XXXXXXX

April 21, 2012

University of Maryland Summer Reading Program

Report of Initial Screening
To: El
Re
:

Results of Initial Screening for XXXXXXX

Current Grade Level:

Date of Testing:
Examiner
:

Kindergarten

4/21/12

Carolyn Wooster

The attached report resulted from a diagnostic screening conducted at the

University of Maryland. All information should be supplemented by other data such as
teacher and parent observations, school records, and other individual testing.
Summary of Results
Student Interview
The examiner began the screening session by asking XXXXXXX about his
reading interests, preferences, and experiences. XXXXXXX willingly responded to each
question and shared information. He had a great deal of energy and discussed his life and
passions enthusiastically during the student interview. XXXXXXX reported that he
loves, loves, loves playing outside in his back yard, and his favorite part about school
was playtime and recess. XXXXXXX preferred outdoor activities to being inside, saying
that one gets bored inside and your brain freezes and you get dumber and stupider.
XXXXXXX exhibited a positive self-concept of himself as a student. When he
was asked if he was a good reader he responded, Yeah, Im smart. XXXXXXX
reported that he plans to be the president when he grows up, like Barack Obama.
XXXXXXX did not, however, display a particular interest in reading. For example, he
did not feel that reading would be important to his future presidential aspirations, saying
Presidents dont read! XXXXXXX could not identify any authors or types of books
that were of interest to him, and he could not recall anything noteworthy taking place
during reading time at his school. XXXXXXX did report that his mom reads library
books with him at home before bed. He said that he likes reading at nighttime, but not
during the daytime.
XXXXXXX reported that the hardest part about reading was having to read for a
whole twenty minutes, and, throughout various activities during the evaluation, it did
seem that sustaining XXXXXXXs interest in a text for an extended period of time would
be a challenge. XXXXXXX claimed that, after such a long period of reading, he would
1

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
get a little tired about it and his brain would get a little dumber because he wanted to
go outside and do something!
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IV (Fourth Edition)
The PPVT-IV is a standardized, norm-referenced assessment of an individuals
receptive (listening) vocabulary. Receptive vocabulary refers to the words that an
individual understands when they are spoken by another person. These words may not be
used by the individual in her/her own speech (expressive vocabulary) or recognized in
print (sight vocabulary). However, the score on the PPVT-IV, because it represents what
the individual understands, can serve as an indicator of the potential reading level. To
complete this assessment, the examiner pronounces a word while the student examines
four pictures and chooses the one that corresponds to the words spoken by the examiner.
XXXXXXX moved through the PPVT quickly, seeming to approach the exercise
with a mindset that speed, rather than accuracy, was the objective. As time progressed
and the pictures become harder to differentiate, XXXXXXX sometimes seemed to just
point at the first picture that caught his eye, rather than searching for the accurate one.
Nevertheless, XXXXXXXs raw score on the PPVT was 117, which can be converted to
percentile rank of 82. This indicates that he scored as well or better than 82% of students
his own age who took the test. His score has an age-equivalent of seven years and one
month. XXXXXXXs receptive vocabulary knowledge is above average for his age.
Letter Recognition Assessment
Given XXXXXXXs developmental level as a kindergartener, we began by
administering a Letter Recognition Assessment. XXXXXXX was given two sheets
displaying all of the letters of the alphabet (in non-alphabetical order). One sheet
contained uppercase letters while the other displayed lowercase. The evaluator slid a card
under each letter and asked XXXXXXX to read it.
XXXXXXX quickly identified the letters. He identified the lowercase letters with
100% accuracy. He made one error in the uppercase assessment, substituting a Z for the
letter V. It seemed likely that this error was a result of the speed with which XXXXXXX
was reading, rather than a true deficit in his letter recognition ability.
Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 1
The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 1 is an individually
administered reading assessment that provides information about a childs fluency,
comprehension, and processing strategies. During the assessment, the child reads aloud a
leveled benchmark book while the examiner records reading behaviors and processing
strategies. After reading, the child engages in a comprehension task. Based on the childs
performance, the examiner repeats the process with a lower or higher leveled book. The
assessment is used to determine a childs independent and instructional reading levels.
Children reading below the set benchmark for their grade level are often identified for
intervention and remediation.
As XXXXXXX was a Kindergartener, we started with the Beginning word list.
XXXXXXX correctly identified all of the words in the Beginning list, List 1 and List 2.

