Reader Case Study Brandon Hiatt Dr. Eastman EDUC 301 ... · Reader Case Study Brandon Hiatt Dr. Eastman EDUC 301 December 9, 2011

Reader Case Study

Brandon Hiatt

Dr. Eastman

EDUC 301

December 9, 2011

Hiatt 1

Table of Content Phase I…………………………………………………….pg 2-4

Background Information…………………………..pg 2

Assessments…………………………………………pg 2-4

Assessment Database……………………………….pg 4

Phase II……………………………………………………pg 5-15

Administration of Screening Assessment…………pg 5

Interpretations of Assessments…………………….pg 5-6

Plan of Action…………………………………….....pg 6

Graphic Organizer………………………………….pg 7

Parent Letter………………………………………...pg 8

Lesson 1………………………………………..pg 9-10

Lesson 2………………………………………..pg 10-11

Lesson 3………………………………………..pg 11-12

Lesson 4………………………………………..pg 13-14

Lesson 5………………………………………..pg 14-15

Phase III…………………………….……………………..pg 15-23

Lesson 1………………………………………..pg 15-17

Lesson 2………………………………………..pg 17-18

Lesson 3………………………………………..pg 19-20

Lesson 4………………………………………..pg 20-22

Lesson 5………………………………………..pg 22-23

Phase IV…………………………………………………....pg 24-29

Student’s work............................................................pg 30-39

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Reader Case Study - Phase I

Background Information

During the first phase, the researcher got to know a fifth grade male student. He has

brownish blonde hair and wears nice clothes. The student comes from a traditional family and

the child’s parents are involved in their son’s education. The parents are excited for their child to

get help in his area of struggle in school which is reading. The student seems to enjoy school but

more of the social aspects. His favorite subject is gym because he gets to play games. He

describes himself as a reader that only reads when he has to read. When asked about his favorite

book he said that it is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The researcher is concerned he is not experiencing

different reading genre that could spark his imagination more. He seems to be lost in thought and

off task during class. His teacher has to constantly stay on him to ensure that he gets his work

done. The researcher plans to use these interests when designing the lessons.

Assessments

After having many conversations with the student’s teacher, it was determined that

fluency instruction need to be more developed with the reader and would be the focus of the

reader case study. Due to his scores on a teacher given fluency assessment, the teacher advised

the researcher to focus on accuracy and word recognition. The reader’s scores suggest that he is

below fifth grade level for fluency. He is talkative and outgoing student and the teacher would

have never thought the student struggled with fluency as revealed by the fluency assessment.

After talking with the teacher and observing the student, it was clear that this reader will benefit

from one-on-one instruction.

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Assessment will be given three different times during the reader case study. The first

assessment will come during the screening process. The screening will be given before any

instruction is provided to gather information in the area that the student is struggling. It will

determine the instruction presented by the researcher. The second time this assessment will be

used is after the third lesson as a progress monitoring technique. The researcher will check the

progress of the student to see if the instruction needs to change. If growth has been made, the

researcher will continue with his action plan for the reader, but if progress has not been made

then the researcher will modify his action plan. The final assessment will be used is as an

outcome based assessment. The researcher use the outcome based score to compare it against the

initial screening score. This will show how much growth the student has made and the

effectiveness of the interventions. The scores of the assessment will be documented in an excel

spread sheet. After the scores have been entered, the researcher will use the excel document to

create a graph which will show the growth of the student.

The screening assessment for his reader will be Individual Fluency Assessment. This

assessment will help the researcher narrow in on the appropriate fluency level of the student to

begin the reader case study. This assessment will provide a baseline fluency rate of the reader.

The reader begins practice at an easier level that builds confidence and then moves to more

difficult academic language as the assessment progresses. The assessment is to see how many

words the student can read correctly in two minutes. The second assessment will be the San

Diego Fluency Assessment. This assessment is a time reading assessment like the first to see if

the reader can read sight words for different grade level to see if the student is able to fluently

read words at his grade level. This will show the research how well the student can use the skill

from the lessons presented by the researcher. The outcome base assessment will be the same as

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the first assessment so the researcher can see the growth of the reader. This scores will be

recorded in an excel graph in Phase IV.

