Case Study Analysis

Education 440-01
Millie Kidder-Goshorn

Student Background Information:

My tutee, Ariana*, is a fourth grader at Cumberland Elementary School. Ariana is
an African American, nine year old. She lives at home with stepsiblings, her mother and
her step-father. Shes only ever expressed happy comments and experiences about her
family life. She enjoys playing on her tablet and listening to hip-hop music, her favorite
artist is Nicki Minaj. She also likes to play with friends on the weekends. During our
tutoring sessions, she was very focused on whatever we were working. If we were in an
area that started to get loud, she would ask if we could relocate so that she could pay
attention better. I really appreciated her being engaged and working hard during my
lessons for her. During class, she was sometimes off task. Other students would distract
her, but when the cooperating teacher, or myself, reminded her to stay focused, she would
listen and always got her work done.

Environmental Factors:
My tutee struggled the most in spelling and comprehension. I addressed her
spelling struggles, by starting from the Letter Name test given her, and working on the
two features that she received 4s on. I wanted her to have these features mastered before
we moved forward. She was given direct instruction and various word sorts to practice
with the feature. In terms of comprehension, I always had my tutee communicate with me

throughout her reading the book. Every couple of pages, she would stop and I would ask
her to tell me about what she read about. If I noticed she was struggling, we would go
back and reread certain sections and then I would ask her more questions. At the end of
each lesson, my tutee would write or tell me the beginning, middle and end of the story
we had just worked with. My recommendations for future tutoring sessions would be to
use different comprehension strategies, as well as more of a focus on comprehension,
over all. Looking back, I was more focused on her mastering her features, when I should
have taken an equal approach to both struggles.

Instructional Factors:
My focus instructionally was to complete a successful word study and book walk.
I wanted my instruction and explanation to be explicit for the word study section of my
lesson, because I knew she needed that extra help with spelling. For the book walks, I
always knew when I was going to stop her, so that I could ask her comprehension
questions and ask her to make predictions as to what is coming up. Throughout the
lessons, I always had two white boards and markers with us. I used this as a constant
material because she enjoyed using them, and it was easier to provide quick examples or
demonstrations for Ariana. Once she worked through a word sort and had them each
aloud, she would write the words on the white board as I called them out. She enjoyed
this because she got to write, erase and prepare for the next word. This would be one of
my favorite instructional activities with my tutee. I always enjoyed when we would
complete our word study section of the lesson. I enjoyed teaching and explaining it to her,
but I especially enjoyed when she would explain to me what she already knew or what

she was learning. Whenever I laid out a word sort, on a very large table, my tutee would
get excited. It was good to get her up and moving as she worked with the words. She
would always sound out the words as she worked with them, which always made me
proud of her. I believe my tutees favorite tutoring experience with me, was we were
practicing our expression. She read the book, like a typical lesson with me asking
questions and us making predictions, but afterwards, I read the lines of the mother and
she read the lines of the child in the book and we practiced our expression, together.
Every time after that lesson, she always asked if we could practice expression with the
different characters.
I do not recall experiencing any extenuating circumstances that hindered my
tutoring. There were a couple of times where I couldnt pull her at the usual times that I
did, however I was always able to make up for it, and it never hurt my tutee or Is
progress. In terms of my tutee facing a challenging activity, I would help her through it. I
would scaffold the instructions. For example, if I gave her a word sort and she was
struggling to organize them, because I had taken away the titles, then I would collect the
word sort, and explain to her that she is doing so well but I think I may have made it a bit
too challenging too soon, so lets take a deep breath and start over. This time when I
would place the word sort out, I would leave the titles out as well. Basically, I would just
gage how Ariana was responding to my instruction, and alter it to whatever was best and
most beneficial to help her succeed.

Student Achievement:
I monitored my tutees progress, by seeing how she would do on her rereads and
running records. For rereads, Ariana would, typically, completely a cold read timed, a
second read, not timed and with my immediate corrections, and then a third time, called a
hot read, timed. This showed Ariana her progress, immediately, which is a great
reinforcer for a struggling reader, or any reader at all. She would then create a bar graph,
so she could visually see her growth within three reads. For running records, after Ariana
read, I would show her what she missed. This allows her to see that sometimes she needs
to slow down her reading or track better as she is reading.
For both of my pre and post assessments, I gave Ariana: DSA, DRA and a writing
sample. She was post- assessed with the Fry Words, but she was able to read all of them,
so I did not post assess her on those. When I pre-assessed Ariana, she was reading at
DRA Level 18, independently, 20 was her instructional level and 24 was her frustration
level. She was in the Within Word stage, but had not mastered two features in Letter
Name, so those were noted and the first features we were going to work on. When I postassessed Ariana, her independent level moved up to 20, her instructional level is 24/28,
and her frustration level is a 30. Her instructional level is both 24/28, because she
received a 16 comprehension on Level 24, and a 14 on her comprehension for Level 28,
while these are low for comprehension, they are still within her instructional level. I
would begin her with Level 24, but progress her to Level 28 right when she was showing
growth in comprehension. When I gave her, her post assessment for DSA, she mastered
all of Letter Name, as well as the two features I taught her in Within Word. She showed
no significant growth between her writing samples.

