CASE STUDY

Name: Madysen R.
Birthdate: 02/19/2004
Age: 12 years 5 months

School: Madison Elem.

Grade: Entering 7th grade
Date of report: 07/24/2016

REASON FOR REFERRAL

Reading Difficulties
Below Grade Level Reading Ability
Comprehension Concerns
Comments: Mady is an outgoing, social young lady who has a positive attitude about learning.
She is a hard worker and is respectful of others. In the past Mady had struggled with decoding,
fluency and comprehension in both narrative and expository texts. For the past 2 years Mady
has received the Wilson Reading Intervention system during RtI time in school. In December of
2015 she was exited from this program having reached mastery as determined by the built-in
assessments and formative assessments of the reading teacher. Despite being exited from
Wilson Reading, Mady still performs below grade level as measured by the Fountas & Pinnell
Benchmark Assessment System. Her 6th grade teacher indicated that Mady was at an
instructional level U and an independent level T in the Spring of 2016. This is below the
expected F&P instructional of Y by the end of 6th grade.

CASE HISTORY
Birth Data
Madysens mother revealed Mady was born at 37 weeks gestation. The
pregnancy was normal and Mady was delivered naturally.
Developmental History:
Madysens mother reported Mady has always been small, under height and
weight as compared to her peers. She was late to walk and talk, and was almost
2 years old before walking and talking. Once she did start talking it was in
complete sentences.
Medical History
Madysen has allergies to everything as reported by her mother. She also
wears glasses (bifocals) due to muscle spasms in her eyes. It is still being
determined if she will need therapy to help in eye development.

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
Above, On, or Below Grade Level Achievements / Grades
Report card data indicates Mady has strengths in oral communication, especially
when discussing texts in book club conversations. Mady performs well in
geometry units, and report card comments indicate she prefers to study concepts
that involve a visual component. Teachers also indicate in report card comments
Mady benefits greatly from the use of manipulatives (where possible) to grasp
difficult concepts, such as volume.
Mady has been marked below target in English Language Arts and
Mathematics for all learning targets in 6th grade. Report card comments indicate
Mady needs to work on monitoring dense texts for meaning, as well as use
textual evidence to support her thinking.
Mady receives special education services for mathematics. Mady participates in
core mathematics instruction and also receives 30 minutes of pull-out instruction
during RtI time from the special education teacher. Report card comments
indicate Mady needs support developing number sense as well as support in
comprehending multi-step story problems.
Attitude Toward School
Good
Comments: Report card comments indicate Mady is a kind, thoughtful young lady who
participates often in class. Madys work ethic and attitude towards school are both positive.
Mady seeks out help in appropriate ways when she doesnt understand tasks.
Self-perception as a Learner
Good
Comments: Interest inventory data reveals Mady enjoys school overall. She reports that
reading and mathematics are difficult and working in a group in mathematics can be difficult
when she doesnt catch on fast enough for her partners. Mady believes she is becoming a
better reader and reaching mastery in the Wilson Reading Program was, in her opinion, her
highest reading achievement. She reports that her F&P scores continue to go up, and she has
learned to pick just right books which makes it easier to understand what she is reading. She
reports she doesnt like it when teachers assign books that are much higher than her lexile and
F&P level, as those books frustrate her and make her feel stupid.
Subjects/Classes Likes: Madys mother reports she enjoys math, language and social studies.
Subjects/Classes Dislikes: Madys mother reports she dislikes science.

FAMILY HISTORY
Lives With: Both parents
Relationship to Caregivers: Both parents are very involved. Mom works at the same
elementary school that Mady has attended for the past 6 years. The family has strong religious
beliefs and is very caring and nurturing.

 Number of Siblings: Mady is one of 6 children. She has two older siblings, Jack (15) and
Lauren (13). Mady has three younger brothers, Jaeden (11), Ethan (9) and Collin (7).
Relationship to Siblings: Mady is very nurturing to her younger brothers, Ethan and Collin.
Ethan has Down Syndrome and Collin has severe attention concerns. Mady is very protective
of her younger brothers, especially Ethan.
Friendships / Personal Relationships: Mady has some very strong friendships. Mady is very
social and her outgoing personality makes it easy for her to make friends. Academic concerns
can make group work (especially in mathematics) difficult; therefore, peer relationships can be
affected.

