Reader Case Study
Rachel Brown
December 8, 2011
Dr. Eastman
Educ 301
Reader Case Study
Background information
The student chosen for this case study is a fourth grade, male student. He is ten years old
and lives with his mother, an older sister who is a Junior in High School, and grandparents. His
parents are separated and his mother has partial custody. The student spends his weekdays with
his mother and grandparents, and spends weekends with his father. In his free time, he enjoys
spending time outdoors and playing. He likes hunting and guns, wild life, and anything
outdoorsy. He also loves spending time with his grandparents. He reports that he doesn’t like
reading and that reading is hard. He is currently not identified with a learning disability, but is
going through the testing process. The reader works one on one with a retired teacher on phonics
once a week to help improve his reading skills.
Assessments
According to the student’s teacher, the reader is currently reading at a second grade level.
On the Fountas and Pinnell level scale, he is reading level M books. The areas of greatest
concern with the students reading are phonics, accuracy and fluency. He struggles with word
chunks and stretching words. His teacher is confident that he is able to improve, given extra help
and instruction. After discussing focus areas with the fourth grade teacher, the researcher has
decided that the intervention will focus on reading fluency, since the student is already receiving
additional instruction with phonics.
Throughout this case study, the researcher will be conducting three assessments which
include a screening assessment, a progress monitoring assessment, and a post assessment to see
the students overall improvement. The researcher will also be tutoring the student along with one
of his classmates after school once per week for forty-five minutes. During this time, the
researcher will provide instruction to help improve the student’s fluency.
The first assessment that will be given is the screening. This will allow the researcher to
determine the reader’s current standing and decide how to formulate the intervention instruction
so that the reader will grow from the information gained. The base score gained from this
assessment will also be used to see growth from the beginning of the case study to the end. This
information will be put into a graph to show the readers growth over the course.
The researcher will use a reading rate assessment for the screening to see exactly where
the student is in their fluency and reading speed. In this assessment, the student is given a book
or passage to read. He will be timed for one minute, and the researcher will track how many
words he read in that minute. The information gained from this will show the researcher the
current reading rate for the student. This will help determine what will be taught during the
tutoring sessions between assessments.
The second assessment that the researcher will be administering to the fourth grade
student will be a progress monitoring assessment. This will be given after half of the intervention
sessions. There will be a total of 5 tutoring sessions, so the test will be given during the third
session.
The researcher has decided that this progress monitoring assessment will be a Multi-
Dimensional Fluency Scale. The purpose of this assessment is to assess the student’s expression,
volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace. For each of these categories, the student will be
assigned a score ranging from one to four. The assessment will be given using a familiar book at
the students reading level. As the student reads, the researcher will listen to the reader, focusing
on the categories of expression, volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace; and will rate the
student in each of these categories. The results from this test will show if the first three
intervention sessions have been successful. It will also show whether the intervention strategy
needs to be altered or redirected.
Finally the researcher will give an outcome based assessment. The purpose of an outcome
based assessment is to determine how much progress that a student has made from the beginning
of the case study to the end of a series of instruction sessions. This information will be charted in
a graph to visually show whether or not the student has made any overall improvement and how
much they have improved.
For this assessment, the researcher decided that repeating the reading rate assessment
would be the best option. This will be done with a different book than the first one, but will still
be using a book that the reader is familiar with. This will allow the researcher to get a clear view
of how much growth in fluency that the reader has been made since the first assessment was
given. The researcher will compare the results of the screening, progress monitoring, and
outcome based assessments and create an excel graph to get a clear view of the student’s
progress throughout the tutoring sessions.
Assessment Database
Name Grade How to use When to use Information
provided
Reference
information
Dynamic
Indicators of
Basic Early
Literacy
Skills
(DIBELS)
1-3 Students read a
passage out
loud for one
minute
To identify
students in
need of
additional
assistance and
support
Fluency rate
and phonemic
awareness
www.rti4success.
org/chart/
progressMonitori
ng/impTable/
diblesORF.html
Reading
Rate
Assessment
K-5 Students read a
passage for one
minute; the
number of
words
correctly
identified are
Beginning of
the school
year, and
throughout.
Fluency www.assessment/
readingrate/qrp
recorded
Running
Record
K-12 Student reads a
passage while
teacher keeps
track and
calculates
corrections and
mistakes
Any time.
Useful to do
periodically to
observe growth
Assesses
Fluency and
Decoding
www.Readinga-
z.com
Cloze K-12 Using a grade
level passage,
leave out every
nth word. The
students fill in
the missing
word
Any time,
particularly
useful during
beginning of
year
Assesses
Comprehension
http://
olc.spsd.sk.ca/
DE/PD/instr/
strats/cloze/
index.html
Multi-
dimensional
fluency
scale
3-6 Using a rubric,
reader is rated
on a scale of 1-
4 in
expression,
volume,
phrasing,
smoothness,
Beginning,
middle, and
end or year
Fluency http://
classroom.jc-
schools.net/read/
fluencyscale.pdf
and pace.
Gray Oral
Reading
Test
2-12 Students read a
passage aloud.
Teacher
monitors oral
reading
accuracy and
categorizes the
errors made.
Then a few
comprehension
questions are
asked
Any time you
want to
monitor a
student’s
decoding or
comprehension
Comprehension
/decoding
www.proedinc.co
m/customer/
default.aspx
Alphabet
Assessment
K-2 Using a student
response sheet,
student points
out and names
letters and
letter sounds
3-4 times per
year
Letter names
and sound
recognition
http://
teams.lacoe.edu/
reading/
assessments/
alphabet.html
Phase II: Developing a Plan
Part D: Administration of Screening Assessment
As indicated in the previous phase, the researcher will be tutoring the fourth grade
student in an attempt to improve his reading fluency. To see where the student was at prior to
instruction, the researcher decided to utilize a reading rate assessment on October 12, 2011, This
assessment is intended to help the researcher narrow in on the students exact needs and to help
focus the instruction to be provided for the student.
Part E: Interpretations of Assessment
After administering the reading rate screening assessment, the reader found that the
student is reading 81 words per minute. The student did his reading from a book that was at his
current reading level (level N) and in a book that he had read once before this assessment. The
average reading speed for a fourth grade student is around 120 - 130 words per minute. The
students score is significantly lower than that of the average fourth grade student.
The researcher also observed that the student’s reading was labored and choppy, resulting in the
slow reading time. As he read, the reader read with no expression, and did not read the passage
with the appropriate punctuation. Often, he did not pause at the end of sentences or commas, or
would pause at inappropriate places throughout the sentences.
Part F: Plan of Action
The researcher has decided that the plan of action will focus on the fluency skills of
reading sight words, reading with emotion and expression, following punctuation rules while
reading, and phrasing. Each of these strategies will help the reader improve his skills in reading
fluency. For each lesson, the researcher will start with a reading rate assessment to track the
reader’s progress and growth. These lessons will be taught during tutoring sessions after school
once a week along with another fourth grade student who struggles with reading fluency.
Lesson 1: Sight words
The researcher will begin the first lesson by reading from a level N book. During this
time, the researcher will repeat the reading rate assessment. The student will read for about 5-10
minutes after the assessment. After reading, the students will play a sight word game. The game
is called the “Oops game”, and is played by two or more players. The researcher will prepare
flashcards with fourth grade sight words. There are also several cards that have the word
“OOPS!” written on them. All the cards are placed face down on a table. Players take turns
drawing a card. They must flip it over and say the word quickly and correctly. If they don’t, the
group says the word and then it is returned to the card pile. If they are able to read it correctly
and quickly, the student gets to keep the word. If a card with the word “OOPS!” is drawn, then
the student must return that card, and all of the ones they have collected to the pile. The game
continues until one player has accumulated 7 cards. That person is the winner of the round. This
is beneficial because when cards are returned to the pile, the student is then drawing out familiar
words. As he play this game, the words should become easier for him to read because they are
more familiar. After playing this game, I will talk with the student about re-reading and how that
improves fluency. The more he reads the section, the more comfortable he will be with it, which
will allow him to read more fluently. Finally, we will finish up by re-reading the section from the
book that he read at the beginning of the lesson.
Lesson 2: Periods, Question marks, and Exclamation points
This intervention session will begin with the student reading from the book Stanley, Flat
Again by Jeff Brown. This book is a Level N reading level, which is the student’s reading level.
