Sujaan

A summer of growth
Date: June-July 2018
Age: 8
Grade: Rising 3rd
Tutor’s Name: Abigail Letts
 Background
Information
Sujaan is a student at The GLOBE Academy in Atlanta,
Georgia. He is very bright and academically motivated,
but recently, some of his recent standardized test
scores haven’t been as reflective of that. Sujaan is
currently in a language immersion program, limiting
time for extra intervention and support. After
discussing with his parent, we believe it would be
beneficial for some extra one on one attention.

In general, I learned that Sujaan has the motivation

and drive to be a successful reader, but is lacking a
few key tools to bring his reading abilities to “the
next level.” With content and rigor increasing
substantially between second and third grade, it is
important to provide him with the necessary tools
to meet these new challenges. His foundations in
reading are solid, he simply needs some extra
support as he moves to the next grade.
 Assessments Administered

Interest Inventory

Qualitative Reading Inventory- Levels 1-3, Narrative and Expository

Informal Phonics Inventory

Informal Decoding Inventory

Fry Sight Word Inventory (Levels 1-3)

Elementary Spelling Inventory

CLOZE Passage

Retelling Checklist

Multidimensional Fluency Scale

 Interest Inventory

Purpose: the purpose of this inventory was to identify

Sujaan’s attitudes towards reading and literacy. The
assessment prompted him to finish a series of sentences
such as “I like to read stories about…” and “I think
learning to read is…”

Results: Sujaan has a very positive attitude towards

reading and school in general. He views himself as
intelligent and capable, and says that he enjoys to read.
He noted that he enjoys reading nonfiction more than
fiction.
 Qualitative Reading
Inventory

Purpose: The QRI offers a comprehensive overview of a child’s reading

ability- assessing fluency, words per minute, recall, explicit and implicit
comprehension, as well as prior knowledge on a particular concept. The QRI
identifies reading levels from Pre-Primer through High School, and breaks
down each level into independent, instructional, and frustration sub-levels.

Results: Sujaan tested at an independent level 1, and an instructional level 2

in the QRI. He also reached an instructional level at level 3 when reading
narrative material (fiction), but is not quite at an instructional level 3 with
expository (nonfiction). Essentially, this means that Sujaan is very
successful with level 1 materials on his own, with level 2 materials with
some assistance from an adult, and needs extra support with level 3
materials at this point in time.
Informal Phonics Inventory

Purpose: The intent of this inventory is to evaluate

Sujaan’s ability to identify all basic phonics sounds such
as consonant sounds, dipthongs, etc.

Results: Sujaan received a 100% on this assessment,

meaning he has a fantastic foundation in phonics. This
foundation will serve him very well as he continues to
progress in reading!
Informal Decoding Inventory
(Parts 1-2)

Purpose: The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate Sujaan’s ability to take

the phonics sounds from the previous assessment and use them to decode
words. The assessments broken down into various categories correlating with
the phonics sounds, and uses a combination of real words and “nonsense
words” that Sujaan read aloud to me.

Results: Sujaan reached a mastery level on part 1 of this inventory for both real
words and nonsense words. He struggled a bit more in part 2, reaching the
“systematic instruction” level for real words, and the “review” level for nonsense
words. I was surprised that Sujaan was more successful with the nonsense
words, but this shows that he has a strong foundation in phonics, but was simply
encountering a lot of unfamiliar multisyllabic words in part 2 of the inventory.
The second part of the test is geared towards upper elementary students, and I
am confident that Sujaan will continue to hone these skills in the coming school
year, as well as through fourth and fifth grade.
 Fry Sight Word Inventory
(Levels 1-3)

Purpose: The Fry Sight Word Inventory evaluates a

student’s ability to identify common sight words. Each
level

Results: Sujaan scored a 98% or above on each level of

the inventory. He has a strong foundation in recognizing
sight words, which will serve him well when reading
independently!
 Elementary Spelling
Inventory

Purpose: This assessment is meant to evaluate a

student’s spelling abilities, specifically identifying
difficulties in word families and syllabic sounds.

Sujaan received a 53/87 on the assessment, placing him

in the “Within Word Pattern” stage. This is right on
target for a rising third grade student, and I am aiming
for him to reach the early Syllables and Affixes stage by
the end of the coming school year.
 CLOZE Assessment

Purpose: The CLOZE assessment is a reading passage on Sujaan’s

reading level with words taken out. The goal is for Sujaan to infer
what the missing words are using context clues and his own
background knowledge.

