (first half of third grade) and then she transitioned right into her frustration level at 3.2 (second half of third grade). Finally, her Hearing Capacity Comprehension levels were 3.2 (second half of third grade) for independent and 4 (fourth grade) for instructional (we ended the assessment there so she never reached a frustration level for this category).
Diagnosis: Becky has more trouble with comprehension when she reads silently as opposed to reading out loud or being read to. I believe she has not quite mastered the skill of “reading aloud in her head” while reading silently and I would guess she skips over words and doesn’t question the meaning as much as she does when she reads aloud. When she does read aloud, I also believe she moves too quickly at times and gets ahead of herself.
Recommendations: An excellent strategy to help with Becky’s silent reading struggles would be to use any of the following: a KWL, an anticipation guide or a DRTA. I would use these strategies because they force the student to think about a subject in terms of their prior knowledge and any questions they may have before actually reading. I think Becky will benefit from having a purpose when reading silently and her comprehension levels will improve. While those strategies are usually used more for non-fiction reading, I think they could also be used for other types of text as well. The teacher would need to model their thinking out loud during these strategies to help Becky start to understand how to think when reading silently. I think this would improve Becky’s ability to ask herself questions and check for meaning or things that do not make sense when she reads a passage silently.
Vocabulary
It is important to assess a student’s vocabulary skills because if there is a problem it could explain problems in other areas. For example, if a student has a very limited vocabulary (i.e., an ELL student) they may score poorly on all parts of an assessment plan but if they were given passages and questions that contained the vocabulary they do know the scores might dramatically improve.
Findings: Throughout the IRI comprehension sections, Becky did not miss many of the questions relating to vocabulary. The ones she did miss were focused on words she may have missed during the passage. However, she never missed all the points on a vocabulary question (only half). I found that Becky’s vocabulary was very extensive and was reflected in the scores on the McCracken and the IRI (because she was at or above grade level in everything).
Diagnosis: I do not necessarily have a diagnosis for Becky in terms of vocabulary. I think she is right on track and probably ahead of many students her age in terms of her knowledge of words. This may be because she is at a slightly higher reading level than many of her classmates and therefore has been exposed to more words. She is able to quickly recognize most words, use them in sentences and tell me what they mean. Obviously as she grows she will continue to learn new vocabulary every day and I believe she is right on track.
Recommendations: One recommendation I would have to improve Becky’s vocabulary would be for the class to construct a word wall. Whenever a new text is introduced or the class comes across an interesting word they can go over the spelling and meaning of the word and place the word on a wall where all the students can see it. Secondly, a strategy I have seen in a previous field placement was to have students underline words in passages if they are not sure what the word means (i.e., during a guided reading activity or reading of an article). Then, as a whole class, students can discuss the words and the meanings. If none of the students know what the word means, the class investigates as a whole and then the word is added to the word wall.
Writing and Spelling
Assessing a student’s writing and spelling abilities is important to gain an understanding of their expressive abilities when it comes to language. Being able to not only receive information (through reading and listening) but also being able to construct their own thoughts into writing and visualize the spelling of words is necessary to truly excel in their language skills.
Findings: Unfortunately, my cooperating field teacher did not feel comfortable sending me home with a writing or a spelling sample to include with this case study (I am not sure of the reason but I did not want to push the issue). However, she was very forthcoming with her interpretations of Becky’s abilities in these areas and I was able to view some samples for myself.
Diagnosis: Becky needs to work on integrating her expanded vocabulary into her writing. I believe she has a very narrow focus when it comes to what words she should use when she is writing. She also struggles with writing when it comes to actual facts which tells me that when she has the freedom to write about anything (i.e., make up a fiction story) she is much more comfortable than when she is constrained by something that happened in real life. For spelling I would say she most likely struggles with the same areas in which she struggles reading words but she has mastered the art of memorization and so she is able to perform very well on spelling tests.
Recommendations: The first recommendation I would have for Becky’s writing is to administer a Language Experience Approach. This would allow Becky to use different vocabulary words and possibly a different style when retelling a story that would be put into writing. When she rereads the story that she “wrote” it would be a great time to discuss how much different this story sounded than her previous pieces of writing and why it might be important to incorporate more interesting language. Secondly, I would use a strategy where students have to come up with as many different words as they can for words that are used often in writing (i.e., Becky’s use of said and happy). Students are assigned a word (usually in pairs) and they must come up with several alternative words that could replace the given word. They can use prior knowledge, dictionaries, thesauruses, etc. Once all groups have finished the alternative words are listed somewhere in the classroom and students are instructed to swap out words in their writing using those new alternatives. This would definitely help Becky to add new and interesting vocabulary into her writing pieces. The recommendation I have relating to spelling would be to have a list of words to study from but also have similar words from the same word families of the actual spelling test (the student’s would need to be aware of this fact however and it may need to be integrated slowly). I think this strategy would help Becky to think deeper about the spelling and construction of words instead of just memorizing a list of ten words each week. It would also let the teacher know if a student truly knows how to spell at a certain level or if they just have a photographic memory when it comes to visualizing a list of words.
