A Case Study of Megan
Prepared by Shawn Foster
For EDUC 284 The Development of Language and Literacy
Dr. Lassonde
November 29, 2004
Case Study 11
Introduction
Megan is a six-year-old, first grade student. When I first met her she seemed shy and reserved. However, soon she began to talk to me and felt comfortable sharing stories about herself and her family. I asked her if she had ever been camping and she told me that she had gone camping with her family to Maine. She said that her favorite part of camping was going swimming. Megan told me that her favorite part of school is gym class. She loves to play games and we discovered that I used to play many of the games that she plays today. I discovered that Megan reads books at home with her parents. She said that her parents read with her often and that she loves to read to them. I asked Megan if there was anything she did not like about school and she was quick to say “Math!”
Megan attends school in a small town in Delaware County, NY. Her class is comprised of seventeen students, one teacher, and two or three aides who come in and out of the classroom throughout the day. Megan and I met in a small office next to the principal’s office for all four meetings because it provided a quiet, interruption-free environment to work.
Discussion and Analysis of the Child’s Strengths and Needs
Megan’s Language Development
Responsiveness
While trying to assess Megan’s language development, I used the listening and speaking scale of the Early Literacy Profile (The State Education Department, 1998). Megan demonstrated some awareness of other perspectives while we read the predictable book; I went walking (1989) by Sue Williams. She stated that the girl in the story must really like seeing all of those animals. However, Megan was predominantly focused on her own perspective throughout the reading. Megan responded to directions that I gave her. She drew information from her own experiences when I asked her questions from the book and she always had a relevant answer. Megan’s responses during the read aloud indicated that she is at the Beginning level of responsiveness.
Participation
Based on Megan’s behavior during the read aloud of I went walking (Williams, 1989) she is at the Independent level of participation. Megan’s attention was focused on me the entire time I read the book. Whenever I asked Megan a question about the story she always responded to my questions. Her answers were relevant to the story and she displayed a great understanding of the story by incorporating details from the story in her answers. She was also willing to listen when I had something to say about the story or about her answers. She did not mind sharing the conversation.
Clarity
Megan demonstrated that the clarity of her listening and speaking skills is also at the Independent level. While doing a read aloud of the book The four seasons (2004) by Shawn Foster, Megan showed a great understanding of the content. When she was asked to discuss her favorite season she said, “My favorite season is summer because I love to go swimming.” She then said, “I hate winter because it’s cold.” Megan’s statements clearly indicate an understanding of the content and a connection to her own interests. The fact that she provided some supporting details and descriptive vocabulary to her statements verifies that she is at the Independent level.
Organization
Megan demonstrated that her organizational skills were at the Experienced level after the reading of I went Walking (Williams, 1989). I asked her to retell the story to me using pictures of the animals that I had laid out for her. She was quick to discriminate between what was relevant and irrelevant. She knew to focus on matching the colors with the types of the animals. I was absolutely surprised when she retold the story back to me word for word. She had memorized the entire book. Megan was able to make connections to prior knowledge when she said that “there’s no such thing as a blue horse.” She retold the story back to me as if she was reading it directly from the book. She paused at the appropriate times and used gestures to enhance the meaning of the ideas.
Analysis of Megan’s Language Development
Based on the previous information, it is obvious that Megan’s strengths are in participation, clarity, and organization. She was willing to be involved in the process of learning. She focused her attention well and did a great job of accurately conveying her ideas when asked to do so. She showed exceptional organizational skills when she recited the book verbatim. The only thing that Megan needs help with at this point is in the area of responsiveness. Exposure to other perspectives would be beneficial to Megan. I think if Megan could see stories from different perspectives, then she would be able to pull more from the story, which would help her understand the story better. Understanding the story would help Megan become a more proficient reader.
Megan’s Concepts About Print Knowledge
To assess Megan’s understanding of books, text, and print, I gave her a concepts about print assessment (The State Education Department, 1998). Megan had no problem answering my questions. I asked her where to start reading and she pointed to the first word on the first page. I asked her which direction to read and she moved her finger from top to bottom and left to right. I asked her to show me a word and she pointed to the word walking. I asked her to show me a letter and she pointed to the letter S and told me its name. Finally, I asked her to show me a word that she knew and she pointed to the word went and said it aloud. It is important that Megan know these concepts because an “essential part of the foundation for learning to read is the ability to track print” (Cunningham, 2000, p.49)
Analysis of Megan’s Concepts About Print Knowledge
Megan is a very competent reader. It is obvious from the information provided above that Megan is a Very Experienced reader. She rarely encounters problems with words during reading. She shows complete confidence and independence as a reader. She was very proud to be able to answer all of my questions with little effort. She displayed an outstanding knowledge of concepts of print. I am certain that with continued motivation and opportunities, Megan will grow to be an excellent reader.
Megan’s Reading Development
Characteristics of Text That Are Appropriate for Megan
Based on the Early literacy profile (The State Education Department, 1998), I believe that Early Beginning books are appropriate for Megan. She still requires pictures to provide important information about the text. It is important that there are many high frequency words because they help to boost her confidence while reading. This information was obtained by doing a guided reading lesson on the book The four seasons (2004) by Shawn Foster. While she read the story, I noticed that she used the pictures frequently to help her understand the story. She also relied a great deal on high frequency words. She read the words she knew to help her understand words she did not know. She often re-read a sentence if she got stuck on a word to try to understand its context.