Results: Sujaan struggled a bit with this assessment. Out of 19

blanks, he filled in four correctly. However, an additional 5-6 words
were acceptable and made sense, even if they weren’t the original
words. This is a difficult assessment, and Sujaan showed a positive
attitude and perseverance through the activity. When he was finished
attempting it independently, we reviewed it together, and discussed
some of the words that didn’t make sense, and replaced them
together.
 Retelling Checklist

Purpose: The purpose of the retelling checklist is to

evaluate Sujaan’s ability to recall details of a story after
reading. We paired this assessment with “Independence
Day,” a nonfiction text on Sujaan’s reading level.

Results: Sujaan scored at a moderate level on 8/12 of

the categories, and high on 3/12. This strength was
often evident in our tutoring sessions, as he is usually
very good at retelling a story!
Multidimensional Fluency
Scale

Purpose: I used this assessment to evaluate Sujaan’s

fluency while he was reading “The Highest Court in the
Land,” an informational text on the second grade
reading level.

Results: Sujaan scored a 9/12 on the assessment,

earning a 3/4 in phrasing, smoothness, and pace. Sujaan
has a mastery of 2nd grade level words, but often reads
in a monotonous tone with little expression. This is
something that we will work on in our tutoring sessions!
 Strengths

Sujaan is strong in fluency, word recognition, and

retelling, particularly when reading fictional stories. His
basic comprehension is strong in fictional stories as
well. Sujaan is spelling on grade level, and has a very
strong foundation in phonics, sight word recognition, and
letter sounds. He is great at making text-to-self and text-
to-world connections. Sujaan has a positive attitude
towards reading and school, as well as a strong self
perception of him as a reader, which will serve him well
when faced with challenging tasks. He comes to tutoring
with a smile on his face and a “can do” attitude!
 Challenges

Sujaan struggles more with nonfiction texts- specifically

regarding comprehension and recall, but also in regards
to fluency and reading with expression. In general, I
would focused on Sujaan’s reading comprehension in
order to improve his critical thinking skills in fictional
stories, and his ability to answer both basic and higher
level questions with nonfiction. He shows difficulties in
writing- specifically related to formulating ideas and
organizing his thoughts- which we worked to address
as well.
Summary of Tutoring
 Instructional Goals

Sujaan will read grade appropriate nonfiction and fictional

texts with fluency, expression, and enthusiasm.

Sujaan will improve his comprehension and recall,

specifically in regards to nonfiction texts.

Sujaan will improve and expand his knowledge of grade

appropriate vocabulary terms.

Sujaan will write 2-3 organized, thoughtful sentences

independently.
 Fluency

Instruction: Sujaan was instructed to practice Radio Reading when reading aloud. Essentially,
I modeled a radio broadcast for him while reading a passage, and we discussed how reading
with expression increases your listener’s engagement, and often your own engagement with
a text.

Materials: We used a variety of leveled texts, mostly pulled from Reading A-Z, an online
program available to parents and teachers. I pulled from levels K and L for Sujaan, and we
utilized both fiction and nonfiction texts, with a focus on nonfiction.

Strengths: Sujaan has a strong vocabulary and is great at identifying sight words. Following
the Radio Reading activity, he showed major improvement in reading with enthusiasm and
expression.

Challenges: Sujaan initially struggled with reading in a monotonous tone, and often ignored
punctuation when reading aloud (this improved during our time together). He can also
become frustrated when reading unfamiliar words, and may disregard his phonics skills in
order to finish a text quickly.
 Recommendations for
Improving Fluency

Read aloud often! Ask Sujaan to read aloud to you as often as

possible.

Try Repeated Reading- read a sentence or passage and have

Sujaan repeat after you.

Use an audio book for Sujaan to follow along (or read aloud)
with a text

Try the Radio Reading Activity

http://www.readingeducator.com/strategies/radio.htm
 Comprehension- Fiction

Instruction: Although comprehension with nonfiction was more of a concern, I also wanted
to give attention to fictional comprehension. We worked with a variety of short stories, read
both aloud and silently, and used a variety of strategies and graphic organizers to support
comprehension and recall. I also found a lot of success in previewing the text by looking
through the pictures, title, and cover of the text as a way to support comprehension. Sujaan
seems to benefit from this extra structure when tackling a text.

Materials: We used a variety of leveled texts (K & L) from Reading A-Z. In addition to that, we
introduced a plot diagram as a valuable graphic organizer for comprehension with fiction.

Strengths: Sujaan is generally very good at comprehending fictional texts! He can describe
the plot, setting, characters, and make inferences with ease.

