Ongoing Case Study

Erin Bauer

READ 6422

MAED Reading, Eastern Carolina University

Table of Contents

Page 2: Initial Student Profile and Plan

Page 6: Photo Journal

Page 7: Photo Journal Narrative

Page 7: Lesson Plan’s and Reflections

Page 14: Assessment Data

Page 15: Home/School Partnership Plan

Page 17: Final Reflection

Page 19: References

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Initial Student Profile and Plan

I have found that AB is struggling with written comprehension of the texts she is

reading. She is able to answer oral questions about a text but when asked to answer

questions in writing struggles to put her thoughts on paper. Oral questions are asked

verbally and answered verbally. I have found that her written answers (AB reads to self

and answers written), while touching on what the question asks lack an attention to

detail and often miss crucial parts of the question.

Based on the QRI-6 administered to AB, I felt that we had a great starting point

for our sessions. I was able to see where she really struggled to answer written

questions therefore making her instructional at a level 3. I noticed that she thrived when

answering literal questions about the text but when she was asked to answer inferential

questions about the text she was not fully building on the facts from the text (Leslie, L.,

Caldwell, J.) Based on this finding as well as the readings from our textbook I have

found that Guided Reading with a Reading and Thinking Activity will be the best

activities for AB in order to help her grow as a reader.

Guided reading allows for a gradual release of responsibility. AB will work with

me first in order to see how I work through the skill we are working on. After I model we

will work together and finally she will work independently. We will be using a directed

reading thinking activity in our guided reading will allow AB to ask questions about what

she is reading, and then answer her question through the text. We will begin by working

on warming up to reading while also working on inferring.

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During a guided reading approach we will use graphic organizers in order to

release responsibility while improving her understanding of the text. We will complete

activities using a variety of methods one of which being the “I do, We do, You do,”

method. She will be able to write her thoughts and notes while reading and refer back to

that as she answers questions. From “Strategies that Work”, I will be using “Read, Write

and Talk.” (Harvey & Goudvis). This strategy is interactive and encouraging. Students

are encouraged to stop, think and react to the text by jotting their thinking. We will work

on this together in order to make this an independent behavior. This approach will help

AB to put her thoughts on paper as well as think about what she is reading while she is

reading it.

Sessions 1-4: “Roaming the Known”

AB is an eight year old girl who is in the third grade. She has a 504 plan that

gives her accommodations throughout the school day in order to best meet her needs.

Her accommodations consist of breaks every thirty minutes and frequent check in’s.

Session 1: AB and I spend time getting to know each other outside of the school

setting. I wanted her to feel as comfortable at the library with me as she does in our

classroom. Seeing your teacher outside of school can feel awkward for a student and I

wanted to eliminate that. We walked the library together and I let AB pick a book that

stood out to her, taking reading level out of the equation and just focusing on interest.

She chose an Elephant and Piggie book which uses humor to teach lessons. It was

great to read it together and focus on inflection while we read. I spoke with AB about

why we were meeting and the goal of our sessions. It was exciting to see her so excited

about reading as normally this is a part of class she does not enjoy.

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Session 2: During this session I gave AB the Interest Inventory. I was surprised

to see that AB does not enjoy being read to, and that she enjoyed reading. In class I

find that she does not want to complete reading tasks, even when differentiated. When

AB and I spoke about this she said that the books in the basket she reads from at

school are boring so she doesn’t like to do it but that reading, what she wants is fun

engaging books. We talked more about what she likes to read and looked for some of

those books in our class library the following day (she likes mystery books and

Goosebumps books!)

Session 3: AB and I had completed the Word Journeys Inventory (Ganske, K) in

class based on the previous course I had taking during my Graduate experience. I

wanted to see where she was now, in an out of school environment to see if this could

be effecting her reading. I found that she had not only made progress based on this but

that she was matching a lot of my higher students in terms of word study. It was exciting

to rule that out as a factor so that we could really focus in on other skills during our time

together.

Session 4: While AB was working I was able to speak with her Dad and Step

Mom about the sessions and what they could expect. We also spoke about what AB

could be doing at home, and how they could help. I was disappointed that Mom did not

show up but found it promising that her Dad and Step Mom were so committed to

helping AB succeed.

I am finding working with AB (student pseudonym) to be very informative the

further into this project that I get. AB has been in my class all year and although I know

a lot about her I am finding that this has really allowed me to dig deeper into what her

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likes and dislikes are. We are also able to really delve into what type of reader she

wants to be. I have found myself wishing that I was able to spend the same time getting

to really learn about all of my students. Through the initial four “Roaming the Known”

sessions I found out a lot about AB’s interests in reading as well as that she does not

like being read to! She talked about how it makes her feel bad about her reading and

how she wants to read to herself, she just gets bored when reading alone based on the

selections she was making. I was sad that it had taken me this long to see that but was

excited as well to really get her reading books she was interested in. She learned about

how the school library can help her to find books she is interested in by searching

genres or by title.

