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LITERACY TUTORING PORTFOLIO

Tutor: Mary Stang


Tutee: Student A

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Student Background Information...p. 3

Tests Administered..p. 4

Test Results and Observations.p. 5-7

Summary and Recommendationsp. 8-10

PART I. STUDENT BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Identifying Data
Student: Student A
School/Teacher: Greenwood Elementary School/Garrison
Chronological Age: 10

School Grade: 5th

Reason for Referral


Student As primary language at home is one other than English and therefore, some of
her background knowledge and vocabulary is limited.

Background Information
Student A is a 5th grader who enjoys reading fiction books, mainly mystery or fantasy. She
likes school primarily because it gives her an opportunity to socialize with friends. Overall,
Student A has a fairly positive view of reading and strives to be a strong reader. The
tutoring sessions took place in the Greenwood Elementary Library for just over an hour
every Tuesday afternoon following the regular school day.
Behavioral Observations
Student A usually came to tutoring on time and was excited to read and get to work. She
works to please those around her and therefore would willingly complete the tasks asked
of her. She would occasionally try to stall, especially during the writing time, by getting off
subject and talking. However, she was always able to be redirected and would get back on
task. Occasionally, Student A would appear to become tired toward the end of the lesson;
She become less enthused about the task at hand and put less effort into her work.
However, overall Student A was typically very excited to learn and always willing to put
forth her best effort.

PART II. TESTS ADMINISTERED

Materials and Procedures Administered


Table 1. An Overview of the Assessment Materials, Purposes, and Uses
Assessment
Elementary Reading
Attitude Survey

Interest Inventory

Basic Reading
Inventory (BRI)

Running Records

Metacognitive
Awareness of Reading
Strategies Inventory

Spelling Inventory

Date of
Administration
Enables teachers to gain insight from September 25, 2012
students on their attitude about
reading at home and in school. This
helps teachers to best reach the
specific needs of each student.
Identify topics that individual
September 25, 2012
students may be most interested in.
Can be beneficial when selecting
texts that each individual student
may find appealing.
Used to estimate a students
Word Lists:
instructional level and allows a
October 2, 2012
teacher to gain insight into a
students reading level, strengths,
Passages:
and weaknesses.
October 9, 2012
Used to record and analyze a
October 2, 2012
readers behaviors. They provide
October 9, 2012
insight to the common errors a
October 23, 2012
reader makes and allows educators
October 30, 2012
to gauge instructional need.
November 6, 2012
November 13, 2012
Measures readers awareness of or
October 30, 2012
perceived use of reading strategies.
Identifies strategies that they selfreport to use and also indicates
strategies they are lacking that need
to be supported or taught.
Determine stage of spelling
November 6, 2012
development and indicates where
spelling instruction should start and
what it should entail.
Purpose and Use

PART III. TEST RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS


Attitudes/Motivation:
Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey is given to find out how students feel
about reading. The students attitude toward reading can tell a lot about how they will
behave during tutoring. Student A and I read the statements together and she chose a
Garfield picture that displayed the emotion she displayed about the statement. Student A
scored a 34/40 or 85% for both recreational and academic reading. This means that she
falls in the 91st percentile for other students her age. Overall, Student A has a positive
attitude toward reading, both at school and at home. She loves to read out loud, to start
new books, and to choose to read during free time at school. However, reading tests make
her nervous and she is also a little hesitant to use a dictionary and try different kinds of
books.
Interest Inventory
The Interest Inventory is a quick survey given to determine a students likes and
dislikes. This is used to select books and design activities that the student will be more
likely to become engaged in. Student A read the statements out loud and wrote her
responses. Once she had finished writing down her answers, we had a more in-depth
conversation about her likes and dislikes. Student A was really excited to discuss her
interests with me, and I was able to learn a lot about her as an individual. She really enjoys
mystery and fantasy books. She is usually confident while reading, but prefers to be
modest and would rather not be the best at reading. Student A doesnt mind practicing her
reading at home and often does so with her two younger siblings.
Word Recognition:
Basic Reading Inventory (BRI)
The Basic Reading Inventory includes a graded word list and reading passages.
The childs ability to read the words on the list guide teachers in determining the students
reading level and where a student should begin reading passages, which will be discussed
in a later section. Student A began reading word lists at the third grade level; two lists
below grade level, and continued until Student A was decoding words at a frustration level.
Student A appeared very confident in reading the graded lists, especially on the
easier lists. She read the words relatively quickly and often corrected her mistakes when
asked to go back and look at the word again. At the third grade level, Student A read the
list at 100% accuracy. She continued to be successful with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade
lists scoring 95%, 95%, and 90% respectively. Student A began to slow down around the
seventh grade word list where she read with 75% accuracy. She requested to read the last
list, eighth grade, which was definitely a frustration level list for her. She only read this list
with 65% accuracy. Therefore, based on the BRI word list results Student A reads at an