Challenges: On occasion, Sujaan needs to be reminded to use the text as a tool to refer back
to when responding to comprehension or recall questions. He often tries to respond too
generally, and resists giving detailed answers.
Student Work
Sample
Plot Chart Diagram
Comprehension- Nonfiction

Instruction: This was one of our strongest areas of focus during tutoring. We used a variety of
leveled texts and passages, paired with a combination of comprehension strategies, graphic
organizers, and questions. We utilized a recall strategy that encouraged Sujaan to draw
pictures of his understandings of the story, we identified various aspects of a nonfiction text
to support understanding, and we created games out of comprehension questions to increase
engagement and interest.

Materials: Passages, accompanying questions, and graphic organizers were pulled from
Reading A to Z and newsela.com.

Strengths: Sujaan is very good at identifying elements of a nonfiction text and paying
attention to these elements while reading. He does a fantastic job of activating prior
knowledge before reading a text, and is improving at recalling specific details.

Challenges: Sujaan struggles to be specific in his responses and identify main ideas from a
text in a way that is detailed and specific. At times, he may “skate” over important aspects of
a text in recall or discussion.
 Recommendations for
Improving Comprehension

Use plot charts, diagrams, and other graphic organizers when reading. These do not have to be
fancy, I often make them on my own. Here is a great, free resource to access general graphic
organizers: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/graphic-
organizers-reading-comprehension/

Read with Sujaan (or even to him) and discuss the text with him periodically throughout reading.

Play a comprehension game! Here is one of my favorites: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

Product/FREEBIE-Roll-and-Chat-Reading-Comprehension-Dice-Game-1025872

Create a graphic novel or comic strip to retell a story (especially with a fictional story)

Create diagrams reviewing important information in a nonfiction text (for example, if reading
about the ocean, create a diagram of a wave and label the parts). This activity is great for
supporting vocabulary development as well

Check out additional resources at newsela.com (a great resource for leveled, nonfiction texts).
 Vocabulary

Instruction: We practiced identifying important vocabulary words from a nonfiction

text and using them to create an A-Z vocabulary book. Our goal was to identify a
vocabulary word from the text to correspond with each letter of the alphabet. We

Materials: The lesson idea was adapted from: http://www.readwritethink.org/

classroom-resources/lesson-plans/blast-vocabulary-instruction-using-946.html?
tab=3#tabs

Strengths: Sujaan was very good at identifying words from the text that would be
suitable to add to the vocabulary book. He also did a wonderful job searching the
internet for pictures to accompany the definition in the booklet.

Challenges: Sujaan struggled to create a specific definition and was reluctant to

look back in the text for specific details to round out the definition that he was
creating.
 Recommendations for
Improving Vocabulary

Create diagrams and visual

interpretations of information

Create an a-z vocabulary book (see

link on previous slide)

To expand vocabulary in writing, try

creating a shades of vocabulary book,
as seen in the photo
 Writing

Instruction: I also felt it would be useful to work on writing with Sujaan during our time
together. We used one of the fictional stories that we read together to construct a
reader’s response prompt for Sujaan to respond to in a few sentences. Sujaan also wrote
a reflection piece at the end our time together discussing his new understandings.

Materials: I used a writing prompt that accompanied a leveled text from Reading A-Z for
one of the writing activities. For the second, I created a writing prompt myself.

Strengths: Sujaan has a great attitude about writing. He is confident in his writing
abilities and generally seems to enjoy writing. He has lots of ideas, and is very good at
sharing them with me verbally. In addition, he has neat handwriting and is a strong
speller.

Challenges: Sujaan struggles to put his thoughts to paper and to organize them
appropriately. He also has difficulty expanding or elaborating on his ideas. He is much
more successful with these challenges when he has one on one attention and guidance!
 Recommendations for
Improving Writing

Try using a timer and “chunking” the writing task into manageable parts

Use graphic organizers to organize and generate thoughts before writing.

Scholastic is also a great resource for this! https://www.scholastic.com/
teachers/blog-posts/genia-connell/graphic-organizers-personal-narratives/

Model your own writing for Sujaan

Encourage Sujaan to use his favorite author’s as “mentor texts” and to emulate
their styles (you may need to dive into this more with him in order for him to
grasp the idea, but it is highly effective once understood!)

Write often! Encourage Sujaan to keep a journal, or to respond to his

independent reading novel frequently. Good writing comes with lots of practice!
 Closing thoughts

I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with Sujaan

this summer. His positive attitude and love for learning
reminded me of why I love to teach, especially teaching
reading and writing. Thank you for the opportunity, and I
look forward to hearing about all of his successes in the
future!