CASE STUDY - COMPREHENSION

Case Study - Comprehension

Megan Knight

EDU 474

4 December 2020

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Comprehension:

Student Pseudonym: Anna

Grade Level: 8th grade

Level Three Narrative Passage:

- Concept Questions:

I administered the Level Three Narrative Passage titled “A New Friend From Europe.”

Before having Anna read the passage, I asked four different concept questions in order to

determine how much background knowledge she had about the content of the passage. The first

question was: What does it mean to be adopted? Anna responded to this question by saying

“you’re in a room with other kids and a person you don’t know comes and gets you and they

become your mom and dad.” I felt that this response demonstrated that the student understands

the concept of adoption. Therefore, I gave this response a score of 3/3. The next concept question

I asked was: What does it mean to communicate with another person? Anna’s answer was “to

talk to them.” This response demonstrates the student’s knowledge of what it means to

communicate because she provided a definition, so she received 3 points. The third concept

question is: What is a gesture? Anna did not know the answer to this question, so she did not

receive any points. Finally, the last concept question that I asked was: What is a streamliner?

Again, Anna did not know what a streamliner is, so she didn’t earn any points for this question.

Anna’s total score for the concept questions is 6/12, which is 50%. This score indicates that

Anna is unfamiliar with the concepts of the passage. Because Anna doesn’t have much

background knowledge about the concepts in this passage, this could have a negative impact on

her overall comprehension of the passage.

- Oral Retell:

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After asking the concept questions, I prompted Anna to read the passage out loud. Once

she was finished reading, I had Anna turn over the passage and asked her to tell me everything

she could remember from the passage. Anna’s oral retell of the story is as follows:

Alvin was the one who came from Europe and he didn’t know English, so Joseph helped

him with reading and showed him cool books, and at recess they were playing with toys.

I think Alvin found a book like about dinosaurs and he liked it a lot. And Joseph brought

a book and toys to the playground and they played and read a book.

This oral retell included some of the important elements from the story. For instance, Anna

mentioned aspects of the Setting/Background, such as Ivan was from a country in Europe and

couldn’t speak English. Anna also included some of the Events from the passage in her retell.

For example, she talked about how Joseph showed Ivan books and toys, and they played on the

playground together. However, Anna did not retell some important details, such as the Goal or

Resolution. This indicates that while Anna was able to recall some details from the story, she

forgot many important details. Therefore, Anna may have struggled with comprehending this

passage.

- Comprehension Questions:

Finally, after having Anna retell the passage, I asked eight comprehension questions

about the passage. I did not use look-backs on either passage, so the following responses and

scores are without look-backs. In addition, the comprehension questions are categorized as either

explicit or implicit. Explicit comprehension questions mean that the answer is stated explicitly in

the text. On the other hand, the answer to implicit comprehension questions cannot be found

directly in the text, and the student must make an inference in order to answer the question. The

first comprehension question I asked was an implicit comprehension question: What was one of

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the reasons why Ivan might have looked sad? Anna answered that “he didn’t know English.”

This is a reasonable inference, so the student earned a point for this question. The next

comprehension question is an explicit question, which is: What did Joseph want? Because this is

an explicit question, the answer is found directly in the text. The correct answer to this question

is that Joseph wanted to be friends with Ivan. However, Anna responded that Joseph wanted “a

toy or book.” Therefore, she did not earn a point for this response. The third question is another

explicit question, which is: Why was it difficult for Joseph to become friends with Ivan? Anna’s

answer was “Ivan didn’t know English.” This is the correct answer for this question, so Anna

earned a point for this response. The fourth question asked: How did Joseph’s father help his

son solve his problem? Anna’s answer was “he read a book to him about English.” This answer

is incorrect, so Anna did not receive a point for this question.

The fifth question I asked Anna was: What did Joseph bring to school the first time to

show Ivan? Anna responded with “a book about dinosaurs.” While she is correct that Joseph

brought a book to school, this answer is incorrect because the book was about trains instead of

dinosaurs. On the sixth question: How do we know that Ivan was interested in becoming friends

with Joseph?, Anna answered “he knew English and they were reading a book about dinosaurs.”

The correct answer to this question was Ivan’s facial expressions changed or he smiled.

Therefore, Anna did not receive a point for this question. The seventh question I asked was:

What did Joseph begin to draw at recess the second day? Again, Anna answered “a dinosaur”

when the answer should have been a train. This indicates that she may have misinterpreted this

part of the story. Finally, the last comprehension question is: What did Joseph do at the end of

the story to help Ivan learn English? The correct answer should have been that Joseph used

gestures and had Ivan repeat words, but Anna said that “he read a book.” Because of this, Anna

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did not receive points for this question. Based on her responses to these comprehension

questions, Anna appears to have difficulties answering both explicit and implicit questions. In

other words, she struggles to recall specific details from the text and make inferences in order to

answer questions about the text.

Overall, Anna’s number of correct explicit questions without look-backs was 1/4, and her

number of correct implicit questions was 1/4. In addition, her total number of correct answers

was 2/8, which indicates that this Level Three Narrative Passage is at Anna’s Frustration

Level for comprehension. Therefore, while this passage was at Anna’s instructional level for

word recognition, she was at frustration for comprehension. There are some factors that could

contribute to Anna’s lack of comprehension. First, Anna’s reponses on the concept questions

indicate that she was unfamiliar with the concepts of the passage. Inadequate background

knowledge could have been one reason why Anna struggled with comprehension in this passage.