Assessment Database

NAME GRADE HOW TO USE WHEN TO

USE IT

INFORMATION

PROVIDED

REFERENCE

INFORMATION

DIBELS

K-6 Oral Reading Beginning,

Middle, and

end of

school year

Assesses fluency

with text and

phonological

awareness

https://dibels.uoregon

.edu/

Oral Fluency

Assessment

3-5 Oral Reading

individualize

Fall,

Winter,

Spring

Help give an

approximate

Words Correct

Per Minute Score

for Each Grade

level

http://www2.scholasti

c.com/browse/article.

jsp?id=4446

Final Sounds- Phoneme Isolating

K-3 Student will listen

for the ending sound

of each word.

Screening

assessment

Phoneme

Awareness

Assessment

http://teams.lacoe.edu

/reading/assessments/

final.html

Alphabet

Assessment

K-3 Student is asked

which letters and

sounds of letters

they know

Beginning

of start of

school

Concepts about

print, letter

recognition



alphabet.html

Recognizing Rhyme

Assessment

K-3 Ask to identify

rhymes

Progress

monitoring

Phoneme

Awareness



rhyme/rhyme2.html

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Phase II Action Plan

Administration of Screening Assessment

The researcher will work to improve the fluency of a fifth grade male student. The

researcher decided to use a test to establish a baseline of the reader’s fluency skills. The

assessment took place in the library while the other students were checking out books and

reading silently when they were done. The student sat in a chair around a table and the researcher

sat in a chair on the other side. The test was administered at two –thirty five. The student was

asked to read for two minute from a passage called “Pets.” As the student read, the researcher

tracked the number of times the student skipped, misread, or inserted words on a separate

passage. After the two minutes were up, the total number of mistakes was subtracted by the total

number of words read. The student was not marked down for words that he self-corrected. The

researcher found that the student read 167 words for the two minutes but he made twenty errors.

So, the student read 147 words correct in two minutes.

Interpretations of Assessments

Following the assessment, the researcher reflected on the scores and the behavior of the

student. The student was excited to start his assessment and is ready to start reading with

researcher. He sat down and was ready to begin the assessment before the researcher could read

the directions. He asked if he could read the whole passage even if the time ran out. After the

assessment, he was very curious about his results. The researched explained that this was just a

test to see where he was at before we start lessons. Fifth graders are expected to orally read at

least 106 words per minute. The student scored below expectation for his grade level. The

screening tests suggest the reader is struggling to read fluently on grade level. The researcher

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noticed that the mistakes were from high-frequency words and chunking of works. The

researcher believes that the student may have tried to read too fast and missed simple words. The

first lesson will look at high frequency words. The student needs to be able to see and recognize

high frequency word to be more successful in reading.

Plan of Action

The researcher will start by choosing a book with the reader for them to use during the

case study. The researcher will visit the reader everyday so the reader will be able to develop a

connection during the case study. The strategies that the researcher will try to develop in the

reader will be reading notice parts of words and rereading. The first lesson will be on noticing

common words, the next two will be breaking down words so that you know the parts, the last

two will be a rereading. The research sets the lesson up this way so that the student can build

from one lesson to the next. The lesson will help the student focus on the task at hand but also

allow the student to use his schema. The researcher will have the student use a graphic organizer

for the chunking lesson.

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Graphic Organizer

Name____________________ Date__________________

Catch

Chunking

Business

Information

BeatuifulEveryt hing

Speak

Name___Key____________ Date____________________

Chunking

Business

In

ma

tion

ti

Beaut iful

Information

for

Beau

ful

thing

ryeve

Busi

ness

Speak

Catch

Everyt hing

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Parent Letter

Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am excited to be able to work with your son for my college reader’s case study. He has

be a pleasure to get to meet and work with to determine an area of reading to work on. I have

noticed that when your reads, he is good at using the clues around a word he does not know to

guess the correct word. I have notice that sometime this can affect his fluency as a reader. This

will be the area that I will work with him.

Throughout the next few weeks, your son and I will be working together to improve his

fluency skills. I would like us to start with having him practice recognizing high frequency words

because that will really help him become more fluent as a reader. He and I will also be working

together to reread and echo reading to help build his fluency. I will have a total of five lesson to

help your son become a more fluent and confident reader.

Thank you again for allowing me to work with your child. I will enjoy working with him

as we work toward one main goal of becoming the best reader he can be. I will look for

improvement in his fluency skills as we continue our lessons together. Please contact me with

any questions you may have during our reading sessions.

