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Learner Profile/Case ReportSummary of Reading Assessments

Student Name: HunterAge: 10Grade Level: 5Date of Report: March 17, 2013

Report Created by: Hannah ParsleyInterdisciplinary Studies Student

Tarleton State University – Southwest MetroplexFort Worth, Texas

As partial completion of RDG 384 course requirements, the following report, consisting of results of interviews, surveys, literacy assessments, and selected subtests of an Informal Reading Inventory, was administered, scored, and interpreted by Hannah Parsley. Ms. Parsley is an Interdisciplinary Studies student at Tarleton State University – Southwest Metroplex, Fort Worth, Texas.

Hannah Parsley Learner Profile/Case Report RDG 384

Part 1: Description of Learner

Hunter is a witty, intellectual fifth-grade student at Brock Elementary, part of Brock

Independent School District. She will turn 11 this upcoming May. It has been such a pleasure to

get to know Hunter and a joy to work with her over the past weeks.

During our first visit together, I conducted several informal assessments that would allow

me to learn a bit more about her personality, her likes inside and outside of school, and her

reading skills. The first assessment I administered was an Elementary Interest Inventory

created by a teacher at Eagle Elementary in Indiana. The inventory asks many questions about

favorites, leisure activities, and likes/dislikes of the student. I learned that Hunter “loves” school,

spending time with her friends, and participating in numerous extracurricular activities, including

cheerleading, softball, dance, and piano lessons. She also acknowledged that she would love to

be a teacher when she grows up, which created a strong commonality between the two of us

throughout the rest of the sessions.

Following the interest survey, I conducted a Reader Interview published by Scholastic

to learn about Hunter’s reading preferences. Her favorite genres include realistic and science

fiction, mystery, and fantasy. Hunter enjoys reading books in series and was finishing Catching

Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games series, by Suzanne Collins, at the time of our first

session. After the interview, I continued examining her reading interests by administering the

Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (Garfield) to gauge her attitudes towards reading and

how they rank compared to other 5th grade students. She seems to enjoy recreational and

academic reading almost equally, but she admitted that she “hates informational reading”,

something that she will be required to do for the rest of her academic career. I hope to change her

opinion on expository text over the duration of our sessions. Upon comparing Hunter’s raw score


from the ERAS (Garfield) to the percentile ranks, her attitudes towards reading are very much

average compared to other fifth graders. Hunter’s attitude towards recreational reading ranked at

the 42nd percentile, while her attitude towards academic reading ranked at the 54th percentile. The

full scale attitude rank was at the 46th percentile. All of these numbers showed me that Hunter’s

attitude towards various types of reading is typical of other 5th grade students. Outside of the

surveys I concluded that she has a positive outlook and great passion for reading!

During our fourth session together, I administered a Multiple Intelligences Survey

created by Literacy Works, based on Howard Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences. The

purpose of this survey is to assess Hunter’s strongest natural intelligences as well as her

preferred learning styles. Her strongest intelligences, beginning with the strongest, are as

follows: Musical, Body Movement, Self (intrapersonal), Social (learning from others),

Language, Logic/Math, Nature, and Spatial. She informed me that she takes piano lessons,

enjoys dance and cheerleading, and loves to sing. Her musical intelligence is very strong. This

assessment taught me that Hunter will likely learn best by incorporating rhythm or some type of

movement into our activities.

Part 2: Reflection on the Components

1. RUNNING RECORDS/MISCUE ANALYSISThroughout our sessions, many running records were conducted. A running record is a

timed, recorded oral reading by the student, used to assess various reading aspects such as

fluency and words per minute read. During a running record, miscues are marked and used while

calculating words per minute read. A miscue is a word read incorrectly or omitted from the


passage. Some miscues are often self-corrected; these self-corrections are not counted against the

student in the scoring of the passages.

