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Kristin Tritch

Education 311 Corrective Reading

Reader Case study Phase 1

October 3, 2011

Phase 1

A. Background information about the reader

For the researchers’ reader case study, the researchers’ cooperating teacher,

from an elementary school in a rural area, helped to choose a little girl in third

grade. Her father is employed while her mother is a stay home mom, working as

a homemaker. Both of the readers’ parents have been previously divorced so

she has six or seven siblings, the researchers cooperating teacher wasn’t sure

exactly how many. The reader likes to play with Lego’s in her free time. She also

enjoys playing with baby dolls and playing house. The reader has a mild

cognitive disability and can read at a beginning reader, kindergarten or first

grade, level.

B. Assessments:

The reader’s weakest area of reading is comprehension. Her elementary school

has a reading counts program where students read books and then take quizzes

to gain points. Students receive prizes for every so many points they earn. They

also have a chance to earn entrance into the Reading Counts book club. By

working with the reader, the researcher hopes to improve the scores of the

readers’ quizzes. She hopes to teach skills that will improve the readers’

comprehension.

During the researcher’s time with the reader, the researcher will be administering

three assessments for the reader. The screening assessment, the progress

monitoring assessment, and the outcome based assessment. The researcher

chose to use the same form of assessment for the screening and outcome based

assessments. By doing so, the progress the reader has made is more available

and accurate. This assessment will be the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI). The

progress monitoring assessment will be a Directed Reading Thinking Activity

(DRTA).

The researcher will perform a running record with comprehension questions,

which is a form of Informal Reading Inventory, for the screening of the reader. By

doing so, it will help the researcher decide exactly what level the reader is

reading at as well as find out how much intervention is needed in the area of

comprehension. The researcher will choose a book she thinks is on the readers

lexile level or close to it.

The progress monitoring assessment will be a Directed Reading Thinking Activity

(DRTA). The researcher chose to use this type of assessment because it is a

comprehension strategy will be used to guide the reader in asking questions

about the book she is reading. It will also help her made predictions and the read

to confirm or refute those predictions. The DRTA assessment will encourage the

reader to be a thoughtful and active reader. This activity will be performed on the

third meeting with the reader and will be done while she is reading her book that

will be used for the case study.

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/drta

For the outcome based assessment, the researcher decided to do another

Running Record with comprehension questions for the reader. By doing the

same from of assessment for both the screening assessment and the outcome

based assessment, the researcher will be able to more accurately see the

progress the reader has or hasn’t made throughout the reader case study

process. This running record will be over a book chosen by the researcher.

http://www.iacademy.org/RRB/DirectedReadingThinkingActivities.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/drta

Name Grade How to use When to use it Information provided

Reference information

Curriculum based measurement (CBM)

k-12 A child performs a set of skills in a specific time frame, usually five minutes. In reading, the tester counts how many words the child reads out loud in the allotted time and marks the words the child didn't know or hesitated over.

This type of assessment can be used any time when working with fluency. Progress is charted, making it easy for children and their parents to see improvement through a visual record.

CBM has spread into use around the country and abroad, been applied to other subject areas and other age groups, and used to evaluate children of all ability levels.

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/research/highlights/CBM/

Advanced Story Map Instruction

K-5th Students read though a story and are instructed to pause at certain points where test giver asks questions like “Who is the main character?” The test giver will encourage students to write answers on their worksheet .

Students can use this whenever they read a book to keep track of their thoughts and ideas. Story maps can be used for clarification while reading a text, or as a review strategy. Story maps are also useful as a pre-writing activity for a book report or student-authored story.

Students’ are taught to use a basic “story grammar” to map out, identify, and analyze significant components of a narrative text.

www.interventioncentral.org

http://www.learnnc.org/reference/story%20map

DIBELS 1st-6th DIBELS are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills.

