Literacy Profile

Standard 2
This project shows that I know ways to assess students and then
make appropriate instructional decisions to create lesson plans
and to increase student learning.

Assessment
My tutee was chosen for me to tutor with by his 5th grade homeroom teacher. She knew
he was reading below grade level, possibly on 3rd grade, and still continuing to struggle with
comprehension (and making average grades in his classes). I learned that he was interested in
reading but was not motivated to read during his free time (or for graded reading assignments).
He was comfortable reading on a 3rd grade level but did not like the idea of reading in front of
students (silently or aloud) because he knew he struggled as a reader. He would read 3rd grade
Accelerated Reader (AR) books but would do poorly or below average on the AR tests.
There was another student that the teacher suggested as a possible tutee but this teacher
decided not to choose him because he was already receiving services from a volunteer for ESL.
The teacher believed my tutee would be great to tutor because his mother is so willing to get
extra help for him even if that means coming to school early or staying after school. The teacher

kept this in mind when choosing a student for me to tutor just in case I needed to work with him
before and after school since I am working full time at the same school.
There were several assessment pieces that I completed for my pre-assessment to
determine his instructional level for reading and to understand where my student was in regards
to all aspects of assessment.
1. QRI (Qualitative Reading Inventory)
Oral reading fluency- looks at the reading rate (words per minute and words
correct per minute) for reading passages orally and silently as well as how the
student reads with speed, accuracy, and expression.
Word Recognition in Isolation (WRI) - looks at automaticity in word
knowledge and decoding as well as what grade level a student goes below
75% with timed and untimed lists.
Word Recognition in Context (WRC) looks at the students oral reading
accuracy in context (a reading passage).
Comprehension- looks at the percentage of questions that were answered
correctly after reading passages orally, silently, or after listening to the tutor.
These passages are both fiction and nonfiction texts and the passages are
chosen based on the information from the WRI.
2. Spelling
Elementary Spelling Inventory- looks at how many words the student can
spell correctly from a certain grade level appropriate list.
3. Writing
Writing Sample- looks at how the student goes through the writing process
(looks at brainstorming, organization/structure of writing, editing, revising,
etc.).
4. Affective Measures
The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (Garfield Test) - twenty questions
that the student answers in regards to recreational and academic reading by

choosing a Garfield picture that best suits him/her (happiest, slightly smiling,
mildly upset, and very upset).
The Reader Self-Perception Scale (RSPS) thirty-three questions that the
student answers in regards to their beliefs and opinions about reading on a
scale of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree. The
questions relate to the students general perception of reading, their own
progress, observational comparison, social feedback, and physiological states.
Child Interview- about seventeen questions that the tutor asks the tutee in
regards to their own interests, their school, their metacognition, and their
attitudes and motivation towards reading.

Summary of Data Analysis and Reading Levels

My tutee knows that his reading skills are not the same as other 5th graders but he has the
confidence to believe that he is a good reader and capable of becoming a better reader. He
believes that he is not as good as the others in regards to reading because he says he does not
know as many words as the other students do. Overall, he did a great job with his Word
Recognition in Isolation up to 3rd grade before the score dropped at the 4th grade level. His
accuracy while reading is pretty spot on but his reading rates are very below grade level. My
tutee did not do so well with the comprehension questions after reading the passage (silently,
orally, or read to) but he did get high look back scores. He has the ability to find the answers
after reading the passage but he needs the story in front of him to skim through the passage in
order to find the answers. His writing had no continuation between the paragraphs so they were
very confusing to follow along but he knew to organize his thoughts into several paragraphs
(even though they were not connected well enough). He took his time with the brainstorming

process and the preparation for his writing but he had a lack of an introduction and a conclusion,
as well as several errors such as capitalization, spelling, and grammar.
I call my tutees instructional level to be on a 3rd grade level because of several things. His
Word Recognition in Isolation is instructional at the 3rd grade level with a score of 75% even
though 2nd grade was a 70%, he went up with the score at 3rd grade and then had 95% with the
untimed (compared to 50% for 4th grade times and untimed). My tutee also had a 97% for Word
Recognition in Context for the 3rd grade reading passage. I could also tell that the 3rd grade
passages were easier for him to read compared to the 4th and 5th grade passages. His
comprehension was a little lower for the 3rd grade passage (56%) but I think it is because of the
way he worded the answers. I believe if I prompted him to change his wording of the answers
and to give a little more information, that he would have had a higher score (his look back was
88%).
Looking at the assessments, I can understand better why my tutee struggles with reading
and makes average grades in his classes. His WRI is okay for a 3rd grade student but he is in 5th
grade. Therefore, he struggles with the automaticity and quick recognition of words when
reading and reads slower than most students in 5th grade. He reads so slowly that he struggles
with comprehending what he read because by the time he finishes, he forgot what he read
towards the beginning. As a 5th grader, reading has a lot to do with his classwork whether it be
math problems, notes in history class, or reading passages from his science textbook. He
struggles with keeping up and therefore his grades are not the best.