First Running Record: Because Hunter was currently reading Catching Fire, I chose to

use this book to conduct a running record during our first session. I had her read a paragraph

aloud while I recorded it and made notes. This book is worth 5.3 Accelerated Reader points

which Hunter told me is her current reading level. 5.3 on the Accelerated Reader scale translates

to 5th grade and 3 months, which is a few months behind Hunter’s actual time in the 5 th grade.

She reads very fluently and at a great pace. After she finished reading the paragraph, Hunter

seemed to struggle while retelling me what the passage about, which lead me to believe the

vocabulary in the book is a little advanced. The results from the running record follow:

Number of Words Read: 111Total Miscues: 4Words per Minute: 148 WPMCorrect Words per Minute: 144 CWPM

Second Running Record: During the dictated story assessment in session two, Hunter

read aloud Library Mouse: A Friend’s Tale. This book is written approximately at the 4th grade

level. We used this book to work on retelling, something I observed may be a challenge for

Hunter during our first running record. The results are as follows:

Number of Words Read: 196Total Miscues: 5 (3 self-corrections)Words per Minute: 155 WPMCorrect Words per Minute: 153 CWPM

Graded Word List Miscues: During session two, I administered graded word lists to

help identify the level where testing would begin. Hunter had a few miscue marks due to

pronunciation. For example, on the 3rd grade word list, she read “adaption” instead of the correct


word, “adaptation”. She later read “article” when trying to decode the word “articulate”. Other

miscues noted in the graded word lists were omissions.

2. GRADED WORD LIST ASSESSMENTThe graded word lists are used to help determine which reading passage level would be

appropriate for the reader to begin testing. Each list contains 20 words at a specified grade level,

ranging from pre-primer up to high school. The student is instructed to read each word on the list

as quickly as possible, receiving no help from the teacher. Each list contains a grading scale to

determine if the student can identify the words on the list at the “independent”, “instructional”,

or “frustration” level. Hunter enjoyed this activity and thought of it as a game, which made it

much more interesting. The results follow:

Third 20/20 100% IndependentFourth 16/20 80% InstructionalFifth 18/20 90% IndependentSixth 17/20 85% InstructionalUpper Middle School 11/20 55% Frustration

I chose to begin administering the QRI-5 reading passages at two levels below Hunter’s

highest “independent” level on the graded word list assessment; therefore, I began QRI-5 testing

at the 3rd grade reading passages.

3. GRADED READING PASSAGESThroughout the entirety of our sessions, I utilized six passages to assess oral reading

comprehension, one passage to assess silent reading comprehension, and one passage to assess

listening comprehension. The passages were a mixture of narrative, a passage that tells a story,

and expository, a passage that serves to inform. The graded reading passages are administered

and tested to determine areas where students are strongest in their reading and some areas that

could use improvement or extra attention. I used these results to guide my future activity and


passage choices used with Hunter. The grading scale used with the reading passage is similar to

that of the graded word lists. The scale helps determine if a student reads the passage at a level of

“independent” (98% accuracy or above), “instructional” (90-97% accuracy), or “frustration”

(less than 90% accuracy). Ideally, a student should be reading passages or stories at the

“instructional” level, so they are easy enough to comprehend yet challenging enough to keep the

student engaged. The table provides an overview of the passage results, and an in-depth

explanation containing the details from each follows.

QRI-5 Miscue Analysis Passage Results

A. B. C. D."A New Friend From

Europe"

"Amelia Earhart

"

"Margaret Mead"

"Octopus"

Narrative Narrative Narrative Expository

Concept Questions 8 of 12 pts.

9 of 12 pts.

6 of 12 pts.

