Child Literacy Case Study

Shannon LeRoy

ECED 621

April 26, 2017

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Introductory information about the child

Her name is Kesha.

She is 4 years old.
She is in a Pre-Kindergarten (inclusion classroom).
She attends Seven Oaks Elementary School (my current placement).
She has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum
Disorder (ASD).
She has a brother who is 3 years old also diagnosed with ASD as well, who is in the self-
contained Preschool classroom I teach in the morning.
Her parents are very supportive and involved in both of their childrens education. Her
parents also have open and constant communication with my mentor, Mrs. Lanahan.
My mentor told me that her parents spend a lot of time reading to her and with her.
My mentor and I have observed that she is a very strong and fluent reader who can read
text that is significantly above her peers and grade level.
My mentor and I have also observed during story time and independent work that she
struggles with comprehension questions, with sounding out words she does not know,
sequencing of story events and understanding the main idea of a story.
Yes, I believe testing sessions and results were an accurate reflection of this childs
literacy skills. Although I tested Kesha in the hallway at a desk and at times when other
students were walking in the hallway she got a little distracted, I feel that if I could have
tested her in a room all by ourselves I do not think that it would have made a significant
change in her assessment scores.
The test results were congruent with what my mentor and I have observed in the
classroom along with what her parents were observing at home.
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Reading Reflections Interview Form

I asked Kesha the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey questions to gauge her mood
about reading. I only asked her questions I felt were appropriate for her age. There were only
three questions I did not ask her because they were not appropriate for her age level and I crossed
them out. She did not have any difficulty answering any of the attitude survey questions and I
felt she answered them honestly. There were only two emotions that Kesha expressed about
reading, it was happy or angry. From her responses I gathered that she enjoys reading at home
and at school. Her parents practice reading with her frequently at home; it is apparent due to her
strong reading fluency. The majority of the time Keshas attitude about reading in class is
positive except for when she has to answer questions about the story or do a worksheet
relating to the story (as she expressed in the survey). Also (according to the survey) she enjoys
reading on a rainy day, on the weekend, in school during free time and for fun at home. She
expressed that she was angry when she had to read instead of play, when she had to take a
reading test, answer comprehension questions about the story and do worksheets. The reason I
believe she feels angry about these things is because these are the areas that she struggles the
most in with regards to reading.
From this survey along with observing Kesha during my internship, I have learned that
she loves to read books in general but she especially loves any books about animals. She is
not very picky about what type of book to read; she gets picky about what questions she wants to
answer when it comes to assessing her comprehension. I can use Keshas interests to pick books
and Internet websites by using what she likes to improve and strengthen her literacy skills. Since
I know that she loves animals, I will find books about various animals. It is important that she is
interested in what she is reading because this will result in more accurate results when assessing
her. It is also important because it will make improving her literacy skills more fun and engaging
for her. When picking Internet websites for her to strengthen her literacy skills I will make sure
that they involve animals in some way to keep her interested and to keep her attention.
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Phonological Awareness Profile (PAP)- Analysis of Phonemic Awareness

1.) Rhyming- Discrimination:

Strengths: She answered one out of the five questions correctly; she stated that the words
fish and dish rhyme. I am not sure if this was a guess or not. I would need to assess
her rhyming skills further beyond this assessment.
Needs: When I read her the two words and asked her if they rhyme, she merely repeated
one of the two words I said. Most often it was the second/last word I said. I demonstrated
a few examples to clarify what was asked of her but I do not think she understood the
concept of rhyming when presented to her just orally. I think the concept of rhyming is
too abstract for her when she is not presented with any visuals (either pictures of the
objects or the words spelled out) which would have been more concrete and easier for her
to understand.
Rhyming-Production:

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. She merely repeated the word I asked her to
rhyme with. Again, I think asking her to come up with a rhyming word is too abstract for
Kesha to understand without the use of manipulatives (either a picture of the word she
has to rhyme with or the word written out). If the word was written out in front of her I
think she would then be able to come up with a word that rhymes with it by changing the
first letter of the word; she would be able to visually make sense of it but she struggles
with oral directions.
2.) Segmentation-Sentences:

Strengths: She scored a 100% in this section. She understood that she had to clap one
time for each word. She completed this section of the assessment with ease. For example,
for the sentence, My cat is black. She knew to clap four times, one time for each word.
Needs: She did not express any needs in this section

Segmentation- Compound Words:

Strengths: She scored a 100% in this section. She completed this section of the
assessment with ease. She understood that she had to clap one time for each little word
and that the two little words made one word. For example, for the word, girlfriend, she
knew to clap once for the word, girl and once for the word friend, to make the final
word, girlfriend.
Needs: She did not express any needs in this section