Artifacts
Section 4.1- Student Interest Inventory
o Did not complete this inventory
Section 4.2- Individual Reading Inventory

o QRI-5 Word Recognition in Isolation (WRI): Used to determine the reading level
by looking at the instructional level and starting with those reading passages. If a
tutee has a low WRI score, they will most likely not be reading on grade level
because they need to have the automaticity and quick decoding skills needed to
read on grade level
Independent: Preprimer 1 (95% timed, 100% untimed), Preprimer 2/3

(100%, 100%), and Primer (95%, 100%)

Instructional: 1st (75%, 80%), 2nd (marginal between instructional and

frustrational- 70%, 100%), 3rd (75%, 95%)

Frustrational: 4th (50%, 50%)
o QRI- 5 Word Recognition in Context (WRC): Overall, my tutee did a good job
with the reading passages, comprehension questions, and fluency. However, I
noticed my tutee did the best on the third grade level and beginning to do better
on the fourth grade level.
My tutee did a great job with the 3rd grade narrative reading passage (97%)
and a comprehension of 56% (88% look back). He seemed to really
understand the passage and answered the questions to his best. His fluency

was 97%.
For the 4th grade narrative reading passage, he scored 98% with a
comprehension of 88 (did not do look backs for this one because I forgot).

His fluency was 74%.

For the 5th grade narrative reading passage, he scored 96% with a

comprehension of 75%. His fluency was 60%.

I had my tutee read an expository text and he did 96% with a

comprehension of 38% (63% look back). His fluency was 74%.

His silent reading passage was on 4th grade level and his comprehension
was 25% (50 look back). His fluency was 89%.

For the passage that he listened to me read, his comprehension was 38%

(100 look back).

Section 4.3Qualitative Spelling Assessment
o I gave my tutee the Elementary Spelling Inventory to see his stage placement for
spelling. He scored 48 points out of the possible 78 points and I placed him in the
Middle Syllables and Affixes spelling stage.
o Some examples of his confusions: throut/throat, ched/chewed, cares/carries, and
faver/favor
o I believe my students word knowledge is affecting his literacy skills for many
reasons. For example, if he is trying to read, he will come upon several words that
he does not know (especially if he does not know how to spell it) and it will take
him longer to determine what it is. This process will slow him down and affect his
fluency and comprehension.
o My tutees strengths include emergent and letter name-alphabetic features as well
as diagraphs, blends, most long-vowel patterns, and several other patterns.
However, some of his weaknesses include syllable junctures and easy prefixes
and suffixes. This feature in the Syllables and Affixes stage is where he missed
more than two feature points on the spelling inventory. I would recommend an
accelerated instructional pacing to get the tutee on track and to hopefully get him
ahead of where he should be. I will begin instruction by focusing on plurals with
the letter y. For example, my tutee spelled the word carries as cares.
Section 4.4Written Language
o Strengths: My tutee used his time well during the brainstorming process and he
knew to organize his thoughts into several paragraphs and not just one long
paragraph.

o Weaknesses: My tutee had no continuation between paragraphs which would

confuse the reader, had frequent errors such as capitalization, spelling, and
grammar, and also a lack of an introduction and a conclusion.
o My plans for instruction with my tutee include working on organization with his
writing (make sure he has an introduction, his supporting details, and a
conclusion) and to make sure they flow nicely.
Section 4.5Student Interests and Affective Measures
o The Reader Self-Perception Scale: My tutee believes in himself and believes that
he can be a good reader but does not think he compares well with others in his
class. He believe they read better, know more words, reads faster than him, etc.
He says that he enjoys reading and he feels calm and relaxed while reading. My
tutee said believes that he is becoming a better reader because he needs less help
while reading.
o The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (Garfield): My tutees scores show
that he relatively enjoys reading for fun but not so much for classwork
or homework. He enjoys it when other people read to him, would rather
play games instead of reading during his free time, loves to read
during school breaks, does not like reading aloud in class, and does not
like reading tests.

o Student Interview: I would describe my tutee as being a typical 5th grade boy who
would rather be home playing video games, watching television shows/movies
like SpongeBob or Spiderman or outside playing with his friends than at
school (or even reading). He enjoys reading but would prefer his time to be spent
playing. He describes himself as a reader who needs help because he messes up
on a lot of words while reading and he says he is used to people reading to him so

he often does not know several words. His mother and sister will often read to
him at home and he enjoys that a lot.

