Clinical Interview

Donna Summer
Student: Anne

Background Information:

Anne is a six year old Kindergarten student. Anne lives at home with her
mother
and father, and is an only child. Anne was adopted at the age of two years
old.
Annes mother has expressed concern regarding her daughters reserved/shy
demeanor. Anne attended preschool for one year prior to Kindergarten. She
is
familiar with the other students in her class and with the school setting.
Anne has
been referred to our educational support team. The meeting has yet to be
scheduled as of this writing. Annes parents will be sharing information
regarding
her first two years of life, which they feel have had a direct impact on her
social
and emotional health. Her parents mentioned that they think she has
selective
mutism, but this has not been diagnosed by a speech pathologist or
physician.
Annes parents report that they are pleased with Annes progress since
entering
Kindergarten.

Observation:

I have observed Anne in whole group and small group activities, as well as
individual work times. Anne is consistent with her behaviors during whole
group
activities. She will join the group, but often chooses to sit near the back, and
will
seek chances to sit next to the para-educator. Anne avoids eye contact with
her peers, and will not answer questions that are directed to her specifically.
During morning greeting time she will stand with the group, but will not use
her
words to greet others. She has just started to join in on activities which
involve
music and movement. She smiles and will follow through on the movements,
 and has been observed singing along. During our math workshop time,
she
will work with a partner, and follows the directions of the workplace. She will
interact with her peers with turn taking. Anne initiated sorting of beads by
color
during one workplace activity. She said to the girl working with her, Lets find
all
the red ones. They worked together to find all the red beads and made a
necklace. The girls walked over to me and said, Look Mrs. Knapp, we made a
red necklace. This was one of the first times that I observed Anne as fully
involved in an activity where she completed a task, worked with a peer and
used math language.

To learn more about Anne and her understanding of numeracy, I administered

the SNAP assessment. (Student Numeracy Assessment Progression) This
assessment looks at the following areas:
Forward Number Word Sequence (FNWS) (Counted to 10)
Backward Number Word Sequence (BNWS) (Backward from 3)
Number Identification (NI) (Identified 1-5)
Finger Patterns (Could throw 1 and 2)
Spatial Patterns (Identified clusters 1 and 2 instantly)
From observations and the SNAP assessment data, it was determined that
Anne would be recommended for TIER 2 intervention. The targeted areas will
be
one to one correspondence and spatial patterns.

Interview

The Clinical Interview with Anne was completed in two 15 minute sessions.
The interviews were conducted in a small area outside of the Kindergarten
classroom. Anne has had many opportunities to work individually with me, so
this was a familiar request. Anne saw the materials that I had prepared at the
table and she asked, What kind of math are we going to do? (A
connection!!) I had decided to use an activity that would give me further
information into Annes understanding of 1:1 correspondence and spatial
patterns. (These are areas of need indicated from classroom observations,
CRA results of Counting Jar activity and SNAP assessment.)

Materials:
Plastic teddy bear counters
 Index cards with dot patterns- same dot patterns as a die (1-6)

Teacher: We are going to play a game called bears and chairs. Im going to
give you a card with dots. We are going to pretend that the dots are chairs.
The chairs need bears.

The first card was given to Anne. The card had one dot.

Anne: Hey, thats easy. Thats one. Can I use this color Mrs. Knapp?

Teacher: How many bears do you need?

Anne placed one bear on the dot/chair and said One.

Next card given to Anne had two dots in the die cluster pattern.

Anne: Thats two. (subitized )

Teacher: How many bears do you need?

Anne placed two bears on the dots/chairs and counted, one, two.

Next card given to Anne had five dots in the die cluster pattern.

Teacher: How many bears do you need?

Anne: Thats five. (subitized ) Anne placed 5 bears on the dot/chairs.

Next card given to Anne had six dots in the die cluster pattern.

Anne pointed to each dot and said, one, two, three, four, five, six.

Teacher: How many bears will you need?

Anne: I think six.

Teacher: Show me six bears.

Anne began placing bears on the dots/chairs. Anne said, one, two , three
oh they keep falling off. (Bears were placed on the dots and then knocked
over with her sleeve as she reached for more bears.) Anne put those three
bears back on the dots and covered the rest of the dots.
Teacher: How many bears do you have on chairs?

Anne: Shrugged her shoulders.

Teacher: I need to hear your thinking.

Anne: One, two, three, four, five, six.

Teacher: How many bears?

Anne: Six (Shows cardinality)

Next card shown had four dots in the die cluster pattern.

Anne: Thats four.

Anne placed four bears on the dots- one at a time.

Teacher: How do you know.

