Initial Assessment Report

Spring 2017
Taylor Wallisch

I. Learner Background

The student that Destiny and I are working with for tutoring this semester is America. She

is in the third grade at Jefferson Elementary school. On the first day of tutoring, we had

her fill out a get to know you sheet. We found out that America really likes school and

that her favorite subject is math. We also discovered that she has two sisters and lives

with her mom and dad. America told us her interests which include playing outside and

playing soccer. She also likes shopping at Walmart and her favorite color is pink.

II. Assessment

America has no problems with identifying consonant letters that have only one sound.

This includes letters /p/, /x/, /v/, /f/, /b/, /j/, /l/, /n/, /k/, /z/, /d/, /t/, /x/, /w/, and /n/.

America does however have problems identifying what sound r makes and the sounds

that u generates. The learner does know the two sounds that a makes, the long sound

of y, the long sound of g, the first sound of the letter s, the two sounds of i, the short and

long sounds of o, the two sounds of c, and the sound qu makes visually. America has

very good word recognition skills. She only missed 9 words altogether on the dolch list

and dolch noun list. The words she missed include white, on, and this under the primer

section, could and may under the first grade section, dont and read under the second

grade section, and cut under the third grade section. On the dolch noun list, she only

missed one word which was grass. Regarding the learners reading level, we used a

couple of different methods to assess where she is at. The first thing we did was we

gave her a second grade passage, a third grade passage and a fourth grade passage

to read. We used the 5 error rule to see that she is currently reading at a third grade
level. She read both the second and third grade level passages with ease, but it was

clear she was having difficulties reading the fourth grade passage. Destiny and I also

administered the Slossen Oral Reading Test (SORT-R) to our learner. Her total score on

the exam was 84, which puts her at a reading grade equivalency level of 3.2. America

is also reading 48 WCPM. This puts her in between a level F and G reading level at first

grade. However, we accidentally gave her the fourth grade passage for this

assessment so we need to retest this area. For sounds the learner knows auditorily, she

only knows one sound that the basic single consonant sounds make such as /z/, /s/, /j/,

and /d/. For Americas spelling skills, we had her write down as many words as she

could within two minutes. She has no trouble spelling words that have two and three

letters in them such as words like well, box, fox, it, and is. She also can spell some four

letter words including make, help, and king. The learner does have issues with auditory

sequencing when trying to spell a word that she does not know. We had to help her

spell the word January on the get to know you sheet. America has difficulties spelling

words that have two letters that repeat itself and words that she does not know all the

sounds for. These include words that have /u/ and /o/ in it. She sometimes has

difficulties spelling words with /a/ and /i/ in them as well. For Americas handwriting

skills, she has good spacial awareness. She has no problems writing her words in

between the lines. Her handwriting is also legible and neat for third grade handwriting.

III. Needs and Goals

Based upon part II, we need to teach America the all sounds that r and u makes. In

addition, we need to teach all the sounds y makes, the sound g makes when followed

by e, i, or y, the uh sound a makes, and the last two sounds o makes. Once the

learner has succeeded with these sounds, I want to teach her more difficult sounds
such as the ten long vowel sounds of ai, ay, eigh, ei, ey, oa, ow, ou, ue, and ew. We

also need to teach America the words she missed on the dolch word list and noun list.

The learner was having trouble with non-phonetic words such as soccer, therefore we

need to work on these types of words with her that have repeating letters. For

Americas reading skills, we need to retest her WCPM to see exactly where she is at. We

also need to focus on theauditory drill with our learner as she only knows one sound for

letters that have multiple sounds. America seemed to have no trouble reading at the

third grade level she read with ease and was accurate with the pronunciation with

most words. However, she does have difficulties comprehending what she is reading.

We need to help her with her comprehension through using the Directed Reading

Thinking Activity method. I have a couple of goals that I want America to achieve by

the end of tutoring this semester. My first goal for her is to know all of the sounds she

does not know visually such as the sounds g, u, o y, and c makes. I also want her to

know the 10 long vowel sounds listed above in part II. Regarding her WCPM, we do not

have an accurate number, however I do want it to increase from 48 WCPM. My next

goal for America is to have her reading 129 WCPM putting her at a level P in the third

grade. A different goal I have for America focuses on the sounds she knows auditiorily.

At minimum I want her to know the two sounds /z/, /s/, /g/, and /t/ make. At the end of

the semester, I also want to retest her on the Slossen Oral Reading Test (SORT-R). My

goal for her is to receive a score of 94 putting her at a 3.5 oral reading grade

equivalency. Another goal I have for our learner is to see growth in her reading

comprehension skills. I want her to be able to answer a few comprehension questions

from the reading we provide her without needing our guidance. My final goals for our
learner is for her to know how to spell six non-phonetic words on the last day of tutoring

and to know the eight words she missed on the dolch list and noun list.