Literacy 720

Final Case Study

Andrea Edbauer

December 10, 2018

Mason is a second-grader whom I had the pleasure of working with over the past few

months. He enjoys reading, and views himself as a good reader. He recognizes that reading can

be difficult sometimes, and wants to learn “how to sound out words better.” He likes reading

books by Dr. Seuss, as well as books in the “Biscuit the Dog” series. He does not enjoy writing

as much, but he does view himself as a good writer.

Mason and I met for nine 35-minute sessions. Three of the sessions were spent

conducting pre- and post-assessments. Mason was absent for two sessions, and we spent the

remaining four sessions engaging in intervention lessons. The lessons included four parts:

● Reread a familiar book

● Phonics and word study

● Guided writing

● Introduction to a new book

When I conducted the Word Recognition in Isolation component of the Phonological

Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) with Mason in September, he was able to read 17/20

words correctly on the preprimer word list, and 10/20 words correctly on the primer word list.

Mason and I began our phonics and word study time each week by reading through lists of sight

words. The lists were put together to make a book, which we referred to as “The Giraffe Book,”

because there was a giraffe on the cover. Mason enjoyed reading the book, and looked forward to
it each week. When he read a list with 100% accuracy, he could place a sticker next to that list.

Over the course of our time together, he mastered lists one and two.

Each week, we focused in on one sight word, and completed a series of fast-paced

activities. I chose the focus word based on patterns that I noticed when Mason read the giraffe

book. The purpose of the activities was to develop visual memory, and increase automatic recall

of sight words. Mason’s growth in recognizing sight words was evident in the post-screener, as

well. He read 19/20 words correctly on the preprimer word list, and 16/20 words correctly on the

primer word list.

After administering the Spelling Inventory assessment portion of the PALS test, I decided

to focus on “Making Words” activities during our phonics and word study time. Mason’s

pre-screener showed that his strengths were recognizing and using beginning and ending sounds,

beginning digraphs, and short vowels. I wanted to focus on blends (tr, sk, dr, etc.), and long

vowels. The following is a portion of a Making Words activity that Mason completed:

● Letters given: a, d, n, s, t

● Use three letters to spell ​sat​.

● Remove the ​t​ and add a different letter to spell ​sad​.

● Move your ​d​ away from the ​a​ to make some space to add a letter. Add one letter

to spell ​sand​.

● Add the​ t​ someplace in ​sand​ to spell ​stand​.

Mason did very well with the Making Words activities, and he really enjoyed them. When given

adequate “think time,” he was able to successfully make the dictated words with 100% accuracy.

However, he did not show improvement on the Spelling Inventory assessment over time.
 When we first met in September, I had Mason write the following dictated sentences:

“The bus is coming. It will stop here to let me get on.” He wrote 35/40 letters correctly. His

strengths included writing some sight words correctly, as well as words with a short vowel, such

as ​get, bus, ​and ​me. H

​ is sentences had proper spacing between words, but capitalization and

punctuation were absent. During our writing time, I introduced Mason to two tools. The first was

a chart that contained vowels, and an example of the long sound and short sound for each vowel.

The second tool was a “5 Star Sentence” checklist, which contained the following 5 points:

● Start with a capital

● Include punctuation

● Spell new sight words correctly

● Say words slowly to hear the sounds

● Reread the sentence

The list also contained a picture next to each sentence, so Mason could use it with independence.

During guided writing time, I dictated a sentence about the book he had previously reread. He

then added a sentence of his own, also related to the book. After his writing was complete, he

used the checklist to look it over. He was able to use the checklist to fix his writing with very

little prompting. The most difficult part for him was recognizing and fixing words that were

spelled incorrectly. I usually had to prompt him to look at certain words closely and he could fix

his mistakes, often by using the vowel chart. For example, one time he spelled the words ​dive

incorrectly, leaving out the ​e​ at the end. When I prompted him to look closely at the word, and

think about the sound that the vowel was making, he was able to recognize and fix his error by
adding an ​e​ to the end of the word. On the post-assessment, Mason wrote 36/40 letters correctly,

but did not include capitalization and punctuation.

When Mason and I met for the second time in October, I took running records while he

read level B and level C books. He read the level B book with 90% accuracy, which means the

book was on the border between being too difficult, and being a good instructional level for him.

Each sentence in the story began with the words “Put some.” On the first page, he read this as

“Up so,” but he then corrected himself, and read it correctly on the remaining pages. It was

evident that Mason used the pictures to help him figure out unknown words. He read a level C

book with 85% accuracy. Most of his errors consisted of adding an incorrect ending to words.

For example, he read ​plant​ as ​planting, ​and​ feed ​as ​feeding.

