Case Study Case Study Synopsis Synopsis

Katelyn Dwyer Practicum - Spring 2011Dr. McLean

Philosophy of Literacy Philosophy of Literacy InstructionInstructionEvery child can learn.Modeling effective reading practices

helps learners significantly.A classroom which requires mutual

respect allows students to be vested in their education and take risks, thus making these pupils more successful learners.

Reading is a required, life-long skill – students need to realize its real-world application and importance.

Role of the Reading Role of the Reading SpecialistSpecialist• Support struggling readers through

small group and one-on-one instruction

• Assess students’ strengths, weaknesses, and needs, and design a program to improve reading skills

• Conduct lessons in the classroom and/or team-teach lessons with teachers

• Provide professional development for teachers with strategies to help struggling readers

• Support content-area teachers, helping them to assist students to excel in those classes as well

Background Information: Background Information: DavideDavide• 7th grade student• Transferred from Elizabeth this year • Limited support at home

- Mom speaks broken English- Dad speaks Portuguese

• Prior teacher was very damaging: reprimanded and criticized Davide frequently

• Lacks self-confidence as a student and reader

Background Information: Background Information: Assessments Assessments • To evaluate Davide and determine where

to begin our tutoring sessions, I implemented Ekwall-Shanker tests. Below were Davide’s results: - Oral Reading 4 – Independent 5 – Instructional 6 – Frustration - Silent Reading 3 – Independent4 and 5 – Frustration

• While Davide noticed he reads and comprehends much better orally, he said he typically reads silently.

Background Information: Tutoring Background Information: Tutoring Sessions Sessions Two thirty-minute sessions a weekSessions included the following elements:

◦Reading and Writing Rhyming Poetry

◦Word Sorts primarily using root words

◦Implementing the overt strategy

◦Repeated, Choral, and Phrase Cued Oral Reading

◦Creating and Answering Thin and Thick questions

◦“Say Something” – making thinking visible

Guiding Theories and Guiding Theories and Research Research • Vygotsky – Through scaffolding, Davide has

improved as a reader and also become a more independent learner

• Rasinski – Using phrase cued texts allow Davide to become more comfortable and accustomed to phrasing and creating natural pauses, thus helping with comprehension

• Kuhn and Stahl – By having Davide repeat chunks of text, it improved his reading rate, accuracy, prosody, and confidence

• Archer, Gleason, and Vachon – Introducing and implementing the overt (and covert) strategy helps Davide to decode unfamiliar, multisyllabic words, allowing him to focus more on the meaning of the text than unfamiliar words

DiscussionDiscussionI reassessed Davide using the

Ekwall-Shanker assessment. Below are Davide’s results:

Oral Reading 4 – Independent7 – Instructional 8 – Frustration

Silent Reading 4 – Independent 6 – Instructional 7 – Frustration

Strengths and Strengths and Weaknesses Weaknesses Strengths

◦Great Work Ethic ◦Excellent Sight Vocabulary ◦Drive to Learn and Improve ◦Pronunciation of one to three syllable

words ◦Accuracy

Weaknesses ◦Natural Pauses ◦Prosody, particularly with non-fiction texts ◦Still using overt (versus covert) strategy

to decode words of four or more syllables

ImprovementsImprovementsReads fiction with much more

fluency and inflectionUses root words and known words

to decode unknown words Improved fluency overallAfter phrase cued readings, his

natural pauses are improvingWith better phrasing, his

comprehension has also improved

Significance Significance Davide’s progress was severely

impeded by the judgmental, critical comments of previous teachers

With encouragement and compliments, Davide’s self-confidence has grown and helped him to become a more capable reader

Repeated and phrase cued readings have improved Davide’s fluency and comprehension

Recommendations Recommendations • As I am Davide’s reading and writing

teacher, I will continue to work with him.• We will focus on:

- Repeated Readings

- Teacher model of fluent reading

- Phrase cued Reading to improve natural, unpunctuated phrasing

- Using the overt and covert strategy to decode unfamiliar words

- Word sorts, particularly with root words