READING

PRACTICUM CASE STUDY

SPRING 2014
Students Name: Jason

School: Twin Pines Elementary

Age: 6.10
Grade: 1

Evaluators Name: Nicole Logozzo

Position: Graduate Student Literacy/Cognition

Date of Assessment(s):2/21

Dates of Reassessment: 4/29

A. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
I.

II.

PREVIOUS EDUCATIONAL HISTORY:

Jason is a first grader who struggles with decoding. He reads choppy with little to no
intonation. He has not been tested for a LD, but receives extra assistance from his
classroom teacher. There has been discussion about testing in the future. His mother does
not seem to like the idea of testing. Jasons mother speaks to the teacher on the telephone
quite often. They have parent conferences about every three months. Jason is on grade
level in mathematics. His teacher fears that as Jason gets older if his reading remains
stagnant it will affect other subjects.

HEALTH INFORMATION:
Jason does not have any health issues. He is active. He plays baseball, football, and
basketball. He gets colds often probably from living with many family members and
having cousins visit almost daily.

III.

IV.

FAMILY BACKGROUND:
Jason lives in an apartment at his grandparents house with his parents and older sister.
His sister is thirteen years-old. He also lives with his extended family. In the home are his
grandparents, two aunts, one great-aunt, great-grandmother, and cousins. Jason lives with
his two aunts who are thirteen and twenty-one years old. He also has two uncles who have
children of their own who visit the house multiple times per week. In addition, Jason has
multiple aunts, uncles and cousins from his father's side of the family who he visits often.
Jason's entire family has attended Brentwood School District.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
Jason speaks maturely for his age. Since there are a lot of people in his home, he knows
about a lot of different subjects and carries a conversation well. He can be shy and
becomes bored quickly. When spoken to, Jason wants to be treated maturely. He told me I
was talking to him "like a baby". His initial response to many questions is "I don't know".
In most cases I can get more of a response from him, but I had to ask him multiple times.
Most of the students in his classroom are Spanish speaking. Jason is aware that there is a
difference between himself and his classmates. However, that "difference" is what he
understands as "normal". He loves his teacher and also liked his kindergarten teacher.

Jason does not utilize context clues when reading. He has great difficulty recognizing sight
words and high frequency words. His decoding is affecting his reading comprehension.
Currently Jasons reading comprehension is not below grade level, but as the text
complexity increases it is likely he will fall behind.
B. READING ASSESSMENTS
1 . Reading Interests, and Reading Behaviors
READING COMPONENT
Reading Interest Inventory

DATE Summary of Results

Reading Behaviors Checklist

2/8/14 Jason likes cars, animals, and football. He likes people to

read to him, to read silently, or alone.

2/9/14 Jason seems to u se most of the strategies before, during,

and after reading. He does not use the summary on the
back of a book to choose one he might enjoy. Author's
purpose is a component of reading that was unfamiliar
to him. Jason never reads headings or bold print words.
This is not an issue since he is only in first grade, but this
must be a habit that is formed within the next few years.
Nonfiction text features must be emphasized to Jason as
he progresses. Also, Jason never thinks about what he
already knows about the topic before reading. It would
be helpful to him to introduce KWL charts, anticipation
guides, or something of a similar nature.
Jason sometimes uses pictures, charts, and graphs to
help him understand what he is reading. I have observed
that Jason always uses the illustrations or pictures to
assist his reading. However, he is not accustomed to
using charts or graphs when reading.
Jason said he always uses context clues, stops to check if
he understands what he is reading, and re-reads parts of
the story that are confusing to him. My observations
have shown that this is not accurate. Jason rarely uses
context clues and never wants to re-read. Even when I
prompt Jason to re-read a sentence, he battles me on it.
Jason treats reading as a task to finish. Asking Jason
metacognition questions is good practice for him to self-
reflect. However, his perceptions are quite different
from his actions.