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
He pronounced twisted as twist on List 3, but he proceeded to correctly identify all
words in List 4, the final list in the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 1.
Based on his performance, XXXXXXX started reading at a Level N (Grade 3).
However, when he began reading the book, XXXXXXX started mumbling inaudibly and
skipping incoherently around in the text. The evaluator interpreted these behaviors to
indicate that XXXXXXX was reading a text well beyond his comfort level, so she
dropped back to a Level I (end of Grade 1).
The Level I story is about a boy named Spencer who wanted a cat and went to a
farm with his family to pick one out. Spencer was not having luck connecting with the
right cat until, in the end, a cat looked up at Spencer and ended up choosing him.
XXXXXXX displayed the same reading behaviors at Level I as he had at Level
N, so the evaluator stopped him. She provided XXXXXXX with a paper to help him keep
his place, and she directed him to speak slowly, loudly, and clearly.
Even with these tools and prompts, it was often difficult to hear XXXXXXXs
reading and get an accurate understanding of his miscues. It seemed that, whenever
XXXXXXX encountered challenges in the text, his voice dropped to an inaudible level.
It appeared that XXXXXXX made 12 errors in his reading, resulting in an
accuracy rate of 95%. Most of XXXXXXXs errors were omissions or insertions that
seemed to result from his fast reading rate and his failure to focus on the lines of written
text. The substitutions that XXXXXXX did make usually maintained the intended
meaning of the text. For example, he read Many animals lived on the farm as Many
animals lived there; and There were cows and horses in the fields as There were
cows, horses, and fields.
Some of XXXXXXXs errors maintained the meaning of the text, but they did not
make sense grammatically. For example, he read It is hard work to take care of a cat as
Its a hard work to take care of a cat. XXXXXXX engaged in very little decoding
activity to sound out words as he read; he seemed to recognize the words in the text
automatically.
Next, XXXXXXX completed the comprehension task which consists of a
conference with the examiner about the text. The conference focuses on information
within, beyond, and about the book. XXXXXXX exhibited satisfactory comprehension of
the story. He was able to accurately retell the important events in the text, and he
correctly identified the storys problem and solution.
XXXXXXXs greatest comprehension difficulty was with questions that required
him to talk about the text itself. One question, in particular, required XXXXXXX to go
back and refer to a page of the book. XXXXXXX did not go back and locate evidence to
support an answer. Also, while XXXXXXX correctly identified the important ideas of the
book, he was unable to elaborate upon or explain his ideas, choosing instead to repeat his
original answer over and over.
XXXXXXXs biggest challenge in reading the story was his fluency. XXXXXXX
read with very little expression or intonation. This expressionless reading not only limits
XXXXXXXs ability to convey the storys meaning to a listener; it also limits
XXXXXXXs ability to make sense of the reading within his own head. XXXXXXXs
reading rate was incredibly variable. He would race through reading some of the text,
while at other times he would seemingly pause his reading altogether. XXXXXXX
frequently repeated words or phrases.
3

