Kaitlyn Coirazza

EDUC 5902

Case Study #1

November 29th, 2016

Essence
Background
Essence is an eleven year old girl in fourth grade at Rochester Prep

Elementary School. Rochester Prep is an Uncommon Charter School in the city of

Rochester. Essence lives in poverty in the city of Rochester with her mother and

her twin sister. Her parents are divorced, but Essence occasionally sees her father

on weekends and holidays. Essence is consistently tardy or absent from school.

As of November 29th, 2016, she has been absent for eight days and tardy for six

days of the new school year. Her absences have likely contributed to Essence

performing below grade level in reading, writing, and mathematics. However,

despite struggling in school, Essence is a hard worker and usually tries her best in

all academic subjects. She can sometimes become distracted by other students

and act inappropriately by mimicking some inappropriate behaviors, but is typically

eager and willing to fix her behavior when corrected by a teacher. Although

Essence is shy and quiet, she is a sweet girl who has healthy relationships with her

twin sister, peers, and teachers.

Reading Behaviors
o Good reading accuracy

o Slow word solving which leads to a slow reading rate

o Often repeats words or sentences to self-monitor her own reading

o Self-corrects based on meaning

o Makes syntactical and visual errors

o Attempts to read with fluency by paying attention to punctuation and using

expression, but slow word solving contributes to occasional poor fluency

o Good ability to retell using the most important events and detailed

description

o Struggles when presented with oral inferential and critical thinking

comprehension questions, but can usually come to the right conclusion with

teacher prompting

Writing Behaviors
o Struggles to independently use correct grammar, specifically subject verb

agreements

o Significantly struggles when asked to write responses to inferential and critical

thinking questions (significant difference when compared to comprehension

conversations)

o Good use of punctuation such as periods, exclamation points, and quotation

marks
 o Difficulty implementing and applying previously taught strategies to

independent work

o Struggles to spell words correctly, which can sometimes lead to written work

being incomprehensible

o Strong ability to write in complete, clear sentences

o Occasionally struggles to include enough details in narrative writing

Assessments Given
o Running Record (in STEP assessment, Uncommon Schools reading

assessment)

o DSA

o DRA 2+

Running Record: September 15th, 2016

Level Accuracy Rate Fluency

STEP 11= OPQ 95% 64/150: Below 3/4: Target

Essence was given a STEP 11 passage to read aloud, which corresponds to a

Fountas and Pinnell O/P/Q leveled text. Essence read the narrative book, Help!

My Desk is Haunted, which focused on a student named Daniel who came to a

new school and received a desk that everyone believed was haunted. This was the

first time that Essence read Help! My Desk is Haunted, and she had a smile on
her face as the new story was introduced and throughout the running record.

While reading this passage, when Essence came across a word she did not know,

she would pause, sound it out in a whisper voice, and then say the word at a

normal volume. Although Essence used the strategy of sounding out words, she

still made a few visual and syntactical errors, as well as omitted a few words. She

often repeated strings of words to self-monitor when she realized her reading did

not sound right or make sense, and therefore, her self-corrections were almost

entirely made based on meaning. Interestingly, Essence also repeated words that

she already read correctly, which may have been another strategy used to self-

monitor and double check her reading. In addition, Essence paused for a

significant amount of time after reading meaningful phrases and at the ends of

sentences, which seems to suggest Essence may have been pausing to think about

and comprehend what she read. Overall, Essence scored a 95% in reading

accuracy and met the target for fluency because she paid attention to

punctuation, read with expression, and read in meaningful phrases. However,

Essence did not meet the target for her reading rate because she read the

passage in 3 minutes and 22 seconds, far below the target for this reading level.

The slow reading rate was primarily due to the slow word solving done under her

breath, the frequent repetitions that were not always needed, and the long pauses

at the ends of sentences and meaningful phrases.

