1.

Part One
A. Examiner: Amanda Anmuth
School: Sugartown Elementary
Grade Level: First
Student Name: Ted Jones
Student Age: Seven Years Old (Birthday 9/12/2007)

B. Classroom Observations
Teds behaviors in the classroom vary by situation and by day. With his peers,
Ted is generally social. He talks with friends while entering the classroom, and
approaches their desks to continue conversations before all students are asked to sit
down. Ted and the students he considers friends occasionally make negative comments
towards one another (like calling each other a butt or a baby, but generally the
interactions seem to be friendly. However, when working with the other student in his
guided reading group, Ted interacts differently. While leading Teds guided reading
group, I noticed Ted making comments towards the other student in the group. These
comments included Ted stating that he had finished reading before the other student,
telling the other student that the student needed to read, and openly saying that he did not
want to work with the other student.
Ted can also be observed making negative comments towards other peers from
time to time. After coming in from recess, Ted was heard calling a peer a baby and
cutting in front of him to get a drink. Ted also has been observed repeating false
information to other students. On one occasion, Sara pulled Ted aside and spoke with him
about his needing to participate in guided reading. Ted returned to his guided reading
group and told the other student in his group that Sara had told Ted to tell the other
student to read.
During read alouds and minilessons, Ted displays variable behaviors. During the
read aloud and minilesson, Ted can occasionally be seen engaging in off-task behaviors.
While Sara is reading Ted sometimes engages in conversations with peers. Ted
sometimes plays with books, folders, or objects around him or looks at objects around the

room. When Ted wants to make a comment or ask a question he may yell out. When
other students engage in off-task behaviors on the rug, Ted seems to mirror these
behaviors. On one occasion, Ted observed another student lying on the carpet during the
minilesson. Ted proceeded to mirror the other students behavior until both students were
ask to sit up by the teacher.
Other days, during this instructional time, Ted can be seen actively engaged in the
minilesson and story, sitting silently. Some days Ted is one of the first students sitting on
the rug, sitting correctly, and putting up the silent signal demonstrating that he is ready
to learn.
During guided reading, Ted often makes comments about the work, and as
previously mentioned, towards his other group member. When working on the guided
reading questions, Ted can often be observed saying that he is bored and that he does not
want to complete the work. When asked to read the stories independently, Ted stares at
the pages for a few seconds and then claims to have finished reading. During partner
reading, he refuses to participate in echo, chorus, or popcorn reading. When prompted to
read the words, Ted claims that he does not know them. On one occasion, after I asked
Ted to read the words, and he claimed not to know them, I told him that I knew he was
smart and could read the words. Ted responded to my comment by saying that he was not
smart.
On another occasion, I worked with Ted one-on-one to complete a guided reading
page that he had missed while absent. Ted read a few of the storys pages, stated that he
was bored, and that he wanted to be done reading. When Ted came to unknown words, he
would wait for me to give the words to him, without attempting to sound them out.

When Ted is working with the classroom aide within his guided reading group, he
can be observed arguing with her. On one occasion, Ted was overheard debating a book
characters gender with the classroom aide. On another occasion the classroom aide was
seen telling Ted that he was not to challenge her authority in response to a comment that
he had made questioning if an answer she provided was correct. Ted and the aide could
also be observed arguing over Teds refusal to write answers to questions or partner read.
During independent reading, Ted is generally observed not reading. Ted can
usually be seen sitting next to his book box, or talking with other students. When he is
prompted to read Ted often becomes defiant. On one occasion, a substitute teacher asked
Ted to begin reading. Ted blatantly told the substitute no and argued back and forth with
her until she walked away.

C. Student writing sample

The writing sample I chose to examine is a short story Ted wrote about his
seventh birthday. Utilizing the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale, Teds
writing appears to be in the level six (transitional) stage.
I feel that there is solid evidence in Teds writing that he is currently in the
transitional writing stage. One example of this evidence is that Ted utilizes a vowel in
almost all syllables while writing. Throughout the entire three-page story, only the word
felt (spelled flt) was written without any vowel. Teds attempt to include some vowel in
the spelling of almost every word clearly demonstrates that he understands that vowels
are an important part of syllable and word structure.

