Progress Monitoring Assessment At this point in the intervention, the student has completed three sessions where the focus was on story mapping, retelling, and summarizing. In each of these, the student used a story map organizer and retelling cue cards to help organize his thoughts as well as to help him remember what was included in a retell and summary of a book. For the progress monitoring assessment, the student will read an unfamiliar book titled Game Day by Tiki and Ronde Barber. After reading the book, he will retell the story in his own words. The researcher has provided a typed version of the progress monitoring assessment below: Retelling Checklist Criteria Yes/No Title of Book Yes Author Yes Comments “The title of the book is Game Day.” “The people who wrote the book are Tiki and Ronde Barber.” Important Characters Yes Tike & Ronde Asked the student: Can you describe the characters? Description: Twins, Both on the Vikings football team “The story took place on a football field.” Setting Yes Used the following sentence starters: Sequence of events “At the beginning …: Yes “In the middle, …” “At the end, …” ***The student gave a vague description as to what happened in the story. Gave the correct events in the story, but did not give enough detail in the events to paint a clear picture as to what happened in the story. Additional Notes/Comments from Retell: - Used all the parts of a story (Title, Author, Important Characters, Setting, Events) - Described how Ronde was mad when his twin brother took all the glory. - Made a personal connection with the story. The student experienced teamwork on his own football team. - Identified the problem and the resolution: Problem: Tiki taking all the glory. Resolution: Tiki passed the football to Ronde to score a touchdown. -Retold the story in his own words. -Looked back through the book to help support his retell. OVERALL: Could use a little more detail in describing the characters and the events that took place in the story. He demonstrated an adequate understanding of the story. Reflection: From this Retelling Checklist, the researcher noticed that the student used what he learned from the first three lessons. He was able to include all parts of a story in his retell. In addition, the student had a good flow from one thought to the next while retelling the story in his own words. The researcher did notice that he struggled with giving a description of the characters as well as the events that took place in the story. Overall, from this Retelling Checklist, the researcher determined that the student demonstrated an adequate understanding of the story, but there is still room for improvement in regards to detail. Lesson #4 – Using Context Clue Procedure:   The intervention session will begin with the researcher reading pages 1-4 from a familiar book titled Game Day by Tiki and Ronde Barber. On page 4, the researcher will read the word converge and use a think-aloud to model how to use context clues to find the meaning of a word. o “Ronde saw his whole team converge on the end zone, …. I wonder what the word converge means in this sentence. In the picture above I see the football       players coming together at the center of the football field. Maybe the word converge means like coming together. I’m going to try out the meaning in the sentence. Ronde saw his whole team come together on the end zone, and he sat up and made his way to the milling crowd. That makes sense! Therefore, the word converge mean come together.” After the think-aloud, the researcher will ask the reader, “How did I find the meaning of the word converge?” The researcher will continue reading. On page 11, the researcher will read the word mumbled and use a think-aloud to model another way to use context clues to find the meaning of a word. o “Later, as the boys’ mother cooked dinner, Ronde mumbled in a soft voice to her, ‘Guys who block and stuff like that—nobody notices. People just notice the guy who scores touchdowns.’ I wonder what the word mumbled means in this sentence. Taking a look at the rest of the sentence it reads that Ronde mumbled in a soft voice….If I were to talk in a soft voice, my voice may not be loud enough for someone else to hear, so it may sound mumbled. I am going to say that mumbled is when someone cannot hear what you are saying because you are not speaking at a normal volume where it is clear for someone to hear you. I’m going to go back and read this sentence in a mumbled voice.” After the think-aloud, the researcher will ask the reader, “How did I find the meaning of the word mumbled?” Next, the researcher will explain to the reader how to use context clues when he comes to a word in the story that he does not know the meaning to. o Context Clues  Definition: are, is, means, refers  Synonym: also, as, identical, like same  Antonym: but, instead of, however, unlike  Example: such as, including, like  General: details, prior knowledge, experiences o Look for . . .  