Running head: LITERACY CASE STUDY

Literacy Case Study

Alexa DellaMonica

Towson University
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* Student and school names have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

Introduction

This Literacy Case Study is a comprehensive overview of literacy skills. A variety of literacy

components were assessed throughout the course of three months with a child named Amy. Amy is a

first grader who attends Carry Elementary School (CES) in Baltimore County. CES serves students in

prekindergarten through fifth grade. There are 588 students currently enrolled at CES Elementary

School. Of these students, 55% are white, 24% are black, 14% are Asian, 13% are Asian-Pacific

Islander, 4% are Hispanic, 4% are multiracial, 0.6% are Native American or Native Alaskan, and 0.2%

are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. CES has thirty-seven teachers that work within thirty-one

classrooms. CES has an extremely active PTA that is continuously works to improve in the school and

community. The case study childs name is Amy. Amy is six years old; she was born on February 10,

2010.

Amy is a child of divorce. Her mother and father share custody of her between the weekend and

weekdays. Amy has both an older brother and sister. She is also very close with her uncle, aunt, and

grandmother. A family member, usually her father or maternal grandmother, picks her up everyday after

school. Amy lives in the suburbs near CES.

A variety of Amys literacy skills were assessed throughout the course of two months. On

September 14, 2016, I presented Amy with three interest inventories to gauge her interests and literacy

motivation. These three interest inventories included My Feelings About Reading, Interest Inventory,

and Garfield Elementary Writing Attitude Survey. On September 14, October 26, and November 15,

Amys writing development was assessed through the collection of writing samples. Amys writing

development was compared to a variety of sources including the Primary Benchmarks, Developmental

Stages of Writing, Five Stages of Spelling Development, and the Steele packet. On September 28,

October 6, and October 18, Amys phonological awareness development was assessed using the
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Phonological Awareness Profile. Finally, on October 18 and November 3, Amys reading

comprehension was assessed using the Qualitative Reading Inventory-V (QRI-5).

All of the assessments included in this literacy profile were completed during school hours at

CES. Other than the interest inventories, the rest of the assessments were completed at a desk in the

hallway of CES. During every assessment, Amy was very distracted by other students and teachers

passing by in the hallway as well as the noises coming from the surrounding classrooms. Unfortunately

this was the only place that Amy agreed to complete any of the literacy assessments.

Interest Inventories

I implemented three interest inventory surveys with Amy on September 14, 2016. These

inventories included My Feelings About Reading, Interest Inventory, and Garfield Elementary Writing

Attitude Survey. These interest inventories were completed in the resource room of CES. While

completing the inventories, the room was very quiet, but Amy was somewhat distracted. Amy may have

been distracted because she had never been in the room before and there are a lot of colorful posters all

over the room that she seemed interested in. I read the inventory questions to Amy and filled out My

Feelings About Reading and Interest Inventory with her verbal responses. When completing the Garfield

Elementary Writing Attitude Survey, I read the questions to Amy and she circled her responses

independently with crayon. I observed that Amy seemed to be guessing some of her responses because

there were some responses that contradicted others.

After completing the interest inventories with Amy, I discovered a lot about her feelings toward

reading and writing. From the My Feelings About Reading inventory, I learned that she does not enjoy

reading regardless of the size of the passage because she finds reading to be boring. However she does

enjoy being read to and she thinks she is a good reader. She said that she reads often at home with her

dad.

From the Interest Inventory I found that Amys favorite book is The Cat and the Hat. Amy is

very interested in Dr. Seuss books and interactive books with pop-outs. On this inventory, she said that
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she enjoys reading for fun, which contradicted what she said on the previous inventory. Amy said that

she enjoys reading stories about sports, adventures, people, mysteries, and comedies. She does not enjoy

reading poetry or stories about real events or people because she likes pretend stories better. Amy also

disclosed that she likes to spend time with her family after school and on the weekends. Sometimes she

goes to her aunt and uncles house and other times to her grandmothers house.

When completing the Garfield Elementary Writing Attitude Survey, I read the prompts to Amy

and she circled her responses in crayon. She responded that she would be very excited about writing a

letter to the author of a book she read; keeping a diary; stating her opinion; becoming a better writer;

writing a story instead of doing homework; writing down important things her teacher says about a new

topic; changing writing that her teacher asked her to; listening to her classmates critique her writing;

writing an advertisement; keeping a journal for school; writing about things that happened in her life; or

checking her writing. She responded that she would be content writing about something she has heard of

seen or writing answers to science or social studies questions. She would be indifferent about writing a

letter to a store about something you might buy; writing about something she did in science; or writing

about something she did in social studies. She would not enjoy spending her free time reading; writing

poetry for fun; being an author; getting a job writing for the newspaper; writing a story instead of

watching television; writing more in school; writing a long story or report in school; writing about

something from another persons point of view; having her classmates read something she wrote; or

writing less in school. Some of her responses were contradictory, but I think that may be because some

of the questions were too long for a first grader to listen to and fully understand.

Writing Sample Analysis

Writing Sample 1

The first writing sample was collected from Amy on September 14, 2016.The Maryland Career

and College Readiness Standard (MCCRS) Cluster that corresponds with this writing sample is the first

grade Writing-1 standard that focuses on Text Types and Purposes.