While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment again. After five to
ten minutes of reading, the researcher will introduce the book Punctuation takes a Vacation. The
student and researcher will read the book together. The researcher will read a few pages to model
fluent reading and how to properly follow punctuation marks. The researcher will ask the
students questions such as “how does your voice sound at the end of a sentence with a question
mark? (It goes up) “What do you do when you come to a period? (Whole stop) and “What does
your voice sound like when you read something with an exclamation point at the end?” (Excited,
emotion) Then the student will read the remaining pages and be asked to read fluently and with
proper pauses based on the punctuation present. Then the student will practice reading a variety
of sentences with a variety of punctuation marks that were created by the researcher. After
reading through the sentences, the student will write his own sentences using the punctuation
marks discussed during the lesson and then read them with the proper expression. To end the
lesson, the student will read more of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again.
For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter one from Stanley, Flat
Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to
read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.
Lesson 3: Commas and quotation marks
To start off, the reader will read part of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again. While the
student is reading, the researcher will administer a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale assessment.
After reading for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on periods,
question marks, and exclamation points. Then the researcher will introduce the book Eats,
Shoots, leaves. The researcher will read a few pages to model fluent reading and how to properly
follow the punctuation marks. Throughout the reading, questions will be asked such as “what do
I do when I come to a comma?” (Pause), or “what do the quotation marks tell me?” (Someone is
talking). The student will read the remaining pages and be asked to try to read fluently and with
proper punctuation rules being followed. The student will then practice reading a variety of
sentences that utilize commas and quotation marks. The researcher will once again model how to
read a sentence with the punctuation and then the student will practice reading the sentences.
Finally, the student will practice creating his own sentences using commas and quotation marks
and read them aloud. To end the intervention session, the student will begin reading chapter two
from Stanley, Flat Again.
For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter two from Stanley, Flat
Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to
read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.
Lesson 4: Reading with emotion and expression
The reader will begin this lesson by reading part of chapter two of Stanley, Flat Again. During
this time, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the reader has read for
five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on commas and quotation
marks by asking the student to read a few sentences containing those punctuation marks. During
this lesson the instructor will discuss the importance of reading with emotion and expression.
The researcher will ask questions such as “why is it important to read using expression?” or
“How do you know which expression should be used?” (Sometimes the book tells you, or by
using context clues) Using Stanley, Flat Again, the researcher and student will echo read the
book. The researcher will read the page first; modeling reading with emotion and expression, and
then the student will follow, also using emotion and expression. After reading the book, the
student will be asked to read a sentence from a graphic organizer using multiple emotions (ex.
Excited, sad, bored, angrily). This will be repeated with several sentences. Finally, the student
will practice creating some of his own sentences. He will be asked to write a sentence he would
read in an excited tone, angry tone, etc. He will then read those sentences with the emotions. To
end the lesson, the student will start reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again, using proper
emotion and expression.
For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat
Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience
Lesson 5: Phrasing
To start this lesson, the reader will read part of chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again.
While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the student
has read for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review reading with expression and emotion.
Then the researcher will discuss phrasing with the student. The researcher will explain that rather
than looking at each individual word one at a time, the student can break a reading into phrases
to make the reading more manageable without stopping at each word. “Which is easier, to read a
small section of words, or a whole page of words?” To practice this, the student will be asked to
read some poetry from Shell Silverstine. He will be asked to remember what he has learned in
previous lessons and read the poetry while following punctuation marks and reading with
emotion and expression. This will be a chance for the reader to show what he has learned so far
and model his fluency skills.
Parent Letter:
Dear Parent/Guardian,
With your permission, I have recently started working with your student after school on
Wednesdays to help develop his reading skills. After talking with his classroom teacher, we
decided that the area of reading that I should focus on with him would be fluency because that is
one of his current weaknesses. Fluency is a student’s speed, smoothness and ease of oral reading.
Fluent readers are able to read quicker and smoother which allows students to focus on their
comprehension of what they are reading rather than focusing on trying to decipher and sound out
each word. To begin this case study, I administered a reading rate screening assessment. From
this assessment, I gathered that your child is able to sound out words, but he needs additional
instruction to help smooth out his reading, increase his reading speed, recognize common words,
and read with emotion and expression. I have planned 5 mini-lessons to work with your child to
further develop his reading fluency.
In our lessons, we will spend time practicing fourth grade common sight words. We will
also be working on how punctuation affects reading, and how to implement that in his oral
reading. We will spend a lot of time reading out loud to allow him time to practice reading with
emotion, and expression, as well as practicing to read smoothly. With these lessons, we will be
setting a goal of increasing your child’s reading rate as well as his confidence in oral reading,
and his tone and expression while reading.