12 of 12 pts.

above-average familiarity

above-average familiarity

average familiarity

total familiarity

Miscue Scores silent readTotal Miscues 8 2 4 N/A"Acceptable" Miscues 5 1 1 N/AWPM (Words Per Minute) 148 143 128 173

Correct WPM 146 142 126 173Retelling of Story

Ideas recalled 55/96 29/47 9/46 29/54Questions Correct

Explicit Questions 4 3 3 4Implicit Questions 4 3 4 3TOTAL 8 6 7 7

After Look-back questions Correct

Explicit Questions N/A 4 4 4Implicit Questions N/A 3 4 4


TOTAL N/A 7 8 8

E. F. G. H.

"Abraham Lincoln"

"The Lifeline of the Nile"

"Biddy Mason"

"Life Cycle of the Stars - Part

1"

Narrative Expository Narrative Expository

Concept Questions 7 of 12 pts. 12 of 12 pts. 11 of 12 pts. 8 of 12 pts.

average familiarity

total familiarity

Mostly familiar

above-averagefamiliarity

Miscue Scoreslisteningcomprehension tested

Total Miscues 8 8 11 N/A"Acceptable" Miscues 1 1 3 N/A

WPM (Words Per Minute) 131 116 136 N/A

Correct WPM 128 112 134 N/ARetelling of Story

Ideas recalled 25/47 16/56 31/64 10/68Questions Correct


After Look-back questions Correct


Passage A:Title: “A New Friend from Europe”

Level: 3, Narrative

Prior Knowledge: Above-average familiarity

Reading Rate: 148 WPM, 146 CWPM


Miscue Analysis: There were eight total miscues in this passage, but only three of them were

considered “mean-changing” miscues. Hunter made five self-corrections during the reading. One

mistake she made more than once was pronouncing “steam” rather than the correct “stream” in

the word “streamliner”.

Retelling: Hunter recalled 55 of the 96 ideas in this passage. She hit on all of the main ideas and

major details. She excluded some minor things in her verbal retelling of the story.

Questions: Hunter answered all questions about this passage correctly. Most of her answers

were nearly identical to the test answers given. She did an excellent job, overall, and would be

graded as totally “independent”.

Passage B:Title: “Amelia Earhart”

Level: 4, Narrative



Miscue Analysis: There were only two total miscues in this entire passage and only one was

mean-changing. Hunter read this story with excellent accuracy! Her mean-changing miscue was

pronouncing “women” rather than the correct word, “woman”. This changed the meaning of the

sentence and could have led her to believe the story was telling about more than one woman.

Retelling: Hunter was able to recall 29 out of the 47 ideas in the story. I feel that she did so well

with retelling this story because she seemed to really enjoy the topic.

Questions: Six out of eight of the comprehension questions were answered correctly, and one

more was answered with a look-back. This passage would have been graded as “instructional”.


The question she still omitted after the look-back was an implicit question, meaning the answer

was not stated in the text. She would have to make an inference to answer it.

Passage C:Title: “Margaret Mead”

Level: 5, Narrative

Prior Knowledge: Average familiarity


Miscue Analysis: There were four total miscues in this passage, but only one was mean-

changing, meaning that the other three are “acceptable”. The mean-changing miscue was

pronouncing “lands” rather than “islands”, which changes the entire meaning of the sentence and

possibly the story.

Retelling: Hunter was only able to recall 9 out of the 46 ideas from this passage. Based upon my

observations thus far, retelling seems to be a challenge for Hunter, especially with passages she

has read aloud. I only let her feel distressed about the retelling for a few seconds before I

encouraged her to not worry about it so we could move on to the questions.

Questions: She answered seven questions correctly and got the 8th question correct with a look-

back, which would put her reading of this passage at the “instructional” level. Overall, Hunter

did well on this passage for having only average familiarity with the topics and struggling to

retell it. She retained far more from the story than I would have guessed after the retelling.

Passage D:Title: “Octopus” – Silent Comprehension, Hunter read this passage to herself while being timed.

Level: 5, Expository

Prior Knowledge: Total familiarity


Reading Rate: 178 WPM

Miscue Analysis: There were no noted miscues because Hunter read this passage silently.

