Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 1

Assessment Data
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 2

Assessment and Rationale

Lentil McCloskey attended this Hamakua elementary school for his​ Kindergarten year

and was evaluated as an English Language Learner (WIDA Level 1)​. He transferred for first

grade, and returned in 2nd grade. Although I did not gain access to his most current WIDA

evaluation, ​Lentil was selected for this intervention based on the scores from his i-Ready and

STAR diagnostics, both of which score well-below beginning 2nd grade targets​. The Dynamic

Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Benchmark (DIBELS 8) Grade 1 is applicable as an

initial assessment for Lentil because of its reputation for validity in measuring early literacy

skills (Goffreda & DiPerna, 2010, p. 476-7), its brevity, and its “ability to assess global skill

growth over time” (Hintz, Christ & Methe, 2006, as cited in Goffreda & DiPerna, 2010). While

this assessor started on September 20, 2018 with the Grade 2 DIBELS 8 version and Lentil

completed the Nonsense Word Fluency measure in this benchmark, he was unable to complete
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the Oral Reading Fluency (ORF); consequently, the Grade 1 Benchmark was substituted, as is

suggested in the Iris Center​ ​module, ​Classroom Assessment (Part 1):​ ​An Introduction to

Monitoring Academic Achievement in the Classroom.​ ​Each of the one minute assessments on

the Grade 1 Benchmark, Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF),

Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), and Word Reading Fluency (WRF) enabled the assessor to

narrow down Lentil’s area of challenge to the most primary: basic alphabetic knowledge.

The two assessments that are the subject of this case study report are 1) the LNF, an

assessment that measures basic alphabetic knowledge by requiring the subject to name as many

upper and lowercase letters as possible in one minute; and 2) the NWF, an assessment that

measures “the alphabetic principle, including alphabetic understanding and phonological

recording” (Goffreda & DiPerna, 2010, p. 464). In the NWF, the subject is presented with a list

of VC and CVC nonwords and is challenged to read as many as they can in one minute. Here,

the subject must apply known phonetic rules to decode. Both measures were chosen for

intervention focus because the skills assessed are intertwined in this student: the letters he has the

most difficulty naming correlate to those consonants for which he experiences challenges in

differentiating the sounds (v and f, g and j, m and n, d and t), or are those whose sounds do not

reflect the letter names (y, q, g).

Intervention

The interventions selected for targeting letter naming were the mnemonic principle and

independent practice with drills and games.​ Mnemonic strategies “rely on both verbal and

imagery components to support recall” (Brigham & Brigham, 2001). ​In Lentil’s case, the

memory strategies linked pictures, songs (Ford), and hand movements to letters’ names and
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 4

sounds (Appendix, figures 1 & 2). These strategies gave Lentil support in creating associations

that enabled him to recall letter names and sounds more fluidly. Brigham & Brigham note in

their Current Practice Alert on mnemonic strategies that the research in special education

literature indicates strong gains for students taught using this technique; however, they also

cautioned that, at the time of the alert’s publication, little research on the impact of mnemonic

instruction with “culturally and ethnically diverse students” (Brigham & Brigham, 2001) had

been made. As the mnemonic devices that taught to Lentil were simple and devised specifically

to support him at his current level of English proficiency, there was little possibility of confusion

or disconnect due to culture or ethnic diversity.

Because Lentil attended intervention individually, the independent part of his practice

was less independent than it would have been in a less intensive environment. ​ The selection of

independent practice with drills and games allowed for engaging repeated exposure to letter

names. Although Lentil is in second grade, his experience in kindergarten - where this type of

repetition is typically built in - was focused more on learning the English language and less on

early literacy activities. Now that his language proficiency has increased, reteaching by

re-emphasizing the building blocks of reading - basic alphabetic principle - will hopefully assist

him to get on a more consistent track toward meeting literacy goals.

The drill and practice activities could not be computer-based because there was no

student computer available in our work space, but a beat-the-clock type activity with graphing

was fun and motivational for Lentil. After reviewing Lentil’s challenging letters and our

mnemonics, the FlySMACK drill was a good break activity. FlySMACK involves the teacher

placing between seven and nine mixed upper and lowercase letter letters on the desk and setting
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 5

up the timer for 30 seconds. Lentil, holding a flyswatter, placed himself in front of the letters

and when the timer began and letters were called out, Lentil was tasked with smacking the

correct letter. The teacher tallied the number of correct identification, and we graphed the results

(Appendix, Figure 3). ​Slides and Ladders ​(Powell) and ​Pass the Pigs​ (Moffat, 1992) were two

other games that were altered to support Lentil’s naming letters practice once he became more

automatic. As suggested in The IRIS Center STAR sheet ​Early Reading Independent Practice​,

before Lentil took his turn, he was “required to complete an academic task” (Sayeski, Paulson, &

the IRIS Center, 2003); in this case, he needed to name the letter and vocalize its sound.