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
XXXXXXX sometimes attended to the phrasing indicated by the punctuation, but
at other times he did not. XXXXXXXs fluency seemed to be impacted by an inability to
focus his attention on the sequence of words on the page; his focus would shift from one
line to a different section of the text, to the illustration, or to something else in the room
completely separate from the book.
Writing Sample
The examiners form for each book includes a writing prompt that may be used to
further assess a students comprehension as well as writing skills. XXXXXXX wrote
about the Level I fiction text in response to the prompt, Write about Spencer and how he
found the best cat. You can draw a picture to go with your writing.
After adamantly asserting that he had no interest in drawing a picture,
XXXXXXXs main focus in producing the writing sample was a desire to get it done
quickly. He took no time to plan his work or compose his thoughts before rattling off his
response:
spencer wanteD ac at
When probed by the evaluator to think about the prompt and provide more details,
XXXXXXX added:
a cat LookeD at him
At this point, further prompting did not produce any more writing from
XXXXXXX.
XXXXXXXs writing displays a strong command of spelling conventions, as
every word in his sample is spelled correctly. However, XXXXXXXs word choice is
very limited. His language is unimaginative and lifeless, particularly for a student who
displayed such a rich vocabulary in oral conversations and in his performance on the
PPVT.
XXXXXXX conveyed a sense of appropriate sentence structure by separating his
two sentences with a large white space. Each sentence was grammatically correct.
However, XXXXXXX did not utilize any mechanical conventions of uppercase letters or
punctuation to separate his sentences. He also displayed some errors with capitalizing
letters within words (D in wanted and L and D in looked), and he did not always use
spacing to separate words (ac at instead of a cat).
XXXXXXXs writing did convey a clear understanding of two essential events in
the story. However, XXXXXXX did not fully develop his ideas. He did not elaborate to
explain the importance of the cat looking at Spencer.
Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA)
The Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) is an assessment that provides
detailed information about a students orthographic knowledge. The assessment includes
a screening inventory of 20 words and four feature inventories. The purpose of the
4

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
screening inventory is to identify the appropriate feature inventory or inventories to
administer. Each feature inventory contains 25 words and focuses on a different stage of
spelling development (see chart below). To administer the inventories, the examiner reads
aloud a word, a sentence containing the word, and lastly, the word again while the student
writes the word on paper. Afterwards, the examiner analyzes the spellings and determines
the students instructional stage of spelling development.
Stage
Letter Name (LN)
Within Word
(WW)
Syllable Juncture
(SJ)
Derivational
Constancy (DC)

Focus
Single syllable words with consonants
and short vowels
Single syllable words with long and
ambiguous vowels and complex
consonants
Compound words, inflectional
endings, and words with at least two
syllables
Prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and
Latin Roots

Sample Words
bat, trip
cake, look
present, jumped
telegraph,
autograph

XXXXXXX displayed an inquisitive outlook throughout the administration of the

DSA, interjecting with a question or comment about every single word that was
presented. When XXXXXXX was unsure of how to spell a word, he would matter-offactly ask the evaluator How do you spell that? However, after being prompted to try
his best on his own, XXXXXXX proved to be very strategic in his spelling. He would say
unfamiliar words slowly, sound out the parts he knew, and adjust words if they did not
look right.
During the administration of the initial screening inventory, XXXXXXX spelled
eight of the twenty words correctly. Based on these results, we began XXXXXXXs
feature inventories with the Within Word Pattern (WWP) Stage. Spellers at the WWP
stage have mastered letter sounds and short-vowel patterns. They can correctly spell most
single-syllable, short vowel words as well as consonant blends, digraphs, and
preconsonantal nasals. During the WWP spelling stage, spellers begin to include complex
consonants when spelling. They also begin to look closer at vowel patterns within singlesyllable words. They are learning common long-vowel patterns, r-controlled vowel
patterns, and ambiguous vowels.
XXXXXXX was given the Within Word Pattern Stage Feature Inventory. His
overall Stage Score was 18 as he correctly spelled 18 of the 25 words. XXXXXXXs
individual feature scores in the WWP stage were as follows:

Long Vowels: V-Consonant-E= 5/5

R-Controlled Vowel Patterns = 4/5
Other Common Long Vowel Patterns = 4/5
Complex Consonant Units (scr, qu, ck) = 2/5
Ambiguous Vowels: Digraphs/Dipthongs = 3/5

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
Analysis of these results demonstrated, first of all, that XXXXXXX is successfully
using the vowel-consonant-e long vowel pattern (smoke, grape) in his writing. He is
usually using, but sometimes confusing, common long vowel patterns (steep, coast, least)
and r-controlled vowel patterns (girl, hurt).
XXXXXXX will need the most instruction with complex consonant units and
ambiguous vowels. He used complex consonant units correctly sometimes (patch and
flock), but confused them other times (spelling bridge as bigde and coast as cost). He
also used ambiguous vowels correctly sometimes (correctly spelling stood, frown and
yawn), but confused them other times (spelling point as ponit).
XXXXXXX will require additional instruction and practice to help him consistently
use the features of the WWP spelling stage.
General Observations
Observed Reading Strengths