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According to Developmental Stages of Writing, by Gentry, Amys writing skills have been

identified in the Transitional Stage. Amys writing sample displayed many of the characteristics of a

child in the Transitional Stage. A writer in the Transitional Stage will often use basic sentence structure

and varies sentence beginnings. All of the thoughts and sentences that Amy wrote were descriptions of

her experiences and her favorite things. The most common sentence beginnings that Amy used were

you, my, and I. She wrote very basic sentences, but was able to vary the way that she constructed

her thoughts and sentences. Another characteristic of a writer in the Transitional Stage is to attempt to

use some conventional punctuation. Amy did not include punctuation in a majority of her sentences,

however she did attempt the use of an exclamation mark once. Amy also placed a comma in the date at

the bottom of her paper.

It should be noted that Amy copied the spelling of some of the words in her first writing sample,

rather than attempting to spell the words herself. Some of the words she copied included you, like,

and the. While taking this into consideration and referring to the Five Stages of Spelling Development,

Amy is in the Phonetic Stage of spelling. The Phonetic Stage of spelling is common for children

between the ages of five and seven. In this stage, a child is likely to use letters to map out all major

sounds in a word. The spelling of words in this stage usually shows the sequence of sounds within the

word. For example, when spelling Ocean City, Amy used the letters aosn site; when spelling

because, Amy wrote cos; and when spelling hotel Amy wrote htl. Furthermore, a child in the

Phonetic Stage of spelling may have difficulty discriminating some sounds well enough to match them

to letters or groups of letters. This was evident in Amys writing when she spelled the word went as

wet.

According to the Steele packet, Amys composition skills are in the Late-Beginning Stage of

Writing; this stage is also referred to as the Late-Developing Stage. In this stage, writers consistently

write sentences with more than five words in them; over-use the word I; rely on common words rather

than descriptive words; and inconsistently use punctuation, but demonstrate an awareness of writing
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mechanics. In Amys writing sample, it is evident that she relied heavily on starting her sentences with

the word I. She did not incorporate a wide variety of description in writing, but instead relied on

common words that she is comfortable and familiar with. This type of composition is developmentally

appropriate for her age and classifies her as being within the Late-Beginning Stage of Writing.

According to the Steele packet, Amys handwriting formation and spacing are developmentally

appropriate. Amy has demonstrated that she can hold a pencil in an appropriate and comfortable manner

while writing. Her handwriting is legible and she spaces out her letters and words appropriately. Amy

also demonstrated an understanding of the difference in size between uppercase and lowercase letters in

her writing sample. As her writing skills continue to progress, it is likely that her handwriting will also

improve.

In order to continue the progression of Amys writing, I recommend that she be exposed to a

variety of text types in order to differentiate between oral and written language to make the connection

that writing is purposeful. Amy may build these skills by writing letters, cards, and messages to her

friends, family, and peers to practice purposeful writing that is relevant to her. This will also expand

upon her ability to both understand the differences between oral and written language as well as the

ways in which oral and written language are connected in order to create meaning.

Additionally I recommend that a spiral of frequently used words be given to Amy so that she can

practice spelling high incidence first grade level words. Some of these words may include by, of,

as, then, went, saw, did, and get. Having easy access to these high incidence words will

provide a reference for Amy when she is writing independently. These words may also be used during

independent time as well as free time at home to practice with. Amy may flip through the word cards to

practice spelling and identifying these words both in and outside of school to continue the progression of

her spelling skills.

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Writing Sample 2

The second writing sample was collected on October 26, 2016. This writing sample showed that

all of Amys writing skills have stayed the same since the first writing was collected. Amy is still in the

Transitional Stage for writing because she continues to use basic sentence structure while varying

sentence beginnings. In the second writing sample, Amy used I the and you to start her sentences.

These are very similar to the way she was beginning sentences when the first writing sample was

collected. Amy is also still not including punctuation regularly, which is the same as was observed from

her first writing sample. Amy is also still in the Phonetic Stage of spelling development. She is able to

spell many sight words, however she is still using letters to map out major sounds within words. For

example, she spelled people as pebl, fell as fel, and walked as wat. Amys composition quality

is also still in the Late-Beginning Stage. In this stage, children over-use the word I and rely on

common words rather than descriptive words. Amy continued to use many common words in the second

writing sample. Some of these words included the, can, you, and I. Additionally Amys handwriting

development from the second writing sample is consistent with her handwriting from the first writing

sample. She continues to display developmentally appropriate handwriting characteristics. This includes

holding a pencil correctly, forming legible letters, and putting spaces between words.

All of Amys writing skills have been consistent since the first writing sample in September, thus

I recommend that she continue practicing her writing skills by being exposed to a variety of text types.

This may include writing letters, cards, and messages to her friends, family, and peers. Continuing to

practice high incidence spelling words will also help to improve her writing and spelling skills over

time.

In addition to the continuation of these previous recommendations, I also recommend that Amy

practice writing in a journal or diary. Amy should go with her parents to buy the journal and pick out

one she likes, this will make journaling much more motivating. She should also take some time to

decorate the cover of the journal. Amy has expressed her interest in Dr. Seuss and spending time with
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her family. Gluing pictures and stickers onto the cover of the journal will make writing in it more

exciting for Amy. This journal can be used both during free time at school as well as at home. When

given the opportunity to write about any topic she wishes, Amy will be more motivated to practice

writing and further her writing skills. Journaling skills should be modeled to Amy. This can be done

with her parents at home; writing alongside of Amy will serve as both a model and a motivator for

writing practice. Amys parents can prompt the proper use of punctuation by saying things like Oh

look, I needed a question mark here or I wonder what punctuation this sentence needs? This will

make writing a more universal concept and give meaning to her writing, which will ultimately help her

to transition into more advanced stages of writing development.

