Running head: CASE STUDY 1

Reading I: Case Study

Emily Buff

Birmingham-Southern College
CASE STUDY 2

Reading I: Case Study

Section I

Contextual Analysis

My case study student, who we will call Jake during this case study, is at Princeton

Alternative Elementary school. Princeton is a magnet school in the Birmingham City

Schools system. The socioeconomic status of the school, determined by the percentage of

children receiving free or reduced lunch, is 40.51% for the 2017-2018 school year (ALSDE).

Jake is in first grade at the K-5 school. Because it is a magnet school, there are not special

education services provided. There are no students with IEPs, and there are no ELL

students. Princeton is a predominately African-American school; all 18 students in Jakes

class are African-American. The teacher in the classroom has a Bachelors Degree from

Birmingham-Southern College and is a 4th year teacher.

Jake is a 6-year-old first grader. He is an only child and lives with his mom and dad. As I

have spent time with him, I have learned things about him and recorded them in my Whole

Child Collection Data Sheet. Jake is an avid soccer player; he is very competitive and often

has soccer games Saturday morning. He loves to draw, and his favorite part of writing

workshop is illustrating his stories. His favorite books are Elephant and Piggie books by Mo

Willems, his favorite author. Jake enjoys most enjoys being read to or taking turns reading.

He gets most excited when his class has a dance party, dancing to a song on Youtube or

GoNoodle. His favorite songs are Kidz Bop songs.

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Jake is a defiant child. His teacher has noted that he has trouble following directions and

being respectful to others around him. He will refuse to follow a direction given, and will

sometimes argue if he does not agree with the direction. Jake enjoys working with other

people, but does not enjoy collaborating. It is as if he enjoys working parallel to someone,

but not with them. I have found Jakes defiance difficult in getting the appropriate

assessments finished in order to best support his reading needs. Often, more time is spent

convincing him to do the assessment than actually completing the assessment itself. His

teacher and I have observed that his behavior has become more disruptive as the semester

has progressed. His mom claims that she does not see this behavior at home.

Family Activities Academics Favorites Physical Social/Emotional Birthday Strengths as a reader

-Lives with -Soccer Enjoys Mo Kidz Bop -Typically -Well-liked amongst 2-7- -Gathering
mom and dad -Dancing Willems Whip and developing peers 2011 meaning
-Only child -Playing on books Nae Nae -VERY -Works independently from illustrations
-Dad travels a Ipad (Elephant Cookies active -Trouble taking turns -Reading with
lot -Playing with and Piggie) Suckers -Inattentive -Defiant with expression
manipulatives Likes being One-on-one authority
-Playing on read to time
playground Avid
illustrator

Section II

Concepts of Print

To assess his concepts of print, Jake and I read That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems.

Jake successfully completed the concepts of print assessment with 100% accuracy. Jake

was able to identify words and pictures, letters and words, punctuation, and directionality

of print. It is clear that Jake understands concepts of print in reading. However, I have
CASE STUDY 4

noticed in writing samples that Jake will write his stories starting on the back page and

working forward. While Jakes understanding of concepts of print is satisfactory in reading,

that knowledge has not yet transferred over into his writing.

Writing Sample

I took a writing sample from Jake in September when I first began to assess him. The

sample is of an Elephant and Piggie story the student was working on. The first things I

noticed was that he started writing on the back page, then began moving forward, writing

from the right page to the left. I knew he understood concepts of print to some degree, as

he read from left to right and turned the pages of a book correctly, but it became clear to

me that this knowledge of concepts of print has not yet fully transferred into writing. He

did, however, write his words from left to right.

