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Alyssa Margulis

Informal assessment 1- Diana Krandel

10/23/11

The student being assessed is S. S is a fourth grade student at Lincoln Trail ElementarySchool in Mahomet Illinois. S is in a resource special education classroom for all of his

reading instruction. S has been in special education since 1stgrade, and is labeled with the

disability of Specific Learning Disability.

The skill being assessed for s is: decoding of one-syllable words.

S is a fourth grade student who likes to make the other student in the class laugh. He is a

boy who enjoys engaging in conversation with the teacher as well as the other students. Shas difficulty with decoding one-syllable words, which affects his ability to be able to read

books that are at his grade level. He uses the Wilson Reading Program in his resourceroom as a very targeted intervention program. The words given to him during his decodingpractice are those that are being decoded by the typically developing first grader. His

biggest difficulties seem to include decoding words that end in the letters of b, p, d,and q. He also has the tendency to speed up his decoding at the end of the list, which

causes him to increase his mistakes.

What? Why? Source

At what level is S currently

using in the Wilson ReadingProgram system?

So I can pick words that S

can decode that are at hisinstructional level.

Special Education teacher-

Pam Aubry

Answer: At this point, S is using the First level of the Wilson Reading Program. This mainly

deals with initially blending sounds together, and being able to indentify single lettersounds as well as some welded sounds such as ch ing and ck

What? Why? Source

Are there any environmentalfactors that influence Ss

ability to decode words

To make sure theenvironment is accurately

set up for the best and most

accurate results of Ss abilityto decode words

A quick observation of theenvironment or asking S

himself.

Answer: S prefers to decode his words at a back table away from his peers, but still in the

same classroom.

What? Why? Source

Can S accurately read and

identify the sounds theletters make in isolation

(including the b, p, q

If S cannot identify these

sounds in isolation, it will bevery hard to correctly

decode these letters in

Special education teacher, as

well as simple, one timeflashcard quiz.

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and d words.

Answer: Yes, S can correctly identify all letter sounds. He can say the name of the letter,what sound it makes, and use it in a word.

Area: Decoding one syllable words

What? Why? Source

Are there any patterns in the

types of decoding mistakes Smakes?

By figuring out the patterns

S is making, the teacher willmore easily be able to

develop an instructionalprogram, which targets

which letters/sounds are

most difficult.

Event recording or the

mistakes S is making,analyzing the patterns.

Answer: S follows two patterns when he is decoding words. The first pattern that is noticedwith Ss decoding is that he switches up his lowercase p, b, q and d all

interchangeably when the word ends or begins with those letters. The second pattern onecan see is that S will commonly misread and mispronounce the vowel sound in the one-

syllable words.

What? Why? Source

Was S able to decode non-sense words at a lower rate

than real words?

As a teacher, it is importantto know if the student is

truly decoding the words, orif he using his memory/

sight recognition to read thewords as opposed to actuallydecode them.

Add both real and nonsensewords to see if S has more

trouble with them.

S was able to decode 100% of the real words. All mistakes that were made on all three days

of the assessment was on the nonsense words. This shows that he is using his ability torecognize words his high frequency words while reading but that he is still lacking the

ability to truly decode all one-syllable words.

Procedures being used to test for decoding:

1.)Find words out of the Wilson Reading Program that end with a lowercase p, d, b, andq.

2.)Because the student is used to the structure of the Wilson Reading Program, makethe layout the same. This will give him the best opportunity to correctly decode the

word.

3.)Take 15 of the words found in Wilson reading. Type the words into 3 separatecolumns. There will be five words going down, and three words across. There

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should be about 3 inches of space in between each column.

4.)Print out two copies of this, one will be a teachers copy, the other will be for thestudent

5.)Tape the teachers copy into a folder or a spiral so the student will not be able to seeit. The teacher will use this copy to record the mistakes being made.

6.)Give the student the copy of the words typed up.7.)Tell the student you would like him to read the words. The student should beinstructed to start with the word in the top left hand corner of the page, and should

read going down. They will then move on to the next column, and read that all the

way down. They should do this one time, until all the words on the page are read.8.)As the student is reading the words, the teacher will be listening for the mistakes

being made. The teacher must go with the first word said. If a self-correction is

made, that can be marked down with a (sc) next to it. It should still be marked asincorrect.

9.)The proper procedure for incorrect answers is: draw a line right underneath theword. The teacher then records the error made directly underneath the word. The

teacher should write down the word that was said instead of the word written. Theyshould NOT simply write down the letter that was changed.

10.After the student is done, they should be reinforced for their efforts.

Note** If the student is not loud enough, or the teacher is not sure what they said, they

MAY ask for the student to repeat the word. Make sure to say the statement of Can youplease tell me what this word (points to word) is? I was not able to hear you

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Decoding Ability

Decoding Ability

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When looking at the above graph, we are able to see the baseline of Ss decoding abilities.

We can see that out of fifteen words (real and nonsense), he was able to read 10, 10, and 9words correctly. When looking at the error sheets (as provided at the end of the

assessment) we are able to see that all but one error that s makes follow two clear anddistinct patterns. S consistently reverses his lowercase p, b, d, and q interchangeably, andalso mispronounces the vowel in words. By looking at these sheets, we get a clear picture

that although S is in the fourth grade; he is still having difficulties in the decoding of one-

syllable words that have the letters p, b, d, and q in them. After watching s, I think it is clearthat he needs to consistently be reminded to watch his vowel sounds as well as working

more on using the letters b. d. q, and p in his daily classroom activities. It was also observedthat S has a tendency to speed through saying his words, thinking that faster is better. A

teacher may introduce a method to help him slow down while reading his words, such as

using a piece of paper to cover up the other words and having S move the paper as he isreading and decoding his words.

After the instructional plan is put into place the Instructional Objective I hope to achieve is:

When given a one-syllable word in isolation or in a simple sentence, S will be able tocorrectly decode the word and say it out loud clearly distinguishing between the different

sounds of lowercase b, p, d, and q.

I think teaching S how to correctly decode a one syllable word is important because he will

build off of this to be able to read multi syllable words. When he is reading now, his readingis slow and chopping, often with him pausing to remember the sound of specific letters. By

teaching him how to better distinguish between the letters more rapidly, he will be able to

gain a more independence and confidence when reading.