Sincerely,

Brando Hiatt

Contact information

Email - [email protected]

Cell Phone - 260-239-2400

mailto:[email protected]

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Lesson 1

The researcher will begin each session with a one minute timed passage to check his

fluency rate. The researcher will use the same passage at the beginning of each lesson. This will

allow the researcher to monitor the student progress throughout the lessons instead of one time.

The researcher will have the student get out the book he has self-selected to read. My teacher

takes the students to the library once a week to check out library books. The first time the go

when I am there I will help select a book with my read for us to use during this study. The

researcher will explain the results of his prescreening test with him. The researcher will tell the

student that I have different skills to help him become a more fluid reader.

We will start off my learning about what high frequency words are. The researcher will

ask the student to tell me what he thinks they are and then the researcher will give the student

examples of what high frequency words are as such a, or, the, these, and, that. Next the

researcher will tell the student the importance of the high frequency words. The two main

reasons for high frequency words are help us understand what the sentence mean and we see and

use them all the time. My think alouds for this less will be the following questions after the

researcher explain the purpose of high frequency words. The researcher wonders how many

times do the researcher read or say these words in a day. Could you go a whole day without

using these words? The researcher wonders how stories would be if authors did not use these

words the researcher will give the student sentences and him highlight high-frequency words so

that he can practice.

We will practice using the library book we selected together. The researcher will model

good reading for the first five pages. The student will identify some of the high frequency words

that the researcher read. Than the student will began to read still focusing on many high

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frequency words are in the story. At one part of the student reading, the researcher will ask the

student to skip over the frequency word in that section. The researcher will ask the student do

those sentences make sense. The researcher will ask the student to come back with 15 high

frequency words that he has collected over the next two days for homework.

Lesson 2

The researcher will give the student a copy of the one minute timed passage. The student

will read the passage for a minute. The researcher will record the score of the student. We will

discussion how he did from the day before. Then, we will review the high frequency words that

the student has gathered. The researcher will check the students list to make sure that all of the

words in the list are high frequency words. If there is a questionable word on the list, the

researcher will ask for him to explain why he taught the word is a high frequency word. The

researcher will tell him that some words are high frequency for some stories. The researcher will

give the student example of how some words may be high frequency for a certain story. If you

are reading a book about baseball, then baseball terms throughout the book would be considered

high frequency for that story. After the review of the words, we will begin to read for his self-

selected book or the book his class is reading.

The research noticed the student was reading too fast and missed some prefixes and

suffixes while he was reading. We will talk about the importance of prefixes and suffixes during

reading and how noticing the prefixes and suffixes can help us become a more fluent reader. The

researcher will read a couple of pages from the book the class is reading skipping over some of

the prefixes and suffixes. The researcher will ask the student does the part the researcher read

make sense. Then, the researcher will read the same part correct so the student can see the impact

the prefixes and suffixes make to the meaning of the story. The researcher will have flash cards

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of the most common prefixes and suffixes for us to use. The researcher will give the student a

root word and the student will create as any words that he can. My think aloud for this section

would be can you add any prefix or suffix to any word. Does the word make sense?

We will continue using the library book we selected together. The researcher will model

good reading for the next three pages. The student will identify some of the prefixes and suffixes

that the researcher read. Than the student will begin to read looking prefixes and suffixes so that

he reads them properly. The researcher will ask the student to come back with 10 words that he

has collected over the next couple of days for homework from his reading.

Lesson 3

We will begin with the one minute timed passage. The researcher will remind the student

of the skills that we have covered so far. The research will mention the importance of noticing

high frequency words and the beginning and ending of words. The researcher will record the

score of the student. We will discussion how he has progress so far and talk about the errors he

made and check to see if he is making the same mistake. Then, we will review the prefixes and

suffixes that the reader found in his reading since the last time we meet. After the review of the

prefixes and suffixes, we will begin to read for his self-selected book or the book his class is

reading focusing on the two skills that he has learned so far.

The next skill that we will focus on is the ability to chunk syllables together to understand

new words that the read might not know. Syllables are an important part of a word. If someone

knows what syllables are in a word, than they will be able to decode the word that is trying to

figure out. This will help with fluency so that the reader will not have to waste time on finding

out what an unknown word is. The researcher will tell the student that the chunking process to

break the word into smaller chunks that the reader knows already. An example would be the

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word consider, the reader know the suffix of –er so the reader is left with consid-, then the

student should break consid- into con- and –sid-, finally the reader would sound out the three

smaller chunks. The reader would read “con”, “sid”, “er” and then blend them together and read

the whole word “consider”. I will have chunking cards cut out and missed together for the

student to put back together. After the student has put the words together the student will read

each chunk and then blend them together. The student can record the chunks and a piece of paper

to be able to keep in his reading binder at the school.