This test helps to identify students who need extra support in phonemic awareness or fluency

This test helps with phonemic awareness and fluency

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/dibelsinfo.php#how

STAR Reading Any grade

This is a computer based assessment. The difficulty of questions varies based on student answers

This assessment can be used multiple times a year and is used to determine reading comprehension

STAR reading is used to determine comprehension

http://www.renlearn.com/sr/

Developmental Reading Assessment

K-3rd The teacher will give this test to determine a students’ reading level

This assessment should be given semi-annually or every 6 months

Comprehension http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=ct-rd-

http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=ct-rd-












http://www.interventioncentral.org/

http://www.interventioncentral.org/




Phase 2

C. Administration of Screening Assessment

For the researchers’ reader case study, the researchers’ cooperating teacher, from

an elementary school in a rural area, helped to choose a little girl in third grade. Her

father is employed while her mother is a stay home mom, working as a homemaker.

Both of the readers’ parents have been previously divorced so she has six or seven

siblings, the researchers cooperating teacher wasn’t sure exactly how many. The reader

likes to play with Lego’s in her free time. She also enjoys playing with baby dolls and

playing house. The reader has a mild cognitive disability and can read at a beginning

reader, kindergarten or first grade, level.

The researcher will perform a running record, which is a form of Informal Reading

Inventory, for the screening of the reader. By doing so, it will help the researcher decide

exactly what level the reader is reading at as well as find out how much intervention is

needed in the area of comprehension. The researcher chose two books, one level C

and one level D, to use with the reader.

The reader case studies were done by having the reader read short stories chosen

by the researcher aloud. While the reader reads, the researcher will be marking the

errors and self-corrections made by the reader. The researcher will then add up her

tallies and determine the reader’s independent and instructional reading levels.

D. Interpretations of Assessments

The reader is a little girl in third grade from a rural school corporation. Her father is

employed while her mother is a stay home mom, working as a homemaker. Both of the

readers’ parents have been previously divorced so she has six or seven siblings, the

researchers cooperating teacher wasn’t sure exactly how many. The reader likes to play

with Lego’s in her free time. She also enjoys playing with baby dolls and playing house.

The reader has a mild cognitive disability and can read at a beginning reader,

kindergarten or first grade, level.

The researcher administered two running records with leveled readers to the reader.

The first running record was a level C called Get In. The reader did very well on this

test. She had no errors and 1 self-correction making this her independent reading level.

The second running record the researcher administered was The Mitten, which is a

level D reader. The reader had 5 errors and 1 self-correction. The reader’s error rate

was 1:14.8, the self-correction rate was 1:1.2, and the accuracy rate was 93%. The

researcher concluded that level D is the readers’ instructional reading level.

E. . Plan of Action

Lesson 1

Advanced Preparation by the Teacher:

Copy of The Teddy Bear by David McPhail

Copy of a book of the readers choosing

Blank copy of Directed Reading Thinking Activity

Procedure:

Introduction

Today we are going to read the book The Teddy Bear. While we are

reading we are going to focus on connecting to the book. The researcher is going

to start reading to you, and the researcher will stop when she makes a

connection so we can talk about it.

Step‐by‐Step:

1. After the researcher has made a few connections and read 5 pages she will

ask the reader if she knows what making connections means based on the

connections the researcher has made.

Think Aloud: “The little boys teddy bear reminds me of the teddy bear I

have. I sleep with it every night. When I go to my parents’ house overnight

I have to take my bear with me to sleep.”

2. The researcher will explain connections (text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-

world) and let the reader have a chance to make her own connections of her

own. The reader will read 3 pages.

3. The reader will read and make her own connections. If the reader doesn’t

stop periodically the researcher will stop and prompt the reader to do so.

4. When the researcher feels that the reader has grasped the concept of making

connections they will switch to a book of the readers choosing and repeat the

process of the reader reading and making connections

5. Toward the end of the lesson the researcher will introduce the Directed

Reading Thinking Activity to the reader. This activity is a type of graphic

organizer that has a place for “What I know” “What I think I know” “What I

think I’ll learn” and “What I know I learned”. The reader will fill out the “What I

know I learned” section at home.

Conclusion: The reader will pick a book to take home to read and fill out this activity.

