Case Study

Destiny Crocker
EDUC 330L-005
November 30, 2015

Student Demographics/Personality
Lily Mae is one of the quietest students in the classroom. I have observed that she brings
her lunch everyday, and both mom and dad bring her to school together and pick her up together.
There have been a few days where Lily Mae has cried toward the end of the day saying she
misses her mom. She is very well behaved and always listens to the teacher during instruction.
She always comes into the class in the morning and follows the routine promptly and sits at the
carpet for whole group quietly. She is very sweet and always gives me a hug when she sees me.
Lily Mae has many friends, but she doesnt let them distract her during whole group carpet time.
Most of the students in the class are very squirmy and chatty during carpet time, making
it very difficult for the teacher to teach and for anyone to hear. Yet Lily Mae, even during nap
time, is always ready to listen and behave. When working one on one with her she gets super
excited to have me working with her, and she always asks me to sit with her if I am at a different
table. She sometimes gets distracted if people are being too loud or not doing their work, and she
will make comments about them hurting her ears with their loud voices. When I do sit and work
with her she likes to draw pictures of her family and friends on the back of her paper when she is
finished with her work.
Outside of school Lily Maes favorite thing to do at home is color or draw pictures of her
friends and family. She likes to play Starfall or ABC mouse on the computer, and she also likes
to play with her Sophia toys and ponies. Lily Mae enjoys going to Target also! She has a brother
and sister at home who are older than her. She has many books at home, and she likes to read.
Lily Maes mom and dad read to her every night before she goes to bed. She thinks reading is
when someone can read all of the words in a story found in a book.

Observation During Reading Instruction #1

Every reading lesson begins in whole group with all students sitting on the carpet area in
their assigned seats. In my kindergarten class, most students are very wiggly and cannot sit still;
there are several students who crawl around the floor even after being told several times to sit
criss cross applesauce with their hands in their laps. However, the student I am working with,
Lily Mae, sits quietly and still as other students talk beside her. There have been very few times
where she has ever been called out because of her behavior. During the reading instruction by my
teacher, Lily Mae listens with eyes on her teacher and doest say a peep. After students are given
instructions they go to their assigned tables where they work independently on their workbook.
Their workbook is a few drawings done by my teacher with sentences to go with each picture;
the sentences have a blank where they are to fill in their sight word of the week. This week we
worked on the word like. Lily Mae immediately asked me to sit next to her to help her with her
work. I observed her for around 30 minutes while she worked on her book. She had to color the
pictures on every page, and she did a good job when she went slow. However, she mostly colored
fast and out of the lines. A few of her table partners started to giggle and not do their work which
distracted her, and she got bugged and said they always mess around. Lily Mae needed to be told
to write and read her sight word on every page, so it seemed like she might have just been being
a little lazy and not thinking about the word she had written and read on every page. My teacher
wrote the sight word on white boards for each table, and this seemed to help Lily Mae as she
would look at it for a reference to write it in the blank. I dont know if she was connecting with
her work or just trying to get it done so she could draw more pictures on the back.

Observation During Reading Instruction #2

I observed Lily Mae during a second reading instruction, and I observed basically her
same behavior. She was sitting attentively and listening to my cooperating teacher. There is not
much variety of reading instruction time in this kindergarten class, and this assignment was like
many others. For this assignment the students were instructed to complete a turkey book by
coloring the right amount of feathers the right color. Each page said a different color and they
had to look at the word and match it to the color charts hanging around the room in order to
figure out what color they needed to use for the feathers of the turkey. When other students
talked out loud and asked questions, Lily Mae sat quietly and didn't say anything. When students
were asked to come get the books she got up quickly and ran to my teacher to get the books to
hand out to her table mates.
I followed her to her small group table and observed her while she worked. On every
page she asked me what color she should use, and I had to direct her to the charts on the wall
every time so she could figure it out for herself. There were a few times when I would say, what
are the first letters you see in this word? and I would make the sound of the first two letters and
she would be able to know the color word. There were a few times when she was distracted by
one little boy who always troubles his peers. He has a hard time focusing and he often is hard to
instruct, so she was distracted and spent a lot of time telling him to stop along with other girls
at the table. When she would start focusing again she had a hard time reading the number words
in her book as well. For example with the word, seven, she would ask me what the word was,
and I always instructed her to tell me the letters she sees and I would model saying the first
sound to let her have a hint as to what the word was. She was really good at figuring out the

number words and coloring words when I would tell her the beginning sound. After she finished
coloring her book, which she did very quickly with scribbles, she had to read the book to a
teacher. She read the book to me, and when reading the title of the book she said chicken instead
of turkey. She was able to read every page because the sentence had the color and number in it,
so she looked at the picture to figure out what her sentence said. There were a few times when
she had to count the feathers in order to read the sentence to me. After she completed reading this
to me, her instructions were to read 3 books on her own in the carpet area.

