Caroline Nepomuceno

May 4, 2016

TEDU 566

Case Study Report

Student Background

Gabby is in the fourth grade in a Henrico County Public School. She is a 10-year-old girl

whose hobbies are reading her favorite books, writing stories, and drawing pictures. Her favorite

author is Shel Silverstein, and her favorite subject is science because of the fun experiments.

Gabby comes from a blended family. She lives at home with her mother, stepfather, younger

brother, and dog, Lucius, a Jack Russell Terrier.

Based on her answers given on the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, Gabby ranked 88%

in recreational reading, 83% in academic reading, putting her in the 88th percentile in the overall

scale out of 100, for her grade level. This means that 88% of all students in the 4th grade have the

same attitude or lower about reading. Gabby’s high percentages show that she posses a very

positive attitude towards reading both inside and outside of the classroom. Based on assessments

given to her by her teacher and based on the Guided Reading system, Gabby reads on a level P

which is equivalent to a high third grade reading level. Gabby loves to read but loves writing

even more. She likes the way books make her feel like she is going on a journey to someplace

new and she enjoys learning new things inside and outside of the classroom. Gabby always

enjoys coming to our sessions and doesn’t mind the numerous assessments; she thinks of them as

“little games we play”. She comes to each session prepared to learn with a cheerful and friendly

attitude. However, Gabby loves to tell stories about her family, friends, and her dog. This, along

with her curiosity, can distract her from the sessions, but she is easily redirected back on task.

This report shows the results and analysis of current assessments that were conducted in

order to determine Gabby’s current reading level. These assessments were necessary to evaluate

her strengths and needs for future lesson planning.

Alphabet Knowledge

Total Score Letters Unknown Sounds Unknown Sounds Confused54/54 N/A Ī

ŌĀĒFGJKPQ

Gabby had a very positive and confident attitude going into the Letter Identification

Assessment. She understood that she needed to identify each letter and all sounds that each

makes and seemed to think the task easy. Gabby quickly and accurately identified the capital

letters, but was confused by the lower case “L” (l), initially confusing it with the number one (1).

This was to be expected due to the font the assessment used, the two symbols looked nearly

identical (l, 1). When it came to the sounds that the letters made, Gabby did not demonstrate

knowledge of the long “o” and “i” sounds. She also showed that she had some knowledge of, but

confused, the sounds of the letters: ā, ē, f, g, j, k, p, and q. Gabby said that the letters f, k, and p

had both long and short sounds like vowels. However, she only made the two sounds (long and

short) when identifying the capital letters. For the letters g, j, and q Gabby added an “a” sound to

the end of the letters. Instead of saying the sound “g” or “q”, she would say “ga” or “qua” putting

emphasis on the “a” sound. During the assessment Gabby provided a name and sound response

for every letter with little confusions.

Phonological Awareness

Score on the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation

Level of Phonological Awareness(Strong, Emerging, or Needs

Intervention)

19/22 Strong

When explaining the task of the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation, Gabby

seemed confused and asked “How do you break down a word?” After going through the

provided examples, she showed confidence in her ability to do this. While administering this

assessment, the examiner did not correct Gabby if she incorrectly segmented a word, because

they wanted to gauge her prior understanding. Out of twenty-two words, Gabby incorrectly

segmented ten of the words. For five of the words the examiner noted that she added an “a”

sound to the end of each initial consonant sound, similar to her performance in the Letter

Identification Assessment. The other five words she mis-segmented, Gabby broke down the

word by the initial consonant and the remaining sounds. For example the word race, she

segmented it “r/ ace” instead of “r/ a/ s”. Gabby performed best when segmenting the two- and

three-letter words. However, she expressed her lack of confidence when segmenting the two

letter words, saying that those were the hardest words in the “test”. Due to the fact that the

examiner did not correct Gabby during the assessment, the assessment was re-administered to the

student. During the second assessment, Gabby was provided with the correct segmentation of

words she broke down incorrectly. During this trial, Gabby’s only mistake was adding the “a”

sound to the end of each initial consonant sound. Combining the results of both trials of the

Yopp-Singer Assessment shows that Gabby segmented 19 out of 22 words correctly,

demonstrating her strong phonemic awareness.