2. RESULTS OF ASSESSMENT:
Assessment Given - name
and level

Dates Given Results

and Analysis

Word
Identification

2/21/14

Graded Word Lists: BADER

Graded
Word List:

Independent: PP

Instructional: ND

Frustration: P

Analysis: Jason did well on the preprimer level. He does

not know his basic sight words. It is detrimental to his
performance that he struggles with high frequency words.
Jason became physically frustrated when he did not
recognize common words. He is aware that he is behind his
peers at school. When moving on to the primer level it
seemed as if Jason had checked out. He did not know many
of the words and it is not determined if he truthfully did not
know the words or if he worked himself up so much that he
could not focus. Once we got to the first grade level Jason
told me he is "not good at reading many words". I felt like at
that point he had given up. He did not attempt to sound out
most of the words. Jason also hesitated a lot during the
graded word lists. Additionally, Jason self-corrected himself
a few times. Most of the words Jason misread looked similar
to the word he said.
Vocabulary: CRITCHLOW

3/20/14

13/75= 17.3%
Grade 2 Equivalence
Jason did well with the vocabulary assessment. He was
relieved when he discovered he did not have to read the
words himself. Jason began very quickly saying antonyms.
Then, started to get caught up. His first error was brother he
said "father". It took him about 15 seconds to arrive at that
answer. After this error he appeared nervous and weary. It
took Jason longer with each response, even a few words that
I was confident Jason knew he overthought. For crooked he
said "I don't know". I am not positive that he knew what the
word crooked meant. However, once he started saying "I
don't know" it became his go to response. A few of the
responses he got correct he initially said "I don't know"
before responding.

Comprehension: PASSAGES

Graded Word Lists:

FROM BADER

2/28/14

Independent (0-1 errors) P

Instructional (2 errors) 1

Frustration (more than 2 errors) 2

Analysis:

Jasons comprehension was very high at the preprimer level

then decreased at the primer level. Jason jumped down to
frustration at level 2. His comprehension is not perfect, but
doesn't seem very far below the appropriate level to me. I
feel most of his struggles are with his oral reading decoding
and fluency. When Jason reads it does not sound fluent, but
he seems to grasp comprehension of the text. Typically when
students read choppy it inhibits their comprehension. I have
noticed that Jason can recall some thin questions (basic
right there questions), but has trouble using clues to make
an inference (ex. What did the flower shop give tony? Peace
and quiet). Also, often before answering a comprehension
question Jason would tell me he doesn't know or doesn't
remember. Then after some time he would answer the
question. He doubts himself, which might affect his school
performance.

2/28/14

Oral Reading Passages:

Independent: Primer 87.5%

Instructional: Level 1 77.8%

Frustration: Level 2 54.5%

Analysis:
I began the reading passages with Jason at the preprimer
level. He made no errors and had great comprehension.
Therefore, I moved on with him to the primer level. At this
level he had two miscues and read in phrases. His reading
was slow, but not choppy. Jason did not pause between each
word. Once moving on to grade 1 level Jason had five
miscues. He began reading word by word, inserting a pause
between words to sound it out. Jason did not use the
"tapping out method", instead he just slowly said the sounds
of the word. We continued reading until the second grade
level, which was at frustration level for Jason. He made nine
miscues, five of which were substitutions. The majority of
those substitutions were of a high graphonic level.
Throughout all of the passages Jason lacked intonation and
pitch. Sight words also most a problem for Jason because he

tries to sound out words that are not decodable. Also, when
Jason is stuck on a word he becomes frustrated and wants to
rush through the remainder of the reading.
Silent Reading Passages

3/12/14










3/12/14

Independent: Primer 85.7%

Instructional: Level 1 77.8%

Frustration: Level 2 45.4%

Analysis: Jason told me he prefers silent reading to reading

aloud. I noticed that some of the comprehension details that
lacked were across the board oral, silent, and listening.
When we reached Jason's frustration level he said "I don't
know for a lot of the comprehension questions. He also said
"I don't know" when I asked him to retell the story to me.
Eventually I got a response out of him, but he seemed
checked out by that time. When Jason reads silently he reads
much quicker and skims over the words that he does not
know. Since he does not know many words, Jasons
comprehension is inhibited.
Listening

Instructional: Level 2 82%

Frustration: Level 3 50%

Analysis: Jason scored well on the listening passage. He

received an 82%. After this passage he jumped down to his
frustration receiving a 50%. When listening to me read
Jason kept putting his head down. I read the passage a
second time and asked him to sit up. He said that listening to
me read was "easy" and that his teacher reads to him all the
time.

