Student Literacy Report

Name: C.S. School: Wilson Elementary

Grade: 4 Tutoring Dates: Feb. 13- April 10,
Area of Testing: Reading Monday afternoons, 3:55-4:25,
Clinician: Angie Rutherford Total of 8 sessions

Introduction:
C.S. is a fourth grade student at Wilson Elementary School in Fishersville, Virginia. Her
classroom teacher recommended her for after school tutoring, and her parents signed
permission for her to participate in this opportunity. C.S. greets me every week with a big smile
and is eager to please. At home, C.S. enjoys watching Spanish television shows with her family
including mom, dad, and sisters. Her family is from Uruguay, and much of her extended family
is still there. C.S.s interests include her dogs, her Wii dance video game, and a variety of
sports.
Given a reading attitude survey, C.S. rated herself as an 8, 9, or 10 for most of the
statements such as I enjoy reading in school., I enjoy reading at home., and I think I am a
good reader. Interestingly, she marked a 5 out of 10 for My friends think Im a good reader.
Her responses showed that she prefers to read with others rather than reading alone. She also
noted that it is easier to read at home because her room is quiet, while in her opinion, the
classroom is too noisy. Given a writing attitude survey, C.S. still expressed enjoyment, but
circled the 5 on a scale of 1-10 for I think I am a good writer.

Reading Assessments:
During the first three weeks of tutoring, the clinician, Angie Rutherford, administered
the Morris Reading Inventory to determine a reading and spelling level.
C.S. was able to read 20 out of 20 words correctly on the Morris 3rd grade level word list.
At the 4th grade level, she read 16 out of the 20 words correctly. The 5th grade level words
proved more difficult as she read 9 of the 20 words correctly.
Based on her words in isolation scores, C.S. was asked to read the short story Buffalo
Calf Woman. The story did not include any picture cues. C.S. read the text with 97% accuracy
at a rate of 94 words per minute. However, her comprehension was 2 out of 6 or 33%. Given
the third grade passage, Maggie and the Goose, C.S. read with 96% accuracy, 108 words per
minute, and 83% comprehension. She changed the meaning by misreading the word seat as
shoulder. Without cueing, C.S. was quick to share personal connections after reading this
realistic fiction passage. I noticed the same after her silent reading of the 3 rd grade passage,
Edwards Kitten, which she repeated 83% comprehension but decreased to 100 words per
minute. It is intriguing that her silent reading was slower than her oral reading. Interesting to
note is that both fourth grade passages were Native American tales versus both third grade
passages were realistic fiction.
Spelling Sample:
The spelling component was administered as part of the Morris Informal Inventory. C.S.
enjoyed the spelling assessments. She stated that she was in the top group for spelling in her
classroom.
List Score Misspellings
st
1 Grade 100% n/a
quean for queen
2nd Grade 80%
shoping for shopping
noiese for noise
rd
3 Grade 70% steping for stepping
caght for caught
cabel for cable
squire for squirrel
4th Grade 60%
scamed for scampered
cabeged for cabbage
This test administration also brought up some conversations about vocabulary. More than
three times, C.S. explained that she didnt know that word but she would try to spell it anyway.

Summary of Reading Assessment:

C.S. is reading at a late 3rd grade level. Making connections and answering explicit
questions related to realistic fiction are strengths for her. Her words in isolation automaticity is
another strength. She also feels confident about spelling.
Based on the reading inventory, I decided that C.S. needed exposure to a wide range of
genres. Based on the collaboration with the homeroom teacher, C.S. needed assistance using
punctuation to read in meaningful phrases. Based on the drop in comprehension at the fourth
grade level, C.S. needed instruction in using metacognitive strategies to self-monitor
comprehension. These include but are not limited to visualizing, self-questioning, and using
text structure to retell. Vocabulary development through read alouds at-home or at-school
would also benefit C.S.. Ongoing discussion to raise C.S.s awareness of the use of figurative
language in the English language may further develop her comprehension skills.

Tutoring:
C.S. was present for each of the eight thirty-minute sessions, for a total of four hours of
assessment and instruction. C.S. consistently attended with a positive attitude and willingness
to work together. C.S. enjoyed exploring digital on-line texts of her choice during our first
couple of sessions. She seemed a pleasantly surprised that I let her pick a graphic novel.
Tutoring started with a focus on fluency as C.S.s homeroom teacher shared that, C.S.
takes breaks and pauses in parts of a sentence where it is not necessary and from what I have
gathered, it can really hinder her comprehension of what she is reading. C.S. enjoyed reading
Readers Theater scripts aloud together. We discussed the 3Ps + E of fluency Punctuation,
Phrasing, Pacing, and Expression. Some lines we would reread together to be more dramatic or
to better show the characters emotion. Broken into brief lines, C.S. was very confident with
Readers Theater activities. Transferring these ideas to full multi-paragraph passages continues
to be a goal for C.S..
Although C.S. did very well on the words in isolation part of the Morris Inventory, I did
notice some words in context that stumped her. I observed that C.S. did not use many
strategies to figure out unfamiliar words. If she did not know the word, she continued at the
same pace and slurred through words like swollen, soothe, knock, speck, artistry, aching,
luscious, certainly, liven, and perhaps. Some decoding polysyllabic words by analogy may help
C.S. to pronounce these words. In addition, encouraging her to pause and look for context
clues may be beneficial.

Comprehension was the major focus for many of C.S.s tutoring sessions. We used the
acronym CSPER (Characters, Settings, Problem, Events, and Resolution) to identify story
elements in the Readers Theater script before, during, and after reading. This acronym was
new to C.S., although she seemed familiar with the story structure terms. Internalizing this type
of acronym and using it to retell narrative passages could increase her comprehension. We also
focused on visualizing an unfamiliar fairy tale. I noticed that at-times, vocabulary was inhibiting
C.S. from picturing the scene. In addition, determining importance seemed difficult for her in
this genre at level Q. Using a level P tall tale, C.S. and I worked on using self-questioning to
monitor and improve comprehension. Due to time restraints, we were limited in our writing
time. In order to foster the reading-writing connection, I would have liked for her to write her
own fairy tale and tall tale after reading those genres.
To expand comprehension into the nonfiction domain, we used an expectation grid.
With guidance, students were able to use the illustrations and headings to predict some basic
categories of information we would find in the article. During reading, students noted their
observations and discussed whether or not the information fit into one of their predetermined
categories. Focusing on story structure, visualization, self-questioning, and the expectation grid
developed a foundation for improved comprehension. With continued strategy instruction and
encouragement, C.S. will further blossom as a reader.