Drake University

EDUC 175/275 Literacy Assessment and Instruction I

LITERACY TUTORING PORTFOLIO
Fall 2014
9 Sessions

Molly McClelland and Student A

PART I. STUDENT BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Identifying Data
Student: Student
School/Teacher: Valley High School K. Moore
Chronological Age: 17

School Grade: 11th

Reason for Referral

Student A was referred to the Drake Reading Clinic by her special education
teacher because she has difficulty comprehending text, along with fluency
issues.

Background Information
Student A and the Drake Reading Clinic tutor will be meeting nine times,
beginning on September 30th, 2014 and ending on December 2, 2014. All
tutoring sessions take place on Tuesdays 11:30-12:15 at Valley High School
in West Des Moines, Iowa. The assessments are given during the tutoring
session in a small special education testing room.
Behavioral Observations
During tutoring sessions, Student A is always very positive and ready to learn
about how to improve her reading skills. This positivity is displayed through
her consistent participation each session and inquiring about what she will
be reading that day.

PART II. TESTS ADMINISTERED

Materials and Procedures Administered
Throughout the nine tutoring sessions, Student A completed various
assessments, which included secondary reading attitude survey, basic
reading inventory, spelling inventory, plus more. These assessments helped
guide her tutoring sessions in order for her to meet her potential.
Table 1. An Overview of the Assessment Materials, Purposes, and Uses
Assessment

Purpose and Use

Secondary
Interest
Survey

The purpose of
this assessment
is to provide
information on
how a student
views
himself/herself.
This is useful in
understanding
what may
motivate the
student and
what the student
is interested in
reading.
The purpose of
the BRI is to
assess what
levels the
student is at in
word recognition,
reading context,
and
comprehension.
This information
can be used as a
baseline to begin
instruction in
each area.

Basic
Reading
Inventory
(BRI)

Date of
Administratio
n
September
23, 2014
October 7,
2014

Results
Interest Areas:
Education &
Training
Hospitality &
Tourism
Human Service
Reading Interest
Positive
viewpoint
Struggles with
higher level
reading
o Stressful

Began on
September
30, 2014 and
finished on
December 2,
2014

Word Lists
Began at 10th
grade level, hit
independent/instr
uctional at 12th
grade level
Reading Context
Began at the 10th
grade level, hit
instructional at
the 12th grade
level
Comprehension
Began at the 10th
grade level, hit

Running
Records

McCutchen
Measure of
Explicit
Morphologic
al
Knowledge

Spelling
Inventory

Cloze
Passage

The purpose of
running records
is to provide an
authentic
snapshot of how
a student is
currently
reading. The
information can
be used to
assess if the
current text is at
an appropriate
reading level for
the student.
The purpose of
this assessment
is to show
performance on
recognition and
analysis than
production tasks.

October 21,
2014

The purpose of
this assessment
is to determine
what spelling
stage the
student is at.
This information
can be used to
guide instruction
tailored to the
students
spelling stage.
The purpose of
this assessment
is to determine
how much the
student
understands
context and
vocabulary in
order to identify

October 28,
2014

instructional at
the 12th grade
level
Accuracy: 98%
Self-correction ratio:
1:3
*Someday This Pain
Will Be Useful to
You, page 3 was
used for this running
record

November
11, 2014

Frustration level:
High
Accuracy: 50%

Words Spelled
Correctly: 16/31
Featured Points:
48/68
Spelling Stage:
Middle, Within Word
Pattern

November
18, 2014

Frustration Level:
High
Accuracy: 60%

Index of
Reading
Awareness

the correct words

or type of words
that belong in
the deleted
passages of a
text.
The purpose of
December 2,
this assessment
2014
is to determine
decoding deficits
within subtests
including
evaluation,
planning,
regulation, and
conditional
knowledge.