Instructional Goals
Word Knowledge (Phonics): I would like to help strengthen his word knowledge in the
Middle Syllables and Affixes stage before moving onto the Late Syllables and Affixes
stage. I will review and work on syllable junctures and easy prefixes and suffixes.
Fluency: My tutee reads very slowly and hardly with any expression. I would like to
work on his fluency so that he can learn how to read with expression and at a reasonable
rate. He is reading way below the 5th grade level because he is reading at a rate of 60-97
WPM when he should be reading 140+ WPM. We will be focusing on the components of
fluency- accuracy, prosody, and rate.
Comprehension: My tutee needs to learn about comprehension skills so that he can be
reading and thinking about what he is reading. I believe he reads just to read and not to
comprehend. He does great with the look back questions but I would like to work on the
comprehension skills to help him improve as a reader. If he is able to use a strategy for a
word, paragraph, etc. that he does not understand, he could be able to read it better and be
able to comprehend it better. We will go over several comprehension strategies but will
primarily focus on determining importance.
Vocabulary: I want to work with skills to incorporate new vocabulary skills. My tutee
has states that he struggles with reading because of the words that he does not know. We
will work on learning types of prefixes and suffixes that are often used and are more
common in reading. This will also lead to him doing better with spelling because he

struggled with easy prefixes and suffixes. Working on vocabulary skills will help increase
his comprehension of texts.
Writing: My tutee struggled greatly with his writing sample. He appeared to be relaxed
and comfortable with the writing process but once I reviewed his writing piece, I became
concerned. I am not worried about the errors such as capitalization, spelling, and
grammar because they did not affect the understanding of the piece. I am however,
concerned about the lack of organization in his piece because it did not have an
introduction or conclusion. A reader would not know what the purpose would be if we did
not tell them. I want to focus on organization so that he can improve on the structure of
his writing.

Evidence of Research Base: Individualized Instructional Goals (Lesson Planning)

Word Knowledge (Phonics): Phonics is extremely important for students to work on
because a failure to master phonics and related word-analysis skills is easily the number
one cause of reading problems (Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing,
Gunning) Readers who do poorly with phonics tend to also have specific difficulties
learning and using phonics.
Fluency: Fluency is an important aspect for students to have in order to become better
readers. Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and
comprehension. It is important to work on because the Department of Education believes
that more fluent readers focus their attention on making connections among the ideas in a
text and between these ideas and their background knowledge. Therefore, they are able to
focus on comprehension. They also believe that less fluent readers must focus their
attention primarily on decoding and accessing the meaning of individual words.

Therefore, they have little attention left for comprehending the text (United States
Department of Education).
Comprehension: The purpose of reading is comprehension, understanding the meaning
from the written text. Without comprehension, reading can be frustrating and difficult to
understand and follow along. Comprehension is an important goal for reading because it
can help students develop the skills needed to become better readers. Good readers
monitor their comprehension as they read. When they realize that they do not understand
what they are reading, they apply [steps or strategies they have learned [to repair or
fix-up their lack of understanding (Texas Educational Agency).
Vocabulary: Vocabulary is an important skills for students to work on. Generally,
vocabulary and comprehension and comprehension scores are comparable. When
vocabulary is high, comprehension is high. When vocabulary is low, comprehension is
low (Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing, Gunning).
Writing: Writing is an important skills because it can further foster the development of
literacy concepts (Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing, Gunning). Teachers
should encourage students to write and not just copy things down. Gunning says that
students have such limited writing skills that they lack even partial mastery for the
writing demanded by their grade level. Students do better on narrative writing than
informative, and better on informative than persuasive tasks. Students need practice
writing to become writers.