independent level up until sixth grade. Sixth grade is considered instructional, seventh
grade instructional/frustration, and eighth grade is definitely frustration.
Running Records
Running Records are used to record and analyze a students reading behavior. By
looking at common errors made, it can be determined how the student commonly process
text. By recording a students miscues, repetitions, and correctly read words as theyre
reading a teacher can gather what common errors they make and make inferences about
their reading level and gain ideas for areas of instruction. The results gathered from
completing running records on Student A were very interesting. She doesnt necessarily
struggle with reading the words on the page; therefore, she has a very high accuracy rate
and small error rate. For example, she read a section of Because of Winn-Dixie (Level R)
with 98.7 % accuracy and a section of The World According to Humphrey (Level O) with
99.6 % accuracy. While this is a very positive thing, Student A is often times having to selfcorrect or repeat herself. While reading Because of Winn-Dixie and The World According
to Humphrey, Student A often read with a self-correction rate of 1:4 and 1:2 respectively.
This implies that to comprehend what she is reading she often has to re-read or selfcorrect. During running records it has been recorded that she has paused to ask, where
am I? It has also been noted during her running records that she lacks expression while
reading and oftentimes is unaware of punctuation.
Spelling Development:
Words Their Way
The Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Inventory gives insight as to what the
childs stage of spelling development is. Each word on the test gets progressively harder
and has certain features or components a teacher can use to gauge what a child
understands about spelling and what knowledge they are lacking. Student A spelled 20 of
the 25 words correctly. She has no trouble with beginning or ending consonant sounds;
vowels, including short, long, and other; or with digraphs and blends. She also succeeded
with inflected endings, syllable junctures, and unaccented final syllables. The features
Student A had the most trouble with were harder suffixes, including ate and ize, and bases
or roots, such as confid. According to the feature and error guide that are associated with
the spelling inventory, Student A is currently in the Derivational Relations stage of spelling.
Reading Fluency:
Basic Reading Inventory (BRI)
While administering the passages during the Basic Reading Inventory, the child is
reading the passages aloud while the teacher is timing how long it takes them to read the
passage and making notes about mistakes or miscues. Student A read the fifth grade
passage at 200 WPM, the sixth grade passage at 171 WPM, and the seventh grade
passage at 130 WPM. However, Student As reading often lacked expression, and she

appeared to be inattentive to punctuation, which often resulted in awkward phrasing or the


