Case Study: Reading/Language Arts

Case Study:
Reading/Language Arts

Student: Dominique, Age 6

Student Strengths and Weaknesses:

From the Elementary spelling inventory, I can see that Dominique has strengths with the sounds of the following letters: d, p, n, t, n, v, and phonemes “ive” and “ing.” She has a weakness in this regard only with words that have more than two syllables. I noticed errors on the quick assessment form as well as in her writing sample—in both cases, many words that had more than two syllables contained some form of error.

Dominique also displays good fluency behaviors and preferences. Based on the “My Writing” survey, she is familiar with the construction of books. She is also a willing writer and is confident enough to be social in this, stating that “Kids in or class help me write.” She also considers herself a “real author.”

I notice also that Dominique has a strength in substituting words which she does not know. This is a strength because it increases Dominique’s chances of working through new and difficult words. This can also remain a weakness if Dominique is not coached to examine words more closely. If Dominique is unable to address this aspect, it is likely she will not develop comprehension of the things she reads, and will struggle building her vocabulary.

Identifying Student’s Learning Needs:

Dominique would benefit from more practice regarding phonemic awareness. I am basing this assessment on what I discovered from the Elementary Spelling Inventory 1. More experience with phonics would also help her learn instances when “c” and “s” can make the same sound—as she discovered by spelling the word “place” as “plaess.” Furthermore, I believe Dominique has an awareness of this challenge because of her own assessment on the “My Writing” survey that the hardest thing about writing for her is the spelling.

Another learning need Dominique is likely ready for is more experience sharing her writing with peers. On the “My Writing” survey, Dominique displayed preferences that spoke to good fluency and working well with others. Yet, when asked if she likes to share her writing, Dominique selected “maybe.” To me, this indicates a willingness to try, which means she is ready for the challenge of more experience in sharing her writing.

Dominique’s skills could increase with writing by studying more consistent grammar and punctuation. In her writing sample, Dominique shows an awareness of both lower- and upper-case letters. However, Dominique clearly does not know which letters to capitalize and which not to. The word “because” is randomly capitalized, and the word “Thanksgiving” is not. Dominique has also missed using the correct punctuation on both the first and last sentences of her writing sample.

Dominique shows limited comprehension in the Informal Reading Inventory. She seemed unable to grasp the main idea of the paragraph, which is the story of Mrs. Wakefield making the first chocolate chip cookies. A secondary idea would be the actual recipe or process Mrs. Wakefield uses in the paragraph, though she hints at this slightly by the direction to “put chocolate chips in the cookies.” I think this might be purely coincidental.  Dominique was not able to gravitate away from what she already knew about chocolate chip cookies, which is that people eat them, they have chocolate chips, and the chocolate tastes like chocolate.

Two things stick out to me regarding the need for differentiation. The first is in the writing sheet for Dominique to record as many words as she knows. On this sheet, there are several instances when Dominique has mixed up the letters “b” and “d.” I notice that she can consistently recognize the “d” sound at the beginning of her words, but struggles to recognize it consistently at the endings of words. She also mixes “b” with “p” in her spelling of “mashed potatoes.”

The other observation I made was in her spelling of the word “Thanksgiving.” Since this is a long word, she is likely to have sounded it out—a skill we can see she utilizes on the quick assessment form when she breaks the word “moment” into two syllables. Dominique spells the word “Thanksgiving” as “thanckthgifing.” This means if Dominique was sounding it out and spelling the way she speaks, it is likely she should be checked for a lisp or another form of speech or hearing impediment.

All of these things combined would lead to an increase in Dominique’s vocabulary to include words which have more than two syllables. This is important because based on her writing, she is ready to include these types of words, even if she has not mastered fluency with them yet. These steps combined would increase her vocabulary, which would likely result in more comprehension with the texts, and improvements in both her writing and her confidence.

Literacy Learning Goals for Student:

Component	Goal
Phonemic awareness	Dominique knows the sounds of words. Dominique can break words into syllables—especially if those words have more than two syllables.
Phonics	Dominique recognizes consonant sounds at the end of words. Dominique can consistently and accurately recognize the “d” sound and the “b” sound at the end of words.
Vocabulary	Dominique’s vocabulary has grown to include words with two or more syllables.
Fluency	Dominique feels comfortable sharing her reading and writing with other people. Dominique can read aloud with expression.
Comprehension	Dominique can find the main idea from a paragraph or reading sample.
Writing and Spelling	Dominique can score at least 85% on an administered IRI when asked to write all the words she knows.

Recommended Instructional Activities:

Because Dominique has a strength in viewing a word as a whole, she can rely on her skills in substituting unfamiliar words with ones she knows—based again on the example of her substituting “chances” with “chocolate,” which clearly draws from the information on the page. This makes her a good candidate for the use of context clues in order to understand and learn unfamiliar words. This process is outlined on page 208 of the text (Gunning 2016):

“Step 1. See if there is any part of the word that I can say.
Step 2. Say the part of the word I know. Then say the rest of the word.
Step 3. Ask: ‘Is the word I said a real word? Does it make sense in the story?’
Step 4. Is the word like any word I know? Is it like one of the model words?
Step 5. Say the word. Is it a real word? Does it make sense in the story?
Step 6. Say ‘blank’ for the word. Read to the end of the sentence. Ask myself, ‘What word would make sense here?’ “

Dominique is ready for the challenge of sharing her writing with other students. In order to build her confidence in this area, I suggest scaffolding this experience by first utilizing flexible groups (Gunning 2016, p. 514). These groups should provide experience with students reading and sharing things they have written. This would give her experience with readers and writers who were likely both higher-achieving and lower-achieving than Dominique. It would also give Dominique an opportunity to showcase her fluency skills so far.

At home, Dominique can receive support simply by having more time being read to, as well as reading to members of her family. If possible, Dominique can be assigned grade-level independent readers as part of her homework, with the task of reading each book multiple times to her family. An adult in the house should first read the story to her, and then have her read it back, encouraging her to sound out words or use the “blank” technique and try to discover the word.
Additional Assessments and Assessment Frequency:

Dominique is only 6, which leads me to believe that this is likely the beginning of the first grade school year. Dominique should be given benchmark assessments ideally every quarter, not only to see where she measures against state standards, but also how far/in what ways she may be missing the mark.

Dominique would likely benefit from participating in running records, ideally once a month, but more often if possible. The reason for performing a running record so often in my thinking is because this will give Dominique more experience sharing her reading in front of other people, which is key to encouraging her confidence in vocabulary building and comprehension. It will also provide her teacher enough data to observe subtle miscue changes, which will provide more accurate, detailed, and meaningful coaching.

An IRI similar to the original should also be re-administered at least once per quarter, like the benchmark assessments. My timing for this is justified by the fact that the original IRI includes a comprehensive view of Dominique’s literacy skills, including reading, writing, comprehension, and fluency. This would provide an informal “big picture” that would enrich the formal benchmark “big picture,” and allow the majority of time spent really honing-in on studying and coaching the smaller details to Dominique’s literacy.

Finally, Dominique should also be given Curriculum-Based measures, since they help provide assessment in basic skills, not necessarily comprehension. This would ensure that any gaps missing in Dominique’s understanding in literacy thus far can be filled while she is only in first grade, before the curriculum becomes more challenging or sophisticated.

Sources:

Gunning, T. Creating Literacy Instruction For All Students. 9^th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson.