Reader Case Study

Rachel Brown

December 8, 2011

Dr. Eastman

Educ 301

Reader Case Study

Background information

The student chosen for this case study is a fourth grade, male student. He is ten years old

and lives with his mother, an older sister who is a Junior in High School, and grandparents. His

parents are separated and his mother has partial custody. The student spends his weekdays with

his mother and grandparents, and spends weekends with his father. In his free time, he enjoys

spending time outdoors and playing. He likes hunting and guns, wild life, and anything

outdoorsy. He also loves spending time with his grandparents. He reports that he doesn’t like

reading and that reading is hard. He is currently not identified with a learning disability, but is

going through the testing process. The reader works one on one with a retired teacher on phonics

once a week to help improve his reading skills.

Assessments

According to the student’s teacher, the reader is currently reading at a second grade level.

On the Fountas and Pinnell level scale, he is reading level M books. The areas of greatest

concern with the students reading are phonics, accuracy and fluency. He struggles with word

chunks and stretching words. His teacher is confident that he is able to improve, given extra help

and instruction. After discussing focus areas with the fourth grade teacher, the researcher has

decided that the intervention will focus on reading fluency, since the student is already receiving

additional instruction with phonics.

Throughout this case study, the researcher will be conducting three assessments which

include a screening assessment, a progress monitoring assessment, and a post assessment to see

the students overall improvement. The researcher will also be tutoring the student along with one

of his classmates after school once per week for forty-five minutes. During this time, the

researcher will provide instruction to help improve the student’s fluency.

The first assessment that will be given is the screening. This will allow the researcher to

determine the reader’s current standing and decide how to formulate the intervention instruction

so that the reader will grow from the information gained. The base score gained from this

assessment will also be used to see growth from the beginning of the case study to the end. This

information will be put into a graph to show the readers growth over the course.

The researcher will use a reading rate assessment for the screening to see exactly where

the student is in their fluency and reading speed. In this assessment, the student is given a book

or passage to read. He will be timed for one minute, and the researcher will track how many

words he read in that minute. The information gained from this will show the researcher the

current reading rate for the student. This will help determine what will be taught during the

tutoring sessions between assessments.

The second assessment that the researcher will be administering to the fourth grade

student will be a progress monitoring assessment. This will be given after half of the intervention

sessions. There will be a total of 5 tutoring sessions, so the test will be given during the third

session.

The researcher has decided that this progress monitoring assessment will be a Multi-

Dimensional Fluency Scale. The purpose of this assessment is to assess the student’s expression,

volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace. For each of these categories, the student will be

assigned a score ranging from one to four. The assessment will be given using a familiar book at

the students reading level. As the student reads, the researcher will listen to the reader, focusing

on the categories of expression, volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace; and will rate the

student in each of these categories. The results from this test will show if the first three

intervention sessions have been successful. It will also show whether the intervention strategy

needs to be altered or redirected.

Finally the researcher will give an outcome based assessment. The purpose of an outcome

based assessment is to determine how much progress that a student has made from the beginning

of the case study to the end of a series of instruction sessions. This information will be charted in

a graph to visually show whether or not the student has made any overall improvement and how

much they have improved.

For this assessment, the researcher decided that repeating the reading rate assessment

would be the best option. This will be done with a different book than the first one, but will still

be using a book that the reader is familiar with. This will allow the researcher to get a clear view

of how much growth in fluency that the reader has been made since the first assessment was

given. The researcher will compare the results of the screening, progress monitoring, and

outcome based assessments and create an excel graph to get a clear view of the student’s

progress throughout the tutoring sessions.

Assessment Database

Name Grade How to use When to use Information

provided

Reference

information

Dynamic

Indicators of

Basic Early

Literacy

Skills

(DIBELS)

1-3 Students read a

passage out

loud for one

minute

To identify

students in

need of

additional

assistance and

support

Fluency rate

and phonemic

awareness

www.rti4success.

org/chart/

progressMonitori

ng/impTable/

diblesORF.html

Reading

Rate

Assessment

K-5 Students read a

passage for one

minute; the

number of

words

correctly

identified are

Beginning of

the school

year, and

throughout.

Fluency www.assessment/

readingrate/qrp

recorded

Running

Record

K-12 Student reads a

passage while

teacher keeps

track and

calculates

corrections and

mistakes

Any time.