We will continue to read from the book we selected from the library. The teacher will

model good reading for two pages. The student will think aloud at any time an idea pops into his

mind. When the researcher came across a word that the student does not know, the student will

stop him and they will chunk the word together. The student will continue to read for the

remainder of the time stopping when he comes across a word he does not know. He will chunk

the words that he does not know. The student will have a graphic organizer to fill out for the next

time we meet. The researcher will stop the student with four minutes to go to do the progress

monitoring. This will allow the researcher to see how well the lessons are working for the

student. The researcher wills give the San Diego Fluency Assessment which is a list of ten words

for each grade level. The researcher will start my student with the second grade words are he will

go until he misses three words in a grade level.

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Lesson 4


of the skills that we have covered so far so the student will use them when reading the passage.

The research will mention the importance of noticing high frequency words and the beginning

and ending of words. The researcher will record the score of the student. We will discussion how

he has progress so far and talk about the errors he made and check to see if he is making the

same mistake. Then, the research will go over the graphic organizers from the last time we meet.

We will read the story from the class to begin as the student will use all of the skill that has been

shown to him.

Next, the researcher will explain why it is important to reread different parts of the story

or different sentences. Reader often needs to reread a section of the book because they are

confused the information that was given or they miss read a word and the sentence does not

make sense to the reader. Some readers like to reread to become more familiar with it. Rereading

helps a reader read with expression, quicker and better accuracy. The reader will be asked for his

think aloud about the rereading. The research can help guide the student to talk about what kind

of word are important to reread like high frequency words because we read them all the time and

that is how we get so familiar with them. The researcher will have the student get the book we

selected to read together out. The researcher will have the student read the first page of the next

chapter aloud and the researcher will time him. The researcher will ask the student what the page

was about. The researcher will record the time and the information he gave. Then the researcher

will allow the student to reread to himself quietly. Finally, the researcher will have the student

reread it aloud and the researcher will time him again. This time he should be faster and be able

to recall more information. The researcher will show the student the results of rereading. The

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research will have the student write explaining why the time was quicker the second time. If the

time was not quicker the second time, then the student should explain why it was not faster the

second time.

The student will read the book for the remainder of the time focusing on using the new

skill of rereading. The student will also use think alouds during this time to connect why he need

to reread the section he read. This should not have to force upon the student; it should be a

natural reaction that the student may not ever know he is doing it. The researcher will ask the

student to reread the amount of page that we cover at least three more team and to be ready to

discussion the pages.

Lesson 5

The student will start by taking the beginning reading passage. The researcher will tell

him his scores to see if he can improve upon them. The researcher will remind him to use all the

skills that we have covered and that he does not need to rush through it to get the best time. He

needs to take his time and focus on each word. After the passage, we will discuss the pages from

the last meeting. He should be able to recall a lot of the information because he has read the

section four times.

Explain how reading does not have to be done by yourself; you can have a partner help

you. Echo reading is a great way to help you build your fluency because you are getting instant

feedback on how you read. There is a person that first models the section and then the second

person tries and models the first person. Using the student’s classroom book, the researcher will

model a paragraph and then the student will repeat the paragraph. We will practice echo reading

5 times using five different paragraphs. The student will think aloud about all the things he needs

Hiatt 15

to remember while reading and how the strategies have will help him become a more fluent

reader. We will end the last session will the Post Assessment. The researcher will give the

student the same assessment has the screening so that the researcher can compare how well the

student responded to the lesson. The student will have two minutes to read the passage called the

“Pets.” The researcher will record the data in an excel graph.

Phase III - Tutoring: Conducting the Action Plan

Lesson 1

The researcher will begin each session with a one minute timed passage to check his

fluency rate. The researcher will use the same passage at the beginning of each lesson. This will

allow the researcher to monitor the student progress throughout the lessons instead of one time.

The researcher will have the student get out the book he has self-selected to read. My teacher

takes the students to the library once a week to check out library books. The first time the go

when I am there I will help select a book with my read for us to use during this study. The

researcher will explain the results of his prescreening test with him. The researcher will tell the

student that I have different skills to help him become a more fluid reader.

