Case Study Research Report free essay sample

This child was chosen because he reads at least two to three levels above his grade, but on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test he scored below what he was expected to score. I noticed that he had the most trouble in the area of Reading Application. This area consists of main idea, identifying the author’s purpose, making inferences, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. Tutoring sessions will be used to work with each of the specific parts of reading application to see if the student can improve his test scores. This child seems to be exhibiting from some sort of problem in the area of reading, and being the successful educator, this research will help to find a solution to this problem. Literature Review First of all, we need to understand what Qualitative Reading Inventories are. A Qualitative Reading Inventory is a test that is used to test children’s ability to read aloud and retell what has been read. They can be used to identify a child’s instructional level. QRI’s are very helpful in that they show you where children need the most improvement. A teacher can find out the areas of reading that the child needs the most help in. Some teachers use qualitative reading inventories in the classroom every year. It is best to test the children at the beginning of the school year so that you can put them in the appropriate groups. When teaching reading instruction it is best to work with small groups for differentiated instruction. Children learn better when it is a smaller learning setting because more time is spent on that child who may be struggling in reading. Every county has their own educational intervention plans. At some schools, the teachers are required to use the reading intervention program called Voyager. In this program struggling readers are held back from Spanish to get extra help in reading. The program has books and activities that help the children improve phonemic awareness, phonics and also improve their fluency when reading. This program usually helps ninety percent of the students improve their reading skills. Another reason we use qualitative reading inventories is to indicate the conditions in which the child would perform successfully or unsuccessfully in reading. The key reason that the QRI was developed was to help educators see how they can help improve children’s reading abilities. For most of the struggling readers, it shows their strengths and need for evident help in reading. By giving them these assessments, strengths and needs are identified by providing more information about why the child is not reading well. Research shows that when materials are used to judge growth or change in a child’s reading level, the same genre should be used at pre-test and post-test. I researched an article dealing with how you should organize tutorial sessions for struggling readers being that I have to give tutorials over the next couple of weeks. The author, Patricia Edwards, states that â€Å"many of the problems struggling readers encounter while reading stem from distinct yet fundamental sources of difficulty related to the types of text read (print or outline), the tasks or activities readers engage in, and the socio-cultural contexts of reading. † She also says, â€Å"although these problems are as varied as the readers themselves, most struggling readers can be taught to read successfully when instruction is thoughtfully organized with their specific needs I mind. Many articles have been looked at dealing with assessments and how to help struggling learners, these skills and techniques will be applied to find out why this child is having problems in the area of reading. Many different reading inventories will be used to determine if there is a problem and intervention plans will also help the child achieve his goal. Methodology The student â€Å"Stanley Clark† will be used as the case study. Stanley is a ten year old fifth grader that attends North County Elementary School. He does well in Reading and reads at an eighth grade level. In the classroom he seems to be hyper active often. It is hard for him to keep quiet and still for a long time period. It is hard for him to focus on a topic if it does not interest him. Outside of the classroom the child is about the same. He has a three year old brother that he still runs around the house and plays with. His mom thinks that he has not matured to his age level yet. On the other hand, she claims that he is always quick to pick up a book and read it. He typically enjoys reading at home and while at school. He is a child that would rather read a book than go outside and play. He can read a two hundred page chapter book like Shiloh in about an hour and a half. He also enjoys reading books to his little brother. This child is an English speaking student. He comes from a very loving family. Most of his immediate family members are educators, including his mom, two aunts and grandparents. His father is a lawyer. His family spends time with him and his mother also works with him at home with his home learning assignments. His mother says that he reads everyday but the hard part is getting him to comprehend difficult texts and passages. The reason he was chosen was to figure out where his problem is stemming from being that he comes from a good home. Results of Pre-Test, Intervention (Action Plan), and Post-Test Pre-Test Results The first test that was given to Stanley was the spelling assessment. I administered the Elementary Spelling