Words or phrases that may be clues, hints to word meaning  First look in the sentence that contains the unknown word  Look in the sentence before and after  Try out the meaning in the sentence  Look at the illustrations/pictures Once the researcher has explained how to use context clues as well as what to look for when he comes to a word in the story that he does not know the meaning to, the reader will continue reading the story, starting at page 12. When the reader comes across a word he does not know, he will use context clues to help him figure out the meaning of the word he does not know. When he is figuring out the meaning of a word, he should be thinking aloud. The researcher will assist by guiding the reader when needed. After the reader has done at least two think-alouds of his own regarding context clues, the researcher will have the reader reflect on what he learned today. His reflection will be in the form of a think-aloud about using context clues when coming to a word he does not know the meaning to. Reflection: During today’s lesson on Using Context Clues, the researcher was very satisfied with the progress made. The student has gained the concept of using context clues when he comes to a word in a story that he does not know the meaning to. The researcher began the lesson by doing a couple of think-alouds in regards to using context clues. After the researcher modeled how to use context clues, the researcher had the student continue reading the story and stop at a word he did not know the meaning to. It took the student a while before he felt comfortable doing a thinkaloud, but once he did, it was a success. For example, he stopped at the word firmly and talked about how he would look at the illustrations and reread the sentence again to find the meaning of the word. In the end, based on the context clues he used, he determined that the word firmly meant saying something in a straight to the point kind of a way. Another word he stopped at was hemmed. Taking a look at the illustrations, the student thought the word hemmed meant pushing his way through. Therefore, the researcher asked the student to replace the word hemmed with the meaning he came up with based on the illustration. It made sense to him! As a whole, the student improved greatly today. He has become comfortable with thinking aloud and grasped the concept of using context clues. In the student’s think-aloud over context clues, he said that if he does not know a word’s meaning, he can look at the pictures, reread the sentence, and/or replace the word with another word/phrase and see if it makes sense. The researcher was happy to see that the student was able to interact with the book through the use of context clues. Book used in Lesson 4: Using Context Clues Lesson #5 – Making Connections while Reading Procedure:      The intervention session will begin with the researcher reading pages 1-5 from a familiar book titled Game Day by Tiki and Ronde Barber. At the end of page 5, the researcher will do a think-aloud of a text-to-self connection thus far in the reading. o “I know how Ronde feels. He is upset because if he had not made that block, Tiki would not have scored. This reminds me of the time I helped a friend with a project, and she took all the credit. No one noticed that I took part in helping with the project.” After the think-aloud, the researcher will ask the reader, “Have you ever been in a situation where you were not noticed or recognized for doing something, and someone else took all the credit even though you helped?” After the think-aloud, the researcher will talk with the reader about making text-to-self connections while reading. Using the think-aloud above, the researcher will explain how making a text to self connection is like connecting the story to your own life experiences. Therefore, when making a text-to-self connection, you are thinking about your own life and connecting it to what you are reading. Once the researcher has explained how to make personal connection with the text, the reader will continue reading the story, starting at page 6. As he is reading, the reader will  stop and do a think aloud regarding a text-to-self connection. The researcher will assist by guiding the reader when needed. After the reader has done at least two think-alouds of his own regarding text-to-self connections the researcher will have the reader reflect on what he learned today. His reflection will be in the form of a think-aloud about making personal connections while he is reading. Reflection: Today’s lesson on Making Connections, there was a minor setback to the progress that the student had been making in the past four lessons. After the researcher got finished with her think-alouds in regards to making personal connections with the text, it was the student’s turn to make personal connections with the text. In the past lessons, the student connected with the stories because he loves sports and plays on a baseball and football team, but for some reason he struggled with making personal connections with the story in this lesson at first. The researcher had to stop him at the end of a page and ask, “Did you make any personal connections? Please share!” After showing another example of a personal connection that the researcher made from the story, the student finally was able to make a personal connection with the story. He connected with one of the football plays in the story (old bread and butter). The student’s dad is coach for his baseball team and he remembers him making up plays for his team. Furthermore, during the student’s reflection in the form of a think-aloud about making personal connections while he was reading, he talked about the importance of making personal connections. He said that if he can connect with the story and he has something in common with what is going on in the story, it makes the story interesting and basically more meaningful. Overall, the researcher is happy with the progress made in this lesson. However, if the researcher could change one thing from this lesson that would be to have the student write on a sticky note the connections that the student made and stick it where he made his connection. Then, the researcher would have had the student go back through and reflect over the connections he made throughout the story. Book used in Lesson 5: Making Connections while Reading Outcome-based Assessment At this point in the intervention, the student has completed all five sessions which involved story mapping, retelling, summarizing, using