LiteracyLearnerAnalysisProject _Kayl 12.13.15

7/25/2019 LiteracyLearnerAnalysisProject _Kayl 12.13.15

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Case Study-Reyanna

TE846

Colleen Kayl9/25/15

Literacy Learner Analysis ro!ect


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I. Brief Background and Reason for Project Focus

Just as students come to us with a range of skills and abilities, they also come to us with

gaps and deficiencies. Each student is an individual and unique learner and what education has

proven over the years is that one size does not fit all !alencia, 2"11, p.#$1%. &n addition, being a

strong literacy learner is a key component for success in college. &t is our 'ob as educators to help

students reach their full potential and help personalize the instruction, as (ambrell 2"1)% states,

*when teachers differentiate, they are meeting the individual needs of their students without

diminishing e+pectations of sacrificing curricular rigor p. -%. he purpose of this pro'ect is to

help one focus student reach her potential as a literacy reader and writer through the use of

several evidence/based best practices including motivation, te+t engagement, modeling, and

scaffolding. (ambrell, 2"1).%

&0ve chosen to focus on one student, eyanna, an advanced learner who is however,

rarely pushed to reach her ma+imum potential. eyanna is the daughter of a family friend who is

currently homeschooled and self manages her learning. he has had a range of educational

e+periences that includes public school, online school, and traditional home school. eyanna is a

kind but shy student, who is easily overlooked in large settings and therefor receives less help or

feedback since she has learned from home for a ma'ority of her life. he loves creative writing

though struggles in science, which happens to be my area of e+pertise. he is an ideal candidate

for this pro'ect because & know that with some intervention and time spent working with literacy

strategies, she should easily e+cel in science, reading and writing.

II. Home and Family


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eyanna ey% is a thirteen year old female, in the $thgrade, and is homeschooled by her

mother. ince her mother opts out of testing, & have no access to her reading level scores. & have

however frequently observed her reading poetry and anime stories. he reads independently with

ease though often struggles to read aloud, which may be due to her lack of confidence. he

attended public school for one half year in 2"13 and told me that she tested at the twelfth grade

reading level, though & have no documentation of this. ey is 4aucasian, speaks English as does

her family, and has no need for special education or supplementary programs. he lives in a very

small house and homeschools with her ) siblings.

eyanna is fortunate in that both her parents and siblings all en'oy reading. 5er siblings

have all agreed to begin a book study pro'ect once a month wherein they all read a small book or

poem and discus it together afterwards. ey says this helps unite her sisters since they are all at

different grade levels but identify topics of interest together. 5er parents are very loving and

encouraging who each hold associates degrees but no further education. 6either parent writes

regularly nor is writing required for their 'obs. he indicated that her father loves to read

7ichigan history books and that her mother has recently begun online college courses to further

her education.

III. Emotional Climate

eyanna is a sweet person but she can easily become distracted and lacks motivation for

doing her school work. he loves to draw anime and is a very creative spirit but doesn0t always

like putting her drawing book down to focus on work. 8hat motivates her most is helping her

younger siblings when they are not focused at home while doing their school work. he is very

patient and reflects best when teaching something back to others. eyanna loves taking initiative


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when she sees her siblings struggling and will drop everything to help her sisters understand their

work but will seldom return to her own work.

eyanna states that she is best able to concentrate while learning in her bedroom. 5er

mother helped her create an inspiring environment to work in and her personal desk helps keep

her space and mind organized. ince her family is fle+ible with homeschooling, she often leaves

for trips with family members where she is e+pected to complete her work while being out of

town. he admits that she rarely finds the motivation to read when absent from her working

space at home.

he is best engaged in literacy activities when she can connect personally with the

material. 8hile she may disengage with certain social study or science assignments, she comes

to life when asked to write a narrative or creative piece of writing. he gets through tough te+t by

re/reading the piece over and over, sometimes up to si+ times. he also loves to take notes as she

reads and often incorporates drawings of her understanding or thoughts that come to mind.

