Heather Beaver CRIN E09

October 14, 2010

Observation Survey Case Study

Observation Survey was administered to *Caitlyn (*name has been changed) in the

second grade at 9:30 am. The following results were gathered.

Attitude/Interest Inventory

I received very little information from Caitlyn when I administered the Attitude/Interest

survey. She was very quiet, and only provided brief answers to each question. She would often

shrug her shoulders to indicate that she did not know how to answer the question. For example,

she did not know what games she likes to play, or what she does with her friends during and after

school. I asked her if she likes to play tag or play with chalk during recess and she did say yes. I

also learned that she used to have a small pet dog at home, though she could not tell me its name.

She said that she plays an instrument, but she does not remember what it is. When I asked her

what she likes about school besides lunch and recess, she smiled and quietly said “I don’t like

school. It’s boring.” Though I asked her to consider things like art class or spending time with

her friends, she shook her head, and maintained that she does not like school.

During the Attitude/Interest interview, I wanted to gather some information about

Caitlyn’s reading preferences, so I finished the survey by asking her some questions about books

and reading in general. When I asked her about what kinds of books she likes, she quietly told

me that she likes to read about animals, but would not provide me with any other information

when I asked follow-up questions. Finally, when I asked her what she could do to help another

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student learn to read, she again shrugged her shoulders. I continued to gently question her, and

she eventually told me she would “read to them” or “help them sound out words.”

Letter Identification Test

Caitlyn had no difficulty with the Letter Identification test. She easily provided me with

the correct alphabetic name for each letter, and she did not pause at any point during this

assessment. She used a sheet of paper to guide her from row to row, and pointed to each letter

with her finger. Caitlyn got a perfect score for this test, showing that she easily recognizes all

capital and lower case letters. The fact that she was able to recognize “a” and “g” in different

fonts suggests that she has had enough exposure to print to recognize what each form of these

letters looks like. Caitlyn’s score of 54 out of 54 places her in Stanine Groups 6-9 for students

who are seven years old.

Word Reading Test

I administered the Word Reading Test to Caitlyn, and again, she completed this test

quickly and accurately, with no hesitation. She pointed to each word as she spoke it aloud to me.

Her perfect score of 15 out of 15 places her in Stanine Groups 6-9 for seven year old students.

These results suggest that she is familiar with common sight words, which is an important part of

reading accurately.

Concepts About Print (CAP) Test

I used Marie Clay’s book No Shoes when I gave Caitlyn the Concepts About Print test.

Overall, she scored 16 out of 24 points, which places her in Stanine Group 3 for seven year old

students. The CAP test shows that Caitlyn has a strong grasp of word and letter concepts. She

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was able to recognize capital and lower case letters, and she could isolate single letters and

words within a sentence. She was able to point to individual words as I read them aloud, and she

noticed sentences with altered word order and words with altered letter order. She also

understands how to use a book. For example, she knew the correct orientation of a book and its

pictures, and she knew that one starts to read on the left page at the top line.

Caitlyn struggled with return sweep during this test. Though she knew where to start

reading on a page, she was not able to tell me which way to read on the line, and where to go

after I finished that line (Items 4 and 5). She had similar problems with direction when the text

was inverted (Item 9), nor was she able to recognize the altered line sequence tested for Item 10.

Caitlyn also does not appear to understand the role of punctuation marks within a text. She

would not offer any responses for Items 15 through 18, which test the student’s understanding of

the function of question marks, periods, commas, and quotation marks. As I asked her each

question about punctuation, she shrugged her shoulders or shook her head, indicating that she did

not know the answer.

Writing Vocabulary Test

I administered the Writing Vocabulary test to Caitlyn, and she wrote consistently for

almost the full ten minutes. When she set down her pencil, I asked her if she could write any

more words, but she insisted she was finished. Overall, she correctly spelled 17 words out of 20

words (she wrote the word river twice). This score puts her in Stanine Group 2 for seven year

old students. While this is a low Stanine Group for her, I think that it is important to note the

types of words that she chose to write for this test. Instead of writing a lot of short, high

frequency words, she chose a number of more difficult words. For example, she spelled dolphin,

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playground, Sunday, and Monday. She correctly spelled dolphin, which probably demonstrates a

personal interest of hers (something for me to consider as I think about texts to read with her). I

found it interesting that she wrote “James River,” which her class is studying in social studies.

These results suggest that while she was writing, Caitlyn was thinking about words that she had

heard in school recently, or words that are perhaps meaningful or familiar to her in some way.

