Faith Hollinger

Student: Sarah
Case Report
TEDU 566
I.

Student Background

Information Provided by the School:

Sarah is in 2nd grade at J.G. Hening Elementary School. She is seven years old and this is
her fourth year of school (Pre-K, K, 1st, & 2nd). She attended Hening Elementary since
Kindergarten and attended Miles Jones Elementary in Richmond City for Pre-K. Her
DRA level was 18 when first starting the VCU tutoring program.
Garfield Survey:
Sarah prefers academic reading than recreational reading. She does not mind reading for
school, but she would rather relax than read during her leisure time. In addition, she may
get distracted easily when she reads as she reported that it is hard for her to read when it
is raining outside because of the noise on the windows.
Interview:
It is hard for Sarah to get good sleep on a school night because she shares a room with
her three-year-old brother who often wakes her up during the night. Her bedtime is 8 pm
but she stated that she does not like going to sleep early for school. Sarah is able to think
imaginatively as she stated that she likes to play pretend with her parents and friends.
She likes to read at school but she does not have anyone read to her.
Observations:
A majority of the time Sarah seems enthusiastic about the VCU tutoring sessions. She
has a positive attitude towards reading and writing during most sessions. On occasion
Sarah seems tired and distracted. She sometimes looks around at what other students are
doing when she is tired.

II.

Basic Skills

Results of Letter ID & Yopp-Singer Assessments:

Sarah can identify all lower and upper case letters by their name. She was not hesitant
and was able to automatically identify the letters. Sarah correctly segmented less than

half of the words given for the Yopp-Singer Assessment. For the words incorrectly
segmented she used onset and rime.
Results of Writing Vocabulary and Writing Sample Assessments:
For the writing vocabulary assessment, Sarah was able to use her resources by looking at
objects around her in the cafeteria. She clumped all the words together on the paper and
she was able to spell all but one word correct. In her writing sample, spaces were absent
and she started a new sentence on each line. She has directionality when writing and she
was able to keep a main idea.
Observations:
Sarah is able to use spaces when prompted to do so. She includes punctuation but she
occasionally incorporates run on sentences. She sometimes includes capital letters where
they do not need to be included.
III.

Word Knowledge

Primary Spelling Inventory:

Sarah had 42 feature points out of 56 feature points for the PSI. She spelled 13 out of the
26 words correctly. She is in the Early Within Word Pattern Stage. She is able to
correctly use consonants (initial & final), short vowels, digraphs, and blends. She uses
but confuses common long vowels and vowels such as ow, -oi, -ou, -aw, and ew. Her
use of inflected endings is absent.
IV.

Reading Skill

Qualitative Reading Inventory:

Word Lists Results:
Primer

20/20, 100%

Independent

20/20, 100%

Independent

Second

17/20, 85%

Instructional

Third

10/20, 50%

Frustration

First

Passage Results:

Passage
Level
Title

Type of
Text

Prior
Knowledge
(Score/Rating
)
3/9, 33.3%
Unfamiliar

Quality
of
Predictio
n
2 ideas;
Accurate

Oral Reading
(Score/Rating
)

Fluenc
y

Primer
A
Trip
One
Mouse
in a
House
Primer
Who
Lives
Near
Lakes?

Narrative

Retelling
(Number of
Ideas/Rating
)
8/22 ideas

Comprehensio
n

Overall Level

4 miscues
Instructional

62
WPM

6/6
Independent

Instructional

Narrative

6/9, 66.67%
Familiar

2 ideas;
Accurate

10 miscues
Instructional

Not
timed

9/44 ideas

3/6 Frustration

Frustration

Expositor
y

3/9, 33.3%
Unfamiliar

3 ideas;
Accurate

0 miscues
Independent

88.57
WPM

6/18 ideas

5/6
Instructional

Instructional

Overall Instructional Level: Primer

Sarahs highest independent level for the word lists was at the first grade level. This is
where she began for the passages. Nelijah reached frustration on the level one passage,
Mouse in a House, so a primer passage was introduced. She reached independent level
for the primer passage, A Trip. Her overall level for primer passages is at the
instructional level for both narrative and expository text. She was able to read the
expository text fluently with no errors, but she was able to comprehend the narrative
passage better.
V.

Listening Vocabulary Knowledge

PPVT-4:
Students
Chronological
Age
7 years & 2
months

Raw Score

Percentile

Stanine

Age Equivalent

113

39

6:9

Sarah is in the low average percentile rank for the PPVT-4. This means that she may
need to be provided more support in receptive vocabulary acquisition. Her age
equivalent, 6 years and 9 months, is below her chronological age.
VI.

Summary of Assessments

Sarah consistently does not use spaces in between her words. This was seen in the
writing sample assessment as well as the writing vocabulary assessment. Through the
VCU tutoring sessions, she has been able to use spaces when prompted to do so. The
writing sample assessment is an accurate portrayal of Sarahs writing. The assessment

shows that she is able to keep a main idea in her writing. When reading unfamiliar
words, Sarah relies on the beginning sound of the word but does not go further than that.
Encountering unfamiliar words hinders her comprehension of the text. She is able to
comprehend text at an instructional level or better when she has very few or no miscues
when reading.
VII.

Recommended Instructional Plan

Sarah needs to expand her vocabulary in order to comprehend some texts. Vocabulary
will be an area of instructional plan for her. In addition, Sarah uses but confuses common
long vowels. Being familiar with how long vowels are spelled will strengthen Sarahs
vocabulary. Working on writing word sorts with long vowels will help her in this area.
Next, remembering important details about the text will also strengthen Sarahs
comprehension. This can be done through graphic organizers and teaching her how to
look back in the text for important details. Lastly, Sarah needs additional practice writing
words with spaces. This can be done by repeatedly reminding her to use spaces as well
as having her use her finger as a spacer each time she writes.