Inventory which consisted of 25 words. Out of 25 words he got a total of 14 words correct. Spelling seems to be one of his weak areas, so this will be one thing that we will work on during the tutoring sessions. The majority of the problems stem from double consonants plural endings and he was very confused with spelling silent letters. The next assessment was the word reading. Since Stanley is a fifth grader I started with level five. He read with 95% accuracy with level five. I moved up to level six and he read with 85% accuracy. Last I moved to the upper middle school level and he read with 65% accuracy so this is where I stopped. Since Stanley read at the high end of the instructional level at level six, I decided to assess his with level six reading passages. He read two stories orally and one story silently. His fluency was at the instructional level because he made few errors while reading. Some of the errors he made were omitted words and pronouncing words incorrectly. When asked to retell what happened in the stories he looked with a puzzled face. He could not recall any facts that he read before. I also noticed that when I was asking him the comprehension questions his mind was elsewhere. He was very distracted even though he was tested in isolation. I think this may have been a factor in why he was not answering the questions or did not remember them. He rarely had any prior knowledge of the topics that were given. He only knew that Abraham Lincoln was a president. His comprehension needs a lot of work because he was not able to recall what happened in the stories. When asked about the main idea he gave me a simple word or two about it. His reading level is independent but his comprehension level is between frustrational and instructional. Stanley shows signs of a child that needs some work in the area of comprehension. Action Plan Rationale The literacy intervention plan that I have created will definitely improve a childs reading abilities. All children have the ability to learn with lots of  practice, studying and hard work. I will show these  great results with improvements with the child by using  my intervention plan. Goal 1: The learner will identify variant correspondences in words by learning how to say and read different vowel patterns and sounds. This was chosen this because the student showed signs of spelling and phonics errors. He has problems with vowel combinations and sounds of certain letters. Goal 2: The learner will gain speed and accuracy by reading texts. This is to improve his reading speed and help to understand what he is reading. Goal 3: The learner be able to use knowledge of antonyms, synonyms, homophones, homographs and context clues to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. This skill was chosen because if the child understands the meaning of a word then they may be able to better understand what a text means. Goal 4: The learner will use strategies to repair comprehension of grade-appropriate text by rereading, predicting, summarizing, questioning, clarifying and inferring. The child had multiple problems with comprehension. These strategies will help improve his comprehension skills, which was his weakest area in reading. |Monday |Tuesday |Wednesday |Thursday |Friday | |Week 1 |Phonics- diphthong board |Phonics- diphthong bingo |Phonics- sight and sound |Phonics- star |Phonics-vowel digraph | | |game |Fluency- quickly read |sort with diphthongs |search(r-controlled words)|baseball | | |Fluency- reading syllables|affixes |Fluency- practice quickly |Fluency- quickly read word|Fluency- sort and read | | |timed |Vocabulary- antonym |identifying root words ex:|parts |words with same rimes | | |Vocabulary- synonym bingo |dominoes |prefixes and suffixes |Vocabulary- synonym |timed | | |Comprehension- make |Comprehension- sequence |Vocabulary- antonym |antonym creations |Vocabulary- homograph | | |character connections |main events in a story |concentration |Comprehension- answer |hoorah | | | | |Comprehension- write plot |questions related to the |Comprehension- student | | | | |components |story and record |will restate a story | |Week 2 |Phonics-make words using |Phonics- syllable sort |Phonics- mapping syllables|Phonics- sorting silent |Phonics- make | | |different spelling |Fluency- practice reading |Fluency- read chunks timed|letters |R-caterpillars | | |patterns |multisyllabic words |Vocabulary- homophone |Fluency- read phrases |Fluency- practice reading | | |Fluency- quickly read high|Vocabulary- homophone |puzzle |timed |connected text | |frequency words |match |Comprehensio n- locate |Vocabulary- relate new |Vocabulary- dictionary | | |Vocabulary- homograph go |Comprehension- text |details in expository text|vocabulary to prior |cube | | |fish |feature find | |knowledge |Comprehension- cause and | | |Comprehension- write a | | |Comprehension- paraphrase |effect completion | | |summary by using prompts | | |text | | |Week 3 |Phonics- compound |Phonics- make new words by|Phonics- affix sort |Phonics- blending base |Phonics- base word find | | |construction |combining inflectional |Fluency- listen to fluency|words and affixes |Fluency- echo read with | | |Fluency- practice reading |endings |passage |Fluency- echo read with |child (The Rains) | | |with proper phrasing |Fluency- read with |Vocabulary- produce |child (A New Game) |Vocabulary- categorize | | |Vocabulary- defining |expression and intonation |multiple meaning words |Vocabulary- change the |related words | | |depictions- student |Vocabulary- record |Comprehension- fact or |overused words |Compre hension- inference | | |depicts words by drawing |information about words by|opinion game |Comprehension- identifying|innovations | | |pictures that relate to |creating vocabulary flap | |inferences | | | |the meaning |books | | | | | |Comprehension- text |Comprehension- fiction and| | | | | |structure sort |nonfiction find | | | | |Week 4 |Phonics- word-o-matic |Phonics- wild word dominos|Phonics- decoding |Phonics- read double |Phonics- hard and soft c | | |Fluency- read text from |Fluency- read short |unfamiliar words consonant words |and g sort | | |reader’s theater (Grizzly |passage with speed |Fluency- read short |Fluency- read short |Fluency- have child | | |Bear) |(Inspiration) |passage with speed |passage with speed (Peace |evaluate their reading | | |Vocabulary- compare words |Vocabulary- analogy soccer|(Backyard Monument) |and Quiet) |Vocabulary- find, discuss,| | |using 3 way Venn Diagram |Comprehension- use prior |Vocabulary- word |Vocabulary- determine |record, and define words | | |Comprehension- inquisitive|knowledge to comprehend a |substitution (replace |meaning by playing a |in a text | | |inquiries |text(relate a story to |words with one of its |context clues word game |Comprehension- evaluate | | | |students own experience) |synonyms) |Comprehension- read text |use of strategies by | | | | |Comprehension- make and |and stop to answer |having student self assess| | | | |write predictions |questions | | Reflection Week 1 During the first week of the tutoring sessions, I noticed that the child works better with the one on one attention. Stanley does have some areas that still concerned me for example, he gets very distracted easily. He needs to be in a silent area where he can concentrate on what needs to be done. Also, I decided to complete my tutoring sessions in the mid afternoon. This was the wrong thing to do. For the next few weeks of tutoring I will complete the sessions first thing in the morning therefore his brain will be mor e open to learning. For phonics we mainly worked with diphthongs. When explained the different sounds that they make, he was able to put the words together and read them quickly. Part of his problem was he didn’t understand how to break the words into syllables to read them. He did really well with the synonyms and antonyms, this does not seem to be that big of a complication for him. One assignment that we did for comprehension skills: he read the book â€Å"Ira Sleeps Over† and completed a sequence of events. This area took the longest to work through because I had to explain the different parts of the story. Next week I will plan to spend the most time working with comprehension because it seems this is where Stanley needs the most work. Overall I think that the tutoring sessions went well and I think that we both made accomplishments in the area of learning. Reflection Week 2 This was a great week for Stanley and I. I found it to better to work with him in the morning time. His attention span is a lot better during this time and he focuses more. For the Phonics lessons we focused mainly on syllables, r-controlled words and silent letter words. Stanley liked finding out how many syllables make up the different words. For vocabulary, we played with homographs and homophones. He did very well with matching the homophones, he even learned some new vocabulary terms in the process. When we reach the middle of the week he completed a homophone puzzle within five minutes with no problem. I saw that as a great improvement and it made me feel good knowing that I am helping someone. During our first and second fluency lessons, we practiced reading high frequency and multisyllabic words for speed. On an average he read 102 words per minute. When we came to practicing reading phrases and chunked texts he read about forty phrases per minute. I think that this is a big improvement from where he started. I also noticed that he is able to break the words down better to read them now that he knows what sounds the letter patterns make. The last topic comprehension is the most strenuous. On the first couple days we worked on how to determine the summary of a text. This went well for Stanley once I showed him little short cuts that he can take. Next, we worked with locating details in an expository text. This task was a little more challenging for Stanley, so I took the text down two levels and he explained the details a lot better. I noticed this also with paraphrasing a text. It seems difficult for him to explain what is going on in a text if it is boring to him. Next week I will use stories that interest him to better help him to understand it. The last day we worked with cause and effect. He was given a cause or an effect and had to give the opposite of what was given to him. For example, one effect that was given was â€Å"he was late for school. † In response Stanley said the cause could be â€Å"his bus broke down. † The cause and effect completions ran pretty smoothly. I think that a lot of work was accomplished this week in helping Stanley reach his goal. Reflection Week 3 This week during the tutoring sessions I could see a lot of improvement in Stanley. He seemed more eager to want to learn and was very exciting to know what we were going to be working with. For phonics we began with making compound words. At first he could not think of any until I named a couple, then he could not stop naming them. We also worked with prefixes and suffixes. He was amazed when he saw that one word