Analysis of student work/assessments

What I have learned from working with Lily Mae and examining her work so far is that
she has a solid foundation of letters. She knows all of the letters in the alphabet, uppercase and
lowercase. On her dibles testing she was in the green, which meant she knew all of her letters
upper and lower case. She was also able to say the begging sounds of some of the words found
on the dibles test such as m for moon and s for snake. Also, on less formal assessments
my teacher gave her she knew all of the alphabet. However, she struggles matching sounds to her
letters. She is familiar with a few, such as the sounds in her name, but when assessing her on her
sounds she scored very low. According to her assessments she also struggles with identifying
sight words; she was only able to read one out of 6. In her assessments she was able to write all
of her letters uppercase and lowercase as well, and she was able to write her full name.
As the semester went on I observed Lily Mae during literacy block and found that her
letter and sound recognition had improved, and also her sight word recognition had improved.

For example, when working with her on a Go Up book, her task was to read the word of
different colors and color the balloons accordingly. She asked on every page, what color is
this? I told her to tell me what the letters where in the word and I asked her what word she
though it was, and for every color she was able to figure out what the word was by looking at the
beginning sounds. Also, when working with her on her P page in her journal, she was able to
use semantics to find words in the picture dictionary, know what the word was, and write it in her
journal next to the picture she drew.
Everyday during literacy block, which lasts an hour in the morning, the students work on
the same style of book. The book consists of usually 6 pages and focuses on sight words. Their
task is to fill in the blank of a sentence with the missing sight word and then color the picture.
When the students are finished they have to read the book to the teacher. I have done this several
times with Lily Mae and have noticed different things. I have seen that she rushes through her
work sometimes and when she is reading she goes too fast so she doesnt even look at the words
or the pictures to read to me. Sometimes she gets frustrated when she cannot read a sentence, but
when asked to slow down and look at the pictures and think about the sight words, she is able to
complete the task and successfully read the book. This is what she does almost everyday and I
wish there was a variety of reading instruction in the classroom.
Something else that is done in my classroom is journal work where students practice
writing and reading in their journals. They receive different letters each week, and the students
goal is to write the letter upper case and lower case, write three words that start with that letter,
and draw/color pictures of their words. I have collected a sample of this type of work by Lily
Mae and have discovered that she doesnt seem to have a concept of linear writing. If she is

writing a word and runs into a picture, she will continue writing the word vertically. I think this
is common among many of the kindergarteners, but its important that they understand writing
goes linear as in a book that they read. Knowing this will help me to remind her that its
important to look at the format of a book and how it is read (left to right). An assessment about
concept of print would be helpful to do on Lily Mae to check for understanding. Also, one other
thing that I need to know more about is Lily Maes reading comprehension. I would like to test
her on that to see how well she is understanding what she is reading. I will also design one of my
lessons to focus on reading comprehension because I think its important for emergent readers.
I choose to do a reading inventory on Lily Mae before we got started on our five lessons
just to learn more about her interest in reading. I chose to do another reading assessment called,
Authentic Reading Assessment: Color Words. I chose this because in previous assignments she
had struggled with reading color words. This assessment allowed me to find out if she knew
several different reading skills such as wether or not she could identify the cover of a book. She
was able to, and she was also able to identify the back of the book and the title of the book. She
was unable to tell me what a period meant, but she could tell me that a book is read left to right.
Also, she was able to point out an illustration in the book and a word in the book. On this
assessment, she scored 2 out of 4 for the color words and could read red and green but not orange
or yellow. The last assessment I did on her was a reading comprehension test. She scored very
high on the reading comprehension test and knew all of the answers about Fluffy the Cat. On
the reading interest inventory she noted that she liked to read to her teacher but was nervous to
read to the whole class. I also found out she likes reading funny books and poetry but not scary
books.