Writing Skills - Writing Sample

Trait ScoreIdeas & Content: main theme, supporting details Proficient (4): Evident main idea with some support

which may be general or limitedOrganization: structure, introduction, conclusion Developing (3): Attempts at organization; may be a

“list” of events; Beginning and ending not developedVoice: personality, sense of audience Developing (3): Voice may be inappropriate or non-

existent; Writing may seem mechanicalWord Choice: precision, effectiveness, imagery Emerging (2): Monotonous, often repetitious,

sometimes inappropriateSentence Fluency: rhythm, flow, variety Emerging (2): Often choppy; Monotonous sentence

patterns; Frequent run-on sentencesConventions: age appropriate, spelling, caps,

punctuation, grammarDeveloping (3): Limited control of convention; frequent

errors do not interfere with understanding

Gabby was very excited and confident in her ability when she was prompted with the

writing activity. The examiner introduced the activity by engaging the student in a short

discussion about why writing is used (ex. to tell a story) and brainstormed ideas for a short

writing piece. Gabby was given five minutes to create an idea web, a tool that she was familiar

using from prior experience in her classroom. She decided to use her dog, Lucius, as her subject

and wrote two words and one phrase for her branching ideas. As she began to write, Gabby spent

more time talking about off topic subjects than she did actually writing. The entire time Gabby

was working on her web and writing, the examiner was doing the same as a means to model

expected behavior. After some time, Gabby regained focus on the task and wrote her story about

her dog.

Gabby was ranked two out of six in word choice and sentence fluency due to the choppy

and repetitive nature of her sentences. Her organization, voice, and conventions ranked a three

out of six. Gabby’s three sentences about her dog resembled the format of a list and lacked any

voice or personality. She also had limited use of punctuation throughout, making the sample

difficult to read fluently. However, Gabby ranked four out of six, because her writing clearly

demonstrated that she had a main idea, her dog, and provided two relevant, supporting details.

Gabby should be recognized for making full use of her idea web when writing her story.

Word Knowledge - Spelling Inventory

Primary Spelling Inventory (PSI)

Feature Points: 52/56

Words Spelled Correctly: 22/26

Spelling Stage: Late - Within Word Pattern

Known Using but Confusing AbsentConsonants

Short VowelsDigraphsBlends

Common Long Vowels

Other VowelsInflected Endings

N/A

Elementary Spelling Inventory (ESI)

Feature Points: 50/62

Words Spelled Correctly: 17/25

Spelling Stage: Early - Syllables and Affixes

Known Using but Confusing AbsentConsonants

Short VowelsDigraphsBlends

Common Long Vowels

Other VowelsSyllable Junctures

Inflected EndingsUnaccented Final

Syllables

Harder SuffixesBases or Roots

The Words Their Way Spelling Inventory was given to assess and provide insight to

Gabby’s orthographic knowledge. The results of the Primary Spelling Inventory (PSI) indicate

that she is using, but confusing other vowels and inflected endings. Gabby’s performance

demonstrated her prior knowledge of the remaining features assessed in the PSI. Her feature

score for the PSI was 52/56, spelling 22 of the 26 words correctly, which led the examiner to

administer the Elementary Spelling Inventory (ESI). The results of the ESI confirm Gabby’s

confusion of inflected endings as well as unaccented final syllables. Her knowledge of harder

suffixes and bases or roots was almost entirely absent. In this inventory she spelled 17 of the 25

words correctly, scoring 50 out of 62 feature points. The results of both the PSI and ESI place

Gabby in different spelling stages, so the examiner used the PSI to determine her spelling stage

and the start of instruction. According to the Primary Spelling Inventory, Gabby is preforming in

the late within word pattern spelling stage.