During our lessons, I wanted to focus on Mason’s strengths, which was using the pictures

for clues. I also wanted to work on self-monitoring strategies, so I chose to focus on

cross-checking. I introduced Mason to a visual, which prompted him to determine if an

attempted word looks right, sounds right, and makes sense. I began by modeling the strategy, and

then prompting Mason to use it if he was stuck on a word. Towards the end of our time together,

he was independently using the cross-checking strategy. I also noticed that he was beginning to

use other strategies to determine unknown words. He would sometimes reread the entire

sentence, skip the word, and come back to it. He also looked for parts of the word that he knew.

For example, when trying to read the word ​fell​, he told me that he noticed the ending ​ell,​ and

added an ​f​ to the front.

Based on pre-assessments, I concluded that Mason did well with retelling the main events

in a story. We continued to work on retelling, and we also worked on making inferences. He was
able to make inferences with guidance, but sometimes struggled and needed more prompting.

Another strategy we worked on was recognizing the main character’s feelings, and how and why

they changed throughout the story. Mason did really well with this activity.

When I conducted post-assessments with Mason on November 26th, I began by having

him read a level D book, which he read with 97% accuracy. He had 2 errors, and one

self-correction, and his comprehension was excellent. When he read a level E book, his accuracy

was 93%. He had 7 errors total, and 2 self-corrections. For most of the errors, he was substituting

in different words, and his substitutions almost always made sense in the sentence.

Moving forward, I have a few suggestions to help Mason advance his reading. My first

suggestion is to continue practicing the cross-checking strategy. He sometimes reads quickly,

and doesn’t attempt to fix his errors, so continuing to practice self-monitoring will help him

recognize when something doesn’t look right, sound right, or make sense in the story. Using the

pictures to help with this is a great strategy. Mason should also continue to build his knowledge

of sight words and phonics skills. A fast-paced, multi-sensory approach worked well for him,

and he enjoyed it. If learning a new skill can be made into a “game,” Mason is very motivated.

He is also beginning to make connections between words. For example, if he can read ​bell,​ he

can also read ​tell, fell, sell, spell, ​etc. Building on this skill would be beneficial.

For writing, I would suggest finding activities to help Mason enjoy writing. Whenever it

was time to write, his demeanor would change. He would even express to me that he didn’t want

to write. If he can learn to enjoy writing, he will write more often. Since he enjoys reading so

much, he could write his own versions of his favorite books. He likes reading Biscuit books, so

he could write his own books about Biscuit. He also enjoyed telling me all about hunting and
deer, so he could write his own informational books. Writing more often will lead to more

opportunities to practice spelling and conventions.

Clinical Experience

Reading over the Individual Instructional Plan that I wrote at the beginning of the

semester, there were some things about my instruction that changed as I got to know Mason

better. However, many things did stay the same, because the assessments that I used in the

beginning were thorough and effective, and provided me with a lot of useful information. In the

Individual Instructional Plan, I discussed that I wanted to work on cross-checking with Mason,

because he was not self-monitoring. This is a strategy that we focused on every week, and he

began to use it independently. I had planned on using the Story Retelling Rope as a

comprehension strategy, but I actually did not use it at all. The books that I chose for Mason

were based on his interests, and most of them were not good examples for using this strategy.

We focused more on making inferences, and recognizing how characters change in a story.

During our phonics and word study time, I had planned on introducing Mason to picture

and word sorts, as well as Making Words activities. Recognizing that our time was limited, I

decided to focus just on Making Words. I am very familiar with word sorts, but I had never used

Making Words, so I wanted to practice that activity a bit more.

If I had more time with Mason, I would continue to work on the strategies and activities

mentioned above, but I would also focus more on writing. I would spend time doing more

meaningful, fun writing to hopefully help Mason enjoy it. He was beginning to use the “5 Star

Sentence” checklist independently, but the skills were not carrying over without the use of

prompting and/or the checklist. Writing more frequently would offer more opportunities to
practice these skills, as well as spelling. I always carried our phonics and word study focus skills

over to guided writing time, and Mason was able to successfully make those connections often.

As a clinician, the one-on-one tutoring approach offered many learning opportunities.

Perhaps the biggest thing I learned in the importance of a predictable routine. We had the same

routine each week, and it helped to keep the pace moving quickly. This allowed us to slow down

when necessary, such as allowing “think time” during the reading of a new book, or going back

to check the spelling of words during shared writing. As a teacher, I feel that a strength of mine

has always been the ability to change my teaching mid-lesson. I am able to recognize when my

lesson plan does not fit the needs of my students, and I can make changes on a whim. Working

with Mason allowed me to further practice this skill, which I think is very important.