Caitlyn misspelled three words that she attempted for this test. She omitted “r” in

childrens, an “s” in Tuesday, and she inserted an “e” in shows. All of her letters in this test are

formed correctly, though she is still learning the rules about when to capitalize letters. “James

River” is capitalized correctly, and so are Sunday and Monday, and the name “Sam”. She

incorrectly capitalized “dog,” “playground,” books,” and “dolphin.” She did not capitalize her

attempt to write “Tuesday.” While writing her vocabulary words, Caitlyn would pause from

time to time after writing a word to think of a new word. I did not notice her using any visible

problem-solving strategies to sound out words, but by choosing to write longer, more complex

words, it is clear that she was taking some risks in her writing choices. It is possible that Caitlyn

chose words that she is familiar with and has encountered in text before, and many of these

words were spelled correctly. This does not mean that she necessarily understands the

orthographic patterns present in the words that she chose, so going forward, it will be interesting

to see if she can apply these patterns in other situations. She is a slow writer, which explains

why she only attempted 21 words in 10 minutes.

Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words

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I administered the Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words test to Caitlyn. She had a perfect

score, correctly hearing and writing 37 out of 37 phonemes. This places her in Stanine Groups

6-9 for seven year old students. Caitlyn made only one error of insertion (she spelled coming as

comeing) which did not impact her overall score on this test. She wrote the whole passage as

one sentence instead of placing a period after coming and capitalizing it to start a new sentence.

However, this test only sought to determine if the student can analyze phonemes and record them

on the paper. Caitlyn had no trouble with this test. I read the sentence through twice very

slowly, and she recorded what she heard. I did notice her mouthing the sentence to herself so she

could remember it and write out all the words. She worked slowly but steadily, and did not need

any prompting from me to complete the task.

Text Reading

I had Caitlyn read the DRA book series starting with What Is Red? As I began each new

book, I asked Caitlyn the introductory questions provided in the protocols, which required the

student to look at the pictures and describe what the book may be about. I had to prompt her a

few times to look at the pictures and continue to tell me what was happening. Caitlyn did not use

connecting words such as an, then, or but when making predictions, and she only looked at the

pictures on the left page. Thus, she only used information from half of the text when making

predictions about the stories.

Caitlyn read with 100% accuracy until Level 4. Her errors in the early levels of the

books were typically minor, and did not impact comprehension. For example, in Level 4, she

substituted looks for looked. She also self-corrected two errors in this text, and she continued

through the next few levels with relative ease, and only minor errors. As the texts got longer

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with more involved sentences, she started to use her finger to guide her. The final text level that

I attempted with Caitlyn was Level 24, though I could have feasibly stopped her at Level 20.

While she made 13 errors on Level 20, I decided to test one more level, since some of the errors

were minor and would not have compromised comprehension. However, Level 24 was too

difficult for her, and she read it with almost no fluency.

My analysis of Caitlyn’s errors reveals that she relies heavily on visual information in her

reading. In Level 20, for example, she substituted look for looked. Similar errors with verb

endings were common for her throughout all the text levels. Many times, she relied solely on

visual information. For example, in Level 24, she substituted yellow for fellow, and almost for

most. As early as Level 4, she also substituted her for here. When she neglected information, it

was often syntactical. Caitlyn did not use any visible problem-solving strategies while reading.

For example, she rarely sounded out words. When she came to words she did not recognize, she

would pause for a few seconds, and move on. While she read fairly accurately through many of

the books, Caitlyn lacked fluency. Even at the easiest text levels, she did not vary her tone to

reflect punctuation in the text, adjust her pace at any time, or show the emotion reflected by the

characters in the story. She did not differentiate text with dialogue from other types of writing,

and her reading did not indicate to me that she understood the message of the story. Overall, her

reading was “choppy.”

Student Response to the Assessment

Caitlyn was difficult to engage during the assessment. While she offered information

when asked to do so, she often gave simplistic responses, such as in the Attitude/Interest

Inventory and when I asked her questions before the DRA reading assessment. Since she was

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very quiet throughout the assessment, she did not “think out loud” or ask for help at any time.

She used paper to guide her along during the Letter Identification test, and she also used her

finger to help her read starting at Level 14, but these were the most obvious strategies she used

during the entire test. Since Caitlyn read to Level 24 in the DRA books, she may have been

impatient to be done by the end of the Observation Survey. It is difficult for seven-year-olds to

remain focused at one task for an extended period of time, but she did not complain or appear

frustrated. When I offered to let her stand up and move around for a few minutes, she said she

did not want to. Overall, Caitlyn was quiet, but she also seemed eager to do what she needed to

do to help me with this test.

Analysis of the Results

The results of Caitlyn’s Observation Survey indicate that she has a good grasp of letters

and sight words. She knew all the letters in the Letter Identification test, and she also received a

perfect score on Word Reading test. During the text reading test, she read with reasonable

accuracy up to Level 18, and often relied on visible information when she had a reading miscue.