Reading Skill

Qualitative Reading Inventory – QRI-5

Word Lists Results:

Level Total Automatically identified

Total correct identified

Total number correct

Functional Level

1st 80% 20% 100% Independent2nd 60% 35% 95% Independent3rd 55% 30% 85% Instructional4th 30% 50% 80% Instructional5th 25% 65% 90% Independent

Passage Results:

Passage Level / Title Level 4: The Busy BeaverType of Text ExpositoryPrior Knowledge (Score/ Rating) 8/12 - 66% FamiliarQuality of Prediction 2

Level/ % Total Accuracy 97% IndependentRetelling (Numbers of ideas/ %) 14/49 – 28%

ComprehensionImplicit: 2/4 – 50%Explicit: 4/4 – 100%

Total: 6/8 – 75% - InstructionalRate WPM/ CWPM WPM: 73 / CWPM: 71Total Passage Level Instructional

Word Lists

Gabby began on the level one word list and identified all twenty words (100%) correctly,

sixteen of which she identified automatically. In the second level list, she identified 19 out of 20

words correctly with 60% of those words identified automatically. In both these lists she

preformed at an independent level. The third level list showed that of the 17 correctly identified

words, Gabby identified 11 words automatically. She reached 55% automatic identification with

a total of 85% accuracy. In the fourth level, Gabby identified less than half of the words

automatically (6/20) preforming at an instructional level. Finally, in the fifth level list Gabby

went back to preforming at an independent level identifying 18 out of 20 words correctly,

however, only five of those were automatic responses. In this list, Gabby demonstrated her

ability to look at unfamiliar words and decode them. Overall, Gabby’s most common mistakes

were reading the words too quickly and missing or changing suffixes (for example, insect to

insect-s) and mistaking a word for another word that has a similar spelling (for example,

adoptions instead of adaptations). Gabby never reached the level of frustration.

Reading Passages

Even though Gabby preformed at an independent level above her grade level in the word

lists, without reaching her frustration level, she was given a level four passage to read. The

passage was an expository passage titled, “The Busy Beaver”. When asked the initial concept

questions, to asses her prior knowledge, Gabby’s answers showed that 66% of the material was

familiar to her. She read the passage at an independent level, making six miscues overall (97%)

at 73 words per minute. After reading the passage, she retold 14 of 49 (28%) main ideas and

details from the passage. This was a task Gabby struggled with; instead of walking through the

details of the passage she tried to summarize the main ideas. However, Gabby answered 6 out of

8 comprehension questions correctly (four explicit and two implicit), which shows that her

comprehension is at an instructional level. With this being stated, the examiner would like to

note that one of the comprehension questions was very similar (relating to the same concept) to a

previously asked concept question. Gabby’s answer for the comprehension question was exactly

identical to the answer she gave for the concept question, even after reading the passage that

gives the answer implicitly. This demonstrated to the examiner that the student struggled with

constructing an answer of her own based on the passage that was read. Overall, Gabby

preformed at an instructional level when working with this level four passage. Due to time

constraints, the examiner did not continue the assessment to higher leveled passages. If more

time were available, the examiner would have continued administering more passages until the

student’s highest instructional level was found.

Gabby’s behavior during the QRI-5 assessment was very positive. She enjoyed doing the

word lists and was confident in her knowledge in the beginning. However, as she moved up to

the level four and five word lists she took more time to look at the words and work them out

aloud. During these lists, she would frequently ask if her response was correct, showing a lacking

in her confidence. During the passage section of the assessment, Gabby answered the content

questions by referencing back to her prior knowledge from the classroom but confused some of

her facts. As she read the passage, she went back and fourth between confident and fluent

sentences to pausing and breaking sentences down. Once she was finished reading, the student

gave a big sigh of relief. She told the examiner that she liked reading about the beavers, but it

was a lot (281 words) to read at once.

