Kelsey Ramirez

SPED 638

Comprehensive Case Study

Introduction & Overview

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of one-on-one tutoring on a struggling

reader. Assessments we used to determine the students needs and goals were created with the

student at the beginning of tutoring. Instructional interventions were then used to address these

needs over a time span of 10 weeks. In the end, a post assessment was given to assess the

effectiveness of the interventions. Below are the findings of this comprehensive case study.

Description of Student

Background

This study is based on Destiny, a seven year old, second grade student who currently does

not have a diagnosis of a disability, but is receiving special education services in a small group

setting. She was determined eligible for special education services under the category

Developmental Delay in 2013. Destiny was adopted by her aunt and uncle when she was one

year old. From birth to the time she was adopted, the students nutrition was unknown. Destiny

was taken from her birth mom due to neglect. Parents felt that neglect and the lack of proper

nutrition early on have impacted her ability to make adequate progress in development.

Although Destiny has made significant improvement in literacy, mathematics, articulation, and

social skills since 2013, she continues to work on achieving grade level standards.

Student Interests
 Destiny is interested in art, dogs, animals, and technology.

Student Strengths

Destiny displays much strength as she develops her reading skills. Results of the listed

assessments showed that she is performing at the strategic level in the following areas: phonemes

skills, phonics, word recognition, and text comprehension. Performing in the strategic level

shows that Destiny is continuing to develop her skills and has not meet grade level standards at

the benchmark level. While administering the assessments and in conversation, I also observed

oral vocabulary as another one of Destinys strengths.

Student Needs

Results of the listed assessments also showed areas of difficulty for Destiny which are

initial/final sound for phonemes and reading fluency. For the initial and final sound assessment

Destiny performed at an intensive level. Results from the MASI-R Oral Reading Fluency

assessment showed that she is able to read 56 wpm of a 2nd grade leveled text, which is in the 25th

percentile of 2nd graders. Also, Destiny performed at the frustrational level on the San Diego

Quick Assessment: Grade 2. Results indicate that Destiny has difficulty recognizing grade-

leveled words out of context.

Pre-Assessments

Phonemes

Assessment Sub Tests Raw Score Percentage Student Performance

Level According to

Grade Level
 Expectations
Initial Sound 4 80% Intensive
CORE Phoneme Final Sound 4 80% Intensive
First Sound of a Consonant
Deletion Test 4 80% Strategic
Blend
CORE

Phonological
Words into Phonemes 8 80% Strategic
Segmentation

Test

Phonics

Student Performance

Level According to
Assessment Sub Tests Raw Score Percentage
Grade Level

Expectations
Letter Names-Uppercase 26 100%
Letter Names-Lowercase 24 92%
Consonant Sounds 19 90%
Long Vowel Sounds 5 100%
Short Vowel Sounds 5 100%
Short vowels in CVC words 15 100%
Consonant Blends with Short
12 80%
CORE Phonics Vowels
Short Vowels, Digraphs, and Strategic
Survey 13 86%
tch Trigraph
R-controlled Vowels 14 93%
Long Vowel Spellings 13 86%
Variant Vowels 10 67%
Low Frequency Vowel and
2 13%
Consonant Spellings
Multisyllabic Words 6 25%

Fluency
 Student Performance

Assessment Raw Score Percentage Level According to Grade

Level Expectations
MASI-R Oral
25 Percentile of 2nd
Reading Fluency 56 wpm
graders
Measures
San Diego Quick
9 90% Independent Level
Assessment: Grade 1
San Diego Quick
4 40% Frustrational Level
Assessment: Grade 2

Word Recognition

Student Performance

Assessment Raw Score Percentage Level According to Grade

Level Expectations
CORE Graded High-

Frequency Word
20 83% Strategic
Survey: List II (2nd

Grade)
CORE Graded High-

Frequency Word
19 79% Strategic
rd
Survey: List III (3

Grade)
CORE Vocabulary
22 73% Strategic
Screening

Text Comprehension
 Student Performance

Assessment Raw Score Percentage Level According to Grade

Level Expectations
CORE Reading Maze
16 76% Strategic
Comprehension Test

Description of Tutoring Interventions

Goals/Objectives

Goal: Within 10 weeks of tutoring instruction, Destiny will acquire literacy skills by

demonstrating the following objectives at a strategic or independent level.

Objective 1: When given a word, Destiny will be able to identity and manipulate the

initial/final sounds of phonemes, independently at benchmark level.