context clues, and making connections while reading. For the outcome-based assessment, the researcher will administer the Jennings Informal Reading Assessment once again; however, the assessment will be slightly different from the screening assessment because he will read a new passage based on the word list he can instantly recognize the most words. After reading the passage, the reader will answer several comprehension questions as well as retell the story in his own words. While the reader is retelling the story in his own words, the researcher will take note if he used strategies learned in the intervention sessions. Did he follow the retelling cue cards? Did he use context clues? Did he make connections with the story? The researcher will look for improvement in his ability to retell a story in his own words as well as his growth in reading comprehension. Note: The results of the outcome based assessment will be discussed in Phase IV: Impact on Student Learning Part I: Narrative of Improvement. Phase IV: Impact on Student Learning Part I: Narrative of Improvement In the very beginning, before conducting the screening assessment with the reader, the researcher had a conversation with the cooperating fifth grade teacher to discuss which intervention focus area would be appropriate for this student. His teacher concluded that the reader needed extra focus in the area of reading comprehension. The teacher also said that he is reading between a third and fourth grade reading level. If the student can master several reading strategies and use them while he reads, the researcher believes that his reading comprehension will come with more ease. To get this reader case study underway, the researcher began with the screening assessment that was taken from the Jennings Informal Reading Assessment, which is an Informal Reading Inventory developed by Dr. Joyce Jennings. After administering the Jennings Informal Reading Assessment, the researcher found that the reader is reading between Level 3 and Level 4, which is equivalent to third and fourth grade reading level. Additionally, the researcher found that the reader’s comprehension was at Frustrational level when reading a Level 4 passage. The passages read by the reader were determined by which word list the reader could instantly recognize each word from the list as well as the word list he had most difficulty with recognizing each word from the list. When taking a look at the Level 3 word list, the reader instantly recognized twenty-two out of twenty-five words. When taking a look at the Level 4 word list, the reader instantly recognized only thirteen out of twenty-five words. Next, the reader read the passage that corresponded with Level 4. Then, the researcher had him answer the comprehension questions that went along with the passage. The researcher found the reader’s comprehension to be at Frustrational Level because he only answered five out of the eight comprehension questions correctly. According to the Jennings Informal Reading Assessment scoring chart, if the reader answers five or less comprehension questions correctly, he or she is reading at Frustrational Level. As a result of this screening, the researcher concluded that the reader’s comprehension is at Frustrational Level when reading a Level 4. Furthermore, taking a look at the Level 4 passage where the reader’s comprehension is at Frustrational Level, the researcher noted several reading errors that may have affected his reading comprehension of the Level 4 passage. Taking a look at his word recognition accuracy, the reader made eight errors that included substituting, omitting, and mispronouncing words in the Level 4 passage. These errors affected the reader’s overall reading comprehension. In addition, when stuck on a word, the reader did not try to sound out the word. Also, when a sentence did not make sense, he did not try to reread the sentence to check for understanding. During the retelling part of the screening assessment, the reader was able to retell the story in his own words. However, the researcher discovered that the reader had a limited understanding of what to include in a retell. As a whole, the reader seemed proficient in a few areas of reading comprehension; however, there still was room for improvement. After determining the student’s working level and which areas there should be more intervention, the researcher conducted the five sessions to further develop the areas of reading comprehension. For these lessons, the researcher decided to begin by teaching the parts of story through story mapping, retelling cue cards, and summarizing because the parts of a story are important in regards to reading comprehension. Next, the researcher decided to transition to teaching the student how to use context clues because during the screening, the student did not recognize that some of the words he inserted did not make sense in the sentence or story. Also, the researcher decided to end the lessons by teaching the student how to make personal connections, so that he gained an appreciation for reading as well as make his reading meaningful to him. Furthermore, the researcher tried to make each lesson feed off of the previous lessons. For instance, if the student understood the parts of a story, he could then retell the story and/or write a one paragraph summary that included all the parts of a story (title, author, important characters, and events) as well as have flow through one thought to the next. In the screening assessment, the student struggled with organizing his thoughts and had a limited retell of the passage. Therefore, the three lessons that involved story mapping, retelling cue cards, and summarizing helped the student with his retell of