Reason for Student Selection: I chose to work with this particular student (I will call her “Becky”) because my cooperating field teacher mentioned that she was an advanced reader for her age but did struggle with certain aspects of reading and writing. She was excited about working with me and did not seem to suffer academically if taken away from another lesson or two in order to complete the testing phases.
Significant Developmental History: Becky is a 2nd grader and is 7 years and 1 month old. From the information I was able to obtain from my cooperating field teacher I found out that Becky has been described as a very bright child from both current and past teachers. She is usually reading at or above grade level and has excelled in all of the other subjects as well. She is sociable and well liked by her peers and administrators.
School/Instructional History: This student attends North Hill Elementary in Rochester, MI. This particular school is not very diverse (all but one student in Becky’s class is Caucasian and it seems to be that way for the other classes I have observed in the hallways). The school is located in a very nice area of Rochester and seems to have ample funding for school activities and classroom needs. Becky has attended this same school since kindergarten and before that she did attend a pre-Kindergarten program in the same area.
Home and Cultural environment: My cooperating field teacher did not have many details about Becky’s home environment except for to say that her parents both seem very involved with Becky’s learning and school career. Her parents are divorced but have attended all parent meetings together and seem to get along quite well. Becky has mentioned that she stays with her dad on the weekends and her mom during the week. My cooperating field teacher said that she seems to speak of her parents equally (i.e., she does not favor being with one over the other). She has two siblings: one younger sister and an older brother. Her younger sister is three years old and her brother is a 5th grader at the same school as Becky.
School Environment: The classroom in which I am observing is a very bright and lively environment in which Becky really seems to thrive. My cooperating field teacher is firm but caring and really tries to do the best she can for each of her students. In terms of Language Arts, from the short periods of time I have been there it seems as though the teacher tries to integrate reading and writing into every subject. She places a high emphasis on spelling words correctly and writing neatly. She also stresses reading for comprehension and does a lot of activities which involve retelling a story or answering questions about something the students just read.
Assessment Documentation of Reading and Writing Abilities
Attitudes and Interests
It is important to assess a student’s attitudes and interests towards reading because it can give you an idea of where to start in terms of assessments. If a student is very excited about reading you would probably administer different assessments than you would if you found out that the student hates to read and gets very anxious when they have to, etc.
Findings:
- Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (Garfield): On an informal level, Becky scored a Full Scale Raw score of 58 for Recreational and Academic combined. Using the more formal scoring method, she received percentile ranks of 50 for Recreational, 46 for Academic and 47 for Full Scale.
- The Reader Self-Perception Scale: Becky fell in two different levels for the different categories. She was on the low end in terms of Progress (Score: 34) and Physiological States (Score: 30) and was in the middle range for Observational Comparison (Score: 24) and Social Feedback (Score: 36).
Diagnosis: In terms of the Garfield test, Becky’s scores show that she falls in about the 50th percentile in terms of her attitude towards reading. If I had to pick a character on the rating scale that best represented her attitude toward the questions it would be the 2nd Garfield (the one a step down from the happiest figure). Her Academic score was slightly lower than recreational which I think is to be expected for most students. The Reader Self-Perception test was a little surprising for me in terms of the scores Becky received. I would have anticipated her being in the middle to high ranges, not the lower to middle. However, I did notice that she seemed to struggle with the questions regarding progress because I am not sure she has viewed herself as needing to improve her reading ability so I think the answers to those questions may have skewed her scores. I do think that she thinks she is a more advanced reader than other students and thinks that other people view her as an advanced reader so those two categories (Observational Comparison and Social Feedback) made sense to me.