Segmentation- Syllables

Strengths: She answered three out of the five questions correctly. She correctly clapped
one time for each word part for the words, pizza, fix, and table. I think that she
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clapped these word parts with ease because they are words with either one or two
syllables.
Needs: She received a 60% in this section. She struggled with the words that had more
than two syllables like, watermelon and fantastic. For the word watermelon she
broke it up like this when she clapped, wa-ter-melon. She was very close to getting it
correct but she did not break the word melon into two claps. She also broke up the
word fantastic like this, fan-tastic. Again, she was very close to getting it correct. It
seemed that she tended to break apart the word correctly in the beginning but at the end
of the word she struggled with breaking it into its correct parts. I believe she can master
this skill with more practice.
Segmenting- Phonemes

Strengths: She received three out of the ten questions correct in this section. She knew
how to say each sound in the words, off, me, and fat.She sounded out the correct
sounds for the beginning, middle (if there was a middle letter) and end of these words.
Needs: She received a 30% in this section. She expressed difficulty in sounding out
sounds in the word for words longer than three letters. She got all the first letter sounds
correct but she struggled with sounding out the rest of the word. I think the task was
difficult for her because she could not see the word, it was not written in front of her and
therefore the task was more challenging for her. She struggled with sounding out all parts
of a word, for example, for the word seashell, she did not say each sound in the word,
and instead she said, sea-shell. She did the same thing for the word eyebrow, she
said, eye-brow. Even after giving several examples I do not think that she understood
the task completely or maybe it was that the longer words were more challenging for her
to sound out.
3.) Isolation- Initial

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. She merely repeated the word after me or tried to
sound out each sound of the word (as in the previous section). For example, for the word
toy, she broke it apart like this, t-o-y, and all the other words she merely repeated
right after I said them. She did not seem to understand that I only wanted her to tell me
the sound at the beginning of the word. I know that she struggled with this task of telling
me just the beginning sound of the word because the word was not written right in front
of her. I know she would have understood the task if she could have seen the word
because she knows what sound(s) each letter makes.
Isolation-Final

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. As in the previous section, she either repeated the
word right after I said it or she tried to sound out the word into parts. For example, for the
word house, she broke it apart like this, h-ouse. She broke apart the word rat like
this, r-at. I do not think she understood the task and was still stuck on the previous
section with telling me just the beginning sound of the word. I also know that she would
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benefit from having the word written in front of her, but I do think this is a skill that she
merely needs more practice with.
Isolation- Medial

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. Again, she either repeated the entire word right
after I said it or she tried to sound out the word into parts. For example, for the word
mouse she broke it apart like this, mo-ouse. She broke apart the word, boil like
this, boi-boil. It sounded to me like she was decoding these words slowly and trying to
sound them out but I think that she was just confused with the directions of the task. She
did not understand that she just needed to tell me the middle sound of the word. Another
reason I think Kesha struggled with this section is because it is difficult for her to do this
without having the visual (word written out). This is another skill that she merely needs
more practice with.
4.) Deletion- Compounds and Syllables:

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. She did not understand that she had to delete a
part of the word. I think this concept was too abstract for her since the word was not in
front of her. She merely repeated the whole word after me. I gave her several more
examples of what I wanted her to do but she did not understand and continued to repeat
the word right after I had said it.
Deletion- Phonemes:

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. She merely repeated the word after me but this
time instead of saying the whole word she attempted to break the word apart. For
example when I asked her to say the word pan and then say it again but do not say the
sound /p/, she said, p-an. She did this for the rest of the words as well. She broke apart
the first sound of the word and then said the rest of the word. This task was too abstract
for her and not concrete enough due to not having a visual.
5.) Substitution- With Manipulatives:

Strengths: She received 100% accuracy in this section. I can tell that spelling words and
reading words comes very easily to Kesha when manipulatives are present. She
understood substituting the initial, medial and final sound of a word with the use of
manipulatives. I think she understood this task so well because there were visuals
provided which then made the task more concrete and easier for her to understand.
Needs: She did not express any needs in this section

Substitution- Without Manipulatives:

Strengths: She did not express any strengths as of this time in this section
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Needs: She scored a 0% in this section. She merely repeated the word after me and tried
to break the word apart. For example, I asked her to say cow and change the /k/ sound
to the /h/ sound which would make it how, instead she said, c-ow. I provided several
examples but she did not seem to understand the directions clearly. I think she struggles
significantly when she is not able to use manipulatives. She was unable to change the
sound of the word without the use of a visual.
Blending- Compounds and Syllables:

Strengths: She scored a 100% in this section. She understood that I was going to say the
sounds of a word and that she had to tell me what the word was. She did not express any
difficulty in this section at all. I think the reason she completed this section with ease is
because the entire word was heard even though it was broken into parts. This task is more
concrete in this sense, making it easier for her to understand.
Needs: She did not express any needs in this section

Blending- Phonemes:

Strengths: She scored a 100% in this section. She understood the directions that she was
going to tell me what the word was after listening to its phonemes. I also think that she
completed this section with ease because she heard the entire word even though it was
broken up into its phonemes which is a more concrete than abstract task.
Needs: She did not express any needs in this section.