With that being said, he will be expected to practice his reading skills at home to continue
the use of each strategy. It will be important to your child’s learning that these lessons are
reinforced and practiced at home. Since your child already has assigned classroom reading that
he is supposed to do each week for his classroom teacher, I will be assigning him additional
readings each week to practice the skills we are working on. These sections will need to be read
before the next session that we meet for. It would be helpful if he had an audience to practice his
reading skills with. Each week, he will have a different skill he will be working on. As he reads,
he should be encouraged to incorporate the skills we are learning at school into his reading. I
appreciate you allowing me to work with your child. I look forward to working with him and
hope to see improvement in his reading skills. If you have any questions, please contact me by
phone at (260)-579-1627 or by email at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Rachel Brown
Dear Mrs. Clark,
After discussing with you your student’s strengths and weaknesses, I have decided to
focus my instruction time with him on fluency. During my reading rate screening assessment
with him, I learned that he is currently reading about 81 words per minute. This is below what he
should be at for his grade level. I also observed that he often ignored punctuation marks, not
pausing for commas, or stopping at periods. On occasion, he would put pauses at awkward
places in sentences. While he was reading, I observed minimal expression and emotion in his
reading. It is my hope that with additional instruction time, his reading fluency can be improved
upon.
My plan for his instructional time is centered on fluency. We will start each day by
repeating the reading rate screening assessment to track his reading rate. I will start off his
instruction with a lesson where we will practice high frequency sight words. Next, we will spend
a couple of our instructional periods working with punctuation marks and how they affect
reading. We will work on periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, and quotation
marks. With these, we will spend a large amount of time modeling and practicing what reading
sounds like when these marks are used. After that I will work with him on using emotion and
expression while reading. Finally, he will practice his phrasing and reading groups of words
rather than focusing on decoding one word at a time. In order to do this I will utilize poetry in his
instruction. It is my hope that throughout these lessons, he begins to make an improvement in his
confidence and reading fluency.
Throughout his reading instruction, I will be giving your student weekly goals to practice
before we meet for our next lesson. It is important that he is reminded to practice these skills in
order to improve his skills. It would be helpful if, during classroom reading time, he is
encouraged to use the skills we are focusing on that week. I would love to hear feedback from
you on my instructional plan as well as your view throughout the process as to the changes that
you may see in your student’s fluency. Thank you for allowing me to work with one of your
students. I appreciate your willingness and guidance. If you have any questions for me, feel free
to contact me by phone or email.
Sincerely,
Rachel Brown
Graphic organizer web
He ate the last piece of pizza.
Angry
Sad
Excited
Today is Friday.
Angry
Sad
Excited
We went to the movies last night.
Sad
Confused
Excited
I saw a deer yesterday.
Angry
Sad
Excited
The Romans lost the battle.
Angry
Sad
Excited
Confused
We have homework tonight.
Angry
Sad
Excited
We have a dog at home.
Angry
Sad
Excited
I have a new baby brother.
Angry
Sad
Excited
PHASE III: Tutoring: conducting the action plan
Lesson 1: Sight words
The researcher will begin the first lesson by reading from a level N book. During this
time, the researcher will repeat the reading rate assessment. The student will read for about 5-10
minutes after the assessment. After reading, the students will play a sight word game. The game
is called the “Oops game”, and is played by two or more players. The researcher will prepare
flashcards with fourth grade sight words. There are also several cards that have the word
“OOPS!” written on them. All the cards are placed face down on a table. Players take turns
drawing a card. They must flip it over and say the word quickly and correctly. If they don’t, the
group says the word and then it is returned to the card pile. If they are able to read it correctly
and quickly, the student gets to keep the word. If a card with the word “OOPS!” is drawn, then
the student must return that card, and all of the ones they have collected to the pile. The game
continues until one player has accumulated 7 cards. That person is the winner of the round. This
is beneficial because when cards are returned to the pile, the student is then drawing out familiar
words. As he play this game, the words should become easier for him to read because they are
more familiar. After playing this game, I will talk with the student about re-reading and how that
improves fluency. The more he reads the section, the more comfortable he will be with it, which
will allow him to read more fluently. Finally, we will finish up by re-reading the section from the
book that he read at the beginning of the lesson.