I believe that her growth, over all, was impressive. Honestly, I did not expect her
instructional level to go up to 28. Ariana showed great growth in her fluency, words per
minute and accuracy. This is what kept her moving up DRA levels because she was
receiving 99% accuracy, so she was demonstrating that she could read the text. I believe
that what helped with her fluency, was that she was constantly reading books on her
instructional level. This gave her practice and she became accustom to these leveled texts.
From lesson plan 1 to lesson plan 3, she showed growth in her fluency of reading on her
instructional level. Another area of growth, is her spelling. I believe that if I had a few
more lessons with her, I could move her into Syllable Juncture. I believe her growth in
spelling was the explicit instruction on the feature, along with the word sorts to practice
with different examples and non-examples of the feature. Also, the practice spelling tests,
that she thought were fun, were very beneficial for her because she was reading the
words, touching/interacting with the words and then writing the words.
My tutees strongest area is fluency, which is shown in the data of the
assessments. My tutee also shows strengths in sounding out sounds and words when she
is struggling, as well as identifying patterns in words. For her class, she had to read two
chapter books for the month of November, so I went and picked out a chapter book on
her instructional level, so she could further her practice with being comfortable reading
that level of text. Practice makes perfect! Her weakest area is comprehension. She is
aware of this as well, and wants to work hard to become better at it. I believe she is
weakest in that area because of past instruction, and her not reading on the appropriate
level. However, with repetitive comprehension practice on her independent and
instructional level, she will be able to move ahead with her reading level. During post

assessing, she was very successful with comprehension on Level 20, which used to be her
frustration level. This showed that she learned from the lessons I taught her, however on
Level 24 and 28, she struggled with mostly comprehension, so this is where the new
focus needs to be. If her comprehension were at the same level as her fluency, her new
instructional level would be much higher. I believe that I could have taught her more
comprehension strategies, however, she did show growth and success in comprehension
on her them instructional level, which is her now, independent level.

Recommendations:
If Ariana were to have a tutor to replace me, I would have several
recommendations for him or her. These recommendations could also be given to my
cooperating teacher. First, I would recommend that Ariana continue focusing on the
features that are Within Word. Her spelling list for the week could be based off of the
next feature, so that way she has practice with it and is moving forward through the
stages of DSA. Throughout the week, she can be given word sorts and/or writing
activities with words that represent the same feature, but not necessarily the same words
from her spelling list. This will allow for her to become more comfortable and familiar
with the feature. Second, I would recommend for Arianas instructional texts to start on
Level 24. Since she is successful in fluency with this level, she could practice her
expression and phrasing with this level, to perfect it, as well as work towards mastery of
comprehension in this level. Since she struggles with comprehension, it is important that
she can successfully comprehend a Level 24 text, before moving onto Level 28. Ariana
shows success in making predictions, but continuing that would be important. I think she

would respond well to worksheets that align with the text that she is reading. This will
push Ariana to search for the answer in her book and apply it to the question that is being
asked. This will also monitor her reading and what she has read about so far. A third
recommendation I would make, is a focus on her writing development. Since she is in a
leveled class, a class filled with students that are either on or around her development,
this recommendation should be done whole group and by my cooperating teacher. There
needs to be a focus and opportunity to practice how to write properly and effectively. The
class focuses more on reading, but there needs to be a balance of writing instruction, as
well as word study.

Final Thoughts:
My most challenging part of this experience, was writing my first lesson plan. I
had a hard time understanding the importance and reason for each step of the transitional
level lesson plan. But once I had created my first lesson plan, and taught it, I then
understood where to go from there. I understood the great importance of each step and
what I needed to incorporate into it. I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that I
have the ability and intelligence to teach and guide a struggling reader. At the beginning
of the semester, I didnt completely trust if I was capable, but once I got more into the
lessons and interacting with my tutee, I was motivated and aware that I was more than
capable to do so. I learned that each student is at a different level, and as a teacher it is
important to do all that you can do to teach the student at that level, because this will help
them grow and progress as a successful student. I thoroughly enjoyed pulling my tutee
and working with her. We created a strong bond. I did this by always asking her how here

weekend was, how her night before was, how she was feeling that day about school, etc.
At the beginning of each tutoring session, I made sure to check in with her and let her
know that I care about her personal life. I am grateful to have been given the chance to
work with such a bright young girl, she has so much to learn and so much space to grow,
and I know she will work hard to do so. As said before, I would have incorporated some
more activities based around comprehension. I also would have implemented some more
writing instruction with her. My tutees reading attitude has changed in the fact that she
has seen that when she works hard, she becomes a better reader. On our last day, I
showed her how much she had grown, and she was very excited. It is important to let
students know when they are growing as a learner and to congratulate them because this
means that they have been working hard. Students need encouragement and positive
feedback in order to succeed.