Case Report for Finley Dixon

Case Report for Finley Dixon

Description:

Finley is a 9 year old boy. He is going into the 4th grade at Mountain Pathways Community Montessori School in Boone, N.C. This is his first time attending the ASU Reading Clinic but has had private tutoring through Vicki Norris. Finley enjoys the outdoors and exploring. He is lucky to go on adventures with his family camping, hiking, fishing and water skiing. His parents are faithful to read aloud to him and his favorite author is Gary Paulsen. He requests Hatchet to be reread again and again. Finley is a very conscientious worker. He attends to the task at hand and makes multiple self-corrections because he realizes that something isn’t correct. He wants to get things right, so when he is taught or explained something, he listens and applies it. He is a quick learner and retains information week to week. He asks lots of questions and dialog is easy because he can articulate about a lot of subjects. Finley is a joy to work with. Speech articulation issues were noted.

Initial Testing:

Reading Diagnosis Summary Sheet Finley Dixon Rising 4th 6/10 Lucy Cook

WRI
Flash/Untimed / Oral
Accuracy / Oral
Comp. / Oral
Rate / Silent
Comp./Rate / Spelling
PP 100/
P 100/
1st 90/95 / 96 / 100 / 101 / 80/75 / 100
2nd 75/85 / 93 / 90 / 79 / 100/88 / 75
3rd 80/95 / 93 / 100 / 55 / 83/77 / 67
4th 65/70 / 93 / 100 / 63
5th 25/65
Level / Total
Errors / Meaning
Change
1st grade / 3 / 0
2nd grade / 8 / 2
3rd grade / 10 / 2
4th grade / 10 / 4

Independent Level: 1st grade

Instructional Level: 2nd grade

Frustrational Level: 3rd grade

The Word Recognition test contains 20-word lists increasing in difficulty from pre-primer through eighth grade. All students begin this test at the pre-primer level and testing stops when “flashed” score drops below 50%. Performance on the “flashed” test, (students’ sight vocabulary) is a better predictor of contextual reading ability whereas untimed test indicates decoding skills. Automaticity is a must to facilitate comprehension so that students do not struggle trying to decode words and lose meaning in the process. On the word recognition in isolation test, Finley is Independent at 1st grade level. He has both accuracy and automaticity with words at this level. He is Instructional at 2nd & 3rd grade with accuracy at this level but not automaticity. 4th grade falls in the Grey area and 5th grade is Frustration level.

We look at students’ word recognition in isolation assessment to know the grade level where to begin the oral reading assessment. Where the student scored 80% or better on the “flash” test is where to begin the oral passages. Testing stops when accuracy drops below 90% on a passage. Analysis of oral reading in context indicates that Finley has an Independent reading level of first grade. The reading rate goal for the end of first is 45-85wpm so he has surpassed this with 101 wpm. His instructional reading level is second grade with 79 wpm. The reading rate goal for the end of second is 80-120wpm. Our goal has been to increase fluency at this level. His frustration level is third grade 55wpm. The end of year reading goal at this level is 95-135wpm.

There is congruence between the Independent and Instructional level of the Word Recognition in Isolation test and the Word Recognition in Context tests. Both levels were 1st and 2nd grade respectively. However, the frustration level for the WRI test was 5th grade level whereas the frustration level was 3rd grade level on the WRC test. Self corrections count as errors on the WRC test and many of Finley’s errors were self corrections. This indicates that Finley does not know these words automatically but does recognize when what he says does not sound correct. He uses the context of the sentence to help construct mean and assist with decoding unfamiliar words.

As students develop reading ability, they tend to read faster silently because they can process the text faster. Finley had an Independent rate at first grade but comprehension was less that ideal for this level. The rate for second grade dropped off to the frustration range but comprehension improved.

Research supports a high correlation between spelling and word reading ability. The Schlagal spelling test provides insight into the students’ orthographic knowledge (ability to represent sounds with letters). The result of Finley’s spelling assessment placed his Independent level at first grade with 100% (Independent range: 90-100%). His instructional level was second and third grade with 75% and 67%(Instructional range: 50%-89%) and frustration level was not established since I did not administer beyond 3rd grade. (frustration range: below 40%). He struggles with applying the doubling rule before adding suffixes. (ex. shoping for shopping, steping for stepping) The suffix “ed” is spelled phonically. (ex. trapet for trapped). He also needs reinforcing of diphthongs and vowel teams rules. (ex. norze for noise and screem for scream).

