Reader Case Study

Lydia Bolls

Dr. Eastman

EDUC 301

December 9, 2011

Phase I: Readers Background

Part A: Background information about the reader

The elementary student that the researcher selected to complete the reader case study on is a first grader that attends Manchester Elementary. The first grade girl lives in North Manchester, IN with her mother, father, and five year old brother. The young reader is six years old and cannot wait to get older to become a teacher. Her mom is currently pregnant with a baby girl on the way and the student is so excited to have a little sister. She loves playing with her younger brother and watching TV every day after school. Every other day, her mom takes her to the library so that she can pick out books that she wants to read. The researcher found out that the reader will sometimes read to her parents and younger brother but she struggles every so often. Sometimes she will try and sit to read a book by herself and will go to her parents to ask what an unknown word is. The readers favorite subject at school is spelling. She only likes reading a small bit and she feels that she needs more help with reading. Sometimes her parents are available to help the student but not always so she tries to figure words out on her own.

When asked what her favorite book was, the student replied by saying I dont have a favorite book, I love them all! The researcher took note and asked the student if she liked reading in front of the class during shared reading time. The student replied with No, because Im shy and I dont know all of the words. After speaking with the readers teachers, the researcher found out that the student is reading at a level A which is typically the lowest level for first grade. The teacher stated that the child needs help with phonics and fluency and is considered a struggling reader. After finding out information about the student from the cooperating teacher before the actual decision was made, the researcher chose to work with this struggling reader because she is below grade level and the student seems very interesting and easy to work with.

Part B: Assessments

After speaking with the students teacher, the researcher has decided that phonemic awareness will be the focal point. The three assessments that the researcher has to conduct are screening, progress monitoring and outcome based. The first assessment that the researcher will have to give is screening which is basically like a diagnostic assessment. The researcher will use this to find out what knowledge the reader already has, determine her reading difficulties and create some form of guided instruction that will allow the reader to grow. The first screening assessments that the researcher has decided to use are the Recognizing Rhyme Assessment and the Playing with Sounds: Stretch and Shorten activity. The Playing with Sounds: Stretch and Shorten activity came from readingrocket.org. The activity provides the student with a combination of words that have 2, 3, 4 or 5 sounds in them. This will test the student on correctly being able to sound out words. This assessment will be given at the beginning of the case study.

For the progress monitoring assessment, the researcher has decided to use is the quick evaluation of phonemic awareness found righttrackreading.com. This comes with many assessments that evaluates students on phonemic awareness and helps the researcher find out if the student can fully manipulate sounds within words. This is an oral activity and responses should be recorded. 3 of the 4 assessments will be given to the student. After getting the results, the researcher should be able to find out if the student has progressed since the screening at the beginning of the case study. This assessment will be completed after the second tutoring session. The researcher will also complete a running record. The researcher will read through a story with the first grader during one tutoring session and then have the student read the book alone during the next session.

Next is the outcome based assessment. This assessment will be given at the end after all of the tutoring sessions are completed. The researcher has decided to use one of the assessments from the quick evaluation of phonemic awareness. The student will have a sense of the activity and hopefully find it quite easy to complete. Another assessment that the researcher has decided for the first grade student to complete is a running record. The researcher will give the student a book that is at the students reading level. The researcher will have the student read throughout the tutoring sessions. The researcher will compare the results with the assessment from the progress monitoring assessment. At the end, the researcher will compare all from results starting with the screening to the outcome based assessment.

Part C: Assessment Database

NAME

GRADE

HOW TO USE IT

WHEN TO USE IT

INFORMATION PROVIDED

REFERENCE INFORMATION

FAMILY LITERACY PROJECT

Phonemic Awareness Activities for 4-5-6 Year Olds

Kindergarten-1st grade

*This assessment is made up of several activities

*Activities should be done orally

*Broken up into 5 sections

*These should be used when beginning to work on fluency.