Reflection:
This lesson was given on October 19, 2011. The researcher started with a reading rate
assessment over a level M book. The student was able to read 81 words per minute. His reading
was very choppy, and he struggled to read many of the words. The researcher also noted that the
reader did not read with expression and seemed to disregard punctuation marks. The student
graphed his progress on a words per minute bar graph. The researcher explained to him that this
was something he would be doing at the beginning of every lesson. He decided to set a personal
goal of reading 100 words per minute by the end of the sessions. The student read for around 8
minutes in the book, but only made it through a few pages. He was easily frustrated by the
reading. The researcher introduced the “Oops game” to the student. This game was played
between the research subject and another student who participated in all of the tutoring sessions.
The game started out relatively slow, as the student struggled to read the words. The student
noticed and commented on the fact that he was able to read the cards that he had previously read
faster when he encountered them for a second or third time. After this realization, the researcher
stopped the game to have a brief discussion with the student about how this concept could apply
to his reading. The researcher guided the student to the realization that re-reading a section of a
book gets easier each time it is read. The game was resumed and the students eagerly played for
a few more minutes. After the game, the student re-read the same section of the level M book he
had read at the beginning of the lesson. Although there was not a huge difference in his reading,
he did comment about how he didn’t have to ask how to say some of the words that he did ask
about the first time he read the book.
If this lesson were to be repeated, different cards for the “Oops Game” should be used.
The researcher did not realize that the writing on the cards could be seen through the back of the
card. Because of this, the student was able to avoid choosing long words. This was corrected by
having the student close his eyes while choosing a card, but it would work better if new cards
were used.
Lesson 2: Periods, Question marks, and Exclamation points
This intervention session will begin with the student reading from the book Stanley, Flat
Again by Jeff Brown. This book is a Level N reading level, which is the student’s reading level.
While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment again. After five to
ten minutes of reading, the researcher will introduce the book Punctuation takes a Vacation. The
student and researcher will read the book together. The researcher will read a few pages to model
fluent reading and how to properly follow punctuation marks. The researcher will ask the
students questions such as “how does your voice sound at the end of a sentence with a question
mark? (It goes up) “What do you do when you come to a period? (Whole stop) and “What does
your voice sound like when you read something with an exclamation point at the end?” (Excited,
emotion) Then the student will read the remaining pages and be asked to read fluently and with
proper pauses based on the punctuation present. Then the student will practice reading a variety
of sentences with a variety of punctuation marks that were created by the researcher. After
reading through the sentences, the student will write his own sentences using the punctuation
marks discussed during the lesson and then read them with the proper expression. To end the
lesson, the student will read more of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again.
For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter one from Stanley, Flat
Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to
read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.
Reflection:
This lesson was given on November 2, 2011. The session started off with the student
reading from the book Stanley, Flat Again, a level N book. For his reading rate assessment, the
student read 70 words per minute. This was a drop in performance, but the student had recently
moved up to a higher level book, and was struggling with the more difficult reading level. The
student graphed his progress, although he was disappointed with his lack of progress. The
student’s reading was once again very choppy, and he complained about having to read.
After reading, the researcher read the book Punctuation takes a Vacation, which the
student said he had heard before. The student struggled to answer the question about what
happens to someone’s voice at the end of a question. The researcher modeled this several times
before the student was able to identify how the voice changed. After discussing how the
different punctuation marks affect reading fluency, the student read sentences taken from
Stanley, Flat Again that ended with periods, question marks, and exclamation points. The student
did a good job of reading these sentences using the proper expression for the punctuation marks
present. On a couple of the sentences, he realized that he was not using the proper expression,
and started the sentence over using the proper expression. Next, the student was asked to write
his own sentences using the punctuation marks discussed. Finally, the student read a few more
pages of Stanley, Flat Again. It was apparent that the student was trying to use expression when
he read sentences ending with periods, question marks, and exclamation points. While he did not
read all the sentences this way, he did attempt to use expression with most of his sentences. His
reading was still very segmented and laborious. The reader was not happy when he was asked to
read the rest of the chapter on his own for the next session, but agreed to do so.
Lesson 3: Commas and quotation marks
To start off, the reader will read part of chapter one of Stanley, Flat Again. While the
student is reading, the researcher will administer a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale assessment.