Jake essentially drew the same picture on every page and wrote Elephant and pig on

every page, as well. The only time he drew something slightly different was on the first

page pictured below. He drew that when I asked him to tell me his story. He went through

his book and told me that Elephant and Piggie were walking to the park (In telling me what

happened, he did not read the words, but rather looked at the pictures. I knew that the

illustrations were most meaningful to him in his writing in order to help him derive

meaning.). When I asked him what would happen next, he told me that a spider fell on

Piggies head, and then proceeded to draw that. However, he continued to write Elephant

and Piggie on the page. This led me to understand that while Jake understands narrative

text, he cannot yet create a narrative text independently, he understands enough to create
CASE STUDY 5

one with assistance through prompting. He also has trouble understanding that not only do

the words match the illustrations, but the words help tell the story.

I noticed through the writing sample that Jake does not write the letter p consistently. On

some pages it is written correctly and on others it is not. Jake correctly identified the letter

p in the letter recognition assessment, so I know that that knowledge simply has not yet

transferred to his writing.

CASE STUDY 6

Retelling of a Story

To retell a story, I read the book Pete the CatPlay Ball! to him. After we read the story, I

asked Jake to retell the story to me. Jake told me the plot of the story with minimal detail,

saying, They were playing baseball and they tied. With prompting, Jake was able to

identify basic who, when, where, and why questions about the story. Although Jake could

answer questions, he could not retell the story independently with detail. Much like his

writing sample, I can tell that he comprehends stories and understands narrative, but

needs assistance and prompting to show everything he knows.

Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Awareness

Jake did very well on the Yopp-Singer assessment, correctly identifying each phoneme in a

word 19/22 times. He answered three answers incorrectly in a row; two of them only

contained two phonemes. On both of them, he did not separate the phonemes and simply

repeated the words (in and at). There are a few reasons I could predict this happened.

Because Jake missed three in a row, it may be that he lost focused for a moment. Knowing
CASE STUDY 7

Jake and looking at his Whole Child data, I know that he can be inattentive at times and

unwilling to work. Jake could have also been focusing on the syllables rather than the

phonemes. However, considering that each word was one syllable, I would find that

unlikely.

When breaking the word ice down into phonemes, Jake repeated the I phoneme. I

noticed throughout the assessment that when a word had three phonemes, Jake had

developed a certain rhythm in telling the phonemes back to me. When he said i-i-s for

Ice, he said it in the very same rhythm. I believe that instead of paying attention to the

phonemes in the words, he had gotten into a set rhythm and said the words to match the

rhythm.

Overall, the assessment showed that Jake can accurately segment phonemes in words. With

19/22 segmented correctly, I believe that the three incorrect words do not show much data
CASE STUDY 8

to worry about, but rather were careless errors.

Hearing Words and Recording Sounds

When given the phrase I have a big dog. Today I will take him to school, Jake was able to

accurately hear and record 24/29 phonemes. Jake accurately recorded all the phonemes in

the first sentence except for the d in dog, which he recorded as a b. I noticed in his

running record that he consistently reads d as b and vice versa, so it makes sense that

he struggles with the same thing in his writing. The one miscue (is that the right term?) in

this assessment that puzzled me was his spelling of school; Jake spelled it as skos. While

it was understandable that he did not record diagraph oo, but rather just the single letter,

I was surprised that he put an s at the end of school. All the errors that he had made thus
CASE STUDY 9

far in the assessment were ones that I had anticipated might happen, but I could not

understand the s at the end of school. However, when looking at some of his writing

samples, I noticed that he will sometimes put random letters at the ends words that come

at the ends of sentences. This leads me to believe that it may not be that he hears those

sounds at the end of the word, but rather uses them as a placeholder once he finishes a

sentence or uses it to signify the end of a sentence.

Letter Identification

Jake was able to recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase. Jake

did not hesitate in answering, but rather knew each letter immediately. He could also name

the sound each letter makes. Jake correctly gave a corresponding word for each letter

sound, with the exception of x, for which he said extra. While it does not begin with the

sound that x makes, I believe that he used this word because when broken down

phonetically, it says the letter name x. This error did not worry me in any way; using the
CASE STUDY 10

word extra is developmentally appropriate because it says x when spoken phonetically.

It is evident to me that Jake has a firm understanding of letter names and sounds.

