Tristan Cassell

EDU-214-701
4/2/23
Dr. Reinard

Reading Observation Paper

My reading observation took place on 8 year old second grader Jace. Jace is a

male and is mature for his age, he gets easily annoyed when people distract his

learning and he is competitive. Jace will also be reserved when the work seems too

easy for him, he enjoys interactive activities or anything on the iPad. I get the

opportunity to see Jace every morning for a reading intervention lesson. While he

receives intervention Jace works with higher level learners in his regular classroom.

With my experience around him and his classmates I would say he is above the second

grade reading level. During his time with me, we've worked on consonant digraphs, VCe

words, the F,L,S,Z spelling rule, and a lesson on oll, ull, all. With that being said Jace

has a very strong foundation of phonemic awareness with vowel sounds both long and

short, the digraphs, and we even work on irregular words or as I tell them, words that

don't follow the rules. This observation took place in my room inside Jace’s school.

When I was looking at the rubric my first instinct was to consult with the third grade

English teacher who I am close with. Both her and the special education reading

teacher suggested I use an IRI reading for my reading observation. Informal reading

inventories individually assess a student's reading comprehension and fluency. This

seemed perfect as I could print out a short story that was made for the second grade

reading level and I could track his reading on my own copy and make note of any errors

while he reads. The short story chosen for this assignment is called Space Adventures,

it is a 203 word one page roughly two paragraph story. Ironically Jace was not my first

option, I originally thought this text would be too easy for him and I wanted a student
Tristan Cassell
EDU-214-701
4/2/23
Dr. Reinard
that may make errors and correct themselves so I had material to write about. This did

not work well as my first student was stumped on the first sentence which included a

longer word, “travelers”.

Jace understands all of the reading techniques, reading left to ride and staying

on track with his words and their lines. However he lacks intonation and this was my

biggest takeaway. The entire story was monotone, not much pausing for punctuation or

change in tone according to the plot of the story. Jace was certainly more focused on

pronunciation and successfully reading the words. Doing so his comprehension was not

the best. Jace only made a few reading errors and that was on the words planet, stared,

toe, hoping, frightened, and toward. Jace never skipped a word however, he followed

my instructions which was to read the text all the way through and to try your best on

words you're uncertain about. That is exactly what he did, he attempted to read the

words, there was only one occasion where he paused himself and stopped reading to

say I don't know that word and I nodded at him to continue. Most of his reading errors

he attempted to read with very similar words, like getting planet confused with plant. He

later read planet correctly as the actual word plant appeared in the text. He read

“stared” incorrectly as he didn't know the sound. He also read toe incorrectly but we

would consider this an irregular word that he hasn't practiced yet. I did audio record

Jace while he read this short story and he was aware of me doing so. The recording

lasted about three and a half minutes which would put Jace around reading 60 words

per minute. Those numbers would suggest he is leaning towards the first grade reading

level on average, as far as his reading fluency goes.

Tristan Cassell
EDU-214-701
4/2/23
Dr. Reinard
The IRI worksheet came with three simple reading comprehension questions

which I asked Jace all three. He had basic understanding of the entire story but when

asked for specific details from the middle of the text he gave a two word response that

was not entirely accurate. He was able to identify the setting of the story although I had

to explain to him what exactly the setting meant. The final question was in regards to

the ending of the story and the characters' realization. This was his best answer, he

gave me a whole sentence with detail that was actually accurate. This led me to believe

the second paragraph of the text was an easier read and he was able to retain more

from it. Jace is also not a very enthusiastic learner, you can tell by his lack of intonation

and his reading fluency despite his reading aptitude. It is safe to say he was not very

confident about his reading comprehension answers however he did try his best with

reading and gave me his last hour of the day before his spring break which was

appreciated. I would strongly recommend Jace to continue his reading intervention

lessons as they progress into lessons more his speed. The last couple months of the

school year will include reading longer words, learning about r controlled vowels, and

ending spelling patterns. These lessons will be new material for Jace and take his

acquisition of reading to the next level. Those are the three areas he was lacking that

would benefit him in reading the second grade level IRI text. This observation paper

was my favorite assignment from this course because I was able to translate my

experiences and my own learning from the workplace and share a wonderful

observation from one of my own students. I have a lot of respect and pride for the

students I work with and my relationship and time with them means something to me.