Listening Vocabulary Knowledge – PPVT

Score SummaryStudent Chronological Age 10 years 2 months

Raw Score 138Standard Score 90Percentile Rank 25

Normal Curve Equivalent - NCE 36Stanine 4

In order to begin the PPVT assessment in the correct set, Gabby’s chronological age was

calculated to be ten years and two months. She began in set 9 (age 10). In this set she incorrectly

identified three words, so the examiner moved backwards to the next set in order to find the

student’s basal set. The basal set was reached at set 7 (age 8), two sets below from where the

assessment began. Gabby moved forward from there and completed all the sets with an average

of 3 words missed in each set. Her ceiling set was reached at item number 166, set 14 (ages 19 –

adult), going beyond her age level. During the PPVT Gabby used different strategies to reason

out words that she could not identify immediately. For some words, she recognized the root or

base of the word and from understanding their definitions she could deduce the correct answer.

For words that she was not as familiar with she would use the process of elimination and take out

options that she knew were not correct first. Gabby began the assessment with great confidence

in herself; however, as she progressed through the sets she began to question her choices and

double guess at answers.

Gabby’s raw score is 138 and her NCE, or distance from her raw score to the group

average, is 36. She has a standard score of 90 (100 being the average) and ranks in the 25th

percentile. Her scores place her on the lower average end of the graphical profile.

Summary of Assessments

From the very first assessment, the Garfield Attitude Survey, Gabby eagerly expressed

her joy for reading and confessed that she enjoys writing even more than reading. Her scores on

this survey confirm her positive attitude towards reading both inside and outside of the

classroom. The only aspects of reading that Gabby does not enjoy is reading aloud in front of

others and taking reading tests. However, she never seemed displeased during any of the

assessments that the examiner administered over the course of their sessions.

The Letter Identification assessment indicated that Gabby has reached a high level of

letter recognition and sounds with little confusion regarding the sounds. She easily identified all

capital letters and only confused one lower case letter, the lower case “L” with the number

“1”(one). This was to be expected due to the font that the assessment used, making both symbols

look identical in shape. When demonstrating her knowledge of letter sounds, Gabby showed that

she had some understanding of short and long vowels. However, she did not specifically give

both vowel sounds for each set of letters (capital and lower case). She also thought that the letters

“K, F and P” had both long and short sounds as well. This confusion may have come from the

short talk we had about short and long sounds after she identified the first letter, “A”, in the

assessment. It should be noted that this mistake only happened once. In order to reach mastery

level, Gabby needs to fully understand long vowel sounds. The Primary Spelling Inventory

provided more insight to Gabby’s confusion with vowel sounds. Her performance showed that

she accurately recognizes the sounds of long vowels within a word, but needs more practice with

other vowel sounds such as –ow and –ir. The spelling inventory showed that Gabby is stronger

with identifying letter sounds within words than in isolation.

The results of the Yopp-Singer assessment show that Gabby has a strong phonemic

awareness. She correctly segmented 19 out of 22 words correctly, within two separate trials of

the assessment. Two trials were done due to the examiner’s error of not modeling correct

segmentation for words that the student missed. Her most common mistake during this

assessment was adding an “a” sound to the end of each initial consonant sound. This behavior

was also seen during the Letter Identification assessment when Gabby was identifying the

sounds of the letters: g, j, and q.

Gabby’s writing sample revealed her knowledge of the six traits and the writing process.

She decided to write a story about her dog, Lucius, and the things he likes to do. The idea web

she created demonstrates her organizational skills and her ability to support a main idea with

relevant details. Her sentence structure lacked consistent use of punctuation, but her use of

capital letters helped to indicate the start of a new sentence. The writing sample reads in a

monotonous, mechanical voice and lacks variety in word choice, making the writing sound more

like a list of facts about her dog than a story. Her writing suggests that Gabby needs more

instruction on sentence fluency, word choice, and proper convention use in order to progress.

Overall, Gabby accurately identified the majority of the words in level 1 through 5 lists

with an average automaticity of 50%. Her performance went from independent to instructional,

back to independent as she progressed through the lists, never reaching frustration level. During

the assessment, Gabby practiced segmentation of longer words she did not recognize and self-

correction when she realized her initial response did not match the letter patterns. Even though

Gabby preformed at an independent level identifying words in isolation above her grade level,

she was given a level four expository passage to assess her overall reading and comprehension.