DSA: November 10th, 2016
Spelling Within Long R-controlled Other Complex Abstract

Vowels vowels controlled consonants vowels

Inventory Word
(VCe) long

vowels

Score: 8 Stage 5/5 4/5 3/5 3/5 4/5

Score: 19

Essence was given the Screening Inventory of the Developmental Spelling

Assessment around 7:30am on November 10th. Essence had a smile on her face

as she sat down to begin working. For each word given in the inventory, Essence

wrote the word quickly (in three seconds or less). She spelled eight words

correctly, however, the assessment was stopped in the third set of words as she did

not spell any of the words in the set correctly. Her score of eight placed her in

the Within Word stage of development. Essence was immediately given the

Within Word Feature Performance assessment. Similar to the Screening

Inventory, Essence wrote each word in less than three seconds, continuing to have a

smile on her face. In total, Essence scored nineteen for her stage score, which

shows her stage of development is in fact, Within Word. In the Within Word

stage, Essence has a good understanding of how to spell long vowels with the VCe

pattern, as she scored a 5/5 for long vowels with the VCe pattern. Essence has

a decent understanding of R-controlled and abstract vowels, as she scored a 4/5

 in these categories, however it may benefit Essence to have a quick review in R-

controlled and abstract vowels. Finally, Essence struggled to spell words with other

common long vowels (vowel letter teams like oa and ea) and complex consonants

(consonant teams like dge and tch) as she only scored a 3/5 for these

components. Therefore, Essence would benefit most from instruction focusing on

common long vowel teams and complex consonant teams.

DRA 2+: November 29th, 2016

Rate Accuracy Retell: Retell: Comprehension Vocab Word

Characters Events Reading

Instructional: Independent: Independent Instructional Independent Instructional Instructional

72 wpm 98%

For the DRA 2+, Essence read a Level 30 narrative passage titled, The

New Pet. A Level 30 passage is typically used at the beginning or middle of

third grade. While reading this passage aloud, Essence read at a slow rate, but

used good expression at the beginning of the story. She did not always use

appropriate phrasing, sometimes pausing between every word in a sentence.

However, when she made an error, she typically repeated the word or phrase of

words to self-correct her own mistake. Therefore, Essence scored a 98% for her

reading accuracy, placing her in the independent range. But, because Essence only

read 72 words per minute, she was placed in the instructional range for her

reading rate.
 During the characters/setting retell, Essence paid close attention to the

questions being asked, asking the assessor to repeat the first question before

answering. She was quickly able to identify the setting and the characters in the

story, including one detail about each of the characters. This placed her in the

independent range. However, during the plot retell, Essence struggled to include all

important events in the story. While she was able to identify what happened in

the beginning, she left out an important detail about the middle of the story- that

the characters went to a pet store. In addition, although Essence did identify that

Mark received a pet rabbit at the end of the story, she could have been more

detailed with her description of the ending. Therefore, Essence fell into the

instructional range for the plot retell.

Essence scored in the independent range for her ability to draw conclusions

in the Comprehension portion of the exam. Essence was able to draw reasonable

conclusions using information from the text and answer the questions, Why does

Mark want a pet? and Do you think Mark will take good care of his pet?

Why do you think that? Finally, Essence scored in the instructional range for her

vocabulary knowledge, as she was able to identify an antonym for the word

remember, but was unable to identify an antonym for the word, wild. She

additionally scored in the instructional range for her word reading of the syllable

patterns VC/CV and C+ le because she was unable to read the word gerbil,

reading it instead as girbil during her reading record.

Recommendations
Essence is an eleven year old, fourth grade student who is currently reading

at a beginning third grade reading level. While Essence is a sweet, motivated girl

who puts forth significant effort in her reading, because she is reading significantly

below grade level, she needs differentiated instruction to help her meet grade level

reading goals.

First, Essence is not meeting grade level expectations for spelling. Based on

her results from the DSA, she is currently in the Within Word stage of

development. She needs explicit instruction in vowel letter teams (such as oa and

ea) and complex consonant teams (such as dge, and tch). Additionally, based

on her DSA and DRA 2+ reading, it would also be beneficial for Essence to have

a quick review in R controlled vowels to improve both her spelling and reading.