Recommendations: I would recommend finding more “academic” text books that are fun for students to read and introducing them to Becky. She may have a narrow view of what a “textbook” is and I think it would be important to develop a stronger interest in reading for learning purposes. This may involve expanding the classroom library. I would also recommend discussing the idea of reading and writing as a process that needs to be continually improved on throughout a student’s career. Mini lessons explaining the importance of all aspects of the process of writing could be included. I think Becky has been told she is an “advanced” reader and writer so she does not necessarily try to improve her skills. There are aspects of her reading and writing that do need improvement so I think it would be important to stress this idea to her.
Visual and Auditory Discrimination
It is important to assess a student’s visual and auditory discrimination abilities because the findings will provide a starting point for where to begin oral reading assessments. If a student has obvious deficits in this area, it is important to work with them to improve those abilities before expecting them to succeed in further assessments.
Findings: I started Becky at List E (second half of second grade) on the McCracken Word Recognition test (because her teacher said she was a fairly independent and advanced reader for her grade). I was able to ascertain that Becky’s Independent reading level is the second half of second grade. Her Instructional reading level is between the first half of third grade and the second half of third. Finally, her frustration level is a fourth grade reading level since I had to stop after List H because her scores fell below 70%.
- Strengths: Becky has a vast sight vocabulary. Most of the words she read correctly were pronounced fluently and without using any sort of “sounding it out” techniques. When she did need to use these kinds of techniques, she did not have problems with the ending portions of words. She barely made any mistakes in terms of any words with blends at the end or words with “ing” endings, etc. If she is able to figure out the first part of a word she usually was able to correctly pronounce the remaining portion. She also is very good with silent letters and does not usually get tripped up by these words.
- Weaknesses: After reviewing the lists of words from the four lists Becky completed, I found that she really only had difficulties with four general categories: Initial position Blends and Diagraphs, Double Vowel Sounds, Long Vowels and Short Vowels. Simply put, Becky has trouble when there are two sounds blended together (whether they are consonants or vowels) and with her short and long vowels. Examples of words she struggled with are else, pilot, pound, sleigh, aboard, dwarf, peace and grief.
Diagnosis: Becky struggles with Blends and Diagraphs, Double Vowel Sounds, Long Vowels and Short Vowels. These struggles occur at the beginning (or close to the beginning) of a word (i.e., she does not have the same issues with blends if they are at the end of a word). This tells me that she is able to use her knowledge of phonetics to figure out blends at the end of words by understanding the beginning portion. However, when the situation is reversed she does not use this knowledge to figure out the beginning by going to the end of the word.
Recommendations: I would recommend conducting a lesson having to do with Analytic Phonics to address the issues Becky has with blending. In this lesson, we could focus on beginning, middle or ending blends by choosing a passage that contains words with the same blend (i.e. a sentence for a beginning “gr” blend could be “the green grapes were grabbed quickly.”) and having the students discuss the similarities between the words. Oral reading of the passages would be helpful as well and students could then come up with other words that contain the same blend. Another recommendation I would have for working with Becky on these areas is to complete a “Making Words” activity that focuses on making words with different long and short vowels sounds. For example, I would have her construct words with a long e and a short e and then discuss the differences (then repeat for all vowels). Then I would have them try to create a word using each blend and then discuss the pronunciation and meaning of the different words.
Oral Language Development and Reading Fluency
It is important to assess a student’s oral language development and reading fluency because these aspects directly relate to vocabulary acquisition, comprehension and ability to read text in the way it was supposed to be interpreted.
Findings: Interestingly enough, the IRI concluded that her independent level of reading matched the Words in Isolation level of 2.2 (second half of second grade). Her instructional level matched the Words in Isolation level of 3.2 (second half of third grade) and her frustration level was definitely apparent when we reached 4 (fourth grade). During that passage I had to aid her with a significant amount of the words. She seemed frustrated and was ready to stop the testing at that point, which I did.
- Strengths: Becky is excellent with fluency (when she is familiar with the vocabulary, i.e. in the first few passages of the IRI administered). She changes her voice to reflect excitement, question statements, etc. She also self-corrected many of her mistakes when she realized that the sentence did not sound right. There were several words that she did not even bat an eye at (such as addresses, hydrant, or refrigerator) and I was very impressed by this.
- Weaknesses: In terms of reading the oral passages out loud, Becky did make errors in every level. Her most common errors were substitutions (i.e. saying companies instead of companions) and mispronunciations (i.e., saying chose instead of choose). As the passages got harder, she was more focused on the fact that she was struggling and I think she began to lose confidence. This caused her original strength of self-correcting to vanish at that point.