ASSESSMENT HISTORY (Parent and School)

General Achievements / Grades: Elementary grades are not given in the Manitowoc Public
School District. Students are assessed based on learning targets and assigned either E for
exceeds target, O for on target, or B for below target. Madys 6th grade report card indicates
Mady is below target in almost all English Language Arts learning targets except oral
communication.
Formal / Standardized Tests: Based on data provided by Madys parents, Mady scored Basic
on the English Language Arts portion of the last state standardized assessment (Badger).

BEHAVIOR DURING TESTING AND LIMITATIONS OF RESULTS

Typical
Comments: Mady was extremely cooperative and focused during testing. Mady worked very
hard and did not show signs of distractibility or lack of engagement.

ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Student Interest Inventory

Attitude toward self as a reader: Mady enjoys reading when books are at her level. She likes
graphic novels and realistic fiction books featuring strong female characters. She noted books
by Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama) and The Dork Diaries series by Rachel Renee Russell as
favorites.
Interests (likes / dislikes): Mady is a dancer and takes dance lessons (tap, jazz and hip-hop).
She is also very into fashion and loves doing craft projects. Cheerleading and gymnastics are
other sports she participates in. She enjoys listening to music and watching YouTube. Mady
doesnt like most sports and doesnt like change. Mom reports she thrives on consistency.
Learning style / preferences: Mady is a visual learner who also prefers to be taught in small
groups. She enjoys book club conversations with her peers when topics are interesting to her.
Mady likes people but doesnt like big groups.

QRI-6
Word List Pre-test Scores:

Word List Level

Pre-Primer 1
Pre-Primer 2/3
Primer
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Upper Middle
School

Total Correct
Automatic
17/17 = 100%
19/20 = 95%
20/20 = 100%
18/20 = 90%
18/20 = 90%
17/20 = 85%
16/20 = 80%
7/20 = 35%
1/20 = 5%
1/20 = 5%

Madys Word List Data

Total Correct
Total Number
Identified
Correct
17/17 = 100%
19/20 = 95%
20/20 = 100%
1/20 = 5%
19/20 = 95%
18/20 = 90%
1/20 = 5%
18/20 = 90%
2/20 = 10%
18/20 = 90%
6/20 = 30%
13/20 = 65%
13/20 = 65
14/20 = 70%
6/20 = 30%
7/20 = 35%

Level
Independent
Independent
Independent
Independent
Independent
Independent
Independent
Frustrational
Instructional
Frustrational

Madys Prior Knowledge Data

Based on the above word list data, it was determined to begin both expository and
narrative reading passages with Mady at Level 5. This level was the first level where Mady
scored Frustrational on the word lists, and all lists prior she scored Independent. Mady was
asked to orally read two passages from this level: Farming on the Great Plains which is an
expository text and Margaret Mead which is a narrative text. Prior to reading each of these
passages, Mady was asked 4 concept questions on each passage to assess her prior
knowledge of the topics. On the expository passage, Farming on the Great Plains, Mady
received a familiarity score of 17%, receiving 2 out of 12 possible points. It was concluded that
Mady has very limited background knowledge on this topic. On the level 5 narrative text,
Margaret Mead, Mady received a familiarity score of 20%, receiving 2 out of 10 possible
points. This topic was concluded to be unfamiliar to Mady, but she does have some basic
understanding of how we learn about different people and problems surrounding learning a new
language.

Madys Miscue Analysis Data

Level 5 Expository Text Farming on the Great Plains
Total Accuracy: 10 miscues (Instructional)
Total Acceptability: 6 (Independent)
Words Per Minute (WPM): 72.4
Correct Words Per Minute (CWPM): 70.3
While reading Farming on the Great Plains orally, it was noted Mady made 10 miscues:
Substituted affected for the word attracted in the text.
Substituted a for the word the in the text.
Substituted the for the word this in the text.
Substituted the for the word a in the text.
Substituted farms for the word farm.
Substituted of for the word or.

Substituted and for the word had.

Substituted for for the word as.
Substituted alone for the word along.
Substituted grasshoppers for the word grasshopper.