Useful to do

periodically to

observe growth

Assesses

Fluency and

Decoding

www.Readinga-

z.com

Cloze K-12 Using a grade

level passage,

leave out every

nth word. The

students fill in

the missing

word

Any time,

particularly

useful during

beginning of

year

Assesses

Comprehension

http://

olc.spsd.sk.ca/

DE/PD/instr/

strats/cloze/

index.html

Multi-

dimensional

fluency

scale

3-6 Using a rubric,

reader is rated

on a scale of 1-

4 in

expression,

volume,

phrasing,

smoothness,

Beginning,

middle, and

end or year

Fluency http://

classroom.jc-

schools.net/read/

fluencyscale.pdf

and pace.

Gray Oral

Reading

Test

2-12 Students read a

passage aloud.

Teacher

monitors oral

reading

accuracy and

categorizes the

errors made.

Then a few

comprehension

questions are

asked

Any time you

want to

monitor a

student’s

decoding or

comprehension

Comprehension

/decoding

www.proedinc.co

m/customer/

default.aspx

Alphabet

Assessment

K-2 Using a student

response sheet,

student points

out and names

letters and

letter sounds

3-4 times per

year

Letter names

and sound

recognition

http://

teams.lacoe.edu/

reading/

assessments/

alphabet.html

Phase II: Developing a Plan

Part D: Administration of Screening Assessment

As indicated in the previous phase, the researcher will be tutoring the fourth grade

student in an attempt to improve his reading fluency. To see where the student was at prior to

instruction, the researcher decided to utilize a reading rate assessment on October 12, 2011, This

assessment is intended to help the researcher narrow in on the students exact needs and to help

focus the instruction to be provided for the student.

Part E: Interpretations of Assessment

After administering the reading rate screening assessment, the reader found that the

student is reading 81 words per minute. The student did his reading from a book that was at his

current reading level (level N) and in a book that he had read once before this assessment. The

average reading speed for a fourth grade student is around 120 - 130 words per minute. The

students score is significantly lower than that of the average fourth grade student.

The researcher also observed that the student’s reading was labored and choppy, resulting in the

slow reading time. As he read, the reader read with no expression, and did not read the passage

with the appropriate punctuation. Often, he did not pause at the end of sentences or commas, or

would pause at inappropriate places throughout the sentences.

Part F: Plan of Action

The researcher has decided that the plan of action will focus on the fluency skills of

reading sight words, reading with emotion and expression, following punctuation rules while

reading, and phrasing. Each of these strategies will help the reader improve his skills in reading

fluency. For each lesson, the researcher will start with a reading rate assessment to track the

reader’s progress and growth. These lessons will be taught during tutoring sessions after school

once a week along with another fourth grade student who struggles with reading fluency.

Lesson 1: Sight words

The researcher will begin the first lesson by reading from a level N book. During this

time, the researcher will repeat the reading rate assessment. The student will read for about 5-10

minutes after the assessment. After reading, the students will play a sight word game. The game

is called the “Oops game”, and is played by two or more players. The researcher will prepare

flashcards with fourth grade sight words. There are also several cards that have the word

“OOPS!” written on them. All the cards are placed face down on a table. Players take turns

drawing a card. They must flip it over and say the word quickly and correctly. If they don’t, the

group says the word and then it is returned to the card pile. If they are able to read it correctly

and quickly, the student gets to keep the word. If a card with the word “OOPS!” is drawn, then

the student must return that card, and all of the ones they have collected to the pile. The game

continues until one player has accumulated 7 cards. That person is the winner of the round. This

is beneficial because when cards are returned to the pile, the student is then drawing out familiar

words. As he play this game, the words should become easier for him to read because they are

more familiar. After playing this game, I will talk with the student about re-reading and how that

improves fluency. The more he reads the section, the more comfortable he will be with it, which

will allow him to read more fluently. Finally, we will finish up by re-reading the section from the

book that he read at the beginning of the lesson.

Lesson 2: Periods, Question marks, and Exclamation points

This intervention session will begin with the student reading from the book Stanley, Flat

Again by Jeff Brown. This book is a Level N reading level, which is the student’s reading level.

