Kaitlin Jenkins

November 12, 2014

ELD 308

Case Study

I.

Introduction
Max is 9 years old and attends Millstone River School. He is a 4th grade student in
Mrs. MacNamaras class. He lives at home with his mother, father, and older brother. He
loves soccer and has practice several times a week. He enjoys being active and playing
outside. He also likes to play video games with his friends after school. He wishes he did
not have as much homework, so he could spend more time having fun.
In the classroom Max is usually not paying attention to Mrs. MacNamara. Instead of

focusing on a particular lesson, he frequently plays with his pencil or talks to his friends.
Max reports that he does not enjoy school very much. He does not like reading and he
particularly dislikes writing. However, he does enjoy math.
On October 9, 2014 Max completed a Reading Interest Survey. He mentioned he
enjoys to read realistic fiction and fantasy books. He also described three things good readers
do: they predict before they read the next chapter, find books that have an interesting lead,
and ask themselves fat questions. In order to become a better reader this year, Max would
like to be able to predict, infer, and really think about the book he is reading. On the same
day Max also completed the Garfield Writing Attitude Survey. Max scored in the 18th
percentile, which indicates he has an indifferent attitude about writing. For many of his
responses he circled the very upset Garfield and even chuckled while filling out the survey.
After reviewing Maxs responses from the Garfield Writing Attitude Survey, I felt it was
necessary to provide Max with another writing survey to learn more information. Therefore,

Max also completed the Student Writing Attitude Survey. Max mentioned how he does not
like to write stories at home or at school. He also mentioned how writing is not fun and he
does not like to share his writing with others. Interestingly, Max indicated it is very
important to know how to write well. Perhaps Max is aware of the importance of being able
to write well because of the Writers Workshop structure he is exposed to by Mrs.
MacNamara.
II.

Independent Reading Conference

On October 28, 2014 Max was asked to read a chapter from Stay Out of the
Basement by R.L. Stine. This book is considered a Level Q. Max chose this book
because Halloween was a few days away and he wanted to read a scary story. Max
appeared motivated to read the chapter because he had a smile on his face. When I
asked him if he was excited to read, he mentioned how he was excited to read
because he was able to choose the book. This was the first time I saw Max excited
about reading.
Based on his enthusiasm, I quickly told Max to begin reading and as he read I
recorded his oral reading miscues. Then, a brief comprehension check was taken. In
terms of comprehension, Max was able to report the main characters in the chapter
and where the story took place. He discussed how the characters went in the
basement and the different items they found. He also said the characters should have
stayed out of the basement, as the title suggests. All of Maxs contributions were
very literal and could be found directly in the text. He did not try to predict or infer
any other information based on what he read.

In terms of word recognition, Max read with 96% accuracy because he had 4
miscues while reading. Max skipped over a few words he did not know and
continued reading instead of trying to figure out the words. When Max came to a
difficult word at one point while reading, he looked up at me to tell him what the
word was. I shook my head and told him to try and figure it out. Rather than using a
strategy to figure out the word, he again skipped over the word and continued
reading. Since he had only 96% accuracy and was only able to comprehend very
basic information from the chapter, it is possible Max should be independently
reading at a Level P instead of Level Q. When I asked whether the book was difficult
to read, Max reported that he thinks the book is just-right for him. Interestingly, my
data indicate the book is not just-right for Max.
In terms of the way Max read the chapter, he was able to read fluently and had
good phrasing. He also was able to recognize most of the words automatically. Max
was invested in the entire chapter, for he maintained stamina until the last word of the
chapter. In addition, Max also had good intonation when reading dialogue versus
narrative. Overall, he was able to read fairly accurately, but had difficulty
comprehending the text.
III.

Directed Reading Assessment

On October 28, 2014 I administered the Directed Reading Assessment at Level Q.
Max is reading at the 4th grade level. Mrs. MacNamara tested Max in the beginning
of the year and he was independently reading at Level Q, therefore she was curious to
know whether Max was ready to move to Level R. In order to determine Maxs
current reading level, he read an excerpt from Old People, Frogs, and Albert by

Nancy Hope Wilson. Maxs accuracy rate was at 97%, for he had 3 miscues. His
miscues included skipping over words or adding in words that were not in the text. At
this time, Mrs. MacNamara says Max is a Level Q. However, his instructional
reading level should be Level P because he has difficulty comprehending Level Q
texts. Although Maxs accuracy rate is satisfactory for Level Q, Level Q books do not
fit his independent reading level because his comprehension is poor. Since Max is
unable to comprehend Level Q texts well, his frustrational reading level is Level R.
In terms of word recognition Max was able to read almost every word in the text.
Unfortunately, similar to his reading behavior during the independent reading
conference, Max continues to skip over words he does not know. By skipping over
words he does not know he is not entirely understanding what the author has written
and he is not increasing his vocabulary. Based on my observations, Max needs to
learn strategies for decoding words and their meanings to become a stronger reader.
As a result, his comprehension will improve.
In terms of fluency Max was able to read the words at an accurate and steady
pace. He also used an expressive tone while reading. Maxs intonation varied
depending on whether he was reading dialogue or narrative. He paused when he saw
a comma in a sentence and also at the end of a sentence.
In terms of comprehension Max had an incredibly difficult time summarizing the
story. He pointed out the main character and small details that were not important to
the overall point of the text. After each statement he made regarding the text, he
appeared to need reassurance that what he was saying was accurate. He did not seem
confident in his summary. Max continued to struggle answering the comprehension

questions. He was only able to answer one literal question and was unable to answer
the second literal questions and both inferential questions. In particular, Max had
trouble providing a response to the inferential questions. The inferential questions
asked Max to consider the main characters change in feelings throughout the passage
and why he shout out bad news received. Max was unsure of what to say for these
questions and provided answers that could not be inferred from the text. Although
Maxs accuracy rate was 97% and he read with fluency, since he was not able to
answer at least three comprehension questions or retell the important things that
happened in the text, it is recommended he move to an easier text at Level P.
IV.