Phonological Awareness Profile- Analysis of Graphemes/Decoding

1.) Graphemes- Consonants,Short Vowels, Long Vowels, Vowel Digraphs, Dipthongs, R-
Controlled Vowels, Consonant Digraphs and Consonant Blends:

Strengths: She scored a 100% for every part in this section except the short vowels
section. She completed every other section with ease. She is a very strong decoder and
has a strong foundation of the sounds of letters. She can tell you what sound two letters
make when they are put together. Another one of her strengths include knowing what
sounds two letters put together make even if she has not seen them very often. She can
correctly tell me what sounds two consonants and two vowels make when they are
combined.
Needs: She scored a 0% in the short vowels section. For the short vowels she made the
same sound as she did for the long vowels. This is most likely because the short vowels
were not in a word, they were standing by themselves and this most likely confused her
of what sound they made.
2.) Decoding- VC Vowels, CVC Words, Consonant Blends, CVCe Words, Vowel Digraphs,
Diphthongs, R-Controlled Vowels and Consonant Digraphs

Strengths: She scored a 100% in this section. She understands the sounds two or three
letters make even when they are not a real word. She also understands how to read made-
up words even though she has never read them before. She completed this section with
ease due to her strong decoding skills and knowing her letter sounds.
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Needs: She did not express any needs in this section.

Writing Sample Analysis

The types of writing samples that I collected were from Keshas writing journal. The work in
students writing journals is the first assignment they do when they come into the classroom.
Most of the time it involves practicing writing uppercase and lowercase letters or sight words.
Along with completing the work in their writing journal, students have to write their name on the
top of the page next to the date. Since their name was something students had to write everyday
and Kesha had struggled with this in the beginning of the year, I was interested in looking at
Keshas progress in regards to writing her own name.

Writing Sample 1: was taken from January 20th, 2017. When she first started writing her
name she needed to have it written out first for her first in yellow marker and then she
would trace it. She started out writing and tracing her name fairly large, most of the time
if took up almost half of the page in her writing journal. In the first sample that I
collected she traced her name nice and neatly. This work sample shows that she
understands the beginnings of directionality in writing. She understands that you write
from left to right. She also understands that when you write you stay within a confined
space (which would be the lines of the paper). Lastly, from this writing sample I gathered
that she understood the beginnings of the shapes of letters. One of the reasons she traced
her name instead of writing it herself was because it would take her a significant amount
of time to write her name, to the point where it would lead to frustration and her not
getting to her work in her writing journal.

Writing Sample 2: was taken from March 10th, 2017. At this point she was writing her
own name without having it being traced for her. She was writing it on her own after the
first letter of her name was written. Again, if she did not have the first letter of her name
written for her she would procrastinate on writing her name and it would take her a
sufficient time to complete her morning work. After writing the first letter of her name
she wrote the rest of her letters the same size. This means that she understands the
concept of size. When writing the rest of her name, she showed that she understood
directionality. She also wrote all the rest of her letters in the her name in the correct
orientation.

Writing Sample 3: was taken from April 4th, 2017. She is now practicing writing her
name completely on her own. An adult does not have to write the first letter of her name
to get her started. In this sample, Kesha shows that she completely understands
directionality, letter shape and orientation. All of her letters are in the correct orientation
and in the correct direction. A common mistake that Pre-K students will do when writing
their name is to write it backwards or to mix up the orientation of letters such as s or d.
One of the reasons why I think Kesha has such a good understanding of how to write
letters is because of her consistent exposure to reading.
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Based on Keshas three writing samples of just her name I would say that she has a very
strong foundation for written expression. Keshas written expression is on grade level
with being able to write her name. One way to help her written expression continue to
progress is by having her practice more writing in general. This could be with her name,
letters of the alphabet or sight words. There is not a lot of writing in Pre-K but she will be
able to practice more of her writing skills next year in Kindergarten. Another way to help her
written expression continue to progress is by exposing her to more challenging text to
read. Exposure to more print will help her in spelling and grammar/punctuation. She will
then be able to look at unfamiliar words and know how they are spelled and how they sound.
The results from the Invented Spelling Assessment (PAP) showed that Kesha is at a
developmental/typical level in regards to her spelling for her age and grade level. Kesha is in
the semiphonetic stage of spelling development. This means that she knows that letters
represent sounds. Spellers in this stage most often write only one or some letters in a word. They
usually use an initial consonant to represent a whole word. Inventive spelling was an area that
Kesha struggled in; she only wrote down the first letter of each word. I only had her try to spell
three words because I could tell she was getting frustrated. I reminded her to try and sound out
the word but she could only get the first letter of each word down on the paper. Each letter she
wrote was in the correct orientation and direction and was the correct first letter for that word. I
think the reason she struggled with inventive spelling is because it was more of an abstract
concept because there were no use of manipulatives. I have realized that when tasks are
presented to her orally she has a difficult time comprehending and understanding what is
expected of her.
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Analysis of Miscues and Oral Reading Fluency

