CASE STUDY

Name: Peyton
Birthdate:
04/23/2002
Age: 14
Parent: Elaine

School: SCHS
Grade: 9.1
Date of report: 09/25/16

REASON FOR REFERRAL

Peyton has been referred for her spelling/decoding and writing difficulties. Her English 9
teacher has seen difficulty with writing and identifying various details in her English 9 class.
During English, Peyton has had difficulty with identifying the MELEC components which is a
very important concept as it builds throughout the year in each of the units. With identifying
these components, the student is also required to build their essays using the MELEC foundation.
When Peyton has attempted to complete the essays, she has many run-on sentences that often do
not make sense. The two writing samples this year contain a subject and content, but it does not
have a flow from one sentence to the next. There are also many spelling errors. Most of the
spelling errors are seen with ee, ai, and ie words. Peyton has also been referred due to her
reading level demonstrated on the STAR assessments, which indicate need for instruction at the
sixth grade level. Peyton demonstrates an engagement and interest in reading and writing,
however; she has deficits with communicating appropriately in her writing and has difficulty
with identifying main ideas, themes, and resolutions from stories. This indicates a need for
comprehension and writing intervention on top of spelling instruction.
Case History
Peyton is a 14 year old, 5 month old student that attends Shawano Community High
School. Peyton is in her first year at the high school therefore she is set to graduate on time at
this point. Peyton enjoys being active. She plays volleyball for the high school and the local club
team, basketball, and soccer. Peyton has many friends and enjoys swimming, biking, running,
and reading books that include adventure and mystery. Peyton enjoys science and social studies
classes because of the hands-on lessons that assist with her understanding the content. Peyton
describes science class as a way to understand how concepts work and she is able to see this
through the projects they complete. In social studies, her teacher brings in visual elements like
political cartoons and games that relate to the content in order to assist with student learning and
memorization. Peyton describes her English class as a class she does not like and as difficult due
to her difficulty with reading the material and inability to break it apart. When students are
required to read full chapters in social studies, Peyton said she skims and highlights only the
bolded words. Peyton said she also likes her foods class because they are learning important
skills that she will be able to use for life. Peyton has identified herself as more of a visual/handson learner as we discussed how she learns best.

Peyton lives with her mother and her younger brother who is in 5th grade. Peyton sees her
father and stays with him every other weekend. Peyton has a strong relationship with her mother
and brother. Peyton had a Big Sister as part of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program and this
individual is someone she considers as her sister.
Educational History
Peyton has been referred from her previous two English teachers from the middle school.
Intervention was not an available option the past three years at the middle school. Peytons
current English teacher had spoken to these teachers to gain more information about her present
skills. Peytons mother (Elaine) had indicated that she had begun to see Peyton struggle with
reading when she was in fourth grade. Peytons parents had separated at this time and Peyton did
not seem to have an interest in school specifically in reading. Peytons teachers have said that
Peyton is a very kind young lady, they feel her transition from the middle to the high school has
been good this far.
Assessment History
In previous assessments, according to Peytons mother, there were skill deficits in
language arts specifically in the area of decoding and comprehension. These skills she said,
directly impacted Peytons fluency as well. Peyton has been a strong individual with deriving
meaning from vocabulary in previous years. Elaine had concerns about vocabulary in high
school because the language becomes increasingly more difficult in all classes. Peyton has
always tried her best on assessments. The MAPs assessments were used as district assessments,
however; only showed Peyton was behind one grade level. This lead to indecisiveness about
interventions when she was at the intermediate school. Peyton demonstrates great knowledge in
her areas of interest of science and social studies which increases her test scores.
Assessment Summary & Synthesis of Results
During testing, on September 15th, Peyton was determined to do a good job. She seemed
nervous as she read passages that were more difficult along with when she was reading word lists
and spelling for the Words Their Way assessment. STAR is a district-wide computer-generated
assessment that is given to every student three times a year (fall, winter, and spring). On Peytons
STAR fall score, she scored a 541 which put her in the need of intervention level. It also
reported that she needs to receive instruction in clarification of words (vocabulary), reading
books at the 6th grade level in order to improve comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary, receive
instruction with books at the 7th-8th grade level, and grammar practice.
On September 15th, Peyton was given three assessments that focus on the reading and
spelling of high-frequency words at various grade levels. She also was given a reading indicator
that focuses on comprehension and academic vocabulary. Peytons San Diego Quick Assessment
results demonstrate an instructional level of word recognition at the 6th grade. Her frustration
level indicates a 7th grade level, based on the errors and error patterns. When given the Words
their Way Upper Level Spelling Inventory on September 19th, Peyton demonstrated errors with
complex consonant blends (i.e. dge in smudge and tch in switch), and Greek/Latin elements (i.e.
arch in monarchy & chlor in chlorine). She demonstrated errors in vowels such as: ir in squirt
and ai in sailor. Her total amount of words spelled correctly was 23/31. Her error patterns