Retelling: After reading the story to herself, Hunter was able to recall 29 out of the 54 ideas

which was more than half! I was pleasantly surprised to see how many details she was able to

recall from silent comprehension. This passage showed me that a weak area may be

comprehending her oral reading and not so much of silent reading.

Questions: She answered seven of the questions correctly without look-backs. On the grading

scale, this passage would be scored as “instructional” without look-backs. The one question she

missed was, again, implicit, but she was able to answer it correctly with a look-back. Overall, I

was impressed with Hunter’s silent comprehension of this expository text.

Passage E:Title: “Abraham Lincoln”

Level: 6, Narrative

Prior Knowledge: Average familiarity


Miscue Analysis: There were eight total miscues in the passage; however, seven of the miscues

were acceptable. The only mean-changing miscue was omitting the word “war” from a sentence

where the war was a main idea.

Retelling: Hunter recalled more than half of the ideas from the story, 25/47. That is excellent!

She omitted a few of the major ideas which told me that she may have difficulty answering some

of the upcoming questions.

Questions: She was only able to answer five out of eight questions without look-backs, which

was considered “frustration” level. With look-backs, however, Hunter was able to successfully


answer the questions she had missed before. I feel she did poorly with this passage compared to

others because she had not yet learned about the achievements of Abraham Lincoln during the

Civil War. I feel that if she had greater prior knowledge, the passage would have been a little

easier for Hunter to comprehend.

Passage F:Title: “The Lifeline of the Nile”

Level: 6, Expository

Prior Knowledge: Total familiarity


Miscue Analysis: Hunter read this passage with eight miscues, but only one miscue was marked

as mean-changing. Some of the terminology in the story was new, which lead me to think it

could have been a reason Hunter was reading a little slower in this passage compared to others.

Retelling: She was only able to recall 16 out of 56 ideas from the story. I, again, feel that this

was due to some unfamiliar words in the story. Hunter seemed to take some extra time decoding

new words, which could have taken away some comprehension of the story.

Questions: Without look-backs, Hunter answered the questions from this story at a level

considered “frustration”. The only answered five of eight correctly. After looking back at the

story, she was able to answer the missed questions correctly. She reminded me that she “hates”

informational text, as mentioned during our first session together, but I reminded her how well

she read the passage and answered the questions with look-backs. That is a great reading skill to

possess.

Passage G:Title: “Biddy Mason”


Level: Upper Middle School, Narrative

Prior Knowledge: Mostly familiar


Miscue Analysis: While reading “Biddy Mason”, Hunter had 11 miscues. This number seemed

higher than the other passages to me, but this story is much longer and leveled as Upper Middle

School. Only three miscues were mean-changing. She also had a few self-corrections. Both of

the miscue numbers were rated as “independent” level of reading, which is exceptional for an

Upper Middle School leveled passage.

Retelling: Hunter recalled 31 out of 64 ideas from the story which was nearly half. I feel that for

a higher-level passage, she did very well in her retelling. I feel that Hunter is better at retelling

stories that she has more interest in.

Questions: She answered nine of ten questions correctly with and without look-backs. Both of

these are rated as “independent”. Hunter did very well with this reading passage! The one

question she missed both times was implicit, which are typically harder to answer because the

answer must be inferred. Although she was reading at the “frustration” level during the 6th grade

passages, I decided to have Hunter read “Biddy Mason” (which is Upper Middle School)

because I felt she would be very capable of comprehending a narrative passage at a higher level

than expository.

Passage H:Title: “Life Cycle of the Stars – Part 1”

Level: Upper Middle School, Science



Reading Rate: I used this story to assess Hunter’s listening comprehension. I chose this level

because it is the level I would consider “frustrating” for her. Listening comprehension is

generally a little higher than reading comprehension in most students.

Miscue Analysis: Miscues were not applicable as I read the story aloud to assess listening

comprehension.