She is able to hear and record phonemes, since she received a perfect score on the Hearing and

Recording Sounds test. While she got a low score on the Writing Vocabulary test, she attempted

several difficult words. Her errors on this test were the result of a single letter insertion or

omission. It is important to note her omissions on the Writing Vocabulary Test, particularly in

reference to the Hearing and Writing Sounds Test. When Caitlyn heard the words spoken to her

orally, she was able to hear each phoneme and correctly print it on the sheet. When she had to

recall words on her own, however, she sometimes missed certain sounds.

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The CAP test shows that Caitlyn struggles the most with various aspects of print used in

books. Specifically, the results show that she does not recognize various punctuation marks, or

know what purpose they serve within a text. This was confirmed by her general lack of fluency

while reading the DRA books, particularly when she did not adjust her tone or pause at the

appropriate places. These CAP results also indicate that she has difficulty with the directionality

and return sweep while reading. However, I do believe Caitlyn understands these concepts.

During oral reading, she had no problems with directionality and return sweep. Caitlyn also

wrote her words in lines from left to right during the Writing Vocabulary test, and used return

sweep to continue writing a new row of words on the next line. Despite her inability to identify

this concept about print in the CAP test, she clearly applied it while writing lines of vocabulary

words.

Implications of the Results

Easy Text Level

Level 16 is the highest level of easy reading for Caitlyn. While she did make a lot of

errors while reading levels 12 and 14, these were not errors that would impact comprehension.

For example, in level 12, she substituted Miss for Mrs, and mispronounced a name. I was

concerned during level 14 when she skipped the end of a sentence that continued onto the next

line. However, reviewing the text, that portion of the sentence did not alter the overall message

of the sentence. I continued with her to Level 16, which she read with 99% accuracy. Caitlyn

did not reveal much information to me about her personal interests, but she does like animals,

and I did notice that she was more interested when she read Animal Homes at Level 16, and she

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spent more time previewing the text before she started reading. When I select an easy reading

text, it must be something about animals, preferably a non-fiction book.

Instructional Text Level

A good instructional level for Caitlyn is Level 18. When choosing an appropriate

instructional level, I had to make an informed decision. I could technically start her instruction

at Level 20. Caitlyn made 13 errors at Level 20, which put her below 93% accuracy, but only

half of these errors were significant enough to impact comprehension, (for example, substituting

pat for patted or look for looked). My biggest concern with level 20 was Caitlyn’s lack of

fluency. Her reading was slow and monotone, and it did not flow in a way to suggest that she

was making sense of the words. In addition, she made some errors that a comprehending reader

would have self-corrected. Most notably, she substituted furry for fur, and she said

chickenmunk for chipmunk. Her self-correction rate at Level 20 was 1:7.5 which was very low.

This is further evidence that she did not understand the text. Given this information, I believe

that it is best to start instruction at Level 18. Despite the fact that she read with 96% accuracy,

she read with very little fluency, as with Level 20, and did not self-correct at all. Given all of

this information, I think it is appropriate to start Caitlyn’s instruction at Level 18.

Features of Instruction

An instructional level text for Caitlyn will need to support her use of visual and meaning

cues to solve words; challenge her to use grammar conventions during reading; and develop

reading fluency and comprehension. Texts should support Caitlyn’s use of visual and meaning

cues by including words that are reasonable for her level of proficiency in reading and spelling.

By introducing new vocabulary, she will be challenged to use visual and meaning cues to solve

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the new word accurately. She should find the subjects in these books interesting, so she can

bring background knowledge into the reading of the text. This background knowledge will also

aid her in constructing meaning from the words.

Caitlyn needs work with using syntactical clues, and with her reading comprehension and

fluency. Given her results on the CAP test, it is not hard to understand why she is not a fluent

reader. Fluency is usually an important indicator of text comprehension, so it is likely that while

she reads accurately at Level 18, she may not understand the overall message of the story. This

is something I will monitor closely throughout the semester as we work with instructional texts,

and I will adjust my book choices as necessary. Instructional texts features should include more

complex story lines with both dialogue and literary language, so I can prompt her to notice the

different punctuation marks and adjust her tone and speed. They must include extended

descriptions and episodes throughout the story, so she can work on reading these prolonged

passages fluently and accurately. Words in these stories should also be varied in tense and

person, so she has to consider syntax as well as meaning and visual information while reading.

At Level 18, Caitlyn was an accurate reader, so texts with longer, more complex language should

be a good match for her. The key will be monitoring her overall comprehension and fluency at

this level, and making adjustments in the level of difficulty, if necessary.