After reading for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on periods,
question marks, and exclamation points. Then the researcher will introduce the book Eats,
Shoots, leaves. The researcher will read a few pages to model fluent reading and how to properly
follow the punctuation marks. Throughout the reading, questions will be asked such as “what do
I do when I come to a comma?” (Pause), or “what do the quotation marks tell me?” (Someone is
talking). The student will read the remaining pages and be asked to try to read fluently and with
proper punctuation rules being followed. The student will then practice reading a variety of
sentences that utilize commas and quotation marks. The researcher will once again model how to
read a sentence with the punctuation and then the student will practice reading the sentences.
Finally, the student will practice creating his own sentences using commas and quotation marks
and read them aloud. To end the intervention session, the student will begin reading chapter two
from Stanley, Flat Again.
For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter two from Stanley, Flat
Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience. He will also be reminded to
read using the right expression for the punctuation marks present.
Reflection:
This lesson was given on November 9, 2011. The student had done his reading
assignment, but rather than just reading the first chapter of the book, he read the entire book,
although he admitted that he did not read it out loud like he was asked; he read it “in his head”.
He was asked to read a familiar section of the book, starting at chapter two. During this time, the
researcher administered a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale assessment. In this assessment, the
readers score (as seen below) added up to 9 points out of 16 possible points. According to the
rubric, this means that the reader still needs additional instruction in fluent reading. This helped
the researcher to gain valuable information about the readers progress and evaluate the
effectiveness of previous lessons, and look at future lessons to see if they would meet the
student’s needs. The researcher was not planning on using a reading rate assessment on this
lesson since another assessment was already being used, but the student complained when he
was not able to fill out his words per minute bar graph. For this reason, the researcher added this
to the lesson as well. The student read once again from Stanley, Flat Again, and read 74 words
per minute. This was a slight improvement for the student, and he was excited about the progress
he had made.
After the assessments, the researcher read the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves to the
student. The researcher modeled how to pause at a comma and read fluently. The student then
tried to do the same. In his attempt, his pause was very long, more like as if there had been a
period present. The researcher addressed this, and re-modeled the skill. The student tried again
and did a much better job pausing for the appropriate amount of time. Next, the researcher
decided to change the plans slightly and use a reader’s theater script with the student. This was
decided because the script incorporated quotation marks and commas, as well as other
punctuation marks used in previous lessons. The activity was also a more engaging one for the
student. The student was excited to use the reader’s theater, taken from pbskids.org, and
incorporated funny voices into his reading, although he was not consistent in the use of the
voices. The script was gone through one and a half times, but his grandfather arrived early and
he needed to leave before the lesson was completed. The researcher felt like the student
understood the lesson, although she would have liked more time to work with the student on this
skill. It was decided that the researcher would continue on to the next lesson, even though this
lesson had not been completed.
Name __________________________________________________
Fluency Rubric
1 2 3 4
Expression and Volume Reads in a quiet voice as
if to get words out. The
reading does not sound
natural like talking to a
friend
Reads in a quiet voice.
The reading sounds
natural in part of the
text, but the reader does
not always sound like
they are talking to a
friend.
Reads with volume and
expression. However,
sometimes the reader
slips into expressionless
reading and does not
sound like they are
talking to a friend.
Reads with varied
volume and expression.
The reader sounds like
they are talking to a
friend with their voice
matching the
interpretation of the
passage.
Phrasing Reads word-by-word in
a monotone voice
Reads in two to three
word phrases, not
adhering to punctuation,
stress and intonation
Reads with a mixture of
run-ons, mid-sentence
pauses for breath, and
some choppiness. There
Reads with good
phrasing; adhering to
punctuation, stress, and
is reasonable stress and
intonation.
intonation.
Smoothness Frequently hesitates
while reading, sounds
out words, and repeats
words or phrases. The
reader makes multiple
attempts to read the
same passage
Reads with extended
pauses or hesitations.
The reader has many
“rough spots.”
Reads with occasional
breaks in rhythm. The
reader has difficulty
with specific words
and/or sentence
structures.
Reads smoothly with
some breaks, but self
corrects with difficult
words and/or sentence
structures.
Pace Reads slow and
laboriously.
Reads moderately slow. Reads fast and slow
throughout reading.
Reads at a
conversational pace
throughout the reading.
Scores of 10 or more indicate that the student is making good progress in fluency. Score __9___
Scores below 10 indicate that the student needs additional instruction in fluency.