Anne: I just knew it in my head- yes, four.

From this interview, I gained valuable information regarding Annes visual

memory of the dot clusters on a die. Anne was able to look at the dots on a
card and instantly recognize dot clusters to 5. We will continue to work on
this skill, but as indicated she is making progress in this area.

To find out more about Annes understanding of one-to-one correspondence, I

decided to do a second interview. The same materials were on the table for
Anne. This time I told her that we were going to work together to make
groups of bears. I am going to say an amount, and I want you to show me
that many bears.

Teacher: Show me three bears.

Anne: What is that for, Mrs. Knapp? (Pointed to a card on the wall in the room.)
Can I see the card?
Anne began counting out four bears. Moved four bears into a group one
at
a time. 1,2,3,4 Four bears. Then she moved one bear away from
the
group. Recounted, 1,2,3,4 Oh , come on! How come I keep saying
four?
Can I start again?
Teacher: How many bears do I need?

Anne: Um- three?

She put four bears in a line and said 1,2,3 -1,2,3
Hey, Mrs. Knapp. Can I use that card with the dots?

I was very excited that Anne thought of the cards, as it indicated to me that she was
asking for a strategy that would help her organize her thinking, and strengthen her
understanding of three.!
Shes using her visual memory. She has the dot images as (at least one) models for
these numbers.

Anne: She took the card and said, Yep, I had three, but I need to take that bear
away. She placed three bears on the dots and said, three.
(I was excited to hear her verbalize taking away as this indicated
an understanding of more/less)

Teacher: Now show me four bears.

Anne: Can I see the card first?

I know how many I need.
Anne set out five bears and counted 1,2,3,4 touching the bears one at time.
Anne then took one bear away and counted 1,2,3,4.

Teacher: To check for cardinality I asked her How many?

Anne recounted the bears 1,2,3,4.

Teacher: How many?

Anne recounted the bears 1,2,3,4.

Teacher: How many?

Anne: You want me to count again?

I decided to ask her to show me five bears. Anne said, Is this five? Anne moved a
group of bears in front of her and said, Its kind of hard to get to five. I then asked her
how she could find out if she had five bears. She shrugged and said, Dont know. I
asked her if there was a way she could show me five bears. With some hesitation in
time- Anne said, Count? I then said to her that it sounded like a great idea. She
began counting the bears. Her head was on the table as she was counting- and the bears
were falling over. She would set the bears back up and count again. She was not able to
count out five bears as her focus changed to the bears falling down.
To end the interview I gave Anne the dot cards and asked her to find her favorite dot
pattern. She chose a card, and set the bears on the chairs. She then helped me clean up
the table.

Conclusion:

From these two interviews I gained valuable information regarding Annes understanding
of
spatial patterns and one-to-one correspondence. Visual patterns will be used to
strengthen Annes understanding of numbers. Great idea. We will continue to use dice,
ten frames and tally marks as strategies. We will focus on subitizing groupings from 0-10.
I noticed that visual models are necessary and engaging to her. Me, too. I saw the
difference in her body position while working during the two interviews. During the first
interview, she was sitting up and interacting with the materials and with the activity.
During the second interview, she began questioning her own understanding, with
statements such as This is hard. I was pleased that she asked for the visual model to
help her with her thinking. Anne will continue to receive TIER 2 intervention-with a focus
on one-to-one correspondence. We will provide visual models and opportunities to
practice counting in authentic ways.

Harriet,

Great interview. You had a specific focus. Your problem was appropriate and
helpful. You were flexible in your questioning and testing some emerging
theories (those it would have been helpful if you had been explicit about these
before the conclusion). I thought your conclusions made good sense.

Here is how I score your piece:

Rubric for Clinical Interviews

Content
1 2 3 4
There is a fundamental
Some of the Has a Background section that tells something about why the The personal theory is elaborated
misunderstanding. items for student was chosen and what the specific focus of the interview with connections to math learning
The piece needs meeting the will be. research and methods for testing the
to be rethought standard are Has an Interview section that reports salient information from theory
and redone. present the interview.
- Could include quotes, anecdotes, description of the OR
childs process or answers
Has a Conclusion section that gives personal theories about the Multiple theories are
childs thinking that are supported by evidence from the interview. given with evidence to
support them

Writing
1 2 3 4
There is a fundamental
There are some The writing reflects common usage and grammar, is reasonably The paper is publication
misunderstanding. issues with organized so that one is able to follow the argument, and has no ready. It might not have
The piece needs continuity, major problems. the right format, but that
to be rethought organization, the narrative is so
and redone. grammar, or compelling and well
usage. written that we could
imagine others wanting
to read it.