Going Forward: What's My Plan?

Johnny has showed that he is competent at many skills, but he still struggles with basic skills in spelling and reading words. He know all of the alphabet sounds (a-z -> /a/-/z/) and can sound out most words without too many issues.

What could be impeding Johnny's reading?

Phonological Awareness

In general, he has excellent command over the manipulation of words - phonological awareness. He segments words and puts them back together fairly easily. He messes up when he gets distracted, but my assessments show that he knows what he's doing, as explained below. However, his phonics needs to be worked on slightly. This is explained below with the Primary Spelling Inventory. As seen by the Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Awareness, which he scored 20/22, Johnny can segment words with two-three phonemes. He talks fluently and is able to carry a conversation easily.

Revision 10/30/15 - Johnny needs work on separating the rimes in words during phoneme segmentation. I will be doing an activity with him on November 13 to develop this skill.

Phonics

The Primary Spelling Inventory indicated that Johnny needs more instruction on Common Long Vowels, Other Vowels, and Inflected Endings. The third he only got two out of seven correct, while the other two he got five out of seven correct. After examining his responses to words I said to him orally, Johnny knows how to spell the words based on sound, but does not know which spelling to use. I believe this is because he hasn't retained all the spellings for vowels and hasn't been taught inflected endings. I would like to work with Johnny on reviewing the spellings for vowels using OG flash cards and using vocabulary words with those vowels.

Oral Language

Johnny doesn't stumble over words when speaking, but he can have trouble with reading when encountering a combination of letters that he doesn't know yet. For instance, when he did his first Running Record, Johnny had trouble with the word "what" and replaced it with "wait" but knew it was wrong. He did the same thing on his Primary Spelling Inventory except backwards. Johnny spelled wait "whate."

Reading Level

I've noticed that Johnny's reading level is around a 3.1. He reads well and likes to read (as described in his Background), but he struggles with the action itself. His reading level is lower than where it should be and he doesn't always finish his Lexia assignments in the morning.

I hear him working in the morning on his bellwork, but I want measurable proof that Johnny is as good as I believe he is. Normally, a fifth grade student would be reading books around a 5.0 or 5.1 if they were on pace by the time they entered fifth grade. However, at the Learning Academy, the reading levels are different because of the ways the students learn. Johnny has so far been reading on a 4.1 reading level, and struggles to get through his Lexia assignments in the morning.

Fluency

After doing two Running Records with Johnny, I've noticed that he's aptly able to read on a second grade level with little errors. His first Running Record had 218 words. He only missed four of them, and got through the passage in 2:39. The second Running Record was almost the exact same, except this passage had 230 words. The mistakes Johnny made, however, did not detract from the overall meaning of the passage or sentence. It was a simple replacement like, "Dad let me rent the movies and make the popcorn" instead of "Dad let me rent two movies. Dad makes the popcorn...." He self-corrected this mistake without any prompting and then went right back into reading.

Revision 10/30/15 - Johnny scored a 98% on a 4th Grade reading passage in under 3 minutes. He reads with near perfect accuracy, and self corrects his errors. However, we doesn't read with good expression. Therefore, I will be working on his expression on 11/4/15 with a one-on-one Reader's Theatre.

Comprehension

I noticed his comprehension is amazing when he's read aloud to; he was quick to pick up on the differing questions on the Garfield Survey and pointed it out quickly. He also answers questions easily with when he's read aloud to. When I read aloud to him weekly, he eagerly tells me about what's going on when I ask him. He can tell me what the characters are doing and where they are.

What cognitive issues seem apparent from the assessments that have been given?

Ms. Jameson tells me that Johnny is in the Learning Academy for a possible processing issue, but I sometimes have a hard time seeing that when I'm in his classroom. Mainly it's because I'm comparing Johnny to other students in his class, but I need to compare him to students on his level. My assessments tell me that he is spelling at a primary level and reading at around a 3rd grade level. Even though the Garfield Survey says that Johnny has equal interest in recreational and informational reading, he still is below-level for his age. Johnny's results tell me that Ms. Jameson is likely correct in her observation about Johnny's development; he has an issue processing written text and it is hindering his progress.

What language difficulties does the student have?

Johnny doesn't speak any other languages, so any difficulties comes from his possible processing issue. He understands oral instructions well, but I find that written instructions are harder for Johnny to comprehend on his assignments. He is able to read on his own and mostly understand what he's reading, but not at the level at which he needs to be.

Overall, how does this student's reading acquisition compre to other students his/her age? (What should he/she be doing at this level?)

Compared to those on his grade level, Johnny is behind on his acquisition of reading. As said before, he's reading at about a 2nd-3rd grade level depending on the text. Johnny's possible issue causes him to be slower in understanding what he's taught. He is steadily getting better, but the gap between him and his mainstream peers needs to be remedied. His other skills, like idea development and answering questions about the text when read aloud, are close to the fifth grade level according to the Common Core State Standards. Johnny is able to explain relationships, give key details about a text, and identify challenges that characters are facing.

What additional assessments will be completed on this student? Give the reson for the assessment. (What will the information provide?)

I want to complete some vocabulary assessments with Johnny to gauge his current status. Since he is able to carry a conversation well and read a decent amount of passages, I can only guess that he has a good vocabulary. Therefore, I want to specifically test it to get measurable data to build upon throughout this semester. I also want to give Johnny some comprehension assessments. I know that his comprehension level is good from experience, but I need measurable data to prove that he is getting better. It will also help me in finding where he is weak in comprehension and retelling, so that I can build those skills later on.

Revision 10-17-15​: I will be doing a Running Record on Johnny on October 28th to determine if he's on a 3rd or 4th grade reading level.

What is the initial plan for remediation for this student?

Johnny is behind on his reading level, but his familial support system is not assisting in his education either. While I can't do much to help his family situation, I want to work with him to develop his skills and get him ready for the next grade. To do this, I want to read aloud to him every observation for at least 10 minutes as well as have him read to me a few pages so I can model for him what he does not understand. This will be done during the beginning of the day during the Lexia/Read Naturally section or during snack when it is least likely to disrupt the other students. Since I know that Johnny likes mystery books and books about tigers and turtles, I want to continue reading The Spiderwick Chronicles to him, but I'm actively searching for a good informational book for him to read. By the time I finish this semester, I want to have Johnny efficiently reading all his Long Vowel Sounds and Other Vowels. I will use strategies I learned in my Orton-Gillingham course to teach him these skills like flash cards and sky writing. I also want to do individual, small group, and whole group instruction with Johnny and his class to help him foster more self-confidence in his reading and fine tune his skills. I will work with Ms. Jameson to make sure I am able to work my best with Johnny since I only see him once a week. He works on his spelling and sight words every day during OG instruction with Ms. Jameson, but I want to give him some individual attention to better understand his needs and adjust to them. As stated above, I also want to give Johnny more assessments to get data to analyze and compare.

#casestudyplan