*Activity for listening awareness, rhyming awareness, word and syllable awareness, word family awareness and consonants

http://iusd.org/parent_resources/phonemica

wareness456

.htm

Alphabet Letters and Sounds Recognition

Kindergarten-1st grade

*The student will point and name the letters and sounds on the student response sheet

*Use this assessment is wanting to monitor a students performance in sound recognition

*Student response sheet

* upper and lower case letters table

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/alphabet.html

Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation

Kindergarten-1st grade

*Assess in a quiet setting

*Make fun as if a game

*Model for student what the teacher wants the student to do. Have student break apart each word with teacher

* Test should be used to manage progress

* Students test sheet, directions for teacher

*Video version

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/tools/yopp.html

Recognizing Rhyme Assessment

Kindergarten-1st grade

*Give child the directions, model, share then assess

*Throughout the year

*Directions on how to model and assess

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/tools/rhyme.html

Phoneme Blending Assessment

Kindergarten-1st grade

*Use this assessment if wanting to monitor a students phoneme growth

*Test should be used for screening

*8 words to assess student on

*a modeling example

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/tools/blendingqt.html

Phase II: Developing a plan

Part E: Interpretations of Assessments

For the screening assessment, there were 3 assessments given. The first assessment given to the reader was the Recognizing rhyme assessment The assessment consisted of 8 sets of words that the student had to decide whether the words rhymed or not. The researcher would read each set of words and the student would either put both thumbs up if the 2 words rhymed or both thumbs down if the words did not rhyme. The student only missed 1 out of the 8 sets of words given. After going over the answers at the end and restating the one she missed, the student was able to correct the error.

The second screening assessment was the Playing with word sounds: Stretch and Shorten assessment. This assessment consisted of 16 words where the researcher would stretch out the sounds of the words slowly and the student had to say the word at the regular speed. For example if the word was At (-t) and the student was expected to say at. The 16 words were broken down into four categories which were 2 sounds, 2 sounds, 4 sounds and 5 sounds. For most of the 2 sound words, the student had already learned them before so she already knew them. She was also able to say some of the 3 sound words even though she had never seen any of them. She was able to listen to how the researcher sounded them out and make out the word that the researcher was saying. The reader got half of the 4 sound words and the other half she was not able to figure out. The researcher was hesitant at first as to not count some of these wrong because they could have been too advanced for her grade level and she also did this same thing for the 5 sound words that were on the assessment. At the end, the researcher decided to also count the 4 and 5 sound words as errors. The reader knew the sounds of each letter in the words but was not able to blend/segment them to make the entire word.

The third screening assessment was the Phoneme blending assessment where the student had to listen to the researcher say all of the sounds in the words given and tell them the word that they hear. The reader got a 7/8 correct on this assessment. The researcher noticed that the student was really quick to guess the words given and believes that the reader only got the 1 wrong because she must have misheard something else. The student received a check mark if she got the word correct. For the one that she got wrong, the researcher wrote down the word that the student thought it was over the correct word. At the end of this assessment the researcher went over the answers with the reader.

Part F: Plan of action

a. Based on the results of the 3 assessments given, the researcher has decided to focus on making sure that the student knows how to segment and blend sounds. The researcher will work with the student on rhyming and blending/ segmenting sounds. These strategies should further develop phonemic awareness and strengthen future decoding skills.

b. Lesson 1: the researcher will work on rhyming so that the student can understand the sounds in words and how they can sound alike in other words. The researcher will bring in the book Green Eggs and Ham. This book will be read by the student and the researcher will help when needed. At certain points in the book, the researcher will stop and think aloud some of the words that rhyme with the student. The researcher will write out some of the words and have the student say them to hear if they have similar sounds in them. This book has already been read in the classroom by the teacher so the student should already have knowledge of what goes on in the book. The student will then complete the kidspiration web that was created by the researcher. The web focuses on rhyming words. After this activity has been completed, the researcher will introduce a new book which is The Cat in the Hat. The researcher and the student will also go over rhyming words like in the book read before.

Lesson 2: The second lesson will also deal with rhyming. The researcher will model rhyming words on a wipe off board to show the reader what would be expected during the intervention lesson. The reader will also write out rhyming words on a wipe off board for practice. The reader will then read The Cat in the Hat again from the first lesson and the researcher will record on a running record sheet. The student will then be introduced to The Cat in the Hat Comes back book. The student will do a think aloud. The student will also take home the rhyme time worksheet to complete and bring back.

Lesson 3: For this third lesson, the researcher will bring in a set of alphabet flashcards. The researcher will hold up one flashcard at a time and have the student segment each sound that each letter makes. After most of the letters have been done, the researcher will put 2, 3 or 4 letters together to make words. The student must sound out each letter and segment them to figure out the entire word.

Lesson 4: The researcher will introduce a book called Lets Pretend. The researcher will focus this lesson on think alouds. The researcher will model a think aloud with a book and then have the student read the book given. The student must try and do a think aloud on her own. The reason that think alouds are important will be explained to the reader. Reader will be sent home with a new book called Where is Curly? to practice reading and doing a think aloud.