Reading Strategies Megan Demonstrates
Megan uses strategies at both the Early and Advanced Beginning levels. While doing the PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) assessment (The State Education Department, 1998), Megan got every letter in the alphabet correct. Megan uses print mainly to decipher meaning and relies on picture clues for crucial support. Megan understands the concept of a word. She was able to sound words out and break them up into their different parts. Her biggest challenge with decoding was digraphs. Megan had beginning knowledge of consonant digraphs and whenever she encountered a digraph such as /sh/, she paused and then sounded out each letter separately like /s/ /h/. Megan knows most of the high frequency words. We browsed through the list of high frequency words during the PALS assessment and Megan could identify ninety out of one hundred words. Megan can distinguish between rhyming and non-rhyming words. During the PALS assessment, she identified ten out of ten rhyming words. When reading, Megan occasionally needed help with a word or two but had no problem reading at her level the majority of the time.
Comprehension Skills Megan Demonstrates
Megan’s comprehension skills are at the Advanced Beginning level. She relies mainly on print to find meaning of text with pictures playing a supporting role. She can identify characters, setting, and plot. As stated above, she could retell the story with an awareness of the sequence of events. The fact that she recited the story I went walking (Williams, 1989) verbatim is an excellent example of this. Megan showed that she could identify the characters, setting, and plot when we read the book The four seasons. (Foster, 2004). I asked her to tell me what the story was about and she said, “It’s about what you can do in different seasons.”
Analysis of Megan’s Reading Development
Based on the information above, I feel that Megan’s reading skills are developing rapidly. She has learned to use high frequency words as well as pictures to help her understand the story. Her phonological awareness is at a high level for her month and grade level. She has a strong understanding of the alphabet and of the sounds that letters make. Her biggest challenge is with digraphs. I think that Megan is ready to advance to the next level and learn about more complex ideas such as digraphs and R-controlled vowels. I would use a Guess the Covered word lesson because they “help students learn to cross-check to simultaneously think about what would make sense and about letters and sounds” (Cunningham, 2000, p.90). Guess the covered word is an exercise where the teacher covers a word in a sentence and then asks the students to guess the covered word. The teacher then slowly reveals letters to help students think of other words and sounds. I would continue to teach Megan new concepts and help her to incorporate those concepts into her daily reading.
Megan’s Writing Development
Development, Meaning, and Language Use
Based on the writing samples collected during the four visits, Megan is an Advanced Beginning writer. When she writes, she stays within the central theme. When I asked her to write about the story The four season (Foster, 2004) She wrote, “summer is your favorite season.” This shows that she knew to stay on topic. This also shows that she uses simple, repetitive sentences when she writes. She also showed signs of mimicking the sentence pattern from the book with her sentence. The books original phrasing was, “Is your favorite season summer?” Megan looked at the book when writing the word favorite. This shows that she understands how to use text to assist with writing.
Organization
Megan’s organizational skills for writing are also at the Advanced Beginning level, according to the Early literacy profile (The State Education Department, 1998). She writes in sentences to present information or develop a theme. She writes very short sentences and usually only writes one or two sentences at a time. Because she only writes one or two sentences at a time, she does not have a beginning, middle and end. It is because of this that she falls into the Advanced Beginning level. I think that Megan would be an Independent Writer if she worked on writing more sentences and showed increased knowledge of a distinct beginning, middle, and end in her writing.
Conventions
Based on the spelling part of the PALS Assessment (The State Education Department, 1998), Megan’s use of conventions falls into the Advanced Beginning level. She writes legibly and uses a mix of conventional and phonetic spelling. I had the opportunity to watch her write while I observed her class after one of our meetings. I noticed that she occasionally used punctuation. I also noticed that she understood that she needed to start sentences with capital letters. I think the logical next step for Megan is to work on spelling. Spelling seemed to be a challenge for her. She tried sound out words to spell them but she had trouble remembering what letters made the certain sounds. I believe teacher instruction is necessary because “independent discovery is not enough; children need instruction to become expert spellers” (Christie et al., 2003, p. 313)
Analysis of Megan’s Writing Development
I think that the biggest challenge for Megan in writing is spelling. She writes in sentences and sticks to the theme of what she is writing about, however, she has difficulties with spelling. I think that Megan needs to become more acquainted with some of the conventions of spelling. I think that with more instruction and motivation, Megan could grow to be an excellent writer.
Conclusions
Based on the information gathered from the observations and work with Megan in October of 2004 in first grade, Megan is performing above the fall benchmarks for her grade level on the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening. In the Group Rhyme Awareness assessment, Megan scored a ten out of ten. This section assessed Megan’s ability to distinguish between words that rhyme and words that do not rhyme. In the Lower Case Alphabet Recognition assessment, Megan scored a twenty-six out of twenty six. This section determined what letters of the alphabet Megan knew. In the Letter Sounds assessment, Megan scored a twenty-one out of twenty-six. This section determined if Megan new what sounds letters make. The only letter sounds that Megan got wrong were consonant digraphs. In the Spelling assessment, Megan got twelve out of fifteen. This section assessed Megan’s spelling ability.