can have a prefix and a suffix in it. For example the word disinfected has dis- as the prefix -ed as the suffix making infect the base word. He loved identifying the base words. With fluency we worked with reading with the proper phrasing and showing expression. This was a problem at first because he read with fluency but he showed no emotion. I modeled a couple of passages and he echo read with me. Once we practiced everyday he got the hang of it and was able to show more feeling when he read. Our vocabulary lessons this week were a breeze. Stanley made vocabulary flap books using words that confused him. Then he was able to change worn out words to give a better one. Instead of saying good he gave me awesome. The next day he categorized groups of words and told me what they had in common. Our last subject was working with improving his comprehension skills. He was knowledgeable about the different genres of literature. We browsed several books and he was able to recognize if it was a fiction or nonfiction book. Then we played a fact and opinion game. I could not fool Stanley he was able to tell all of the facts from the opinions. He told me that a fact has to be proven to be true and an opinion is what someone thinks. The last two days we worked on identifying inferences. He had a little trouble with this skill on the first day. It was difficult for him to tell what he thought about some of the ideas. For example, he was not sure of the job of a man who measures wood and uses a saw to cut it. But on the second day of working with inferences he did a much better job. This tells me that when someone practices they will eventually get the job done right. Both Stanley and I are looking forward to the last week of learning and to see how much of an improvement he has made. Refection Week 4 Once this week began, Stanley was very excited because he knew that it was the last week of the tutoring sessions. This week went kind of fast, I guess because Stanley was excited and also that he was catching on to the skills. In Phonics this week, we worked with recognizing words with double consonants and hard and soft c and g. We he understood the sounds that c and g made it helped him to read the words better. With fluency we read some short passages and a couple of reader’s theaters. He enjoyed reading the reader’s theaters because it gave him a chance to express his feelings and emotions. I allowed him to take the reader’s theater passages home with him. I noticed that he picked up on his reading speed and understanding what he read. Vocabulary did not take long at all he said that working with this subject was the best of all. He seems to enjoy decoding words and figuring out the meanings. He can give a better word for an overused word. The last subject was comprehension which I was worried about the most. We continued with working with inferences which he had a small problem with last week. He did a great job this week. He was able to make a inference within a minute about the topic. In the end he evaluated his comprehension skills by using the strategies that he learned over the weeks. He noticed that he can make better predictions, and identify the main idea of a selection. I think that Stanley has made a big accomplishment over the past four weeks and I will notice it on the post- test. Post-Test Results The Elementary Spelling Inventory that was re-administered to Stanley showed a great improvement. The first time it was administered he got a total of 14 words correct out of 25. When he took the test again he made an improvement by getting 17 words correct. For the most part there was improvement because with the words that were incorrect were simple spelling errors where letters were switched around. During the tutoring sessions he worked on silent letters and vowel pairs. This helped him understand why some words are spelled the way that they are. When he was given the word reading this time we went right to the sixth grade level since he was at 95% accuracy at the fifth grade level. This time he went up scoring 90% accuracy and at the independent reading level. We went up one level again to the middle school level and he read at 85% accuracy which was at the top of the instructional level. Next Stanley read the same two passages orally and one passage silently. He made a comment that he read those stories already and why does he have to read them again. This is what may have helped him because he was familiar with the stories. He made improvement reading the passages at the independent level making few errors. His comprehension improved also when answering the questions. He was able to recall many details that happened in the passages this time. He scored at the instructional level answering the questions. It was very noticeable that he did better answering the explicit than the implicit questions. This time he was making errors because he was trying to read too fast. Some of the errors he made were omitted words and pronouncing words incorrectly. When he was asked to retell a few of the stories he was able to with about 50% of the facts that happened in the passage. This was a great improvement because before the tutoring sessions began he was unable to recall any facts. This time he was given a listening comprehension assessment. The results showed that Stanley tuned out after the first paragraph. He could not remember anything that happened from the passage. This tells that he does better with comprehension when reading the story himself rather than listening to it.