Based on her assessments, I have come to the conclusion that she mostly needs help with
sight words. My first lesson plan with be a phonics lesson were she will practice her letter
recognition and letter sound recognitions, but the next four lessons will focus on sight words and
reading comprehension. I think it is important that she is able to recognize her sight words and
make meaning of the text in order to gain fluency in her reading. The reading instruction she
receives in her classroom does not including reading comprehension, so I think it is important to
introduce her to this concept of making meaning while she reads. I also plan to ask many
questions before, during, and after, her reading lessons, because I have noticed she does not
experience this in classroom literacy time, and I believe it is crucial for her growth.

Lesson Plan #1 Phonics with Pumpkins

Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. understand that letters represent sounds
2. name lower case letters of the alphabet when seen in print
3. identify initial sounds and the letters that represent those sounds
Procedure

First, have the alphabet (lower case) printed out on individual pieces of paper in the shape
of a pumpkin.

Keep the letters in alphabetical order and with the child say each letter, a word that starts
with the letter, and the sound it makes.

Go through the whole alphabet together.

Next, introduce student to the poem, Pumpkin, pumpkin big and round, pumpkin
pumpkin match its sound!

Say the poem together and have the student pick a random pumpkin, not in alphabetical
order and say the letter and the sound the letter makes.

Repeat for every letter.

Keep the missed cards in a separate pile to practice at the end.

An addition can be to ask the student if he/she knows a word that starts the letter they
chose.

Assessment
Show student each letter and ask the following questions and record their response:
1. Can you tell me what letter this is?
2. Can you tell me what sound it makes?
3. What words can you think of that start with that letter?

Lesson #2 Sight Words We Can

Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. identify and pronounce the sight words we and can
2. recall an animal from the book they read
3. create sentences with words from the book
4. recognize the letter and sound /m/
Procedure
Show student the two books you will be reading, We Can, and We Can See.
Ask the question: What do you think this story is going to be about? before reading.
Do a guided reading with the student, helping when coming up to a word he/she doesnt
know.
Ask the student, Can you tell what the word is by looking at the picture?
If the student cannot read some of the key words such as map, mop, or mirror-have them
look at the pictures and ask them to infer from the pictures what the word could possibly
be. (ex. Can you tell from this picture what the word your trying to read is?)
After you read it once together, have the student read it one more time.
After reading the first book, ask student if he/she remembers any /m/ words from the story.
Have student make sentences with the words from the story to show comprehension.
Read the next story.
When finished, ask the student if he/she remembers any animals they read in the story and
have them draw and color a picture of that animal.
Have student write the name of their animal on their drawing.
Assessment
A. Ask the following questions and record the students answer to check for
understanding.
Questions:
1. Which letter/sound did we hear a lot throughout the book? (/m/)
2. Can you name an animal that starts with the letter /m/?
3. Can you draw an animal from the story and write the animals name?
4. What sight words did you read today?
5. Can you make a sentence with the sight words, We can?
B. Give students the following words from the text on individual pieces of paper and
have them write the sentences and read them. Reordering the words can be used to cross-check.
We can see the mop.
We can see the map.
We can see the mirror.

Lesson Plan #3 Sight Words and Reading Comprehension, The Fall Basket
Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. recognize sight word we, see, and the
2. identify which items were found in the fall basket and which were not
3. create a sentence with all three sight words
Procedure
Show the student the book he/she will be reading, The Fall Basket

- ask the student the following questions:

1. What do you think this book is going to be about?
2. Do you recognize any sight words in the title?
3. What do you know about the Fall season?
Next, the student will read the book.
If stuck on a word, have the student look at the pictures and guess what the word could be.
Print out or draw pictures from the book on separate pieces of paper, and have the student
separate into two piles when finished reading.
To check reading comprehension, have student place pictures in a pile representing items
found in the basket and the other pile is for things not found in the basket.
Ask the student Why would you place these things in a basket? and Why wouldnt you
place the other ones in the basket? (i.e. pumpkin vs. scarecrow)
Assessment
Student will receive a stack of pictures found in the book. They will then place them in two
piles; the first pile is for items found in the basket, and the second pile is for items not
found in the basket.
Student will write a sentence using all three sight words from the story and read them to
the teacher.