demonstrated difficulty with within word patterns. Her feature points score was 59/68. The AGS
Reading Level Indicator results indicate a 5.4 grade reading level for Peyton based on her
responses to vocabulary multiple choice, and basic comprehension questions.
On the Qualitative Reading Inventory-6 administered on September 29th, Peyton was
given a 6th grade passage based on her word identification results from the word lists provided.
She was identified with her independent reading level at 6th grade after reading Abraham
Lincoln narrative passage, answering concept questions, retelling, and answering explicit and
implicit questions. Peyton was then given an expository passage for the sixth grade level because
she may have been exposed to prior information on Abraham Lincoln based on her familiarity in
the concept questions. Again, Peyton demonstrated independent level with this passage. She read
the first passage with 6 total miscues which were also meaning changing errors. She read the
passage at a rate of 47 correct words per minute using the acceptability formula with errors. She
was reading in two-word phrases with some three or four word groupings. When retelling, she
only missed 4 main components, one was part of the setting/background, 1 was an event, and 2
were part of the resolution. The second passage, The Lifeline of the Nile was a more difficult
passage for Peyton. Peyton answered the concept questions with 66% familiarity. She read the
passage at 55 Correct Words Per Minute (CWPM). She answered 7 out of 8 comprehension
questions. The Upper Middle School passage Jaime Escalante: Teacher Extraordinaire was
then administered. Peyton had great difficulty with retelling this passage (17/51 ideas retold) and
had 86 total miscues with 47 total acceptable miscues. This passage was at frustration level and
Peyton displayed frustration actions (crying). An expository Upper Middle School passage was
administered on a later date due to the frustration level, Life Cycles of Stars-Part 1. The
familiarity of the passage was 100% for the concept questions. With the familiarity of the
passages topic in science, Peyton did well. It still indicated a frustration level with her word
identification miscues (42) while reading. She retold many things related to stars that were not
directly told in the passage. She recalled 10/32 items. She answered 100% correct on the explicit
and implicit comprehension questions. Her levels indicate that a 5th grade level were independent
after reading the passages, Patricia McKissack and Farming on the Great Plains. As she read
the passages during the QRI-6 administration, Peytons fluency was very short and choppy
sentences. Most sentences contained two-three word chunks. She utilized her ability to segment
and blend as the passages became more difficult, but during independent passages (5th level) she
was not utilizing her skills therefore that is where her error patterns were shown in the multisyllabic words. The results from the administration of the QRI-6 indicate that her instructional
level is at the 6th grade level and the upper middle school level is at a frustration level.
Recommendations
The instructional recommendations for Peyton based on her results in the multiple
assessments, indicate that Peyton should be receiving additional assistance with grade level texts.
Peyton should continue to receive instruction with grade level texts due to her ability to
understand content as it is delivered in her preferred learning style. As she continues to progress
through grade levels, it is imperative that Peyton use strategies of annotation and graphic

organizers in order to continue to comprehend and demonstrate learning of the content as form of
an assessment.
The recommendations for the concerns in writing are that Peyton is able to identify the
thesis statement and break the components apart using a graphic organizer. Instruction will be
given with how to identify the essential components of a text and how to paraphrase and
contribute her own thoughts in her writing. Using the MELEC organizer often overwhelms
Peyton, therefore; using a word web/KWL charts will benefit both writing and reading. Using the
word web will keep Peyton on track for the specific paragraphs and developing a fluidness in the
writing. Interconnected word work with writing will also assist Peytons reading levels. Direct
instruction working with vowel digraphs (ai,ee,ay) will increase spelling which will then increase
writing rate. Graphic organizers, use of a dictionary, rephrasing as needed by instructors, use of
double entry diaries and annotations to assist with vocabulary enhancement. Encouraging Peyton
to read at her independent level (6th grade level texts) will increase her vocabulary and fluency
(rate and smoothness).
Finally, it is recommended that text suggestions for Peyton will be derived around grade
level content in social studies and science. These texts will become more difficult as time
progresses and she may not always have teachers that use hands-on and visual learning for
students to access the content. The high school has a 10-minute reading block each day, so
during this time Peyton should be reading high-interest texts at the 6th grade level to improve her
fluency, vocabulary, and recall.
Overall Summary Statement
The goals for tutoring are to increase vocabulary knowledge, writing with purpose which
includes incorporating the MELEC format so that Peyton will be successful in the regular
education setting. Grade level texts and information will be used to enhance knowledge in her
social studies and science classes. Increased knowledge on the content will be useful for
application of the information to answer higher level questions. The Shawano Community High
School learning goals include higher level questioning on all assessments in order to improve
college readiness therefore, it is imperative to not only understand the information but be able to
apply the information. Peyton also has deficits with vowel digraphs and multi-syllabic words so
tutoring will also emphasize these skills while including the vocabulary instruction.