4/29/14

Reassessment: Independent: Primer 87.5%

Instructional: 1 77.8%
Frustration: 2 37.5%
Analysis: Jason has remained the same since our first
session. I feel at times the assessments are not an adequate
depiction of his abilities because some days he is very tired
and does not want to sit and read. Jasons confidence has
increased and he is more eager to work.

Fluency: PASSAGES FROM

BADER AND GENERAL ORAL
READING

Analysis: Jason read fluently in the beginning. His reading
became choppier as he read further. Jason seemed to lack
reading stamina. He was easily distracted from the reading.
Jason had trouble decoding; he would break the word into
parts slowly. Often I felt that he knew the word, but doubted
himself. I would prompt him to go ahead and say it and he
would right away. A lot of the words he stumbled on he
would read as a similar word, but not the correct word.
Jason spent a lot of time trying to sound out words. He tried
to sound out sight words which are not decodable. When he
could not figure out the word he would become frustrated.
While reading, if there was anything going on in the
background it would distract Jason from his reading and de
would ask me about it (television or another conversation)
then it was very difficult for him to get the flow of the
reading back. Once I noticed this trait I made sure for other
readings that we were alone and it was silent. Also, Jason did
not acknowledge that a period is a time to pause and take a
breath. He would read straight through the period and then
need to take a break in the middle of the sentence. This
wasn't that noticeable because his reading was choppy and
there were a lot of chances for him to breathe. Jason's
reading was monotone and showed little to know reflection
of the emotion of the characters.
Words Per Minute: 35 words
Grade Level Equivalence: 1
Analysis: Jason reads slowly because it takes him time to
break down words. As he builds upon his sight word
vocabulary his pace seems to be picking up, which is
increasing his enthusiasm to read aloud.

Writing: RUBRIC

4/21/14

Scores: MEANING- 3 DEVELOPMENT- 3

ORGANIZATION- 2 LANGUAGE- 2
MECHANICS- 3
Analysis: Jason completed a writing assignment about a boy
walking into school. He is able to stay on task when given an
assignment. Jason told me about his teacher and about his
friends in his class. Jason incorporated good ideas, but they
were in a choppy order. His writing is very coherent, but
needs editing. Jason began with talking about his teacher
and his gym teacher. Then, Jason went back to writing about
his bus ride to school. Then, he went back to writing about

his teacher again. Jason wrote about games he plays on the

playground with his friends. He did not use any transition
words and began almost every sentence with the word "I".
He spelt most of the words correctly, however repeated the
same words many times. Some of the words he spelt either
correctly or close to correctly are words that he has great
difficulty decoding, which surprised me. Jason demonstrated
understanding of where to used capitalization, but had run-
on sentences. Jason had trouble separating ideas into one
sentence and marking them with a period. He explored
multiple ideas in one sentence.
Overall Score: 13/20 =2.6
Phonics Test- BADER, page 3/2/14
101

