EE414 Reading Practicum Portfolio

Spring 2023

Intern’s Name: Alyssa Addington

Child’s First Name: Amani

Grade: 5th
 Table of Contents
Statement of Academic Honesty 3
EE414 Practicum Part 1 Results & Reflection Assignment 4
Introduction 4
Background Information Form 4
Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST): 5
Quick Phonics Screener (QPS): 6
Lesson Plan #1 Reflection: 7
Conclusion 8
EE414 Practicum Part 2: Continuous Text Assessments (QRI-7) 9
Introduction 9
QRI Word Lists 9
QRI Passages 10
Lesson Plan #2 Reflection 12
Conclusion 13
EE 414 Practicum Part 3: Putting It All Together 13
Introduction of the Child and Practicum 13
Overall Analysis 13
Instructional Oral Reading Level 15
Ehri’s Phases of Reading Development Continuum 16
Conclusion 16
 Statement of Academic Honesty
By signing this form, I verify that I completed the practicum portfolio with the student
designated on the cover sheet and the work is 100% my own. I understand plagiarism is
unacceptable and if plagiarism is found to have occurred, the university policies, as discussed in
the syllabus, will be followed. I also verify I have read the syllabus for the course, including the
late work policy, which states extensions will not be given for the completed practicum portfolio,
as well as the need for both courses to be passed before moving on to Block 3, and the repeater
policy in the event EE413 and/or EE 414 is not completed with a passing grade.

Signature: ______________________________________ Date: ____________

 EE414 Practicum Part 1 Results & Reflection Assignment

Introduction

Amani began attending Meadows Elementary, as a fifth grader, at the beginning of this school
year, on August 10, 2022. Prior to this, she attended a different elementary school in the same
district (USD 501). Amani’s pseudonym will be AB throughout this portfolio. While completing
this practicum course, I will take Amani into a secluded office to administer all assessments and
lessons to ensure a quiet and safe environment. We complete assessments during the late
afternoon, typically on Thursday’s.

Background Information Form

At the beginning of the school year, Amani was being pulled out of class to receive intervention
help with reading. Throughout her first semester at Meadows Elementary, she had greatly
improved in her reading skills. She has since been excused from intervention, and has few
accommodations in the classroom to help her succeed. Despite being excused from intervention,
she still seems to be learning slower than other students in her class. Amani admits to struggling
with finding the joy in reading. Reading is challenging for Amani because she does not
understand how some questions pertain to what she is reading, when being tested. She has voiced
that she enjoys social studies, because she likes learning about things that have happened in the
past. Along with social studies, Amani enjoys science, because experiments allow her to explore
the ways to find answers.
OR (Kilpatrick, 2019) Administered: February 2, 2023

Prior to administering the Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST), Amani was not sure
what to expect when I informed her that we would be testing over reading. I informed Amani
that she would not have to read anything for this assessment, and she seemed to physically relax.
During the first section, Syllable Levels, Amani only struggled with three of the words. This
resulted in 9/12 as her score. The words that she seemed to struggle with were words that you
would not typically read separately. For example, (sun)set, she correctly answered, and (mar)ket,
she incorrectly answered. Overall, Amani did very well on the Syllable Levels. The second
section, Onset-Rime Levels, tended to stay around the same level of difficulty. Amani’s score
was 8/10. She knew how to complete sound deletion, yet seemed to somewhat struggle with
substitution. Overall, Amani did excellent on Onset-Rime Levels. The third section, Phoneme
Levels, tended to become a bit more difficult. Amani did very well with many of the words, but
seemed to become overwhelmed with words that contained blends. She received a score of 7/10
on this section. Although Amani seemed to struggle with what she was being assessed on, she
wanted to continue on with the testing. We completed the testing, despite her ability to correctly
complete it. In the final section, Amani received a score of 2/20, she seemed to recognize that
she was not able to correctly give an answer, so she tended to make up words that looked similar
to those on the page.