Lesson Plan #4 Reading Comprehension, The Princess

Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. recognize sight words we, look, and can
2. use the semantic cueing system to identify new words
3. students will remember key things in a story (characters, setting, etc.)
Procedure:
Show the student the cover of the book, and ask What do you think this book is going to
be about? How do you know? What do you know about princesses?
Tell the student she will read new words today but to get help from the pictures.
Have the student read the book, The Princess
If student self corrects by using the semantic cueing system, say, I liked the way you
figured that out, how did you do it? If the student cannot figure out a word, say, What
word do you think would make sense? or What letter does it start with?
Have a stoping point to ask the student what he/she thinks will happen next.
Continue reading.
If student says the wrong sight word, pause and ask does that word make sense? Or does a
different word make sense? (meaning/semantics)
Assessment:
Student will draw a picture about their favorite part of the story.
Student will tell the teacher new words he/she learned and what they mean (castle, crown,
etc.)
Student will write the sight words from the story on a white board and then write a
sentence using all three of them.

Lesson #5 Sight words, I see at the Zoo

Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. predict and draw conclusions based on the pictures in the story.
2. recognize the sight word look and see
3. build sight/sound association to support vocabulary
Procedure:
Show the student the cover of the book and ask, what do you see? Ask the student what
they already know about the zoo.
Next, do a picture walk through the book and let the student say what he/she thinks will
happen based on the pictures.
Read the book first to the student, and make sound effects on each page to introduce new
key vocabulary.
Ask the student if he/she has been to the zoo and what animals they have seen.
Point out the sight word look.
Ask the student to find the sight word throughout the text.
Have the student read the book to you.
When finished reading, point out the sight word look again. Have the student say the
word, say the letters, and use it in a sentence. Model: Look at the big lion!
Give the student letters tiles and have him/her spell the word look.
Assessment:
Ask the student if he/she has learned anything new about the zoo.
Student will write a sentence using the sight word look
Student will use letter tiles to build the sight word showing comprehension

Reflection
Throughout this case study I have learned a lot about teaching a student to read and
teaching a student in general. This case study has helped me grow and ask a lot of questions
throughout the process, and I believe it has benefited me as a future teacher. I see this case study
as a model for how I will teach my students in the future. Using this outline will help me with all
of my students, and I plan to follow this case study plan with students who may struggle or need
an extra push in my future classrooms. I enjoyed getting to know one student so well and
following her learning throughout this semester. Focusing on one student has helped me to see
how important it is to get to know your students in order to be able to teach them. Learning about
her personality and doing the interest inventories helped my to get to know how she felt about
reading inside and outside of school. This helped me to figure out where she was at in the
reading process, and it helped me to design my lesson plans. I plan to do interest inventories with
all of my students in the future because it helps you get to know your students and the things that
will engage and motivate them.
I learned a lot through all of the assessments; I not only learned about my student, but
what assessments look like in kindergarten. Most of them were very similar, focusing on the
alphabet, letter recognition, sound recognition, and sight words. By watching my cooperating
teacher give assessments and doing assessments of my own, I was able to know what my student
was struggling with, and this made it easier for me to create my lesson plans. Some assessments
my cooperating teacher did seemed tedious and challenging for kindergarteners. It was
challenging for me to come up with lesson plans at first, because I didn't know how to create a
lesson for my student where she would actually be reading. I didnt think kindergarteners could

read at all! However, I was so amazed by how much my student could actually read and
understand. I discovered so many sight word books that she was able to read by using the
pictures in the story. It was amazing to see her make meaning by using the pictures. I never
realized how this was reading and developing her comprehension skills. What helped me the
most was examining her reading interest inventories and assessments; I was able to know where
she was in her reading and create lesson plans that she would enjoy and also benefit from.
Something that was new to me was asking questions. In this reading methods course I
learned the importance of asking questions and prompting students to think about the text. Prior
to the course, I never knew the importance of talking before, during, and after reading. I saw so
much learning and growth happen through discussion and interaction with the text. I tried to
create many questions in all of my lessons, and they seemed to be beneficial for my student. I
was amazed to see how asking questions prompted her to think and it also showed me her level
of understanding. Each lesson built onto the next one, because I learned so much about her
comprehension by asking questions.
Throughout this case study, I have learned that as a future educator, it is important to
observe, analyze, and assess students before planning reading instruction. Although it is time
consuming, it is crucial to do these things before instructing students so you know their strengths
and weaknesses. I have learned that assessments are an integral part of instruction, and they help
the teacher to know if they are teaching what they should be and if students are learning what
they are supposed to be. This case study has helped me learn what it looks like to teach a student
to read.