Finding Keshas independent, instructional and frustration levels for the narrative and expository
texts
The first passage I tested Kesha on was a narrative text at the first grade level. This was
the highest independent level attained by her on the word list. I know that Kesha is very strong in
her reading fluency, word identification and decoding but that she struggles with comprehension
questions. I looked at the concept questions of the three level one narratives. The one I thought
would be most familiar to her was the called, The Bear and the Rabbit. I asked her the concept
questions and she scored a 7 out of 9 which means that she is familiar with the concepts in the
story. I asked her to read this story and she read it at an independent level in regards to total
acceptability but she scored a 0 on the comprehension questions. After adding up the word
identification (independent) and comprehension (frustration), it is her frustration level for a
narrative text. I had to now work my way backwards in trying to find her instructional and
independent levels in regards to total acceptability.
I then moved backwards to the primer narrative text. There were two choices for the
narrative texts and I asked her the concept questions of each one. The one she was most familiar
with was called, Fox and Mouse; she scored a 6 out of 9 on the concept questions. She read the
text at an independent level in regards to a total acceptability. The reason I chose to use total
acceptability instead of total accuracy when looking at her word identification is because
she made miscues but they were rarely meaning-changing miscues. She also is a beginner
reader and I do not think that she should be held accountable for every little mistake that she
makes. The important thing is that her miscues are not changing the meaning of the text, she
most often omits a word or substitutes a sight word for another sight word, for example, she will
say the instead of a. When I scored her comprehension questions she scored at a frustration
level, scoring only 2 out of 6. I then decided to continue to work backwards until I found her
instructional level and then her independent level.
There were 2 narratives on the pre-primer 3 level; I asked her the concept questions
from each story. She was most familiar with the story called, Spring and Fall. She made a total
of two miscues that were not meaning-changing; she read the story at an independent level. She
scored a 4 out of 5 on the comprehension questions which is an instructional level for her. I
added her word identification (independent) with her comprehension (instructional); this comes
out to be her instructional level narrative text. After I found her instructional level text I knew
that moving down I would find her independent level text. I now knew the difficulty level of
comprehension questions she was able to answer based on the story.
To find her independent narrative level text I moved down one to the pre-primer 2 level.
There was only one narrative text and it was called, Just like Mom; she scored a 4 out of 9
which meant that she was unfamiliar with some of the concepts in the story. I decided to ask her
to read it and answer the comprehension questions anyway to see if this would be her
independent level or still instructional level text. She read the story with 2 miscues (independent
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level) in regards to total acceptability but they were not meaning changing. She scored a 4 out of
5 on the comprehension questions (instructional level). When I added both of her scores together
this was still her instructional level text. I had to continue moving down to find her instructional
level.
There were two choices for a narrative text on the pre-primer 1 level. I asked her the
concept questions from both stories and she was most familiar with the story called, I Can; she
scored a 9 out of 10. She read the text with 0 miscues, making this her independent level for a
narrative text. She scored a 5 out 5 on her comprehension questions, also making this her
independent level. I finally found her independent level for a narrative text in both word
identification and comprehension. I had a feeling that it would have to be an easier text for her to
read for her to be able to answer the comprehension questions correctly since she struggles with
comprehension.
I used the same strategy to find her independent, instructional and frustration levels
in expository texts. I started again at a first grade level just to see if she would experience the
same frustration level as she did in the narrative text, and she did. I used the same strategy as I
did in finding her narrative text in that I continued to move down the levels until I found her
instructional and then independent level. I also asked her the concept questions from the story
that I thought she would be most familiar with and if she was not familiar with it and there was
another expository text in that same level which she was most familiar with, I tested her on that
one instead. ? I found her independent level at the pre-primer 2 level with the story called,
People at work. I found her instructional level at the primer level with the story called,
Who lives near lakes I found her frustration level at level one with the story called, The Brain
and 5 senses.
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Analysis of Miscues and Oral Reading Fluency