The reader will bring the book and the filled out activity paper to the next

meeting. The reader will also pick a book to use at the next meeting along with

The Teddy Bear.

Lesson 2



Copy of the book the reader chose last session

2 Blank Copies of Directed Reading Thinking Activity

Post-it notes

Procedure:

Introduction

Go over the readers Directed Reading Thinking Activity that she was to

complete for homework. Ask her if this helped her understand the book. Today

we are going to continue reading the book The Teddy Bear. We are still going to

focus on making connections, but we are also going to fill out a Directed Reading

Thinking Activity form.

Step‐by‐Step:

1. Before reading, the reader and the researcher will fill out the first three sections

of the activity together.

2. After the form if filled out the researcher is going to start reading to you, and the

researcher will stop when she makes a connection so we can talk about it.

3. After the researcher has made a few connections and read 4 pages she will ask

the reader if she made any connects while the researcher was reading.

4. The researcher will explain connections and let the reader have a chance to

make her own connections to the text. The reader will read 4 pages.

5. The reader will read and make her own connections. If the reader doesn’t stop

periodically the researcher will stop and prompt the reader to do so.

6. After the reader has read her pages, the reader and researcher will fill out the

last section of the activity for what they have read so far.

7. Next the researcher will introduce the idea of using post –it notes to keep track of

main events in the story. Using the book the reader chose for this session, the

reader will read out loud making connections like always, but this time when she

comes up on a main or new event in the story she will write it down on a post-it

and put it in the book. This will help the reader keep track of what is going on in

the story.

Conclusion: Tell the reader that she has done a good job so far and to keep up the good work. Tell

the reader that she will finish reading the book she chose for today at home for the next

meeting. She will fill out Directed Reading Thinking Form and use post-its to keep track

of important events. The reader will bring the book with post-it and the filled out activity

paper to the next meeting. The reader will also pick a book to use at the next meeting

along with The Teddy Bear

Lesson 3 Give progress monitoring assessment before lesson


Progress monitoring assessment



2 Blank Copies of Directed Reading Thinking Activity

Post-it notes

Reading Hopscotch Activity and dice

Procedure:

Introduction

Go over the readers Directed Reading Thinking Activity and post it notes

that she was to complete for homework. Ask her if this helped her understand the

book. Today we are going to continue reading the book The Teddy Bear. We are

still going to focus on making connections, but we are also going to fill out a

Directed Reading Thinking Activity form. After we have finished the book we are

going to play a little comprehension game.

Step‐by‐Step:








make her own connections to the text. The reader will read the last 7 pages.





7. When the reader and the researcher have read the whole book, they will review

their Directed Reading Thinking Activity papers for the entire book.

8. After reviewing the researcher will read the directions for the Reading Hopscotch

activity to the reader and the reader will play the game.


the reader that she will read the book she chose for last at home for the next meeting.

She will fill out Directed Reading Thinking Form and use post-its to keep track of

important events. The reader will bring the book with post-it and the filled out activity

paper to the next meeting. The reader will choose two books to use next week one

longer one to use in place of The Teddy Bear and another book.

Lesson 4


Copies of both books the reader chose for this session

Post-it notes

2 Copies of both the character worksheet and the web

Procedure:

Introduction

Go over the readers Directed Reading Thinking Activity and post it notes

that she was to complete for homework. Today you are going to read the book

you chose last time we met. We are still going to focus on making connections,

but we are also going to talk about the characters of the book.

Step‐by‐Step:

1. Before reading, the reader and the researcher will fill out the first three

sections of the activity together.

2. The reader will skim the book and pick one character to focus on and write his

or her name on the correct line on the worksheet.

3. The reader is going to start reading the book, making connections using the

post it notes.

4. As the reader reads, she will stop when she comes across information to put

into the character worksheet.

5. After the book is read the reader will go over the web and fill out that

information with the help of the researcher if necessary.


the reader that she will read the second book she chose at home for the next meeting.

