Analysis – Case Study Paper
Elise Maygren
National University
Assessments are a fundamental tool used by teachers to help students master skills. As students begin the early stages of reading, assessments can help teachers personalize learning based on the needs of the class and each individual student. Many different categories should be taken into consideration including: student interests, phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing. When teachers use these assessment properly they will be able to determine skills that need to be reviewed, monitor students, guide teacher instruction, determine effectiveness of instruction, and provide teachers with information on how their instruction can be improved. In the following case study, I will provide insights on the assessment that I performed on a 3rd grade boy. After analyzing each assessment, I will reflect on the strengths and areas of need. This analysis will help me determine a course of action on how to help the student improve those areas of need.
The student that participated in the assessment is a 4th grade student named, Chance. He is a male student at Copperopolis Elementary School in the rural town of Copperopolis, CA. He has 3 siblings ages: 15, 13, and 6. There are 6 people in his family including: mom, dad, 2 sisters, and a brother. English is the primary language spoken in the home. He does not have any underlying emotional or health related concerns. Chance’s father is an Active Duty military member serving in the United States Army. Due to his father’s Job chance has attended 3 different elementary schools in 3 different states: Virginia, Alaska, and California. He is quiet, friendly and well behaved at school. Even though he is well liked he does not desire to associate with students from his class outside of school. He has not received any previous interventions. His birthday is Aug. 30th making him the youngest in his class.
Chance enjoys Great Wolf Lodge and playing soccer. His favorite subject in school is PE and enjoys reading, The Magic Tree House series of books. When asked what his favorite thing in the world was he said, his family. When not at school he likes playing the Wii, reading, watching the show Weird but True, and making bracelets. Vacations are something he enjoys writing about and wants to be an engineer when he is older. Lastly, he would like to learn more about how cars are built.
This information about the student is valuable for a teacher to know so that they can help incorporate these interests into future lessons. It is beneficial that Chance enjoys reading and considers it a hobby. His family is important to him and can be used as a valuable tool in supporting his educational goals. When making assignments the teacher can take these interests into consideration. You can incorporate vacations, how cars are built, and weird facts into classroom instruction and presentations. This information can also help the teacher when forming partners or groups, grouping students based on similar interests and skills.
The following are assessments that were administered to Chance
Phonological Test: Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation
On the Yopp-Singer Test, Chance showed that he was proficient at phoneme segmentation. In fact, he got all of the items correct. There were 22 words with a variety of sounds and he was able to identify each phoneme. Overall, Chance performed exceptionally on the Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation. This information provides a strong measure of Chance’s phonemic awareness ability.
Phonics: San Diego Quick Reading Assessment
The San Diego Quick Reading Assessment is an assessment that allows students to show their ability to read words. It estimates what grade level a child is able to read and comprehend. When taking this test students must be able to recognize and read words that are standing alone, without context clues. Chance did not miss one word on the Grade 4 word list. Grade 5 he had only 1 error. The word that he could not pronounce was, acquainted. On the Grade 6 list he had 3 errors. The words on the Grade 6 list that he could not read were, apparatus, necessity, and relativity. With Chance having 1 error on the Grade 5 list that means that he can read independently at a Grade 5 level. Since he had 3 errors with the grade 6 list he is considered at a frustration level at grade 6. At this frustration level decoding words, vocabulary and concepts are too difficult for the student. His Instructional level would be somewhere between grade 5 and 6. The instructional level is where the greatest progress in reading occurs. The student will need some support at this level but will be introduced to new vocabulary and concepts.
