Sami Seeman Student: Student Grade: 4 Age: 9 June 2013 Background Information Student is an active 4 grader who prefers

to do everything at a fast pace. He is currently working on creating a character named Lightspeed the Hedgehog and will describe his progress at any opportunity. His love of videogames is evident when he talks or writes freely but doesnt overflow into his reading interests. Student will read almost any animal or insect book but prefers sharks the most. However, Student does not like spiders! He is also interested in dinosaurs and mystery books. If given a choice, Student will read a non-fiction book over a fictitious story more often than not. The majority of the lessons were focused on comprehension with ties to strategic knowledge. In the last few lessons, the focus was previewing books. Student will proudly share why readers preview if asked.
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Tests Administered Elementary Spelling Inventory: Early/Middle Within Word Pattern Stage 5 of 25 Words Spelled Correctly and 35 of 62 Feature Points for a Total of 40 out of 87 Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey: Full Raw Score of 64 out of 80 and Percentile Rank of 72% Recreational Score of 33 out of 40 in the 72% percentile and Academic Score of 31out of 40 in the 75% percentile Z Test: Correctly pronounced 32 out of 37 words Names Test: Initial Initial Consonant Short Long Vowel Controlled Schwa Consonants Consonant Diagraphs Vowels Vowels/VC- Diagraphs Vowels Blends final e 33/37 16/19 11/15 30/36 14/23 9/15 18/25 10/15 Running Records: Special Places at School Accuracy Rate: 103/107 for 96.3% and Self-Correction Rate of 1:5 Frog Alert Accuracy Rate: 125/131 for 95.4% and Self-Correction Rate of 2/8 or 1:4 Observations During Testing The Elementary Spelling Inventory was developed by Words Their Way to determine a students spelling pattern knowledge by having said student spell a list of 25 words. These words were selected for their certain spelling patterns and range from bed to opposition. To score the test, the feature guide breaks down each word into the appropriate spelling patterns. While taking this assessment, Student had wandering eyes but a great stamina. Although he only spelled 5 of the words correctly, his other spellings were extremely close thus allowing an in-depth look into his knowledge of consonants and short vowels as well as his still forming schema of long and other vowels.

The Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey is a survey that gauges how a student feels about reading in different academic and recreational situations. To best capture the students emotional response, a student circles the Garfield image (happy, okay, meh, and mad) that best matches their initial reaction to the situation. Each Garfield image is worth a number of points that are combined to calculate the academic, recreational, and total scores. These scores are then compared to scores of other students of the same grade from across the country. Student has a positive attitude all around where reading is concerned. His two point difference in attitudes for recreational and academic reading is just as significant on the personal level as on the national level even though it creates a three percent difference in rank. The Z Test consist of 37 words that all begin with the letter z then have a different rime. To take this assessment, a student is given the list of words and asked to read them to the best of their ability as some words are made up. Student was a great sport for this one as it was completed with two minutes left in the lesson. Even with the rush and distraction of time, Student was consistent. The few words he wasnt quite capable or ready to pronounce had either a long vowel or either type of diagraph thus enforcing the notion that he is still forming a schema for long and other vowels. The Names Test consist of 35 names all chosen or created for phonological properties. Each name is broken down into the appropriate categories that are the different vowel and consonant types. Scores are given by adding up the number of correct pronunciations out of the total number possible for that category. Students scoring of this assessment may not be completely accurate as it was taken over a series of days and on the last day the classroom was extremely noisy. The noise level prompted many repetitions as did Students unique method of reading through the list of names. He began by reading left to right then switched to top to bottom and accidentally skipped some names that were added back in when asked for some repetitions. As most of the names are compound words, Students use of chunking to sound out some of the names is a skill to encourage but he tended to skip putting it all together unless asked to repeat. Running Records are taken using any book that a student may be reading or one the teacher has selected for the student at that time. For scoring purposes, the student must read at least 100 words from the text as the teacher takes note of accuracy and any miscues and self-corrections that occur. The accuracy rate is calculated as the total number correct out of the total words possible and is turned into a percent by dividing. For a book to be a good fit for the student, they must have a 95% or higher for it to be independent and a 90% or higher for it to be instructional. The self-correction rate is a ratio of the number of self-corrections to the number of self-corrections plus the number of errors and the goal is to have a ratio of 1:3 or better. In the first text, Students miscues were mostly omissions that occurred due to a lack of response to his visual appeal for help and his eyes jumping to the pictures in the middle of a sentence. By the second text, Students eye movements were more consistent and his miscues were in pronunciation or commenting on pictures. Recommendations Student has quite a few strengths when it comes to reading but he also has some areas where he can grow with continued exposure and practice. One such area is long vowel patterns and other vowel patterns such as diagraphs and controlled vowels as is evident in the Elementary Spelling Inventory and the Names Test. More exposure and some explicit instruction on vowels will help him be

more confident in his reading abilities. However, he will not become a perfect reader overnight and needs encouragement to correct miscues as they occur when he is reading. Along with self-correcting, Student will benefit from being reminded to use his laser eyes to read all the way through the word. Some explicit instruction may be beneficial to help explain that keeping ones eyes on the words makes a reader more fluent and the story makes more sense. Student may also benefit from a limit of times he can look to the teacher for help in decoding words on a page and work with sight words so he becomes more self-sufficient. Summary Student is an active and hardworking individual who is eager to lend a hand. He enjoys the little things when reading and his interests are as unique as he is. To help Student further develop his reading abilities, there should be instruction on the various long and other vowel patterns, using his laser eyes, and being aware of miscues so as to self-correct.