Case Report for Finley Dixon

Case Report for Rylan Coffey Tutor: Lucy Cook

Description: Rylan is a 7 year old boy. He has completed 2nd grade and is a rising 3rd grader at Green Valley School in Boone, N.C. He is being considered for retention but the mother is leaning toward 3rd. This is his first time attending the ASU Reading Clinic. Rylan enjoys baseball and outdoor activities. Rylan is a very quiet student. He is somewhat shy and reluctant to respond to questioning. His favorite responses being, “I don’t know” or “That’s a hard one.” I believe part of this is due to confidence issues. The one-on-one setting is great for Rylan in that he warmed up and became a more vocal participant as the weeks progressed.

Initial Testing: Reading Diagnosis Summary Sheet Rylan Coffey Rising 3rd 6/10 Lucy Cook WRI Oral Oral Oral Silent Spelling Flash/Untimed Accuracy Comp. Rate Comp./Rate PP 100/ P 95/100 1st 85/95 91 100 95 90/71 67 2nd 75/100 92 80 72 80/91 42 3rd 50/85 87 83 56 4th

Independent Level: 1st grade Instructional Level: 2nd grade Level Total Meaning Frustrational Level: 3rd grade Errors Change 1st grade 7 4 2nd grade 9 5 3rd grade 19 7

The Word Recognition test contains 20-word lists increasing in difficulty from pre-primer through eighth grade. All students begin this test at the pre-primer level and testing stops when “flashed” score drops below 50%. Performance on the “flashed” test, (students’ sight vocabulary) is a better predictor of contextual reading ability whereas untimed test indicates decoding skills. Automaticity is a must to facilitate comprehension so that students do not struggle trying to decode words and lose meaning in the process. On the word recognition in isolation test, Rylan is Independent at Primer level. He has both accuracy and automaticity with words at this level. He is Instructional at 1st & 2nd grade with accuracy at this level but not automaticity. 3rd grade falls in the Grey area and Frustration level was not established.

We look at students’ word recognition in isolation assessment to know the grade level where to begin the oral reading assessment. Where the student scored 80% or better on the “flash” test is where to begin the oral passages. Testing stops when accuracy drops below 90% on a passage. Analysis of oral reading in context indicates that Rylan has an Independent reading level of first grade with 95wpm. The reading rate goal for the end of first is 45-85wpm but his reading accuracy was a little off with only 91%. Our goal has been to increase accuracy at this level. His instructional reading level was not established since second grade dropped off to frustrational range. We targeted late first grade material. Rylan’s frustrational reading level is second grade with 72 wpm. The reading rate goal for the end of second is 80-120wpm. Our goal has been to increase fluency at this level.

There is congruence between the Independent and Instructional level of the Word Recognition in Isolation test and the Word Recognition in Context tests. Both levels were 1st grade. However, the frustration level for the WRI test was around 3rd grade level whereas the frustration level was 2nd grade level on the WRC test.

As students develop reading ability, they tend to read faster silently because they can process the text faster. Rylan had an Independent silent reading rate at first grade but comprehension was less that ideal for this level. The rate for second grade was in the instructional range but comprehension dropped off.

Research supports a high correlation between spelling and word reading ability. The Schlagal spelling test provides insight into the students’ orthographic knowledge (ability to represent sounds with letters). The result of Rylan’s spelling assessment placed his instructional level at first grade with 67% (Instructional range: 50%-89%) and frustration level at second grade with 42% (frustration range: below 40%). His Independent level was not established since the spelling test is not administered below first grade level (Independent range: 90-100%). He correctly applies beginning and ending consonants but medial vowels are problematic, r controlled vowels are not present and silent e rule needs reviewing. He struggles with applying the doubling rule before adding suffixes. (ex. shoping for shopping) The suffix “ed” is spelled phonically. (ex. trapet for trapped).