AB’s parents both have talked to me about their struggle with school growing up.

Dad talked to me about this extensively at our fourth session meeting, Mom did not

come but has talked to me about this at a conference earlier in the school year. As both

parents struggled through school, they were unsure how to help their daughter so they

stayed very hands off. It was exciting to see that Dad was so willing to work with AB at

home in order to bridge the gap from home, school and these sessions. I am working to

get Mom on board as well so that she is getting the support she needs no matter what

home she is in.

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Photo Journal

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Photo Journal Narrative

Through the photo journal AB was able to show me what she liked as well as

teach me about herself. She did not use the entire camera, even when sent back to her

house. She later asked if she could keep it to take on a trip. I think she liked the idea of

being able to document a family trip. I bought her a new camera and encouraged her to

fill the previous one but she still did not. I really enjoyed this aspect of getting to know

her because it brought a personal aspect to what we were doing. I appreciated the

different things she had to say about herself and what her interests were. I think this is a

fantastic way to get to know our students and want to implement this whole class next

year as a “get to know” student activity!

Lesson Plan’s and Reflections

Session 5: Date- March 23, 2017

Lesson: The goal of this lesson was to show AB how we warm ourselves up to read.

“We can warm ourselves up for reading by scanning the title, chapter headings,

illustrations and other text features in the book.” The teacher will model thinking aloud

while “warming up” to read. Teacher will model this for the student while the student

watches using the book Clark the Shark;

-Given the title, I think the book will be about…

-The illustrations show me that…

-I think this book is going to be about… (Teacher will write answer to this on a sticky

note)

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The lesson will be ended by sending AB off with an assignment, “before we meet next

time, I want you to warm up to read just like I showed you today.”

Reflection: AB was really excited to work with the chosen book today. She was not

happy that she was not able to finish it today. I wanted to send her off with “homework”

in order to make sure that she practiced at least once at home. The lesson itself was

quick which meant that we were able to look together for a book that she would take

home. I wanted to make sure that the book was one that she could use this “warm up”

strategy with. The purpose of warming up to read is to get yourself ready to dive into the

book. It allows you think about what you know on a topic and sets the foundation for

making predictions. AB was really focused throughout the lesson and I am curious to

see what she retains in order to complete this with help next session.

Session 6: Date-March 27, 2017

Lesson: The goal of our lesson today is for AB to warm up to read, with support. “AB

today we are going to use what we learned last lesson in order to warm up to read. We

will preview the…” Student will list the different areas that should be looked at when

warming up to read, teacher will assist if needed. AB will then, with support, work

through the following questions about the book.

-Given the title, I think the book will be about…

-The illustrations show me that…

-I think this book is going to be about… (Teacher will write answer to this on a sticky

note).

Reflection AB did a good job working through “warming up to read” with support. I am

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concerned about her doing this independently prior to reading a book. I want this

strategy to become second nature and be something she just innately uses. I sent her

off with “homework” again, asking her to practice at home with the new book that we

picked. I am hoping that this sets her up for success when she does this herself.

Session 7: Date: March 29, 2017

Lesson: The goal of today’s session is to see AB independently use the “warming up”

strategy as she is reading. “When we read we want to have an idea about what we are

reading about. We want to use our schema to better understand the book. Warming up

to read helps us do this.” AB will then independently go through the process of warming

up to read. After she shows this teacher will either review strategy with student (if

struggles present themselves) or begin to work with inferring.

Reflection: AB needed prompting to go through this process. She was able to think

about the title and flip through the book like a picture walk but was not yet asking herself

questions or thinking about why she was doing this. We will warm up each lesson by

going over this until AB feels confident doing this independently.

Session 8: Date: March 31, 2017

Lesson: Complete Running Record.

Reflection: AB is not showing any significant changes based on the running record.

She is still a fluent reader, yet she is still at a level 3 comprehension wise. We will

continue to work on this throughout the upcoming lessons and I hope to see

improvement by the next running record.

Session 9: Date: April 1, 2017

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Lesson Today we will learn about inferring. When we are reading we make inferences

by… Teacher will make anchor chart with student, defining inferring as using the text

and your background knowledge to put the pieces together. When we infer we ask

ourselves “What do you think?”

Teacher will write I infer by… on the chart and explain different ways we can infer,

adding to the chart each time.

-Thinking about a characters actions.

-Thinking about what a character says.

-Thinking about what I already know.

-Thinking about how a character handles change.

-Thinking about how a character feels.

-Thinking about my own experiences.

-Using clues from the text.

The teacher will then model using the Magic School Bus text to show how we can infer

how Arnold feels based on what he says in the text. We can use his words and actions

to figure out why he is upset when big changes occur. As we find parts in the book that

help us we will write them down on a post it, this helps us to organize our thinking.