Noticeable patterns
One pattern I noticed in Keshas miscues is that she tended to substitute or omit words
when she was reading the passages. Her most common substitution is the for the sight words
a or my. I have noticed that when she omits a word it is usually the very first word of a
sentence or the very last word of a sentence. I think this happens because she reads quickly and
may overlook these sight words when reading the passages. She did not omit any word in the
middle of a sentence. The words that she did omit are words that she knows how to read, they are
usually words such as too or but. Another pattern I noticed with her miscues is that none of
them were meaning-changing. All of the miscues she performed while I tested her were not
meaning-changing. The last pattern I noticed is that she most often scored at an independent
level in the text but struggled significantly with her comprehension relating to the passages. For
each passage she read, she had trouble remembering what happened and she was not obtaining
the main idea of the story. In the previous running record I took of Kesha before the QRI-6
assessment, she also struggled significantly with the comprehension questions after reading the
passage, When we are big.
Reading words in isolation
Kesha did not express any major difficulties reading the words in isolation on the word
lists until she got to third grade level. In the pre-primer 1, pre-primer 2, and primer she was
able to automatically identify all words with 100% accuracy (independent levels). She only
could not automatically identify one word, enough when she got to the first grade level. It was
at the second and third grade levels that I found her instructional level. In the second grade
word list she was unable to identify the words, picked, though, and breathe. When Kesha
comes across a word she does not know how to sound out or a word she is not very familiar with
she does not try and sound it out. Kesha does not use any self-correction strategies when trying
to sound out words either. She merely will not try and sound it out at all. In the third grade level
she was unable to identify these 5 words, motion, rough, electric, introduced, and
enemies. When she came to these words she did not try to sound them out, she just was silent.
I found her frustration level at the fourth grade level. She was unable to correctly identify 12
out of the 20 words. These words were significantly more difficult for her to read and since she
did not try and sound out each word she was unable to continue on to the next level. I could tell
that she was getting frustrated and she was mostly silent for this section. It was up until this point
that Keshas confidence started to decrease and I could see it in her face that she was getting mad
that she did not know how to sound out the words she did not know.
Reading words in context
Kesha did not express any major difficulties while reading the passages until she got to
level one. She had made 6 miscues while reading the story, Fox and Mouse, but none of her
miscues were meaning-changing. She made simple mistakes which I believe was due to her
reading so quickly. This text was still easy for Kesha to read and I think if she is not challenged
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just a little bit that she is more prone to making simple mistakes. For example, she omitted the
sight words, a and the and I know that she usually does not omit these words. She said the
word, said instead of thought, which they have the same meaning. She said, seeds instead
of seed. The miscues that she made are very minor and if she read more slowly she would
be able to catch such simple mistakes. She was at her independent level until she got to the
primer level which means that her reading fluency is a lot stronger than her comprehension.
Differences between isolation vs. within context of a passage
I noticed a few differences in how she read words in isolation versus how she read them
within the context of the passage. In the word lists she got to a much higher independent level
than she did in the passages. In the word lists she was at the independent level until she got to
the second grade level and in the passages she was at the independent level until she got to the
primer level. This shows that she has a much easier time decoding words when they are
presented by themselves than when they are embedded in sentences within a passage.
Another difference I noticed was that when she read sight words such as a and the on the
list she did not omit any, most likely because it is much easier to omit a sight word in a
sentence. She omitted simple sight words such as too or but when she was reading several
of the passages. If she did not omit any words she sometimes substituted another sight words in
its place. For example, she read the instead of my or she would read, the for the word a.
In the previous running record I took of Kesha before the QRI-6 assessment, she would also
substitute simple sight words, she read you for we and the for a.
Similarities between isolation vs. within context of a passage
The only major similarity I noticed between the way she read words in isolation versus
how she read them in the context of a passage was that when she came across a word that she
did not know or was not very familiar with she would not try and sound it out. If she came to
a word she did not know in isolation or in a passage she would merely skip the word.
Miscues/patterns relating to lack of fluency
I did not notice any miscues/patterns that were repeatedly contributing to her lack
of fluency at the instructional level. Kesha is a very fluent reader and did not express
difficulty in this area. I believe that Kesha did not express a lack of fluency because she is a very
strong decoder. She reads very clearly, and has very clear pronunciation. I also think that this is
because she has a large vocabulary for her age. She knows how to read words at her age that
typical peers at her age do not know how to read. She also practices reading at home a lot more
than the average Pre-Kindergartner. The very first running record I took of Kesha, on the book
called, We are big, I realized how strong her decoding and fluency skills were for her age. The
other running records I took of her during the QRI-6 along with the very first running record I
took of her made it clear to me that she definitely does not express any fluency issues.
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Analysis of Comprehension
Retell and synthesize beginning, middle and end
I observed that she struggles significantly with retelling the story and synthesizing the
beginning, middle and end details of the passage. She struggled with telling me the main idea
or big picture of the story. The pattern that I noticed throughout all of her retellings is that she
could only recall the last sentence that she read. She could not tell me anything else about the
story when it was her turn to retell the passage. I think that asking her to retell the story is too
complex of a task for her because she struggles with questions that have more than one word
answers. She does not sequence sequentially on her own without manipuatives/visuals of the
events (this shows in her oral retellings). She cannot put the events in order because she
cannot orally recall them (besides the last sentence or last idea of the story). I know that she
can sequence main events in a story with pictures but without pictures I think the idea is not
concrete enough for her. For example, for her highest independent level, the story was called,
Just like Mom, when I asked her to retell the story she said, the story is about a Mom. She
could not tell me any details in the story of how the little girl was just like her mother. When I
asked her to retell the story called, I Can, she told me, the story is about dreaming. The last
sentence of the passage had the word dream in it and therefore it was easiest for her to
remember. She could not retell any other details from the story. I know that if I gave her options
or pictures of what happened in the story she would be able to pick out what happened and
possibly be able to put them in the correct sequence.
Probed recall questions
Answering the probed recall questions was an area that she expressed the most
difficulty in. Her level of comprehension is far below her decoding skills. She started to
struggle with the comprehension questions at the pre-primer 2 level. The story was called, Just
like Mom, she answered 3 out of 5 implicit questions correctly and 1 out of 5 explicit questions
correctly. This shows that she is using the pictures in the story to help her remember what
happened in the passage. As the passages gets more difficult, there are no pictures just lines of
text. Also, as the passages gets more difficult, her decoding skills do not suffer but her
comprehension skills suffer significantly because the questions get more challenging. The story,
Fox and Mouse, was her frustration level narrative text and she answered 1 implicit and 1
explicit comprehension correctly. The questions got longer and more challenging as the passages
went up in levels. Kesha showed that her comprehension skills were better when she answered
simple, more concrete questions based on the story. The kinds of questions Kesha answered
incorrectly and did not seem to understand involved a lot of why questions, and a few
what questions. I know that why questions are more abstract and are usually harder for
children diagnosed with ASD to answer for that reason. I noticed that overall she answered more
implicit answers correctly than explicit questions. I also think another reason she did not answer
very many explicit questions correctly is because they involve remembering and understanding
what was directly stated in the text. Kesha showed that she struggled with remembering and
understanding main ideas and details in the text for all of the passages. One of the reasons I think
 LeRoy 15