The importance of focusing on letter-sound associations for a student with challenges in

early reading skills can significantly impact their future ability to decode new words (Adams &

Henry, 1997; Alber-Morgan, Joseph, Kanotz, Rouse, & Sawyer, 2016). To further support

Lentil’s understanding of the alphabetic principle, stretched segmenting (O’Connor, 2014,

Chapter 2) while working with Elkonin boxes in the Balanced Literacy Diet’s “Park Those

Sounds” and Reading Rockets’ Phonics Intervention Strategy (which requires writing the letters

while segmenting) encouraged Lentil’s transfer of his awareness of hearing phonemes and their

sequence to replacing simple phonemes with their orthographic representations. These activities

with “connected word boxes provide[d] a visual supportive structure to help [the student] make

one to one correspondences with letters and sounds” (Alber-Morgan et al., 2016, p. 23), a key

concept in the decoding and spelling of words.

Tutoring Log

Log 1

This week was the first time working with Lentil, and although he recognized me from
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when I taught his big sister when he was in kindergarten, we needed to talk story and get to know

each other. Lentil is a trusting soul with a big smile, and he was willing to answer my questions

about his literacy; he told me that reading just “makes his whole body tired,” but that he likes to

listen to stories when other people read to him. While Lentil was good natured about the

assessments, he spent some time fiddling with items on the table before we could get down to

work. He deflated and made a frustrated noise when he saw the student page of the 2nd grade

DIBELS Benchmark (the NWF), and I had to encourage him to keep up his spirits and try. It

was good that I brought a book from home with terrific illustrations - Lentil agreed to keep

working with the incentive that we would read together at the end of our sessions. Giving him a

time countdown helped, and at reading time he cuddled in, completely engaged with

McCloskey’s illustrations and story about Lentil and his harmonica.

Log 2

Lentil greets me each day with a hug and enthusiastically participates in singing ​Shake It!

(Ford) to help remind him of short vowel sounds. When asked, he will describe what we did the

session before and he asks if I have remembered to bring the book we are reading. Based on

analysis of the results of the DIBELS 1st Grade Benchmark LNF, PSF, and NWF, we worked on

naming letters of the alphabet and hearing the difference between /t/ and /th/. Lentil was bashful,

but had fun, using the mirror to see how his mouth shaped the two sounds (Castiglione-Spalton

& Ehri, 2003, as cited in O’Connor, 2014, Chapter 2), and his ability to to distinguish between

the sounds quickly improved. Seeing his own progress is a real motivator for this boy, and he

was proud of his improvements after practice. Based on Lentil’s stamina and reactions, we

established a routine of focused work for 5-7 minutes, a brief snack and chat time, 10 minutes of
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focused work, ending with 5-10 minutes of independent game-type skills practice and/or

storytime. ​Friday, Lentil sang ​Coming ‘Round the Mountain​ with me when we came to the part

in the book we are reading where the protagonist plays this on his harmonica. Because of his

positive reactions to this and to our vowel practice song at the beginning of each session, I taught

Ford’s ​Shake it!​ to the reading teacher; she was excited to have another mnemonic to support

short vowel sounds. In addition to singing and enjoying the pictures of the protagonist playing

the harmonica, I lent Lentil a harmonica for him to play with. He was SO excited!

Log 3

Lentil dragged his feet a little this week, wanting to stay in his classroom to finish his

work. While the time allotted to us is supposed to be during a scheduled RTI, the students are

often working on other activities. I encouraged Lentil to bring his classwork with him and we

spent some time working together completing assignments - it was during these assignments that

I realized that although Lentil is adept at general communication in English, he does not

understand key words in instruction or assignments. ​Both assignments I helped him with this

week needed language support before he could begin. One assignment was all about dust, and

the second was a poem about a scarecrow​. ​Lentil couldn’t read the directions or passages, and

he knew neither ​dust​ nor ​scarecrow​. It is difficult to assess whether Lentil’s challenges with

literacy are environmental or due to a more organic difficulty.​ In addition to helping with

assignments, we continued to play with letter identification drills and work with an Elkonin box

variation where Lentil slid the correct first sound (either /t/ vs. /th/ or /f/ vs. /v/) into Elkonin box

one and parked cars in boxes two and three. This activity seems to be encouraging his close

attention to sounds, although I am concerned that without reinforcement outside of our twice per
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 8

week intervention the skill will not set firmly. I left a ring of /t/ and /th/ sight words with

Lentil’s reading teacher, but although she thought it was a good idea, I am unsure whether she

will follow through.

