Background Information: This student is a 3rd grader at Pinecrest Elementary school.

She has anxiety when reading and it affected her fluency as well as comprehension. This reading disability has taken a toll on her grades in school, the time it takes to complete assignments, and her self confidence in class. In order to make this student more comfortable I administered the reading exam at her home. This was an attempt to help the student relax and have less anxiety during the assessment. PAR Results/Summary: During the first 3rd grade passage, "Backyard Bugs", I read out loud and then asked 8 follow up questions. This student rated the reading as a 4 (I really liked it), and she answered 3 out of 8 of the questions correctly. This score has her falling in the lower end of the yellow category. The student answered the main idea, an inference, and a fact correctly. She struggled with the vocabulary and when she did not know the answer, she would start looking around the room and responding with " I don't knowthey never said that". She grew very uncomfortable when not knowing the answers to certain questions. Though she liked the story a lot, she struggled with the follow up questions.

The second passage, "Saving Big Cats", my student read aloud and then I asked her follow up questions. She rated this story a 2 (I did not like it much) and read 30 words in a minute. During the comprehension questions, she answered 3 out of 8 correct which is also at the bottom of the yellow category. This time, the student reference more of her background knowledge of animals rather than what was stated in the story. She did not finish the story, yet she answered the main idea correct as well as a fact and an inference. In many of her answers, she was hesitant and very brief by giving one or two word responses. When asked 3 of the fact questions she responded with "I don't know" or "they never said anything about that". She struggled with the small details and making connections to the bigger picture during this reading. I think that her rating was lower because she did not enjoy reading out loud and seemed stressed when doing so. The student stuttered on many words and had a few self corrections. She pronounced, "graders as gardens. She corrected herself by sounding it out and then quickly moved on. The word leopard was pronounced "liberties" and words that she didn't know at all were skipped over this included: Sumatran, endangered, and loggers. She did not attempt to sound these out but continued to read over them in the passage. She had a more difficult time overall with the reading and comprehension on this passage compared to the first one.

The final passage, "Thrifty Squirrel", was read with the PDF voice option. She voted the story a 3 (I liked it a little) and answered 4 out of 8 of the questions correct.

The student laughed at the voice throughout the story and seemed to be more focused on the "funny sound" rather than what the story was saying. She did not answer the main idea correctly and did not know the vocabulary questions. This student answered all but one fact question correctly on this passage and used the vocabulary word "hibernate "in one of her responses. She based a few of her answers on past experienced and less on what was going on in the actual story. However, she scored a 6 which is the middle of the yellow category. This was her highest scored response during the three passages. The voice was a distraction in the beginning but once getting used to it, she seemed to retain and comprehend what had happened in the story.

Recommendations based on the PAR results: This student is reading below grade level and has a hard time comprehending because she is very focused on the words. Doing partner reading may help as well as helping her slowdown in order to comprehend more She enjoyed the voice reading software after getting used to it and managed to answer most of the comprehension questions correctly when using this system. She paid attention to my fluency and prosody during reading. Having an adult read to this student will help her model this behavior in her own reading. Practicing this at home is important. Practicing reading aloud in a comfortable environment, at home and school, and working on pacing and sounding out will help this students fluency as well as her comprehension. When she had to read aloud her anxiety grew and overtook her ability to sound out words and comprehend what she was reading Using the PDF reading option can be very helpful for homework and to help the student follow along and look through the words since she answered most of the comprehension questions correctly during this passage. This student needs positive reinforcement and encouragement when reading. She often gets embarrassed or shy when she doesnt know a word and she need to establish and understanding that it is okay to sound words out. She skipped over words to avoid attempting to sound them out.

When administering the PAR, there are a few factors that may have influence this child's performance. This PAR was administered in the early morning on this child's day off school. She seemed a little tired and agitated about being up so early. This attitude may have effected her concentration and devotion to reading which, in turn, could have affected the results. Also, during the read aloud the computer had to be reset because it was not starting the reading in the right place. When reading on her own she was very jumbled and stuttered frequently, and spoke quickly and quickly. This may have been because she felt rushed this affected her comprehension, and her word count. The computerized voice was distracting for my student at first, yet by the end she was very focused on the story. Doing the PAR assessments is a good way to test how students respond to different types of testing and what works best for them. It is a great way to narrow down techniques that work and one that might not with your student. The reading accommodations that were tested were differentiated instruction that might work better for some student versus others. It is a very individualized process that helps key into the

students strengths and weaknesses. Using the PAR will help teachers and I make recommendations for their students in a way that will benefit them and their comprehension when reading. Upon completion of the PAR assessment, I noticed the strengths and weaknesses it has. The PAR is very universal in the sense that visually impaired students can use a component of the examination, it is helpful for students who are auditory learners, and it can be used for students while enjoy differentiated instruction. A weakness that I noticed is that many of the stories are about well known topics which interested the children, but had her reflect more upon background knowledge versus the content in the story. Stressing the importance of the student answering the questions based on the stories will help students focus on the content.