she answered more implicit questions is because those questions involve making inferences
about the text and pictures. I think the pictures in the story helped her in understanding the just
enough information about the main idea of the text.
Recommendations for future instruction
For recommendations and future instruction, I think that Kesha needs to be given
pictures/visuals while the story is being read for story time in class. She also needs to be given
manipulatives of the characters in the story, for example stuffed animals or dolls if she is asked
to retell the story. I also think that if she is asked to sequence the main events of a story to first
start off with her understanding the beginning, middle and end of a story. For now I think she
should not sequence more than three pictures. She needs to understand this concept to understand
how to sequence events in the correct order.
Instructional level
Keshas instructional level for the narrative text is at the pre-primer 3 and her
instructional level for the expository text is at the primer level. She is in Pre-Kindergarten and
is reading above her grade level for both texts. In regards to her instructional level for the
narrative text she is reading one level above her grade level and for the expository text she is
reading two levels above her grade level.
 LeRoy 16

Five educational activities that promote literacy (reading and writing)

1.) One activity that I think would benefit Kesha is having her practice re-telling a story to a
partner (think-pair-shair). I (as the teacher) would have modeled the read aloud with
puppets or stuffed animals to the class and then have the students practice re-telling the
story with puppets to a partner. One of Keshas needs involves re-telling a story. She
also struggles with remembering the main idea of the story and the sequences of events in
a story. This activity will also help her with that. I will ask the students to first try and re-
tell as much as the story without looking back to the text/pictures and if they need help to
then refer back to the story. This is another skill that Kesha would benefit from to help
her remember the main events of a story and in what order the events happened. The
assessment that prompted the selection of this activity was the QRI-6; in this assessment
she showed that re-telling stories was an area that she needed more practice in.

2.) Another activity that I think would benefit her is having her glue pictures of story
events in the correct sequence. She struggles with understanding and remembering what
happened in the beginning of the story, middle and end. This will also help her with
understanding the main idea of the story. The activity would involve her gluing 3 pictures
in the correct order. All the pictures she would sequence would all be from the story.
Since this is a task that she struggles significantly with I think it is best for her to start out
3 pictures. When she gets more practice with sequencing events in the correct order then I
will have her sequence more events. I could then give her 5 pictures and 1 picture would
not be in the story, this would assess her knowledge on the storys details. The assessment
that prompted the selection of this activity was the QRI-6; in this assessment she showed
that sequencing events and understanding the beginning, middle and end of a story
was an area that she needed more practice in.

3.) An activity that I think would benefit Kesha involves her practicing segmenting
syllables by using manipulatives, such as blocks. The assessment that prompted this
selection of activity was the PAP. In this assessment she expressed that she struggled
with segmenting syllables and phonemes. For the activity, she would have a piece of
paper with 10 labeled pictures on it. She would practice clapping out the syllable for
each word. However many times she clapped would be how many blocks she stacked
up on that picture. This would provide her with a concrete task of learning how to count
syllables in a word. After Kesha has more practice with counting syllables she can move
on to counting phonemes in a word. She first needs to understand how to count syllables
before she can count phonemes in a word. Practicing these skills will help her in
sounding out words she comes across one that she does not know or one that she is not
very familiar with. I also think that practicing these skills will help her improve her
inventive spelling. She can try and sound out each part of the word to better help her spell
it out.
 LeRoy 17

4.) An activity that I think would benefit Kesha has her making a rhyming book. The
assessment that prompted this selection of activity was the PAP. In this assessment she
struggled with discriminating and producing rhyming words. She was unable to
recognize whether two words rhyme and was also unable to tell me a word that rhymes
with a specific word. The rhyming book will be of pictures that rhyme with the word
cat. One each page there will be a picture that rhymes with cat, but underneath
the picture will read, ___at. It will Keshas job to write the first letter of the word.
All of the words in the book will rhyme. I will have her read her rhyming book several
times and explain to her how and why all the words rhyme, in that they sound the same at
the end. Having the word written out underneath each picture will help her in
understanding the structure of rhyming words. Once she has more practice with
discriminating rhyming words, I will practice having her produce rhyming words.