We will start off my learning about what high frequency words are. The researcher will

ask the student to tell me what he thinks they are and then the researcher will give the student

examples of what high frequency words are as such a, or, the, these, and, that. Next the

researcher will tell the student the importance of the high frequency words. The two main

reasons for high frequency words are help us understand what the sentence mean and we see and

use them all the time. My think alouds for this less will be the following questions after the

Hiatt 16

researcher explain the purpose of high frequency words. The researcher wonders how many

times do the researcher read or say these words in a day. Could you go a whole day without

using these words? The researcher wonders how stories would be if authors did not use these

words the researcher will give the student sentences and him highlight high-frequency words so

that he can practice.

We will practice using the library book we selected together. The researcher will model

good reading for the first five pages. The student will identify some of the high frequency words

that the researcher read. Than the student will began to read still focusing on many high

frequency words are in the story. At one part of the student reading, the researcher will ask the

student to skip over the frequency word in that section. The researcher will ask the student do

those sentences make sense. The researcher will ask the student to come back with 15 high

frequency words that he has collected over the next two days for homework.

Reflective Thoughts

The reader wanted to read the Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen. The researcher allowed the

student to choose this book because the researcher was curious to see have the student would

respond to the book. The researcher knew the book would be challenging to the student. The

classroom book the student was reading was Spinning Through the Universe. When the

researcher began the student the passage “Wolf Watcher”, the student was excited to get to read

the passage. The researcher notices that the student mistakes were the student not confident in

what he was reading. The researcher noticed the student miss sight words that a fifth grade

should know. The researcher knew the first lesson was very important. The researcher knew that

by planning on visiting everyday this would be a benefit for the reader. The student needed the

one on one attention because he was not looking at the whole word sometimes it seems like he

Hiatt 17

was guessing. The book choice did not look good from the researcher point of view. I believe

that lesson part went extremely well. The student seemed engage the whole time. The student

was asking a lot of question which was a positive sign. We had discussion on the importance of

recognizing high frequency right away. The researcher wishes that he had flash cards for high

frequency lesson so that the lesson would have been more hands on for the first lesson.

Lesson 2

The researcher will give the student a copy of the one minute timed passage. The student

will read the passage for a minute. The researcher will record the score of the student. We will

discussion how he did from the day before. Then, we will review the high frequency words that

the student has gathered. I will check the students list to make sure that all of the words in the list

are high frequency words. If there is a questionable word on the list, I will ask for him to explain

why he taught the word is a high frequency word. I will tell him that some words are high

frequency for some stories. I will give the student example of how some words may be high

frequency for a certain story. If you are reading a book about baseball, then baseball terms

throughout the book would be considered high frequency for that story. After the review of the

words, we will begin to read for his self-selected book or the book his class is reading.

The research noticed the student was reading too fast and missed some prefixes and

suffixes while he was reading. We will talk about the importance of prefixes and suffixes during

reading and how noticing the prefixes and suffixes can help us become a more fluent reader. I

will read a couple of pages from the book the class is reading skipping over some of the prefixes

and suffixes. I will ask the student does the part I read make sense. Then, I will read the same

part correct so the student can see the impact the prefixes and suffixes make to the meaning of

the story. I will have flash cards of the most common prefixes and suffixes for us to use. I will

Hiatt 18

give the student a root word and the student will create as any words that he can. My think aloud

for this section would be can you add any prefix or suffix to any word. Does the word make

sense?

We will continue using the library book we selected together. The researcher will model

good reading for the next three pages. The student will identify some of the prefixes and suffixes

that the researcher read. Than the student will begin to read looking prefixes and suffixes so that

he reads them properly. I will ask the student to come back with 10 words that he has collected

over the next couple of days for homework from his reading.

Reflective Thoughts

The student was excited to do the passage again to see if the student could raise his score.

The student had the same excitement for the lesson that he had for the first. The researcher asked

the student about the first lesson and the student could not remember the lesson very well. So,

the researcher knew the lesson needed to be closer together to maximize the effectiveness of the

lesson. There was four day between the lessons so the research decided to only have three day

between lessons. The student enjoyed the researcher think aloud about prefixes and suffixes. The

student connected well with this unit before the teacher had just had a lesson over it the day

before. The student was actively engage with the flash cards. The researcher was creating a

positive bond with the student. The student got a little of topic when reading the Lawn Boy; the

researcher believe this happen because the difficulty was too hard for the student. The researcher

suggested that we get a new book when we go to the library next. The student was back on task

after the suggestion. The student made a lot of connection with the book but the level was too

high.