Diagnosis: I think there are two aspects to consider when providing a diagnosis for Becky in terms of her oral language and fluency. The first is when looking back at the errors she made, many of them were similar to words she missed on the McCracken test. Blends and long/short vowels seemed to trip her up in the IRI as well so I think this assessment just solidified the fact that she struggles with those concepts. The other aspect has to do with the fact that I believe Becky made certain errors, such as multiple substitutions, because she was rushing through the passages a little too quickly. I think that many of the words she replaced with other words were simply because her mouth was moving more quickly than her thinking at that point.
Recommendations: A recommendation I have to improve Becky’s oral reading ability is to have the class participate in a Guided Reading experience. The reason I think this would be important is because if the teacher reads out loud (while the students follow along in their own books or with an overhead projector) the teacher can model fluency and the correct speed in which to read orally. Since Becky struggles with reading too quickly sometimes it would be helpful for her to have a model of correct speed during these guided readings. The teacher could extend the lesson by having students read a paragraph aloud at times during the guided reading in order to assess the fluency and speeds in which the students are reading and correct any bad habits that do not match up with the way it was modeled to the students.
Comprehension
Comprehension is a very important component to assess because if a child does not comprehend what they read or hear, then the rest of the aspects (like fluency, vocabulary recognition, etc.) do not really matter! The reason we want children to improve their reading and writing abilities is so they can build on those skills as they grow and continue to retain content information that they may read or hear. If there is a problem with comprehension, it needs to be addressed immediately.
Findings: Becky’s Oral Comprehension scores concluded that her independent level was a 3.1 (first half of third grade), her instructional level was 3.2 (second half of third grade) and her frustration level was 4 (fourth grade). In terms of Silent Reading Comprehension, her independent level was a 3.1 (first half of third grade) and then she transitioned right into her frustration level at 3.2 (second half of third grade). Finally, her Hearing Capacity Comprehension levels were 3.2 (second half of third grade) for independent and 4 (fourth grade) for instructional (we ended the assessment there so she never reached a frustration level for this category).
- Strengths: Becky was able to provide an abundance of details for most of the comprehension questions. She did not simply give one word answers and she would elaborate without any prompting from me. She was quick to answer most of the questions with confidence and she would also use context clues in many of the questions if she was not sure of a word (example: she made an error on the word “kennel” during one of the oral reading passages and then that word was in a question but she was able to figure it out using the other words in the question). Also, her high hearing capacity comprehension scores show that when she is read to she pays very close attention and I could tell she was excited to immerse herself in some of the stories I read to her.
- Weaknesses: I think Becky’s biggest weakness began to show when the passages got more difficult. She would rush through some of the reading and I think her confidence was shaken if she made errors. This translated to her not focusing as hard on the questions and near the end she would just give up and not even try to answer a question if she thought it would be wrong. This was apparent in both the oral and silent reading comprehension questions but definitely more pronounced in the latter (which was reflected in the lower scores for silent reading comprehension).
Diagnosis: Becky has more trouble with comprehension when she reads silently as opposed to reading out loud or being read to. I believe she has not quite mastered the skill of “reading aloud in her head” while reading silently and I would guess she skips over words and doesn’t question the meaning as much as she does when she reads aloud. When she does read aloud, I also believe she moves too quickly at times and gets ahead of herself.
Recommendations: An excellent strategy to help with Becky’s silent reading struggles would be to use any of the following: a KWL, an anticipation guide or a DRTA. I would use these strategies because they force the student to think about a subject in terms of their prior knowledge and any questions they may have before actually reading. I think Becky will benefit from having a purpose when reading silently and her comprehension levels will improve. While those strategies are usually used more for non-fiction reading, I think they could also be used for other types of text as well. The teacher would need to model their thinking out loud during these strategies to help Becky start to understand how to think when reading silently. I think this would improve Becky’s ability to ask herself questions and check for meaning or things that do not make sense when she reads a passage silently.
Vocabulary
It is important to assess a student’s vocabulary skills because if there is a problem it could explain problems in other areas. For example, if a student has a very limited vocabulary (i.e., an ELL student) they may score poorly on all parts of an assessment plan but if they were given passages and questions that contained the vocabulary they do know the scores might dramatically improve.
Findings: Throughout the IRI comprehension sections, Becky did not miss many of the questions relating to vocabulary. The ones she did miss were focused on words she may have missed during the passage. However, she never missed all the points on a vocabulary question (only half). I found that Becky’s vocabulary was very extensive and was reflected in the scores on the McCracken and the IRI (because she was at or above grade level in everything).