5.) Another activity that would benefit Kesha would be to have her read a story that is
considered easy for her to read to practice her comprehension skills. Kesha needs to
practice with easier texts in remembering details and the main idea. The assessment that
prompted this selection of activity was the QRI-6. This assessment expressed that one the
areas she struggled the most in was comprehension after reading the passages. Out of
explicit and implicit questions she struggled most with explicit questions which are
directly referenced in the text. I think having the text in front of her can help her refer
back to the story. For this activity I would start with an easy story such as this one
called, Mat the Dog. The lines of the story are: I have a dog. His name is Mat. My
dog is big. My dog is brown. Since Kesha understands better when she sees the text I
would start out with her having the text in front of her along with the questions. I would
want her to circle the correct answer to each question. The first question is, I have
a ______ and the choices are, pig, dog or frog. The second question is, His name
is _______ and the choices are, Max, Rat, or Sam. The last question is, My dog
is ______________ the choices are big and little or little and red or big and
green. These answers are directly referenced in the text. I would allow her to go back
and reference the text and the pictures if she needed help. As she gets better with
comprehension I will ask her more difficult questions and lessen the amount of pictures
provided in the text.
 LeRoy 18

Five books that connect to this students interests

1.) Were Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Kesha has an interest in animals and
she enjoys books with a sense of humor. In this book the reader has to make sounds such
as squelch squelch as the family is walking in the mud to find a bear. This book is also
very repetitive which can help with her remembering the main events in the book. This
book addresses her strength in decoding and fluency. This book addresses her needs
because it can help her improve her comprehension skills. It can help her with her
retelling and sequencing of events in the correct order.

2.) Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess. She has an interest in silly/humorous books. This book has a
lot of make-believe and nonsense words. This book addresses her strength in decoding
and fluency. This book addresses her needs because it can help her improve her
rhyming skills. By reading all the rhyming words in the book can help her hear how and
why two words rhyme. It could also help her come up with silly/make believe words that
rhyme as well.

3.) Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowlye. She has an interest in any kind of animals; this book
involves farm animals. This book addresses her strength in decoding and fluency and
also addresses her needs because it can help her improve her comprehension skills.
This book can help her remember the main animal characters and the order of events/
sequencing. This book has repetitive lines which can also help Kesha remember the
events of the story.

4.) Owen by Kevin Henkes. She enjoys animal books and humor books. This book would
also help with her story retelling and sequencing of events, which is one of her needs.
This book has a very clear beginning, middle and end. It would a good book to use for a
sequencing activity. It also could be used to remember the setting or main characters.

5.) There was an Old Lady who swallowed a fly by Pam Adams. This book addresses her
strength in decoding and fluency and also addresses her needs because it can help her
practice sequencing of events. It is a very repetitive book, but it can also help her
practice sounding out words she does not know how to pronounce. This book would
be good practice for Kesha to try and sound out words she is not very familiar with. In
doing this she could also improve her skills in segmenting syllables and phonemes.
 LeRoy 19

Two Internet resources that can promote family literacy

www.scholastic.com/parents/ This website is helpful because it allows parents to look

up books for certain ages or grade levels. This is helpful in finding books that are on
Keshas instructional level and which books can be chosen to challenge her. She already
has very strong decoding skills but she has room to improve and by choosing more
challenging books she will be able to broaden her vocabulary. More challenging
books will also help Kesha practice sounding out words that are difficult for her. She
needs to practice this skill more instead of simply skipping a word she in unfamiliar with.
This website helps parents find a learning style that best supports their child to better
help them learn to read. It recommends books that are popular among children according
to grade levels. It also provides fun reading and writing educational activities and
games that parents can do with their children.

www.readingrockets.org/audience/parents This is a helpful website for parents because

it provides reading tips along with how to read an e-book with your child. It also has a
themed book list which is helpful in finding books of the students interests. One way for
Kesha to improve her retelling and comprehension skills is for her to start off practicing
both of these skills with books she is interested in. It is important to find other books
(not just about animals) that she is interested in. The more books she is interested the
more she can broaden her knowledge about other topics but the more she can practice to
sound out words that she is unfamiliar with. This is a skill that she needs more practice
with. Her parents can read the reading tips on this website and use them to help Kesha
when she is struggling.
 LeRoy 20

Five recommendations for the families based on findings from the assessments
1.) Practice comprehension skills during and after reading a story with Kesha at home, ask
her who, what when, where and why questions. For example, ask her, What is the
character doing on this page? or Where does the story take place? The more practice
she gets with these types of questions the better she will get at them. These types of
questions are more effective than asking her, yes or no questions or one word answer
questions. She is also learning a lot more and having to think more by asking her these
types of questions.

2.) After reading a story with Kesha, talk about what happened in the beginning, middle
and end of story. Ask her, What happened in the beginning of the story or what
happened first? What happened next? and What happened at the end of the story or
what happened last?Ask her first (without her using the book) to see what she
remembers and if she needs help tell her that she can use the book to help her. She can
refer back to the pictures or text to help her remember. This is a good skill for her to
practice to help in understanding the main idea of the story.

