Kelsey Olson

Adv. Curriculum & Instruction Diverse Learner

Case Study Section IV
November 18, 2014
IV.

Instruction Designed to Improve Literacy Achievement

Sara has two literacy related annual goals in her IEP. The first is for reading
comprehension and concerns her ability to answer who, what, when, where, why, and
how questions. The second is a writing goal and states that Sara will be able to compose a
single paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a conclusion. From my
time working with her I have learned that Sara really likes reading, but can grow
frustrated quickly when she has to work on writing assignments or answer more complex
questions that relate to the book. Sara also likes to read quickly and will often mis-read a
word or leave off the suffix or contraction. She also struggles with re-telling stories that
she has just read aloud. Saras main areas of literacy instructional need are improving
reading comprehension skills, decoding unknown words and contractions, increasing
knowledge of spelling patterns, and practicing writing.
Sara receives services in the RSP room four days a week. For two of those days
she works mainly on Lexia Reading Core5, a technology based reading program that
supports phonics, structural analysis, automaticity/fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension skills. Her teacher is trying to get her to work with this program at home
so that more class time can be devoted to other forms of instruction. The program sets a
personalized goal time that each student needs to meet weekly in order to continue to
progress towards grade-level goals on schedule. The program provides a lot of detailed
unique data to the teachers and most importantly helps improving literacy skills. When
Sara is working on Lexia, I will sit next to her to provide extra support when she needs it.
The program recognizes when a student is struggling and will back up and go over more
basic skills, but I think it is important to be there to provide instruction that is even more
personalized and relates to visual cues of what the student needs. Sometimes an extra
explanation of the activity is needed for Sara to grasp the goal or skill set for the task.
One of the most challenging Lexia levels for Sara was on the Silent E. For this level, the
program said a word and asked the student to move the letter tiles into the correct order to
spell the word. There was always a spot for the Silent E, even if the word did not call for
it, which I thought could be confusing, but I am not sure how the program could have the
students practice this concept differently. In order to help Sara spell the word I started by

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having her repeat the target word aloud and ask if she heard the vowel say its name. I
soon realized that this was not enough support and Sara did not fully grasp the idea of
the vowel saying its name. Next I said the two different sounds for the vowel in the
target word and then segmented the target word so the vowel sound was clear. I repeated
this support for each word as we worked through the level. After about five words I asked
her to start saying the word herself to determine if there was a Silent E. Even though she
did eventually pass the level after a couple of weeks of work, I think this concept will still
need additional practice. I taught a lesson on Silent E to two 2nd graders that had them
practicing the difference between words like cut and cute and Rob and robe. I
think that this sort of practice might benefit Sara as well because it focused on the
different vowel sounds and relied equally on saying and writing the words.
Saras interest level is high when working on Lexia and she continues to show
good effort even when a level is particularly difficult for her, as long as someone is
working with her. Ive noticed when Sara is asked to work on the program without a
teacher the whole time, she becomes moody and sometimes refuses to work when a level
is more challenging. Unlike some of the younger students, Sara is very aware when the
program takes a step back to go over more basic skills. This happens after the student
incorrectly answers two or three questions on a level. Prior to the level on Silent E, the
main cause of incorrect answers seemed to be Sara trying to move through the program
too quickly. Ive worked with her on slowing down and reading everything on the screen
carefully in order to help decrease the number of incorrect answers I believe she would
have answered correctly if she had been working slightly slower. Ive reminded her that
this can help her understand the lessons and reading passages better. I think her desire to
work quickly is partially due to being on an iPad/computer and feeling like things must
be clicked quickly, and partially because this is an academic program and there is a focus
to finish work and reading quickly. I think that as Sara works on slowing down during
literacy tasks on the iPad as well as while reading books, she will improve her accuracy
for both activities. We have continued practicing slowing down while reading both
books and iPads together. I have found that exaggerating my own pauses while reading as
well as prompting Sara to pause at the end of each sentence has helped her slightly slow