Diagnosis: I do not necessarily have a diagnosis for Becky in terms of vocabulary. I think she is right on track and probably ahead of many students her age in terms of her knowledge of words. This may be because she is at a slightly higher reading level than many of her classmates and therefore has been exposed to more words. She is able to quickly recognize most words, use them in sentences and tell me what they mean. Obviously as she grows she will continue to learn new vocabulary every day and I believe she is right on track.
Recommendations: One recommendation I would have to improve Becky’s vocabulary would be for the class to construct a word wall. Whenever a new text is introduced or the class comes across an interesting word they can go over the spelling and meaning of the word and place the word on a wall where all the students can see it. Secondly, a strategy I have seen in a previous field placement was to have students underline words in passages if they are not sure what the word means (i.e., during a guided reading activity or reading of an article). Then, as a whole class, students can discuss the words and the meanings. If none of the students know what the word means, the class investigates as a whole and then the word is added to the word wall.
Writing and Spelling
Assessing a student’s writing and spelling abilities is important to gain an understanding of their expressive abilities when it comes to language. Being able to not only receive information (through reading and listening) but also being able to construct their own thoughts into writing and visualize the spelling of words is necessary to truly excel in their language skills.
Findings: Unfortunately, my cooperating field teacher did not feel comfortable sending me home with a writing or a spelling sample to include with this case study (I am not sure of the reason but I did not want to push the issue). However, she was very forthcoming with her interpretations of Becky’s abilities in these areas and I was able to view some samples for myself.
- Strengths: In terms of writing, Becky has a very good grasp of the writing process. She takes risks during the rough draft portion and does a good job of getting her initial ideas down on paper. I think this is due in part to the fact that her teacher is very receptive in terms of misspellings and grammatical errors the first time around. She wants the students to feel comfortable getting their thoughts down and then to worry about revising and editing later on. Becky also is very particular when she revises and edits her paper and takes the time to make sure all mistakes are fixed before turning it in. When I viewed some of her writing, this was apparent because there were little to no grammatical errors and her penmanship and presentation was very neat. In terms of spelling, Becky is an excellent speller and receives 90 to 100% on all of her spelling tests. She also usually takes the optional bonus spelling test (which is given to those students who finish before others) and she receives the same scores on those.
- Weaknesses: Becky uses many of the same words over and over again in her writing (example: said, happy, etc.). She has trouble choosing other words to substitute in order to make her writing more interesting. She also has trouble with writing for non-fiction purposes. She can write a story very well but when asked to write a review of a non-fiction book or a current event she struggles to include all of the relevant facts. In terms of spelling, I don’t necessarily see any weaknesses; however, knowing Becky’s struggles with blends and long/short vowels I would assume that she may be very good at memorizing spelling lists (i.e., if asked to spell a similar word from a word family that includes a blend, etc. she may not perform as well).
Diagnosis: Becky needs to work on integrating her expanded vocabulary into her writing. I believe she has a very narrow focus when it comes to what words she should use when she is writing. She also struggles with writing when it comes to actual facts which tells me that when she has the freedom to write about anything (i.e., make up a fiction story) she is much more comfortable than when she is constrained by something that happened in real life. For spelling I would say she most likely struggles with the same areas in which she struggles reading words but she has mastered the art of memorization and so she is able to perform very well on spelling tests.
Recommendations: The first recommendation I would have for Becky’s writing is to administer a Language Experience Approach. This would allow Becky to use different vocabulary words and possibly a different style when retelling a story that would be put into writing. When she rereads the story that she “wrote” it would be a great time to discuss how much different this story sounded than her previous pieces of writing and why it might be important to incorporate more interesting language. Secondly, I would use a strategy where students have to come up with as many different words as they can for words that are used often in writing (i.e., Becky’s use of said and happy). Students are assigned a word (usually in pairs) and they must come up with several alternative words that could replace the given word. They can use prior knowledge, dictionaries, thesauruses, etc. Once all groups have finished the alternative words are listed somewhere in the classroom and students are instructed to swap out words in their writing using those new alternatives. This would definitely help Becky to add new and interesting vocabulary into her writing pieces. The recommendation I have relating to spelling would be to have a list of words to study from but also have similar words from the same word families of the actual spelling test (the student’s would need to be aware of this fact however and it may need to be integrated slowly). I think this strategy would help Becky to think deeper about the spelling and construction of words instead of just memorizing a list of ten words each week. It would also let the teacher know if a student truly knows how to spell at a certain level or if they just have a photographic memory when it comes to visualizing a list of words.