Sight Word Assessment

I conducted a sight word assessment with a list of Dolch sight words provided by Jakes

teacher. Out of all my assessments, I find this one to be the most unreliable. When I

conducted this assessment, Jake was clearly uninterested, and began reading words as

quickly as possible, so quickly I could not keep track of what he was reading. I asked him to

go slower; while he started over, he did not read any slower. The third time, he read

slower, reading whichever word I pointed to, but I realized that he was reading them

carelessly, ready to be finished with this assessment. Because of this, it is difficult to

distinguish which sight words he correctly recognized and which ones he ready carelessly,

therefore read incorrectly. Jake correctly read 24/36 sight words, which is 2/3 of the sight

words assessed. I noticed that Jake incorrectly recognized all words beginning with the

wh diagraph (what, who). This is also a trend that I noticed in his running record.

However, I did notice from his running record that Jake is able to read some of these words

(does, funny, friend) in context. Because of this, I find this assessment to be the least useful

one in analyzing his knowledge of recognizing sight words, as he performs better when

reading these words in context.

CASE STUDY 11

Section III

Running Record

For this running record, Jake read to me, Pete the CatPlay Ball! We had read this book

once before, so it was a familiar text, but not so familiar that he had knew the words by

heart. I chose a slightly familiar text so that he would be comfortable with the passage.

Pete the CatPlay Ball! is about Petes first baseball game. It has both sight words and

decodable words. The pictures are colorful and detailed enough to be able to gather

meaning from them. This book is from the scholastic I Can Read! series, and is classified

at a My First reading level according to Scholastic, meaning that it is ideal for emergent

readers.
CASE STUDY 12

Miscue Analysis

In looking at the patterns Jake exhibited throughout the running record, it is evident that

Jake relies heavily on his semantic cueing system when reading. Almost all of his miscues

substitute the original text with an action or object that the original could be mistaken for

or that was also pictured on the page (Goodman 1996). For example, with friends/team,

throwing/hitting, player/batter, player/catcher, each of those given responses could easily

be mistaken for the expected response given the illustrations of the story. Teammates

usually look like friends, if one person is throwing another person is hitting, etc. Jake

primarily uses his semantic cueing system when reading.

There were four instances where I had to tell Jake the word. Many times, when he came to a

word he did not know and could not derive meaning from the picture, he would simply
CASE STUDY 13

stop reading. The only way he would continue reading was if I gave him the word. This tells

me that while Jake brilliantly uses his semantic cueing system, he is not yet confident

enough to take risks using his graphophonic or semantic cueing system.

The remainder of Jakes miscues came from his graphophonic cueing system. He replaced

comes with came, what with where, and crash with crack. I indentify these

miscues as coming from his graphophonic cueing system because they all begin with the

same onset. Jake knew the onset, and guessed with the unfamiliar rime . Because

graphophonics consists of the visual symbols for letters and letter sounds (Goodman

1996), and he correctly knew the beginning graphemes but not the ending, I knew that Jake

is struggling with his graphophonic cueing system.

From this assessment, I gathered that Jake reads best when given appropriate pictures to

go with his text. He can masterfully derive meaning from pictures, but still struggles

decoding words past their rime.

Section IV

Lesson One

Lesson Title: Pete the CatPlay Ball!

Grade: First

Time One 30 session

CASE STUDY 14

AL COS Standards related to this lesson:

English/Language Arts:

Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central

message or lesson. [RL.1.2]

Objective(s):

After reading the story, students will be able to:

Retell the story, including key details and demonstrating understanding of the

central message or lesson

Materials:

Pete the CatPlay Ball! book

Procedure:

Begin by reading Pete the CatPlay Ball! to the student

Ask the student questions throughout the story to ensure engagement, such as,

o How do you think _______ feels?

o What do you think will happen next?

o What would you do if you were ______?

o Have you ever done ____________?

After reading the story, ask the student to retell the story. When he retells the story,
prompt him with questions such as,

o What happened next?

o Who did ______?

o What was ___________ characters name?