Based on

Word Recognition

Fountas and Pinnell

Benchmark Assessment

Vocabulary

PPVT

Spelling

DSA and Writing Sample

Observed Reading Needs

Focus and Attention

Based on
Student Interview, Fountas
and Pinnell Benchmark
Assessment

Fluency

Fountas and Pinnell

Benchmark Assessment

Writing

Writing Sample

Recommendations for Instruction

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
The following suggestions are based upon the University of Maryland screening
procedures. Each school will need to make appropriate program decisions reflecting the
additional information available to it beyond the information provided here. The initial
screening indicated that the student might benefit from instruction in the following areas.
1. XXXXXXX needs many opportunities to hear models of fluent oral reading.
Consistently hearing others model fluent reading will help XXXXXXX to read
fluently himself. XXXXXXX should have daily opportunities to hear books read
aloud to him in a clear and expressive manner by fluent adult readers. He could
also benefit from utilizing technology to hear additional fluent reading by hearing
books read aloud on websites like www.tumblebooks.com or
www.storylineonline.net.
2. Readers Theatre is an engaging activity that can help XXXXXXX to read with
expression and clarity because he will be presenting to an authentic audience. In
this activity, children read aloud play scripts in small groups. This allows students
to practice what they are reading and to act it out. During Readers theater,
XXXXXXX and his peers should have a choice of plays or poems on their
independent level to choose from. They should practice their lines repeatedly and
make sure they sound the way the character would. After practicing their roles,
they can produce their play and present it to their class or another nearby class.
3. Interactive Writing would help XXXXXXX to learn about the conventions of
print. In interactive writing, the teacher and children write aloud and together.
After choosing and discussing a topic, the teacher begins to write and invites
students to come up to add words or phrases. As children write, the teacher
provides information and feedback about composing, expression, and
conventions. Important areas of focus for interactive writing with XXXXXXX
would be appropriate use of upper and lowercase letters, appropriate use of
punctuation, appropriate spacing between words, and elaboration upon ideas.
XXXXXXX can then be guided to transfer these lessons to his independent
writing.
Recommendations for Home
XXXXXXX has been referred to the University of Maryland Summer Reading Program.
You will be contacted in the spring of 2012 concerning details of the Summer Reading
Program sessions. While your child awaits further assistance from our program, you may
find it helpful to do some of the following activities at home.
1. XXXXXXXs inquisitive nature and interpersonal connections have served him
well in his reading development thus far. He has a solid vocabulary and a large
bank of automatic sight words, and he is skilled at engaging others in
conversations that will advance his vocabulary and his knowledge. It would be
wise to capitalize on XXXXXXXs interests and continue building the
7

XXXXXXX
April 21, 2012
background knowledge that has aided his development thus far. XXXXXXX
needs many opportunities to learn through play and build his understanding of
science and the outdoors. Extracurricular activities like Boy Scouts or recreational
sports may be helpful in continuing to develop XXXXXXXs interests and
increase his knowledge about the world.
2.

In addition to hearing daily models of fluent oral reading, XXXXXXX also needs
daily opportunities to practice fluent oral reading himself. XXXXXXX should
read aloud to someone every day. Sometimes this may involve reading a story to
his younger sister or even his dog. Other times, XXXXXXX should read aloud to
a fluent adult who can prompt him to read clearly and expressively and model this
behavior for him.

3. Provide XXXXXXX with a choice, purpose, and audience for writing in

authentic contexts on a regular basis. For example, XXXXXXX could write a
letter to a relative or friend, a card for a neighbor, a menu for dinner, an
instruction guide for playing his favorite game, or a journal entry about something
fun he did when playing outside recently. While XXXXXXX will be more
motivated to write when he has his choice of audience and purpose, we would
recommend establishing a predictable routine and timeframe for XXXXXXX to
write at home a couple of days a week. This will help XXXXXXX to see writing
as a routine activity that he can prepare for and enjoy.