IV. Literacy History

eyanna struggles with topics of literature that do not interest her, such a non/fiction and

scientific publications. he has a wild imagination and loves fictional stories but loses

concentration easily when asked to handle tough sub'ects. 9or e+ample, when initially meeting

with eyanna, & asked her to read the first 3 pages of her science te+t for the lesson she was

learning for the day. everal minutes after beginning, she asked if we could try something else

instead of science since *she0s not great with science. he0s not alone in her struggle with

science literacy: according to eutzel 2"11,% *the ;nited tates ranks 13 thin literacy, 1


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science, and 2)thin mathematical among #3 developed comparable nations p.#=-%. ey

indicated that she has a habit of ignoring tough chapters in her science and social studies books,

which is especially harmful in her situation since she is home/schooled. he does not have the

supervision that a traditional student has, so her interaction with challenging te+t is limited. hat

is not to say, however that her household ignores all aspects of literacy. 5er mother wants to

inspire great readers by taking them to the public library weekly. ey and each of her ) siblings

have to check out a book of their choice that is over 1"" pages. &f they complete their reading

within one week and can recite a very concise summary of the main characters or theme to their

mom, they are rewarded a monetary amount. ey says this keeps them motivated to continue

reading. ey often chooses fictional books, such as the wilight series and >mine books. 8hile

the end result of reading is a positive, the fact that they are rewarded for reading leaves some

concern. >ccording to (uthrie 2"13%, e+trinsic rewards don0t always motivate students to e+cel.

5e says *tudents who read only for the reward of money, a grade, or a future 'ob are not the

best readers p. =2%. & hope to inspire the strengthening of her reading ability without using these

reward tactics.

V. Tests i!en and "ummary of Test Results

?efore beginning any interventions with eyanna, & first needed to know where she stood

in terms of reading fluency and comprehension. ince & have little access to her school records

due to her being home/schooled, & needed a baseline as to what her actual capabilities are. &

know that she speaks well and with varied vocabulary, but & needed more concrete ideas and data

to better guide my lessons. & decided fluency was an important skill to test. >ccording to

asinksi 2"11%, *@the research suggests that it has remarkable potential for improving students0


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reading proficiency and that many students have not achieved adequate levels of fluency in their

reading p. 111%. he first test & gave eyanna on eptember #" th, 2"1) was the Aassage eading

9luency A9% test from the ;niversity of Bregon ;B, 2"13%. he purpose of this test was to

find whether speed and fluency were hindering or helping her comprehension. ince she doesn0t

attend publicCprivate school, she wasn0t aware of how well she scores for her age group. he is

on the honor roll, but the lowest scores she has ever received were in her = thand


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s >lmasi 2"13% states, *@

students are able to influence and make decisions about the reading process when they are able to

evaluate their progress to determine whether their reading is successful or unsuccessful@ p.

2#-%. & concluded that perhaps her lower grades in science could be due to a different factor, such

as motivation. & will be sure to include lessons that interest her and allow her choice to inspire a

deeper learning of the te+t. & still felt the need to follow up and had her read a similar passage

*9orm $/1 ee appendi+ 4 for Aost est% after interventions on 6ovember )th, 2"1). Bn this

post/test, eyanna read 222 words and only had 1 error, which gave her the total score of 221.

his score puts her in the -" thpercentile for her age. he results verified her strong fluency skills

yet again.

&dentifying that she was reading at grade level was not enough to help assist me with

lesson planning. & needed to know whether she comprehended what she was reading. esearch

has indicated that one assessment is not adequate to test students0 abilities. 9or e+ample, !alencia


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states *9rom a measurement perspective, results that are based on a few test items, even those

clustered in a subscore, generally cannot provide reliable, trustworthy information to inform

instruction 2"11, p.#$3%. & tested her reading comprehension by having her read *$/2

5edgehog E+perience ee >ppendi+ F for a sample of the reading%. he took this test online

and was asked to answer 2" multiple choice questions based upon the passage. he multiple

choice questions are designed to assess literal, inferential, and evaluative questions. Each

question is comprised of the question stem and # possible answer choices: the correct answer and

2 incorrect distractors. eyanna scored a 1=C2", which puts her in the =2ndpercentile for her

grade level ee >ppendi+ E for scoring standard%. pecifically, she answered 3C= evaluative

questions correct, )C< inferential questions correct, and


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range. & would infer that she made gains since she learned some valuable techniques during

intervention to cope with content that she doesn0t understand.

