Case Report on Fenil
Introduction
Fenil, age 10, is a rising 5rd grader at Icard Elementary School. Fenil is
is behind in reading comprehension and fluency and is also an ESL
student. He has been in the United States for seven months. As a
student in Appalachian State University’s Master’s degree
program in the summer 2010 Reading Education Practicum, I have
completed a battery of reading assessments on Dallas.
Initial Literacy Assessments
The following assessments were administered to Fenil: Reading
Interest Survey, Garfield Elementary Reading Survey, Schlagal
Spelling Test, WRI (Word Recognition in Isolation), WRC (Word
Recognition in Context), Listening Comprehension, Sense of
Story and Writing. The results of these assessments were analyzed to
determine for Fenil his independent level (the highest level that he can
work independently with success), instructional level (the level he can
benefit from with support), and frustrational level (too difficult even
with instructional support).
Fenil was willing to talk to me about his interest on the interest
Inventory but was hesitant on many answers. He also completed the
Garfield survey but was negative on some questions such as reading
aloud, worksheets and reading tests. (I would be too). This is
understandable that Fenil would feel anxious since his
Indian accent is so strong. Fenil is attentive for a short time and
becomes bored or fidgety as the hour of instruction continues.
Fenil seems disinterested in books after he reads them once
but is very attentive when being read to. Although I detect that Fenil is
very smart, he has difficulty understanding stories above his level. This
is due to unknown vocabulary within the stories read. Fenil is eager to
end the session. I think he gets weary from translating vocabulary and
understanding vowel sounds and consonant sounds. This is due to his
native Indian language vs. English language sounds and pronunciation.
He is not familiar with many of the stories and fairy tales that the local
students have heard and read.
Spelling
The spelling assessment (Schlagal), is a series of grade leveled list
consisting of 12 words each. Developed by Robert Schlagal, these words
represent frequent words at a given grade level with common spelling
patterns at a specific grade level. Reading and spelling are highly
correlated in grades K-2. We gain insight on the word knowledge of the
student and how much he knows about how letters work in words with
this assessment.
A score of 90% to 100% denotes independent level of the student.
Instructional spelling ability is denoted by a score of 50% to 89%.
(One’s instructional level in spelling is considered to be the highest level
the student can spell with at least 50% accuracy rate.) If the
student’s score is 40% t0 49%, it is considered a gray area. Frustration
level in spelling is a score below 40%.
Fenil shows an instructional level of 1-2 or early first grade with 58%.
However Fenil scored very low on the grade 2 spelling list with a
sharp drop to 25% which is frustrational. Fenil knows beginning and
ending consonants (trap, bump, drop). He also spelled correctly an
“r” controlled word (girl), diagraphs and blend words (ship,
drop, when). Fenil succeeded in spelling one long vowel cvcv word
correctly (bike). He spelled incorrectly bed (bead), trap (trip), drive
(driv), wish (whish), plane (plaing). Fenil is able to distinguish some
sounds but easily confuses the vowels (He has been hearing these
sounds as we say them for approx. seven months).
Fenil seemed familiar with the words girl and sister and spelled them
correctly. Fenil is in the “within word pattern” spelling stage for first
grade and will need instruction in more short vowel words with blends
and digraphs, blends and digraphs, and eventually short vs. long vowels.
Word Recognition in Isolation
The (WRI) Word Recognition in Isolation assessment is a set of 10
words in each of 20 lists. These lists were developed by taking word
samples from grade level lists (Early first to eighth grade). In using
these lists for WRI assessment, we are able to determine automaticity
on behalf of the child being evaluated.
The reading process is driven by automatic and accurate recognition of
the printed word. Flashing the word for the student to read in ¼ to ½
second reveals the rate of automaticity for the student and is a good
indicator of a student’s reading ability. If the student
misreads the word on the flash, they have another chance on the
untimed test. This untimed technique represents accuracy.
Independent level on WRI is 90%-100%. A score of 79% –89% is
instructional on the flash. Below 50% is frustration level.
Fenil performed well on PP2 and P level with 100% and 90% accuracy
respectfully on the flash. His rate dropped for grade 1-2 with a 75% on
the flash, He did score a 100% on the untimed portion of this
assessment. Fenil is instructional on the Primer level even though some
of the scores are independent. I made this decision based on his flash
score of 75%, his prosody rate of 1 and his confusion with vowel sounds
and vocabulary.
Contextual Reading
Using the ASU Informal Reading Inventory, Contextual Reading (WRC)
was assessed for Fenil. Recording a student’s reading along with a
written record of the reading is the best way to determine how they are
developing in the reading process. These informal reading inventories
(IRI) reflects specific grade level difficulty and should also be interesting
for the child to read. A valid assessment of the student’s level can be
determined if the student is reading actively and
understanding the passage. This assessment includes the student’s rate,
accuracy, comprehension, prosody and WRC.