Writing Sample 3

The third writing sample was collected on November 15, 2016. This writing sample again

showed that Amys writing has been consistent since the beginning of the school year; therefore Amy is

still in the Transitional Stage of writing. Amy is consistently using proper spacing between letters and

words. Amy is able to write complete sentences, for example I can do a lot and I like to play on the

swings. She varies sentence structure and uses punctuation appropriately, but not regularly, which was

also observed in previous writing samples. Amy is still spelling many words phonetically which means

that she is still in the Phonetic Stage of spelling development. In the third writing sample, she spelled

crazy as cryz and Harley Quinn and Hrean. Amys composition quality is also still developing as

she is still in the Late-Beginning Stage of composition. In this stage students use punctuation

inconsistently and overuse the word I, which is evident in Amys third writing sample. As stated in

previous writing samples, Amys handwriting is developmentally appropriate for her age and grade

level, for example, holding her pencil with a proper grip and forming legible letters and words.

In order to aid the progression of Amys overall writing development, I would advocate for the

continuation of previously recommended writing activities such as practicing purposeful writing,

journaling, referring to sight words, and being exposed to modeled writing. In addition, I also
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recommend that Amy be exposed to writing with more detail. This can include parents and teachers

modeling detailed writing through the drafting process. For example, showing Amy that what you write

initially is just a first draft that can then be edited and added to many times before becoming a final

draft. Amy can begin by drafting her writing alongside an adult model, in order to add more detail to her

writing and begin to use more varied sentence structures.

Overview

Overall Amys writing development has been consistent since the beginning of the school year.

In September she was in the Transitional Stage of writing and as of the middle of November she

continues to manifest the traits of a student in the Transitional Stage of writing development. Amys

overall attitude toward writing has been consistent. She has noted that she enjoys writing about topics

that interest her, however she continues to be unmotivated by academic writing. In order to continue the

progression of Amys writing development, I recommend that Amy continue to be exposed to a variety

of writing. Her family, friends, and teachers should continue to motivate her to journal as well as to

model a variety of purposeful writing. She should practice writing sight words in context in order to

progress her spelling and encoding. I also recommend exposing Amy to a larger variety of academic

writing such as writing stories and summarizing in order to increase her motivation to write in the school

context.

Phonological Profile

This Phonological Awareness Profile was completed on three separate occasions, September 28,

October 6, and October 18, 2016. All subtests of the profile were completed with Amy at a desk in the

hallway of her school. It should be noted that she would only complete this activity if she could sit on

the swivel chair at the desk in the hallway. We were able to complete the profile in three different

sessions, however during each session Amy was very distracted by people passing by and the noises in

the hallway.
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Rhyming

Overall Amys rhyming skills are nearly mastered. She completely mastered the rhyming

discrimination subtest by identifying whether or not two words rhymed with each other. For example,

she was able to identify that book rhymes with look, and that ring does not rhyme with rat.

Amys rhyming production skills were identified as being emerging, however I think that the

combination of longer words and distractions in the hallway affected her performance on this subtest.

Amy was able to invent both real and nonsense words that rhymed with cat, pot, and tame. When told to

invent rhymes to the words wrinkle and brother, Amy did not respond at all.

Segmentation

Segmentation is currently an emerging skill for Amy. The four segmentation subtests that Amy

was assessed were sentences, compound words, syllables, and phonemes. Amys performance on these

separate subtests varied greatly.

Amys sentence segmentation is skill emerging. She was able to correctly segment three of the

five sentences that she was provided. On the other two occasions, Amy segmented syllables within the

words rather than just the words within the sentence. For example, when told to clap out the words in

the flag is flying high, Amy clapped six times, clapping flying twice as fly-ing.

Amys phoneme segmentation skills are also still emerging. She was able to correctly identify

the phonemes in the first three words presented to her: off, me, and fat. However after those three, Amy

began combining sounds rather than pulling apart each individual phoneme. For example, Amy

segmented brag into /br/ /a/ /g/ and liver into /l/ /iv/ /r/.

Amy has nearly mastered syllable segmentation. She was able to correctly segment four out of

the five words provided to her. The only word that she segmented incorrectly was watermelon; she

segmented it as wa-termel-on rather than wa-ter-mel-on.

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Amy has complete mastered segmenting compound words. She was able to correctly segment all

five compound words provided to her. These words included girlfriend, snowball, mailbox, cattail, and

grasshopper.

Isolation

Overall Amy has nearly mastered isolation. Amy has completely mastered isolating both initial

and final sounds. Her medial isolation skills are still emerging. Amy was able to correctly identify the

initial sound in the words bite, toy, purple, dinosaur, and fudge. She also correctly identified the ending

sound in the words bug, house, rat, bring, and math.

When told to identify medial sounds, Amy correctly identified two out of five of the words

presented to her. Amy correctly identified the medial sound in the CVC words presented to her, but was

unable to identify the medial sound in the words that were not CVC.