Analysis: Jason knew his Initial Single Consonants. He

hesitated on letter g. For Consonant Blends, Jason missed
eight out of twenty-three incorrect. For cl, gl, and sc Jason
said "I don't know". For sk, he said that he knows the s sound
and the k sounds, but when he combined them he said sg.
When making the sw and tw sounds he said "suh" and "tuh".
When creating the scr and str sounds, Jason illuminated the
c and said "sr" for both. When we tried Consonant Digraphs
Jason got two correct, sh and ch. For ph, th, and wh Jason
became frustrated. We stopped there and took a break.
Jason knew most of the nonsense words in the Short-Vowel
Sounds section. For fup he said "foop". Then for Long Vowels-
Silent e Ending he had difficulty with fote, fete, and fute. Jason
got fote correct, but it took him multiple tries and he was
still unsure if he was correct. It seemed like he was guessing.
For fete he said "fet-e" and for fute he said "foot". Then I we
worked on Long Vowels-Double Vowel Combinations. Jason
could not get these sounds. He was very confused. Jason and
I sat together and went over the sounds. Using the
tedistiscope, we practiced the sounds together.
Initial Single Consonants- 18/18 100%
Consonant Blends- 15/23 65.2%
Consonant Digraphs- 2/5 40%

C. REMEDIATION PLAN AND GOALS

List goals during Practicum and plan of action
READING COMPONENT

GOAL

Phonemic Awareness (If N/A

REMEDIATION PLAN

applicable)
Word Identification

Jason will be able to

Jason will practice automatic
recognize Dolch Dight words
recognition of sight words using
multiple forms of sight word games.
for first grade with 80%
accuracy.
Jason will read and reread stories
which contain many sight words.
Word Walls will be utilized
consistently for Jason. All the words
on the word walls will be put on an
index card for reinforcement as well.

Comprehension

Jason will answer grade one

comprehension questions
with 90% accuracy.
Jason will respond to
questions with more
confidence, avoiding "I don't
know" as an answer.

Jason will practice identifying the

main idea of a short passage. He will
also practice recognizing the main
elements of a story (characters,
setting, plot).
Jason will use cards to place events of
a story in sequential order.
Jason will use a comprehension glove
to help him identify parts of a story.

Vocabulary

Jason will increase his

vocabulary by five words.
Jason will use context clues
to recognize unfamiliar
words.

Fluency

Jason will pause at periods.

Jason will recognize one
emotion or feeling in a text
and demonstrate it through
intonation.

Phonics

Jason will increase his sight

word vocabulary by 80% to
help reading flow easier.
Jason will read consonant
blends with 80% accuracy.

Jason will create a personal

vocabulary word wall that he can
refer to throughout the year.
Vocabulary games should also be used
as vocabulary reinforcement.
Jason will first clap every time he gets
to a period in a text. Then, he will
begin taking an exaggerated breath at
each period. Jason will increase his
sight word vocabulary using his
personalized word wall, games, and
flashcards.

Jason will use Fundation letter tiles to

form consonant blends and construct
words which contain consonant
blends. Jason will hear a blended
sound and write the letters on a

whiteboard.
Writing

Attitude/ motivation

Jason will separate ideas into Jason will practice sequencing events
using sentence strips.
separate sentences, beginning
with a capital letter and
Jason will be given an index card with
ending with a period. Jason
multiple transition words to keep on
will incorporate at least three
the corner of his desk as a reminder
transition words when
to utilize them when writing.
recalling a sequence of events
and place them in sequential
order.
Jason will respond to prompts To increase Jason's motivation text
with more confidence and
choices should reflect his interest in
less "I don't know" responses.
sports and animals.
Jason will keep his head up
For each one hour session Jason
during a one hour lesson.
should be given a check for every
fifteen minutes that he sits upright in
his chair. After four stickers, Jason
should earn time on the iPad. Time
can be increased as he sits up longer
without need for reinforcement.

D. RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommended activities and strategies to be done at home and in the classroom.
READING COMPONENT

CLASSROOM

Attitude/ interest/
motivation

Jason loves using technology.

Jason should utilize computer games
Computer games and activities to help him practice skills taught in
are very stimulating for him. He school.
also works well with e-books.