Lesson 5: This lesson will focus on blending of sounds. The researcher will play a game with the student called guess it where the student has to guess the word that the researcher is segmenting. For example the researcher will say I am thinking of colors in the rainbow. This color is /r/ /e/ /d/ and the student will say, You are thinking of the color red! The researcher will already have a list of categories to pull words from. After the researcher has given all the words on the list, the count the sounds assessment will be given. Counters and a copy of a Copy the Sounds reproducible master are to be used and the researcher will read the words aloud. The student then have to count how many sounds she heard in the word, placing one counter on each box on the reproducible master, one on each box. The student will then take the CVC Words worksheet home to complete and bring back during the next lesson.

Lesson 6: This last lesson will focus on oral segmentation. The student will complete an activity called What sounds do these words share? The student will receive a list of words and the researcher will read them aloud. The reader must say which sound the word share.

Letter to parent/teacher

Dear parent of _____________________,

With your consent, I have been working with your child for the past couple of weeks on developing phonemic awareness in reading. Phonemic awareness is the ability to blend and segment sounds which is basically being able to hear the individual sounds that make up words. Ive spoken with your childs classroom teacher and she feels that I should focus on phonics and the blending and segmenting of sounds. I believe that your child is growing as a reader and hopefully continue to grow after this case study is complete. Phonemic awareness is your childs weaker area in reading and after she is able to develop this certain area, reading will become much easier for her. At the beginning, I did 3 screening assessments to figure out where your child was in reading and phonemic awareness. Some of the activities dealt with rhyming and the blending of sounds. She did really well with the rhyming portion and some parts of the sound blending assessment. I have created 6 lessons that will hopefully help your child develop the phonemic awareness concept.

The 6 lessons will be divided into weeks, they will not all be given during one school day. I have spoken with the classroom teacher about your child being taken out of the classroom to complete these lesson and do not worry because your child is not missing content that is being taught by the teacher in the classroom. The teacher and I have worked out a time that works perfect where the student would not be missing anything that interferes with her learning. For some of the lessons given, your child will have homework to take home and complete. Please allow your child to complete the work on her own with only the help of reading the directions. I ask that you please practice this concept with your child as much as possible. With the homework given there will be an extra sheet that models the assignment so that you can see how it is supposed to be done. I greatly appreciate you allowing me to work with your child. I look forward to working with her and feel that this case study will go well and that your child will show some improvement in reading. If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to email me or call me. lbbols@spartans.manchester.edu or (574) 217- 3221

Sincerely,

Lydia Bolls

Information page

Title of book: Green Eggs and Ham

Author: Dr. Seuss

Copyright date: 1960

Summary: The character Sam-I-am is trying to convince the other character in the book to eat a plate of green eggs and ham. He goes above and beyond to get him to eat the food but he does not want to. After Sam-I-am has constantly tried to get the other character to eat the green eggs and ham, he tries the food and actually likes it. The book has many rhyming words the children learn to memorize. Most of the rhyming words are highlighted so that children can recognize them.

Details behind web: The student will pick rhyming words from the book and fill each box. Since most of the lessons have been working on rhyming and segmenting, the researcher decided to use this book to help with rhyming.

Reading: Comprehension and Analysis of Nonfiction and Informational Text

Kidspiration Software Web

Phase III: Tutoring: conducting the action plan

Work Samples

Screening Assessment: Phoneme Awareness Assessment Tool: Recognizing Rhyme Assessment

Screening Assessment: Phoneme Awareness Assessment Tool: Phoneme Blending

Screening Assessment: Playing with Sounds: Stretch and Shorten

Kidspiration Web: Lesson 1

Rhyme Time worksheet (HW): Lesson 2

Lesson 2: Running Record

Alphabet flash cards: Lesson 3

Lesson 5: Count the Sounds

Lesson 5: CVC homework

Comments:

Student capitalized the p in pig.

When spelling words aloud, student sometimes mixed up the letters b and p.

Lesson 5: Count the Sounds

Comments: student did really well

Lesson 6: Picture Cards

Lesson 6: Big, Bigger and Biggest

Comments:

For the first set of words the reader missed the word tie but got the word sun correct. She then corrected herself

She also got the 3rd and fourth set of words incorrect.

Lesson 6: Secret Sound

Lesson 6: Which Doesnt Belong?

Outcome based assessment: Quick Evaluation of Phonemic Awareness

Page 1

Page 2 of outcome based assessment

Page 3 of outcome based assessment

Reflection

For lesson one, the reader did really well. The researcher introduced the book Green Eggs and Ham to the student. At the beginning, the researcher had decided that the book would not be read by just the student because the researcher did not think the child could read the book alone.