Retelling: After hearing the passage, Hunter was only able to recall 10 out of 68 ideas from the

passage. During the reading, she exhibited many faces of stress and confusion. I feel that the

story had far too many new ideas, causing her to become lost during the reading. Although she

knew some general information about stars during the concept questions, the passage went much

further into depth with topics unfamiliar to Hunter.

Questions: She answered only half of the comprehension questions without look-backs. After

having a chance to review the story, she was able to answer two more questions correctly.

Having discovered her frustration level with reading comprehension to be sixth grade and her

frustration level with listening comprehension to be upper middle school, I knew to not test any

further than these levels.

4. Dictated Story Assessment A dictated story assessment serves to analyze the student’s ability to retell a story using

their own words. The teacher transcribes the student’s story or retelling verbatim and gives the

student the opportunity to practice reading his or her own writing. Because of the nature of the

sessions and lack of technology, I adapted this assessment slightly with Hunter. With the dictated

story assessment, I not only wanted to test her oral reading comprehension, but also her listening

comprehension. I used two different stories to complete my goals for this assessment.


Library Mouse: A Friend’s Tale, written by Daniel Kirk.

With this story, I assessed Hunter’s oral reading comprehension by conducting a running

record similar to what we did with the graded reading passages. I chose this story book

because Hunter had informed me that she loves school and would be interested in

education as a possible career field. I felt that a story set in a library about writing letters

would peak her interest. During the running record, she read a passage 196 words in

length at a rate of 155 WPM. Due to time constraints and lack of technology on hand, I

had Hunter verbally restate the story to me in her own words. I utilized a story map

graphic organizer published by Scholastic for Hunter to fill in the important story

elements such as setting, problem, and main characters. She had minimal experience with

a story map, so I helped Hunter to complete it by prompting her to recall certain events

from the story. With this story map, she was able to reread the information she dictated to

me and hear her own words. I feel this was a great strategy help to Hunter because it

provided an excellent opportunity to organize her thoughts from the reading. She was

able to successfully interpret the important aspects of the story and decipher implicit

information that was useful for her retelling.

Trouble with Trolls; written by Jan Brett.

I used this story to help assess Hunter’s listening comprehension skills by reading the

story aloud to Hunter while she jotted notes. After hearing the book, I prompted Hunter

to retell the story in her own words, focusing on main ideas of the beginning, middle, and

ending of the book. With this knowledge of the story, I then introduced an activity to her

called “Comic Strip Retelling”. I presented Hunter with a long sheet of paper divided into

five squares, similar to a comic strip. We talked a minute about how a comic strip looks,


what they contain, and what information is presented. I instructed Hunter to create her

own comic strip retelling the story of Trouble with Trolls. She was to write a sentence for

each of the five squares, describing the main idea of the beginning, rising actions, middle

(or climax of the story), falling actions, and ending, respectively. After writing a sentence

in each square of the comic strip, she had the opportunity to illustrate and color her

drawings. This strategy is useful for finding the main ideas of a story and aiding in

retelling. While Hunter dictated the story back to me using her comic strip, she was able

to make a connection between her comprehension and writing skills. Overall, the dictated

story assessments were successful in helping Hunter practice her retelling skills by

having the opportunity to reread her own thoughts in writing.

5. Names Test (Phonics Assessment)I used a list of peers’ first and last names in my RDG 384 class to assess Hunter’s ability

to decode words by using her phonetic skills of “sounding out” the syllables in each name. I

composed a list of 24 first and last names in a vertical column to present to Hunter for the

assessment. Overall, Hunter was able to correctly decode and pronounce 20 out of the 24 names

on the list. The few she missed seemed to be difficulty with decoding vowel and consonant

blends in unfamiliar names. There were quite a few mispronunciations due to her pronouncing a

short vowel sound when the correct pronunciation called for a long vowel sound, but this is

something very minor. Some examples of mispronunciation were saying “Christian” as “Kristen”

and “Merari” (rhymes with Ferrari) as “Meraria”, which I inferred was a blend between the

unique name and the more familiar “Maria”. Her ability to decode unfamiliar words is excellent,

and her ability to properly pronounce them will come naturally with exposure to more

vocabulary throughout her school experience. Ultimately, I was very impressed with Hunter’s


phonetic awareness (the sounds of letters in words) and her ability to successfully decode so

many unique names during this activity. She enjoyed this activity because she had the

opportunity to play “teacher” by “calling the roll sheet to [her] imaginary class”.