She will use post-its to keep track of important events. She will also take copies of the

character worksheet and web home to use while reading the book. The reader will bring

the book with post-it and the filled out activity paper to the next meeting. The reader will

choose 2 books to use next week.

Lesson 5



Blank copies of every worksheet used

Post-it notes

Graphic Organizer worksheet

Procedure:

Introduction

Go over the readers character worksheets and post it notes that she was

to complete for homework.. Today will be our last lesson meeting. We are going

to read the book you chose last session. Today we are going to fill out a graphic

organizer, which will help you with everything we have worked on so far.

Step‐by‐Step:

1. Before reading, the reader will go through the book and pick out all of the

characters, and try to decide if they are a major or minor character.

2. The reader will then begin reading, making connections with post its and filling

out the graphic organizer form. After the book is read the reader and the

researcher will talk about the graphic organizer and how it helps comprehend

what is happening in the book.


the reader that she will read the book she chose at home for the next meeting. The

reader will be allowed to choose which worksheet or method she would like to use for

her homework. The next meeting will only be for the outcome based assessment but

she should bring the book and her paper back so we can discuss it before the

assessment

Phase 3

Lesson 1

Procedure:

Introduction

Today we are going to read the book The Teddy Bear. While we are

reading we are going to focus on connecting to the book. The researcher is going

to start reading to you, and the researcher will stop when she makes a

connection so we can talk about it.

Step‐by‐Step:

6. After the researcher has made a few connections and read 5 pages she will

ask the reader if she knows what making connections means based on the

connections the researcher has made.

Think Aloud: “The little boys teddy bear reminds me of the teddy bear I

have. I sleep with it every night. When I go to my parents’ house overnight

I have to take my bear with me to sleep.”

7. The researcher will explain connections (text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-

world) and let the reader have a chance to make her own connections of her

own. The reader will read 3 pages.

8. The reader will read and make her own connections. If the reader doesn’t

stop periodically the researcher will stop and prompt the reader to do so.

9. When the researcher feels that the reader has grasped the concept of making

connections they will switch to a book of the readers choosing and repeat the

process of the reader reading and making connections

10.Toward the end of the lesson the researcher will introduce the Directed

Reading Thinking Activity to the reader. This activity is a type of graphic

organizer that has a place for “What I know” “What I think I know” “What I

think I’ll learn” and “What I know I learned”. The reader will fill out the “What I

know I learned” section at home.

Conclusion: The reader will pick a book to take home to read and fill out this activity.

The reader will bring the book and the filled out activity paper to the next meeting. The reader will also pick a book to use at the next meeting along with The Teddy Bear.

Reflection:

The researcher found that if the reader has a sticky note to cover the words she is not

reading, she takes more time and actually reads the words. When reading with her, it is

helpful to stop and ask what happened in the story on every page. This way the reader

can gain a better understanding of what is happening. The problem the researcher had

during this lesson is that the reader has two different stories for every book. One based

on what the words say and one based on the pictures. When retelling what she read,

the reader doesn’t always remember what happened in the words on the page even

when looking back at them and she has difficulty predicting what will come next. When

using pictures to tell the story she often says what is literally in the picture and doesn’t

imagine what the people in the picture might be doing or where they are going. For next

week the researcher is going to try to take a step back and start with helping her

understand that the pictures and the words are connected and portray the same story.

The researcher believes the reader needs help with concept of print before we can

move on to comprehension.

Lesson 2

Procedure:

Introduction

Go over the readers Directed Reading Thinking Activity that she was to

complete for homework. Ask her if this helped her understand the book. Today

we are going to continue reading the book The Teddy Bear. We are still going to

focus on making connections, but we are also going to fill out a Directed Reading

Thinking Activity form.

Step‐by‐Step:








make her own connections to the text. The reader will read 4 pages.