VI. Lesson Plan $atri%

Lesson

%oci/&ate

'#!ecti(es

include

includingperformance,

conditions, and

criterion. tate

the CommonCore State

Standard at the

end of eachob'ective.

)nstructional *aterials what will use to

deliver the main ob'ectives of the lesson%'n-+oin+ assess*ent

to measure attainment

of ob'ectives%

-C#"C1) and

1"C2C1)

Aassageeading

9luency and

eading

4omprehension

eyanna will

develop her

analysis skillsby selecting a

te+t that

interests her

and will find #points of

evidence to

support herclaim.

tudent will

cite te+tualevidence to

support analysis

of science and

technical te+t.44..=/

$C1%

/9orm $I1 from

httpsDCCwww.easycbm.comC.

/9orm $I2 5edgehog E+perience from

httpsDCCwww.easycbm.comC

/*8etlands and 5abitat oss by Elaine7ao by www.readworks.org

/>mazonian oad Fecision ?y 5eather J.JohnsonhttpDCCeducation.nationalgeographic.comCn

ewsCamazonian/road/decisionC

/5ighlighter

/ticky notes

he main assessment &

will be using is the

Aassage eading9luency and 7ultiple

4hoice eading

4omprehension from

httpsDCCwww.easycbm.comC. & am looking for at

least a 2 point increase

in both tests over thecourse of my

intervention.

&n addition, & will

assess eyanna bytaking notes during our

session and looking for

howCwhen she losesfocus and drifts off.

&nformally, eyannawill use sticky notes to

write down questionsshe has as we are

working on the lessons.

eyanna will complete

a practice *alking to
https://www.easycbm.com/https://www.easycbm.com/http://www.readworks.org/http://education.nationalgeographic.com/news/amazonian-road-decision/http://education.nationalgeographic.com/news/amazonian-road-decision/https://www.easycbm.com/https://www.easycbm.com/https://www.easycbm.com/https://www.easycbm.com/http://www.readworks.org/http://education.nationalgeographic.com/news/amazonian-road-decision/http://education.nationalgeographic.com/news/amazonian-road-decision/https://www.easycbm.com/https://www.easycbm.com/


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the e+t with meusing an article &

gathered. 8etlands

and 5abitat oss% hewill then practice on

her own using anarticle of her choice.>mazonian oad

Fecision%

1"C


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lead to her making steady gains in science ready comprehension, especially inferential skills. Bn

the reading comprehension pretest given on eptember #"th, eyanna answered ) out of fter several weeks

of data/driven and personalized lessons, eyanna answered all < inferential questions correctly

on a similar style test. ee appendi+ 9 for a sample of the Aost/est% &t was clear that eyanna

was capable of reading tough science te+ts, but she lacked the motivation and strategies to cope

with content that she showed little interest in learning. &n addition to this, eyanna showed a

positive attitude change when reading science te+ts, as indicated in her body language and

feedback. 8hen we initially began, she was reluctant to engage with the reading and & would

often find her drifting off. ?y the end of the intervention, she was eager to learn and e+cited that

she was making improvements. >s eyanna said, *9or the first time ever, & feel that & can get

through this stuff.

Bne of the biggest challenges & faced while working with ey was finding a way to help

her cope with tough te+t since she lacked motivation to try. he was not used to working with

others, so peer/mediated learning was not going to be helpful for eyanna0s literacy

development. 8ith little supervision and teacher involvement over the years, ey had developed

some bad habits while reading. he openly admitted that she simply skips over tough sections,

and that no one ever pushed her to go back and try to understand the content. & find that

particularly worrisome since she has a career goal of becoming a veterinarian or a paleontologist

and will encounter some tough te+t in the future. & used several strategies to help her overcome

these challenges. he two strategies that were most effective were *talking to the te+t and

modeling. *alking to the e+t is a technique where a reader puts down her thoughts in writing.

