Casta Garcia-Rosen

EDUG 789
Prof. Sheehan
May 6th 2015
Final Paper
I.

Background Information/Student Strengths and Weaknesses

I worked with a third grade male student in a general education classroom. He

was a former ESL student who was receiving ESL services and continues to receive
testing accommodation for the next two years. The student struggles with complex math
such as fractions and reading comprehension, drawing conclusions and making
inferences. Based on his teachers assessments the student is below grade level in reading
and math. He is in the bottom third of his class and was receiving AIS (academic
intervention services) throughout the school year to help with his reading comprehension
skills. According to his teachers TC reading level he is at a level L. After speaking with
his general education teacher and his AIS teacher some of the key focus areas for the
student is working on making inferences and drawing conclusions from the text using
supporting details. The students strengths include applying basic multiplication, adding,
subtracting facts and reading aloud. The students weaknesses include inability to connect
ideas in a text, gather relevant ideas, and organizing his thoughts while communicating
his ideas.
As far as classroom behavior the student is friendly, and eager to help the teacher and
also demonstrates an eagerness to participate when he feels confident. However, the
student struggles with managing his behavior when he is bored or does not understand the

lesson. Depending on the students mood he can be engaged during class discussions or
be disruptive in class. He is also triggered by several of his classmates (boys) and often
reacts by yelling at them to express his feelings. Despite his reactive behavior, he is
generally liked in class and has several friends in class whom he sits with during lunch.
During our weekly sessions, the student described many interest and hobbies such as,
playing video games, playing basketball with his friends, watching movies and eating
pizza. The student lives in Riverdale with his mother and visits his father on the
weekends.
II.

IEP Goals, Strategies/Interventions, Assessments (informal and formal), and

Improvements in Target Areas

IEP Goals: Reading
1. In one year, J.R. will be able to determine relevant information that is central to the
main idea 60% of the time, using formal and informal assessments.
2. In one year, J.R. will be able to make inferences from visuals used in a text 60% of the
time, using formal and informal assessments.
3. In one year, J.R. will be able to use illustrations to draw conclusions from a variety of
text with 60 % of accuracy using formal and informal assessments.
Strategies/Interventions
While working with the student we started focusing on reading passages to
determine the information that is central to the main idea (goal 1). We used graphic
organizers when reading passages as a way to organize the information and help find the
main idea of the story. We also utilized the reading protocol that was implemented in the
classroom: reading the instructions and questions that go with the text to build an
understanding of what is being asked, underlining key parts of the questions, analyzing

the text features, and underlining key ideas/words and phrase. This reading strategy was
used throughout each session to reinforce good reading practices when reading passages
that focused on finding the relevant information that is central to the main idea. Informal
and formal assessments were applied during the sessions such as teacher observations,
discussions, questionings, and written short responses to determine progress of the
student. The student was able to follow the reading protocol, but struggled to locate
relevant ideas in the text and make connections to the main idea of the reading passage.
In addition, when asked to retell the story to help think of relevant information of the
passage the student had difficulty with re-telling the beginning, middle and end of the
story and could not make connections to relevant parts of the story.
For the second and third goal the focus was to make inferences from visuals used
in a text and draw conclusions. During our sessions we worked on connecting the text to
the visuals presented in the readings, I modeled to the student how to use the visuals to
make connections to the characters. I scaffold the process and did a think aloud of how
I would do this by looking at the visuals in the passage. This showed the student the
process of making a connection between the visuals and the text. Another teaching
strategy was activating prior knowledge by having students talk about his interests and
then make a connection to the text by stating the similarities between the character and
the students life. As we practiced this skill of making inferences from visuals we worked
on filling the graphic organizers to organize ideas about the text that connect to the main
idea/theme of the story.
I assessed the students comprehension through informal questioning and small
group discussions. He was able to share more when he felt like others were actively

listening. The lessons during the sessions promoted discussions that encouraged the
student to make connections to the text through text to self. In addition, as a way to
encourage making connections I activated prior knowledge through discussions about the
students specific interest. This encouraged the student to engage in the text once he felt
he could relate to the characters. The students improvement from the first session to now
is promising, however, he needs a lot of additional support to meet his IEP goals.
III.

Reccomendations

I recommend the student continue AIS services where he can receives more guided
instructional support. It is recommended that the student works in small groups with
mixed ability peers. The student needs one on one instruction with complicated tasks
especially in reading and writing. The use of graphic organizers are recommended the
student is able to organize and think more clearly when using an organizer as a resource.
In addition, the student will benefit from reading short texts aloud and practicing thinkalouds to help him learn how to make inferences and draw conclusions from the text and
visuals presented in a reading passage. Assessing the student is important and it is
recommended that continual short response prompt are given to the student in order to
strengthen his ability to determine relevant information that is central to the main idea.
Furthermore, the student needs wait time when being asked questions about the text.
When reading passages with the student it is also important to stop continuously, ask
questions to check for comprehension and review what was just read.
Another point made is to provide constructive feedback that will help the student
understand what he needs to work on. It is also important that he is praised when he does

well this will encourage him to try harder and will confidence as he strengthen his
reading comprehension skills.