Tutoring: In the beginning of our tutoring sessions, Guided Reading was on Level 7 book, Caps for Sale-middle of first grade. This was a good fit for Rylan. Common errors during reading were insertions of words or omission of words. During the DRTA he was not a willing participant and I had to work hard to pull answers out of him. “I don’t know” was given again and again even after multiple promptings. Rylan appeared very shy and uncertain of himself, even afraid of being wrong. After rereading the story and reviewing our questions, he was able to respond with confidence on day two. We attempted a 2 minute timed reading and he was all smiles after seeing his progress on the graph. Based on this performance, we moved up to level 8 How Turtle Raced Beaver. His flow and accuracy was appropriate for the level. I tried another level 8 but NF, Mice. He had difficulty with some of the content but was able to correct most missed words when I pointed to them so I decided to bring in more NF. The NF selections really started bringing Rylan out of his shell and he began to ask questions without me prompting! With continued progress, we moved to level 9 Rescuing Nelson. With multiple readings progresses was noted. Before the second 2 minute timed drill with this book, Rylan started looking ahead and picking a stopping point for himself to reach. He wanted to reach his personal goal and so did I! He would usually come close. Sticking with the NF, we attempted a 2nd grade book, Snakes. “Cool” was the response. During modeled reading, I pointed out punctuation and Rylan was able to reread it back using expression. An increase in self-corrections was evident indicating the he was attending to the task of reading. He was eager to ask questions with this story. Expert Reader activity was done with this book on the third day and he made 3 errors for 100 words.  We started in the Tricky Troll basal, beginning second grade. The story was Four Clues. Rylan was totally engaged because we kept track of the clues in the story and reread them each time a new one was given and he tired to guess. Flow and accuracy made this an appropriate level. He was finger tracking for support, but tended to stumble over little words because his eyes were wondering ahead to larger words coming up in the passage. I gave him an index card to start tracking with so he could focus on one sentence at a time and saw an improvement with the sight words that I knew he knew. We continued in the Tricky Troll basal and fewer insertions and omission were noted. He stopped to ask lots of questions, good for comprehension. Post test did not go as expected, his reading rate went down! Rylan was attending to words and consciously trying to make fewer errors so this affected his rate. 1st grade: accuracy 96% comprehension 80% rate 81% 2nd grade: accuracy 92% comprehension 100% rate 65%

Word Study started off with “a” vowel pattern word sorts. He was able to sort the words and explain the rules and read the words in each column. A 4th column was added to the word sort on the next day to add some challenge. This was a good stretch for Rylan but he stilled managed with success. After a game of Bingo for reinforce and review, a spelling test was administered to see if he was ready to move on. The spelling test was a success. “ar” pattern words were the only ones that presented a challenge so we reviewed these in the “i” vowel pattern sort. “i” sort was easy as well. He read each column with increasing speed and was able to identify randomly words that I pointed to in the columns. As a review, I mixed the “a” and “i” pattern words together. Rylan did not hesitate with the “a” pattern words, but would look to me for confirmation on several “i” pattern words. I encouraged him to reread each word in the column an isolate the vowel sound. He was able to discovery the correct placement without my assistance. Concentration was used motivate, review concepts and build confidence. Spelling test administered revealed that ir and ar patterns are emerging but extra vowels are being inserted so extra work is still needed ex: duirt for dirt. We moved onto with “o” word sorts. Word work went smoothly and concentration with ar an ir words for review was played. Spelling test revealed silent e rule still missing ex. smock for smoke. When I asked him about it he told me the word ended in an “e” but said, “You don’t see it.” This is definitely an area that needs continued study. B and d reversals are also evident so I worked an cueing supports that he could refer to such as his fists with thumbs up and bed. We ended with a game of concentration using a few of all patterns introduced for review.

During the interest inventory, I discovered that Rylan likes rocks. For one of our read aloud books, I found How to Dig to the Other Side of the Earth. Rylan enjoyed this book and had lots of comments. We decided to write our own version of the story. I started with a story bubble map and helped Rylan fill in the bubbles with his ideas. Much of it matched the story in the book with a few variations. As he began his story, he easily forgot what he was trying to write because he was so tied up with trying to encode words for spelling. Having the story map to refer back to kept him on track. Each day we would add a sentence or two to the story. He liked this and it was not overwhelming. He even added to the story line so another bubble was added to the map so it could be inserted when needed. As with the 2minute timed drill, he started to get excited about the length of his story and started to set a goal for how long he could make it. He was very proud of his final product.

Projection:

Based on Rylan’s beginning reluctant participation, I feel that he would best benefit from small group to one-on-one settings with systematic and consistent tutoring. He would benefit from returning to the ASU Reading Clinic again in the fall semester. The mother is also willing to seek out private tutoring. If Rylan is able to receive intensive instruction to match is level of deficit for the upcoming year, Rylan could very well make 6 or more months worth of growth. This would place him just past the middle of second to end of second grade at the end of third grade.