Reflection This lesson had a lot to it and I think AB followed along well. The anchor

chart is something that she can take with her and use when she is reading which I hope

helps her to make inferences, even if she doesn’t realize she is doing that yet! She is

familiar with the Magic School Bus books which helped to involve her with the lesson.

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She also wanted to apply this to the other characters right away which was exciting. I’ve

asked her Dad to continue practicing with her at home prior to our next session.

Session 10: Date: April 3, 2017

Lesson: Today we will use the anchor chart we made about inferring to help us infer

about new characters in a new book. How do you think Annie is feeling when Jack runs

back to get his bag? (Magic Tree House) Let’s work together to figure it out! Teacher

will help student by guiding the students thinking. The pages needed for this task will

also be marked so AB has a general idea of where to look for the information.

Reflection: AB did well today. She was familiar with this book already through our read

aloud in class. She was able to talk with me in order to confirm what she thought or to

question what she was thinking. I believe that this helped her (speaking aloud). She

also benefitted from writing her thinking down. The post it’s allowed her to organize

herself and she talked to herself as she moved them around on the table.

Session 11: Date: April 5, 2017

Lesson: Today we will continue to practice using inferring about what we are reading.

The goal of today’s lesson is to see AB independently apply the strategies we working

on the last two lessons. She will have access to the anchor chart we made and post it’s

in order to complete the lesson today. The pages in the book are marked for AB in order

to show her where she should be using to complete the task. We will be using a Magic

Tree House book but focusing on Jack.

How does Jack feel when Annie goes by the Pterodactyl? What in the text helps you to

figure out how he feels? Was he scared? Happy? Nervous?

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Reflection: AB benefitted from the

guiding questions along with the main

question. She also benefitted from

having the pages marked. I think that

with the short amount of time that we

have, making her flip through the entire book would waste time. I want to continue to

work on this strategy with her because I found that she was able to come up with a

generic feeling but couldn’t tell me why without prompting and teacher help. She was

not yet able to independently work through this.

Session 12: Date: April 7, 2017

Lesson: Today we will use a graphic organizer to help us infer about the characters in

the book we are reading. Teacher will model using the organizer to infer about the

Magic Tree House book. Teacher will explain each aspect of the organizer (what

happened in the story, clues from characters, I can infer). We will use the part AB

worked on independently last session because she was not able to independently

answer.

What happened in the story: Annie went by the pterodactyl.

Clues from Character actions/dialogue and feelings: Jack yelled for her to come back,

Annie continued towards the pterodactyl. Have student give clues that help us to infer…

I can infer: Student and teacher together will infer based on the clues listed.

Reflection: AB benefitted from working through this using the graphic organizer. Most of

this lesson was “I do” but she really enjoyed being able to help find clues and with

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guidance come up with an inference. We worked together never fully giving

responsibility to AB alone. I think using the graphic organizer provided the most support

for AB because it gives prompting questions that she can use.

Session 13: Date: April 9, 2017

Lesson: Today we will use graphic organizers to infer about what we are reading.

Teacher will remind student about previous lesson and show student the graphic

organizer that teacher/student completed. Today AB will complete the organizer using

Clark the Shark, from first lesson. Student will use the organizer to figure out why

Clark’s friends don’t want to hang out with him. Teacher will assist student by marking

the areas of the text and talking aloud with student/asking questions while student talks

thinking aloud.

Reflection: AB needed support to complete the activity but was able to do so more

independently than she ever has before! She normally needs a lot of support to

complete any assignment but today took the lead and only needed some support. It was

exciting to see her take that leadership!

Session 14: Date: April 11, 2017

Lesson: Today you will independently use the graphic organizer to make inferences

about the texts you are reading. AB will use the book The Invisible Boy by Trudy

Ludwig. The pages she will be using will be marked for her in order to see what she has

learned about inferring.

Reflection: AB did well today. She needed to talk through her thinking frequently and

continually told her to “do her best.” The goal of today was to see what she was able to

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do independently, not what I could prompt her though. I do think that she still needs

practice on this skill as she is not fully independent but she has shown growth from

beginning to end.

Session 15: Date: April 15, 2017

Lesson: Complete Running Record

Reflection: AB has shown progress based on the final running record. It was

discouraging after her last one to see no progress so I was concerned about this one.

She is still within this level of comprehension (Level 3) but better answered the

questions. She will continue to need extra support in this area but I will continue to meet

with her in class in order to work with her in this area.

Assessment Data

To begin, I gave the Word Journey’s Inventory featured test in order to see AB’s

results. She was able to score 25 out of 25 on the letter name stage, 25 out of 25 on the

Within Word stage, and 21 out of 25 on the Syllable Juncture stage. I will implement a

quick review of this stage in order to build her knowledge to a full mastery and improve

her vocabulary prior to moving to the next stage (Ganske, 2014).