CASE STUDY 15

o Where did it place place?

o Why did _________ happen?

Once he has sufficiently retold the story, tell the student that he is going to act out
the story with you.

Go outside and let him pretend his is the character of his choice

o If he is Pete, ask him to reenact the story

o If he chooses the you to be Pete, he will tell you what to do, guiding your
actions to follow the texts actions

Assessments:

I will informally assess the student the first time he retells the story. The

reenactment/presentation will serve as the summative assessment

Context:

I chose this text for the retelling because it is a familiar text. I did not want Jake to go retell

a cold text because I wanted to make sure he could understand enough to remember key

details as well as large plot points.

I chose this book specifically to retell by acting out because Jake is a very active student,

and pretending to play baseball to retell a story will help use his energy to his benefit. The

book also has large actions (hitting, throwing, running), that are easier to translate into

action than smaller actions (thinking, reading, sitting, etc.).

Reflection:

This lesson could have gone better if I had set my expectations for the lesson better.

Reading and the initial retelling went fine; Jake was attentive and engaged. However, when

it came time to retell the story through acting it out, it became less like retelling the story
CASE STUDY 16

and more like pretending to play baseball. I quickly lost control of Jake and could not get

him to refocus on retelling the story through our actions. Next time, I know I will need to

better establish expectations for our lesson and activity.

Lesson Two

Lesson Title: Elephant and Piggie Book

Grade: First

Time One 30-45 minute session

AL COS Standards related to this lesson:

English/Language Arts:

--Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. [RF.1.3]

--Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. [RF.1.1]

a. Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending
punctuation).

Objective(s):

After reading the story and writing their own, students will be able to:

Apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in both reading and writing
decodable words
Recognize and apply basic features of print in reading and writing
Materials:

Elephant and Piggie book of students choice

Pencil

Elephant and Piggie Writing template (3 different kinds)

Procedure:

Begin by reading the Elephant and Piggie book of the students choice.
Give the student a choice: either they read it alone to you, or you may do it Readers
Theatre style, with one person reading for Piggie and the other for Gerald
CASE STUDY 17

Listen for miscues in the students reading and conduct a running record. If a
student needs prompting, ask questions such as,
o Look at the picture. Does what you said make sense?
o Do you know a chunk of that word? Now that we know that part, lets figure
out the next chunk.
o Have we read that word in another part of the story?
o Listen to that word in the whole sentence. Does it make sense in the
sentence?
After reading Elephant and Piggie, their schema will be activated. Introduce the
writing templates (3)
Show student how each panel represents a page in the Elephant and Piggie story.
Tell the student that they are going to write their own Elephant and Piggie story,
then let them choose a template.
Using a leftover template, model writing a story on the template.
Model thinking about how the picture will match the words and how the story will
be in a chronological order
o Elephant has an ice cream cone in his hands. I think he is talking about how
much he loves ice cream.
o In the last panel, Piggie asked for ice cream. In this one, Elephant should say
yes!
Allow the student to have input in your story as an informal assessment as to if they
are understanding the modeling/to gage how much support they should need
The student will write their own story. Make sure they are appropriately
segmenting/decoding words to write them, prompting with questions such as,
o What sounds do you hear in that word?
o Can we break the word down into chunks?
o I think we read that word. Lets see if we can find it in the book.
After writing the story, have the student read the story back as a way to present
their final work.
Assessments:

Informal assessment will come when redirecting the students misconceptions. The writing
sample and miscue analysis will serve as a summative assessment.

Context:

Before we began to record our lesson, we read I Love my New Toy by Mo Willems. Because

we were about to write an Elephant and Piggie story, I wanted to activate the students

schema about the tone of Elephant and Piggie stories, his use of word bubbles, etc. Now

that his schema was activated, we were ready to begin writing our stories. I chose to use an

Elephant and Piggie book and writing sample because the student is an avid Elephant and
CASE STUDY 18

Piggie reader. I knew that the only way to make the student engaged in this lesson was to

support it with things he is interested in, and he will often refuse to read anything but

Elephant and Piggie. Rather than let that deter me and argue with him over reading

something else, I decided to play into his interests so he will be excited about our learning .