It should also be noted that Mady self-corrected eight times while reading Farming on the
Great Plains. This indicates Mady has self-monitoring skills that can be built upon and further
developed both during classroom instruction and during intervention time. Madys oral reading
prosody scale was 3, indicating she reads in primarily three- or four-word phrase groups with
little or no expressive interpretation. It took Mady 4 minutes and 44 seconds to read Farming
on the Great Plains orally, which is a 343 word passage.
Level 5 Narrative Text Margaret Mead
Total Accuracy: 9 miscues (Instructional)
Total Acceptability: 6 (Independent)
Words Per Minute (WPM): 58.2
Correct Words Per Minute (CWPM): 56.7
While reading Margaret Mead orally, it was noted Mady made 9 miscues:
Substituted the nonsense word an-thr-ol for the word anthropology in the text.
Substituted the word the for the word a in the text.
Substituted the nonsense word Samra for the word Samoa.
Substituted the nonsense word cermones for the word ceremonies.
Substituted the word for for the word with.
Substituted the word effort for the word efforts.
Substituted the word note for the word notes.
Substituted the word re-cords for the word records.
Substituted the word she for the word was.
It should also be noted that Mady self-corrected ten times while reading Margaret Mead.
In addition to self-correcting a many of her mistakes, it was also indicated Mady was
metacognitive when she stated Thats not right while reading. Mady also went back and
repeated words, phrases and sometimes even entire lines in this text 12 different times. This is
also evidence of perseverance through a complex text. Mady also received an oral reading
prosody score of 3 for this passage, , indicating she reads in primarily three- or four-word
phrase groups with little or no expressive interpretation. It took Mady 6 minutes and 8 seconds
to read Margaret Mead orally, which is a 357 word passage.
Madys Retelling & Comprehension Data
Level 5 Expository Text Farming on the Great Plains
Upon completion of reading Farming on the Great Plains out loud, Mady was asked to
retell what she remembered from the passage. The QRI provides a list of 33 ideas from the
passage from which the examiner can check off as Mady retold each idea. Out of a possible 33
ideas, Mady correctly recalled 7 ideas from this text, which is approximately 21% of the
passage.

In addition to retelling, Mady was asked 8 comprehension questions related to the text.
Four of the comprehension questions were deemed explicit, meaning the answer was found
explicitly in the text. Four questions were deemed implicit, meaning Mady would have to infer
the answer based on what she read in the passage. Without looking back at the text, Mady was
able to successfully answer 1 out of 4 explicit questions and 1 out of 4 implicit questions for a
total of successfully answering 2 out of 8 comprehension questions without looking back at the
text. This score would place this passage as Frustrational for Mady.
When given the opportunity to look back in the text, Mady was able to answer all 4
explicit questions related to Farming on the Great Plains. Despite being able to look back,
Mady still struggled to give a correct answer for two of the implicit questions. This brings her
total comprehension score to 6 out of 8 questions when given the opportunity to look back in the
text. This score places her in the Instructional level.
Level 5 Narrative Text Margaret Mead
Upon completion of reading Margaret Mead out loud, Mady was asked to retell what
she remembered from the passage. The QRI provides a list of 18 ideas from the passage from
which the examiner can check off as Mady retold each idea. Out of a possible 18 ideas, Mady
correctly recalled 6 ideas from this text, which is approximately 33% of the passage.
In addition to retelling, Mady was asked 8 comprehension questions (4 explicit and 4
implicit) related to this text as well. Without looking back at the text, Mady was able to
successfully answer all 4 explicit questions and 2 out of 4 implicit questions for a total of
successfully answering 6 out of 8 comprehension questions without looking back at the text.
This score would place this passage as Instructional for Mady.
When given the opportunity to look back in the text, Mady still struggled to give a correct
answer for two of the implicit questions; therefore, her total comprehension score remained 6
out of 8, placing this passage as Instructional for Mady as well.

Other Formal / Informal Reading Tests

Words Their Way Spelling Inventory

Version Administered: Elementary Version

Words Spelled Correctly: 15/25 words spelled correctly.
Feature Points: 41/53 feature points
Total Points: 56/78
Spelling Stage: Within Word Pattern Late Other Vowel Patterns

Phonological Awareness Assessment

Segmentation: 20/20

Blending: 20/20
Syllabification: 20/20

On-Demand Informational Writing

Mady chose to write an informational on-demand on dance. This is clearly a
topic she enjoys and knows a great deal about. Mady was scored using the Rubric for
Information Writing-Fifth Grade from the Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and
Narrative Writing Units of Study created by the Teachers College Reading and Writing
Project.
Based on the Rubric, Madys overall score was 16 points out of a possible 44
points. This gave her a scaled score of 1.5 (out of a 1-4 scale). One of Madys
strengths that shined through in this piece was her ability to include facts, details and
ideas into each section of her writing. She wrote a recognizable introduction and ending
with appropriate labels and left readers with words of wisdom relating to her topic.
Organization of the entire piece was easy to follow and flowed nicely. Due to her
extensive knowledge surrounding the topic, she was able to elaborate on different
subtopics surrounding her main topic.
Areas to improve upon would be inclusion of transition words, as Mady chose not
to include any in her piece. Mady could also work on her lead, including a hook to get
readers interested in her topic as well as use foreshadowing to let her readers know
what subtopics would be developed later in the piece.