Spelling: Words Their Way Spelling Inventory
Chance spelled 11 out of 20 words correctly on the Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Inventory. He started making errors when spelling ‘other vowels’ such as: oi, ew, and or. He also struggled with ‘inflected endings’ such as: pping, and ies. With this information it was enough to determine that he is in the, Late Within Word Pattern spelling stage. “The within word pattern stage is a transitional stage of literacy development between the beginning stage when students’ reading and writing are quite laboured, and the intermediate stage when they can read and write a variety of genres more fluently. We think of transitional readers as the “Wright Brothers” of reading: they have taken flight but have limited elevation in their reading, and it does not take much to bring them down to frustration level or to cause them to be less fluent in their reading” (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2016, p. 224). Chance showed his mastery of the Emergent and Letter Name-Alphabetic stages. His ability to understand syllable junctures is strong based on only making one error in that category. After analyzing the errors made he is considered below grade level at a Late Within Word Pattern stage. This stage is at a 2nd – Early 3rd grade level. The areas that he needs to focus on are Other Vowels and Inflected Endings. Examples include: oi, ew, or, pping, & ies.
Vocabulary: Write All the Words You Know Assessment
When asked to ‘write all the words you know’ Chance wrote 48 words. Many of the words he wrote were words that were already on the paper such as: name, date, write, all, the, words, you, & know. He then went on to write his parents names. Most of the words were extremely simple. He did have the names Jack and Annie which are from the books he enjoys, Magic Tree House. He also included words such as: fly, wheat, father, loving and China. Due to the simplicity of the vocabulary Chance showcased, it leads the teacher to believe that he may need additional support with morphology, syntax, and semantics. As he improves these areas of language his vocabulary will increase.
Fluency: Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading
Based on the Florida assessment for Instruction in Reading Chance showed that he was reading at an average rate for his grade level. He fluently read 134 words correctly per minute, only making 4 errors. The range for grade 4 is between 123 – 180 words correct per minute by the end of the year. After demonstrating his abilities with this assessment it is determined that Chance can read accurately at grade level with minimal errors at a rate of 97%. He was also asked a comprehension question at the end of the running record and he was able to answer it correctly.
Comprehension: Abraham Lincoln
Chance was given a short story to read based on his grade level. Following the story, he answered 4 questions regarding the text. He was only able to answer 2 of them correctly.
Based on the questions that Chanced missed it is clear that when reading he is missing key details in a story. He understands main concepts being taught but overlooks details. One question for example was regarding Abraham Lincoln’s goal. He had a goal to, ‘keep the nation together’ and also end slavery. The question though asked for his ‘first goal’ which was to keep the nation together and Chance answered to end slavery. This tells me that he is understanding the text but not details of what is written. The other question that was missed had the option of, ‘all of the above’. The answer that he selected was correct but the better and correct choice was, all of the above. One of the goals I have for Chance is to better understand main ideas and key details in a text. As he works on this I am hopeful his read comprehension will improve.
Writing: My Writing
Chance answered that he ‘maybe’, likes to write and that he does not want to publish his writing. He also does not think of himself as a real author and does not like sharing his writing with others. When asked if his family likes to read his books he answered, ‘maybe’. The most difficult thing about writing for him is, sentence structure. Included in this assessment was a sample of his writing which was only one sentence long. It seems that he does not feel adequate in his writing abilities. If Chance had the opportunity to write about something that he enjoyed he would like writing much more. He also desires to learn more about how sentences should be organized which would help give him confidence in his abilities.
Based on the following assessments Chance demonstrated his ability to understand phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency. The areas of need that I consider important for Chance to strengthen are: spelling, writing and reading comprehension. When looking at each of these areas of need it is clear that his abilities will strengthen as strategies are taught. When learning of spelling patterns, being grouped together with other students based on needs and setting goals Chance will see great results. His growth will need to be monitored over time so that corrections can be made until a strategy is found that works for him.
Assessing Chance has brought much growth to myself as a future teacher. I look forward getting more comfortable with assessing students and using the information to personalize my instruction so that students and myself can grow. This information will help me when planning lessons and having accommodations so that all learners can progress. Strategies will be a crucial tool in promoting learning and growth for the entire classroom. When this occurs, the classroom will be transformed into independent learners that desire to flourish.
References
Abraham Lincoln Reading Comprehension. mrnussbaum.com/abraham-lincoln-reading-
comprehension.
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2016). Words Their
Way, Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction. 6th
ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