7. Next the researcher will introduce the idea of using post –it notes to keep track of

main events in the story. Using the book the reader chose for this session, the

reader will read out loud making connections like always, but this time when she

comes up on a main or new event in the story she will write it down on a post-it

and put it in the book. This will help the reader keep track of what is going on in

the story.


the reader that she will finish reading the book she chose for today at home for the next

meeting. She will fill out Directed Reading Thinking Form and use post-its to keep track

of important events. The reader will bring the book with post-it and the filled out activity

paper to the next meeting. The reader will also pick a book to use at the next meeting

along with The Teddy Bear

Reflection:

Instead of teaching this lesson, the researcher tried to go back to the basics with lesson

number two. The researcher made an attempt to teach the reader that the pictures and

the words tell the same story. The pictures help guide the reader’s inferences and

predictions as well as help the reader to decipher any unknown words. This attempt did

not go over as well as I had hoped. The reader was still telling two different stories. The

researcher and the reader began the lesson reading The Teddy Bear but ended up

switching to a book that is closer to the readers reading level. The reader is in 3 rd grade

and is reading at a level B which is a high Kindergarten – low 1 st grade level. The books

on the reader’s level are easier to understand but have less of a plot so even after

switching, trying to teach comprehension was going to be a difficult task.

Lesson 3 Give progress monitoring assessment before lesson


Progress monitoring assessment- Directed Reading Thinking Activity

Copy of Our Tea Party by Kirsten Hall

Copy of Nicky Visits the Airport by Harriet Ziefert

Pictures with no words from the book Nicky Visits the Airport

Procedure:

Introduction

Progress Monitoring Assessment will be a directed thinking reading

activity over the book Our Tea Party by Kirsten Hall. This is a My First Hello

Reader book so it is on her reading level. After she has that completed we will go

over the readers Directed Reading Thinking Activity. Tell her that we are going to

be changing what we are doing for the next 3 weeks. We are going to be

working on Sequencing or the order that things happen in a book. We are going

to read Nicky Visits the Airport by Harriet Ziefert.

Step‐by‐Step:

1. Have reader begin to read Nicky Visits the Airport. As she reads, the reader

will make sure to stop every page to have the reader relate the picture to the

text, since the story the pictures tell is the same story the words tell.

2. The researcher will stop the reader every few pages to have her tell what has

happened in the story so far.

3. When the reader is done reading, we will go over the story one last time

making sure she knows what happened and in what order. Then the

researcher will present the pictures copied from the book. The reader’s main

task will be to put the pictures in order and retell the entire story, however, the

researcher will be happy if the reader can tell what happened in each picture

and put them in order and not retell the whole story.

4. After the reader has successfully retold the story the reader and the

researcher will talk about the importance of being able to tell a story just using

the pictures.

Conclusion: The researcher will have the reader pick out a book for next session so

the pictures can be copied and ready to go. The reader will also pick out a book to take

for homework. Her job will be to read the story 2 times and then cover the words and

retell the story to her parent or guardian. When she returns for next session she will

then retell the story to me using just the pictures.

Reflection: The last 3 lessons were changed to sequencing instead of comprehension.

After discussing it with the professor the researcher feels that the reader is not ready for

comprehension, she must first learn to sequence what she has read. I went in to teach

this lesson and just as I got there they announced that all after school activities were

cancelled due to the massive amount of snow that was coming down. I explained to the

reader what we were going to be working on and gave her some homework to work on

for the next session. The next lesson we will have to pull double duty to get everything

finished.

Lesson 4


Copy of Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells

Copy of the book the reader chose for this session as well as pictures to go along

with it

Pictures with no words from the book Noisy Nora

2 copies of graphic organizer http://www.edhelperclipart.com/clipart/teachers/org-

begmidend.pdf

Procedure:

Introduction: The session will start with the reader retelling the story she had for

homework to the researcher. We will review the fact that the words on the page

correspond with the pictures on the page. They tell the same story. We will be working

the same type of thing in this lesson. We will be working with sequencing information

using a graphic organizer.

http://www.edhelperclipart.com/clipart/teachers/org-begmidend.pdf

http://www.edhelperclipart.com/clipart/teachers/org-begmidend.pdf

Step‐by‐Step:

1.The reader will read the book Noisy Nora out loud. Together the reader and the

researcher will work on filling out the graphic organizer filling in the title,

beginning, middle and end sections.