For instance, Anna did not know that a streamliner is a train. This could be why Anna thought

that Joseph and Ivan read a book about dinosaurs and drew pictures of dinosaurs at recess.

Another factor that could have contributed to a lack of comprehension is related to her miscues.

Anna had 18 meaning changing miscues, which could have interfered with her overall

comprehension of the passage. Anna’s scores for comprehension on the Level Three Narrative

Passage are included in the table below:

Questions Number Correct Level

Explicit 1 out of 4 Frustration

Implicit 1 out of 4 Frustration

Total 2 out of 8 Frustration

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Level Three Expository Passage:

- Concept Questions:

After administering the Level Three Narrative Passage, I administered the Level Three

Expository Passage titled “Cats: Lions and Tigers in Your House.” Before having Anna read

this passage, I asked her four concept questions in order to determine what she already knows

about the content of the passage. The first question is: What is the cat family? Anna answered

that the cat family “has a lot of cats with different colors.” She gave a characteristic of cats in the

cat family, so I gave her a score of 3 on this question. The next concept question I asked was:

How do cats protect themselves? Anna responded by saying cats protect themselves “by their

claws or attacking.” This answer indicates that she knows ways that cats can protect themselves,

so she earned 3 points on this question. The third question is: What does a cat’s tongue look

like? According to Anna, a cat’s tongue “is very long and has a lot of dots on them.” This answer

corresponded with the suggested 2 point answer, so Anna received 2 points for this response.

Finally, the last concept question is: What are cat sounds? Anna answered with “meow and

hissing.” The highest amount of points she could earn on this question was 2 points, so she

earned the full 2 points for this answer. Anna’s total score on the concept questions was 10/11 or

90% correct. This indicates that Anna is very familiar with the concepts of the passage.

- Oral Retell:

After Anna read the passage out loud, I had her turn over the passage and tell me what

she remembered from the story. The following paragraph is Anna’s oral retelling of the passage:

When cats are born, they have claws like big cats. Their tongues are rough. They hunt.

The tigers hunt. And how the cats fight they choke them I think and claw them. Their

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tongue is like a spoon, so they can put milk in it and they can keep it there for a while

until they swallow it. Their tongue is like a brush on their fur.

This oral retelling of the passage indicates that Anna was able to recall many main details from

the story. These details weren’t necessarily all in the correct order, but she did include most of

the details. For example, she mentioned that kittens have claws. Then she talked about how cat’s

tongues are rough and how they hunt by using their claws and choking other animals. After this,

she talked about how cats’ tongues are like a spoon, so that milk can stay on the tongue until it is

swallowed, which was a specific detail from the passage. Finally, Anna mentioned that cats clean

themselves with their tongues. Overall, Anna included 10 of the main details from the passage in

her retelling. However, she did not include the main idea of the passage in her oral retell, which

is that cats, lions, and tigers are part of the same family and are alike in many ways. Other than

this, this oral retelling demonstrates that Anna had adequate understanding and comprehension

of the passage.

- Comprehension Questions:

Finally, after having Anna retell the passage, I asked her eight comprehension questions

in order to determine whether she could recall specific details from the text or make inferences in

order to answer questions about the text. Anna answered most of the comprehension questions

correctly. However, she did not earn points for one of the questions. The second question was an

explicit question that asked: How are lions, tigers, and cats alike? Anna’s answer was “they are

big cats.” This was not one of the characteristics presented in the passage, so Anna did not earn a

point for this question. The results from these comprehension questions indicate that Anna was

able recall most details from the text and make inferences to answer questions. However, she did

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answer one explicit question incorrectly. Therefore, she appears to have more difficulty

answering explicit questions than implicit questions.

Overall, Anna’s number of correct explicit questions without look-backs was 3/4, and her

number of correct implicit questions was 4/4. Therefore, Anna’s total score is 7/8, which

indicates that this Level Three Expository Passage is at Anna’s Instructional Level. Anna was

also Instructional with word recognition on this same passage, so this passage as a whole was at

Anna’s Instructional Level for both word recognition and comprehension. These results are

different from the results from the Level Three Narrative Passage. Although Anna was at her

Frustration Level for comprehension on the narrative passage, she was Instructional on the

expository passage. This could indicate that she has a better understanding of expository texts

than narrative texts. Another reason for this difference in scores could be related to Anna’s

background knowledge of each passage. Based on her scores from the concept questions, Anna

was unfamiliar with the concepts in the Level Three Narrative Passage, but she was very familiar

with the concepts in the Level Three Expository Passage. Because of this, Anna’s

comprehension could have been impacted by her amount of background knowledge, which could

explain why she was at Frustration for comprehension on the narrative passage but Instructional

on the expository passage. Anna’s scores for comprehension on the Level Three Expository

Passage are included in the table below:

Questions Number Correct Level

Explicit 3 out of 4

Implicit 4 out of 4

Total 7 out of 8 Instructional