Hiatt 19

Lesson 3





made and check to see if he is making the same mistake. Then, we will review the prefixes and

suffixes that the reader found in his reading since the last time we meet. After the review of the

prefixes and suffixes, we will begin to read for his self-selected book or the book his class is

reading focusing on the two skills that he has learned so far.

The next skill that we will focus on is the ability to chunk syllables together to understand

new words that the read might not know. Syllables are an important part of a word. If someone

knows what syllables are in a word than they will be able to decode the word. This will help with

fluency so that the reader will not have to waste time on finding out what an unknown word is.

The researcher will tell the student that the chunking process to break the word into smaller

chunks that the reader knows already. An example would be the word consider, the reader know

the suffix of –er so the reader is left with consid-, then the student should break consid- into con-

and –sid-, finally the reader would sound out the three smaller chunks. The reader would read

“con”, “sid”, “er” and then blend them together and read the whole word “consider”. I will have

chunking cards cut out and missed together for the student to put back together. After the student

has put the words together the student will read each chunk and then blend them together. The

student can record the chunks and a piece of paper to be able to keep in his reading binder at the

school.

Hiatt 20

We will continue to read from the book we selected from the library. The teacher will

model good reading for two pages. The student will think aloud at any time an idea pops into his

mind. When I come across a word that the student does not know, I will have the student stop me

and we will chunk the word together. The student will continue to read for the remainder of the

time stopping when he comes across a word he does not know. He will chunk the words that he

does not know. The student will have a graphic organizer to fill out for the next time we meet.

Reflective Thoughts

The third lesson started off bad because the student did not want to do the work. The

student had gotten a detention for going to catch up room. So the student thought process was not

on reading. The student seemed to be distracted all day. This upset the researcher because the

researcher knew it was a big day for the student. The student went through the motion for the

passage and did not care what he got on it. The lesson was a little better. The student enjoyed

chunking words; he want to keep chunking but we need to read out of our new book On the Line.

The book was the best part of the day, the student really connected to the football theme of it. He

is a big football fan and he loves the Colts. The student had a ton of connections to the story.

Then the progress monitoring part of the day and the student became less engage and back into a

bad mood. The researcher should have move the assessment to another day but the student ended

up doing good on it so that pleased the researcher.

Lesson 4





Hiatt 21

made and check to see if he is making the same mistake. Then, the research will go over the

graphic organizers from the last time we meet. We will read the story from the class to begin as

the student will use all of the skill that has been shown to him.

Next, I will explain why it is important to reread different parts of the story or different

sentences. Reader often needs to reread a section of the book because they are confused the

information that was given or they miss read a word and the sentence does not make sense to the

reader. Some readers like to reread to become more familiar with it. Rereading helps a reader

read with expression, quicker and better accuracy. The reader will be asked for his think aloud

about the rereading. The research can help guide the student to talk about what kind of word are

important to reread like high frequency words because we read them all the time and that is how

we get so familiar with them. I will have the student get the book we selected to read together

out. I will have the student read the first page of the next chapter aloud and I will time him. I will

ask the student what the page was about. I will record the time and the information he gave. Then

I will allow the student to reread to himself quietly. Finally, I will have the student reread it

aloud and I will time him again. This time he should be faster and be able to recall more

information. I will show the student the results of rereading. The research will have the student

write explaining why the time was quicker the second time. If the time was not quicker the

second time, then the student should explain why it was not faster the second time.

The student will read the book for the remainder of the time focusing on using the new

skill of rereading. The student will also use think alouds during this time to connect why he need

to reread the section he read. This should not have to force upon the student; it should be a

natural reaction that the student may not ever know he is doing it. I will ask the student to reread

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the amount of page that we cover at least three more team and to be ready to discussion the

pages.

Reflective Thoughts

This lesson went a little pressed for time. The teacher had an activity for the student to do

so the researcher was given only half the time he normally got. The student was really engage

coming from the other activity. The researcher wishes that he could have this student all the time.

The student was on target for the passage. The student was in a competition mood which helped

with the activity when he was timed. He wanted to do better than the timed before. The

researcher was not able to get both of his think aloud in, but the student had a couple which made

the researcher happy. The student realizes how helpful rereading the page really is. The student

said that he will do that more often when he does not know what is going on in a story.