While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment again. After five to

ten minutes of reading, the researcher will introduce the book Punctuation takes a Vacation. The

student and researcher will read the book together. The researcher will read a few pages to model

fluent reading and how to properly follow punctuation marks. The researcher will ask the

students questions such as “how does your voice sound at the end of a sentence with a question

mark? (It goes up) “What do you do when you come to a period? (Whole stop) and “What does

your voice sound like when you read something with an exclamation point at the end?” (Excited,

emotion) Then the student will read the remaining pages and be asked to read fluently and with

proper pauses based on the punctuation present. Then the student will practice reading a variety

of sentences with a variety of punctuation marks that were created by the researcher. After

reading through the sentences, the student will write his own sentences using the punctuation

marks discussed during the lesson and then read them with the proper expression. To end the

lesson, the student will read more of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again.

For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter one from Stanley, Flat

Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to

read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.

Lesson 3: Commas and quotation marks

To start off, the reader will read part of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again. While the

student is reading, the researcher will administer a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale assessment.

After reading for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on periods,

question marks, and exclamation points. Then the researcher will introduce the book Eats,

Shoots, leaves. The researcher will read a few pages to model fluent reading and how to properly

follow the punctuation marks. Throughout the reading, questions will be asked such as “what do

I do when I come to a comma?” (Pause), or “what do the quotation marks tell me?” (Someone is

talking). The student will read the remaining pages and be asked to try to read fluently and with

proper punctuation rules being followed. The student will then practice reading a variety of

sentences that utilize commas and quotation marks. The researcher will once again model how to

read a sentence with the punctuation and then the student will practice reading the sentences.

Finally, the student will practice creating his own sentences using commas and quotation marks

and read them aloud. To end the intervention session, the student will begin reading chapter two

from Stanley, Flat Again.

For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter two from Stanley, Flat

Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to

read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.

Lesson 4: Reading with emotion and expression

The reader will begin this lesson by reading part of chapter two of Stanley, Flat Again. During

this time, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the reader has read for

five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on commas and quotation

marks by asking the student to read a few sentences containing those punctuation marks. During

this lesson the instructor will discuss the importance of reading with emotion and expression.

The researcher will ask questions such as “why is it important to read using expression?” or

“How do you know which expression should be used?” (Sometimes the book tells you, or by

using context clues) Using Stanley, Flat Again, the researcher and student will echo read the

book. The researcher will read the page first; modeling reading with emotion and expression, and

then the student will follow, also using emotion and expression. After reading the book, the

student will be asked to read a sentence from a graphic organizer using multiple emotions (ex.

Excited, sad, bored, angrily). This will be repeated with several sentences. Finally, the student

will practice creating some of his own sentences. He will be asked to write a sentence he would

read in an excited tone, angry tone, etc. He will then read those sentences with the emotions. To

end the lesson, the student will start reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again, using proper

emotion and expression.

For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat

Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience

Lesson 5: Phrasing

To start this lesson, the reader will read part of chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again.

While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the student

has read for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review reading with expression and emotion.

Then the researcher will discuss phrasing with the student. The researcher will explain that rather

than looking at each individual word one at a time, the student can break a reading into phrases

to make the reading more manageable without stopping at each word. “Which is easier, to read a

small section of words, or a whole page of words?” To practice this, the student will be asked to

read some poetry from Shell Silverstine. He will be asked to remember what he has learned in

previous lessons and read the poetry while following punctuation marks and reading with

emotion and expression. This will be a chance for the reader to show what he has learned so far

and model his fluency skills.

Parent Letter:

Dear Parent/Guardian,

With your permission, I have recently started working with your student after school on

Wednesdays to help develop his reading skills. After talking with his classroom teacher, we

decided that the area of reading that I should focus on with him would be fluency because that is

one of his current weaknesses. Fluency is a student’s speed, smoothness and ease of oral reading.

Fluent readers are able to read quicker and smoother which allows students to focus on their

comprehension of what they are reading rather than focusing on trying to decipher and sound out

each word. To begin this case study, I administered a reading rate screening assessment. From

this assessment, I gathered that your child is able to sound out words, but he needs additional

instruction to help smooth out his reading, increase his reading speed, recognize common words,

and read with emotion and expression. I have planned 5 mini-lessons to work with your child to

further develop his reading fluency.