While reading this passage, she made six minor miscues two of which changed the meaning of

the sentence, giving her a total accuracy of 97%. After reading, Gabby answered six of the eight

questions correctly. The two questions that Gabby missed were implicit questions that required

Gabby to process and understand what she read in the passage and apply it to what was asked.

Her comprehension level and overall level for this passage was instructional.

Gabby’s listening vocabulary knowledge, according to the distribution graph provided,

was considered to be low average. Her raw score was 138 making her standard score 90, 100

being average for her age. Assessment began at set 9 (age 10), yet her basal set was found at set

7 (age 8). Gabby demonstrated a variety of strategies when working out the meaning to a word

that she was not familiar with. She used process of elimination, looked at the root meaning of

words, and used content clues from the pictures to help her make the best choice. Gabby’s

ceiling level was found at set 14 (ages 19-adult).

Overall, Gabby’s performance and attitude on each of the assessments is very consistent

and accurately reflects Gabby’s knowledge. The only factor that could have negatively affected

her performance was the working environment provided. Sessions are held in the school’s

cafeteria which is shared amongst the other tutors and students. At times this can create a noisy

and distracting environment, making it hard for Gabby to focus on the assessments and preform

at her best.

Recommended Instructional Plan

Phonics

Since the results of the Yopp-Singer Phoneme assessment indicated that Gabby had

strong phonemic awareness, phonics instruction was guided by the results from the Words Their

Way Spelling Inventory. The Primary Spelling Inventory indicated that Gabby was using, but

confusing other vowels (specifically –ow and -ir). Through the use of word sorts and games,

Gabby should practice identifying the –ow and –ou sounds within words. Gabby should work

with words that contain other vowel sounds through word sorts, games, and decodable texts. One

game that can be used is the “Racetrack Game” that comes directly from the Words Their Way

textbook. The book provides a blank board that can be filled in to match the appropriate word

sort and requires the student to make matching word pairs based on their sound patterns.

Decodable texts can be used as a way to help the student identify recognize words from her sort

in context.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction should be included during read-alouds, word sorts, and any time

Gabby comes across an unfamiliar word. When a new word comes up during the lesson, the

examiner should first ask Gabby if she has ever heard the word used before and to make an

educated guess at the words meaning. Then the examiner should say the word, a simple

definition, and an example if possible of the vocabulary word. A structure should be created to

organize and track her progress. Gabby should be given a blank notebook to keep with her and

record vocabulary words, their meanings, and a picture to reference. This could be a book that

she keeps with her at all times during school to record new words she learns, or it can be more

controlled to specific words if it suits the students needs. When introducing new text to Gabby,

the examiner should look through the text prior to the session and pick out words to review with

the student before reading. This will not only build her vocabulary, but will also ensure she has

better comprehension of the text.

Another strategy that can be used is “predict and check”, where the examiner will pick

out 4-5 words that can be defined from their context from the student’s text. Have her make an

initial prediction of the meaning of the word then, ask them questions such as, “What

information in the passage will help me figure out the meaning of this word?” The student will

then be required to look back through the text to decode the meaning of the vocabulary word

using context clues.

Fluency

Fluency should be addressed in every single session through read alouds, poems, and

leveled texts. The examiner should introduce a new poem by first reading it to the student,

modeling the correct pronunciations, rhythm, and voice of the poem. The second read through of

the poem is either a choral or echo reading, where both the examiner and student are reading the

poem. Once the student becomes comfortable with the poem, the examiner will encourage

Gabby to read the poem on her own. To help Gabby become more comfortable with reading in

front of others, the examiner recommends having her stand to read the poem to them. When the

student has mastered the poem, a new one that has different rhythms should be introduced and

practiced. The poems will help Gabby practice finding rhythms within a text and to read with

expression. They have also expanded her vocabulary and encouraged her fluency in her

independent reading. Another strategy that should be used to increase Gabby’s fluency is

highlighting all punctuation. It was noticed towards the end of the program that the student does

not always recognize all punctuation and is confused what some mean. If punctuation was

highlighted it would grab the student’s attention and remind them that punctuation means that

they, as a reader, need to do something (pause, stop, etc.).