I then provided the reading attitude survey in order to see how she felt about

reading. She was excited to do this and based on the data scored 31 out of 40 for

recreational reading and 27 out of 40 for academic reading. Her raw score is a 58 with

recreational reading being 78%, academic 68% and the average being 73%. This

showed that she was more interested in recreational reading than academic reading.

She is more interested in reading for fun, and picking her books, than reading for

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academics. This corresponded with what I knew about AB previously. I was aware of

the fact that she loved to read at home but often see her “day dreaming” when asked to

read in class.

The QRI-6 was a true eye opener. I had never given this sort of assessment

before and was very excited to see the results. Based on the WRI-6 she is reading

instructionally at a 4th grade level on the word list, independent at a third grade level. I

began the assessment at comprehension level three “A Special Birthday for Rosa.”

She read 487 out of 487 words accurately. She had 0:21 miscue/error rate. She read

fluently and with expression. After reading the text, her retell score was level 3. That

showed that she was instructional at this level and therefore where I should start

(Caldwell & Leslie, 2017).

Link to QRI-6 documentation:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UMoT6FHpV4QrXL-

7cvyeZIztdMBaZLDcYbwnf341IFA/edit?usp=sharing

Home/School Partnership Plan Part A

I went back and forth on the best way to communicate with AB’s parents, keeping

in mind that they are in different homes and do not often communicate with one another.

I wanted something that was consistent and that they both could view. I decided that I

would use Google Drive to send them a “newsletter.” Google Drive gives me the ability

to see when they have accessed and who accessed the file. I liked this because I could

make sure that both parents were seeing what we were doing, and if they were not this

gave me an opportunity to talk to them.

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An online “newsletter” gives AB’s parents an opportunity to see what she is

doing, while providing data and ideas that they could use with her at home. I also

wanted to be able to share helpful links and tips so that when they work with her they

have some ideas of things to do! They will get the link to the doc every Sunday. This

gives them a week to use what is in there before the next newsletter comes.

When speaking with her parents we set “norms” for our newsletter so that we

would all be on the same page. We agreed that it would be viewed by Tuesday and any

questions would be answered by Wednesday. This has worked pretty well, Dad has

made sure to ask a questions and shows what he is doing with AB by adding it to the

doc. Mom has been viewing it, which is a start! We are continuing to meet at the public

library in order to allow AB the opportunity to choose books that she is interested in

between sessions. We also informally have the opportunity (parents/teacher) to talk

about what we are working on while AB is looking for a book.

Home/School Partnership Plan Part B

After discussing with AB’s parents that I share information with them via the

google doc I was granted permission for this to be the primary form of communication. I

know her parents personally due to tutoring her prior to having her as a student this

year. Her parents text me frequently if they are concerned or have a question. Every

Sunday I made sure to share the newsletter with them and checked back to make sure

that both parents were viewing it. When I noticed that someone was not viewing the

newsletter I made sure to bring it up when they were picking AB by summarizing what I

had written, in order to share, not push away.

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A total of four newsletters were sent. I also met with her parents after each

session (depending on which parent picked up, depended on who I met with.) I

appreciated the time they dedicated to meeting with me and was able to share progress

and findings. Meeting after each session made it easy to quickly summarize what we

were doing and show that day’s work or lesson. This also ensured that both parents had

an understanding of what was going on during these sessions because they often

alternated who picked up. The greatest take away from these meetings was modeling. I

was able to model for her parents what we worked on that day so that when they went

home they were able to work with her as well. I was also able to really stress the

importance of continuing to practice at home in order to bridge the gap from school-

home-tutoring.

Both parents were very receptive to these meetings and even when rushing to

get somewhere else I was able to get a level of focus from them. On days where she

was picked up early I was also able to have these meetings because both parents

understood the importance of them.

Final Reflection

As the case study comes to an end I cannot help but realize how much I learned

about my student. I think that this is a great concept but struggle to figure out how we

would/could implement this full class because it is time consuming, and there just is not

enough time in the day. It was hard for me to come to this conclusion because so many

of our students would benefit from this instruction, especially the one to one aspect of it.

I think that the strategies, although important were not my greatest take away. The QRI-

6 assessment and an understanding of it are though.

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The QRI-6 assessment is a great way to pre-assess formatively in order to get

detailed results. I think that the assessment is a great length and really shows what

students need to work on and what they are mastering. It also gives you a way to

monitor where your students are or student is. Overall, I learned a significant amount of

new information about teaching struggling readers that I can bring into my classroom

immediately.

References

Ganske, K. (2014). Word Journeys. New York: The Guilford Press.

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Goudvis, S.H. (2007). Strategies That Work. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers.

Lauren Leslie, J.S. (2017). Qualitative Reading Inventory-6. Pearson Inc.

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