Another aspect of Teds writing that supports that he is in the transitional stage of
writing is his consistent use of periods throughout the sample. It appears that Ted
attempts to use periods after every sentence he writes. Ted seems to grasp the idea that
periods go after each sentence repressing a complete thought. This correct use of the
punctuation mark meets the expectations for a student in the transitional stage of writing.
A third element of Teds story that demonstrates his currently residing the
transitional stage of writing is his production of multiple sentences. On the first, and third
page of his story, Ted writes two sentences on each page. This meets the standard of
transitional writers writing more than one sentence. The entire story consists of five
sentences. This clearly demonstrates Teds ability to communicate through more than one
written sentence.
The final element within Teds writing that demonstrates he is in the transitional
writing stage is his correct spelling of most high frequency words within sentences.
Within Teds story, he was able to spell the high frequency words you, in, did,
the, we, and got correctly within the context of sentences. The only high frequency
words Ted spelled incorrectly were was, which he spelled one time correctly, and one
time incorrectly, and thank. Teds ability to spell a good amount of these high
frequency words correctly aligns with the developmental writing scale standard for a
writer in the transitional stage.
When faced with unfamiliar or non-sight words, Ted relies on his phonemic
awareness to sound out, and spell, the words. Ted generally includes all phonetic sounds
of the word he is attempting to spell, but sometimes represents these sounds through non-

conventional letters or letter combinations. This phonemic sounding out of words is

developmentally appropriate for Teds age and current writing stage.
Holistically, Teds writing demonstrated many strengths. Ted followed the
prompt he was given. The instructions were for students to take a small moment in their
lives and write about it across three pages. Ted did a good job breaking up the story of his
seventh birthday into smaller details that could be written across the three-page span.
Ted also demonstrated the ability to stay on topic throughout a body of writing.
Every page Ted wrote was relevant to the selected topic of his seventh birthday and
followed the story pattern that he had developed.
Teds writing additionally demonstrated a strong understanding of first person
perspective. This strong understanding of first person perspective could be seen through
Teds use of first person pronouns (I, we). This understanding can also be observed when
Ted adds in details about how he was feeling throughout the storys events (saying he felt
happy on all three pages and excited on the second page).
Ted seems to be developing as a typical writer in the transitional stage of writing
should. Ted is beginning to master the spelling of many high frequency words in
sentences and includes a vowel in almost every syllable he writes. Ted is beginning to
write multiple sentences and is ending them in periods.
D. Comprehension Assessment
To gage his comprehension, Ted was asked to read a story about a little girl and
her dog and answer comprehension questions. The book that Ted was asked to read was a
level B book (Teds independent reading level). Ted read the words in the book with 98%
accuracy, only requiring teacher assistance with the word with (which he read as was).

This 98 percent accuracy lead to Ted strongly comprehending what he had read. The
comprehension questions were broken down into two categories, questions with answers
located within the text and questions with answers that were beyond and about the text.
The first questions were within the text questions. For the first question, Ted
was asked to describe what the little girl told about in the book. Ted was able to provide
the answer that the girl told about her little dog. This answer earned him the three full
possible points from the comprehension rating scale. When Ted was prompted to tell
some of the things the little dog likes to do with the girl, he was able to give four
examples from the story (eat, ride, jump, read). This goes beyond the two to three
examples that the comprehension rating scale required to earn the full three points for that
specific question. Teds ability to recall details from within the text clearly demonstrate
his ability to answer right there type comprehension questions. This shows that Ted is
able to recall specific details from a text that he has read.
The second set of questions was beyond and about the text. The first question
asked Ted to suggest what other types of things the little dog likes to do with the girl. Ted
offered the answer of sleep meeting the questions requirement for the student to give
an example of something the dog may like to do. Teds ability to answer this question
with a specific example of sleep earned him the full three possible points on the
comprehension scale.
The next question tested Teds ability to make inferences about a characters
feelings. When asked how he thought the little girl feels about her dog, Ted replied with
good. This response earned him the full three points from the comprehension scale.

Ted being able to infer how the girl felt about her dog demonstrated his ability to make
inferences about things not explicitly stated in the text.
The next comprehension question asked Ted if this book reminded him of
anything. Ted stated that the book reminded him of his own dog. This response earned
him the full three points from the compression scale that required students to respond
with any personal connection to the text. Teds ability to connect the dog in the text to his
own dog shows that Ted is able to make text-to-self connections and is thinking deeply
about what he is reading. This deep thinking and ability to make connections are proof
that Ted comprehends what he is reading on a concrete level.
The last comprehension question asked Ted to look at a picture in the book and
explain how the picture shows that the little dog and the girl like each other. Ted
answered that the girl smiling and the dog licking her demonstrates that they like one
another. This response citing picture evidence earned Ted the full three points for the
comprehension question. Providing this answer demonstrates that Ted is able to use
picture clues to answer questions and make inferences.
Ted provided satisfactory answers to all of the comprehension questions asked
during the Comprehension Conversation. These responses earned Ted the full six out
of six points placing his comprehension in the excellent range. This clearly
demonstrates that Ted has excellent comprehension skills in regard to books on his
independent reading level.
E. Where-to-Start Word Test/ Running Record- Student Word Knowledge
To gain more insight on Teds word knowledge, I examined a list of words that he
was asked to read, and his responses. These words were separated into three levels,

beginning, level one, and level two. Ted was able to read all twenty words in the
beginning column correctly. The assessment requires students to read sixteen, or more, of
the twenty words in a leveled column correctly to move onto the next level column.
Teds 100% accuracy of reading the beginning level words allowed him to
move onto the next level (level 1) words. Of the twenty level one words listed, Ted was
able to read thirteen of these words correctly. The words that Ted struggled with were
here (read her), has (read his), was (read with), with (read will) and bed (read be). From
multiple observations of Teds reading, it is believed that some of these errors may be
caused by Ted hyper focusing on the beginning sound of words while reading. Ted has
occasionally been observed to read the beginning phoneme in a word and then guess a
word that begins with that same phoneme. It is possible that if Ted does not immediately
recognize a word, he relies on his phonemic awareness to sound out the words initial
sound, and then selects from known words with that same beginning sound.

During

the sample, Ted also chose to omit the words feet and bike. I believe that this aligns
with the observations made about Teds actions with regard to unfamiliar words he
considers difficult. Ted often refuses to read these difficult or unknown words.
Teds reading thirteen of the twenty words in the level 1 list correctly did not
allow him to advance to the next list.
F. Spelling Test (beginning sounds of S, ST, or T)
The fourth artifact examined was a spelling test that Ted competed. The students
looked at pictures of objects as Sara said the objects names. The students then decided if
the objects name started with an S, a ST or a T beginning sound. After deciding, the

students wrote S, ST or T next to the pictured object depending on which beginning

sound it had.
Ted scored an 18/19 on this exam. He was able to correctly identify if each
objects name began with an S, a ST or a T beginning sound, aside from one picture of a
stump. This demonstrates that Ted has awareness of the beginning phonemes S, ST, and
T and can generally discriminate between them when they are spoken orally.
Part 2
A. Students Strengths
Ted demonstrates many strengths as a reader and a writer. The first area of
strength to be examined is Teds writing abilities. As previously mentioned, Ted wrote a
piece of writing that was relevant to the prompt he was given. Ted did a good job of
breaking up the story among the three-page span that his teacher required, and stayed on
topic throughout the writing. Ted demonstrated a good grasp on first person perspective
by utilizing all proper pronouns (me, I, we) and including his feelings in the writing
piece.
In regard to Teds spelling and word knowledge, he was also able to spell almost
all of the high frequency words correctly that he used in his story. Ted also included a
vowel in almost every syllable that he wrote. These traits clearly demonstrate that Ted is
developing a good grasp on the importance of vowels and that he is building up his high
frequency word knowledge. Ted also has strengths in phonemic awareness that can be
seen as Ted uses his decoding skills to sound out unknown words and write graphemes
that correlate with the sounds he hears within the words.