In our lessons, we will spend time practicing fourth grade common sight words. We will

also be working on how punctuation affects reading, and how to implement that in his oral

reading. We will spend a lot of time reading out loud to allow him time to practice reading with

emotion, and expression, as well as practicing to read smoothly. With these lessons, we will be

setting a goal of increasing your child’s reading rate as well as his confidence in oral reading,

and his tone and expression while reading.

With that being said, he will be expected to practice his reading skills at home to continue

the use of each strategy. It will be important to your child’s learning that these lessons are

reinforced and practiced at home. Since your child already has assigned classroom reading that

he is supposed to do each week for his classroom teacher, I will be assigning him additional

readings each week to practice the skills we are working on. These sections will need to be read

before the next session that we meet for. It would be helpful if he had an audience to practice his

reading skills with. Each week, he will have a different skill he will be working on. As he reads,

he should be encouraged to incorporate the skills we are learning at school into his reading. I

appreciate you allowing me to work with your child. I look forward to working with him and

hope to see improvement in his reading skills. If you have any questions, please contact me by

phone at (260)-579-1627 or by email at rebrown@spartans.manchester.edu.

Sincerely,

Rachel Brown

Dear Mrs. Clark,

After discussing with you your student’s strengths and weaknesses, I have decided to

focus my instruction time with him on fluency. During my reading rate screening assessment

with him, I learned that he is currently reading about 81 words per minute. This is below what he

should be at for his grade level. I also observed that he often ignored punctuation marks, not

pausing for commas, or stopping at periods. On occasion, he would put pauses at awkward

places in sentences. While he was reading, I observed minimal expression and emotion in his

reading. It is my hope that with additional instruction time, his reading fluency can be improved

upon.

My plan for his instructional time is centered on fluency. We will start each day by

repeating the reading rate screening assessment to track his reading rate. I will start off his

instruction with a lesson where we will practice high frequency sight words. Next, we will spend

a couple of our instructional periods working with punctuation marks and how they affect

reading. We will work on periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, and quotation

marks. With these, we will spend a large amount of time modeling and practicing what reading

sounds like when these marks are used. After that I will work with him on using emotion and

expression while reading. Finally, he will practice his phrasing and reading groups of words

rather than focusing on decoding one word at a time. In order to do this I will utilize poetry in his

instruction. It is my hope that throughout these lessons, he begins to make an improvement in his

confidence and reading fluency.

Throughout his reading instruction, I will be giving your student weekly goals to practice

before we meet for our next lesson. It is important that he is reminded to practice these skills in

order to improve his skills. It would be helpful if, during classroom reading time, he is

encouraged to use the skills we are focusing on that week. I would love to hear feedback from

you on my instructional plan as well as your view throughout the process as to the changes that

you may see in your student’s fluency. Thank you for allowing me to work with one of your

students. I appreciate your willingness and guidance. If you have any questions for me, feel free

to contact me by phone or email.

Sincerely,

Rachel Brown

Graphic organizer web

He ate the last piece of pizza.

Angry

Sad

Excited

Today is Friday.

Angry

Sad

Excited

We went to the movies last night.

Sad

Confused

Excited

I saw a deer yesterday.

Angry

Sad

Excited

The Romans lost the battle.

Angry

Sad

Excited

Confused

We have homework tonight.

Angry

Sad

Excited

We have a dog at home.

Angry

Sad

Excited

I have a new baby brother.

Angry

Sad

Excited

PHASE III: Tutoring: conducting the action plan

Lesson 1: Sight words

The researcher will begin the first lesson by reading from a level N book. During this

time, the researcher will repeat the reading rate assessment. The student will read for about 5-10

minutes after the assessment. After reading, the students will play a sight word game. The game

is called the “Oops game”, and is played by two or more players. The researcher will prepare

flashcards with fourth grade sight words. There are also several cards that have the word

“OOPS!” written on them. All the cards are placed face down on a table. Players take turns

drawing a card. They must flip it over and say the word quickly and correctly. If they don’t, the

group says the word and then it is returned to the card pile. If they are able to read it correctly

and quickly, the student gets to keep the word. If a card with the word “OOPS!” is drawn, then

the student must return that card, and all of the ones they have collected to the pile. The game

continues until one player has accumulated 7 cards. That person is the winner of the round. This

is beneficial because when cards are returned to the pile, the student is then drawing out familiar

words. As he play this game, the words should become easier for him to read because they are

more familiar. After playing this game, I will talk with the student about re-reading and how that

improves fluency. The more he reads the section, the more comfortable he will be with it, which

will allow him to read more fluently. Finally, we will finish up by re-reading the section from the

book that he read at the beginning of the lesson.