Deletion

Amys deletion skills are still emerging. When told to delete compounds and syllables, she

struggled, but was able to correctly delete two of the prompts given to her. Amy correctly deleted box

from mailbox, space from spaceship and um from umbrella. When prompted to delete roo from

kangaroo, Amy responded by saying kang instead of kanga. For this prompt she was very close, but

left out the ending sound. When Amy was prompted to delete /ee/ from kitty, she responded by saying

cat, which leads me to believe that this particular prompt was confusing to her.

Amys phoneme deletion skills are also still emerging. To administer this section, I prompted

Amy by having her say pan and then telling her to say it again but without /p/. Instead of correctly

saying an, Amy responded by saying the letter p. During the following prompts, Amy followed the

same pattern. Rather than deleting the given sound, she either repeated the sound or stated the letter that

says that sound. There was, however, one prompt that Amy correctly identified. This prompt told her to

delete /z/ from the word wise; she was able to do so.
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Substitution

Overall Amys substitution skills are still emerging. When using manipulatives, she was able to

correctly identify one substitution prompt that told her to change map to mop; this was a medial sound

substitution. Following this prompt, Amy had a hard time showing the substitution for an initial, a

medial, and an ending sound.

When prompted to substitute sounds without manipulatives, Amy correctly substituted all the

prompts that involved substituting the initial sound. For example, Amy substituted /k/ to /h/ to change

cow to how. When prompted to substitute medial and final sounds, Amy struggled.

Blending

Overall Amys blending skills are still emerging. Amy completely mastered blending compound

words and syllables. She was able to blend dollhouse, lemonade, rabbit, candy, and

computer.

Blending phonemes was a bit harder for Amy. She correctly blended the first two prompts given

to her. This included blending /b/ /oy/ to make the word boy and /s/ /i/ /t/ to make the word sit. Amy

struggled to blend words that had more than three phonemes. For example, when told to blend /f/ /l/ /a/

/g/ Amy responded by saying pip rather than flag. When prompted to blend /k/ /i/ /n/ /d/ she responded

with pine rather than kind.

Graphemes

Amys overall grapheme skills are also still emerging, however she did master short vowels, and

nearly mastered consonants and long vowels. Amy correctly identified the sounds of all consonants

besides x, which she identified as /k/. She correctly identified all short vowel sounds and long vowel

sounds besides /a/.

When prompted to identify vowel digraphs, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, consonant

diagraphs, and consonant blends she seemed very confused. Instead of identifying the letters as one
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combined sound, she broke down each letter and responded with the individual sounds of both. For

example, she identified ea as /e/ /a/, ou as /o/ /u/, ar as /a/ /r/, th as /t/ /h/, and bl as /b/ /l/.

Decoding

Decoding is another skill that Amy is still emerging. The concept of nonsense words was

confusing to Amy. In most cases she attempted to identify the nonsense word as a real word. For

example, she identified ip as up, bund as blue, mave as man, touse as toe, curf as

come, and chun as can. In other cases, Amy just began rhyming and guessing. Most likely this was

because she was getting very distracted and a bit frustrated.

Invented Spelling

Amys invented spelling skills are in the developmental stage. Students in the developmental

stage logically represent some sounds in words, but not all. Of the three words that Amy spelled, she

correctly identified the initial and final sound of all three, and the short vowel sound of one of the words.

Recommendations

Amy would greatly benefit from working with manipulatives to continue working on her

phonological awareness skills. Almost all of the prompts from this phonological profile were verbal

directions. In some cases, these verbal directions were enough prompting for Amy to successfully

complete the skill, but in other cases, the verbal directions and examples caused her more confusion.

Using manipulatives to make the concepts more concrete would greatly assist Amy in mastering these

skills.

Elkonin boxes would help Amy to work on isolation, substitution, blending, and graphemes.

Elkonin boxes are used to separate and identify the individual sounds in words. When using Elkonin

boxes, the student is presented with a strip of empty boxes and some manipulative materials. The student

slides a manipulative into a single Elkonin box for each sound that they hear. The activity should be

modeled with an adult when first introduced. The adult may annunciate each sound in the word and

model how to properly move the manipulatives into the corresponding boxes correctly. Amy would then
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be able to work with the Elkonin boxes on her own as the words are said to her or as she says them

herself. This is a simple activity that can be completed both at school or at home to practice these

phonological awareness skills.

A second strategy that can be used to improve Amys phonological awareness is using

connectable blocks. In order to do this, each sound would be written on to individual connector blocks.

There would also be one larger connector block with the entire word written on it. Amy would then

connect each individual sound block to the larger block to create the whole word. This activity can be

use to blend sounds together, or it can be used the opposite way to delete sounds. This is another simple

activity that can be completed or practiced either at school or at home.

Another strategy that may be used to improve Amys segmentation skills would be stomping out

syllables. For this activity, Amy would stand up and stomp for each segment that she hears. This activity

can be completed for segmenting compound words, syllables, sentences, or phonemes. The physical

movements of this activity would make segmentation more concrete and meaningful.

Picture cards can also be used to word on segmenting and blending phonemes. To do this, Amy

would be provided with a stack of picture cards with common and identifiable pictures, such as dog, car,

frog, cup, hand, etc. The card would only contain the picture symbol, not the spelling of the word. Amy

can practice segmenting the phonemes of the picture presented, for example, saying /d/ /o/ /g/ when

shown the picture of the dog, and then blending the sounds together and saying, dog. This is another

easy activity that is both fun and engaging, and can be completed in any setting.