Evaluation No
significant weakness
(8)
Planning Some
instructional support
needed (7)
Regulation Some
instructional support
needed (7)
Conditional
knowledge: No
significant weakness
(8)

PART III. TEST RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS

A. Secondary Interest Survey is a reading survey given to students to
determine how the students feel about recreationally and academically
learning. The survey is 17 questions long, with each question asking about
different feelings towards their interests. The students respond by filling out
various options regarding their interests and hobbies. The interest survey is
divided into 16 groups. Each group is a career cluster. Career clusters place
similar occupations in groups. These clusters help narrow the thousands of
career options in the world to a general areas of interest. The clusters
connect what you learn in school to the skills and knowledge you need
beyond high school. Some careers are placed in more than one cluster.
Top Interest Areas
Education &
Training

Hospitality &
Tourism

Human Services

B. Basic Reading Inventory (BRI) is an assessment tool used to determine

what grade level of reading a student is functioning at. The assessment has
three parts, and begins with words lists. The student is given a list of 20
words and must read aloud the list, one word at a time. The lists continue to
be given until the student has reached a level of frustration. The lists are
scored and assessed to determine what level of instruction the student is at
(independent, instructional, or frustration). The grade level at which
students are instructional is where the teacher should spend time finding

material appropriate at that level to best suit the students needs and
abilities.
Once the words lists have been completed, the student reads aloud a
passage while the teacher records notes of what the student read (i.e.
writing down mispronounced words, skipping words, etc.) While errors such
as substituting a word or inserting a word may be made, only the significant
errors that change the meaning of the sentence are counted against the
students score. The student continues to read passages at the next grade
level until frustration is reached. The scoring procedure is similar to that of
the word lists.
The final part of the BRI includes comprehension questions that are asked
immediately after the student finishes reading aloud a passage. Noes are
taken to record the students answers and the score reflect how many
questions we missed. Because comprehension questions relate to the
passages, once the student has reached frustration with the reading
passage, the comprehension questions also stop at the grade level.
According to Student As results from the BRI, she is performing at an
instruction level in word lists at a level for grades 10-12. She never hit
frustration level while testing. In regards to Student As results on the
reading passages, she read independently at the 10-12th grade level and
never reached frustration. However, I recommend that Student A receive
instruction for comprehension and reading passages at the 12th grade level,
as this is where she struggled. In summary, I recommend that Student A
receive instruction on comprehension and reading passages at the 12 th grade
level. This means that OTjta will be receiving instruction on grade level in
these categories. Her word list levels is most likely higher than
comprehension and reading passages.
Word Lists

Grade 10
Grade 11
Grade 12

Tota
Level
l/
20
15
Instructio
nal
19
Instructio
nal
19
Instructio
nal

Reading
Passages
Miscu
Level
es
12
7
9

Comprehension

Questio
Level
ns
Missed
Ind./Inst 0
Independ
.
ent
Ind./Inst 1
Independ
.
ent
Ind./Inst 2
Ind./Inst.
.

C. A Running Record is an informal assessment that is used to determine if

the leveled text is at an appropriate level for the student. The student is
given a text (in Student As case she was given a 201 word passage from
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You) and the teacher records any errors
made while the student reads aloud. Errors include substituting a word,
inserting a word, deleting a word, or reversing words. IF a student selfcorrects (corrects without external aid) that is not counted as an error rather
is simply marked in the teachers records. After the reading is complete, the

teacher tallies the errors and creates an accuracy ration and self-correction
ratio. The accuracy ratio provides information as to what levels the text is at
for the student. The text is independent if the ration is between 96%-100%,
instructional from 90%-95%, and frustration below 90%. Student A read her
passage with only 3 errors and 1 self-correction. This makes her accuracy
rate be 98% (independent reading level) and her self-correction ration 1:3,
which means for every 3 errors, Student A corrected one. Of the three
errors, Student A substituted words that look similar to the original word in
the text. However, because she had one self-correction it shows that she
understood that what she had read aloud did not make sense and went back
to fix it. That is a necessary skill to have when reading and it seems that she
is developing that skill.
Total Words
201

Errors
3

SelfCorrections
1

Accuracy
Rate
98%

SelfCorrection
Ratio
1:3

D. McCutchen Measure of Explicit Morphological Knowledge shows if a

student had specific knowledge of words and their morphology. There are
relationships between a students literacy achievement (both reading and
writing) and their morphological awareness-that is, the ability to recognize,
reflect on, and manipulate meaningful word parts such as roots and suffixes.
Much of this work has been correlational, allowing for few causal arguments
regarding underlying mechanisms. The assessment helps understand further
mechanisms by which morphological insights are used by students to
increase their vocabulary and comprehension. Student A completed the 30
questions while getting 15 correct with accuracy of 50%. Her frustration
level was high.
Total Words
30