a story. The researcher was hoping that the curriculum design was appropriate for this fifth grade student and based on the outcomebased assessment, he seemed to improve his comprehension abilities, especially with retelling a story in his own words. Finally, after conducting the five lessons, the researcher had administered the outcomebased assessment. This assessment was once again taken from the Jennings Informal Reading Assessment. The passage read by the reader was determined by which word list the reader could instantly recognize each word from the list as well as the word list he had most difficulty with recognizing each word from the list. When taking a look at the Level 4 word list, the reader instantly recognized twenty-two out of twenty-five words. When taking a look at the Level 5 word list, the reader instantly recognized eighteen out of twenty-five words. Next, the reader read the passage that corresponded with Level 5. Then, the researcher had him answer the comprehension questions that went along with the passage. The researcher found the reader’s comprehension to be at Instructional Level because he answered six out of the eight comprehension questions correctly. According to the Jennings Informal Reading Assessment scoring chart, if the reader answers between 5.5 and 6.5 comprehension questions correctly, he or she is reading at Instructional Level. As a result of this screening, the researcher concluded that the reader’s comprehension went from a Frustrational Level when reading a Level 4 in the screening assessment to an Instructional Level when reading a Level 5 during the outcome-based assessment. During the retelling part of the outcome-based assessment, the reader was able to retell the story in his own words. In contrast to his screening assessment, the student was able to include all parts of a retell using what he learned from the intervention sessions. Also, he had a nice flow from one thought to the next when doing his retell over the passage. Moreover, after conducting this outcome-based assessment, the researcher concluded that the student had improved his reading comprehension. He went from a Frustrational Level to an Instructional Level in regards to his reading comprehension score; however, he still continues to struggle with using detail in his retell. For instance, he did not describe the important characters, instead he just named them. Also, when telling the events that happened in sequential order, he gave a brief description that did not allow the researcher to fully grasp what happened in the story from beginning to end. There is still more room for improvement, but there has been some student growth in the area of reading comprehension. Reading Comprehension Growth 8 7 6 5 4 Correct Responses 3 2 1 0 Screening Assessment Outcome Based Assesment This graph shows the score of the screening assessment and the score of the outcomebased assessment. During the screening assessment, the reader read a Level 4 passage, which is equivalent to a fourth grade reading level, and answered five out of the eight comprehension questions correctly. This put him at Frustrational Level in regards to comprehension. During the outcome-based assessment, the reader read a Level 5 passage, which is equivalent to a fifth grade reading level, and answered six out of the eight comprehension questions correctly. This put him at Instructional Level in regards to comprehension. As a whole, from this graph, one can see that the student has shown positive growth in his reading comprehension development. After determining these results, the researcher is satisfied with the growth that the student has shown, but the researcher believes that the student could have progressed more if his cooperating teacher knew more about her student. After talking with the student’s teacher in the beginning, the researcher found that the student was new to the school. As a result, the teacher knew little about his past academic records and behavior, except for what she had observed since he had been in her classroom. Also the researcher had little to go on in terms of the students reading level. The cooperating teacher did tell the researcher that he was reading between a third and fourth grade reading level; however, the researcher saw no evidence of the teacher monitoring his reading level throughout her visits in the classroom except for weekly comprehension tests over the students’ story for the week. Also, the reading selections were not individualized for different reading levels. Every student read the same story each week. Therefore, it was a challenge for the researcher to determine an appropriate screening and outcome-based assessment that would be at his reading level and show his strengths and weaknesses in the area of reading comprehension. In all, the researcher did her best to find appropriate assessment tools and reading material for the sessions. When analyzing the student’s work, the researcher was able to see progress in the strategies used to assist him in developing his reading comprehension. When taught a reading strategy or a new skill, the reader did his best to apply what he learned to the story he was reading in the session. At the beginning, the student was adding to the story and/or guess what happened in the story when filling out his story map. Later, when the student was using his retelling cue cards, he began to go back through the story to support what he said happened in the story with evidence from the story. In addition, the retelling cue cards that he made helped the student monitor his own comprehension as well as helped him organize his through process during his retell of a story. Overall, communicating what happened in a story through a story