Running Head: CASE STUDY REPORT FINDINGS LETTERS

Case Study Report Findings for Parents and Administrators

Daniel Coffin
Concordia University, Nebraska

Submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for EDUC 630
October 12th, 2016

Amanda and Eric Ruple

Daniel Coffin

CASE STUDY REPORT FINDINGS LETTERS

620 College Drive
Wenonah, NJ 08090

2
3 Concord Court
Turnersville, NJ 08012
October 12th, 2016

Dear parents,
Over the course of this case study, Ayden has made significant strides in the areas of
concern we identified at the beginning of our time together; namely, recognizing the connections
between letters and the sounds they represent, recognizing sight words, reading aloud with
appropriate phrasing and intonation, and using strategies like making connections and retelling to
improve his understanding of his reading.
At the beginning of this case study, Ayden would frequently confuse letters and the
sounds they represented. This would cause him to mispronounce words in his reading and
misspell words in his writing. This skill is called phonological recoding and is an important
precursor to successful reading.
Through letter drills, practice with word families, and hands-on activities with flash cards
and sound boxes, Ayden has made important progress in this skill, going from 27 correct letter
sounds in our initial assessment to 39 in our final assessment.
In our diagnostic assessment, Ayden scored 27 of 41 correct in a kindergarten sight word
assessment. This finding indicated that Ayden was having a hard time recognizing and decoding
common words quickly and easily, which would make reading a grueling chore even if Ayden
did not also have problems decoding text using his phonics skills.
With practice with flash cards, meaningful use of sight words in original writing, and calling
attention to the presence of sight words in our reading together, Ayden has not only achieved
mastery of kindergarten sight words, Ayden was able, by the end of our time together, to achieve
a score of 35 out of 40 words correct on the 1st grade sight words list, and this only a few months
into the school year. This is a very important achievement for Ayden.
At the beginning of this case study, Ayden read aloud only reluctantly, and when he did, with
several breaks and pauses which did not correspond to punctuation in the text. This caused him
to struggle to follow along and understand his reading, and made it difficult for a listener to
understand what he was saying. Not only did his disfluency negatively affect his reading
comprehension, it also seriously affected the way Ayden perceived the act of reading itself.
Ayden frequently described reading as stupid or boring. By his own admission, he would not
read of his own volition, and you recounted how he would fight against being made to read in a
school setting. As Ayden continued to develop his reading skills, he expressed a greater
appreciation for reading, and started to enjoy showing off his reading skills. I was gratified to
hear of how he enjoyed reading Bible passages aloud for his friends at Sunday School. By our
final assessment, Ayden was able to score 24 words correct with 92% accuracy on his Oral
Reading Fluency assessment.
Finally, Aydens ability at the beginning of this case study to remember and understand his
reading was hampered not only by his difficulties in processing text fluently, but also by his lack
of strategies which would aid comprehension. Even in those instances when Ayden would read a
piece of text fluently, he often struggled to recall was what read or be able to explain what it
meant.

CASE STUDY REPORT FINDINGS LETTERS

With lots of modeling and practice and the use of graphic organization techniques like KW-L (Know-Want to Know-Learned) charts, first-then-last organizers to structure retelling, and
semantic mapping, Ayden has strengthened his ability to figure out what matters most in a text
and be able to share that information with another.
Through practice of comprehension strategies like making connections between his reading
and his life and the people and things around him and retelling stories and information text, as
well as practice in when to employ these strategies, Ayden has grown as a reader who makes
meaning of the things he reads. His retelling of stories has also fueled his enthusiasm for his own
storytelling.
Aydens handwriting is compromised by some fine motor difficulties for which he is
currently receiving occupational therapy from his school. I was pleased to see that this did not
dampen his delight in creating stories about those things he enjoys most wrestling,
Transformers, and Star Wars. Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin and
improvements in one domain often reflect in improvements in the other. I could tell that Aydens
work on retelling helped lead to developments in Aydens writing as his stories became more
ordered and detailed.
While my case study has come to a close, I have shared, at your request, my findings with
Aydens teacher, who has agreed to continue some of these interventions as part of her language
arts instruction. Ayden has come a long way in a very short time and I feel very confident that he
will continue to make great progress as the year carries on. His enthusiasm and good humor were
very much appreciated in what was a challenging process for both Ayden and I. I feel very
fortunate that I was able to get to know him better. Thank you for agreeing to allow me to work
with him as part of this case study.
Very sincerely yours,

Daniel Coffin

CASE STUDY REPORT FINDINGS LETTERS

Christa Hahn, Principal
Camdens Pride Charter School
879 Beideman Avenue
Camden, NJ 08105