Log 4

As we worked with Elkonin boxes transferring sounds to writing, sometimes Lentil

would correctly verbalize the sound and then incorrectly name the consonant. Responding to

this with mnemonics (Appendix, Figures 1-2) designed to capitalize on this recognition of sound

seems to help him understand more deeply - he hears, sees, and feels the difference between

some of his more challenging consonants better now and, when reminded, watches my mouth

carefully when I say words for him to segment and spell.​ I gave the Elkonin list A assessment

this week (Appendix, Figure 4) and determined that Lentil has significant difficulty

distinguishing between vowel sounds, particularly those in VC words. Looking back into the

NWF results, I notice that he often has difficulty reading VC words - reversing the sounds, not

correctly verbalizing the vowel sound, or not correctly verbalizing the combination of letter

sounds. I wonder if the first consonant in a CVC word somehow emphasizes the medial vowel

sound?​ Next week we will return to stretching the sounds (O’Connor, 2014, Chapter 2) in our

Elkonin box exercises, focusing on the vowels /o/ and /u/ - using the mirror - and waiting on /e/

and /i/ ​(O’Connor, 2014, Chapter 4). Lentil scored a 56 on the LNF (20 letters above the average

of his first three) this week, which is a real improvement and a positive response to drills and

games (​Pass the Pigs;​ ​Slides & Ladders, S

​ ayeski et al.,​ S
​ TAR Sheet Independent Practice).

Log 5

Lentil’s affect is increasingly downhearted and reluctant and he says that he has been
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 9

getting in a lot of trouble lately, is behind in his work, and that his teacher says he hasn’t been

working hard enough. He asked if he could stay in his classroom because he felt he would get

more behind - I agreed, and stayed in the classroom to support him and a few of his peers in their

math. After school, I spoke to his teacher to get her insights, and she mentioned that she is

“worried” about him as well and that she had moved his desk to the front, next to her desk. On

Friday, Miss A. reported that Lentil had been participating in a class reading activity with a

Magic Schoolhouse​ book and that he was following along and enjoying it; she was actively

positive with him about his participation and about his working with me, after which he was

more willing to leave the classroom for intervention. I showed Lentil his graphs for LNF

progress monitoring and our session was more of a pep talk with Dr. Seuss’s ​Hop on Pop!

reading time. I chose this book to help him see how replacements and substitutions of

consonants change words, yet keep a general sound relationship. Sharing the graphs had a

positive response, and I would like to establish a better routine so that, as Dr. Lynn Fuchs

suggests, he can participate in that graphing experience and “become a more purposeful learner”

(The IRIS, 2004) while gaining more ownership of his progress. ​ I wonder if fluency work with

repeated reading (Sayeski et al., STAR Sheet Repeated Reading) and sight words drills with

graphing activities would be a positive addition to his plan next semester to help him gain

confidence? I began a discussion with the ELL Coordinator about continuing work in January

with Lentil in an afterschool program designed specifically to support he and a few of his peers.

Log 6

This week, in addition to work with letter naming, Elkonin boxes and stretching vowel

sounds in CVC words, we continued our practice with letter/sound substitutions through a
 Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 10

Cunningham ​Making Words​ exercise recommended in Gambrell & Mandel Morrows 2015

textbook, ​Best Practices in Literacy Instruction​. Lentil responded well to this kinesthetic activity

and the logic behind the process of building words and sorting them gave him satisfaction. I will

share this activity with his reading teacher, and see if it is something she can work into her

lessons. ​Bug hunt: A Lift-the flap Book,​ by Neecy Twinem, was our end of the day read for one

of the meetings this week. Lentil was initially resistant to reading with me, but once he caught

on to the repetitive aspect of the book and understood what I was asking of him, he looked at the

words when he knew it was his turn to read. Because the book’s pattern was predictable, Lentil

had confidence in reading his lines, and when he got stuck I helped him decode enough to

jumpstart him again. This book was only just ok, and I was reluctant to use it again on Friday -

although I probably should have anyway - so we had a rousing game of ​Pass the Pigs​ while

drilling with his remaining problematic letters (p, t, n, u, y, j) and the letter blends /th/, /ck/, /ch/

and /sh/.