>s she reads, she is encouraged to use symbols, underline words she doesn0t know, and use


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pictures to interact with the passage. ince ey is a very artistic and visual learner, being able to

write all over her te+t was a positive e+perience. 8hile reading the 6ational (eographic article

*4ase tudyD he >mazonian oad Fecision 2"1)% by 5eather Johnson, ey was able to make

sense of words she didn0t know by drawing all over the margins and making personal

connections with the content. ee >ppendi+ ( for work sample%. &n addition, she practiced this

technique a second time while reading *AaleontologistD Fr. ouise eakey 2"12% by tuart

hornton. ee >ppendi+ 5 for work sample%. he really responded to this technique since it

made her aware of when she was struggling so that she could seek out the answers. &n addition,

you can see the growth and comfort with this technique as indicated by the increase in interaction

with the te+t in from appendi+ ( to appendi+ 5.

>lthough modeling was not a technique & initially focused on, after 2 sessions it became

apparent that this strategy would prove to be highly beneficial. ince she doesn0t have a *typical

teacher and is self/managed, she doesn0t have a great reference point towards what is acceptable

and what isn0t. & modeled the technique *alking to the e+t for the first half of the article

before asking ey to do so for *4ase tudyD he >mazonian oad. ee appendi+ & for my

modeling sample% his revealed two unplanned and e+citing results. &t felt like a break/through

in her learning that will have lasting benefits. 9irst of all, ey was able to see that even

e+perienced readers, such as myself, stumble upon parts of the reading that don0t make sense.

9or e+ample, while reading the article, & wasn0t sure where the *western edge of the >mazon

iver basin was, nor was & entirely sure of what the word *contentious meant. ee appendi+ &%

his lead to an increase in her confidence, which ultimately improved her motivation. econdly,

she realized that everyone, no matter their age or rank, makes personal connections with the

reading. 9or e+ample, while & was reading the passage form >ppendi+ &, & spoke aloud about how


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the phrase *illegal loggers made me think of that as *poachers of trees. &n addition, she saw me

talking aloud what how & wonder what the *>sheninka way of life is and how their society must

be entirely different from ours. ee appendi+ &%. ong term gains can be made in her education

if ey can maintain this enthusiasm and confidence and apply it while learning alone. >s

(ambrell 2"13% stated, *iteracy motivation often makes the difference between superficial and

shallow learning and learning that is deep and internalized. 4learly, students need both theskill

and the will to become competent and motivated literacy learners p.1).%

&f & had to go back and repeat these lessons with eyanna, & would be sure to always begin

each teaching technique with adequate modeling time. & wasted valuable time trying to get

eyanna feeling comfortable and confident talking about her learning. ?ased upon her body

language and comments, she felt like she was already behind and the only student who struggled.

& should have demonstrated every technique myself to help her realize that making mistakes and

re/reading is normal and e+pected. >s 9isher 2"11% said *>s teachers think aloud, they do not

simply e+plain or demonstrate what they did, but rather they highlight the process they used to

reach understanding p.#=1%. &n addition, & would have given her some independent work at

home to see if she could apply some of the techniques on her own in her regular work space.

5aving that feedback would have been helped me modify each technique to her own learning

style. & could have also given her different strategies to tackle motivation as she developed these

strategies on her own.

8ith data/driven lessons and implementing small changes while teaching, & was able to find

methods that eyanna best responded to while dealing with tough te+ts. &f time permits, & would

love to continue working with eyanna to help her achieve her future goals. & am invested in her


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education and she shows the will to learn: therefore & will strive to help her succeed when she is

struggling. & know eyanna will be an outstanding student if she can apply what she has learned

in our sessions and take the steps to improve. >s (uthrie 2"13% said, *8hen students can

identify the links across contents of reading, and perceive themes in the substance of their

reading materials, they gain a belief that they can succeed in reading and writing about the te+t

p.


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an e+ample and a reference point. his strategy both increased her confidence and her motivation

to learn.