need to reread.
Comprehension:
Basic Reading Inventory (BRI)
Following each passage read during the administration of the Basic Reading
Inventory, the teacher asks a series of comprehension questions. The child is asked to
answer these to the best of their memory to determine what they actually gathered and
remember from the reading. Student A began reading passages at the fifth grade level, the
last level for which she was reading word lists at an independent level. Student A read the
fifth grade passage with 97% accuracy, the sixth grade passage with 96% accuracy, and
the seventh grade word list with 98% accuracy. Therefore, she read all three of these
passages at an independent or instructional level.
According to the BRI results Student A reads and comprehends independently at
the fifth and sixth grade level. She answered comprehension questions with an accuracy of
90% and 100% respectively. However, there was a huge jump between the sixth and
seventh grade levels, which quickly showed that this was a level of frustration for her. It
became evident that Student A understood very little of the eighth grade level passage and
only answered 3/10, 30%, of the comprehension questions correctly. Therefore Student
As instructional level would most likely be at the sixth grade level.
Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies
The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies survey measures how a
reader thinks they use certain strategies while reading. It can be used to determine which
strategies or techniques they think they excel at, and which ones they wish they were more
confident in. Student A read each statement aloud and then rated it on a scale of 1-5, 1
being I have never "heard of this strategy before and 5 being I know this strategy quite
well, and I often use it when I read. When analyzing the scoring, the strategies can be
broken into three different subgroups: global reading strategies, problem-solving
strategies, and support reading strategies. Student As results added up to be 49/60
(81.67%) for global reading strategies, 22/35 (62.86%) for problem-solving strategies, and
30/40 (75%) for support reading strategies. Overall Student A rated her perception and
awareness of strategies at 111/150 (74%). This would imply that Student A has a
moderately strong level of awareness and perceived use of reading strategies when
reading academic or school-related materials. It would also indicate that some of the
strategies she has little awareness of are problem-solving strategies.

PART IV. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary:
Student A is a fifth grade student at Greenwood Elementary in Des Moines who
thoroughly enjoys reading, but is currently lacking some of the background knowledge and
vocabulary needed to be successful. Through assessments and surveys, I gathered a lot
of valuable information on Student A. She is really enthusiastic about reading and has the
ability to decode words at a level well beyond her grade level. She is also a relatively
strong speller who has mastered basic vowel and consonant sounds. Student A is now at
a place where she can begin focusing on the more complex features of spelling, such as
unaccented final syllables.
One area of further instruction for Student A is fluency. While it is not necessarily
detectable from looking at words per minute, it is evident when looking more closely at the
running records or at comprehension. During the running records, Student A is often times
having to repeat herself or ask where she is in the text. Additionally, when asked to
summarize a text, she can replay it event by event but has trouble identifying which parts
of the text are actually meaningful.
In addition to this, Student As reading rate is so rapid that she often seems to be
unaware of punctuation. This was evident in both the BRI assessment and in many of the
running records that were conducted. It often results in awkward phrasing and lack of
expression. If this concern is addressed, Student As comprehension may also improve.
The other component of comprehension that may need to be addressed is background
knowledge and vocabulary. She is once again able to repeat what happened during the
reading, but when asked to explain this more in depth, she often times does not fully
understand what is going on.
Overall, Student A is able to read and comprehend grade level texts. She is a
strong reader who has strong word recognition and spelling skills. To continue her
development as a reader, instruction that develops background knowledge and vocabulary
would be an asset. Additionally, instruction focused on reading rate and prosody could
help her to comprehend more difficult text. By focusing on fluency and building background
knowledge, Student A will be better able to make inferences, connections, and find
meaning within her reading.
Recommendations:
Goals for Tutoring:
One of the major goals for Student A is to improve fluency and prosody while
reading orally. This would hopefully allow her to begin reading with more expression, begin
to recognize the importance of punctuation, have more intentional phrasing, and slow
down while reading in order to better comprehend what is being read. Some ways to go
about achieving this goal include echo reading in which the teacher would read a page and
ask the student to echo it. Student A would not only be echoing the words on the page, but
also the expression it is read with. Another alternative would be an activity called Say it