2. While filling out each section the researcher will be sure to point out the

pictures that go along with each section so it will be easier for the reader to put

them in order and retell the story later.

3. After the graphic organizer is filled out, the researcher will have the reader look

at the pictures that are printed out and put them in order and retell the story.

4. If there is time the reader will read the book she chose and do the same. If not,

that will be the homework for her to bring to the last session.

Conclusion: The researcher will have the reader tell her what she learned in this session, hopefully

the response will be about how the pictures go with the words and the importance of each

part of the book, beginning, middle and end. The researcher will remind the reader that

the next session will be the last session and that they will be doing their last assessment

at the end of the session. The researcher will also remind the reader of her homework

assignment for the night and that she needs to bring it back ready to learn for the next

session. Tell her that she is making great progress!

Reflection:

I noticed that when she read this session, she started fluctuating her voice and giving it

meaning. She wasn’t necessarily doing it in the right spots, but it was a start. We are

starting to work on sequencing but it is going slower than anticipated because she

missed the last two sessions due to weather and illness. She is having difficulty

remembering what happens in the story because she is having a hard time reading,

even stories that are on her reading level are difficult for her to remember. She had

trouble still when I read the book to her. I have found that she needs to be prompted

before she will remember anything about the story. I am still having trouble getting her

to remember that the pictures tell the same story as the words, not the other way

around. I also noticed that she repeats what she is going to write several times before

she actually writes it. Sometimes she is sounding out the words and sometimes she is

just repeating them. She has trouble copying words from the book. I think it is because

she can’t read it well enough.

For this lesson I combined lessons 3 and 4 since she missed lesson 3. The next lesson

will be a combination of the rest of lesson 4 and lesson 5.

Lesson 5 Outcome based assessment today

Procedure:

Introduction: This session will begin with the reader reviewing Noisy Nora from

last session. She will need to look through it so she can remember the order in which

events happened. The researcher will have pictures from the book copied and ready for

the reader to put in order and retell the story solely based on the pictures

Step‐by‐Step:

1.The reader will read through the book The Mitten and complete outcome

based assessment, a running record with comprehension questions. There are

two versions available to do the running record over.

http://www.kinderreaders.com/TheMitten.pdf

2. After the reader has completed the assessment the researcher and reader will

go over the book again and complete the sequencing assignment.

Conclusion:The researcher will tell the reader that this will be the last time they meet.

The researcher will give the reader the book she ordered for working with her so well

during the sessions.

Reflection: I received a note from the readers mother saying that the reader refused to

do anything at home. The homework I have been assigned to her has not been getting

done because of this. She has not shown as much improvement as I had hoped. She is

slowly getting the concept of sequencing, though she needs to be given a big clue to

know how to answer questions. Today’s lesson went really well. After we completed the

outcome based assessment we used pictures and sentences from the book to put the

story in order. She completed it early so we read a Clifford book with our remaining ten

minutes.

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/storymap1_eng.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/storymap1_eng.pdf

Phase IV

The data I collected shows that the reader made some progress. Because I didn’t

get all of the homework assignments back from the reader, all of the improvement is not

shown. She made more progress than shown in the data, I have seen a great deal of

progress just in the last two lessons alone. The last day of our sessions was her best

session yet. She hasn’t fully grasped the concept of sequencing, partially because she

only had three lessons on sequencing. The first two lessons were on comprehension.

After talking to her professor, the researcher decided to change the main focus of the

lessons to sequencing. The researcher felt that the reader was not ready for

comprehension, but felt the sequencing would be a good topic for the reader to learn

about instead. Learning how to sequence information will be a beneficial skill for the

reader to learn because it will help her retell stories and it will also help with any

standardized tests she will be taking in the future.