SYNTHESIS AND INTERPRETATION OF INFORMATION COLLECTED

Reading Achievement

Instructional Reading Level: Based on QRI-6 data, Mady is reading at Level 5. Using her 6th
grade teachers Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Data, Mady should be reading
books in the R,S,T band of text complexity, with books at levels R and S being independent and
level T being instructional.

Word Analysis Skills

( + strength, - weakness)
Initial Consonants +
Ending Consonants +
Consonant Blend +
Consonant Digraphs +
Short Vowel +
Long Vowel +

Vowel Digraph Rimes +

Initial Consonant Blends +
Controlled Vowels Schwa -

Comprehension

( + strength, - weakness)
Retelling Explicit Questions +
Implicit Questions Familiar Text +
Expository Text Narrative Text -

Considerations for Student Learning

Strengths: Mady is an energetic, thoughtful, hard-working young lady who desperately wants to
perform well academically. She is focused and puts forth a tremendous amount of effort. She
has strong decoding skills that can be built upon to tackle unknown/multisyllabic words.
Needs: Mady needs to work on monitoring for meaning and building her comprehension for
inferring about unknown words. Mady needs to work on fluency when reading aloud.
Ideal Learning modes / style: Mady is a visual learner so use of anchor charts in teaching
strategies will provide a scaffold for her to do this new work. Mady also has anxiety, so keeping
the learning environment quiet and free of others may help to decrease that anxiety.
Attitude Toward Learning / Competence: Mady has a phenomenally positive attitude which
makes working with her enjoyable.
Physical / Medical Considerations (Vision, Hearing, Tracking, Medications, Other): Mady wears
bifocals, so ensuring she has her glasses with her for all sessions is imperative.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Word Study
Based off of Words Their Way spelling inventory data, Mady needs work on:
r-controlled spelling patterns for vowels a, e, i, o and u
schwa plus r sound

Comprehension Strategies, Narrative & Expository

Based off of QRI-6 data, Mady needs work on:

Inferring meaning of multisyllabic words (identifying part of speech,

positive/negative connotation, context clues, finding synonym to replace
word)
Sequencing events (using timelines, graphic organizers, etc)

Fluency
Based off of QRI-6 oral reading prosody scale data, using the repeated reading
strategy (Owocki, 2010, p. 225), Mady will increase her automaticity, speed and
prosody when reading orally.

Writing Plan
Based off of retelling data from the QRI-6, Mady will stop and jot her thinking
about the text she is reading at least once during each session. Jots are meant
to help her hold onto key ideas and/or events in the text. Jotting her thoughts on
post-it notes also makes her thinking visible and will allow for a conversation
about the text.
Text Suggestions
Based off of Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Data from her
6th grade teacher, Mady will read books within the R,S,T band of text complexity. Mady
will be allowed to choose the texts she reads during our sessions as long as the texts fall
within this band. Student choice is imperative in engagement.

OVERALL SUMMARY STATEMENT

Mady is a motivated, hard-working young lady entering 7 th grade. She possesses
excellent decoding skills. The goals of these sessions are to provide her explicit
strategies for monitoring for meaning and inferring about unfamiliar words. QRI-6 data
shows she shows tremendous perseverance when encountering multisyllabic words;
however, her attempts at sounding out the words often produce nonsense words. This
indicates a need to improve her monitoring for meaning.
QRI-6 data also reveals a need to improve Madys retelling abilities when reading
complex texts, both narrative and expository. Interest inventory data, report card
comments by previous teachers as well as her mothers survey data show Mady is a
visual learner. Providing visual scaffolds for increasing comprehension of texts, both
narrative and expository, will also increase her ability to retell.
Reading texts at her independent level will provide opportunities to increase the speed
and prosody aspects of her fluency, as texts must be at an independent level for fluency
to increase. Independent level of texts is based off of Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark
Assessment Data gathered by Madys 6th grade teacher.