Academically, the student has trouble making sense of narrative stories. He will

illustrate the same picture over and over again, as well as the words. I chose to use the

Elephant and Piggie template because it already had illustrations. This would allow him to

look at the illustrations and determine the actions and text from them; Elephant and Piggie

are doing different things on each page so they must be saying different things.

Reflection:

This lesson went very well! Jake was engaged throughout the lesson because of his interest

in Elephant and Piggie books. Because of this, he was on task for most of the lesson. I think

that I asked the appropriate questions in order for him to do most of the thinking, but I

occasionally gave answers when I should have let him do the thinking. We were running

low on time, and so I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to finish everything.

However, I should have been content with incomplete work done solely by Jake than

complete work that also had some of my thinking.

Section V

Before we began to record our lesson, we read I Love my New Toy by Mo Willems.

Because we were about to write an Elephant and Piggie story, I wanted to activate the

students schema about the tone of Elephant and Piggie stories, Willems use of word

bubbles, etc. Now that his schema was activated, we were ready to begin writing our
CASE STUDY 19

stories. I chose to use an Elephant and Piggie book and writing sample because the student

is an avid Elephant and Piggie reader. I knew that the only way to make the student

engaged in this lesson was to support it with things he is interested in, and he will often

refuse to read anything but Elephant and Piggie. Rather than let that deter me and argue

with him over reading something else, I decided to play into his interests so he will be

excited about our learning.

Academically, the student has trouble making sense of narrative stories. He will

illustrate the same picture over and over again, as well as the words. I chose to use the

Elephant and Piggie template because it already had illustrations. This would allow him to

look at the illustrations and determine the actions and text from them; Elephant and Piggie

are doing different things on each page so they must be saying different things.

I also thought that he may be able to practice different types of punctuation. He has

been learning about exclamation points and question marks in his class, so I thought that

because Elephant and Piggie are so animated that I might be able to reinforce those

punctuation marks with him.

In the video, it is clear that the student and I have built rapport and developed a

relationship with one another. Right at the beginning (0:00), before beginning the lesson, I

ask the student, Are you ready? It is not until I get his response (yes!) that I begin with

our lesson. By letting the learner lead the lesson, I am putting him in charge of his own

learning, rather than go on without him. When I asked if he was ready, it let him know that

I care about his learning, and that I will make sure he is the best he can be before we move

forward.

I also showed rapport with my student by calling him by his name. At 1:01, he is
CASE STUDY 20

playing with the camera, and I redirect him simply by calling his name and touching his

shoulder. Instead of calling him a colloquial name like bud or dude, I respect him

enough to call him by his actual name, just as I would expect him to respect me and call me

by my real name.

Throughout the entire video, I chose to sit on the floor right next to my student. This

shows respect for my student by allowing him to chose where he wants to sit. Respecting

his decisions builds a relationship between the two of us, proving that I trust him. I also

chose to sit next to him, rather than above him in a chair or at the table. By getting down on

his level, I am able to better connect with him and show that we are equals learning

together, rather than creating a hierarchy between us.

At 0:22, I engage the student by picking materials that I knew he would be excited

about. When I told him we were writing Elephant and Piggie stories, he instantly got more

excited and became more engaged in the work. By choosing something that I knew he

would be interested in, I helped my student connect to the material. I also engage the

student at 0:26 by letting the student choose the story template he wanted to use for his

Elephant and Piggie story. By giving the student choice, I am again putting the student in

charge of his own learning. Choice engages the student by letting him make his own

decisions so that he can do what excites him the most, rather than giving him something to

do whether he likes it or not.

I engage the student starting at 0:36 by modeling the assignment he is about to do. I

start thinking out loud (Im going to start by brainstorming what I think the story might be

about). I continue to model my thinking as I am writing my own story. By modeling my

thinking, I am giving the student a guideline for how he can direct his thinking to make sure
CASE STUDY 21

his story makes sense.