Another area of strength is Teds ability to use periods to end sentences. Ted is
also able to write more than one sentence to communicate his thoughts.
The next area in which Ted demonstrates strength is comprehension. After
reading a story about a girl and her little dog, Ted was able to answer all of the provided
compression questions correctly. These questions included questions with answers that
were within the text and questions with answers that were about and beyond the text.
Ted provided a satisfactory answer to a question regarding what the story was
about, and for another question was able to provide specific examples of things the girl
and the dog did together in the text. These answers demonstrate that Ted shows strength
in the ability to remember, and reference back to, specific details from within a text at his
reading level.
In relation to the comprehension questions about and beyond the text Ted was
able to provide satisfactory answers that demonstrated his ability to infer information.
When asked what other things the dog may like to do, Ted was able to make an inference
based on information he read in the text to suggest an answer. Ted also showed the ability
to make a personal connection to the story, and to infer how characters were feeing based
on context or picture clues. Ted also showed he was able to make personal text-to-self
connections. Overall, Ted seems to be very strong in the area of comprehension. He
seems to not only understand what he is reading, but be able to think deeply about the
text on a higher level.
In regard to his word knowledge, Ted has strength in his growing base of known
words. When given the Where-to-Start word assessment, Ted was able to read all twenty
of the beginning level words provided. He was able to read thirteen out of twenty

words in the next level, and attempted to sound out most unfamiliar words. Overall, this
assessment shows that Ted has a good base of known words that will continue to grow.
The last area examined in which Ted excelled was his spelling skills. On a
spelling test that asked Ted to discriminate between the S, ST, and T beginning sound of
words, Ted properly identified the beginning sound of every word except one. This
shows that Ted has a fairly strong awareness of the S, ST and T sounds and can
discriminate between them.
B. Students Areas for Improvement
One area in which Ted could improve is his behaviors during literacy instruction.
Teds off-task behaviors during large group instruction could be hindering his learning. If
Ted is paying attention to other students, or other things, during instructional time, he is
missing out on new skills that may be being taught.
Teds disengagement with independent reading may also be hindering his
learning. If Ted does not practice reading he will miss out on time that could be used to
strengthen his reading abilities (including fluency and comprehension). This independent
reading would also allow Ted to expand his vocabulary, which would help with the
frustration he seems to experience when faced with unfamiliar words.
Teds reaction to unfamiliar words while reading is another area in which he
could use to improve. Ted should attempt to sound out these new words as opposed to
waiting for an adult to provide the words for him.
Related to Teds phonics skills, another improvement could be made with Ted
reading words more carefully. When Ted reads words as other words with similar

beginning sounds, he is skewing the meaning of the sentence and causing semantic
errors. These errors could then make comprehension more difficult.
The last area in which Ted could improve is his interactions, both with peers and
with adults. Teds defiant behaviors and negative comments may place stress on the
learning environment. This could discourage both Ted, and his classmates, and cause
them to develop a negative connotation about school. The effects of Teds actions on
school personnel may cause a stigma to develop towards Ted or result in some loss of
learning.
C. Recommendations for Future Instruction
Ted would benefit from future instruction in the areas of social skills, learning the
importance of reading all parts of words, and trying to sound out difficult words. Ted
would also benefit from an intervention centered on his difficulties remaining on task
during independent reading time.
Ted could use some lessons regarding social skills and appropriate behavior
within a classroom. These lessons could be taught by using books to introduce the topics
of how to interact with others and appropriate behavior while at school. The reading of
these books could be followed by whole class discussions about the importance of being
kind to others or being respectful while at school.
Another area in which Ted could use further instruction is the way that he
sometimes approaches reading words. As previously mentioned, it appears that Ted
sometimes reads only the beginning sound of words and then suggests another word he
knows that begins with that same sound. This could be inhibiting Teds comprehension.
The best way to teach Ted the importance of reading the whole word would be to

emphasize that substituting a different word can change the semantic meaning of the
sentence. This could be taught by having Ted focus on the meaning of words within the
context of sentences and having him question if the meaning of the word he read makes
sense.
Another area in which Ted could use encouragement is his lack of effort to sound
out unfamiliar words. This could be done through simple encouragement and prompting.
Letting Ted know that it is okay to try to sound out words and that the classroom is a safe
environment may encourage him to take more risks with attempting to sound out difficult
words.
The last recommendation for future instruction I would suggest would be an
intervention aimed at Teds off-task behaviors during guided reading time. Ted needs to
spend this time reading to practice his reading skills and build his vocabulary.
Modifications or strategies should be put in place to encourage Ted to be actively
reading during independent reading time. Some ideas include recordings of books that
Ted can listen to and follow along with, finding books that interest him, or integrating
some type of Ipad App so that Ted can still practice reading skills during this time.