Data

Mastered Skills Nearly Mastered Skills Emerging Skills

Rhyming Discrimination Production

Segmentation Compound Words Syllables Sentences

Phonemes
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Isolation Initial Medial

Final

Deletion Compounds/Syllables

Phonemes

Substitution With Manipulatives

Without Manipulatives

Blending Compounds/Syllables Phonemes

Graphemes Short Vowels Consonants Vowel Digraphs

Long Vowels Diphthongs

R-Controlled Vowels

Consonant Digraphs

Consonant Blends

Decoding VC Words

CVC Words

Consonant Blends

CVCe Words

Vowel Digraphs

Diphthongs

R-Controlled Vowels

Consonant Digraphs

Comprehension

Word Lists

Amy was given the Qualitative Reading Inventory-V (QRI-5) to assess her overall reading

comprehension skills. On October 18, 2016, she was presented with two word lists to determine the
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passages in which she would later be given in order to assess her comprehension skills. She read both of

these word lists at a desk in the hallway of her school where many other case study assessments took

place. Like most other times, Amy insisted on completing the work at this desk. On this occasion she

was somewhat engaged in reading the word lists, however other students and teachers passing by in the

hallway caused distractions while she was reading.

When presented with the Pre-Primer 1 list of seventeen words, she correctly identified thirteen of

these words. Twelve of the words were correctly identified automatically and one was not automatic.

The results of this Pre-Primer 1 word list found Amy to be at the Instructional Level. Amy was also

presented with a Pre-Primer 2 word list on this same day. The Pre-Primer 2 word list contained twenty

words. Of these twenty words, Amy correctly identified five of them automatically. The rest of the

words she either identified incorrectly or skipped. Thus Amys results from this word list found her to be

at the Frustration Level. Overall Amys performance on these word list assessment showed that she is

able to identify some sight words, however she struggles to decode words in isolation.

Passages

On November 3, 2016, Amy completed the remainder of the QRI-5 assessment. This portion was

completed at the same desk in the hallway and, as many previous times, Amy was somewhat distracted

while reading, but refused to complete the assessment anywhere else. Amy was first presented with a

Pre-Primer 1 level story called I Can. Before reading the story, I asked her four concept questions. Amy

was able to thoroughly define one of the concepts and give examples of the other three. Amys

responses to these concept questions found her to be 75% familiar with the concepts of the passage.

Amy then predicted that the story was going to be about going outside and playing. She then went on

to read the passage. It took her 57 seconds to read the 37-word passage. Amy read this passage at 38.9

total words per minute and 37.8 correct words per minute. There was only one miscue in this passage.

This occurred when Amy identified the word dream as bike. I noticed that she tried to use the picture

to help her identify this unknown word while she was reading. The picture on this page showed a child
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dreaming of a bike, which is likely why Amy identified the unknown word as bike rather than dream.

Overall Amys total accuracy, which is calculated based on the total number of miscues, was

Independent. Her total acceptability, which is calculated based on the total number of meaning-change

miscues, was also Independent. After reading the story, Amy was able to correctly retell five out of

twelve ideas from the story. She also identified two other ideas through inferences. To retell about the I

Can story Amy stated, I can jump and also hop. I can sleep and run. I can dream about a bike. Amy

correctly retold five main points by saying that. She also inferred that the story referred to dreaming

about a bike through her memory of the picture of that page. On that page of the story, the story stated

I can dream. See me dream with a corresponding picture of a student dreaming of riding a bike. After

retelling, I asked Amy five comprehension questions. She was able to explicitly identify the correct

answer to each of the five questions using one-word responses. She answered the question What can the

girl at the beginning of the story do? when she stated, jump. What can another girl in the story do?

she said, hop, and so on. This means that Amys comprehension level of this passage was at the

Independent Level for Amy.

Amy also read a Pre-Primer 2 passage called Just Like Mom on November 3, 2016. Before

reading this passage I asked her three concept questions. She was able to give examples of all three

concepts she was asked about. This meant that she was 66% familiar with the concepts of the passage.

She predicted that the story was going to be about doing homework. She then went on to reading.

Amy read this 44-word passage in 72 seconds. She read 36.6 total words per minute and 29.1 correct

words per minute for this passage. She has nine miscues while reading. This included a combination of

skipping words, incorrectly sounding-out words, and incorrectly guessing words. Four of these nine

miscues created a change in meaning of what she was reading. This resulted in a total accuracy and total

acceptability in the Frustration Level. After reading this passage Amy correctly retold six of the fifteen

ideas from the story. She also recalled an additional two ideas through inferences. Amy retold the story

by stating, The girl can work just like her mom and do a lot just like her mom. She likes working like
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her mom and she can help at home like her mom. In stating this, Amy retold six major details as well as

inferred that she likes working like her mom and she can help at home like her mom, which she

likely inferred from the pictures that followed the text on each page of the story. After Amy retold the

story, I asked her five comprehension questions. Amy was able to explicitly answer two of these

questions and implicitly answer two more. Amy explicitly responded to Name one thing the girl can do

just like Mom by stating, go to work. She implicitly answered the question Where can the girl work

just like Mom? when she said, the house and the garden. There was one comprehension question that

Amy responded to with details that were not included in the passage. This question asked What can the

girl work with just like mom? For this question, Amy responded by saying, her dad, sister, brother,

and dog, which did not answer the question and included details that were not included in the text. The

combination of Amys responses to these five comprehension questions means that this passage was at

the Instructional Level for Amy.