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down in general. I have been trying to emphasize to her that understanding what we are
reading is the most important part, not finishing quickly.
One day out of the week, Sara is in a teacher-directed small group for reading
instruction. Sometimes this time involves everyone reading the same book aloud while
the teacher helps them with decoding and prompts them with comprehension based
questions. Recently, this time has been focused on reading individual mystery books and
filling out a graphic organizer detailing important aspects of the story. For this
assignment Sara needs to write who the detectives are, what the mystery or problem is,
who the suspects are, three clues, and the solution to the mystery. This has been a very
challenging activity for Sara. I think this is because it involves writing, which is a
challenging task for her, in addition to more advanced thinking about what she has read.
Figuring out what the clues are has been particularly challenging for her. I think the idea
of clues is a newer concept to Sara and I also wonder if there is a language issue here
since it is not a word used often in school. Her classroom teacher has already provided
her with a graphic organizer to fill out, so beside breaking the activity into smaller
chunks, prompting her with leading questions, and providing support while she reads and
writes I am struggling to find a way to help her accomplish this task frustration-free. She
has shut down while we have worked on this activity and refused to respond to
questions or write anything. We took a break and walked outside for a bit, but she still
was clearly frustrated by the activity when we got back. I am wondering if it will be
helpful to review the concept of mystery clues in a different, more accessible, book with
her. I worry that she may already be too frustrated at this time by the mystery genre and
that a lesson like this would still frustrate her, even if I use a picture book. Other reading
lessons have gone great with her behaviorally, so I think it could possibly go well as long
as I present it carefully and perhaps start out just reading the book then try to get her to
help point out and write down the clues as we find them.
Due to subsequent absences as a result of classroom field trips and being sick, I
did not have an opportunity to read a mystery picture book with Sara to help her
understand her mystery book assignment. I do think that the break from working on this
activity helped improve her mood toward the assignment for when we were able to work
on it again. This time, we took turns reading aloud from the book to give her more of a
break as well as an opportunity to focus just on comprehension. I also stopped and asked

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her questions when she was reading the portion about a clue to help her see the
connection between what she just read and the mystery. It did help to have me write the
clues on the graphic organizer for her so she could focus on her thinking. I followed a
similar support system on the next writing assignment, which is an opinion piece based
on the book Hey Little Ant. This book is a conversation between a boy and an ant, each
giving reasons why the ant should or should not be crushed by the boy. Her classroom
teacher read the book aloud and they discussed as a group what reason support the
opinion that the boy should not step on the ant and reasons why the boy should step on
the ant. In the RSP room I worked with Sara to fill out a graphic organizer with her
opinion, three reasons for her opinion, and three piece of evidence that support her
reasons. We started off re-reading portions of the book and discussing if what I just read
supported her opinion that the boy should not crush the ant. By stopping and talking after
pages that I thought gave a reason supporting her opinion, Sara was able to come up with
three reasons and corresponding piece of evidence. She wrote everything herself and
came up with strong reasons and evidence. Just as we were about to finish and move on
to planning her paragraph, her RSP teacher came over and said that we were supposed to
have made the reasons broader and not directly related to the book. For example, one of
her reasons was that the ant should not be crushed because he was just like the boy. The
wording for this reason came directly from the text. Her evidence was that both were
shown to have a family and home in the pictures. I thought this was good thinking on her
part and showed her understanding of what had been read as well as how to support an
opinion. It was disappointing for me that I did not realize that the premise of the
assignment, as interpreted by the RSP teacher, was more real world and less book-based.
Since a large chunk of time had already passed and she had already written a lot today,
her RSP teacher recommended that I write the new reasons for her, which helped a lot. I
did have a difficult time getting her to come up with her own reasons this time that
related to real ants like her teacher wanted. She seemed a little confused that we were redoing things and seemed less confident about speaking. I felt this time I was putting
words in her mouth rather than her coming up with the ideas like the first time. I tried
prompting her to think of seeing ants on the ground walking in a line, in an attempt to get
her to see that could be evidence that ants have a family and are dependent on each other,