Comprehension

Gabby’s comprehension skills will be expanded on through the use of weekly readings of

new stories and poems. Every new text that is introduced, Gabby is asked to make a prediction

based on the title and the pictures (if available). After reading, the examiner will ask Gabby a

series of questions related to the text including, questions on the main character, setting, main

event, and favorite and least favorite part of the story. These questions help the examiner assess

what Gabby is retaining from her readings and whether or not she is enjoying what she reads.

Along with these comprehension questions, Gabby should be developing her monitoring and

sequencing skills. These can be practiced through activities done while the student is reading the

text. For example, after reading a paragraph or short page Gabby should be instructed to pause

and write down a summary of what she just read. She can then use these notes to recall and

determine the main idea of a long text or story. Story maps can be used to organize the important

details and characters and can help Gabby visually understand the bigger picture of the text.

Another comprehension strategy that would cater to the student’s needs is by making a

purpose for reading. This can be introduced to the student by talking about a topic, such as

sports, and why people like to play sports. The examiner could then discuss with the student the

variety of answers there are and relate that to how there are a variety of purposes for reading.

Have the student reflect on the different types of texts (books, newspapers, magazines,

cookbooks) and have them determine the purpose for reading each. Have a discussion with the

student and make finding the purpose of a text part of the regular routine when introducing new

texts.

Writing

Gabby should practice her writing skills, specifically sentence structure, through creating

story maps for texts she reads. After she reads each section of the story, she should create a map

that includes pictures of what she thinks is most important in the text. Gabby should look at how

her pictures relate to each other and construct a sentence that represents what she drew. This

activity will help Gabby visualize the main components of a complete sentence by using pictorial

representations to show the: who, what, when, where, why that make up a sentence. To help

develop Gabby’s sequencing and organization skills, have her write out “how to…” instructions

for something she is familiar with (ex. How to draw a cat). This will require her to think about

the order of the process and how to organize the steps.

Technology

Gabby can gain experience using technology tools such as Raz-Kids, an online resource,

to read different eBooks that match her pre-assessed reading level. Since she is reading the book

on a computer, Gabby can adjust the font to meet her needs, interact with words to look up their

definitions, and she can have the computer read the story to her. The eBook technology also

allows Gabby to highlight text in the book, allowing Gabby to monitor and make note of the

important details. Also, she can look up any word she does not recognize just by clicking on it,

when she does the program gives the reader the opportunity to create a word list that can be used

for future vocabulary instruction. Another app called “Word Sort Wizard”, allows the student to

work on any type of device (laptop, ipad, cell phone) to practice phonics. This app provides the

student with numerous pre-made word sorts that cover a range of phonetic features and has an

option for the teacher to create their own word sort that can be individualized to the students

needs. Another simple technology tool that can be useful for fluency instruction is a voice

recorder. This can be used to record the student as they read and then played back to them so that

they can evaluate their own reading. This can help the student catch mistakes that they didn’t

even realize they had made.

Formative Assessment – Running Records

Date Book Level

% Accuracy

SCR Text Level ErrorsM

ErrorsS

ErrorsV

SCM S

V4/11/2016 P 94% 1:5 Instructional 0 1 7 24/13/2016 P 97% 1:5 Independent 1 0 3 14/25/2016 P 97% 0 Independent 0 0 3 04/27/2016 P 98% 1:3 Independent 1 0 1 1

Running Record Analysis

The running records, which were given on books that are categorized by Guided Reading

as level P, show the patterns of errors and self-corrections in the student’s reading. The first

running record was done on an expository text and the remaining three were assessed on a

fictional story. Much like her results from the QRI-5 assessment, many of Gabby’s miscues are

nonmeaning-changing substitutions or changes. When reading a passage she will change or

ignore a words ending, for example she read, “cook” as “cook-s”. This is a behavior that was

seen during the QRI word lists and well as the passage. Other miscues that were made, that did

change meaning, were mainly visual miscues. As the student came across words that were

unfamiliar she would substitute in a word that looks similar, for example she read, “wondering”

as “worrying”. Since these small changes didn’t change the plot, Gabby’ did not realize her

mistake or self-correct. When Gabby did self-correct, she used both visual and meaning cues.

