December 4, 2013 Dear Ms. Lee, During the Fall 2013 semester, I had the opportunity to or!

ith Danya through ee!ly tutoring sessions associated ith Dr. Mc"inney#s section o$ %D&L 443 'Literacy II(. )e met $or appro*imately +0 minutes $or 10 sessions. I administered se,eral assessments to help set instructional goals $or Danya. - brie$ summary o$ results $rom each assessment $ollo s. Attitude/interest / 0he interest in,entory pro,ided in$ormation o$ the student#s bac!ground !no ledge, interests, and moti,ations that helped in aligning instructional materials to help $it the students# strengths and abilities. '1ooter, Flynt 2 1ooter( 0he %lementary &eading 3ur,ey '45ar$ield6( helped me in determining Danya#s $eelings to ard reading and ith the planning o$ the lessons ith the choices o$ boo!s and other materials. From these sur,eys I learned that Danya en7oys reading. 0his is a good thing since so many !ids don#t en7oy it. 0he main thing that I $ound as that Danya does not li!e to read aloud in class. I also determined that gi,ing Danya more chances to use technology ould bene$it since she does not ha,e the access at home. For my lessons I pro,ided Danya the use o$ the i8ad and computer to promote technology. I also pro,ided a goal that $ocused on $luency to become more com$ortable reading aloud. Informal Reading Inventory/ Finding Danya#s reading le,el helped to $ind a starting point to build her con$idence and understanding o$ the te*t. I ga,e Danya both the le,el 2 and le,el 3 passages. 0he results $rom the le,el 3 test are the $ollo ing. -$ter the silent reading she as able to pro,ide + o$ the 9 :uestions ithout assistance and 2 a$ter prompting. 0he oral reading o$ the passage also pro,ided e,idence o$ only ha,ing 2 miscues. I then read aloud the le,el 4 reading passage to assess her listening comprehension. 3he as able to retell the story both by hersel$ and my prompting on the :uestions. From this I determined that Danya as reading at a 3rd grade le,el and based my guided reading to accommodate this. Elementary Spelling Inventory / 0he purpose o$ this assessment is to see at hat spelling stage the student is per$orming at. 0he %3I pro,ided me ith the in$ormation that Danya is per$orming at the late stage ithin syllables and a$$i*es. 3he spelled 1+ o$ the 2+ ords correctly. I noticed that to ards the end o$ the %3I she as sounding out the ords and riting hat she sounded out and that she con$uses the unaccented $inal syllables. 0his assessment sho ed me that I needed to or! on ne ,ocabulary ords ith Danya. Writing Assessment / 0he purpose o$ this assessment is to see hat the student can do in terms o$ riting, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I noticed that Danya could rite to e*press hat she is thin!ing. I also noticed that she rote do n e,erything that she anted to and in a speci$ic order o$ detail that made sense to her. 3he as able to pro,ide me the ans er to the prompt hich as 4 hat is your $a,orite boo! and hy;6 0he main ea!ness that I sa as the use o$ punctuation. 0hroughout the entire sample Danya did not use any punctuation. <ne o$ the goals that e set as to or! on riting to con,ey ideas and to spend time on the riting process. =ased on the results o$ these assessments Danya and I set the $ollo ing goals: 1( 1omprehension o$ te*t at >8D to build to grade le,el te*t. 2( )riting to con,ey ideas and in$ormation clearly. 3( 8ractice $luency to become more com$ortable ith reading aloud. 0he $ollo ing is the $ormat that I used $or the lessons ith a brie$ purpose o$ the section and per$ormance that I sa during the sessions. 1( Fluency?$amiliar reading. It is important that Danya read ith su$$icient accuracy and $luency to support comprehension as stated in the 1ommon 1ore 3tandard. -ccording to Literacy for the 21st Century by 5ail -. 0omp!ins 4$luent readers ha,e more cogniti,e resources a,ailable $or comprehension.6'pg. 1+4( )hen Danya reads aloud she can connect it bac! to comprehension o$ the te*t, hich as a goal $or the sessions. Danya sho ed impro,ement throughout the sessions. I used an app on the i8ad that allo ed her to read aloud and ans er comprehension :uestions at the end. 0his app !ept a graph o$ her )8M as ell as the comprehension. 3he impro,ed her scores each time that she read one o$ the passages. 2( 5uided &eading. 0his section as the main part o$ the tutoring sessions. In guided reading e had three parts, hich included pre@reading, during reading, and post reading. In each section e $ocused on strategies that Danya could use to help her ith comprehension o$ the te*t. Danya did ,ery ell ith the strategies o$ summariAing and