Quick Phonics Screener (QPS): Adapted from Hasbrouck, J., & Parker, R. (2001)
Amani was excited to begin the Quick Phonics Screener (QPS). I informed her that she would be
able to have the papers in front of her for the assessment, which made her even more excited.
Starting out, in section two, Amani was able to correctly say each word that was being scored.
She received a 10/10 and a 20/20 in this section. She flew through the section without any
struggle. She then received an 8/10 and a 10/10 in section 3, (Grade 1, number 3). Amani
struggled with mixing letters around but was able to correct herself. In the next portion, section
4, Amani received a score of 7/10 and 10/10. There were a couple nonsense words that looked
like they could be actual words that she would know in her everyday vocabulary, therefore she
tended to say the everyday words instead of the nonsense words. In section 5, Amani began to
struggle. She received a score of 2/10 and 7/10. Instead of nonsense words, Amani tried to make
most of the words into real words that she would recognize. The next section, section 6, Amani
received a score of 6/10 and 10/10. Again she would mix letters around or add in letters that
would not fit in with the nonsense words. In section 7, Amani received a score of 13/30. She did
very well on the words that were in her everyday vocabulary, but once it came to nonsense
words, she began to struggle. Section 8/9, Amani scored 20/30. There were words that she could
not pronounce, which altered her score. Some of the incorrect marks may have been how she
truly pronounces these words. The next section, section 10, Amani did very well in. She received
a score of 9/10. The only word that she struggled with was due to her not being able to
pronounce the vowel team. Moving onto the next section, section 11, Amani began to struggle
again. She received a low score of 3/10. The words were difficult for her reading level and
reading comprehension. I informed her that if they were too hard, that we could stop, but she
wanted to finish the final two pages of the assessment despite her struggles. In the final section,
section 12, she received a score of 2/10. Again, the words were above her reading
comprehension level and pronunciation abilities. Overall, Amani did very well on the QPS
Assessment, and felt very accomplished with how far she was able to get without struggling.

Lesson Plan #1 Reflection

Prior to creating this lesson, I recognized that Amani struggled with deleting sounds from words
and creating new words. This can be a difficult skill to master, which was the reason I chose to
create this lesson. Solidifying Amani’s skills on sound deletion would help her while
comprehending what she is reading in the future. Amani began to struggle on the PAST
Assessment when we began deleting the initial sounds from words. If the word was a blend,
Amani tended to leave the second part of the blend out of the newly formed word. I knew that
she had the ability to understand and improve her skills in deletion of initial sounds in words, but
could benefit from extra practice on this skill. To begin the lesson, I asked Amani if she
remembered the testing that we had been completing and informed her that I had looked at some
of the things that I wanted to help improve her skills on. She did very well on the testing, so this
was a hard task to complete. The entirety of the lesson consisted of different words written on
notecards, on my iPad, that Amani was able to read and delete the initial sound to create a new
word. Amani seemed to immediately recognize what she needed to do. There were very few
words that she struggled with. When we came across a word that she struggled with, we would
break the word into sections and sound it out together. This ensured that she was able to truly say
the word before deleting the initial sound. We did a couple words together, before she was ready
to complete the task on her own. Amani quickly mastered the skill, and flew through the lesson
without much struggle. The most struggle she had was pronouncing words.

Conclusion

Throughout the first portion of the practicum course, I recognized that I was not always
confident when administering an assessment. There were parts of assessments where I would
struggle with saying what was needed in a way that my student would understand and be
successful. I was able to find a way to allow my student to find success. As the assessments went
on, I became more confident in giving the student what they needed in order to be successful.
 EE414 Practicum Part 2: Continuous Text Assessments (QRI-7)

Introduction:

While completing the second portion of the practicum course, I took Amani into the same
location as the first portion of the course. This allowed Amani to have a comfortable place that
she recognized while completing the assessments. We met three times for this portion of the
course, and completed the assessments and lesson in a timely manner. During our second
meeting time, we had a guest in the room with us while completing the assessment. Amani was
somewhat distracted by this guest, at the beginning of the meeting. This guest was one of the
therapy dogs, Ace, taking his afternoon nap in his office. The assessment was able to be
completed in a timely manner, with few distractions despite Ace snoring in the corner.

QRI Word Lists Results

Amani was excited to see how far she was able to progress through the word lists I would be
presenting to her. I informed her that we would start with the list in front of her, and move onto
another list when she completed the current list. We began with the third grade level list, since
Amani is in the fifth grade. Beginning with a list that is two grade levels lower than the current
grade allows the student to show where they are comfortable with pronouncing and identifying
words. Amani began the list very confidently but quickly became discouraged. The words on this
list seemed to remind her of words that she frequently saw in her day to day reading. Amani
received a score of 5/20 words automatically recognized and 8/20 words that were identified.
After reviewing this score, we moved down to the second grade level word list. Despite being
discouraged, Amani had a large improvement with this word list. She received a score of 17/20
words automatically recognized and 18/20 words were identified. Since Amani did not receive a
score of 18/20 words automatically recognized, I decided to move onto the first grade level word
list to further the testing. While completing the first grade level word list, Amani was flying
through the words and seemed to be very confident in her abilities to complete the word list.
Amani received a score of 18/20 words automatically recognized and 20/20 words were
identified. Amani knew how well she was doing and wanted to do one more word list, so we
moved down to the Primer word list to continue her work. These scores were not used for data.