At 5:20 I deepen the students learning by modeling and helping him use strategies

to spell words. He is looking for the word thank in a book (he is sitting in my lap), and we

cannot find it. However, I found the word throw. I use this opportunity to teach him to

split words into chunks. Together we split the word into chunks to spell the desired word.

By showing him a new strategy to spell words, I am deepening his knowledge of spelling,

rather than just spelling what he hears for every word.

I assessed the student at the end of the lesson by using his writing sample as a

summative assessment. However, I also assessed the student throughout the lesson to

ensure that he understood the lesson. For example, at 2:15 I asked the student a question.

When he gives an answer that does not make sense, rather than moving on, I repeat the

question at 2:28. Doing so gives him another chance to collect his thoughts and form a

cohesive response. It also allows me to find out if he understood my question, or if I need to

rephrase my question in a way to best fit his needs.

During the lesson, I informally assessed him by questioning his thinking. For

example, at 11:18, the student is putting a question mark at the end of a sentence that

should have a period. Rather than telling him to fix it, I ask why he is putting a question

mark. This gives him an opportunity to explain his thinking and allows me to get a better

understanding of his misconceptions.

One of my most useful assessing strategies was simply observing the student work.

At 6:35, the student is thinking aloud as he writes a sentence. Instead of interrupting his

thinking by asking him questions, I watch the student as he gives me a window into his

thinking, allowing me to observe how his thought process. Doing this allows me to see what
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strategies he uses on his own, rather than having to decipher between my thinking and his.

I think one smart teacher move I made was in designing the lesson in a way that

scaffolds learning. By using a template, the student was able to focus on the writing portion

of book-making, which is the area in which he struggles.

Another smart teacher move is at 7:50. The student says that he wants me to write

the story for him. Rather than just telling him no and that he has to write, I redirect his

behavior in a more positive way, saying, I want you to help me. Can you sit up please? I

would really love for you to see what youve been writing because its so smart. Phrasing

what I would like the student to do in this way not only redirects his behavior, but also

encourages him and provides a reason for him to want to work. Debbie Miller talks about

positive ways to redirect behavior in a way that does not discourage them from

participating in the task at hand, and I believe I did just that.

One thing that I could have done differently was ask the student how we can spell

words. Whenever he asked how to spell a word, rather than asking him that same question,

I always provided him with a strategy. While that is helpful, I also should have asked him

what strategy he could use, so that I could use a gradual release of responsibility so that he

will be able to decipher which strategies to use when he is working independently.

Section VI

The part of the class I most benefitted from was my time in the field. There, I got to

see what reading looks like in the real world. I got to see differentiated instruction, and

how one lesson can be used to meet the needs of all students. My teacher was very

accommodating to us and was intentional on sharing her thought process throughout the
CASE STUDY 23

lesson. It was very helpful to be able to learn the textbook information and theory at BSC,

then go out and see it applied in classrooms in the field. Additionally, I was able to see what

to do when a lesson does not work or if students do not understand. It is difficult to prepare

for when things go wrong in the classroom, as there are an infinite number of reasons

things can go wrong. It was very helpful to be able to watch my teacher navigate through

situations and discover how to overcome them.

One of the most significant things I learned throughout the term was how to conduct

and analyze a running record. Learning about running records is what really solidified

what each cueing system is used for in reading. Before running records, I knew what each

cueing system was, but it was very much an abstract concept to me; I did not quite

understand how it would apply to helping my students reading. Once I could look at a real

childs reading and running record, I was better able to understand how cueing systems

apply to real reading. Through this course, I have learned that not knowing a word does not

mean that a student is a poor reader, but rather the way the students goes about trying to

read the word is what I should focus on.

Because I have already taken Reading II, I am not sure what I feel uncertain about. I

know that I do not have the answers to everything, but it is like I do not know what I do not

know. I am sure more questions will arise when I am out in the field!