For example, when reading the fictional story Gabby read “and he pushed into tears” when the

correct text is “and he burst into tears”. After she read that aloud, she paused, looked back at the

word, and then made her correcting re-reading the sentence as a whole. Looking at this error, it is

clear that Gabby relies on visual cues to initially decode words, but uses meaning cues supported

by visual to self-correct.

Gabby’s love for reading always shined through when it was time for running records.

She was always very comfortable and never showed signs of frustration when asked to read,

even when being timed and assessed. Even though Gabby’s running records show that she can

read level P texts fluently at an independent level, she should still continue working on this level

in order to build her comprehension skills.

Reassessment

Only one formal reassessment was given to Gabby to track the progress in the area most

focused on during the tutoring sessions. She was re-administered the Primary Spelling Inventory

to show the progress made in phonics instruction. One other informal reassessment was given to

Gabby. These will be discussed in the “Achievements and Accomplishments” section.

Primary Spelling Inventory

Words Spelled Correctly

Feature Points Total Spelling Stage

Original 22/ 26 52/ 56 74/ 82Late Within

Word Pattern

Reassessment 21/ 26 52/ 56 73/ 82Early Syllables

& Affixes

The student was reassessed using the Primary Spelling Inventory. Her results show

improvement in the specific feature that was worked with (other vowels), however, it also

showed a decline in other features and total words spelled correctly. Gabby scored 6/7 feature

points for “other vowels”, compared to her initial score of 5/7 feature points. The score shows an

improvement in Gabby’s spelling, but it should be noted that Gabby incorrectly spelled the word

“shouted” as “showted”. This is important to realize, because it was a word/sound pattern that

was focused on during instruction and was spelled correctly in the initial assessment. Gabby also

misspelled the word “rob” during the reassessment (she spelled it correctly during the initial

assessment) as “roube”. When the examiner gave the student this word, she took a considerable

amount of time thinking about the spelling, almost as if she thought it was a trick question. Since

she initially spelled the word correctly and considering that her phonics instruction focused on

the “ou” and “ow” sounds, it can be assumed that Gabby thought the spelling inventory would

focus on those sounds. The overall results of the Primary Spelling Inventory show that Gabby

has moved from the “Late Within Word Pattern” to “ Early Syllable and Affixes” spelling stage.

Achievements and Accomplishments

Phonological Awareness/ Word Knowledge

Over the course of the reading remediation tutoring, Gabby has shown good

improvement with phonics and her use of strategies. Although her feature score remained the

same and her words spelled correctly dropped, the student showed improvement in the area of

focus. Gabby’s Primary Spelling Inventory shows that she has become more aware of other

vowels, such as “ow” and “ou”, scoring 6/7 feature points compared to 5/7. Evidence of a change

in Gabby’s thought process, when spelling a word, can be seen through one of her mistakes.

When spelling the word “rob”, Gabby spelled it “roube” substituting in the “ou” sound that she

has been working with, for the short “o”. Even though it caused her to spell the word incorrectly,

it proves that she has now added the practiced sounds into her thinking process. However, since

it is still incorrect more instruction and practice with these sounds is recommended.