QRI Passages Results:

Amani was excited to begin reading the passages that were presented during the continuous text
portion of the practicum. I informed her that she would be answering different questions before
she would read a passage, she would then read the passage and retell the story to me. After
retelling the passage, she would then answer a few more questions. Amani seemed to become
nervous when I informed her that she would have to answer questions after reading, because she
had previously mentioned that she often struggled with this skill. We began with the first grade
level passage. Amani received a score of 8/9 (89%) on the concept questions portion of this
passage. She was familiar with the topic of the passage, therefore we continued with the
assessment. There were very few errors throughout the reading, with a total of 6 miscues. When
being asked to retell the story, Amani was able to identify 8/22 of the details given on the scoring
sheet. Amani seemed to struggle with some of the comprehension of the passage, but we were
able to move onto the comprehension questions. She received a score of 4/4 explicit and ½
implicit comprehension questions. After reviewing the data, we moved onto the second grade
level passage. After reviewing the data from level one, we moved onto the second grade level
passage. Amani received a score of 8/9 (89%) on the concept questions on this passage. She was
very familiar with the topic of the passage, therefore we continued with the passage. Amani
struggled with pronouncing the name ‘Susan’ and had very few errors, resulting in a total of 3
miscues. As she was retelling the story, Amani was able to identify 8/19 of the details given on
the scoring sheet. There were details that she was able to recall that were not on the scoring
sheet. When being asked the comprehension questions, Amani received a score of 4/4 explicit
questions and a 4/4 explicit comprehension questions. After reviewing the data from level two,
we moved onto the level three passage. Amani received a score of 8/12 (67%) on the concept
questions portion of this passage. She was familiar with the topic of the passage, therefore we
continued with the assessment. There were very few errors throughout the reading, with a total of
6 miscues. When being asked to retell the story, Amani was able to identify 9/20 of the details
that were given on the scoring sheet. Amani was able to recognize what was being told in the
story, and did not struggle with the comprehension questions. She received a score of 4/4 in the
implicit comprehension and a 4/4 explicit comprehension questions. Amani was doing very well
with comprehending the passages that she was reading and only struggled with retelling the
story. Typically she is very good with retelling the story, but she seemed to struggle on this day.
We completed testing after level three because Amani did not seem to be improving in her scores
on retelling the story and only seemed to struggle on this factor of the assessment.

Lesson Plan #2 Reflection:

Prior to creating this lesson, I recognized that Amani struggled with decoding words that were
not in her everyday vocabulary along with retelling what she has just read. While these are
different skills, these skills are important to learn and be able to complete while reading. Amani
struggled with retelling a story that she had read but was very easily able to answer and
comprehend what the story was about. While reading, Amani would struggle with words that she
did not regularly see, which would alter her fluency of the story. While presenting the lesson, I
did not expect Amani to find so few words that she would struggle with. I allowed Amani to
skim the story before reading, to search for words that looked like they would be difficult to read.
There were words that she had more than likely never seen before, which made her nervous. To
gain her confidence back, we walked through decoding each of the words until she was confident
and comfortable with reading the words aloud. While Amani was reading, I would make
comments to allow her to pause and process what she was reading. She was able to comprehend
and think about what was truly happening in the story instead of just reading what was infront of
her. Once Amani had finished reading, I asked her to retell what she had read. She was able to
share the main ideas and the parts of the story that she found funny. Although there were difficult
words, Amani was confident and comfortable with reading the story and recognizing the events
of the story. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would pick a few more difficult words out of
the text, in order to create a smoother reading experience for the student. To further teach Amani,
I would find a text that has words that she recognizes but cannot always decode. This would
allow her to recognize the words but still be able to work through the process of decoding and
identifying the word.

Conclusion
 Throughout the second portion of the practicum course, I recognized that I was much more
confident when administering assessments. There were parts of the assessment that seemed to be
difficult for the student, but I was able to walk them through how to complete the assessment. I
was able to administer each assessment without confusing the student and continued to keep the
student on task and wanting to continue with the work. I have become much more confident in
administering reading assessments in a way that the student can be successful.

EE 414 Practicum Part 3: Putting It All Together

Introduction of the Child and Practicum

Amani began attending Meadows Elementary, as a fifth grader, at the beginning of this school
year, on August 10, 2022. Prior to this, she attended a different elementary school in the same
district (USD 501). Amani’s pseudonym will be AB throughout this portfolio. While completing
the practicum course, I took Amani into a secluded room to ensure a comfortable and quiet
environment. We met a total of 7 times to complete the entirety of this course. The assessments
completed throughout the 7 sessions were the PAST, QPS, Lesson #1, QRI Word Lists, QRI
Continuous Texts, and Lesson #2. The PAST Assessment consisted of phonemic awareness
skills. The QPS helps determine phonics skills a student knows well or still needs to learn. The
QRI word list and continuous texts are designed to assess the accuracy of word identification and
the starting point for reading accuracy and comprehension.

