Clare Paronich, Samantha Esposito December 2, 2012 EDUG 787 I.

Background Jessica M is the eighth grade girl that we chose to use test using the WIAT. Teresa attends the Ursuline School in New Rochelle in Westchester. The Ursuline School is a prestigious private Catholic School that is well known for its advanced curriculum and challenging academic programs. Jessica is a highly motivated student who is similar to her sister Jillian. Jessica was very compliant when we administered the tests to her. Even though it was after school, she did not complain about doing the extra work. Jessica tried her hardest on all of the tests and really thought about the way she answered all of the questions. Jessica wants to study education when she attends college. She likes to read fiction, nonfiction, and fairy tale books. She feels that her strongest subjects are history, English and science. On her interest survey she claimed she needed improvement in mathematics, but when taking the WIAT it showed that math was one of her strongest points. It was clear that Jessica was not a student that struggled in school. In fact, she does extremely well in school. Jessica is a well-behaved student who pays attention in class and gets all of her work done in a timely fashion. It is obvious that school is her first priority. Although she plays sports like volley ball, she does not let that interfere with her studies. Jessica shared many things about herself with us. She enjoys playing volleyball after school. She loves the boy band, One Direction. Jessica has many friends and when she is with

them they usually just hang out around the house. Jessica admires her sister and tries to work hard like her sister Margaret. She was a pleasure to test and we appreciated her cooperation. II. Testing Results

Assessment Listening Comprehension Receptive Vocabulary Oral Discourse Comprehension Early Reading Skills Reading Comprehension Math Problem Solving Alphabet Writing Fluency Sentence Composition Sentence Combining Sentence Building Word Reading Essay Composition Pseudoword Decoding Numerical Operations Oral Expression Expressive Vocabulary Oral Word Fluency Sentence Repetition Oral Reading Fluency Spelling Math Fluency-Addition Math Fluency- Subtraction Math Fluency- Multiplication

Standard Score 207 96 11 90 114 235 119 116 137 107 235 110 111 114 120 126 130 -

Percentile 39 77 25 82 90 86 Rubric Score: 21/24 99 66 75 77 82 91 96 98 -

Descriptive Classification Very Low Below Average Very Low Below Average

Average Average

Average Low Below Average Below Average Below Average Average Average Average

Reading: Although Jessica is an exceptional student, her reading comprehension scores were extremely low at her grade level, according to the WIAT. We attribute this to the fact that these tests were administered after school. It is very likely that she was tired, uninterested in the subject/passage or truly has difficulty comprehending at her grade level. Jessica also had some difficulty pairing the vocabulary words. Her receptive vocabulary score was also very low. We can make the assumption that she is reading books that are not challenging her and therefore, she is not retaining grade level vocabulary words. Jessica scored perfectly on the reading comprehension portions that were below her grade level. She started to not get perfect scores once she got to about the sixth grade level, but her scores were nowhere near below average. For some reason, when she took the reading comprehension test for her grade level, her scores were low. We were surprised by how low they were since Jessica did she was an avid reader. Therefore, we do not think the WIAT was accurate in testing Jessicas reading comprehension skills. Writing: Jessica did well on the writing portion of the WIAT. After reviewing her writing piece we have given Jessica 21 out of 24 according to the rubric on the essay composition subtest. Our suggestions are to practice her grammar. We suggest using websites like brainpop, which has videos that teach grammar to students about her age. She struggled when using contractions. She particularly struggled with the contraction its. Jessica was confused about how to use it and used it wrong throughout the entire writing piece. However, her writing sample was

descriptive and detailed. Jessica used vocabulary that was advanced for her grade level. It made the writing sample more interesting and it was a quick read. We were also able to have Jessica provide us with two writing samples both prompted and unprompted. Both pieces again were well written. Again, she uses great details and very descriptive language. The prompted writing piece was stronger than the unprompted sample. We first administered the unprompted writing piece which she could write about anything she wished. Jessica wrote us a well-written sample about Hurricane Sandy. In it she discussed how her family and her were personally affected by what she calls super storm Sandy. It was a short writing piece, but it contained relevant information. She wrote an introduction, body, and conclusion. It was a total of three paragraphs. The next writing sample we had Jessica write was prompted. We asked her to write about dreams. Again, Jessica had an introduction, body, and conclusion. We felt that this piece was better written than the unprompted piece. Her thoughts were clear and organized. She used dialogue and advanced vocabulary for her grade level. Math: On the mathematics portions of the WIAT Jessica scored average on all except the math problem solving subtest. Typically, problem solving is something that most students struggle with. Although, Jessica is an eighth grade student she completed the entire subtest. She was able to answer all of the problems at her grade level correctly. Once Jessica reached the math problems at a twelfth grade level she began to struggle which is understandable. We did notice for the majority of the problem solving questions Jessica did need to use a pen and paper to help her with her work.

In addition, the last part of the test is simply solving numbers and operations. Jessica knows how to add, subtract, and multiply according to the WIAT because she answered all of those questions correctly. She struggled mostly with the problem solving. It was difficult for her to read the problem and figure out what the problem was asking. This is not a surprising since Jessica did not score well on the reading comprehension part of the WIAT. Therefore, we conclude that Jessica needs to practice her reading comprehension in order to enhance her vocabulary, comprehension, and problem solving skills in mathematics. III. Recommendations: We feel that according to the WIAT Teresas strongest points were in writing and mathematics. Jessica struggled the most with reading comprehension. Her scores were unusually low in reading comprehension, which was reflected in the math problem solving section of the WIAT. Jessica needs to work on questioning and predicting skills in her reading comprehension. We can aid Jessica in this area by giving her passages that she would be interested in so that she is more likely to comprehend the story. Jessica needs to focus on finding books that are just right for her reading level. The teacher would need to aid her in this process. We do not think it is necessary for Jessica to receive special services because we do not feel that the WIAT reading comprehension portion of the test accurately tests students. We feel that the reading comprehension After administering and scoring the WIAT we believe that it is not a completely accurate way to determine ones academic abilities. It is extremely overwhelming and does not meet the needs for individuals. It also does not accommodate different learning styles and preferences.

In conclusion administering the WIAT was a learning experience for both us and Jessica. We are happy to have had this opportunity and learn about testing. Although the WIAT has provided Jessica with an average rating, we believe that she is an exceptional student and enjoyed working with her this semester.