Reflection:

This lesson was given on October 19, 2011. The researcher started with a reading rate

assessment over a level M book. The student was able to read 81 words per minute. His reading

was very choppy, and he struggled to read many of the words. The researcher also noted that the

reader did not read with expression and seemed to disregard punctuation marks. The student

graphed his progress on a words per minute bar graph. The researcher explained to him that this

was something he would be doing at the beginning of every lesson. He decided to set a personal

goal of reading 100 words per minute by the end of the sessions. The student read for around 8

minutes in the book, but only made it through a few pages. He was easily frustrated by the

reading. The researcher introduced the “Oops game” to the student. This game was played

between the research subject and another student who participated in all of the tutoring sessions.

The game started out relatively slow, as the student struggled to read the words. The student

noticed and commented on the fact that he was able to read the cards that he had previously read

faster when he encountered them for a second or third time. After this realization, the researcher

stopped the game to have a brief discussion with the student about how this concept could apply

to his reading. The researcher guided the student to the realization that re-reading a section of a

book gets easier each time it is read. The game was resumed and the students eagerly played for

a few more minutes. After the game, the student re-read the same section of the level M book he

had read at the beginning of the lesson. Although there was not a huge difference in his reading,

he did comment about how he didn’t have to ask how to say some of the words that he did ask

about the first time he read the book.

If this lesson were to be repeated, different cards for the “Oops Game” should be used.

The researcher did not realize that the writing on the cards could be seen through the back of the

card. Because of this, the student was able to avoid choosing long words. This was corrected by

having the student close his eyes while choosing a card, but it would work better if new cards

were used.

Lesson 2: Periods, Question marks, and Exclamation points

This intervention session will begin with the student reading from the book Stanley, Flat

Again by Jeff Brown. This book is a Level N reading level, which is the student’s reading level.

While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment again. After five to

ten minutes of reading, the researcher will introduce the book Punctuation takes a Vacation. The

student and researcher will read the book together. The researcher will read a few pages to model

fluent reading and how to properly follow punctuation marks. The researcher will ask the

students questions such as “how does your voice sound at the end of a sentence with a question

mark? (It goes up) “What do you do when you come to a period? (Whole stop) and “What does

your voice sound like when you read something with an exclamation point at the end?” (Excited,

emotion) Then the student will read the remaining pages and be asked to read fluently and with

proper pauses based on the punctuation present. Then the student will practice reading a variety

of sentences with a variety of punctuation marks that were created by the researcher. After

reading through the sentences, the student will write his own sentences using the punctuation

marks discussed during the lesson and then read them with the proper expression. To end the

lesson, the student will read more of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again.

For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter one from Stanley, Flat

Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to

read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.

Reflection:

This lesson was given on November 2, 2011. The session started off with the student

reading from the book Stanley, Flat Again, a level N book. For his reading rate assessment, the

student read 70 words per minute. This was a drop in performance, but the student had recently

moved up to a higher level book, and was struggling with the more difficult reading level. The

student graphed his progress, although he was disappointed with his lack of progress. The

student’s reading was once again very choppy, and he complained about having to read.

After reading, the researcher read the book Punctuation takes a Vacation, which the

student said he had heard before. The student struggled to answer the question about what

happens to someone’s voice at the end of a question. The researcher modeled this several times

before the student was able to identify how the voice changed. After discussing how the

different punctuation marks affect reading fluency, the student read sentences taken from

Stanley, Flat Again that ended with periods, question marks, and exclamation points. The student

did a good job of reading these sentences using the proper expression for the punctuation marks

present. On a couple of the sentences, he realized that he was not using the proper expression,

and started the sentence over using the proper expression. Next, the student was asked to write

his own sentences using the punctuation marks discussed. Finally, the student read a few more

pages of Stanley, Flat Again. It was apparent that the student was trying to use expression when

he read sentences ending with periods, question marks, and exclamation points. While he did not

read all the sentences this way, he did attempt to use expression with most of his sentences. His

reading was still very segmented and laborious. The reader was not happy when he was asked to

read the rest of the chapter on his own for the next session, but agreed to do so.

