LITERACY TUTORING PORTFOLIO

Tutor: Mary Stang

Tutee: Jacuelin

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Student Background Information...p. 3




Tests Administered..p. 4




Test Results and Observations.p. 5-7




Summary and Recommendationsp. 8-10
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PART I. STUDENT BACKGROUND INFORMATION


Identifying Data

Student: Jacuelin

School/Teacher: Greenwood Elementary School/Garrison

Chronological Age: 10 School Grade: 5
th



Reason for Referral

Jacuelins primary language at home is one other than English and therefore, some of her
background knowledge and vocabulary is limited.


Background Information

Jacuelin is a 5
th
grader who enjoys reading fiction books, mainly mystery or fantasy. She
likes school primarily because it gives her an opportunity to socialize with friends. Overall,
Jackie has a fairly positive view of reading and strives to be a strong reader. The tutoring
sessions took place in the Greenwood Elementary Library for just over an hour every
Tuesday afternoon following the regular school day.

Behavioral Observations

Jacuelin usually came to tutoring on time and was excited to read and get to work. She
works to please those around her and therefore would willingly complete the tasks asked
of her. She would occasionally try to stall, especially during the writing time, by getting off
subject and talking. However, she was always able to be redirected and would get back on
task. Occasionally, Jackie would appear to become tired toward the end of the lesson; She
become less enthused about the task at hand and put less effort into her work. However,
overall Jacuelin was typically very excited to learn and always willing to put forth her best
effort.

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PART II. TESTS ADMINISTERED


Materials and Procedures Administered

Table 1. An Overview of the Assessment Materials, Purposes, and Uses

Assessment Purpose and Use
Date of
Administration
Elementary Reading
Attitude Survey



Enables teachers to gain insight from
students on their attitude about
reading at home and in school. This
helps teachers to best reach the
specific needs of each student.
September 25, 2012
Interest Inventory Identify topics that individual
students may be most interested in.
Can be beneficial when selecting
texts that each individual student
may find appealing.
September 25, 2012
Basic Reading
Inventory (BRI)


Used to estimate a students
instructional level and allows a
teacher to gain insight into a
students reading level, strengths,
and weaknesses.
Word Lists:
October 2, 2012

Passages:
October 9, 2012
Running Records




Used to record and analyze a
readers behaviors. They provide
insight to the common errors a
reader makes and allows educators
to gauge instructional need.
October 2, 2012
October 9, 2012
October 23, 2012
October 30, 2012
November 6, 2012
November 13, 2012
Metacognitive
Awareness of Reading
Strategies Inventory



Measures readers awareness of or
perceived use of reading strategies.
Identifies strategies that they self-
report to use and also indicates
strategies they are lacking that need
to be supported or taught.
October 30, 2012
Spelling Inventory

Determine stage of spelling
development and indicates where
spelling instruction should start and
what it should entail.
November 6, 2012





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PART III. TEST RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS

Attitudes/Motivation:

Elementary Reading Attitude Survey

The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey is given to find out how students feel
about reading. The students attitude toward reading can tell a lot about how they will
behave during tutoring. Jackie and I read the statements together and she chose a
Garfield picture that displayed the emotion she displayed about the statement. Jackie
scored a 34/40 or 85% for both recreational and academic reading. This means that she
falls in the 91
st
percentile for other students her age. Overall, Jackie has a positive attitude
toward reading, both at school and at home. She loves to read out loud, to start new
books, and to choose to read during free time at school. However, reading tests make her
nervous and she is also a little hesitant to use a dictionary and try different kinds of books.

Interest Inventory

The Interest Inventory is a quick survey given to determine a students likes and
dislikes. This is used to select books and design activities that the student will be more
likely to become engaged in. Jackie read the statements out loud and wrote her
responses. Once she had finished writing down her answers, we had a more in-depth
conversation about her likes and dislikes. Jackie was really excited to discuss her interests
with me, and I was able to learn a lot about her as an individual. She really enjoys mystery
and fantasy books. She is usually confident while reading, but prefers to be modest and
would rather not be the best at reading. Jackie doesnt mind practicing her reading at
home and often does so with her two younger siblings.