Lesson 5

The student will start by taking the beginning reading passage. I will tell him his scores to see if

he can improve upon them. I will remind him to use all the skills that we have covered and that

he does not need to rush through it to get the best time. He needs to take his time and focus on

each word. After the passage, we will discuss the pages from the last meeting. He should be able

to recall a lot of the information because he has read the section four times.

Explain how reading does not have to be done by yourself; you can have a partner help

you. Echo reading is a great way to help you build your fluency because you are getting instant

feedback on how you read. There is a person that first models the section and then the second

person tries and models the first person. Using the student’s classroom book, the researcher will

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model a paragraph and then the student will repeat the paragraph. We will practice echo reading

5 times using five different paragraphs. The student will think aloud about all the things he needs

to remember while reading and how the strategies have will help him become a more fluent

reader. We will end the last session will the Post Assessment. I will give the student the same

assessment has the screening so that I can compare how well the student responded to the lesson.

The student will have two minutes to read the passage called the “Pets.” I will record the data in

an excel graph.

Reflective Thoughts

This was the last lesson with the student. The student was ready to get the best score and

everything that I was going to give to him. He did an excellent job on the passage. The student

was engage with the lesson because he enjoys working with a partner. We read back and forth to

each other and he was making great think alouds. The student was sad that this was our last

lesson. The post assessment was administered at the end of the lesson. The student was excited to

beat his pre assessment score. He was eager to beat previous scores and apply what he had

learned. The student made significant progress in the final assessment. During the pre-

assessment, the student read 73.5 words per minute and had 20 errors. Today, the student read

101 words per minute with only 10 mistakes. The researcher felt like he was a new student. The

seemed more confident in the classroom. He wanted to volunteer and give the teacher his input

on the story.

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Phase IV: Reflecting and Report - Impact on Student Learning

Impact on Student

When the researcher asked the teacher to work with a student, the teacher knew a perfect

student to choose. The student struggles on the teacher first assessment of fluency. The teacher

knew the student could benefit from some one on one attention. The teacher was correct; the

student had a great increase in his words per minute. The student had a great time and a positive

attitude mostly all the time during the study. The researcher will pleased with the scores from the

pre assessment to the post assessment. The student score of 73.5 words per minute was about 30

words off of the grade average. The post assessment score of 101 words per minute was very

close to the grade average. The researcher was proud of the student hard work and effort that the

student put forth towards the reader case study. The progress monitoring assessment was a good

assessment because it allowed the student to use the skill he had learned in the first three lessons

in a new setting. The student only needed to read specific words in a timely manner instead of

having to read a long passage which he had done multiple times before. The researcher was also

glad to see the student growth for the daily passage at the being for the lesson. The student

improve his score every time but one. The researcher believe that the bond he created with the

student allow the student to feel comfortable which allowed the student to do his best work.

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0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Word per Minutes

Pre-Assessment

Post Assessment

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Daily Reading Passage

1st Lesson

2nd Lesson

3rd Lesson

4th Lesson

5th Lesson

The action plan was created so that each lesson would build on the next so that the

student could be able to recall important information from each less. The researcher saw that the

student would say the wrong high frequency would but know what the meaning of the sentence

was. The student would read and not catch his mistake because the word sounded good to him.

The researcher believed this could be the source of the reader’s fluency problem. So the

researcher wanted to make this the first lesson of the case study. The next couple of lesson dealt

with the structure of words. The researcher notice that the student would struggle with words that

he was not familiar with. The student would ask for help on a word before attempting to

pronounce it. The research wanted to give the student the skill of breaking down a word to parts

that the student knew so that the student could figure out the word by himself. Also, the reader

would sometimes skip over a prefix or suffix while reading. The researcher wanted to teach the

reader that all parts of words are important. If you leave off a part of the word than the rest of the

sentence would not make sense. The research wanted to make these lesson hand on and use

writing because writing helps a reader see the words and how they are put together. The last two

lessons dealt with rereading with a lesson for an individual and a lesson for partner. The first

lesson was a simple reread of a section. The reader will read a section timed and then the student

will read the section to himself, and finally the student with read in aloud again to see if his time

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improved. Then the researcher had a discussion on why did the reader think the time dropped.