Analysis

While reading the passages there were some words that Amy read correctly that she has

previously misidentified when given the word lists. For example, when given the word lists, Amy

identified the word I as one and could not identify the word work. However in the context of the

passages, Amy was able to correctly identify the words I and work. This means that Amy may have

difficulty decoding words in isolation.

Additionally there was a big difference in Amys fluency while reading the two passages. Amy

read the I Can passage fluently. She only paused two times to consult the pictures when she came to

unknown word. These unknown words were lunch and dream. On both occasions she quickly made a

guess at the unknown word. She correctly guessed the word dream and incorrectly guessed the word

lunch. While reading Just Like Mom, which is at her instructional level, Amy read much less fluently.

She stopped on each page to ask what words were or to confirm their meaning. On the later pages this

happened multiple times. While reading the fourth page of Just Like Mom, Amy skipped a whole line of
LITERACY CASE STUDY 19
the passage that said Just like Mom. While reading the fifth page, she guessed the entire first sentence.

The sentence stated I can do lots of things, but Amy read it as I can do stuff for Tom.

The two stories that Amy read were both on the pre-primer level, which is appropriate for

students in first grade. Students are expected to be on the pre-primer reading level from late kindergarten

through the middle of first grade. As a first-quarter first grader, Amys overall performance on this

comprehension assessment is age appropriate. It is likely that if she were to be reassessed later in the

school year, there would be an improvement in her reading isolation, decoding, and comprehension

skills.

Recommendations

Portrait of the Reader

Amy is in the Developing Stage of overall literacy functioning. Children in the Developing Stage

can read books with patterns and enjoy sharing books with others. During the QRI-5 assessment, Amy

was able to read two books with repetitive patters, I Can and Just Like Mom. Both of these stories were

repetitive, with each page starting the same way. Each page of the I Can story repeated I can See

me Amy was able to decode and comprehend this story at an independent level. The Just Like Mom

story was repetitive in that each page stated, I can Just like Mom. Amy struggled to decode some of

this story, although she caught on to the storys overall repetition pattern. The miscue analysis of this

story showed that this story was at her frustration level, however according to her responses to the

comprehension questions, the story was at her instructional level. Additionally children in the

Developing Stage rely on both text and illustrations to create meaning. While reading the Just Like Mom

story during the QRI-5 assessment, Amy proved that she was analyzing the pictures when she responded

to a comprehension question by stating that the kid was dreaming about a bike. The text said that the

child was dreaming, but didnt say what the child was dreaming about. The picture on the page showed a

child dreaming of a bike, which Amy noticed and inferred.

LITERACY CASE STUDY 20
Children in the Developing Stage also know most letter sounds and can read simple words and

some sight words. During the Phonological Awareness Profile assessment, Amy was able to identify all

letter sounds besides x /ks/ and the long a vowel. When she was assessed using the QRI-5 word list, she

was able to identify many age-appropriate sight words, such as can, me, the, he, go, see, she, like, my,

look, and too. Overall, Amys performance on the variety of literacy assessments proves that she is

functioning at the Development Stage, which is age appropriate. Children in the Developing Stage are

typically between the ages of five to seven, which means that at six-years-old, Amy is typically

functioning.

Educational Recommendations

There are many ways to promote literacy development, however it is imperative that a childs

interests be linked to the literacy activity in order to maintain engagement and create a meaningful

educational experience. Reading Rockets provides a variety of literacy activities for young students, one

in particular is related to writing. This activity focuses on six basic ways to involve students in

meaningful writing. The suggested ideas include everyday writing, such as grocery lists or to-do lists;

writing birthday cards to friends and family; writing thank you cards; writing letters to friends and

family, or even writing to a pen pal; writing and illustrating stories; and intertwining play and writing,

for example, writing biographies about dolls or pretending to be a teacher. These activities make writing

meaningful and tangible to young children. The National Association for the Education of Young

Children (NAEYC) explains that when children engage meaningful writing at a young age, they are

more likely to enjoy the writing process and become successful writers in their later years (1998).

Reading Rockets also recommends an activity that promotes decoding, which is another literacy

skill that Amy is still developing. This activity involved manipulating magnetic letters and

experimenting with both real words and nonsense words. During the Phonological Awareness Profile,

Amy struggled to decode many nonsense words that she was shown. The more that she manipulates

letters and creates words on her own, the more her decoding skills will improve. Amy is able to identify
LITERACY CASE STUDY 21
letter sounds in isolation, but struggles to recognize individual letter sounds in the context of new or

unfamiliar words. Manipulating magnetic letters will allow her to explore new sound combinations and

patterns that will ultimately improve her decoding skills in the context of new words and sentences.

Another literacy activity that promotes phonological awareness is called Hullabaloo. Hullabaloo

requires that an adult create colorful notecards with simple words and sight words. The cards are then

scattered onto the floor and the child is given directions such as step on a word that rhymes with feet

or step on a word that starts with c. The child then has to scan their options and decide which of the

word cards matches the direction. This activity promotes phonological awareness skills such as word

awareness, rhyming, blending, onset and rime, letter-sound identification, and manipulating phonemes.