doing a picture al! o$ the story be$ore reading to predict hat as going to happen. 3he as able to retell and recall details $rom each boo! that e read. 3( )riting. For this section I had Danya set up a Flat 3tella to use. =y allo ing Danya to set up a Flat 3tella she as able to connect her riting to the ad,entures that the Flat 3tella ent on by riting about the places it tra,eled to all o,er the orld. 0his helped build her riting s!ills by pro,iding a plat$orm to rite narrati,es that use the $rame or! o$ good riting. 4( )ord 3tudy. 0his sections purpose as to pro,ide Danya ith the opportunity to learn ne ,ocabulary and or! on ords ithin the syllables?a$$i*es stage o$ spelling. I used ord sorts $ound in )ords 0heir )ay as ell as ha,ing Danya $ind the meaning to ords that she did not !no and had trouble ith pronouncing in the guided reading portion. )e used the dictionary app on the i8ad to $ind the ords and rite their meanings do n in her 7ournal. +( =oo! 3haring. I $elt that pro,iding Danya a boo! on a 4th grade reading le,el ould help build her understanding o$ grade le,el te*ts and introduce her to grade le,el te*ts that might be more di$$icult $or her to comprehend hen reading alone. During this time I read a boo! titled 4Fourth Grade Fairy6 by %ileen 1oo!. Danya as interested in this boo! and en7oyed $inding out ho it ended. <ne o$ the strategies that e or!ed closely on as the riting process. For this I had Danya ma!e a digital Flat 3tella that she as able to send on ad,entures using the i8ad. 0o begin I had Danya rite do n places that she ould li!e to see her Flat 3tella go on each lesson. Danya then rote about the ad,entures a$ter seeing here her Flat 3tella ent. 0he end product as a summary o$ the ad,entures that her Flat 3tella ent during our sessions. )e or!ed on her rough dra$ts to $i* punctuation and spelling and in the end Danya as able to use the computer to type her $inal dra$t. Danya as al ays e*cited to see hat places her Flat 3tella ent and ,isited and her riting sho ed great progress in her to ards the end. -nother strategy that e or!ed on as Danya#s $luency hen reading. 0o do this I used the i8ad, hich had an application that pro,ided se,eral di$$erent boo!s that Danya could read aloud. -t the end o$ the boo! there ere three comprehension :uestions $or her to ans er. 0his helped Danya become more $luent hen reading and more com$ortable ith reading out loud. 3he mentioned at our $irst meeting that she did not en7oy reading in $ront o$ the class. From the graphs o$ her ords per minute, Danya impro,ed each time that she read a selection. 0his as great not only $or her $luency, but also $or her comprehension. 0he better she as ith reading aloud her scores $or comprehension ent up also. Danya sho ed great gro th during our sessions. During guided reading I started to notice her using many o$ the strategies that e ere using ithout my prompting. 3he as beginning to sho impro,ement ith her details and summaries o$ the boo!s e read. <ne o$ the best impro,ements throughout the sessions as the riting. Danya is beginning to use punctuation and is able to con,ey in riting hat she ants to say. 0he use o$ the Flat 3tanley -pp as ,ery bene$icial. I ould recommend continuing to allo Danya the chance to read boo!s that she en7oys reading and pro,iding some great riting e*periences. Danya as more $ocused hen reading a story that included some $antasy elements. In riting she as e*cited to see here her Flat 3tella ent and it sho ed in her riting. It as really great to get to !no Danya I !no that she ill do great this year. 0han!s $or allo ing me the pleasure to help. 3incerely,

-shlee 3impson BCLD 0utor Dr. Mc"inney BCLD Literacy 8ro$essor