1. Case Study Exploring the Habits of a Struggling Reader… Addie Sherman

2. Getting to Know My Reader Conner is very shy, he loves soccer, football and playing with his brothers. He says he does not like to read because he does not know how… He likes when people read to him. He REALLY wants to be a good reader like his brothers. He took so much pride in his journal, he even asked for a copy.

3. The Cover of His Journal

4. First Assessment

5. First Assessment This helped me to quickly pick up on the words that he was not fluent with. Confusions with words starting with “W”, he would say what for just about anything starting with a “W”.

6. First Assessment Cont.

7. First Assessment Cont. This helped to show me that he was a very scattered writer and that he only got 18 words correct. On top of that he was writing many words from right to left, but in the correct order. Therefore confusing himself.

8. First Assessment Cont. This made me think that maybe we was unfamiliar with blends such as “th”. Again writing words from right to left. Only scoring 23/30.

9. First Assessment Cont. Reading word for word not really picking up on meaning and not going back to correct himself. B and C books he scored frustration level. I was not convinced that was accurate. I felt he worried too much about what I was doing.

10. First Assessment Cont.

11. Lesson # 3 On the first lesson with a running record I kept him at a C and he did just fine there so on this lesson 3 I moved to a level D. I figured if he totally bombed it I could always move back. He scored instructional so that’s where we started our main work on using the cue systems. I wanted to make sure I had developed a better understanding of where he was at. I didn’t feel I did a great job of doing that through the assessment.

12. Lesson # 3

13. Lesson # 3 I really made sure to praise him for rereading since we had talked about slowing down and rereading the sentences when they don’t sound right. We also talked about how we can reread to make sure we understand what the author is telling us. He reread 6 times during this book, and was able to tell me small details but not really much about the story. He reads word for word and not very fluently.

14. Lesson # 3 Cont. On lesson one and two I was still unsure about how I was doing as a teacher so by lesson three I feel that I learned from some of my errors and was able to smooth out my lessons. Overwhelming my reader with too many “W” words. He was confusing “what” “where” and “who”. At first I tried to review them all at once…I quickly learned this was doing NO good! I used three different fluency words each lesson only allowing one “W” word to be picked. I also made one of the words one I knew he knew to help build confidence. He enjoyed writing words he knew.

15. Lesson # 3 Cont. For fluency writing I always used the marker board. I always chose one word that I knew he would be able to write so that he gained confidence in his ability to write. As the lessons went on I just carried one of the words over that he almost had to review before being able to add it to his fluency list. We used the paper letters for word work and after I felt he had them down we would write some of the words in his journal so he could show his parents. He loved his journal!

16. Lesson # 3 Cont.

17. Lesson # 3 Cont.

18. Lesson # 3 Cont. Cut up sentences were fun for him, I think this exercise helped with his reading fluency as well because he understood what he was reading, he knew the words and it all made sense when he put it all together. Ended lesson 3 with book walk - Frog is Hungry. Level D – scored independent. I still stayed on level D for lesson 4 and 5 because he is not reading fluently and gathering meaning. At the start of the lessons from here on out I would read the familiar reading with him so he could here the inflection and smoothness in my reading.

19. Lesson # 5 I kept him at a level D for this lesson, knowing that he would most likely score independent but really wanting him to work on gathering meaning from the story. There was much more fluency in his reading during this lesson and he really showed that he was using the cuing systems we talked about. I started to see him rereading more and more just to confirm what he had read.

20. Lesson # 5 Cont.

21. Lesson # 5 Cont. We spent most of the time on reading this lesson because I felt that he was doing better in his writing than his reading and I really wanted to focus on meaningful reading. The word work words we worked on were the “oo” sound due to some confusion as well as him missing it on his assessment. Took, look, book, cook. Making and breaking exercise.

22. Lesson # 5 Cont.

23. Lesson # 7 This lesson was a little frustrating it was the first lesson after 2 weeks off due to Spring Break and he was not in the mood to focus at all. We started with the familiar reading and moved right into reviewing a few fluency words. This went well, then we moved on to journal writing. So he gave me his sentence and we practiced before we wrote it neatly.

24. Lesson # 7

25. Lesson # 7

26. Lesson # 7 We moved on to level E which he scored frustration level. He reread to correct his errors and this book had some pretty unfamiliar words. On lesson 8 we did level E as well and he scored instructional.

27. Review of Lessons For the last lesson I kept working on word work and fluency writing. I decided to keep him at level E for the last lesson because his results were not coming back consistent. I kept trying to help him develop more meaningful reading by reading more fluently and rereading when he doesn’t understand. Cross checking and using the pictures were also coming along better for him.

28. Last Assessment The last assessment did show some improvement. I was excited to see that at least the things we had worked on from the previous assessment suck with him  I was able to develop a better understanding of his reading level. The last assessment was much less stressful than the first, because I knew what I was looking for. His final levels in reading were Easy level D, Instructional level E and Frustration level F and G.

29. Assessment Review Final Assessment First Assessment

30. Last Assessment Cont.

31. Last Assessment Cont.

32. Over All… This was a huge learning experience, I can honestly say there are several things I would do differently now that I know how the sessions are suppose to run, but all in all I learned a lot and I think my reader did too!