Ideally, this spelling and letter team instruction should be done individually as

Essence is a fourth grader significantly behind in these areas. One easy strategy

that may help Essence improve in vowel letter teams, complex consonant teams,

and R controlled vowels is simple flashcards. The teacher should create flashcards

with a letter team and words containing the same letter team. When pulling

Essence for her individual remediation, the teacher should start with the flashcard

containing a letter team Essence needs work with (for example, -ir). The teacher

can either model the sound the team makes or have Essence identify the sound

herself. Following identification of the sound, the teacher should show Essence

flashcards with words containing the same letter team (for example: fir, circle, girl,

bird, thirty, circus) to have her work with through modeling or independent
identification. Once all the flashcards are run through with a teacher, they can be

sent home with Essence for additional practice.

Another strategy that can be used to help Essence improve her spelling and

letter team knowledge is the use of manipulatives. With a predetermined list of

words (hitting a letter team Essence should improve), the teacher can have

Essence spell the words using magnetic letters, shaving cream, or a simple

whiteboard/marker. If a whiteboard/marker or even pencil/paper is used, the

teacher can also draw sound boxes for Essence to break up the word. Sound

boxes are when simple squares are drawn for each sound of a word. The word

cat would have three squares drawn for the c, a, and t. However, the word

bridge would have four boxes drawn for b, r, i, and dge. Sound boxes may help

Essence realize that some letters, like the consonant team of dge, work together

to make one sound, which will then help improve her spelling and word recognition.

Essence also needs to improve her reading rate and fluency, as she

sometimes pauses between words, does not always pay attention to phrasing, and

does not always read with appropriate expression. Whenever possible, teachers

should have Essence read aloud so she can practice reading with sufficient speed

and expression. Another strategy that may be beneficial is to record Essence

reading using a tape recorder. Once recorded, the teacher should play the

recording back to Essence so she can hear her own mistakes, become more aware

of the times that she makes them, and hopefully improve her fluency and rate.

Additionally, it would be beneficial for a teacher to begin tracking Essences

reading rate and fluency using Reading A-Zs fluency passages. Based on
Essences test results, Essence is currently reading around a Level N. However, I

would recommend using Level M passages for sessions focusing on reading rate

and fluency so Essence can solely focus on improving those areas, rather than

spending time the majority of her time just decoding words. At first, the teacher

should use modeling, choral reading, and/or a back and forth method where the

teacher reads, then Essence reads to give her the chance to both hear and

practice appropriate fluent reading with sufficient pace. Then, the teacher can

begin having Essence read the Reading A-Z passages aloud for 1 minute, while the

teacher takes a running record, while taking notes on fluency and calculating words

read correctly per minute at the end. This process could be done daily, a couple

times a week, or weekly to increase Essences reading rate and fluency.

Finally, Essence could benefit from more explicit instruction in retelling a text

and making inferences about a story. This can easily be targeted in Essences

guided reading group. One strategy that can be used to help Essence retell a

text is using Jan Richardsons 5 Finger Retell. In the 5 Finger Retell, students self-

monitor their retell using one finger for characters, setting, problem, events, and

ending, tallying up to five fingers. To introduce this, the teacher should first model

the 5 Finger Retell to Essence in a mini lesson, and only after modeling, have

Essence try retelling independently. This 5 Finger Retell can be continued in any

guided reading lesson following the mini lesson. Additionally, to help improve

Essences ability to answer inferential and critical thinking questions, the teacher can

model through Think Alouds how to make inferences or think critically about a text

in guided reading. The teacher can also teach Essence that an inference means
using text evidence and background knowledge, and use this definition to prompt

Essence in answering inferential questions in guided reading or whole group reading

instruction. Overall, in addition to continuing Essences reading intervention, these

strategies should help Essence improve her reading as she is highly motivated to

advance her own reading skills. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Essence

on her reading over the past couple months!