Case Study Amber Chesney University of Northern Colorado Greeley, Colorado May 31, 2013

EDSE 442: Language and Literacy for Students with Severe Delays Instructor: Lorna Idol, Ph.D.

Case Study: Part 1

Introduction My case study is on Michael, a nine-year-old student, who was born ten weeks premature on November 15, 2003. As a result of his premature birth, he had delays in walking and talking. Michael is currently in the third grade. He lives with his twin brother, sister, and stepfather. He has two stepsiblings, who stay with his family several times a month. He gets along with all of the members of this extended family dynamic. Michael is currently on an IEP, and his primary disability has recently been changed from speech-language to specific learning disability. Michael has a family history of learning difficulties, problems with attention and impulse control, depression, and anxiety. His academic area of need is in literacy.

Strengths and Challenges Michaels strengths and challenges were obtained through interviews with his mother, LD teacher, homeroom teacher, and his general education teacher. The following is a compilation of all four interviews:

Strengths Michael is socially appropriate, gets along well with others, and has a group of friends with whom he regularly works and plays. He is happy, sensitive, compassionate to others, and easily picks up on the feelings of his peers. Michael is motivated and eager to learn. He is well-organized and has good study habits. During classroom

activities, he is not hesitant and concentrates on tasks. Michael is a very verbal individual and loves to talk. He decodes text well and passes his spelling tests. He often chooses to read for pleasure at home and at school. Writing is one of his favorite activities, and he is very creative in his writing. He never has difficulty in thinking of something to write. He is good at geometry and likes to do procedural tasks.

Challenges When he is reading, Michaels thinking is very black or white. He is unable to conceptualize things that are not clearly stated within the text, and cannot construct inferences. This ability should be emerging by the third grade, but Michael is still unable to draw his own conclusions from the text. His abilities in doing retells are fairly weak, and he has difficulty with being able to state what happens at the beginning of the story. His LD teacher does not believe that this is because of a memory issue. When asked a question about a story he just read, he may talk about how it relates to himself rather than answering the question. Michael is often unsure of himself and asks for verification that his answers are correct before committing to them. He also does not like to be asked about what he thinks. He can be overly sensitive at times and becomes increasingly so when he is hungry or tired. He has difficulty with patience, delayed gratification, and tolerating things that are disorganized. Even though he does well on spelling tests, he frequently makes spelling errors when he is writing and has difficulties with punctuation. During writing, he frequently spells words phonetically. He is unable to tell time and has difficulties understanding math concepts.

Assessment Reports IEP (Appendix A) This IEP was constructed during a determination of eligibility meeting which was held on 10/09/2012. The result of this meeting was a change in Michaels primary disability from speech-language to specific learning disability. According to the recommendations in Michaels IEP, he should be participating in the general education classroom at least 80% of the school day. He receives special education instruction for two hours per week. Michaels accommodations allow him extended time of 1.5 times for the TCAP testing in the areas of math, reading, and writing. Michaels homeroom teacher has observed him to exhibit atypical behaviors while in the classroom and is concerned with his inability to stay in his seat, lack of concentration, and poor study habits. Michael has met his goals in the areas of occupational and speech therapy. As a result, those two services are no longer appropriate and have been concluded at this time. The areas of academic concern for Michael are in oral reading fluency and producing written work at a speed necessary to keep up with his peers. significant weakness in his visual processing ability. He also has a

BRI (Appendix B) The BRI is a Basic Reading Inventory and consists of graded word lists and reading passages. Michael scored at an independent reading level on the second grade word list, and read every word correctly. He also scored at an independent level on the third grade word list on which he correctly analyzed the words he missed during the first reading. The fourth grade word list was more difficult for him, and he reached a

frustration level. Based on the results of these word lists, Michael was then scored on second and third grade level reading passages. The second grade reading passage resulted in an instructional to emerging independent level score. When assessing his background knowledge based on the title of the passage, he gave very little information, and therefore, scored in the lower range for knowledge. Michael read at 146 words per minute, and he had a total of two miscues. His ability to answer comprehension questions was in the instructional to independent level. His retell of the story was very basic and lacking detail. Michael exhibited more background knowledge for the third grade passage, but the details were still lacking. His reading speed for this passage was 130 words per minute. He had a total of five miscues, two of which were significant. This put his score at the instructional level. His reading comprehension scored in the instructional/frustration level. Michaels retell for this passage also lacked details.

Teacher and Parent Interviews (Appendix C) Michael is a socially appropriate and eager student who gets along with teachers and peers. He prefers to work with a peer, but will work alone and does well in small and large group situations. Michael is an auditory learner and will often talk himself through problems he is working on in school and at home. If he is given a choice, he prefers to sit in the front of the classroom. Michael enjoys reading in school and for pleasure. He also likes to write and is very creative. Michael does well at procedural tasks and adheres to the consistency of the classroom procedures. He does not like it when things become disorganized and may become upset. Michael has had difficulty

with attention, staying in his seat, and organization, but has improved in these areas since he has been on medication.

Interest Inventory (Appendix D) Michaels interest inventory provided information about his family and about things he likes to do. His answers indicate that he is an active boy who enjoys reading for pleasure. Michaels handwriting is legible and contained several phonetic spelling errors.

Burkes Reading Interview (Appendix E) Based on this interview, the only strategy that Michael uses for reading is to sound out words he does not know. No other strategies were indicated. He believes that he is a good reader and in order for him to become a better reader, he thinks he needs to learn to read slower.

Summary Michael is a third grade student who has been identified with a SLD. He is on an IEP and spends most of his school day in the general education classroom. He receives two hours of instruction from the special education teacher per week. Based upon the attached assessments, his areas of concern are in literacy. Included in these concerns are the ability to recognize the parts of a story, to be able to do a detailed retell, overall comprehension, and accurate spelling when writing. In his IEP, his teachers have stated concerns about his issues with attention, staying in his seat,

atypical behaviors, and poor study habits. Since the time of the development of this IEP, Michael has been taking medications that have greatly improved his deficits in these four areas. These improvements have been so significant, that these areas are of no longer a concern. Because of his ability to overcome these deficits, his abilities in literacy have also improved. He is now able to focus and stay in his seat, allowing him to be engaged, learn more from instruction, and concentrate on his reading.

Conclusion Michael has been a great student with whom to work. He was willing and eager to complete all assessments and was easily engaged. Michael needs to continue working on improving his literacy skills. He would benefit from learning new reading strategies that will help him retain the main ideas in what he is reading and to understand important details. Strategies that use mnemonics will help him to be able to remember the strategies and the steps needed to implement them. As a result, he may have greater success at using the strategies and use them more frequently. He will also benefit from constructing graphic organizers that help him understand the main components in the stories he reads as well as what happens in the beginning, middle, and end of a story. These types of strategies will improve Michaels comprehension, ability to do a meaningful retell, and enhance his background knowledge.

Case Study Part 1 - Assessment