map, retelling cue cards, and a one paragraph summary, prevented him from leaving out important information that is pertinent in comprehending a story he reads. On the other hand, there was one weakness that did arise from the sessions and that was his ability to give a detailed description of the characters and events that took place in the story. Even though the reader did not fully master reading comprehension, he has become aware of the reading strategies (retelling, using context clues, and making connection) and he has continued to use them. With more practice, the researcher believes he will continue to improve his reading comprehension. As far as the student’s reading behaviors are concerned, the researcher did not really notice any major changes. The student was motivated to read, which could have been a result of working one-on-one with the researcher. He also stayed focused during the intervention sessions except a few times when the sessions had to take place out in the hallway where other students were coming in from recess. The last lesson on Making Connection sparked an interest in the student. He said in one of his think-alouds that being able to make personal connections, makes the book more meaningful. As a result, the researcher believed he will continue to improve his reading comprehension if he connects with the book he is reading because the book would have a purpose to him. Overall, the researcher has noticed growth in the student’s reading comprehension. He also no longer guesses and adds to a story; instead, he understands the parts of a story and remembers to go back through the text if he forgets what happened in a story or needs to find evidence to support his retell. Part J: Researcher Reflection During this reader case study and the intervention sessions, the researcher feels as if she has learned a lot from this experience. She has learned about the importance of screening, progress monitoring, and outcome-based assessments. These are three types of assessments that show a readers strengths and weaknesses as well as growth in an area of reading. Also, the researcher has gained a better understanding of what it means to be a reading teacher. As a reading teacher, she understands that she needs to plan her reading instruction based on her students’ needs and that is where the three types of assessments come in handy. Overall, the researcher has learned that, as a reading teacher, her purpose for teaching comprehension strategies is to enable her students to read with deeper, longer-lasting understanding. Through the five intervention sessions, the researcher was able to teach her student several important reading strategies that would help him improve his reading comprehension. As whole, comprehension instruction is not something that is caught, but it taught by a reading teacher. Furthermore, this reader case study has been a long process and the researcher has not only been learning, but developing throughout the process. At first the researcher faced several challenges that included planning the sessions, deciding on the forms of assessments, and using think alouds in her sessions. Once she understood the direction she was going for in her sessions, the researcher felt confident in her ability to plan instruction for each of the five sessions. She has also developed her ability to effectively assess students on their abilities as a reader. With the use of a running record and a retelling checklist, the researcher was able to utilize the data given from these forms of assessments in her reading instruction as well as see growth in the student’s reading comprehension based on the screening and outcome-based scores. Another challenge for the researcher was the think-alouds. She was not comfortable with doing think-alouds at the beginning of the sessions, but as she neared the middle of the sessions, she gained confidence in her ability to perform think-alouds in front of the student. The student also benefitted from these think-alouds, especially when he did his own in the form of a reflection over the reading strategy he was learning. Overall, the researcher has learned a great deal through this reader case study experience. There is so much involved with assessing, planning, and instruction; but, by the end of this reader case study, the researcher has realized the important relationship between assessment and instruction. In order to plan reading instruction, a reading teacher needs to have assessment data. Moreover, as a future reading teacher, the researcher’s goal is to develop her knowledge in the process of creating effective reading instruction. This was the first time she has fully planned, assessed, and instructed in the area of reading. The researcher wants to be able to determine a student’s needs based on effective assessments. This is still an area that the researcher feels she could improve upon in the near future in regards to reading comprehension. The researcher also hopes to apply her knowledge from this reader case study experience to her future classroom of students. She feels as though her experience will be even better because these will be her very own students. The researcher believes she will start from the beginning of school and continue to meet her students’ needs each and every day based on their individual needs/abilities. In all, this reader case study has shown the researcher a snap shot at what it is like for a classroom, reading teacher and what she will face in her classroom one day. With her positive attitude and enthusiasm for reading, she will share with her students’ the joy of reading. If she wants engaged, active readers, she understands that reading needs to be a meaningful experience. She is up for the challenge!