Writing Sample
On October 30, 2014 Max was asked to write about an important moment that
recently took place in his life. This writing piece was Mrs. MacNamaras way to
begin the Personal Narrative unit. Based on Maxs responses in the Student Writing
Attitude Survey and the Garfield Writing Attitude Survey, I anticipated Max would
not be motivated to write. As I predicted Max did not want to write when Mrs.
MacNamaras gave the students time to begin their writing in class. Mrs. MacNamara
conferenced with Max to brainstorm a list of moments he could write about. Once
Max realized he could write about his most recent soccer game he was excited about
writing. He rushed back to his desk and said, Finally something I want to write
about! I could not wait to read what Max wrote and examined his work soon after
he was finished.
When reviewing Maxs writing sample, in terms of content he included dialogue
with instead of said words and his ideas sequenced the order of events that took

place. His writing was well organized and easy to follow. While Maxs writing was
organized, he did not elaborate on his ideas. Once he began to describe a particular
moment or feeling, he quickly moved on to the next idea. Max could have been
overall more descriptive, so that the reader could visualize the soccer game as if they
were Max in that moment. Although Max was not very descriptive, he included how
he was feeling at different parts of the soccer game by using similes, which made his
story more relatable.
In terms of mechanics Max used appropriate punctuation including commas,
periods, and quotation marks. His sentence structure varied by length and point of
view. Point of view varied from first person, his thoughts, to third person, a soccer
player from his team. In his writing, Max did not separate his ideas by paragraphs,
for his entire writing sample is one paragraph. He also did not use transition words
when moving to a new idea/event.
In terms of spelling Max only misspelled a few words. The words he misspelled
did not include one or two letters, which in this case were vowel sounds. Max is a
transitional speller, for he considers not only how a word sounds, but also what it
looks like.
On September 5, 2014 Mrs. MacNamara administered a spelling test from Word
Journeys by Kathy Ganske. Max received perfect scores on the prior stages, WW and
LN; therefore the spelling test was given to assess Max at the SJ Stage. Out of
twenty-five words, Max incorrectly spelled seven words. According to the scoring
sheet, Max does not have difficulty with words that include doubling and e-Drop with
ed & ing and R-Controlled Vowels (Stressed Syllable). However, Max has difficulty

with words that have other syllable juncture doubling and unstressed syllable vowel
patterns. His difficulties are represented in the following list of words he spelled
incorrectly; he spelled pilot as piolt, circus as ciurcus, baggage as bagage, fountain as
fauntin, salute as solute, minnow as minno, and compete as compeet.
V.

Summary
After conducting several informal assessments, Maxs strengths as a reader are his
fluency and intonation. He is able to read accurately at a steady pace and with an
expressive tone. Max has the most difficulty with comprehension, in particular with
inferring while he reads. Max is unable to go beyond the literal meaning of a text to
derive what is not there but implied (Fountas and Pinnell, 2001 p.317). To further
develop his skills as a reader, Max should be encouraged to construct theories that
explain how characters behave or plot unfolds and consider how characters feel even
though the author may not have explicitly written about the characters feelings
(Fountas and Pinnell, 2001 p. 319). In addition to teaching Max how to infer as he
reads, he also needs to learn about general reading comprehension strategies. As
Davey, B., & McBride, S. (1986) suggest, reading comprehension strategies include:
locating the main idea, finding key facts, writing a gist sentence, and generating
questions. If Mrs. MacNamara teaches Max these strategies, his reading
comprehension and ability to infer will improve.
He also struggles with summarization after reading a text. Max should be
encouraged to select important information after reading and bring together in a
concise report and relate important ideas, events, details, or other information related
to comprehending the whole text (Fountas and Pinnell, 2001 p. 317). Mrs.

MacNamara should teach Max ways to summarize texts to help his reading
comprehension.
An important point to remember is reading and writing go hand-in-hand. One way
Max can become a better reader as well as writer is to write about what he reads.
Researchers Graham and Hebert (2010) found that asking students to write about
texts they read, explicitly teaching writing skills and processes, and having students
write more improves reading skills and comprehension. Considering Max prefers
reading over writing, if he found books he was interested in, he could be motivated to
write about the books he enjoys.
Maxs strengths as a writer are sequencing his ideas and conveying his emotions
at a particular time. However, he has difficulty elaborating his ideas and writing
descriptively. To further develop his skills as a writer, Max should be encouraged to
describe a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader's
mind. Capturing an event through descriptive writing involves paying close attention
to the details by using all of your five senses (Descriptive writing). One of the ways
Mrs. MacNamara can help improve Maxs use of description in his writing could be
to model descriptive writing used in other texts. By exposing Max to literature that
has descriptive writing and showing him what descriptive writing looks like, he can
use other texts as a model for his writing. Maxs writing will become stronger
because as he is exposed to and tries descriptive writing, he will also elaborate what
he writes. If given the appropriate strategies and skills mentioned above, Max has the
potential to become a strong reader and writer.

References
Davey, B., & McBride, S. (1986). Effects of question-generation training on reading
comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 256-262.
Descriptive writing. (n.d.). Retrieved from Reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.
org/strategies/descriptive_writing
Fountas, I.C. and Pinnell, G.S. (2001). Guiding readers and writers. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Graham, S., & Hebert. M. (2010). Writing to read: A meta-analysis of the impact of writing and
writing instruction on reading. Harvard Educational Review. 81 (4).