After thinking about it, the researcher decided to let the student read the book aloud to her.

She seemed really excited and talked about how she loves Dr. Seuss books. The researcher then explained to the reader what a think aloud is and how she would model it for her so that she could do it on her own. The researcher allowed her to start reading, after the first couple of pages the researcher did a think aloud and she just laughed and stared at the researcher blankly. She then told the reader that she would need to try it on the next page or so. A page after the researcher had modeled the think aloud, she decided to do it. She actually did really well by saying I wonder why he doesnt want to eat the green eggs and ham! I bet its kind of good. She then went on to the read the rest of the book, doing more and more think alouds. She did much better than the researcher thought she would because in the beginning of the lesson when she showed her how to do one she just looked at the researcher really funny and laughed but after trying it herself she started to actually like it. She also did not need much help reading the book. She did really well with attempting to sound out words that she did not recognize.

For lesson one, the student and the researcher also talked about rhyming words. Whenever there were rhyming words, the researcher would write them out on a wipe off board. The student and the researcher talked about how they have the same sound but are spelled differently. After writing them, the researcher had her read the words. She was able to read the words with quickness and easiness. After going over some of the rhyming words, the student was then given the kidspiration web created. The researcher explained the directions to the student and allowed her to do it on her own. She showed her the example that was included on the web. The reader then flipped through the pages to find rhyming words to fill in the blanks on the web. She seemed to have really liked the activity and told me that she could find more in the book even though all of the lines were filled on the paper. The student filled every line on the web with the correct rhyming words.

The researcher then introduced the Cat in the Hat book which she found out that the student already had read and her classroom teacher had read to the class also. So the researcher had the student read through the book. They both flipped through the pages to talk about more rhyming words and ended the lesson with the book. The reader talked about how she liked the funny pictures. The researcher then asked the reader if she ever looks at the picture to help her figure out unknown words and the reader replied yea sometimes it helps me when Im stuck. I feel that this is something most readers do. Looking at the pictures does help with words that readers do not know. The researcher reminded the student to read at home for more practice.

Lesson two also dealt with rhyming words. The researcher opened up the lesson by writing rhyming words on a wipe off board again to refresh the readers memory of the previous lesson. The reader will then read the Cat in the Hat again and this time the researcher will complete a running record on the student. The entire book was not read, only the first 5 or 6 pages because the length of the book is so long. The reader scored a 98% on the running record which would be considered an easy book. The reader only had 2 errors and 1 self-correction. The reader also scored a 2 for comprehension which is the highest score possible and a 3 for fluency which is 1 below the highest points possible. The Cat in the Hat book is an age 6 and up leveled book. The reader is 6 and did an amazing job reading the book. She segmented and blended sounds to figure out unknown words, and whenever she did this, she would look at the researcher for approval. The researcher would then praise the student for doing such a good job.

After the running record was completed, the researcher introduced the book The Cat in the Hat Comes back. The reader did another think aloud for this book. She asked questions and made comments. The researcher also reminded the student that she could make connects from her real life situations that she connects with in the book. After the book was done being read by the student, she was given a rhyme time worksheet for homework.

At the beginning of the third lesson, the student returned the rhyme time worksheet which was done really well. The reader glued the correct pictures next to the correct rhyming word. Both the researcher and the reader went over the answers on the homework that was returned. The researcher then moved on to starting the lesson by showing the student the set of alphabet cards that they were going to be using that day for the lesson. After going through the entire alphabet and having the student make each sound of the letter, the researcher started to put 2-3 letters together to make words and the student had to figure out what each word was. The reader knew the sound for every letter and would attempt to read the word whenever the researcher would put letters together to create a word.

For the fourth lesson, the researcher introduced the book Lets Pretend. The lesson was focused on think alouds again. At the beginning of the case study, the researchers original plans were to focus on segmenting and blending sounds for the fourth lesson, but after seeing that the student comprehending the concepts quickly; the researcher had a change of plans. For this lesson, the researcher asked the student if she could remember what a think aloud was and how you would do a think aloud. The reader responded by saying its when you read the story and then you say, I am thinking, and then you say what you are thinking. The researcher accepted this response and added more to what the student said. At the end of the lesson, the student was sent home with a book called Where is Curly? The researcher explained that she wanted the student to read the book on her own and to do a think aloud.