The activity also engages the child in whole-body movement. This activity would be especially

engaging for Amy because she has been observed as a kinesthetic learner that enjoys interaction and

excitement. Amy would enjoy engaging in this interactive phonological awareness activity both at home

and at school.

A fourth recommendation to promote Amys literacy skills is a CVC word game. A printable of

this game is available from http://www.playdoughtoplato.com/free-cvc-word-board-games/. This game

contains a game board with CVC words written on each of the spaces. To play the game, Amy would

roll the dice and move that many spaces along the game path. She would then have to read the CVC

word on that space. The words on the board include a variety of CVC words containing all five vowels,

for example, ran, jet, lid, dog, and cup. This game promotes letter-sound awareness, which is a skill that

Amy is still developing.

A final literacy activity that I recommend for Amy is using an idea spinner as an after-reading

comprehension activity. An idea spinner is a circular piece of cardstock sectioned into four quadrants.

The quadrants are labeled summarize, predict, explain, and evaluate. After reading a new book, Amy

would flick the spinner and respond to the prompt that is lands on. For example, if the spinner landed on

summarize she would have to explain the main idea of what she just read. An idea spinner elicits
LITERACY CASE STUDY 22
responses related to comprehension of both new text and familiar text. The idea spinner is an interactive

way of promoting comprehension development through a game rather than a disinteresting task. When

the idea spinner is introduced as a fun and engaging post-reading activity, Amy would be more inclined

to respond to the prompts and practice her comprehension skills, which are still developing. Engaging in

activities that promote prediction, questioning, summarizing, recognizing story structure, and eliciting

prior knowledge will improve overall comprehension skills over time (PBS Kids, 2007). Comprehension

is a vital component of overall literacy development and the use of an idea spinner allows children to

practice comprehension skills in an engaging manner.

Book Recommendations

According to the results of Amys interest inventories, she is greatly interested in interactive

books and books with pop-outs. Some of her favorite story topics include sports, adventures, people,

mysteries, and comedies. She also expressed that enjoys fiction stories rather than nonfiction. Based on

these interests, I have complied a list of recommended readings for Amy.

The first book I recommend is The Magic School Bus Plays Ball, by Nancy Krulik. This book

would likely be very engaging to Amy because it is a fictional book about sports. In this story, the

children in Ms. Frizzles class explore a world without friction and see how it affects their baseball

game. This story is silly and engaging for young students.

Another recommended story is Ladybug Girl and Her Mama, by David Soman and Jacky Davis.

This story is part of a series about a little girl who explores the world around her and turns every

ordinary day into an extraordinary one. This book in particular talks about a day that Ladybug Girl

spends gardening with her mom. Amy expressed in her interest inventories that her family is very

important to her; she particularly mentioned that she enjoys spending time with her parents, brother,

uncle, and grandmother. Amy may choose to read this book alongside a family member, which would

both work to improve her comprehension skills as well as promote family literacy.
LITERACY CASE STUDY 23
A third book that I recommend for Amy is The Jungle Book: A Pop-Up Adventure, by Matthew

Reinhart. I recommend this specific book for Amy because of the engaging fictional content as well as

the interactive pop-ups. While Amy will some help reading the content book, it is a good way of

introducing more complicated text, while still keeping her engaged and excited to read because of the

interactive pop-ups on each page. This is another book that would promote family literacy while

working to improve her comprehension skills.

I also recommend Honeybee and the Robber, by Eric Carl. This book contains engaging

illustrations as well as moveable pull-tabs and interactive pop-ups throughout. The story follows the day

of an adventurous honeybee. I recommend this book for Amy because it contains many of her favorite

components; it is a story about adventure that includes pop-ups and engaging illustrations. This book is

both age-appropriate and interesting to a first grade audience, making it a perfect match to Amys

interests and reading level.

The last book that I recommend for Amy is Kiki and Coco in Paris, by Nina Gruener. This book

follows the adventures of a young girl and her doll as they explore the city of Paris. This book would

likely be very engaging to Amy because the girl in the story is her age and it has an overarching theme

of adventure. The book provides multiple opportunities for the reader to make predications and

inferences from the illustrations, which provides an opportunity for Amy to practice these reading skills

while following the storys adventurous plot.

Internet Resources

There are many online resources that parents can take advantage of in order to help create a

home environment that promotes literacy development both implicitly and explicitly. Reading Rockets

is an resource available to both children and their families. The Reading Rockets website has a tab

specific to parents. On this page parents can navigate through resources such as reading tips, suggestions

of e-books, a newsletter, themed booklists, summer reading booklists, engaging literacy activities,

suggestions on supporting Common Core standard expectations, and much more. This resource can be
LITERACY CASE STUDY 24
found at http://www.readingrockets.org/audience/parents. This website would be especially useful for

Amys parents because it provides them with resources and suggestions of how to make reading fun and

engaging. Based on the results of Amys interest inventories, she does not seem to be a motivated

reader, however she enjoys completing literacy activities when they are not presented as such. For

example, practicing literacy skills through an interactive book or game is much more engaging than

reading a story she is disinterested in. The Reading Rockets website provides a variety of resources that

Amy would find engaging and interesting, while she works on improving her literacy skills.