Word Recognition:

Basic Reading Inventory (BRI)

The Basic Reading Inventory includes a graded word list and reading passages.
The childs ability to read the words on the list guide teachers in determining the students
reading level and where a student should begin reading passages, which will be discussed
in a later section. Jackie began reading word lists at the third grade level; two lists below
grade level, and continued until Jackie was decoding words at a frustration level.
Jackie appeared very confident in reading the graded lists, especially on the easier
lists. She read the words relatively quickly and often corrected her mistakes when asked to
go back and look at the word again. At the third grade level, Jackie read the list at 100%
accuracy. She continued to be successful with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade lists scoring
95%, 95%, and 90% respectively. Jackie began to slow down around the seventh grade
word list where she read with 75% accuracy. She requested to read the last list, eighth
grade, which was definitely a frustration level list for her. She only read this list with 65%
accuracy. Therefore, based on the BRI word list results Jackie reads at an independent
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level up until sixth grade. Sixth grade is considered instructional, seventh grade
instructional/frustration, and eighth grade is definitely frustration.

Running Records

Running Records are used to record and analyze a students reading behavior. By
looking at common errors made, it can be determined how the student commonly process
text. By recording a students miscues, repetitions, and correctly read words as theyre
reading a teacher can gather what common errors they make and make inferences about
their reading level and gain ideas for areas of instruction. The results gathered from
completing running records on Jackie were very interesting. She doesnt necessarily
struggle with reading the words on the page; therefore, she has a very high accuracy rate
and small error rate. For example, she read a section of Because of Winn-Dixie (Level R)
with 98.7 % accuracy and a section of The World According to Humphrey (Level O) with
99.6 % accuracy. While this is a very positive thing, Jackie is often times having to self-
correct or repeat herself. While reading Because of Winn-Dixie and The World According
to Humphrey, Jackie often read with a self-correction rate of 1:4 and 1:2 respectively. This
implies that to comprehend what she is reading she often has to re-read or self-correct.
During running records it has been recorded that she has paused to ask, where am I? It
has also been noted during her running records that she lacks expression while reading
and oftentimes is unaware of punctuation.

Spelling Development:

Words Their Way

The Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Inventory gives insight as to what the
childs stage of spelling development is. Each word on the test gets progressively harder
and has certain features or components a teacher can use to gauge what a child
understands about spelling and what knowledge they are lacking. Jackie spelled 20 of the
25 words correctly. She has no trouble with beginning or ending consonant sounds;
vowels, including short, long, and other; or with digraphs and blends. She also succeeded
with inflected endings, syllable junctures, and unaccented final syllables. The features
Jackie had the most trouble with were harder suffixes, including ate and ize, and bases or
roots, such as confid. According to the feature and error guide that are associated with the
spelling inventory, Jackie is currently in the Derivational Relations stage of spelling.

Reading Fluency:

Basic Reading Inventory (BRI)

While administering the passages during the Basic Reading Inventory, the child is
reading the passages aloud while the teacher is timing how long it takes them to read the
passage and making notes about mistakes or miscues. Jackie read the fifth grade passage
at 200 WPM, the sixth grade passage at 171 WPM, and the seventh grade passage at 130
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WPM. However, Jackies reading often lacked expression, and she appeared to be
inattentive to punctuation, which often resulted in awkward phrasing or the need to reread.