The fifth lesson focused on the blending of sounds. The researcher played a game with the reader called guess it. The reader had to guess the word that the researcher was segmenting. The researcher used a list of words from an activity that was found in phonemic awareness book. The researcher first started off with an example to show the student how the game was supposed to be played. The reader caught on to the game really well. After all of the words from the worksheet were given, the researcher gave the student the count the sounds assessment. Counters and a copy the sounds reproducible master was used for this lesson. The researcher read the words aloud and the student how to count how many sounds she heard in the word. She had to place one counter on each box of the reproducible master. If the student got it right, the researcher had her transfer the letters on the sheet by writing them out on the count the sounds worksheet. The student was then given the CVC Words worksheet to take home to complete and bring back during the last lesson.

The sixth lesson focused on oral segmentation. The student brought back her CVC words worksheet that was given for homework from the last lesson. The reader did really well. The only mistake that she made on the worksheet was capitalizing the first letter for the work pig. When going over the words on the worksheet the student would make the sound that each letter made. Sometimes she would get the p and b mixed up but then she would correct herself.

For this last lesson, the reader did an activity called Secret Sound? The researcher read a list of words aloud and the reader had to say which sound the words shared. For example, the first sets of words were sun, sick and send. The reader was then expected to respond by saying /s/. Once the words from that activity were completed, the researcher and the reader then went on to the next activity which was called Big, Bigger, and Biggest This also focused on oral segmentation. The researcher used picture cut-outs and showed them to the reader. The reader then had to count the sounds she heard in each picture name. The reader then had to decide which picture name had the most sounds. The reader was sent home with a homework sheet called Which Doesnt Belong where she had to cross out the picture that did not belong.

The reader also did a superb job on the last homework sheet. She crossed out the picture that did not belong. The researcher and the reader also went over the worksheet again saying the words aloud and explaining the reason as to why the particular picture was crossed out. The researcher did notice that the readers homework was initialed which meant that her parent checked over her homework with her. This made the researcher feel good that the student was getting help at home.

Phase IV

After the sixth lesson, the researcher administered the outcome based assessment. The student did extremely well. The reader did really well for this reader case study. When the researcher first began working with the student, she was reading at a level B. Now the reader is reading at a level E which is really good progress. On the pretest the reader received a 75%. There were only 32 words and the student got 24 out of the 32 correct. For the post test, there were a total of 51 words and the student got 45 out of the 51 correct. This could have been done differently by making both assessments the same amount of words. The reader did really well on the progress monitoring assessment which was the running record, scoring a 98%.

The action plan met the readers needs by being focused on the struggling readers interest. The books were chosen by both the reader and the researcher. The changes that the researcher noticed from the beginning of the case study to the end were that the reader gained so much more confidence. At the beginning, the reader had stated that she loved reading but found it to be hard. The readers scores on each assessment increased each time. Even the readers teacher noticed the huge progress in the reader. As the reader case study went on, the reader became more focused, more excited and really enjoying the lessons and activities.

By completing this reader case study, the researcher has set many new goals and has learned so much. Before completing the reader case study, the researcher was nervous about the assignment. The researcher felt that her low patience would get in the way of working with the student, taking the lessons slowly making sure the reader was understood the lessons being taught. As the researcher started working with the reader more and more, she got a better sense of the characteristics of a struggling reader and what they go through. The researcher will make sure that the students in her classroom are getting the material and have confidence in their reading. The researcher wants to make sure that her students are growing and gaining deeper knowledge of what reading is all about. The researcher will take this information learned and set even more goals for herself and her students.

Resources:

Bereiter, Carl. "Preparing to Read: Phonemic Awareness." Imagine it. Columbus, OH: SRA/McGraw-Hill, 2008. 9-13.

Fill the boxes with

words from the

book that rhyme.

5

_______Sam______

and

______am______

4

______could____

and

____would________

3

___hat______

and

_____cat_________

2

____fox______

and

______box_________

6

____house_______

and

____mouse_____

7

_______rain______

and

_____train ___

1

Ex. Ham and Sam

8

____say_______

and

_______may______

Rhyming:

Green Eggs and

Ham

Other possible answers:

Car

and

are

see

and

tree

tree

and

be

goat

and

boat

be

and

see

Name _ANSWER KEY _

Fill the boxes with words from the book that rhyme. 5_______Sam______and______am______4______could____and____would________3___hat______and _____cat_________2____fox______and ______box_________6____house_______and____mouse_____7_______rain______and_____train ___1Ex. Ham and Sam 8____say_______and_______may______Rhyming: Green Eggs and Ham Other possible answers: Car and are see and treetree and begoat and boat be and see Name _ANSWER KEY _