Tutoring:

Our guided reading sessions began with a level 9 book, Everybody’s Best Friend. Finley was able to do a fairly good prediction of the story. He adjusted his predictions based on what he learned after hearing the story. He has a good vocabulary and comprehension. Rereading to build fluency was a goal for Finley. We did a 2 minute timed reading. He was all smiles when he saw the results graphed 190 words on day one and 237 words on day 2. J We discussed the benefits of rereading and how practice makes perfect. I decided to move into books with a little more “meat” to engage Finley. Choose Snakes, a level 2-1 book and worked on a K-W-L chart as we partner read the book. A light bulb went off as he found the answer to the question he posed before beginning the book. Finley was a conscientious reader and makes many self corrections. He was attending to what he was reading and used content of the sentence to assist with corrections. We moved onto grade 2 Hunting Sharks. Finley enjoyed the content of this story and I was impressed with vocabulary retrieval after only one exposure. Conducted a 2 minute timed reading on this selection and in keeping with Finley style; he asked several clarifying questions before we began. 1st trial = 191 words, 2nd trial=224 J. Finley was able to move through levels quickly. DRTA with Ben Franklin a 3rd grade level book was tried next. During our first read at this level, he had multiple errors but made self corrections for over half of them. When encountering unknown words, he would break it down based on our word study rules! Transfer! He is a fast learner. We used this story for Expert Reader activity. Since it was not timed, Finley was determined to achieve the goal. He made a conscious effort to make no errors by reading slower and finger tracking. His first score was a 97 and his second score was a 98. Bronco Charlie and the Pony Express 3rd grade level was our next story. Finley favorite author is Gary Paulsen so this is right up his alley. He was totally engaged in the content and made minimal errors. Flow and accuracy were right on target. I was pleased with how naturally he read this selection. 2 minute timed drill results: 1st trial= 176 words w 7 errors, 2s/c; 2nd trial= 203 words w 5 errors, 2 s/c. Finley is a sponge for informational stories. We partner read our last story, Gold Rush another 3rd grade level book. Fewer errors and self corrections were noted and Finley was harvesting words for our word study without prompting. Post test on level 2 = accuracy 98%, comprehension 100%, rate 103 wpm. Post test on level 3 = accuracy 95%, comprehension 100%, rate 86 wpm.

Word Study began with a review of vowels and consonants then introduction of closed and open syllables rules with sorting. Finley has had private tutoring so as I discussed this, he recalled the information. I was able to reteach and reinforce previous learning by having him build confidence with the concept. We moved from real words to nonsense words and he accurately and confidently articulated the rules. Next we moved to VC/CV and V/CV syllable division words. Using magnetic letter tiles are great for proving visual cues and the different colored tiles add extra support. Finley likes getting thing right so he is an eager learner. He has had Letterland tutoring from his private tutor so this worked well. He is able to articulate reason for dividing words. We completed a word sort next. Finley quick placed words in the correct column and used the vowels to separate syllables to decode words he did not know. We played concentration to practice and reinforce concepts and have fun. Finley read each word and told # of syllables and rule word followed. Bingo was played for additional review. After a spelling test in which he got 8/10 only missing blizzard-blizzerd and frequent-frequient, I introduced the I-I-I rule and he caught quickly so we move on to doubling. Finley could sort 1-1-1/not1-1-1 & double before adding ending/do not double. I would show Finley a word with the suffix added and ask him the root word and he could correctly tell me. We continued to practice this rules by harvesting words from the stories we were reading. Post test in spelling revealed 100% in second grade. Pretest on second grade was 75%. On the third grade list, he spelled trapped-trapet but said it didn’t look right so made corrections. Based on this, we harvested “ed” words from the story and sorted them according to their ending sound, /t/, /d/, /ed/.

Based on Finley’s interest inventory, we wrote about a family adventure. He had just returned from a family camping trip and was full of details to share. I put all of his ideas on a story map and each day we added several sentences to his story. Retelling this was easy for Finley, so editing for spelling and grammar was all that was needed.

Projection:

Finley is an eager learner and is driven to do well. He is outgoing and is neat to talk too, always full of trivia and great questions. Lucky for Finley, his parents read to him nightly and visit the library all the time. Considering the amount of progress Finley was able to make with one-on-one tutoring at the ASU Reading Clinic, if this level of small group intervention is continued over the next year, Finley could easily gain a year to end up with an Independent level of 3rd grade.