Loerch CI 576 Case Study / WTW, Spelling / F&P/ 11-6-2015

When I first met up with Jake, he selected one of his ten books for his self-selected reading after our assessments. I then started the assessments and administered the Words Their Way Assessment to assess Jake’s spelling/orthographic progress. Overall, Jake scored within the middle range of the Within Words Pattern. I administered the Primary Spelling Inventory first. Jake scored 7/7 correct on Initial and Final Consonants, and 7/7 in short vowels, digraphs, and blends. In vowels he scored 4/5 and 5/7. In inflected endings he scored 4/7 correct. I decided to administer the Elementary Spelling Inventory next because he did achieve a perfect score five categories in a row on the Primary Spelling Inventory. On the Elementary Spelling Inventory, Jake again scored within the middle range of the Within Words Pattern. Jake scored 7/7 in Initial and Final Consonants. In Vowels he scored 5/5. In Digraphs and Blends he scored a 6/6 then a 7/7. In Common Long Vowels he scored 4/5 and on Other Vowels he scored 4/7.

With the aforementioned evidence, I feel comfortable starting Jake in long vowels for his spelling/vocabulary work next week. Reviewing his spelling paper, I did observe many letters that will require review in formation. He has an open o and a. His letters float on the lines. The g, n, m, and u are slightly smaller and open also. He has a backward slant. For comprehension in his reading next week, I will to ask him to write his responses in a journal. I will pay attention to how he is holding his pencil, and forming his letters. Then I will decide if I want to assess his penmanship. I will also talk to his teacher to see if she is concerned.

Next I administered the Fountas & Pinnell (2011), to Jake, using a fiction piece, Ernie Learns, Level L. Jake read orally with an accuracy of 97%. He read with a fluency level of 2 out of 3. His Oral Reading Rate was 69 WPM. He had 6 miscues and 5 self-corrections. His miscues and self-corrections were 4 for meaning 3 each for Semantic and Visual cues. His comprehension was excellent with a 10/10. He earned an extra point for adding information to his understanding. I decided to have him read the nonfiction book next to see if he would gain similar results. His teacher was concerned about his comprehension.

He then read the nonfiction piece, Hang on Baby Monkey, also Level L. He seemed to enjoy this book and appeared at ease as he read. His accuracy was 99% with a fluency level of 2 out of 3. His Oral Reading Rate was 78 WPM. He had 3 miscues and 2 self-corrections. Three were meaning miscues, with two each for semantic and visual. His comprehension was 8/10. Overall his comprehension was acceptable. His confusion came in with understanding the purpose of headings.

In reflecting on Jakes reading, I analyzed his reading strengths. He has learned to use his reading strategies. He does not depend on one strategy more than another. His comprehension is spot on at the L level. I would recommend that his teacher keep him at the M level. The concern that I have is for his Oral Reading Rate. According to Fountas and Pinnell, Jake should read at the range of 90 to 120 WPM. He is currently at 69% in fiction, and 78% in nonfiction. I would recommend that that we work on first building his sight word vocabulary to help increase his fluency. I also will have him reread texts that he has chosen on successive weeks. For comprehension, we will discuss while he is reading those strategies that are warranted for fiction or nonfiction. Thankfully, we had enough time for him to read Splat the Cat Sings Flat. He become engrossed in what he was reading and his little cough started to decrease. He read with exaggeration and giggled at Splat the Cats’ antics. We will reread this book next week. I will also begin to time his reading to gage his progress in fluency. We had a lovely closure to our tutoring session.

Next week we will continue our work with a schedule that we will stick to for the rest of our sessions, as recommended by Caldwell and Leslie in Chapter 13 of Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Inventory Assessment. So What Do W Do Now?

1. We will reread Splat the Cat Sings Flat to work on fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. We will write any words in our journal and on cards that we think we need to continue reviewing. Questions for the book this week: 1) Why was Splat afraid to sing? 2) What gave him the courage to sing? 3) How did the children react to Splat when he did sing? 4) What did his teacher and his parents say when he sang at “Parents Night’?

2. We will work on our word study using WTW, list #25 to work on long “a” vowel patterns.

3. We will read from a book from the ten we chose from our first week together. He will read, orally, silently, or echo read. We will discuss the text

4. Follow it up next week with rereading and answering questions in his journal.