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but she just shook her head. My goal was to help her slightly change her original reasons
to work for all ants, not just the story ant. By the end of class, we were able to re-do the
graphic organizer, she wrote her opening sentence, and picked the transition words she
would like to use for each reason. I think this assignment would have gone more
smoothly if we had a science picture book about ants in order to help her think of
examples that were not directly related to the picture book. In addition, this experience
has also helped me realize that I need to be more aware of the expectations and any
possible areas of confusion before starting to work with a student so I can ask the
appropriate questions.
On the last day of the week that Sara comes into RSP, the focused instructional
activity is called Signs for Sounds. This is a systematic spelling intervention that is part
of the Read Naturally program. The idea is that by focusing on the sounds that each letter
and common letter combinations make, students not only learn how to spell this words,
but also how to read them. Each day we focus on one phonics element such as the vowel
diagraph ee or ai. The lesson starts with reviewing words that follow the pattern as well
as closely related words. For example, during the lesson on ee, we reviewed words like
meet and teeth as well as felt and send to show the difference between short and
long e sounds. The students then circle letters to spell out teacher dictated words to
practice paying attention to the individual sounds and the letters that represent them. This
part of the lesson is done with a lot of teacher support and immediate correction. After
the students are more comfortable with the words, the assessment portion begins, is
basically a shortened spelling test. The assessment is very informal and the teacher or
myself is always there to prompt students so it is almost more of a continued practice
with slightly less support than the beginning of the lesson. The students correct their own
papers and correctly write any misspelled words. Sara generally performs very well
during these lessons. She does work a little slower then the other two girls in her group,
but she is very thoughtful about what letters belong to each sound. Sara often will circle
or write one letter, ponder the decision, then self-correct without any prompting by the
teacher. She does sometime need reminders for what the current word is that she is
writing. I think it is very beneficial to give her these reminders and the extra time so that
she can focus on developing her phonemic awareness and spelling skills. Instructionally, I

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have reminded Sara of her carefulness during Signs for Sounds while we are working on
reading to try to help her practice slowing down in a similar way. Continued practice and
instruction for this is needed. I plan to continue using post-it notes and graphic organizers
to help Sara slow down and focus on her thinking while reading. I believe that lessons in
monitoring comprehension, particularly Following the Inner Conversation and Knowing
When You Know and Knowing When You Dont Know, would be beneficial to Saras
growth as a reader. Since the writing assignments from her teacher have become the
focus for her time in the RSP room, I have not had the opportunity to teach these lessons
explicitly. I have made a point to model monitoring my reading comprehension while we
are reading for her assignments, as well as the other reading comprehension strategies
that I taught in my video lessons.
In addition to working with Sara during the main class activities, I have also
worked with her on additional reading and spelling activities. Sara has three piles of
reading flashcards, Slow, Medium, and Fast, which we practice with most days. Words
are selected from a sight word list as well as from the book she is reading. When she has
difficulty reading a word it is written down on a flash card and put in the Slow pile. Once
she correctly reads the word five times it is moved up to the Medium pile. She then reads
the card correctly five more times at this level before it is moved up to the Fast pile. After
she correctly reads words in the Fast pile five times she gets to recycle the flashcards.
This provides quick, targeted, practice for unknown words that she comes in contact with
often. After going over her flashcards, we usually practice a few spelling words off a list
from her teacher with the use of a whiteboard. These spelling words are high frequency
words like who, friend, would, and their. Her progress is monitored on the list
and once she spells a word correctly five times in a row it is considered learned and focus
is shifted to new words. Sara often swaps letters during this spelling practice time,
particularly when the letters are two vowels. I think that continued instruction with the
Signs for Sounds program and a focus on linking letters to individual sounds should help
Sara improve her spelling as well as her decoding skills.
The first reading lesson for Sara I have planned and taught was on the questioning
reading comprehension strategy. I worked with Sara and another third grade girl in the
class for this lesson. During this lesson I read the picture book Its A Secret by John
Burningham and modeled asking questions while reading. The girls also offered their

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own questions. Prior to beginning the lesson, I had written down questions onto post-it
notes to help prepare. After finishing reading, we went through the questions I wrote,
answered them, and placed them in the appropriate column on a Before, During, and
After columned graphic organizer. Both girls are generally very well behaved students so
that aspect of the lesson went well. I did struggle with keeping them focused on the goal
of the lesson- coming up with questions to help comprehension by increasing interest and
engagement with the story. While both girls did come up with some of their questions,
they also kept trying to answer my questions and I am not sure if I conveyed the goal well
enough to them. I think continued practice is needed for the girls to become more
comfortable with this skill in their own reading. Originally, I had planned to have the
girls write their own questions down while I read, but as I was reading I realized that this
would be too big of an interruption for the first lesson on questioning. I do like the idea
though of using a lesson to practice stopping to write while reading and plan to do this in
the next lesson with Sara. I think this will be a good fit for her since she is struggling with
reading comprehension as well as writing.
The classroom teacher was working with another student during my reading
lesson so the conversation afterward revolved more around me telling her how it had
gone. When I told her that I was not that happy about how I concluded the lesson, since I
felt I did not have a strong wrap up, she told me that continued practice is the best way to
feel more comfortable with this. Most of the feedback I have received in this classroom is
regarding my work with other students who are more of a challenge behaviorally or who
are struggling even more academically than Sara is currently.