Instructional Plan
Instructional Planning Guide

Tutors Name: Devinne Baldwin

Student Name: El Taylor, Jr.
Age: 11
Grade: 5th
Instructional Reader Type: Transitional to Intermediate
Independent reading level: 2nd
Instructional reading level: 3rd
Frustrational reading level: 4th
Notes on reading:
El reads very slowly and hardly with any expression. He reads below grade level (around
97 WPM on instructional level) and word by word. El often does not pay attention to punctuation
and continues to read past punctuation without pausing. Retelling and comprehension suffer
because he reads slowly and forget what he read. He also does not know comprehension skills to
help him while reading.

Word Study Stage: Within Word Patterns to Syllables & Affixes (Middle)
Begin Instruction with which features: long vowels as a review
Focus instruction on (select 1 main area): Fluency
What Essential Overarching Question will guide our lessons over the 6 weeks?
Should schools allow students to eat sweets?
What comprehension strategy will we work to build towards independence?
Determining Importance
What writing genre and/or focus will we include in our studies?
Persuasive writing with a focus on organization

Lesson

Reading for
Fluency
Discuss/focus on

rate

Word Knowledge

Reading and Writing

Features: Long vowels Text:

Activity/ies:
Sort and blind sort

Writing:

Discuss/focus on

Features: Plurals

Text: nonfiction piece- point of

rate and

(y)

view

automaticity

Activity/ies:
Sort and blind sort

Writing: Prewriting for editorial

piece (Should schools allow
students to eat sweets?). El will

determine main idea, the

purpose and the audience of his
writing. He will begin to outline
his ideas and focus on
organization.

Discuss/focus on

Features: R-controlled

Text: nonfiction piece- point of

automaticity and

patterns (ar/er/or)

view

phrasing

Activity/ies:
Sort and blind sort

Writing: El will write his

editorial piece and will edit and
revise his piece. We will make

sure he has some form of

structure including an
introduction, details, and a
conclusion. We will make sure
he has a creative and engaging
introduction and conclusion.

Discuss/focus on

Features: Unstressed

phrasing and

syllable vowel patterns

sentence fluency

(ure/cher/sher)
Activity/ies:
Sort and blind sort

Text: nonfiction- propaganda

Writing: El will type his

editorial piece.

Discuss/focus on

Features: Harder

sentence fluency

suffixes (-ant/-

and expression

ance)
Activity/ies:
Sort and blind sort

Discuss/focus on

Features: Harder

expression and

suffuxes (-ent/-ence)

automaticy

Activity/ies:
Sort and blind sort

Text: nonfiction- propaganda

Writing: El will transform his

editorial piece into a blog post.

Text: nonfiction

Writing: El will respond to a

blog with his own comments
about his viewpoint on whether
students should have good
grades in order to play sports.

Tutoring Log
Date
February 3rd, 2015
February 4th, 2015
February 11th, 2015
February 12th, 2015
February 18th, 2015
February 25th, 2015

What we did
Pre-Assessments
Pre-Assessments
Pre-Assessments
Pre-Assessments
--------------Lesson #1: Word Knowledge Lesson

March 4th, 2015

March 11th, 2015
March 18th, 2015
March 25th, 2015
April 1st, 2015
April 8th, 2015
April 15th, 2015
April 22nd, 2015

(plurals with y)
----------------------------Lesson #2
Lesson #3
Lesson #4
--------------Lesson #5
Lesson #6 & Post Assessments

Literacy Lessons & Reflections

Comments

Snow day

Tutee was absent

Unable to tutor due to work

Spring Break
Fire drill

o Attached in separate documents

Progress Monitoring and Post-Assessments

Progress Monitoring
o For monitoring my tutees progress, I decided to do a running record on
his original Independent level and Frustrational level to see if he has
improved. I also wanted to complete an updated Elementary Reading
Attitude Survey (Garfield Survey).
o First, I had my tutee read a narrative on the fourth grade level (to see if his
original Independent level has changed) by having him read Johnny
Appleseed. He had the same WRC score of 98% but his oral WPM
increased from 74 to 76. His comprehension was the same with a 88%
even with a look back.
o Second, I had my tutee read a narrative on the fifth grade level (to see if
his original Frustrational level has changed) by having him read Martin
Luther King, Jr.. He had a 1% increase for the WRC increasing from 96%
to 97%. His oral WPM significantly increased from 60 to 96! However, he
admitted that he read the passage to quickly because he was having a hard
time recalling the details and answering the comprehension questions. His
comprehension scores went from a 75% (with no look back because I
forgot) to a 38% (and a 100% with look back). His original score of 75%
is better than the 38% but his look back score is excellent.
o Based on the data that I was able to take from post-assessments, I would
say that my tutees Independent level increased from third grade to fifth
grade and his Frustrational level increased from fourth grade to fifth grade.

o When asked what my tutee learned from these sessions, he said he learned
that eating candy and sweets is not healthy (which related to his essential
question). I thought that was funny that he said this first. Then he stated
that he learned how to be a good reader by going over things and learning
strategies during the sessions. He said he will use these strategies in the
future and I do hope he means that so that he can continue to improve his
reading skills.