After the discussion, the student had a better understanding of why rereading helps fluency. The

student made the connection of practice makes perfect. The last lesson dealt with echo reading

and how the reader could develop fluency with a partner or with a partner at home.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Time for page to be read

(in seconds)

1st time

2nd time

When analyzing the students work, the researcher found a few things that the student

needed to continue to improve. The student was able to show the understanding of chunking

when we worked together. The student struggle the student struggle with the graphic organizer.

This was upsetting to the researcher. However, the student used the skill well over the last couple

lessons. The student still read to quickly sometimes and the researcher needed to tell the reader

to focus on the whole word and not just the letters. The reader struggled with high frequency

words throughout the case study but the researcher believes the errors come for being too quick.

The researcher was glad that he was in the classroom with the reader a lot of the case study

because the researcher got to see the student outside of the lessons. The research was allow to

give the student reminds of the skills that they went over. The research also got to see the student

in his normal class setting.

The researcher told the student about the assignment that he had and what his expectation

were. The student had some of the same goal as the researcher. They both wanted to help the

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reader become more fluent. The researcher told the student that it is important to understand the

structure of words and not to get stuck on one word. The student was excited to start with the

lesson and to have the researcher in the classroom. The student was excited to start the daily

passages because that meant he was beginning the process of becoming a better reader.

The researcher was able to see growth in the student outside of the lesson. The student

became confident in himself to give answers in class. At the beginning of the study the student

was outgoing talking with his classmates but did not want to volunteer in class. As the study

went on, the researcher was able to watch the student grow in his fluency ability. This lead to the

student wanted to show off the strategies he had learned during class. The student was creating

his own think aloud for the class and sharing his thoughts about the story. The reader paid close

attention to the details of the story and was able to make connects to the text. The researcher left

the last day with the reader confident that the reader will continue his success in reading.

Impact on Researcher

The case study had a major impact in the researcher. The student that the researcher

worked help show the researcher what is like to help a student have success in an area where

they struggle. This experience for the researcher was extremely valuable. The researcher was

able to take a weakness and design five lesson to improve the reader. The researcher had some

ups and down with the process but the end result was a success. This case study gave the

researcher whole new outlook on how to teach reading.

The researcher was given the opportunity to use different types of assessment that he had

never used. These experiences allowed the researcher to use an assessment and create instruction

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for the reader. The pre-assessment allowed the researcher to see that the student struggled with

fluency. The researcher took this data created five lesson to address the need of the student. The

researcher is thankful for this opportunity because he knows this is a major part of the teaching

profession. Teachers need to be able to take data and drive instruction to help all of their

students. It is important to monitor your student progress because then you will be able to change

your instruction if need to give your student the best learning opportunity to reach his/her

potential.

This study allow for the researcher to analyze work samples done by a student. The

researcher need more practice with this because this was a new experience and difficult for the

researcher to know if the reader was understand the materials. The researcher was able to get to

know his student by being in the classroom. This was a benefit for the researcher because he

could see his student using the skills learned in other parts of class. The researcher hardest time

with the students work was trying to read the handwriting.

The researcher was pleased with the outcome of the lesson he deign for the reader based

of the pre-assessment. It was the first time that the researcher was put in charge of a student’s

learning need in a one on one situation. The researcher was nervous about this fact. The

researcher wishes that he could have had more hands on learning throughout the lessons. This

could have created more of a deeper understanding for the student. The researcher felt like the

student would have had more fun with the learning and that could have created a spot in the

student memory for the given lesson. The researcher was excited how the think aloud process

went. The student had plenty of think aloud and started having them if out the prompt of the

researcher.

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The researcher came way for the study with some future goals. The researcher wants to

get comfortable with taking data and driving instruction for his students. This is a critical part of

teaching in today’s society and teacher need to be able to do this effortlessly. Another goal from

the study would be the researcher need to improve his ability to analyze student work. The

researcher wants to become more familiar with the students so he can see if the student

understands the material. Teachers need to be proactive when it comes to their students learning.

The last goal of the researcher is to keep track of student records using excel. This will be a great

tool for the researcher to master. If the researcher can have excel graphs for their students

learning than the researcher will have data to show a parent or principal.

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Student’s work

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Prefixes and sufixes

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Documents

Reader Case Study Brandon Hiatt Dr. Eastman EDUC 301 ... · Reader Case Study Brandon Hiatt Dr. Eastman EDUC 301 December 9, 2011