The researcher chose to do a running record with comprehension questions for

both the prescreening assessment and the outcome based assessment because they

are a good way to check for fluency, comprehension, and to find out the readers reading

level. Even though this assessment doesn’t specifically measure sequencing, some of

the assignments we have been doing in our sessions show that she has made a little

improvement in that area too. Before the prescreening assessment the researcher knew

that they would probably be working on comprehension based on what the reader’s

classroom teacher and special education teacher had said. The assessment proved that

comprehension was indeed one of the reader’s areas of weakness. She also has

trouble reading in general so the researcher had to coach the reader through both

difficulties. One the prescreening assessment the reader had four errors and one self-

correction. Half of her errors were because she confuses the digraph “ch” with “sh”.

Instead of the word ‘squish’ she said ‘squich”. Instead of ‘squash’ she said ‘squich’. Her

third error was instead of ‘jay’ she said ‘jelly’. Her last error was that she said ‘anna’

instead of ‘ah’. The reader’s special education teacher recently started working with her

on the digraphs and beginning sounds of words.

The reader was not able to answer any questions about the story. She said she

didn’t know when I asked her questions like “What animal climbed into the mitten first?”

or “what happened when too many animals were in the mitten at the same time?”. She

did not want to go back in the book and look and she didn’t want to guess the answer.

The second assessment the researcher gave the reader was the progress

monitoring assessment in the form of a directed thinking reading activity. This is an

activity that was done at the first two lessons as well as the progress monitoring. For

this assessment the reader would read the first two pages of the book and write down

what she knew so far. Next she would write what she thinks she knows and what she

thinks she will learn. After she has read the whole book she wrote down what she

knows she learned. The reader had a few problems in completing these tasks during

the lessons. She relied on the researcher to tell her the answers after the first one we

did together. The researcher tried to give the reader some guidance without telling her

the answers, which was not an easy task. As a result, the readers assignments did not

always have the appropriate answers in the correct spots. On her progress monitoring

assessment that was over a Garfield book, she wrote ‘he was hungry’ under both the

what I think I know and the what I think I’ll learn sections. The what I know section and

the what I know I learned sections were filled out appropriately, however.

The reader made progress on the outcome based assessments. The reader only

had three errors on the running record portion of the assessment. Two of them were

saying ‘in’ instead of ‘into’ and the other one was saying ‘squeezed’ instead of

‘sneezed’. During the comprehension question portion of the assessment the reader

was able to correctly answer ten questions out of the eighteen she was asked. This is a

huge improvement from the beginning of the sessions. Some of the questions she

answer correctly were “Where did the story happen (what was the setting)?”, “why did

the animals go into the mitten?” and “What can the girl do to make sure she doesn’t lose

her mitten again?”. These questions were knowledge, understanding, and analysis

respectively from Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The graph below shows the improvement the reader has made with the

comprehension questions from the pre-screening assessment to the outcome based

assessment. There were a total of 18 questions asked. The progress monitoring

assessment is not included in this graph because it was a completely different form of

assessment.

prescreening

outcome based

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Column2Column1Series 1

The next few pages are some of the work completed during our sessions. The

reader did not bring some of the homework she was assigned to the next session so

some of the work is missing. This is the work that was either done in session or

returned. Because some of the work was missing, it was hard for the researcher to

totally assess the readers progress but from what the researcher can tell, the reader did

progress.

The reader’s attitude was never a good one once we began working. She does not enjoy reading, so she would always ask if it was time to go home yet. We did sessions after school instead of during school so she was eager to get out and go home. The researcher thought maybe it would improve as we got further into our sessions, but it did not. She became more and more eager to leave with every session, despite the researcher’s efforts to engage the reader and making reading fun.

Reflection:

I have learned a lot about working with students who do not enjoy reading. I learned that it takes great patience to work with someone who is fighting against reading with every fiber of their being. I have also learned to be flexible with the answers I am looking for. When giving assessments or doing assignments, there is usually one specific answer that I was looking for, but the reader gave a different answer that could work just as well. It is sometimes hard to remember that I, as an adult, have different ways of thinking than the children I will be working with. Neither way of thinking is wrong necessarily, but they are different so I need to expect different answers from the students.

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