Child Study Project 3 1

Background
 Kiara
 6
 First Grade
 Hiawatha Elementary School

Part 1: Development of Comprehension

In order for students to achieve full reading comprehension they must obtain skills that

were identified in the Modified Cognitive Model. According to McKenna and Stahl (2009), in

order for a child to reach reading comprehension he or she must also master automatic word

recognition, language comprehension, and strategic knowledge. Students will encounter

difficulty with comprehension if he or she struggles with any of the three components on the

Cognitive Model (McKenna & Stahl, 2009). The Cognitive Model has subcategories that are all

dependent on each other to reach full reading comprehension. Students will not be able to

automatically recognize sight words and high frequency words in a text if they are not able to

make meaning of the word. In relation to automatic word recognition, if students are unable to

recognize words they also will not understand certain vocabulary and comprehension will suffer.

In addition to the process of reading comprehension, children must be able to recognize the

different purposes of reading, whether it is for enjoyment or for literal comprehension. If the

child cannot distinguish or understand the two purposes of reading the text, the child will

struggle with reading comprehension (McKenna & Stahl, 2009). The Modified Cognitive Model

has three main components as mentioned earlier, and each component is essential to reading

comprehension. Within these components are categories that contain skills that students learn

and develop through instruction specifically geared toward reading comprehension.

Within language comprehension on the Modified Cognitive Model, there are three areas

in which most students who have comprehension difficulties will tend to struggle with. These
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areas include their knowledge of important vocabulary, background knowledge, and text and

sentence structures (McKenna & Stahl, 2009). After a student has developed automatic word

recognition skills, he or she may be a proficient word-caller. However, even if a student is fluent

while reading the student may not be able to understand or make meaning of what they are

reading. Some students will focus on specific phonemic sounds rather then the meaning of the

word (McKenna & Stahl, 2009). This can be easily fixed and educators can create instruction

that focuses on meaning.

Word meaning vocabulary is important for reading comprehension development because

it is a measure of general knowledge and allows children to comprehend text (McKenna & Stahl,

2009). According to McKenna and Stahl (2009), “Children’s knowledge of word meanings is

the best predictor of their comprehension, both of passages containing those words and of

passages in general” (pg.16). Students that struggle with reading will most likely read less and

read text that is not challenging. When readers are able to easily identify unknown words, they

can put less attention on reading individual words and more on the content and meaning of the

text. Along with word meaning vocabulary, background knowledge will also help students

toward reading comprehension.

The background knowledge of individual students differ per topic and subject, and

directly affects their ability to comprehend a text. If a student has little background knowledge of

a topic they are reading about, most of the information and vocabulary words will be new to he

or she. If a student has no background knowledge of a topic they are reading about, they will

most likely become frustrated with the text and will not be able to comprehend it. There are

different strategies that students can use from previously learned knowledge to help them with

challenging texts. As students continue to develop as readers, they must also gain background
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knowledge in the text structures of specific genres to able comprehend them (McKenna & Stahl,

2009).

Students will continue to develop and be exposed to different forms of texts and test

structures. Text structures are patterns in texts that are commonly found in specific genres

(McKenna & Stahl, 2009). It is important for students to be aware of how to make meaning of

different genres, specifically the different components of narrative and expository passages. As a

child’s text structure knowledge develops he or she should be able to recall and retell the

important ideas and details for a passage.

Part 2: Assessment

When assessing and measuring a student’s comprehension, an educator will be able to

determine how well all of the categories of Cognitive Model are working together. McKenna

and Stahl refer to comprehension as the “bottom line” of reading (pg.160, 2009). One reason to

assess reading comprehension is to analyze how much a student has been able to comprehend a

certain passage or chapter. This instruction can come from chapter tests or post reading

assessments from a particular literacy lesson (McKenna & Stahl, 2009). Another reason to assess

a child’s comprehension is to get an estimate of their level of proficiency (McKenna & Stahl,

2009). After a teacher assesses a child’s comprehension level, the data collected will allow the

teacher to create lessons that are in the instructional level of the individual student. The

instructional level is important in instruction because the student will be challenged with reading

passages with new vocabulary but will not reach the point of frustration. In order to select an

appropriate passage for my child study student, I used data from the Fry word list as well as the