In order to determine the level of IRI to start with, look at the flash score
on the WRI assessment. Look for the score of 70% to 89% flash score
for the instructional level and then grade level the score indicates. We
begin the reading assessment at this level.
During the oral reading assessment errors are noted and marked. These
errors include substitutions, repetitions, inserts, unknown words, and
change in meaning. The passage is also timed. This information is
written into the ASU Reading Clinic Summary sheet for the student
being assessed. We are able to determine from this initial assessment if
a lower or higher level reading passage is necessary to determine the
independent, instructional and frustrational level of the student.
Independent level of reading is reflected in a score of 98%-100% (WRC)
with good prosody and comprehension. Instructional level is based on a
score of 95%-97% (WRC) , gray area is 90%-94% (WRC), and
frustrational is below 90% (WRC) and 50% or below in reading
comprehension. The score chart for Fenil thus far is as follows:
Accuracy Comprehension Rate(WPM) Prosody
PP2 98% 100% 39 2
P 94% 100% 25 1
Fenil was willing to try to read all the passages assigned. Although his
WPM were low, on PP2 and on Primer level, his comprehension was
good. However, my observation and scores
support results of independent on PP2, Instructional on Primer and
frustrational on level 1-2. Fenil did not want to read Frog and Toad
after two sentences. His rate was very slow and he missed several
words. I did not ask him to try to finish. He was very frustrated with this
particular task.Silent Reading scores were not assessed per instructions.
Silent reading is assessed at grade 2 and above.
Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension is an assessment of the ability of the student
to understand and comprehend passages that are read to him. This
assessment determines comprehension weaknesses of the student
without word recognition problems as well.
Fenil was very interested in the stories I read to him. He listened
attentively. I read stories to him under his grade level (rising 5th). This
decision was made based on his inability to understand Poor Old Dog or
The Cave as I read. He was unable to answer any questions or retell.
Fenil could answer questions on the grade 2 passage (baseball). He was
familiar with the game. These scores indicate that his listening
comprehension and reading difficulties lie within the language barrier,
vocabulary, my pronunciation of words and his. The listening
comprehension scores of 100% on grade 2 is not congruent with his
flash score of 60% at this level.
Sense of Story
Sense of story is assessed by reading a story to the student and asking
for a retell. In this assessment we determine if the student is able to
retell a story using book language, has an understanding of syntax and
story concept and/or his degree of sophistication in his underlying,
cognitive sense of story.
To assess Fenil, I read “Goldilocks and The Three Bears”. Upon
conclusion of my reading I asked Fenil to retell the story. Fenil did
not begin the story with an opening phrase as in “Once upon a time”.
He mentioned the house as a setting and the living room. Fenil did
mention all the characters in the story and addressed the three bears as
mama, papa and baby. Fenil did not describe any feelings of the
characters. Fenil used no descriptive word and no examples of
conversation. He was able to tell at least three events in sequence but
left out several. His retell was full of “ands” and “thens”. He retold
quickly as if he were just trying to remember facts. He did remember
many facts but I could tell that he was not used to listening to these
types of stories. ending was indicative of the ending of the story. He
said “ This is Goldilocks. Goldilocks was running fast and ran out of
the home.”
Although Fenil scored a 4 out of 8 on this retell, I felt that he was
trying to recall just facts of the story as he told it. However, I think he
had a good ending sentence to the story.
On sense of story organization, Fenil was able to sequence some
events. He left out some important events but the story made sense as
far as order. Fenil used an appropriate ending with closing words and
phrases. In sense of story syntax, Fenil used “and”, “then”, and did not
end any sentences.
Fenil likes reading on his level but loves being read to. Fenil is behind
in reading levels and does not have the ability to retell in book language.
With appropriate instruction on his instructional level and time on task
reading and being read to, and more exposure to English, he will
improve.
Writing
The writing assessment reveals information on the student’s spelling
and sense of story. After telling Fenil a story of my own, I asked him to
tell a story. He was particularly excited about going to Canada this
summer and decided to tell a story about that. Fenil included more
detail in the written story.
He seemed to enjoy writing (with help), and wanted to illustrate.
Fenil left words out of the sentences especially the word “are” and
wrote some words without “r”. (we going nigra falls biger falls in wold).
His spelling and sentence construction mimics His Indian speech.
After four sentences, Fenil started asking me to write for him. I
encouraged him to write with corrections later but he did not want to
do this. I spelled words for Fenil because it seemed difficult for him to
write even with invented spelling. He struggled to invent his words and
thoughts at the same time. The words flowed out as I wrote.