Words Correct
15

Accuracy
50%

Frustration
Level
High

E. Spelling Inventory is a spelling test in which the student is read aloud 25

words to write down and is used to determine what spelling stage the
student is correctly performing at. Once the test is complete, it is scored
using a table to show how many featured points each word is worth
(students gain a point for each part of a word that is spelled correctly). The
parts of the words are broken into columns, so once a student has missed 2
or more word parts in a column it indicates that student spelling stage.
Student A scored 7/9 in feature points in Vowels section in the Middle level
of Within Word Pattern. Because Student A is in the Within Word Pattern
spelling stage, she is considered a transitional reader. This means that she
needs some guided instruction to help progress her reading. Using
independent or instruction levels texts, along with vocabulary work, Student
A will most likely improve her spelling.

Words Spelled
Correctly
16/31

Featured Points
48/68

Total Points
64/99

Spelling Stage
Vowels, Middle:
Within Word
Pattern

F. Cloze Passage is an assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain

words removed, where the participant is asked to replace the missing words.
Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order
to identify the correct words or type of words that belong in the deleted
passages of a text. Student A completed the 20 question cloze passage
while getting 12 correct. Her frustration level was high. In result, Student A
will benefit from vocabulary building to help with her comprehension.
Questions
20

Correct Answers
12

Accuracy
60%

Frustration
Level
High

G. Index of Reading Awareness is a multiple-choice format; the index of

reading awareness may be administered in a group setting. Helps detect
significant decoding deficits. This assessment comprises four subtests of
five items each. These are evaluation, planning, regulation, and conditional
knowledge. Each student earns a score for each of these subtests. The
subtest scores are computed by using the following key:
Subtest
Interpretation
Score
8-10
No Significant Weakness
6-7
Some Instructional Support Needed
0-5
Serious Need For Instruction In This
Area
The response to each item receives 0, 1, or 2 points. The subtest score is
simply the sum of these points for that subtest. Once the subtest scores are
determined, the scale can be used to interpret them.
Subtest
Evaluation

Score
8

Planning

Regulation

Interpretation
No Significant
Weakness
Some Instructional
Support Needed
Some Instructional
Support Needed

PART IV. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Overall, Student A is performing at an instructional level on grade level
for nearly all areas of reading. After given the seven different assessments,
it is clear that Student A would benefit most from instruction related to
improving her vocabulary to build her comprehension as her comprehension
scores could improve in accuracy of reading the text.
OTjay is very strong in her reading aloud and silently of passages as
she tends to self-correct her mistakes and read at a moderate rate to decode
words, both which lead to high accuracy rates. However, because Student A
does have a moderate reading pace, her comprehension is not at the same
level as her reading accuracy. Increasing her fluency (particularly her
decoding and vocabulary building) may lead to an increase in comprehension
as she is able to concentrate on the meaning of what she is reading, rather
than what the physical words are in the text. Because Student A has such
high levels of reading enjoyment, encouraging her to practice her fluency
skills while reading should not be a major concern or issue. This is a strength
of Student A because enjoying the act of reading, generally speaking the
student will read more often which increases their exposure to text.
Increasing a students text exposure can lead to an increase in reading ability
due to the increased amount of reading practice and vocabulary present.
In general, Student A would benefit from instruction in reading fluency
this incudes vocabulary exposure. One of the major benefits to focusing on
fluency strategies is that her comprehension will also improve because will
also improve because she is not longer spending time concentrating on
specific unknown words, but can instead concentrate on the meaning the
text is creating. Following the results from Student As tutoring sessions
there are three recommending goals and activities regarding her reading:
Increase Vocabulary Exposure: Student A is currently reading at a
moderate pace. This could be due to the fact that she has trouble
decoding words. To improve her pace, word work like words games,
manipulating parts of words, or cloze passages will be done to teach her
decoding strategies
Increase Comprehension: Student A currently understands a majority of
the material she reads. When there is an unknown topic or words,
frustration and struggle escalates especially when a student has limited
experience with certain kinds of pathologies and techniques. Assigning
directed readings will help Student A take a particular article or topic,
research, and thoroughly explain her findings in a short synopsis.
Increase Application of Knowledge: Student A needs to enhance her
learning, which she can do through writing and thinking about her own
learning experiences. A learning journal is a personal way for her to
connect and reflect on her preferences, knowledge, and experiences.