Objective 2: When given a text at a 2nd grade level, Destiny will be able to read 89 words

per minute, independently.

Objective 3: When given a list of words at a 2nd grade level, Destiny will be able to the

words out of context, at an independent level.

Reading Strategies

- Stretching Out the Sounds Destiny tends to rush when reading or spelling unfamiliar

words. To remind her to slow down and take her time when sounding out words, I would

prompt her to stretch it out or use your bubble gum. For this strategy you use a

slinky to stretch out the words to hear all the sounds. It is a tactile and visual reminder to

slow down and listen. Since we dont always have a slinky we started using imaginary

bubble gum where your fingers to pull this bubble gum a part slowly while listening to
 the sounds. This strategy seemed to help her obtain a simple independent strategy that

she can use at any time.

- Elkonin Boxes This strategy helps to teach phonemic awareness in a tactile way. It

provides students with visual tool to help segment and blend individual phonemes in

words. We used this instructional strategy to work on identifying and manipulating initial

and final sounds.

- Choral Reading This strategy increases reading fluency. A choral read involves a

group reading at the same time. This provides the struggling reader with the opportunity

to practice and receive support before being required to read independently, a model for

fluent reading as students listen, and helps improve the ability to read sight words.

Instructional Practices Used and Modifications/ Accommodations

- Vadasy, Patricia F. Sound Partners: A Tutoring Program in Phonics-based Early

Reading: Implementation Manual. Boston, MA: Sopris West Educational Services, 2005.

- Bob Books

- Sound Partners Single Letters and Single Vowel Letter Sounds Card for a reference

- Book marker to track focus

- Manipulatives to see, count, identify initial, middle vowel, and final sounds in words

- Two-Letter Phonemic Awareness Activity (Initial/Final Position)

o Teacher provides the h and t card to the student. Teacher says hat and asks the

student to repeat hat. Then the teacher says toy and asks the student to repeat toy.

Teacher tells the student, Now you will say words that might begin with the /h/
 or the /t/ sound. I am going to say a word. If the word has the /h/ sound at the

beginning touch the h card. If the word has the /t/ sound, touch the t card. (Repeat

with final position)

- Decoding to Encoding

o This activity is like Word Building where the teacher says a word and the student

uses letter tiles to build the word. But instead, the teacher says a word and asks

the student to move the letter cards to spell a new word. For example, Change

the word bend to send.

Motivation and Rapport

Destiny was a student in my classroom for kindergarten and first grade so I already had

positive rapport with her. But additional to our past, I made sure to always ask about her day and

talk through her frustrations with reading. If we had additional time after our Sound Partners

lesson, Id have her select an activity for us to do together such as reading, painting, play dough,

crafts, etc. To maintain motivation I used a token reward board that she was familiar with when

she was in my classroom. We both enjoyed our time together each week.

Record of Student Performance

(See attached)

Results of Tutoring Interventions

Assessments

Phonemes
 PRE-TEST POST-TEST
Student Performance Student Performance
Raw
Level According to Raw Level According to
Assessment Sub Tests Scor Percentage Percentage
Grade Level Score Grade Level
e
Expectations Expectations
Initial Sound 4 80% Intensive 5 100% Benchmark
Final Sound 4 80% Intensive 5 100% Benchmark
CORE Phoneme First Sound of
Deletion Test a Consonant 4 80% Strategic 4 80% Strategic

Blend
CORE

Phonological Words into

8 80% Strategic 8 80% Strategic
Segmentation Phonemes

Test

Phonics

PRE-TEST POST-TEST
Student Performance Student Performance

Raw Percentag Level According to Raw Level According to

Assessment Sub Tests Percentage
Score e Grade Level Score Grade Level

Expectations Expectations
CORE Phonics Letter Names- Strategic Benchmark
26 100% 26 100%
Survey Uppercase
Letter Names-
24 92% 26 100%
Lowercase
Consonant
19 90% 21 100%
Sounds
Long Vowel
5 100% 5 100%
Sounds
Short Vowel
5 100% 5 100%
Sounds
Short vowels in
15 100% 15 100%
CVC words
Consonant 12 80% 14 93%

Blends with
 Short Vowels
Short Vowels,

Digraphs, and 13 86% 15 100%

tch Trigraph
R-controlled
14 93% 15 100%
Vowels
Long Vowel
13 86% 14 93%
Spellings
Variant Vowels 10 67% 13 87%
Low Frequency