6. Summary Throughout the sessions of running records, informal assessments, and activities

conducted with Hunter, I have drawn the following conclusions about her reading skills:

Although she reads orally with minimal issues, Hunter’s comprehension of oral reading is

only independent up to the 3rd grade. I feel that a simple way for her to improve

comprehension of her oral reading would be to stop periodically when reading longer

passages and think about the main ideas she has read so far.

Hunter could also comprehend expository passages easier with a larger vocabulary of

content words. A great strategy for Hunter to employ while reading is using a pencil to

lightly circle words she is unfamiliar with. After reading the passage initially, she can

look up the words on her iPad dictionary app or using a real dictionary, become more

familiar with those words, and reread the passage to gain more meaning.

While retelling or summarizing her reading, Hunter goes into much more detail than a

summary requires. Sometimes, especially in writing assignments, details are a very good

thing; however, when retelling, providing too many details takes away from the main

points of the story. A great way to help focus on summarizing and retelling is using a

graphic organizer, such as the story map we utilized in session two. This allows for

Hunter to focus on the main ideas and to cut out the superfluous details.

Hunter exhibits excellent decoding skills while reading, so much so that she does not

stumble over unknown words like many other students tend to do. Because of her great


decoding skills, Hunter reads with exceptional fluency. Based on the instructional fluency

rates in the QRI-5 manual, Hunter’s fluency exceeds the fifth grade level.

Hunter is outstanding at reading with expression. She reads in different tones of voice to

represent different characters, and often uses hand gestures. I think a fun activity for her

to do with friends would be acting out scenes using Reader’s Theater scripts. She is very

animated and fun to watch!

Part 3: Recommendations

1. Pausing to Summarize: Because Hunter enjoys reading novels and lengthy

passages, I feel a great way to help improve her comprehension would be stopping every

few pages, thinking about the story, and summarizing what she has read. Her passion for

novels and great stories can be supported with a greater understanding of the happenings

in the book by thinking about them periodically.

2. Reading with a Pencil: During our sessions together, I discovered Hunter’s

passion for knowledge and learning. I also observed her decoding skills are so developed

that she often reads through unknown words without taking a moment to think about

them and the meaning they provide to the sentence or story. I feel that by reading with a

pencil, Hunter could have a greater understanding of the passages by lightly circling

words she is not familiar with. By taking a few minutes to look up unfamiliar words and

rereading the passage, her comprehension could be tremendously improved.


3. Graphic Organizers: While reading, Hunter retains vast amounts of details

included in the stories. This indicated that she has a very vivid imagination and is capable

of creating great images in her head while interpreting a story. I feel that by using a

graphic organizer, such as the story map utilized in session two, Hunter can improve her

retelling and summarizing skills. Especially as she is going into higher grades with more

research-driven and expository reading, a graphic organizer would be a great tool to help

sort the most important information from the details as she is summarizing her reading.


APPENDIX

Appendix A Interest Inventory

Appendix B Reading Interest Survey

Appendix C Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (Garfield)

Appendix D Multiple Intelligences Test—based on Howard Gardner’s MI Model

Appendix E Story Map/Comic Strip - Dictated Story Assessment

Appendix F Names Test

Appendix G QRI-5 Graded Word Lists

Appendix H QRI-5 Graded Reading Passages

Appendix I Additional Created Strategies

Interdisciplinary StudiesFort Worth, Texas

April 15, 2013

To the Parents and Teacher of Hunter Hutchins:

Over the duration of the last several weeks, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with your daughter, Hunter. She is hard working, vivacious, and eager to participate. You have raised an intelligent, delightful young woman with a true passion for reading. Throughout our sessions together, I have administered both formal and informal assessments related to reading. We have worked hard, and I am very proud of the efforts put forth by Hunter.