Lesson 3: Commas and quotation marks

To start off, the reader will read part of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again. While the

student is reading, the researcher will administer a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale assessment.

After reading for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on periods,

question marks, and exclamation points. Then the researcher will introduce the book Eats,

Shoots, leaves. The researcher will read a few pages to model fluent reading and how to properly

follow the punctuation marks. Throughout the reading, questions will be asked such as “what do

I do when I come to a comma?” (Pause), or “what do the quotation marks tell me?” (Someone is

talking). The student will read the remaining pages and be asked to try to read fluently and with

proper punctuation rules being followed. The student will then practice reading a variety of

sentences that utilize commas and quotation marks. The researcher will once again model how to

read a sentence with the punctuation and then the student will practice reading the sentences.

Finally, the student will practice creating his own sentences using commas and quotation marks

and read them aloud. To end the intervention session, the student will begin reading chapter two

from Stanley, Flat Again.

For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter two from Stanley, Flat

Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to

read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.

Reflection:

This lesson was given on November 9, 2011. The student had done his reading

assignment, but rather than just reading the first chapter of the book, he read the entire book,

although he admitted that he did not read it out loud like he was asked; he read it “in his head”.

He was asked to read a familiar section of the book, starting at chapter two. During this time, the

researcher administered a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale assessment. In this assessment, the

readers score (as seen below) added up to 9 points out of 16 possible points. According to the

rubric, this means that the reader still needs additional instruction in fluent reading. This helped

the researcher to gain valuable information about the readers progress and evaluate the

effectiveness of previous lessons, and look at future lessons to see if they would meet the

student’s needs. The researcher was not planning on using a reading rate assessment on this

lesson since another assessment was already being used, but the student complained when he

was not able to fill out his words per minute bar graph. For this reason, the researcher added this

to the lesson as well. The student read once again from Stanley, Flat Again, and read 74 words

per minute. This was a slight improvement for the student, and he was excited about the progress

he had made.

After the assessments, the researcher read the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves to the

student. The researcher modeled how to pause at a comma and read fluently. The student then

tried to do the same. In his attempt, his pause was very long, more like as if there had been a

period present. The researcher addressed this, and re-modeled the skill. The student tried again

and did a much better job pausing for the appropriate amount of time. Next, the researcher

decided to change the plans slightly and use a reader’s theater script with the student. This was

decided because the script incorporated quotation marks and commas, as well as other

punctuation marks used in previous lessons. The activity was also a more engaging one for the

student. The student was excited to use the reader’s theater, taken from pbskids.org, and

incorporated funny voices into his reading, although he was not consistent in the use of the

voices. The script was gone through one and a half times, but his grandfather arrived early and

he needed to leave before the lesson was completed. The researcher felt like the student

understood the lesson, although she would have liked more time to work with the student on this

skill. It was decided that the researcher would continue on to the next lesson, even though this

lesson had not been completed.

Name __________________________________________________

Fluency Rubric

1 2 3 4

Expression and Volume Reads in a quiet voice as

if to get words out. The

reading does not sound

natural like talking to a

friend

Reads in a quiet voice.

The reading sounds

natural in part of the

text, but the reader does

not always sound like

they are talking to a

friend.

Reads with volume and

expression. However,

sometimes the reader

slips into expressionless

reading and does not

sound like they are

talking to a friend.

Reads with varied

volume and expression.

The reader sounds like

they are talking to a

friend with their voice

matching the

interpretation of the

passage.

Phrasing Reads word-by-word in

a monotone voice

Reads in two to three

word phrases, not

adhering to punctuation,

stress and intonation

Reads with a mixture of

run-ons, mid-sentence

pauses for breath, and

some choppiness. There

Reads with good

phrasing; adhering to

punctuation, stress, and

is reasonable stress and

intonation.

intonation.

Smoothness Frequently hesitates

while reading, sounds

out words, and repeats

words or phrases. The

reader makes multiple

attempts to read the

same passage

Reads with extended

pauses or hesitations.

The reader has many

“rough spots.”

Reads with occasional

breaks in rhythm. The

reader has difficulty

with specific words

and/or sentence

structures.

Reads smoothly with

some breaks, but self

corrects with difficult

words and/or sentence

structures.

Pace Reads slow and

laboriously.

Reads moderately slow. Reads fast and slow

throughout reading.

Reads at a

conversational pace

throughout the reading.