Phonemic Awareness (If N/A

applicable)
Word Identification

HOME

Jason will read and re-read

Jason should practice his sight words
stories that target sight word
word wheels at home. Jason can also
instruction. Jason will practice play sight word games at home which
writing sight words in sentences. are enjoyable and effective. There are
Jason will practice identifying sight words songs found on-line
sight words by touching the
which reinforce Jason's automatic
word (similar to the Edmark
word identification using his auditory
reading program). Jason will
skills. Personalized sight words
form sight words using
poster should be hung on Jason's wall
Fundations letter tiles.
at home as a constant reminder of the
words.
*Sight word Word Wall will also

be in Jason's view for constant

reinforcement.
Vocabulary

Jason will create a vocabulary Vocabulary matching games would be

personal word wall in a one inch helpful for Jason. On-line games
binder. As the school year
would be engaging and reinforce
vocabulary.
progresses, Jason will add
synonyms and antonyms to the
binder creating a book for him
to refer to.

Fluency

Jason will enhance his sight

Jason should read aloud either to a
word vocabulary by being
family member or to himself at least
exposed to multiple methods for one book per night. Rereading the
teaching sight words. Jason will same text will also increase Jasons
practice pausing and taking a
fluency and confidence. Sight word
breath at each period, beginning practice should be incorporated at
by clapping at each period. Then, home daily through the use of games
Jason will take an exaggerated and flash cards.
breath at each period until it
becomes a natural tendency for
him.
Part of Jason's classroom fluency
instruction will include Readers'
Theater with a heterogeneous
group of students. This will
allow for rereading of a text and
an increase is reading
confidence and stamina.

Comprehension

Jason will be given stickers, a

Jason will use his stickers while
star which represents an
reading at home. While reading to a
important idea, a heart which
family member at home Jason should
represents a part that he enjoys, take on the role of a teacher and ask
a laughing face which represents questions, summarize, and make
a funny thought, and a sad face predictions. He can teach the book to
which represents something that a family member. This can be merged
makes him feel sad or angry. He into the classroom as well.
will place these stickers in books
as he reads.
Jason will fill in an organizer
which separates facts from a
story that he already knows and
what he can infer from those
facts. The organizer will help
him discover that not all of the

information in the text is written

for him.
Writing

Jason will practice sequencing Jason will write a journal entry or a

using sentence strips. He will
letter to a parent explaining what he
also have transition words to
did in school that day. In this writing
refer to on his desk as a
piece Jason will practice sequencing
reminder to incorporate them and incorporating transition words.
into his writing. Jason will
Cloze writing activities can be used at
complete cloze writing activities, home as well.
which he needs to fill in
transition words.

Phonics

Jason will practice forming

consonant blends using
Fundations letter tiles.

Jason will use consonant blend

flashcards at home.

FINAL
SUMMARY:

Jason is a clever student who is unsure of himself. He struggles decoding words and lacks
quick sight word recognition. However, Jason has an abundance of well thought out ideas when
writing and speaking. Jason's comprehension is affected by his need to break apart most words. At his
current level his comprehension is not far behind his grade level, but as the years progress it is likely
comprehension will become a problem. Jasons reading is not fluent. It is choppy and slow. Since
Jason is aware that his reading is slow, the length of a text intimidates him. Jason's confidence has
been increasing as he practices his sight words more often. It is clear that Jason feels more secure
with himself when he approaches a sight word that he knows automatically. From our first session to
our last it is clear that Jason is more eager to try to read unfamiliar texts. Jason appears proud of the
amount of word cards he has added to his personal sight word collection. Initially, Jason would
respond "I don't know" to questions that he likely would know the answer to. The more his confidence
increases the less he says, "I don't know". Jason should continue to practice sight words and high
frequency word recognition to avoid regression and keep building upon his fluency and reading
confidence. Games on the laptop and iPad are great motivators for Jason and should be utilized as
much as possible. As Jason becomes a more fluent reader the emphasis should shift more heavily to
reading comprehension. Jason should practice putting sticky notes on pages that he struggles with.
Rereading texts will also enhance both Jasons fluency and reading comprehension. In addition, the
more Jason rereads the same text the more confident he will feel with that text.
Respectfully submitted,

Nicole Logozzo