I have concluded that Hunter is slightly below grade-level in reading comprehension, but she exhibits excellent fluency and decoding skills. She is able to easily navigate through tougher stories and uses prior knowledge to gain meaning from the text. I did notice a lack of academic vocabulary in some higher-grade reading passages, which can account for some of the struggles Hunter encounters with comprehension. Overall, Hunter is a strong reader with a positive attitude and enduring will to learn.

As outlined in my report, my three strongest recommendations I have to aid Hunter, presently and in the future, with her reading difficulties are:

Pausing to summarize while reading Reading with a pencil Graphic organizers

Throughout our sessions, I have admired Hunter’s determination and passion for reading. I feel that any struggles with comprehension will subside, as Hunter now knows what she can do to strengthen her understanding of the stories she reads. I am excited to see what the future holds for this bright student! Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to learn and grow with your child.

Sincerely,

Hannah Parsley

Hannah Parsley Learner Profile/Case Report Page 2RDG 384

Final ReflectionThroughout the course of my semester in RDG 384, I have learned a plethora of reading

assessments, formal and informal, as well as many strategies to use in my future classroom. I

have had many real-life applications of said strategies and assessments throughout the duration

of my case study. This experience has been invaluable to me as a future educator.

At the beginning of the semester, I remember feeling so defeated and overwhelmed by

the amount details involved with conducting a case study. I felt incapable of producing such

drastic results with a real student, as I had never taught reading before. Looking back now, the

structure of the course and the information from the textbook chapters provided me with the

tools I needed to be successful with my student during the case study.

I had the opportunity to work with Hunter, a young lady I have known for a few years

now. Hunter likes to read in her spare time, and she always chooses lengthy, detailed novels such

as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. When her mother told me Hunter’s reading level was low

because of her AR scores at school, I decided to ask about using Hunter for my case study. I was

a little baffled that Hunter’s AR reading level was nearly one grade-level below where she

should have been because I knew she was capable of reading lengthy novels.

After my first session with Hunter, I realized that she reads much better with books she

enjoys and concepts she is familiar with, which is true for just about anyone. The AR books she

is required to read by her teacher are often uninteresting and “bland”, as Hunter describes them. I

had her read aloud to me a section from The Hunger Games. When I asked her questions about

the passage to check for understanding, I noticed almost instantly that although Hunter reads

fluently and enjoys the book, she was having difficulties comprehending the story. There were

several words I asked her about from the passage that I found to be difficult, and she admitted

Hannah Parsley Learner Profile/Case Report Page 3RDG 384

she did not know the meanings of some of them. In that moment, I felt like a real teacher. I had

noticed a weak area in my student and knew that I could help.

During the next five sessions with Hunter, I utilized many informal assessments and

reading strategies I had learned from class time and the Cecil & Gipe text. I used various

strategies to help Hunter with reading comprehension and acquiring new vocabulary, as those

seemed to be her two largest reading issues. I would not have been very successful if it were not

for the many examples provided in class. At the end of the case study, I discussed with Hunter a

couple of “tricks” to help her with reading comprehension. I also included those “tricks” on the

book mark I made for her to go with her newest book, Mocking Jay, book three of The Hunger

Games series.

I look forward to the years I have 24 students to work with each day and can see

academic improvement because I know how to properly teach them. The knowledge I have

gained through RDG 384 and the case study report are priceless. Through each week’s lesson,

conducting the case study, and participating in class discussions, I truly feel like a capable

teacher equipped with a knowledge of great reading assessments.

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