Another online resource that would be beneficial for Amy is the Scholastic website. Scholastic is

a literacy magazine targeted toward young children and their parents. Their website provides a variety of

literacy resources, games, books, and activities that are engaging to young students. The Scholastic

website has an entire page specific to reading and writing development. On this page parents can access

resources related to promoting writing skills at home, suggestions for struggling readers, and a variety of

printables that promote literacy development. Amys parents may utilize the Scholastic website to come

up with new and engaging ways to promote reading and writing at home in a way that is exciting and

motivating for Amy. This resource is available at http://www.scholastic.com/parents/activities-and-

printables/activities/ages-6-7.

Recommendations for Parental Use

Literacy development in early childhood is highly effected by parental involvement and the

degree to which literacy is promoted at home (NAEYC, 1998). Parents can promote the development of

literacy skills by being aware of their childs literacy strengths and needs. Checklists are a way for

parents to evaluate and ultimately improve the literacy environments in their homes. Literacy

environment checklists are a compilation of literacy indicators and are arranged to give the user an

overview of the skills necessary for a literacy rich environment (Wortham, 2012). A popular literacy

checklist is available from http://www.getreadytoread.org/images/content/downloads/

literacy%20checklists/HomeLiteracyEnglish.pdf. This checklist thirty-seven prompts related to literacy

LITERACY CASE STUDY 25
rich environments in which parents can check yes or no. Depending on the number of yes responses

they checked, the key at the bottom of the checklist indicates the degree of which their home promotes

literacy development. Parents can complete this checklist to get an idea of how they are promoting

literacy at home and then reflect upon their results in order to improve the degree to which literacy is

promoted in their home.

Reading Rockets also suggests that parents promote the importance of reading at home. Reading

Rockets suggests that parents take their children to the public library on a regular basis in order to

emphasize the importance of reading and overall literacy development. Children who grow up in a print-

rich environment are more likely to enjoy reading and challenge themselves in reading and writing as

their skills develop (Pool & Carter, 2013). Amys parents should frequent their local public library and

engage in picking out books for themselves while Amy chooses and checks out books that interest her.

Amys parents will then be able to engage in the book cycle alongside Amy in order to promote literacy

development and create a print-rich environment at home. Public libraries are also a useful resource to

families as they contain a variety of resources related to picking appropriate books, book clubs, summer

reading programs, and more.

The National PTA is also a useful resource in helping parents promote literacy development at

home. A particular reading activity suggested by the National PTA is called Punctuation Toss.

Punctuation Toss is a game where children can practice reading fluently and identifying punctuation.

According to the observations of Amys writing samples, punctuation is a literacy skill that Amy is still

developing. There were many instances in which Amy did not include punctuation; this game would

promote the importance of including punctuation in every sentence. Punctuation Toss is played by

tossing a marker onto the board. The board contains three punctuation marks, including a period,

question mark, and exclamation point. Once the marker lands on one of the punctuation marks, the

player must then choose a sentence that requires that type of punctuation at the end. For example, if the

player rolled a question mark, they must then identify a question from the game bag, such as where do
LITERACY CASE STUDY 26
walruses live? A link to the game pieces and directions is available on the National PTA website at

https://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-pta/files/production/public/Punctuation-Toss-Grades-K-5.pdf. This

punctuation game is an engaging way of practicing and identifying proper punctuation marks. After

practicing punctuation skills with this game, Amy will be more likely to generalize these skills and

express proper punctuation in her writing.

Conclusion

I have gained a wealth of knowledge through the process of assessing and evaluating Amys

literacy skills and development over the course of the past two months. Prior to implementing these

literacy assessment, I recognized the importance of literacy development, however the importance has

been amplified through the implementation of these various assessments. NAEYC explains that literacy

development is a vital part of overall academic success for all students (2016). After implementing the

variety of literacy assessments, I better understand this claim. Literacy development has a clear

connection to other academic content, such as math, science, social studies, etc. Once children are able

to read to learn, they are able to use their reading skills to learn in other subjects. As a first grade

student, Amy is still in the process of learning to read, rather than reading to learn. According to the

Center for Public Education, it is imperative that all literacy skills are developed at a typical rate in order

for her to be ready to read to learn by third grade (2015). This literacy progression further emphasizes

the importance of literacy assessment in school. Implementing a variety of literacy assessments

throughout this case study has provided me with insider information about Amys reading and writing

development. Without the combination of formal and informal literacy assessment, teachers are not able

to plan developmentally appropriate activities to promote literacy development (NAEYC, 2016). Just as

I have implemented a comprehensive literacy assessment with Amy, teachers should be assessing their

students literacy skills on a regular basis in order to track the progression of vital literacy skills.
LITERACY CASE STUDY 27
Resources

Center for Public Education. (2015). Learning to read, reading to learn. Retrieved from

http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/earlyliteracy.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read and write:

Developmentally appropriate practices for young children, 53(4), 3046. Retrieved from

https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSREAD98.PDF.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2016). A call for excellence in early

childhood education. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/policy/excellence.

PBS Kids. (2007). Reading for meaning. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/launchingreaders/

readingformeaning/helpfularticles_1.html.

Pool, J. L. & Carter, D. R. (2013). Creating print-rich learning centers, 4(4), 18-20. Retrieved from

https://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/V4N4/Creating_print-rich_learning_centers.pdf.

Wortham, S. C. (2012). Assessment in early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education, Inc.