Marian Stauder 

1. K is a 4th grader with autism. He spends most of his day in a general education classroom but

is pulled out for reading and math.

2. Skill: reading comprehension

3. While K can decode well and read all the words in a passage, he struggles with answeringquestions about what he has read. He especially has trouble with “Who?” and “Why?” questions.

According to his teacher, when presented with a “who” question, K gives the name of a thing

instead of a person. When presented with a “why” question, K may give an answer, but it doesnot answer the question.

4.

What? Why? Source

What are the typicalcomprehension

abilities of a 4th

grader?

To see what K’s level is compared to students hisage.

Special EdTeacher 

Answer:

How is passage for 

comprehension

 presented?

(orally/silently,teacher/student)

To see whether K struggles with comprehending

written word, spoken word, or both.

Special ed.

teacher,

observation

Answer: The student reads it out loud.

How arecomprehension

questions presented?

(orally/silently,

teacher/student)

To see whether K struggles with comprehendingwritten word, spoken word, or both.

Special ed.teacher,

observation

Answer: The teacher orally presents the student with a question.

What is K’s current

reading level?

To better understand K’s current level of 

 performance.

Special Ed

teacher 

Answer: DRA 3

What is the average

reading level for 

To see the gap between K and his classmates. DRA, online

Answer: DRA 40

 

Marian Stauder 

5.

What? Why? Source

What questions can K 

answer about a story?What is incorrect about his

answers?

To see what K can comprehend and what

areas need more attention.To pinpoint what about the story K 

understands and to better understand his

comprehension process.

Collecting

data

Procedures:

1. Select a previously unseen book at K’s instructional comprehension reading level.2. Instruct him to read part of it out loud, usually a page at a time.

3. Orally ask him questions about what he has read (one Who and one What)

4. K answers orally.5. Document the questions and K’s answers, and make a note of which questions

were correct and incorrect.

Results:

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Se s. 1 Se s. 2 Se s. 3

Who

What

2 = +, 1 = -

Session 1 2 3

Who Question Who read when Jack read?

Who reads to thegirl in the story?

Who else was in thestory (Besides Lucy)?

Who Answer “Ate the sandwich”

(correct: Lily)

 Nighttime

(correct answer:

her dad)

“Lucy did it”

(correct answer: the

dog)

Score: - - -

What

Question

What did Lily do

when Jack ate?

What is one thing

that happens atnighttime?

What was one of the

things that Lucy did inthe story?

What Answer Sandwich (correct:

she ate)

Bats (bats flying) Rip (Ripped a book)

Score: - + +

 

Marian Stauder 

Answer: K can usually answer “What” questions about a story, but he cannot answer 

“Who” questions. All “What” questions featured the correct type of response, but

6. K has the most trouble with “Who” questions. Since he can provide acceptable answers to

“What” questions, I don’t think his problem is remembering the story or what happened. The factthat his “Who” answers weren’t the correct format (nouns, specifically characters in the story)

suggests that he doesn’t understand what the word “who” means when it’s used to begin a

question. Knowing this, I will most likely start with focusing on what “who” means when

instructing K, then moving on to increasingly complex questions.

7. After reading a DRA-3 book, K will correctly answer 100% of “Who?” and “What?”

questions orally on five consecutive occasions.

8. Being able to answer “Who” and “What” questions will enable K to have a better 

understanding of what he reads. These improved reading comprehension skills will benefit himnot only in reading class, but in all subjects. K will also be able to communicate better in social

and other non-academic situations because of this skill.