Fluency

Throughout the tutoring sessions, Gabby’s improvements in fluency were the most

prominent. Fluency instruction was given since the first day of tutoring, starting with a read

aloud and progressed to include a variety of texts and strategies. In each session Gabby would

read a poem, when it was first introduced the student and examiner would do choral reading or

echo reading in order to model fluency skills. In the beginning she had to decode words as she

read therefore, she lacked expression in her voice. Through echo reading, she was able to hear

each line read correctly before reading it herself. Breaking it down into smaller pieces and

allowing her to hear the words read correctly first, helped Gabby learn to read with expression

because she was not focusing on decoding the words. Gabby was exposed to many texts that all

included lots of dialogue. This was done intentionally as another way to help Gabby learn to

understand the voice of a text and to express it through her readings. Phonics instruction also

improved Gabby’s fluency skills. Even though the phonics instruction did not directly relate to

the poems or texts Gabby worked with, it developed her ability to look for sound patterns and

decode words.

At the close of the tutoring program, Gabby was informally reassessed for fluency by

evaluating her final poem reading of Sick by Shel Silverstein. Earlier in the program she was

evaluated for fluency by her poem reading of My Dog Likes to Disco by Kenn Nesbitt. The

student read both poems several times with and without the support of the examiner before being

informally assessed. During the initial assessment, Gabby read using good volume with some

expression but needed to work on smoothing out her phrases and pacing. The results of her

reassessment show huge improvement in all categories, as she scored 14/14. During her final

poem reading, Gabby read with vibrant expression, followed all punctuation, and read with an

appropriate steady speed. Gabby has made huge strides in her fluency, which has in turn boosted

her confidence in reading aloud.

Comprehension

Gabby’s comprehension grew over the course of the tutoring program. Her use of

comprehension strategies grew from, searching back through the text to find an answer to

organizing the important details in a manner that will promote comprehension. Gabby also

learned how to connect her prior knowledge to new texts she read, make a prediction based on

her prior knowledge and clues from the text (title and pictures), and how to adjust her prediction

after learning new information. An example of this can be seen through Gabby’s story chart she

made for the book, Alia and the Troll Furniture. Her initial prediction was based mostly on her

prior knowledge of trolls; trolls being big, scary monsters that live under bridges. But after

reading the story and creating a story chart, Gabby was able to adjust her prediction and write a

few sentences to accurately summarize the entire story.

Writing

Gabby showed good growth in writing sentences that show variety, however she did not

show progress in her use of punctuations. As seen in the initial writing sample, the student lacked

variety in her sentence beginnings and structure, writing each sentence in a consistent “my dog

___ [this]” format. This behavior was seen repeated in several lessons, where the student would

not be able to think of an original beginning to a sentence; every sentence started with “I think

the story was about…” This became the main focus of writing activities. As the program

progressed, Gabby was encouraged to think of new ways to begin her sentences and to

specifically avoid using “cookie-cutter” beginnings. Her improvements can be seen throughout

the series of story charts she created for the eBook, Alia and the Furniture Troll. When writing

summarizing sentences for the story, Gabby skipped the “cookie-cutter” beginning and went

straight into what was happening in the story. This led her to creating interesting sentences that

showed variety.

Attitude

Gabby began the tutoring program with a very positive and excited attitude towards

reading, which is evidenced by her results from the Garfield Attitude Survey (88th percentile).

Every session she always seemed pleased to see me and was curious as to what the day’s

activities had in store. Gabby maintained her cheerful attitude throughout the program, even

when given multiple assessments and tasks that seem repetitive or boring. Her confidence levels

would vary depending on the task at hand. Most times she was very confident in her abilities,

however, during the longer assessments Gabby began to question her success asking, “Did I get

that one right?” When Gabby made mistakes or was confused, she would accept that she didn’t

know the answer and try her best to remain positive. She often said, “That’s okay because next

time I’ll do better.” And more often than not, she would prove that she could do better. An

example of this can be seen through Gabby’s fluency work. She began the program with a very

negative attitude towards reading aloud, especially in class in front of peers. As her fluency skills

progressed, Gabby became more confident with reading aloud and even enjoyed reading to the

examiner. Gabby’s love for reading and writing only grew stronger over the course of the

tutoring program.