Review of the ResearchRevisited

Recommendations
o I would recommend my tutee to be a part of a volunteer tutoring program
at least twice a week for about twenty weeks. Gunning says the gains
[made] from tutoring can be substantial (Assessing and Correcting
Reading and Writing Difficulties, Gunning). Students can receive gains of
from 0.5 to 1.5 years for the students who were tutored in a version of
Early Steps known as the Howard Street Tutoring program (which has
been adapted to be used in the Book Buddies program). Only a small
percentage of students in tutoring programs make little or no progress
possibly because of a severe problem. I believe my tutee would greatly
benefit from the tutoring sessions academically and socially. Having the
one-on-one time will greatly help with his confidence as well.

o During these tutoring sessions, I believe it would be best if the tutor

continued tutoring my tutee the way I did. Focusing on comprehension,
fluency, and writing are the main aspects that I think his extra instruction

should focus on. My tutee needs more instruction in fluency so that he

continues to learn how to read with expression at a good rate and with
accuracy.
o Even though this would be my wish for my tutee, my school system does
not have volunteers within the school system to help tutor students. Even
though a one-on-one tutoring session would be ideal, I believe if the
teacher had the time to spend twenty to thirty minutes once or twice a
week that it would help my tutee. I know that time is extremely hard for
teachers to come by because they are being pulled into so many directions
while trying to teach all of their students.

Report Writing
April 27th, 2015
Dear Mrs. Newton,
I have enjoyed and benefited greatly from tutoring El Taylor, Jr. this semester. He is so
willing to learn and excited to do so. I organized the tutoring sessions so that he could focus on
reading comprehension by asking an essential question that related to his interests to keep him
excited about the tutoring sessions. Throughout the semester, we focused on the question
Should schools allow students to eat sweets? While reading passages and articles about this
topic, we focused instruction on areas such as oral reading practice to build fluency,
comprehension strategies and skills to improve reading comprehension, and writing instruction
and practice to complement the comprehension work.
The last time I met with El, I administered various informal reading assessments to assess
his progress since we began tutoring. It is clear that he has become more aware of how fast he is
reading and with accuracy and prosody. During the pre-assessments in February, his oral WPM
(words per minute) rates were 74 WPM (4th grade narrative), 74 WPM (4th grade expository), and
60 WPM (5th grade narrative). All three WPM rates were below grade level because students in
the 5th grade should be reading about 140 words (plus) per minute. During the post-assessments
on April 22nd and 23rd, Els WPM rates were 76 WPM (4th grade narrative), 92 WPM (4th grade
expository), and 96 WPM (5th grade narrative).
I also saw similar improvements with his comprehension scores from these passages. In
February he scored 88% on the 4th grade narrative (no look back score), 38% (63% look back) on
the 4th grade expository, and 75% (no look back score) on the 5th grade expository. In April, he

scored 88% (look back score was same) on the 4th grade narrative, 75% (100% look back) on the
4th grade expository, and 38% (100% look back) on the 5th grade expository.
With the data I received during the pre-assessments and post-assessments, I believe Els
independent level went from 3rd grade to 4th grade, his instructional level went from 4th grade to
late-4th grade, and his frustrational level went from 4th to late 5th grade. Overall, both his fluency
rates and comprehension scores have increased which can help him become a better reader.
El is a wonderful student and I know he has the capability to do so much, which I am sure
you know. I am proud of his progress and I am confident he will continue to grow as the year
continues. Thank you so much for allowing me to tutor El. If you have any questions, comments,
or concerns, please feel free to contact me at 434-294-5495 or Dr. Blanchette at 434-409-5193.
Sincerely,

Devinne Baldwin
Devinne Baldwin
M. Ed. Candidate
Reading, Literacy, and Learning
Longwood University

Dr. Angelica Blanchette

Practicum Supervisor
Reading, Literacy, and Learning
Longwood University