Overall Analysis

Word Recognition (Use data
from: PAST (Phonological
Awareness Screener Test),
QPS (Quick Phonics
Screener), QRI word list and
running record)
Word Recognition (Use data
from: PAST (Phonological
Awareness Screener Test),
QPS (Quick Phonics
Screener), QRI (Qualitative
Strength #1
Amani is able to recognize
common words that she sees in her
everyday reading. An example of
this would be, when she is reading
a sentence and can verbalize that
she recognizes a word but did not
know what it was. When this
happens, it is easily noticeable that
Amani can recognize common
words.
Area of need
Uncommon words (not seen
everyday) tend to be recognized
but are guessed by using context
clues. Amani is very good at using
context clues to guess a word. Yet,
she tends to struggle with
Strength #2
Amani tends to favor words with
blends. She does very well when
identifying words that contain
blends. This was a huge struggle
when completing the PAST
assessment. Amani frequently
identified words with blends over
words without blends.
Area of need
If a word is uncommon yet
familiar, Amani tends to add in
extra letters to create blends. For
example, while completing the
QPS, Amani frequently created
R-controlled words or
R-controlled blends. Throughout
Reading Inventory – 7) word
list and running record)
Comprehension and
Vocabulary (Use data from
QPS (Quick Phonics
Screener), QRI (Qualitative
Reading Inventory – 7))
Comprehension and
Vocabulary (Use data from
QPS (Quick Phonics
Screener), QRI (Qualitative
Reading Inventory – 7))
Fluency (Use data from:
PAST (Phonological
Awareness Screener Test),
QRI (Quick Phonics
Screener))
Fluency (Use data from:
PAST (Phonological
Awareness Screener Test),
decoding words that she does not
frequently see.
Strength #1
Amani does very well at
answering comprehension
questions after reading a story.
While answering comprehension
questions, Amani had very few
errors and would answer quickly.
Comprehension seemed to come
naturally to Amani.
Area of need
While retelling, Amani struggled
without prompts or questions to
guide her in the correct direction.
There were moments during the
retell portion of the QRI Passages
that Amani would wait for a hint
to help her come up with more
information.
Strength #1
Amani is able to read through a
story with very few errors. While
reading a passage, there would be
few errors. The most common
errors would be due to her inability
to pronounce a word pattern
correctly.
Area of need
Amani tends to struggle with
decoding uncommon words to
ensure a better speed when
reading. While reading on level
passages, Amani seemed to
struggle with words that she may
the QPS, Amani frequently made
words begin with a blend in order
to identify the word.
Strength #2
While answering comprehension
questions and retelling, Amani was
able to use the same vocabulary
used in the story. For example, in
the Level One passage, Amani was
able to use the same description of
the puppy that was being used as
she was reading.
Area of need
Amani seemed to struggle with
deciding uncommon vocabulary to
ensure understanding and proper
usage of words. There were
moments that she would struggle
with describing what she had just
read due to not being able to
decode words that she did not
recognize.
Strength #2
While reading, Amani is able to
get through a story with enough
accuracy to comprehend what is
happening in the plot of the
reading. Since she is able to
accurately describe a d
comprehend what she is reading,
her comprehension scores were
very high.
Area of need
Amani struggled with slowing
down enough to decode and think
about what she is reading to
recognize uncommon words. If
there was a word that looked
similar to a frequently seen word,
QRI (Quick Phonics not see often. When coming across Amani would guess the word to
Screener)) a word that she did not keep the flow of reading.
immediately recognize, Amani
would significantly slow her
reading speed.

Instructional Oral Reading Level

Reading Level QRI Passage Level Rationale/Data
Instructional 3rd Grade When assessing Amani on the QRI
Passages, she had very few reading
errors on the third grade level. She
struggled with retelling the story
with great detail and without
prompts. Despite struggling with
retelling the story, Amani was able
to accurately answer the
comprehension questions without
struggle. She had a slight struggle
in retelling the story but was able
to share the key events from the
story. Amani did excellently on the
third grade level passage.

Ehri’s Phases of Reading Development Continuum

Partial Alphabetic
I believe that Amani is in the Partial Alphabetic Development Stage because she tends to use the
first letter of a word to guess the entirety of a word. When decoding, she struggles with the
letter/sound connection. There were many instances where Amani would struggle with deciding
between a soft ‘c’ or a hard ‘c’ to figure out the entire word. If a word was not familiar, Amani
would look at the beginning of the word and guess what the word was with context clues from
the sentence that she had already read.

Conclusion

After conducting the various assessments on Amani, I would recommend continuation of the
practice on decoding words she seems to struggle with when reading. This seemed to be a larger
struggle shown throughout the practicum journey. During the second lesson given at the end of
our course, Amani seemed more confident in decoding difficult words in her reading. When she
isolated the word she did not struggle nearly as much. I believe that this would be the best step in
her reading journey because she would be able to continue to identify words that may be difficult
to decode before proceeding with the reading. Amani did very well overall, and only seemed to
struggle with decoding unfamiliar words.