Like the Character. This exercise would have Student A practice reading sections of the
text, as she perceives the character would be speaking. The tutor or teacher should model
the process. This will allow Student A to infer both the intonation and feelings, so she can
better express this to her listeners when reading aloud. A final way to improve fluency and
prosody while reading orally would be to utilize repeated readings. By having Student A
read a piece of text numerous times, she can focus less on the decoding of words and
more on reading with expression and gaining meaning from the text.
Another goal for Student A is to continue building a strong background and
vocabulary bank. She would benefit from being more comfortable asking questions when
unsure about content or a specific word. While her vocabulary is expanding, she would
have success expanding her vocabulary for use in both reading and writing. One effective
way she could work to build background is through book previews. For a student, like
Student A, who lacks background knowledge and fundamental vocabulary, a detailed book
preview is extremely beneficial. The teacher or tutor could preview the book for Student A.
For bigger concepts and main ideas, Student A should receive some time to research, and
become more comfortable with the information. For smaller concepts and more minute
details, all she may really need is to engage in a dialogue or conversation about the topic.
A specific way to help Student A continue to build her vocabulary is to familiarize her with
how to use a dictionary and to create a vocabulary journal. She needs to learn how to read
with a pencil in her hand. As Student A reads, she should circle the words she doesnt
know as shes being exposed to new text. Instead of breezing over them, like she does
now, or having the instructor immediately tell her the definition, she should become
comfortable with a dictionary and look up the unknown words. Once the meaning of the
word has been identified, she can work to use it in a sentence and add it to an ongoing
notebook that she should review somewhat regularly. A portable word wall would also be
of use for Student A in both her reading and her writing. Using her journal, she could
create a folder with mini envelopes for each letter of the alphabet. As she looks up new
words she can add them to her word bank. Then as she is reading or writing she can pull
these words out and incorporate them in her writing or even her daily vocabulary.
A final goal for Student A is for her to further understand the concept of
summarizing and inference making. She needs a more concrete grasp of what the
difference between main ideas and repeating the entire text is. She can then more
effectively use the concept of main ideas to predict and infer whats coming next. There
are a lot of effective ways that Student A and her instructors could go about achieving this
goal. One of these ways would be to underline main ideas as she is reading. If Student A
is able to visually see how much they think is pertinent information. If they are underlining
whole paragraphs, then obviously there is a misunderstanding and not everything is the
most important concept. For a student like Student A, she would be able to underline while
reading and then go back and highlight even less than what was underlined in the first
place. Another technique that could be used is the Top 5. Student A would read the text
and while reading write down or brainstorm everything deemed important. After
brainstorming and recording the list, she would work to narrow the list down to the five
most important events or ideas. Working with either a peer or tutor partner, may be
beneficial, because ideas that both see important are most likely in the top 5. Another way
to distinguish main idea summaries and retellings would be by giving the summary a word
limit. Student A should be notified of how many words she has before she begins writing.

Once again she may likely need the opportunity to eliminate sections of the summary out
or to reword points. By giving her a word limit, she will hopefully begin to notice just how
few details are needed to summarize the text and get the main points across. Student A
would also benefit from being asked teacher or instructor generated questions. By the
instructor asking inference questions or questions that do not have a concrete answer in
the text; Student As inference skills will begin to improve. These questions can be based
on things outside of the direct text and therefore the instructor can ask follow-up questions,
enter into a dialogue, or provide direct support. A fact versus inference chart would be an
additional activity used to support Student As learning and working toward the goal of
improved summarizing and inference making. After reading the text, she should create a
two-column chart with one side labeled fact and the other side inference. An instructor can
use sentence strips or post-it notes to write various facts and inferences. Student A should
then be able to determine which side of the chart the statement should be placed on. After
modeling how to do this, Student A should then be able to add her own statements to the
chart.
Student A is definitely on the right track when it comes to being a successful
reader. She has the motivation, interest, and dedication necessary to truly make significant
strides in her reading and also that make her a joy to work with. These activities will only
continue to benefit Student A and help develop her fluency and prosody, background
knowledge and vocabulary, and ability to distinguish between summary and retelling.

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