QRI word list. The results from those two assessments placed Kiara at an instructional level of

Pre-Primer 1.
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I assessed Kiara by having her read I Can on pg. 112, which is a narrative text for level

Pre-Primer 1 (QRI-5, 2011). I also assessed Kiara by using People at Work on page 128, which is

an expository text from level Pre-Primer 2. I decided to read People at Work to Kiara because I

thought that the passage would be too difficult for her to read on her own and Pre-Primer 2 is the

lowest level for expository text. The full QRI assesses background knowledge, word meaning

vocabulary, and comprehension. I felt that one of the main issues of this assessment came from

Kiara knowing that I was timing her and that she felt pressured to read correctly and fast. Since

we had done the fluency QRI once, Kiara was aware that she was timed and her nervousness

could influence the reliability or validity of her overall fluency or comprehension. It seemed that

she put more attention on reading fast and not on the content and meaning of the text.

Kiara read I Can in 41 seconds with a rate of 54.1 words per minute. She had no miscues,

which put her at 41 correct words per minute. Compared to the QRI scale, Kiara’s score was in

the range of instructional level words per minute for oral reading in relation to the average

student at Pre-Primer 1. The data from Kiara’s reading fluency indicated that this passage was in

the right instructional level for her. Kiara also struggled with the concept questions and retelling

of the passage, which indicates some areas of improvement for her overall reading

comprehension.

Kiara scored 5 out of 12 points on the concept questions at the beginning of the QRI

assessment. Kiara’s score suggested that she was unfamiliar with the topic and knew only 42

percent of the information she would be reading about. After she read the passage out loud, I

asked her to retell the information from the passage as if I had not heard what she read. Kiara

identified 5 of the 12 ideas from the story, which indicated that she was able to retell 42 percent

of the information she had read from the story. However Kiara did well answering the
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comprehension questions. She answered 4 of the 5 questions correctly, 2 explicit and 2 implicit.

When I asked her the questions she did well in thinking for a moment and then recalling what

she had said in her retelling. Also since there were pictures with the text she was able to use

pictures as clues to answering the questions. Even though the passage had only explicit

comprehension questions, she was able to relate to the pictures and her answers were implicitly

correct. For example one of the questions asked what another girl in the story could do and the

explicit answer was hop but there was also another page that had a girl eating and so she

answered, “eat.” I decided to count her answer as implicitly correct because there was a picture

of a girl eating even though the answer for that particular question was hop. Her overall score for

comprehension suggested that she was at an instructional level for the passage even though she

was unfamiliar with the topic and could not retell most of the ideas that were in the story. It was

interesting that Kiara was not able to retell ideas but could comprehend and remember what she

read when asked specific questions so I was curious to see how she would do with People at

Work since expository passages are more difficult to comprehend and the passage was at a higher

level. Her score for People at Work suggested that my assumptions were correct in relation to her

ability to retell the information and her ability to answer the comprehension questions. When I

asked her to retell the information from the story I read to her, she was only able to retell 1 idea

out of 17 ideas. When I asked her the comprehension questions she was able to answer 4 of the 5

explicit questions. At a level higher than the narrative passage I instructed, she was still able to

answer the comprehension questions at an instructional level. This data suggests that she is

capable of comprehended certain components of the assessment but in order for her to reach full

reading comprehension she needs to improve on concept questions and retelling.

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The QRI assessments I instructed indicated that Pre-Primer 1 and 2 were in the

instructional level for Kiara’s reading comprehension. However, her overall reading

comprehension is behind the Common core State Standards at the first grade level. Pre-Primer 1

and 2 are below level 1, which is the level a first grader should be at. Her scores suggest that

since she is at an instructional level for Pre-Primer 1 and 2, she would most likely be at

frustration level if I were to administer a level 1 QRI passage. Kiara was also not able to recall

most of the main ideas from the story when she was retelling the passage. According to the

Common Core, by first grade, she should be able to “Identify the main topic and retell key

details of a text.” Even though Kiara does not meet some of her grade-level expectations, she

shows improvement and her data from the QRI assessments suggest that she is not far from

achieving a first grade reading comprehension level.