4
Daniel Coffin
3 Concord Court
Turnersville, NJ 08012
October 12th, 2016

Dear Ms. Hahn,

Over the course of this case study, I have been very happy to see my student make significant
strides in the area of concern I identified at the beginning of our time together, namely,
recognizing the connections between letters and the sounds they represent, recognizing sight
words, reading aloud with appropriate phrasing and intonation, and using strategies like making
connections and retelling to improve his understanding of his reading. My close work with this
student has been an excellent opportunity for me to learn to diagnose, administer intervention,
and assess both formatively and summatively the efficacy of that intervention.
As Beers (2003) notes, a failure to successfully read independently can be due to a number of
different factors, ranging from phonology to phonics to fluency to vocabulary to comprehension,
or any combination of the same. To determine my students needs, I administered the DIBELS
(Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) and Dolch Sight Word assessments. The
results were as follows: 27 correct letter sounds on Nonsense Word Fluency, 27 of 41 correctly
identified sight words on the Dolch kindergarten list, 19 words correct and 84% accuracy on
DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency, and 9 on DIBELS Retell Fluency.
These data indicated that my student needed targeted assistance with phonological recoding,
recognizing sight words, reading with appropriate phrasing and intonation, and developing
strategies to aid in reading comprehension.
As phonics and phonemic awareness comprise the foundation for later literacy learning, this
is where I began preparing my intervention (DeVries, 2015). At the beginning of this case study,
my student would frequently confuse letters and the sounds they represented, which would cause
him to mispronounce words in his reading and misspell words in his writing. This skill is called
phonological recoding and is an important precursor to successful reading.
Through letter drills, practice with word families, and hands-on activities with flash cards
and sound boxes, my student has made important progress in this skill, going from 27 correct
letter sounds in our initial assessment to 39 in our final assessment (Caldwell & Leslie, 2013).
In our diagnostic assessment, my student scored 27 of 41 correct in a kindergarten sight word
assessment. This finding indicated that my student was having a hard time recognizing and
decoding common words quickly and easily, which would make reading a grueling chore even if
my student did not also have problems decoding text using his phonics skills.
With practice with flash cards, meaningful use of sight words in original writing, and calling
attention to the presence of sight words in our reading together, my student has not only achieved
mastery of kindergarten sight words, he was able to achieve a score of 35 out of 40 words correct
on the 1st grade sight words list (Caldwell & Leslie, 2013).
At the beginning of this case study, my student read aloud hesitantly and haltingly, with
several breaks and pauses which did not correspond to punctuation in the text. This caused him
to struggle to follow along and understand his reading, and made it difficult for a listener to
understand what he was saying. Not only did his disfluency negatively affect his reading

CASE STUDY REPORT FINDINGS LETTERS

comprehension, it also seriously affected the way he perceived the act of reading itself (Caldwell
& Leslie, 2013).
Our fluency development routine incorporated paired reading, repeated rereadings, and a
variety of different texts, including short stories, expository text, and poetry. Before paired
reading, I would read aloud to model an even pace and meaningful phrasing and intonation
(Rasinski, 2010). By our final assessment, Ayden was able to score 24 words correct with 92%
accuracy on his Oral Reading Fluency assessment.
Finally, my students ability at the beginning of this case study to remember and understand
his reading was hampered not only by his difficulties in processing text fluently, but also by his
lack of strategies which would aid comprehension (Beers, 2003). Even in those instances when
he would read a piece of text fluently, he often struggled to recall was what read or be able to
explain what it meant.
With lots of modeling and practice and the use of graphic organization techniques like KW-L (Know-Want to Know-Learned) charts, first-then-last organizers to structure retelling, and
semantic mapping, Ayden has strengthened his ability to figure out what matters most in a text
and be able to share that information with another. Through practice of comprehension strategies
like making connections between his reading and his life and the people and things around him
and retelling stories and information text, as well as practice in when to employ these strategies,
Ayden has grown as a reader who makes meaning of the things he reads. His retelling of stories
has also fueled his enthusiasm for his own storytelling (Beers, 2003; DeVries, 2015).
This experience has taught me the value of frequent assessment in order to inform
instruction. Without knowing precisely in what areas my student needed additional assistance, I
am fairly certain he would not have shown the improvement he did. I also have seen first-hand
the value of modeling the application of reading skills and strategies through read-alouds.
Showing my student how to be a better reader and writer was infinitely more effective than
telling him. Furthermore, I have learned the value of thorough documentation. With extensive
notes and reflections, I was able to hand these off to my students regular teacher to better ensure
continuity of instruction between the students time with me and in the classroom.
Through this experience, I feel as if I have learned as much, if not more, than I have taught.
This case study has helped me to become a better teacher of reading and writing and I am very
grateful for your assistance in making this case study a success.

Very sincerely yours,

Daniel Coffin