Case Study Assessment

John is a nine year old student in a fourth grade classroom at Village Elementary
School. He lives with his mom, dad, and two siblings; older brother and older sister. Since
both his siblings are older than him, he likes to refer to himself as the fifth person in his
family because he is the youngest. He has lived in the same house his entire life. John is very
into sports. His favorite sports to play are soccer, baseball, and football. During his free
time at home, he enjoys watching the NFL Network. He also collects baseball cards. When
he grows up, he would like to be a professional athlete: either a soccer player or a baseball
player. The person that he values the most is his brother because he teaches him to play
sports. One of his favorite brands of clothing is Nike. He owns a lot of their clothing like
shirts, shorts, socks, and shoes. He would say that a good percentage of his clothing is Nike.
Besides sports, John also finds interest in spending time with his family. He loves to play
Monopoly with them. On days he has off from school, he enjoys sleeping and relaxing at
home. However, during the weekend, he plays sports and goes on his trampoline. Another
activity that he enjoys partaking in is going to the beach. At the beach, he really enjoys body
surfing in the waves. John says that even though his favorite food is pizza, he really loves
going to Cheeburger Cheeburger.
John enjoys coming to school. His best subject would have to be math and
specifically multiplication. He enjoys reading as well. He loves to read different kinds of
books, especially chapter books. Some of his favorite types are books to read are either
sports books or mysteries. He also enjoys reading books where the main character is either
a boy or a girl. He isnt limited to reading about a main character that is a specific gender.
Even though John enjoys reading, he still has trouble picking out books to read. Some of his

favorite books that he has read are Lemonade War and Family Huddle. He has no trouble
explaining to anyone what these books are about. John is always surrounded by people
who like to read. Both his friends and family enjoy reading. He reads during the summer as
well. A series of books that he would like to read is the Judy Blume books in the future. A
goal that John has for himself as a reader is that he would like to reread sentences he
doesn't understand.
On October 21, 2014, John was asked to read an excerpt from Silver by Gloria
Whelan. A running record was conducted of his oral miscues and a brief comprehension
check. In terms of word recognition, John read with a 99% accuracy rate. John would likely
be able to read this text if given the entire book to read. He was able to recognize and read
most of the words in the excerpt. He did not have a problem decoding words in the text.
However, John needs to work on his self-correction skills. While reading the text, he
mispronounced a word that he did not go back and correct. If read carefully, a reader
would know that the word he read did not match the context of the sentence. This can
show that the reader was reading too quickly to not catch the mistake. Even though there
were miscues during the reading, it did not appear to make a difference in the overall story.
In terms of comprehension, John was able to recall the main characters and the
events that occurred. He did not need to refer back to the passage in order to remember
what he read. However, while summarizing the text, he did not necessarily go in the order
that the events happened. He would begin by retelling the events as they happened but
then would remember a fact that he missed and would go back and talk about that idea. He
also did a good job with the comprehension questions. While retelling the text, he was able

to answer the questions that were provided on the running record. If he didnt answer a
question during his retelling, he was able to answer the question when asked.
John was able read the text fluently. He would pause after sentences. However, he
lacked a short pause after commas and would take short breaths in the middle of
sentences. He didnt seem to have a variation of tone in his voice while reading the text. He
also didnt seem to read with any expression. He read the text in one tone of voice. It felt
that he read the text just because he was asked to do so. Overall, John was capable of
reading the passage with fluency and able to pause after sentences and paragraphs.
On October 9 2014, John wrote in his writing journal. He was asked to free write, so
he was able to write about anything he wanted. He used his creativity to come up with a
short story. His story was about two people who were going to jump off a diving board. The
content of his story was very interesting. He made the reader want to keep reading. John
has strengths when it comes to mechanics. He is able to use appropriate punctuation at the
end of sentences. He is able to use capitalization when necessary. However, he needs to do
a lot of editing. His weaknesses were shown through this writing sample. There were many
spelling errors occurring throughout the writing sample. Some of the errors were words
that he should have known how to spell because they are commonly used words. Some
suggestions for him would be to change some words around because they do not fit the
context of the story. He would have words that were in past tense that were in a present
tense sentence. He also needs to work on adding more information. His sentences seemed
to not flow together. He just placed his thoughts on paper and it was not flowing well. He
needs to develop a more detailed introduction. He dove right into the story without giving

any sort of setting. The way the story ended was not clear at all. It seemed that he just
ended the story and did not give any form of closure.
On October 14, 2014, John was given a San Diego Quick Assessment. He was shown
ten words on each card that he would just have to read. After he finished that set, he would
move on to the next set. He would keep doing this until he got one word incorrect. This
would determine his independent level. John was able to reach 3963/4964 before he made
his first pronunciation incorrectly. When he got two words wrong, he reached the
instructional level that was 5965 for John. Lastly, he reached three words wrong at 6956
that defined his frustration level.
He was also given an Elementary Spelling Inventory. He was provided twenty-five
words to spell. He was given the word, then a sentence with the word and then the word
again for him to spell. Out of all the words he was given, he managed to get seventeen
correct. He has a difficult time with a lot of the unaccented final syllables as well as the
bases of roots. The words that couldnt just be sounded out to get the spelling but need a
more of a memorization approach is where John has a difficulty with.
After conducting several informal assessments, I have concluded that Johns
strengths as a reader are excellent fluency and knowing when to pause and take a breath.
He has the most difficulty in reading with self-correction of words and sounding out words.
To further develop his skills as a reader, John should be encouraged to read aloud as often
as possible, with someone listening. This can help him by having that person show him how
to go back and reread a sentence where he may have made a mistake. Reading aloud can
also help him improve on sounding out the words. When reading silently, readers tend to

just skip over words they might not know. Reading aloud can force them to sound out
difficult words. This can also increase their vocabulary.
Johns strengths as a writer are having a good flow of the writing piece and staying
on topic. He has the most difficulty in writing with creating introductions and closing the
story. To further develop his skills as a writer, John should be encouraged to come up with
different ways he can start off a story. Whether its a teacher or a parent helping him, it is
believed that with some assistance John can create a strong introduction that can catch the
readers interest. The same technique can be used for developing a conclusion.