Part 3: Lesson

Planning

When I planned my language comprehension lesson with Kiara, I wanted to address

vocabulary, more specifically new vocabulary. According to the Modified Cognitive model,

vocabulary is one of the main components for language comprehension (McKenna & Stahl,

2009). The exposure to new vocabulary words would add to her sight word vocabulary and

would be beneficial towards her comprehension. For the lesson, I selected two Common Core

State Standards that would compliment my instructional activity. I chose the strand, CCSS.ELA-

LITERACY.RI.1.4 that states, “Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the

meaning of words and phrases in a text.” I also chose the strand, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.4

which states, “Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and

phrases based on grade 1 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.”
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Based on previous data from past assessments, I concluded that Kiara uses decoding as her main

strategy to determine unknown words. I hoped this lesson would provide a different approach to

learning new vocabulary and give her new strategies to determine the meaning of a word. When

I created the lesson plan for learning diagraphs I observed that Kiara enjoys pictures and visual

stimulation while she is learning something new. I chose a set of flashcards as a new strategy that

could benefit her comprehension that would show a picture next to a word to give her an

association to the new vocabulary word when learning it. I also used the Burke Reading

Interview to understand Kiara’s general purposes for reading. She responded to the interview by

saying that most of her strategies came from decoding and figuring out words and practicing. I

wanted this lesson to give her a new way to figure out words and the meaning of words. Also

instead of figuring out new words herself, this strategy can involve two people working together

and asking questions in order to practice and learn.

My lesson involved both practicing new strategies for comprehension and also giving her

new vocabulary words to learn. Vocabulary is a factor that influences comprehension

development throughout a lifetime. The more expansive one’s vocabulary knowledge is, the

more vocabulary will directly improve comprehension (White, 2015). I drew pictures of the

vocabulary words on one side of the index card to give her a visual association and help her get

comfortable with recognizing a new word and the repetition of showing her the word would help

her recognize the word when I read the book with the vocabulary words in the story. According

to White, “Proficient readers spontaneously and purposely create mental images while and after

they read. The images emerge from all five senses as well as the emotions and are anchored in a

reader’s prior knowledge” (2015). Within the flashcards I had new vocabulary words, but I also

used vocabulary words that were relevant to the topic but I also thought she would be familiar
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with. I did not want to give her all new words and have her overwhelmed since that would be too

much information to hold, so I used words like “sheep” that she automatically recognized from

prior knowledge and that built her confidence. The instructional activity also provided Kiara with

a set of books that pertained to a topic of her interest. In class there was a deep emphasis on

motivation and how motivation encompasses all areas of reading comprehension. When students

do not have the motivation to read, they will have fewer opportunities to develop fluency,

practice comprehension strategies, learn new vocabulary words, and build word knowledge

(White, 2015). I wanted to show Kiara the variety of books that can come from one topic and

encourage that she should keep reading different genres of books. I had been reading a lot of

fictional books to her based on her interests from the beginning assessments of what she liked,

but I chose the frontier life because I wanted to show her that there were interesting books for

historical topics.

Teaching

Kiara showed interest in the book The Little House on the Prairie when we first met and

she told me the types of books she liked. I chose frontier life as the topic for the lesson to

highlight historical aspects that were in The Little House on the Prairie. I found a clip from the

T.V. show created from the books that highlighted one of the vocabulary words that I chose. We

watched the clip, which she enjoyed since she was able to get a visual comparison to the book

and afterward we talked about what was in the clip. I asked her what she liked about the clip,

what she noticed about the house or people. This gave me some insight regarding her

background knowledge of the topic and helped me lead into the lesson. Prior to instructing the

lesson I chose words that came up frequently in the books I found about frontier life. These

vocabulary words included: farm, wool, sheep, shingles, spinning wheel, kettle, barrel, linen. On
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one side of the index card was the vocabulary word and picture next to the word. On the other