Reading Strategies

My biggest concerns with Caitlyn are reading comprehension and fluency, so in our first

lesson, I will challenge her to think critically about the texts we read before, during, and after

reading. This will be a good way to assess her understanding of the book, and for me to

determine if Level 18 is still a good level for her. As a way to develop Caitlyn’s fluency, I will

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include poetry into our tutoring sessions. I will choose short poems that I will model reading

aloud to her, have us read aloud together, and then have her read aloud by herself. Given the

specific meter and structure that some poetry requires, this will be an excellent way to practice

fluent reading and recitation. I will also need to remind Caitlyn to use her knowledge of grammar

while she reads. She specifically needs more practice reading verbs correctly, as she often tends

to read only the base of the word and not look at the ending (for example, she read pat for

patted). My prompts will challenge Caitlyn to think about what she has read and to determine if

what she said really makes sense. I will ask her to examine these verbs and notice their endings.

Word Work/Alphabet Instruction

Caitlyn has an excellent grasp of letters. The full Observation Survey assessment reveals

that she is able to link letters with their correct sounds, and her writing samples indicate that she

knows how to form each letter accurately. According to the Words Their Way test, she needs

instruction noticing “other” vowel patterns, such as oi and er and are, ew. I also want to include

some instruction with inflected verb endings, since Caitlyn needs this information to support her

use of syntax as a reading strategy. My goal for word study is to help Caitlyn recognize these

spelling features in sentences, and apply them when she reads and writes. To meet this goal, I

will give Caitlyn the opportunity to go on “word hunts,” which will challenge her to locate

examples of the word endings and patterns we are studying within a familiar tex . I will also

include pattern word sorts in my instruction, so she can practice using what she has learned to

practice categorizing words that I give her.

Writing Strategies

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According to Fountas & Pinnell (2006), “Students’ writing can provide a rich source of

information about their comprehending. Just about any of the genres of written response…can

be analyzed to find evidence about thinking within, between, and about the text” (p. 108).

Writing will be an excellent tool to guide Caitlyn in thinking critically about texts, and it will be

an important way for me to assess how well she comprehends what she is reading. I will make

writing an important component of my reading instruction with her. After we read each text, I

will give Caitlyn an opportunity to respond to a writing prompt where she will need to use

information from the text. These prompts might include letters to characters or to the author of

the book, or they will give her an opportunity to connect the current text to one we read in a

previous week. Writing will also be a great opportunity to emphasize our word work lessons and

syntax cues. I will encourage Caitlyn to use words that we have been practicing with, and also

remind her to make sure her sentences sound correct and make sense. Thus, writing work will

give me an opportunity to assess comprehension, as well as to reinforce the reading strategies

and word work that we will be important parts of each lesson.

Overall Assessment of the Observation Survey

Administering the Observation Survey was a very valuable experience for me as a

teacher-in-training. While I have been learning all semester about teaching children how to read,

it is difficult to grasp just how big a task this is until you work with a child one-on-one. Indeed,

working with Caitlyn reminded me how many variables work together to make a student a

proficient reader. Overall, I found the Observation Survey to be a very valuable assessment. In

particular, its greatest strength is the range of abilities that it tests, including letter and sight word

comprehension, text reading, and hearing and recording. I found the Concepts About Print test

particularly useful. Through the CAP test, I learned some of Caitlyn’s specific strengths as a

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reader, and where she needs special attention in out one-on-one lessons. I was skeptical about

the value of this test at the beginning (what could one possibly learn from a silly book with

misspelled words and upside down pictures?), but I am very pleased to say that it provided me

with a wealth of information that I will use as I work with Caitlyn in the next several weeks.

The biggest critique I have of the Observation Survey is that it does not test reading

comprehension. Since comprehension of the text is the ultimate goal of reading, I think the DRA

reading protocols should have included questions to test the student’s ability to think about the

text and understand its overall meaning. In Caitlyn’s case, she read many text levels accurately,

but I often wondered if she was making sense out of what she read. If I choose to use the

Observation Survey in my own classroom in the future, I will include my own comprehension

questions to test the child’s overall comprehension at each text level. My other critique of the

Observation Survey is the length of the overall assessment. The whole process of administering

the tests, scoring and analyzing them, and developing instruction based on the data I received

took a few hours for me to complete. In the future, I will have a classroom of twenty students or

more, so I am concerned about how long it will take me to score complete assessments for each

student.

When I become a teacher, an important part of my job will be to determine my students’

abilities and needs as readers, and to base my instruction on this information. Despite my

critiques of the Observation Survey, overall I think it is an excellent resource because it gives

teachers so much information to work with. While the whole process of giving, scoring, and

analyzing the results of the Observation Survey was time-consuming, the information it gave me

in the end was well worth the effort. What I learned from this whole process it is that all the

different aspects of literacy must fit together like pieces in a puzzle, and if one piece is missing,

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then there is a hole in the child’s ability to read. The Observation Survey allows teachers to

understand how each child reads a text, and use this valuable information to develop effective,

individualized instruction for every student.

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