Lesson 4: Reading with emotion and expression
The reader will begin this lesson by reading part of chapter two of Stanley, Flat Again.
During this time, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the reader has
read for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review the previous lesson on commas and
quotation marks by asking the student to read a few sentences containing those punctuation
marks. During this lesson the instructor will discuss the importance of reading with emotion and
expression. The researcher will ask questions such as “why is it important to read using
expression?” or “How do you know which expression should be used?” (Sometimes the book
tells you, or by using context clues) Using Stanley, Flat Again, the researcher and student will
echo read the book. The researcher will read the page first; modeling reading with emotion and
expression, and then the student will follow, also using emotion and expression. After reading
the book, the student will be asked to read a sentence from a graphic organizer using multiple
emotions (ex. Excited, sad, bored, angrily). This will be repeated with several sentences. Finally,
the student will practice creating some of his own sentences. He will be asked to write a sentence
he would read in an excited tone, angry tone, etc. He will then read those sentences with the
emotions. To end the lesson, the student will start reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again,
using proper emotion and expression.
For homework, the student will be asked to finish reading chapter three of Stanley, Flat
Again. He will be asked to read it out loud, preferably an audience
Reflection:
This lesson was given on November 16, 2011. When the researcher met with the student
for this lesson, he very excitedly told the researcher that he had moved up to reading level O. He
was very proud of his improvement. He also informed the researcher that he had read Stanley,
Flat Again for a second time all the way through, and wanted to read something new. With no
time to prepare a book for the change in the reader’s level and desire for a new book, the
researcher asked the reader to pick a book out of his bag of books that the classroom teacher
selects for him. These books are selected based on his current reading level, skills, and interests.
He selected a non-fiction book, Amazing Gorillas! By Sarah L. Thomson. This is a book that he
had read before and was familiar with. The book was used for the student’s reading rate
assessment. The student read 76 words per minute, which was only a two word per minute
increase, but was at a higher level from his previous book. The student continued to read for
several minutes after his reading rate assessment. Afterwards, he eagerly filled in his bar graph.
After this, the researcher reviewed the previous lessons with the student. This then
transitioned into a discussion of using emotion while reading. The researcher modeled this by
reading a section of the Flat Stanley book twice, once with emotion and once without. The
researcher then asked “which of these sounds better”, to which the student selected the one read
with emotion. A discussion was had about how a good reader uses emotion in their reading to
interest listeners and show how characters are feeling. Using a graphic organizer, the researcher
had the student read multiple sentences with various emotions. The student was able to easily do
this activity. The researcher asked the student to use the flat Stanley book to practice this skill,
since it had characters that displayed various emotions. The student selected his favorite section
from this book. He struggled at first to read with the appropriate emotions, but once he
discovered which emotions were being used, he was able to go back and read the section again
using the right emotion. Overall, for this lesson it became apparent that the student did know
how to read with emotion, but found it embarrassing to do so. Once he got more comfortable
with the idea of doing this, his only struggle was determining which emotion the character in the
book was feeling. His reading throughout this lesson was still rather slow, but was a bit smoother
than it had been in previous lessons, and he spent less time pausing to sound out words.
Lesson 5: Phrasing
To start this lesson, the reader will read part of chapter three of Stanley, Flat Again.
While he is reading, the researcher will administer a reading rate assessment. After the student
has read for five to ten minutes, the researcher will review reading with expression and emotion.
Then the researcher will discuss phrasing with the student. The researcher will explain that rather
than looking at each individual word one at a time, the student can break a reading into phrases
to make the reading more manageable without stopping at each word. “Which is easier, to read a
small section of words, or a whole page of words?” To practice this, the student will be asked to
read some poetry from Shell Silverstine. He will be asked to remember what he has learned in
previous lessons and read the poetry while following punctuation marks and reading with
emotion and expression. This will be a chance for the reader to show what he has learned so far
and model his fluency skills.
Reflection:
This lesson was given on November 30, 2011. This lesson was started off by reading a
familiar book that the student chose. He chose to read Amazing Snakes! By Sarah L. Thomson,
which is a level O book. After the student had read for several minutes, the researcher introduced
the book Over, Under, by the Clover: What is a Preposition? by Brian Claery and Brian Gable.