Scores of 10 or more indicate that the student is making good progress in fluency. Score __9___

Scores below 10 indicate that the student needs additional instruction in fluency.

Lesson 4: Reading with emotion and expression

The reader will begin this lesson by reading part of chapter two of Stanley, Flat Again.

During this time, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the reader has

read for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on commas and

quotation marks by asking the student to read a few sentences containing those punctuation

marks. During this lesson the instructor will discuss the importance of reading with emotion and

expression. The researcher will ask questions such as “why is it important to read using

expression?” or “How do you know which expression should be used?” (Sometimes the book

tells you, or by using context clues) Using Stanley, Flat Again, the researcher and student will

echo read the book. The researcher will read the page first; modeling reading with emotion and

expression, and then the student will follow, also using emotion and expression. After reading

the book, the student will be asked to read a sentence from a graphic organizer using multiple

emotions (ex. Excited, sad, bored, angrily). This will be repeated with several sentences. Finally,

the student will practice creating some of his own sentences. He will be asked to write a sentence

he would read in an excited tone, angry tone, etc. He will then read those sentences with the

emotions. To end the lesson, the student will start reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again,

using proper emotion and expression.

For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat

Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience

Reflection:

This lesson was given on November 16, 2011. When the researcher met with the student

for this lesson, he very excitedly told the researcher that he had moved up to reading level O. He

was very proud of his improvement. He also informed the researcher that he had read Stanley,

Flat Again for a second time all the way through, and wanted to read something new. With no

time to prepare a book for the change in the reader’s level and desire for a new book, the

researcher asked the reader to pick a book out of his bag of books that the classroom teacher

selects for him. These books are selected based on his current reading level, skills, and interests.

He selected a non-fiction book, Amazing Gorillas! By Sarah L. Thomson. This is a book that he

had read before and was familiar with. The book was used for the student’s reading rate

assessment. The student read 76 words per minute, which was only a two word per minute

increase, but was at a higher level from his previous book. The student continued to read for

several minutes after his reading rate assessment. Afterwards, he eagerly filled in his bar graph.

After this, the researcher reviewed the previous lessons with the student. This then

transitioned into a discussion of using emotion while reading. The researcher modeled this by

reading a section of the Flat Stanley book twice, once with emotion and once without. The

researcher then asked “which of these sounds better”, to which the student selected the one read

with emotion. A discussion was had about how a good reader uses emotion in their reading to

interest listeners and show how characters are feeling. Using a graphic organizer, the researcher

had the student read multiple sentences with various emotions. The student was able to easily do

this activity. The researcher asked the student to use the flat Stanley book to practice this skill,

since it had characters that displayed various emotions. The student selected his favorite section

from this book. He struggled at first to read with the appropriate emotions, but once he

discovered which emotions were being used, he was able to go back and read the section again

using the right emotion. Overall, for this lesson it became apparent that the student did know

how to read with emotion, but found it embarrassing to do so. Once he got more comfortable

with the idea of doing this, his only struggle was determining which emotion the character in the

book was feeling. His reading throughout this lesson was still rather slow, but was a bit smoother

than it had been in previous lessons, and he spent less time pausing to sound out words.

Lesson 5: Phrasing

To start this lesson, the reader will read part of chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again.

While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the student

has read for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review reading with expression and emotion.

Then the researcher will discuss phrasing with the student. The researcher will explain that rather

than looking at each individual word one at a time, the student can break a reading into phrases

to make the reading more manageable without stopping at each word. “Which is easier, to read a

small section of words, or a whole page of words?” To practice this, the student will be asked to

read some poetry from Shell Silverstine. He will be asked to remember what he has learned in

previous lessons and read the poetry while following punctuation marks and reading with

emotion and expression. This will be a chance for the reader to show what he has learned so far

and model his fluency skills.

Reflection:

This lesson was given on November 30, 2011. This lesson was started off by reading a

familiar book that the student chose. He chose to read Amazing Snakes! By Sarah L. Thomson,

which is a level O book. After the student had read for several minutes, the researcher introduced

the book Over, Under, by the Clover: What is a Preposition? by Brian Claery and Brian Gable.