3.) Have Kesha practice retelling stories with the use of manipulatives such as stuffed
animals of main characters in the story. Practice having Kesha act out the story with
puppets to see what she remembers from the story. It would be helpful to first act out the
story with the puppets so she knows what she is asked to do. When demonstrating the
acting out/retelling of the story with the puppets, remember to keep it simple and stick to
the main points or events of the story. Keep your sentences short and simple as well. This
will make it easier for Kesha to remember what happened when it is her turn to retell the
story.

4.) While Kesha is reading aloud and comes across a word she does not know, have her try
and clap out the words with her hands. Try and have her break the word down so that
she is able to figure out how to say it. If she still does not know what the word means
then explain to her the meaning and have her repeat and clap the word several times. Try
and get Kesha in the habit of trying to sound out a word she does not know instead of
skipping it entirely. Every time Kesha tries to sound a word out on her own that she does
not know, provide her positive reinforcement in the form of praise or give her a
sticker. This will reinforce her positive behavior and hopefully get to keep trying to
sound out words she comes across that she does now know.

5.) Practice rhyming words with her, have her read books that have rhyming words in
them. Also, have her try and come up with words that rhyme, they can be real words or
make-believe words. This can be a silly and fun activity to do with her. Write out the
words on a piece of paper so that she can see how the words are spelled. This skill will
help Kesha when she is spelling or writing words.
 LeRoy 21

Concluding comments- What I have learned about literacy in young children while
completing this literacy study
I have gained a great deal of information from this study to help guide me in planning,
implementing, and assessing the literacy of young children. From this study I learned that a
student can have strong decoding skills but can struggle with comprehension skills. I have
learned that there will be students in my future classroom who will be on a variety of reading
levels, especially if I am teaching in an inclusion classroom. I have learned that when planning
literacy activities for my classroom that I have to differentiate based on the different learners
that I have. I am going to use as many UDL (Universal Design for Learning) principles as
possible in my instruction and activities. It is important to use many modalities because not every
child is going to learn the same way. I have learned that Kesha, for example, does a lot better
through the use of manipulatives. I need to make sure that in my classroom I have the
appropriate materials for my different learners. I have also learned that when assessing young
children that it is important to make sure that you pick an environment that you think they can
best work in. It is best to pick a quiet place you can assess the child. It is also important to take
into consideration whether the student is sick or tired; these are all factors that need to be
taken into account when assessing a child.
One of the resources that I found most helpful for me that I can use in my future
classroom is the Reading Inventory Form. I really liked the Garfield reading inventory form
because it was targeted to younger children. By using this form it helped me to better understand
how my student felt about reading at home and at school. It provided me helpful information on
whether or not Kesha enjoyed reading. This information is important when assessing the student
to see what he/she struggles in and what he/she excels in. For example, the reason a student may
get really angry when asked to read aloud in class is because he/she struggles in decoding.
Another resource that I found most helpful for me that I can use in my future classroom are the
two Internet resources that can promote family literacy. These websites provide helpful
information for students parents. It is helpful for parents to receive information from the
classroom teacher to assist with their childs literacy skills at home. Sometimes parents are
unaware of how to help their child progress or are unaware of the resources available on the
Internet. As a teacher I want to provide parents information so that they can help their child
succeed and be successful at home as well as in the classroom.
I have learned a lot about young children and literacy through completing this Case
Study project. It is very interesting to me how children with ASD can have such different literacy
abilities compared to their peers. In my case, Kesha decoded and read well above grade level in
comparison to her peers but when it came to comprehension skills she was well below her peers.
It interests me how different each students literacy skills can be and as a teacher I will need to be
prepared to teach all of my students on all different levels. Kesha also has strong skills in written
orientation and directionality. For example, she writes her name from left to write and all of her
letters in her name are in the correct orientation. A group of students in her class are still
continuing to write their name backwards or are switching the orientation of letters such as s or
b.
 LeRoy 22

This study has changed or enhanced my understanding of childrens literacy learning

because it has made me become more aware of how different each student can be in terms of
their literacy skills. In my future classroom I want to make sure that I have different leveled
reading books. I want to make sure that I differentiate and break students into their ability
groups when practicing reading or writing letters or sight words. This study has also enhanced
my understanding of childrens literacy learning by providing me helpful resources when
assessing my students. The QRI-6 and the PAP are very beneficial tests in letting me know
what strengths and needs a student has concerning his/her literacy skills.
 LeRoy 23

Three scholarly citations

Allington, R., Baker, B., & Baumann, J. (1998). Phonemic awareness and the teaching of
reading: a position statement from the board directors of the international reading
association. Newark, DE: International Reading Association
Clay, M. M. (2000). Running Records: For classroom teachers. Lexington, KY: Lexington
Volunteer Recording Unit
Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J.A. (2017). Qualitative reading inventory-6. Boston, MA: Allyn and
Bacon