The researcher read part of this book to the student and discussed prepositions and prepositional
phrases. The student was asked to find prepositions on different pages of the book, and was able
to do so about 75% of the time. This led to having the student find the prepositional phrases,
which he did with similar levels of success. The researcher explained that by reading groups of
words together, reading sounds more fluent. The student then practiced this by reading poetry
from the book Falling Up by Shell Silverstine. The student really enjoyed this poetry because it
was entertaining and funny. He was able to read more fluently with phrasing on poems that were
short and broken up into many lines. Poems that had more than 5 or 6 words per line were read
more broken up and choppy. Although the reader didn’t seem to completely understand the
concept of prepositions and prepositional phrases, he did understand the concept of reading
groups of words together, rather than reading one word at a time. His reading was smoother and
had more expression during this lesson than it had during any other lesson.
The researcher then had the student return to the book he read at the beginning of the
lesson for his outcome based assessment. The student read Amazing Snakes! By Sarah L.
Thompson. He read 95 words per minute. This was a 19 word per minute increase. This was a
huge improvement for the student. The researcher reflected on this large jump in progress and
concluded that part of the reasoning for this might be that there had been two weeks between this
assessment and the last, since the student was not available the week before.
Phase IV: Impact on learning
Narrative of Improvement
The reader’s screening assessment – a reading rate assessment- revealed that he was
reading 81 words per minute in a level M book, which was his reading level at the beginning of
the intervention sessions. This assessment was done for every intervention session. On attempt
two, there was a significant drop in the readers score. This is most likely due to the fact that the
reader had tested into a level N book earlier in the day, and therefore did his reading rate
assessment with a level N book. His score raised slightly on attempt 3, where he was once again
using a level N book. The reader moved onto a level O book prior to his fourth attempt. The
researcher expected the reader’s score to have at least a slight drop in words read per minute
since the book being read was more difficult. This was not the case though; the reader made a
slight increase in his reading rate. For the outcome based assessment, the student was once again
reading a level O book. This assessment was two weeks after the last reading rate assessment
because the student was not available the previous week. The student had significant growth
between his fourth and fifth attempt. His final score was 95 words per minute. This was
significant growth because the student went from a book level M reading 81 words per minute to
a book level O reading 95 words per minute.
The progress monitoring assessment helped to assess where the student was half way
through the case study. This helped see where the student was at in his progress and what areas
needed more work. The student was assessed using a Multi-Dimensional Fluency Scale Rubric.
His cumulative score showed that the student still needed additional support for fluency. This
assessment showed that the student needed the most work in the areas of expression and volume,
smoothness, and pace. He was making fair progress with his phrasing, but still needed work in
that category as well. This information helped to make sure that the following lessons would be
beneficial for the student.
The curriculum for this case study was created to meet the needs of the reader. This was
done with suggestions and assistance from the classroom teacher as well as from using data from
the screening assessment. Throughout the case study, the student’s progress was monitored to
make sure the lessons were effective and beneficial for the student. The result of this was growth
in the student’s reading fluency.
Although there were not really any samples of the student work, since most of the work
was verbal, there were noticeable changes in the reader. The students reading level and speed
increased throughout the case study. His reading rate bar graph that he created showed his
growth over time. The student actually set his own goals for his reading at 100 words per minute.
The average reading rate for a fourth grade student is 120-130 words, so a goal of 100 words per
minute is an appropriate goal.
The student’s attitude towards reading changed slightly towards the end of the case study.
Throughout the whole case study, the student had a very short attention span for reading. This
did not change throughout the lesson. His motivation towards reading did change slightly
though. At the beginning of the case study, it was a struggle to convince the student read. Over
the course of the lessons, the researcher began to figure out more of the reader’s interests and
incorporate them into the lessons. This, along with a wider variety of activities, increased the
student’s motivation and willingness to work through the lessons. He was particularly motivated
while reading poetry written by shell Silverstine because the poems are humorous.
Researcher Reflection
The researcher also grew as a reading teacher throughout the planning and
implementation of the case study. Having an opportunity to administer a variety of assessments
and interpret the data in order to plan out intervention sessions to meet a student’s specific
learning needs. Practice was also gained in turning data into a graph for easier reading and
interpretation. In the future, the researcher hopes to plan out lessons that will interest and engage
students so that they are motivated to learn. In this case study it wasn’t until the second half of
the case study that the student began to be motivated by the lessons presented to him. In the
future, the researcher would also like to gain additional experience on planning lessons for other
areas of reading instruction in order to provide students with the best resources and teaching
styles available.