Vowel and
2 13% 4 27%
Consonant

Spellings
Multisyllabic
6 25% 8 25%
Words

Fluency

PRE-TEST POST-TEST
Student
Student
Performance
Raw Performance Level
Assessment Percentage Raw Score Percentage Level According
Score According to Grade
to Grade Level
Level Expectations
Expectations
MASI-R Oral
56 25 Percentile of 53 percentile
Reading Fluency 93 wpm
wpm 2nd graders of 2nd graders
Measures
San Diego Quick
Independent Independent
Assessment: 9 90% 10 100%
Level Level
Grade 1
San Diego Quick
Frustrational Instructional
Assessment: 4 40% 7 70%
Level Level
Grade 2

Word Recognition
 PRE-TEST POST-TEST
Student
Student Performance
Performance
Raw Level According to
Assessment Percentage Raw Score Percentage Level According
Score Grade Level
to Grade Level
Expectations
Expectations
CORE Graded

High-Frequency
20 83% Strategic 23 96% Benchmark
Word Survey:

List II (2nd Grade)

CORE Graded

High-Frequency

Word Survey: 19 79% Strategic 21 88% Strategic

List III (3rd

Grade)
CORE

Vocabulary 22 73% Strategic 24 80% Strategic

Screening

Text Comprehension

PRE-TEST POST-TEST
Student
Student Performance
Performance Level
Raw Level According to
Assessment Percentage Raw Score Percentage According to
Score Grade Level
Grade Level
Expectations
Expectations
CORE Reading

Maze
16 76% Strategic 18 85% Strategic
Comprehension

Test

Summary and Discussion

Student Outcomes

After 10 weeks of individual reading instruction Destiny has improved in all targeted

areas: phonemes, phonics, fluency, word recognition, and text comprehension. Post-assessment

results highlighted in red, display areas in which Destiny improved from either a frustrational

level to a strategic level or a strategic level to a benchmark level. Destiny was able to meet her

goal/objectives set in the beginning of the year. Destiny is able to identify and manipulate

initial/final sounds of phonemes at benchmark level. When given a text at a 2nd grade level,

Destiny is able to read 93 words per minute which places her in the 53 percentile of all 2nd

graders. She also is able to read a list of 2nd grade leveled words out of context at an independent

level.

Recommendations for Future Instruction

In conclusion, results of this tutoring report indicate that with individualized instruction

in a small group setting Destiny is able to achieve benchmark levels or meet grade-level

standards. Currently she is performing at a strategic level in the following areas: phoneme

deletion: first sound of a consonant blend, segmentation of words into phonemes, 3rd grade high

frequency sight words, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. She is also performing in the 53

percentile of 2nd graders in reading fluency. In order to reach benchmark level in all areas I

recommend that Destiny continues to receive special education services for reading and writing

instruction.

Also, I suggest that she receive the following classroom and instructional modifications/

accommodations. First, Destiny benefits from a well-structured literacy program like Sound

Partners. She needs review and repetition of the same content multiple times in order to obtain
new information. Second, she benefits from reminders to slow down when she reads or spells

unfamiliar words. With these reminders, she is able to improve accuracy in reading and writing.

Third, visual and tactile aids help Destiny identify and manipulate phonemes in words and words

in a sentence. Offer her the option to use manipulatives for reference such as blocks, counting

bears, crayons, or her fingers. Destiny has come a long way since I first met her in kindergarten.

She has been focused and determined to improve, and this is reflected in assessment results and

daily work. With the continued instructional I believe Destiny will continue to obtain great

achievements in the future.

Limitations

Although I find this study to be a success there were some limitations. One limitation

was that tutoring sessions had to be right after school so energy and focus were not always

consistent. When she came early to tutoring we would sit and have a snack before starting the

lesson. This helped to give Destiny a quick brain break. Another limitation was the attendance.

Destiny was unable to make every session due to illness so results do not show all ten weeks of

three sessions per week of tutoring instruction.

Overall Teaching/Tutoring Experience

I found this tutoring experience to be beneficial not only for Destiny, but for myself as

well. This gave me a chance to work one-on-one with a student, analyze her exact needs, try

new instructional strategies, and determine the results. I became more familiar with Sound

Partners and saw how successful and user-friendly the program is. I recommend it to teachers

with students who struggle in reading. The highlight of this experience was seeing how far
Destiny has come as a reader. Her whole attitude about reading has changed so dramatically

since the beginning of kindergarten. She went from I cant read! to Can I read to you today?

I am so proud of her and am so happy to be a part of another year in her journey through

education.