Sample Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan
CCSS Objectives Lesson Foci/Date Instructional Ongoing
Standards Materials Assessment

RF K.1.d Student will be 10/30/18 ‣​HomeLink Phonemic ‣​DIBELS LNF

Recognize and skilled at… Introductory Activities: Segmentation (Russo) Assessment
name all upper and ✷quickly 12-12:08​ transition to ‣​pencils; colored ‣​ReadingRockets
lowercase letters of selecting letters classroom, HomeLink pencils Phonics
the alphabet when their names phonemic segmentation ‣​flySMACK Intervention/Sound
are called (out of (Russo) activity recording sheet, fly Assessment; 15 /ă/
RF K.3​ Know and a group of 6-7) differentiating vowel sounds; swatter & letter tiles and /ŏ/ words
apply grade-level ✷Identifying the choice of end of session ‣stopwatch
phonics and word medial vowel in activity, flySMACK with ‣ReadingRockets Student will…
analysis skills in /ŭ/ and /ŏ/ CVC letters (graph results) Phonics —name upper and
 Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 11

decoding words words using ● p, t, n, u, Y, j Intervention/Sound lowercase letters

sound stretching 12:08-12:10 - ​snack, lesson and List B ŭ/ correctly 90% of the
RF 1.2 technique celebrate & reorganize and /ŏ/ words time (including self
Demonstrate ✷Replacing 12:10-12:15 ​- ​comparing ‣​u and o letter tiles correction)
understanding of beginning vowel sounds​ ​/ŏ/ and /ŭ/ ‣​3 phoneme Elkonin
spoken words, consonants and -“Shake It!” (identifying boxes student sheet
syllables, and sounding out the vowel sounds song) ‣​mirror
phonemes new CVC word -Use mirror to check out the ‣LNF Assessment
c. ​isolate and (real or nonsense) difference our mouths make (student and LNF
pronounce initial, ✷Segmenting when saying /ŭ/ and /ŏ/ while scoring sheet)
medial vowel, and sounds of CVC stretching the vowel sound ‣​List B Phonics
final sounds in words using 12:15-12:22 -​ “Park those Intervention/Sound w/
spoken Elkonin boxes Sounds” parking a letter tile scoring sheet
single-syllable (“Park those for /ŭ/ and /ŏ/ in words; ‣​Pass the Pigs
words Sounds”) practice replacing beginning (Moffat) game with
d.​ segment spoken phoneme to make new real or letters p, t, n, u, Y, j +
single-syllable imaginary words random letters he
words into their Closing Activity: knows + ck, ch, sh, th
complete sequence 12:22-12:30 -​ ​Pass the Pigs blends
of individual (Moffat) game with letters p,
phonemes t, n, u, Y, j + random letters
he knows + ck, ch, sh, th
blends

Summary

While Lentil McCloskey, a second grade student who is a relatively new English

language learner, made progress during the weeks of intervention, he has not yet met the goals

for either LNF, end of first grade, or NWF, beginning of second grade. The interventions

implemented in the end of September continue to be appropriate for Lentil, although ​a more

effective practice would include a greater number of sessions each week to create greater

automaticity in letter naming activities and sound differentiation. Research indicates that

computer drills are an effective technique for reinforcing prior learning (Sayeski, Paulson & the

IRIS, 2003), and this type of drill and practice would be appropriate for Lentil and would allow

him to participate in positive independent work. Coordination with Lentil’s reading teacher as
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 12

well as his second grade teacher would greater ensure his progress toward goal​, and it is possible

that ​Imagine Learning, the program selected by the school for work with students whose primary

language is not English, would be a good supplement to direct instruction​.

Continuing work with Cunningham and Halls’ ​Making Words​ (2001) activities, Elkonin

box segmenting with a gradual increase of complexity combined with direct sight word and

vocabulary instruction, and practice writing using his phonics knowledge combined with

invented spelling are the next steps for this second grade student. These word-study methods

should help Lentil “grasp the phonological and orthographic features that are necessary for

identifying and spelling words” (Joseph, 2002).​ I predict that Lentil’s progress toward goals will

be steady as long as he continues to receive focused instruction that targets foundational literacy

skills, English language sound differentiation, and vocabulary building that is appropriate to his

current level of English proficiency. Furthermore,​ teacher implementation of strategies and

techniques designed to specifically support students whose primary language is not English (i.e.

GLAD) would assist this student in his language acquisition and hopefully prevent him from

slipping further behind.

Appendix A

Figure 1 - mnemonic for the letter v Figure 2 - mnemonic for g letter & /g/
Running head: FldStdy-Adventures in Alphabetics 13

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