Comprehension:

Basic Reading Inventory (BRI)

Following each passage read during the administration of the Basic Reading
Inventory, the teacher asks a series of comprehension questions. The child is asked to
answer these to the best of their memory to determine what they actually gathered and
remember from the reading. Jackie began reading passages at the fifth grade level, the
last level for which she was reading word lists at an independent level. Jackie read the fifth
grade passage with 97% accuracy, the sixth grade passage with 96% accuracy, and the
seventh grade word list with 98% accuracy. Therefore, she read all three of these
passages at an independent or instructional level.
According to the BRI results Jackie reads and comprehends independently at the
fifth and sixth grade level. She answered comprehension questions with an accuracy of
90% and 100% respectively. However, there was a huge jump between the sixth and
seventh grade levels, which quickly showed that this was a level of frustration for her. It
became evident that Jackie understood very little of the eighth grade level passage and
only answered 3/10, 30%, of the comprehension questions correctly. Therefore Jackies
instructional level would most likely be at the sixth grade level.

Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies

The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies survey measures how a
reader thinks they use certain strategies while reading. It can be used to determine which
strategies or techniques they think they excel at, and which ones they wish they were more
confident in. Jackie read each statement aloud and then rated it on a scale of 1-5, 1 being
I have never "heard of this strategy before and 5 being I know this strategy quite well,
and I often use it when I read. When analyzing the scoring, the strategies can be broken
into three different subgroups: global reading strategies, problem-solving strategies, and
support reading strategies. Jackies results added up to be 49/60 (81.67%) for global
reading strategies, 22/35 (62.86%) for problem-solving strategies, and 30/40 (75%) for
support reading strategies. Overall Jackie rated her perception and awareness of
strategies at 111/150 (74%). This would imply that Jackie has a moderately strong level of
awareness and perceived use of reading strategies when reading academic or school-
related materials. It would also indicate that some of the strategies she has little
awareness of are problem-solving strategies.







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PART IV. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS


Summary:

Jackie is a fifth grade student at Greenwood Elementary in Des Moines who
thoroughly enjoys reading, but is currently lacking some of the background knowledge and
vocabulary needed to be successful. Through assessments and surveys, I gathered a lot
of valuable information on Jackie. She is really enthusiastic about reading and has the
ability to decode words at a level well beyond her grade level. She is also a relatively
strong speller who has mastered basic vowel and consonant sounds. Jackie is now at a
place where she can begin focusing on the more complex features of spelling, such as
unaccented final syllables.
One area of further instruction for Jackie is fluency. While it is not necessarily
detectable from looking at words per minute, it is evident when looking more closely at the
running records or at comprehension. During the running records, Jackie is often times
having to repeat herself or ask where she is in the text. Additionally, when asked to
summarize a text, she can replay it event by event but has trouble identifying which parts
of the text are actually meaningful.
In addition to this, Jackies reading rate is so rapid that she often seems to be
unaware of punctuation. This was evident in both the BRI assessment and in many of the
running records that were conducted. It often results in awkward phrasing and lack of
expression. If this concern is addressed, Jackies comprehension may also improve. The
other component of comprehension that may need to be addressed is background
knowledge and vocabulary. She is once again able to repeat what happened during the
reading, but when asked to explain this more in depth, she often times does not fully
understand what is going on.
Overall, Jackie is able to read and comprehend grade level texts. She is a strong
reader who has strong word recognition and spelling skills. To continue her development
as a reader, instruction that develops background knowledge and vocabulary would be an
asset. Additionally, instruction focused on reading rate and prosody could help her to
comprehend more difficult text. By focusing on fluency and building background
knowledge, Jackie will be better able to make inferences, connections, and find meaning
within her reading.

Recommendations:

Goals for Tutoring:

One of the major goals for Jackie is to improve fluency and prosody while reading
orally. This would hopefully allow her to begin reading with more expression, begin to
recognize the importance of punctuation, have more intentional phrasing, and slow down
while reading in order to better comprehend what is being read. Some ways to go about
achieving this goal include echo reading in which the teacher would read a page and ask
the student to echo it. Jackie would not only be echoing the words on the page, but also
the expression it is read with. Another alternative would be an activity called Say it Like
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the Character. This exercise would have Jackie practice reading sections of the text, as
she perceives the character would be speaking. The tutor or teacher should model the
process. This will allow Jackie to infer both the intonation and feelings, so she can better
express this to her listeners when reading aloud. A final way to improve fluency and
prosody while reading orally would be to utilize repeated readings. By having Jackie read a
piece of text numerous times, she can focus less on the decoding of words and more on
reading with expression and gaining meaning from the text.
Another goal for Jackie is to continue building a strong background and vocabulary
bank. She would benefit from being more comfortable asking questions when unsure
about content or a specific word. While her vocabulary is expanding, she would have
success expanding her vocabulary for use in both reading and writing. One effective way
she could work to build background is through book previews. For a student, like Jackie,
who lacks background knowledge and fundamental vocabulary, a detailed book preview is
extremely beneficial. The teacher or tutor could preview the book for Jackie. For bigger
concepts and main ideas, Jackie should receive some time to research, and become more
comfortable with the information. For smaller concepts and more minute details, all she
may really need is to engage in a dialogue or conversation about the topic. A specific way
to help Jacuelin continue to build her vocabulary is to familiarize her with how to use a
dictionary and to create a vocabulary journal. She needs to learn how to read with a pencil
in her hand. As Jackie reads, she should circle the words she doesnt know as shes being
exposed to new text. Instead of breezing over them, like she does now, or having the
instructor immediately tell her the definition, she should become comfortable with a
dictionary and look up the unknown words. Once the meaning of the word has been
identified, she can work to use it in a sentence and add it to an ongoing notebook that she
should review somewhat regularly. A portable word wall would also be of use for Jackie in
both her reading and her writing. Using her journal, she could create a folder with mini
envelopes for each letter of the alphabet. As she looks up new words she can add them to
her word bank. Then as she is reading or writing she can pull these words out and
incorporate them in her writing or even her daily vocabulary.
A final goal for Jacuelin is for her to further understand the concept of summarizing
and inference making. She needs a more concrete grasp of what the difference between
main ideas and repeating the entire text is. She can then more effectively use the concept
of main ideas to predict and infer whats coming next. There are a lot of effective ways that
Jackie and her instructors could go about achieving this goal. One of these ways would be
to underline main ideas as she is reading. If Jackie is able to visually see how much they
think is pertinent information. If they are underlining whole paragraphs, then obviously
there is a misunderstanding and not everything is the most important concept. For a
student like Jackie, she would be able to underline while reading and then go back and
highlight even less than what was underlined in the first place. Another technique that
could be used is the Top 5. Jackie would read the text and while reading write down or
brainstorm everything deemed important. After brainstorming and recording the list, she
would work to narrow the list down to the five most important events or ideas. Working with
either a peer or tutor partner, may be beneficial, because ideas that both see important are
most likely in the top 5. Another way to distinguish main idea summaries and retellings
would be by giving the summary a word limit. Jackie should be notified of how many words
she has before she begins writing. Once again she may likely need the opportunity to
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eliminate sections of the summary out or to reword points. By giving her a word limit, she
will hopefully begin to notice just how few details are needed to summarize the text and get
the main points across. Jackie would also benefit from being asked teacher or instructor
generated questions. By the instructor asking inference questions or questions that do not
have a concrete answer in the text; Jackies inference skills will begin to improve. These
questions can be based on things outside of the direct text and therefore the instructor can
ask follow-up questions, enter into a dialogue, or provide direct support. A fact versus
inference chart would be an additional activity used to support Jackies learning and
working toward the goal of improved summarizing and inference making. After reading the
text, she should create a two-column chart with one side labeled fact and the other side
inference. An instructor can use sentence strips or post-it notes to write various facts and
inferences. Jackie should then be able to determine which side of the chart the statement
should be placed on. After modeling how to do this, Jackie should then be able to add her
own statements to the chart.
Jacuelin is definitely on the right track when it comes to being a successful reader.
She has the motivation, interest, and dedication necessary to truly make significant strides
in her reading and also that make her a joy to work with. These activities will only continue
to benefit Jackie and help develop her fluency and prosody, background knowledge and
vocabulary, and ability to distinguish between summary and retelling.