& would recommend that eyanna continue to develop these skills to cope with tough

reading te+t in all content areas. he will greatly benefit from realizing when she is struggling to

tackle tough te+t rather than ignoring them as she has done in the past. ince eyanna has a

career goal of becoming a veterinarian or paleontologist, she will encounter tough reading

assignments. &f she remembers to challenge herself when she is struggling and become aware of

her learning, eyanna will continue to make literacy gains, especially in reading comprehension.

& would recommend that she continues to push herself to read non/fiction books and articles

about animal care, careers in veterinarian medicine, and current events in science. Engaging with

te+ts that correspond to her career goals and interests, using the techniques we practiced together,

will ensure success in future college classes.

To t#e +arents or guardian of Reyanna )osc#,

&t has been a pleasure working with your daughter for the past several weeks. ?efore

beginning, & needed to gain a better understanding of her strengths and areas of need to help her

improve in the area of science literacy. he was tested for both general fluency and reading

comprehension. Bn her fluency pretest, she scored in the $fter personalized sessions and several

teaching strategies, eyanna scored in the -


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questions correctly. his demonstrates that the interventions were successful and lead to gains in

her literacy skills. & have outlined a few strategies below that she found helpful that she can apply

to any sub'ect area in the future.

he strategies that eyanna responded best to were *alking to the e+t and modeling.

ince eyanna hasn0t had much time working with peers, she was not aware that all readers,

despite their age and role, struggle with and make personal connections with the reading. alking

to the e+t allows students to interact directly with the te+t and become aware when they are

struggling, what they likeCdislike, and what they still have questions on. he was slightly

reluctant to attempt this on her own, so & modeled how to do it. eyanna was able to see that

even an e+perienced reader, such as myself, struggles with some of the reading materials and it is

alright to question what you are reading. his strategy both increased her confidence and her

motivation to learn. he told me that seeing someone else have the same e+perience that she did

made her realize that it0s normal to stumble at times. ou can easily model how you read tough

te+t by reading aloud and showing her where you struggle, or when you reach a sentence that

doesn0t make sense.

& would recommend that eyanna continue to develop these skills to cope with tough

reading te+t in all content areas. he will greatly benefit from realizing when she is struggling to

tackle tough te+t rather than ignoring them as she has done in the past. he will be able to apply

these strategies to her career choices in the future. 9urthermore, & would also recommend that she

continues to push herself to read non/fiction books and articles about animal care, careers in

veterinarian medicine, and current events in science. Engaging with te+ts that correspond to her


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1.E. 9arstrup Eds.%, 8hat esearch 5as to ay >bout eading

&nstruction 3th ed.%, p.#$)%. 6ewarkD FED &nternational eading >ssociation.

Johnson, 5eather 2"1), >ugust 1"%. 4ase tudyD he >mazonian oad.National Geographic.

>ugust 2"1)%

(ambrell, ., 7alloy, J., 7arinak, ?., M 7azzoni, . 2"13%. Evidenced/?ased ?est Aractices in

4omprehensive iteracy &nstruction. &n . ?. (ambrell M . 7andel/7orrow Eds.%,?est Aractices in iteracy &nstruction )th ed.%, pp. #/#=%. 6ew orkD (uilford Aress.

(uthrie, J.2"13%. ?est Aractices for 7otivating tudent to ead. &n . ?. (ambrell M .7andel/7orrow Eds.%, ?est Aractices in iteracy &nstruction )th ed.%, p.=2, pril 3th% AaleontologistD Fr. ouise eakey.National Geographic.

>pril 2"12%

eading 4omprehension and 9luency Are est. ;niversity of Bregon 2"13%. Eugene, BD

etrieved on eptember #"th, 2"1) from www.easycbm.com

!alencia, . 2"11%. ;sing >ssessment to &mprove eaching and earning. &n .J. amuels M>.E. 9arstrup Eds.%, 8hat esearch 5as to ay >bout eading &nstruction 3th ed.%,

p. #$3/#$), #

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LiteracyLearnerAnalysisProject _Kayl 12.13.15