Rachael Somes EDU 744 Case Study Part One-Student Prole

After completing the beginning portion of this exercise and writing the names of

my current students on a piece of paper and taking a few moments to write down what I know about each of them as readers, I realized a number of different things. First of all, I feel fortunate to be a part of a school where monthly data collection points for reading are collected, evaluated and continuously updated on the school-wide literacy wall to chart student growth. Each month regular running records are taken on each student. Throughout the year this equates to nine data collection points. Teachers in each grade level turn in data and current reading levels for all of our students on a monthly basis. Once a week, in PLC team meetings, we meet to discuss these students in our vertically assembled teams. The student that I have chosen to write about is one that has continuously been the topic of conversation in our K, 1 & 2 weekly PLC meetings. As our team meets and strategizes, we have found that there are certain characteristics that this reader has that have stumped us on a number of occasions. Because our PLC team is a vertically assembled team, as mentioned above, this means that I have the luxury of meeting regularly with this particular students previous teachers. This was especially helpful in the beginning of the school year as I was rst getting to know this new, young reader. Student Prole: *name of student has been changed *Elizabeth is a student that is currently in the second grade. She is currently receiving reading recovery ve days a week for 60 minutes a day. She also received reading recovery in the second half of her rst grade year of school and did not discontinue from the program so therefore was eligible to continue services in grade two. This totals, to date, approximately 10 months of reading recovery, one-on-one service. Elizabeth is currently reading at a level K/20 as measured by her most current monthly running record in which she is reading at 95% accuracy. The benchmark for this point in the second grade school year (early spring) is a M/28. She entered her
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second grade school year at a level I/15-16. It is noted that Elizabeths reading abilities have not become yet consistent. She has some on days, and some off days. Elizabeths reading strategies have not yet become automatic and she at times uses words in the text that do not make any sense thus impacting comprehension of the text. Beginning sound use is being used by Elizabeth on an automatic basis yet word endings and decoding are causing many of her errors as seen on the monthly running records collected. She is also having a very difcult time with long and short vowel usage and this is the cause for many reading errors as well. Elizabeth is using her re reading strategy and at times in able to self correct but many times requires prompting to do this. Just lately the teachers have noticed Elizabeth using different coping skills such as mumbling or whisper reading over tricky words when she arrives at them in the text. The reading recovery teacher has also noted that there has been some resistance to reading during the reading recovery sessions and at times Elizabeth has gotten upset and teared up at books that she deems too hard even though they may be books that she has worked on and been successful at in the past. This student has a very solid home life. Both mom and dad are working hard with the teachers to help Elizabeth make gains. Reading at home is a top priority each night and daily reading logs reect this work. It has been stated by the parents that on most nights reading time is met with abstinent behavior from Elizabeth and she puts up a ght and sulks when it is time to begin. The classroom teacher has also noted that Elizabeths awareness that she is needing extra help with reading is starting to get in the way of progress. Elizabeth is a very social girl with a close knit group of friends. She is the only one in her group of friends that is receiving extra support and this is beginning to impact her enthusiasm for receiving the help with her reading. She is starting to become very aware of the social piece and being a different learner than her best friends. One of Elizabeths greatest strengths and enjoyments is writing. She often writes during free time and enjoys creating stories. She especially enjoys creating readers theater scripts with friends. Her writings and writing ability are at grade level and are approaching the exceeding column on the district rubric for what is expected at the end
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of each quarter. Since reading and writing usually follow a similar lineage (with in most cases the writing lagging just a bit behind the reading as gains are made) it is interesting that Elizabeths writing ability is so much more advanced than her current reading ability. Out of school, Elizabeth has a passion for horses. She is fortunate enough to own a horse and rides regularly. She also loves fashion, music, pop culture, and is big Justin Beibers number one fan.