The researcher read part of this book to the student and discussed prepositions and prepositional

phrases. The student was asked to find prepositions on different pages of the book, and was able

to do so about 75% of the time. This led to having the student find the prepositional phrases,

which he did with similar levels of success. The researcher explained that by reading groups of

words together, reading sounds more fluent. The student then practiced this by reading poetry

from the book Falling Up by Shell Silverstine. The student really enjoyed this poetry because it

was entertaining and funny. He was able to read more fluently with phrasing on poems that were

short and broken up into many lines. Poems that had more than 5 or 6 words per line were read

more broken up and choppy. Although the reader didn’t seem to completely understand the

concept of prepositions and prepositional phrases, he did understand the concept of reading

groups of words together, rather than reading one word at a time. His reading was smoother and

had more expression during this lesson than it had during any other lesson.

The researcher then had the student return to the book he read at the beginning of the

lesson for his outcome based assessment. The student read Amazing Snakes! By Sarah L.

Thompson. He read 95 words per minute. This was a 19 word per minute increase. This was a

huge improvement for the student. The researcher reflected on this large jump in progress and

concluded that part of the reasoning for this might be that there had been two weeks between this

assessment and the last, since the student was not available the week before.

Phase IV: Impact on learning

Narrative of Improvement

The reader’s screening assessment – a reading rate assessment- revealed that he was

reading 81 words per minute in a level M book, which was his reading level at the beginning of

the intervention sessions. This assessment was done for every intervention session. On attempt

two, there was a significant drop in the readers score. This is most likely due to the fact that the

reader had tested into a level N book earlier in the day, and therefore did his reading rate

assessment with a level N book. His score raised slightly on attempt 3, where he was once again

using a level N book. The reader moved onto a level O book prior to his fourth attempt. The

researcher expected the reader’s score to have at least a slight drop in words read per minute

since the book being read was more difficult. This was not the case though; the reader made a

slight increase in his reading rate. For the outcome based assessment, the student was once again

reading a level O book. This assessment was two weeks after the last reading rate assessment

because the student was not available the previous week. The student had significant growth

between his fourth and fifth attempt. His final score was 95 words per minute. This was

significant growth because the student went from a book level M reading 81 words per minute to

a book level O reading 95 words per minute.

The progress monitoring assessment helped to assess where the student was half way

through the case study. This helped see where the student was at in his progress and what areas

needed more work. The student was assessed using a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale Rubric.

His cumulative score showed that the student still needed additional support for fluency. This

assessment showed that the student needed the most work in the areas of expression and volume,

smoothness, and pace. He was making fair progress with his phrasing, but still needed work in

that category as well. This information helped to make sure that the following lessons would be

beneficial for the student.

The curriculum for this case study was created to meet the needs of the reader. This was

done with suggestions and assistance from the classroom teacher as well as from using data from

the screening assessment. Throughout the case study, the student’s progress was monitored to

make sure the lessons were effective and beneficial for the student. The result of this was growth

in the student’s reading fluency.

Although there were not really any samples of the student work, since most of the work

was verbal, there were noticeable changes in the reader. The students reading level and speed

increased throughout the case study. His reading rate bar graph that he created showed his

growth over time. The student actually set his own goals for his reading at 100 words per minute.

The average reading rate for a fourth grade student is 120-130 words, so a goal of 100 words per

minute is an appropriate goal.

The student’s attitude towards reading changed slightly towards the end of the case study.

Throughout the whole case study, the student had a very short attention span for reading. This

did not change throughout the lesson. His motivation towards reading did change slightly

though. At the beginning of the case study, it was a struggle to convince the student read. Over

the course of the lessons, the researcher began to figure out more of the reader’s interests and

incorporate them into the lessons. This, along with a wider variety of activities, increased the

student’s motivation and willingness to work through the lessons. He was particularly motivated

while reading poetry written by shell Silverstine because the poems are humorous.

Researcher Reflection

The researcher also grew as a reading teacher throughout the planning and

implementation of the case study. Having an opportunity to administer a variety of assessments

and interpret the data in order to plan out intervention sessions to meet a student’s specific

learning needs. Practice was also gained in turning data into a graph for easier reading and

interpretation. In the future, the researcher hopes to plan out lessons that will interest and engage

students so that they are motivated to learn. In this case study it wasn’t until the second half of

the case study that the student began to be motivated by the lessons presented to him. In the

future, the researcher would also like to gain additional experience on planning lessons for other

areas of reading instruction in order to provide students with the best resources and teaching

styles available.