side was a simplified definition of the word and how it related to the frontier life. Kiara enjoyed

the illustrations I made and I made them a little comical which helped her engage and internalize

the vocabulary words. She was interested when I explained why the words I chose were

important in frontier life and she asked some questions between words when she wanted to know

more about the frontier life. I also had a book that was about frontier life in a historical context

that had bolded words that were unique to that time. When we went through all of the vocabulary

words I showed her the different books I brought and I had her choose what book she wanted to

read. She chose The Ox-Cart Man. I read the book to her and every time I came across a word

that was on the flashcards she pointed to the word and told me the meaning. She enjoyed this

activity because she was involved in the read-aloud and she was excited when she would hear the

word and give the correct definition. She also said that she liked learning about the frontier life

and surprised at how different the lifestyle was then compared to her life. After we finished the

book I told her that there were different strategies that she could use if she ever comes across a

word she does not know the meaning of. I told her that I also see words that I do not know the

meaning of and I have to look up the word in a dictionary. She was surprised that I would have

trouble with words and I told her that she could look up words on the computer and that she

could ask her mom or dad how to use the Internet to look up the definition of a word. I asked her

if she had ever looked up a word on the computer and she said that she never thought about

doing that, but she will try the next time she is at home and she sees a word she does not know.

Kiara seemed very interested in the lesson and I believe she responded positively because

I chose a topic that was of interest to her but I included words and information that was

completely new to her and that challenged her in a way that kept her engaged. She never got
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distracted or showed disinterest in the book that I read to her. She laughed at my index cards and

really liked looking through the book that had the historical facts about frontier life. When she

saw one of the vocabulary words she related the word to what she heard in The Little House on

the Prairie, which made her happy because she got to share information with me and I think she

felt more connected with the new vocabulary words I gave her. After I was done with one of the

books she wanted me to read the other books but unfortunately the session time was up. Also

when I was leaving she told me she really liked the flashcards and asked me to bring more for

our next session, which indicated that she enjoyed the topic and she was also motivated to

continue reading about this topic.

Reflecting

After reflecting on my lesson with Kiara I felt that it went very well. I believe that she

has been improving in her reading comprehension and she is becoming more open different

comprehension strategies. She also seemed more comfortable with the lesson structures and me.

This made our sessions more authentic and meaningful. We had good conversation and I was

very happy that she took interest in the topic I chose. I was not sure how she would like learning

about historical content since most of the books I had brought were comical fiction books. I was

glad that she took interest in the vocabulary words that I chose because that was a difficult

choice for me since I thought there were a lot of important words that she should know. I think

next time if I were to do the same kind of lesson I would use less new vocabulary words. Kiara

did well in interpreting the new vocabulary words and understanding the meaning of them, but I

think overall there was a lot of information to process and I would rather focus on a few new

words.
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I think I have started to get used to creating lesson plans and getting more comfortable

with instructing my own lessons. I still need to build confidence in the content that I use and the

structure of my lesson. I was hesitant with this lesson because I wasn’t sure if she would like the

historical content, but these are the kind of lessons that I will have to instruct as a teacher and I

cannot worry if the students will get disengaged because it is historical content. I need to focus

more on how I can engage students and I think I did well in making an engaging and fun activity

that involved history. I am also glad that Kiara is a motivated reader and loves books. Even if she

has difficulty reading sometimes, she has never gotten frustrated with her reading comprehension

and is always interested in what I bring to our session. She really enjoys activities that she has a

choice in deciding what is in the activity as well as also being involved in the read-aloud.

Overall, I enjoyed my language comprehension lesson because I was able to incorporate multiple

forms of comprehension development and I was more familiar with the kind of lesson structure

that works best for Kiara.

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References

Common Core State Standards. Retrieved from

http://www.corestandards.org/

Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2011). Qualitative reading inventory (5th ed.). Boston, MA:

Pearson/Allyn & Bacon

McKenna, M.C., & Stahl, S. A. (2009). Assessment for reading instruction. New York:

Guilford Press.

White, K. (2015, March). Reading Comprehension, TE301: Learners and Learning in Context.

Michigan State University