Katie Gipe

EDR 320
Professor Page
November 7, 2016
Child Study Report: Ryker
Preliminary Information
Ryker is ten years old and is in fifth grade. He attends an urban school with a very
diverse student population. About 32% of the population is Caucasian, 31% is African
American, 23% is Hispanic, 1% is Asian and 13% is biracial (MI School Data). About 17% of
students are English language learners and many of the students within that 17% are refugees
from Africa or the Middle East (MI School Data). About 90% of the student population is
economically disadvantaged (MI School Data). Currently 100% of students are receiving free
lunches as the school is within GRPS which has a three year grant to provide breakfast and lunch
free of charge to all students.
Ryker is caucasian and is a native English speaker. He tends to be an under the radar
student as he doesnt participate much in class. He has a good attitude and is very mellow most
days. He isnt extremely motivated, but he does complete his work. He struggles with writing
and has a hard time writing words legibly and correctly. Typically this results in shorter writing
responses. He tends to lump all his ideas into one long run on sentence as well instead of
breaking his thoughts into sentences. Ryker says that he loves to read which I can see in the
intent way he listens during read alouds and how quietly he reads during SSR time. Despite his
love of reading, he doesnt like to answer questions about what hes read, whether orally or
through writing, and he really struggles inferring or making predictions from text.

Strengths of the Child:

Ryker has expressed to me on various occasions that he loves reading on his own. On his
reader interest survey he indicated that he loves reading at home and enjoys graphic novels,
nonfiction and series books. During our reading conference, we talked at the end about his
reading interests and he emphasized again how much he likes reading independently and listed
some graphic novels that he has read (Smile, Sisters, Ghosts) and some he wants to read in the
future (Sunny Side Up). He also expressed his love for read alouds, both on his reader interest
survey and during our reading conference as he added that he really liked the books Compound
and Alabama Moon, past read-aloud books. From these observations, Ryker has great
motivation to read when he gets to choose what he reads and when he can read independently.
While listening to Ryker read an excerpt from Alabama Moon, he consistently worked to
sound out words he didnt know, demonstrating persistence through the passage. He would
evaluate the first sound of the word and then continue sounding out the following letters while
simultaneously using context clues to try and figure out what the word might be. For example, at
one point his thinking was especially clear as he came across the word twine. He first said the

letters t, w and then began to think of the sound they make together. He initially sounded out
ty, but quickly corrected himself saying oh no, tw. He then saw the next two letters, in
and tried to blend tw with the word in. His result was twin and although he needed help to
discover that the silent e at the end turned the i into a long i, he demonstrated persistence
while decoding unfamiliar words. He further demonstrated this persistence by sounding out
additional words such as hindquarter, initially saying hid - hid - hindquarter, satisfied,
sounding out sat - is - satisfied, and direction, initially sounding out dist, but then
correcting himself to direction.
Related to his persistence, Ryker also has a good awareness of the text while hes reading
which allows him to self correct. He knew when he read something that didnt make sense and
instead of skipping over it, he frequently would repeat the sentence, trying to use context clues to
make sense of the word, and then try to sound out the word as described above. If he still
couldnt make sense of the sentence after attempting the problematic word multiple times, he
would appeal for help, but often he was able to self correct some of his initial mistakes while
reading. For example, in Alabama Moon there is a sentence that reads [...] pulled some dried
venison off a hindquarter (Key, 41). Initially Ryker replaced dried with dead, but upon
reading further he decided dead didnt make as much sense, thus he went back and discovered
dead was indeed supposed to be dried. He demonstrated this same awareness of the text
again later in the passage when he mistook the word tarp for trap. Reading the sentence I
threw a rain trap didnt make sense to him so he read it over and over, until he corrected the
problematic word, saying tarp instead of trap.
When assessing Rykers writing, I noticed he is able to keep his writing focused on a
specific topic. In the journal entry I analyzed, everything was related to the prompt he was
given, which was When I am alone my favorite thing to do is... Although his passage wasnt
long, he was still able to state a main idea and give two supporting details. This piece shows his
ability to develop his thinking on a specific topic and back it up with specific examples.
Areas of Need for the Child:
Although Ryker enjoys reading on his own, he struggles with comprehension. After
reading a short excerpt from Alabama Moon, I asked him what happened in the story. He was
able to summarize what happened to the main character, but when I asked questions that required
him to infer or predict what happened next he became flustered and didnt know what to say.
Particularly upon pressing him to predict what the main character might do, he was unable to
give me a prediction claiming that he has trouble with guessing and so do a lot of people in his
family. I told him that predictions dont need to be right, they are simply anything he thinks
might happen based on the story so far. When he still struggled to answer, I asked him, What
would you do if you were in the characters shoes? He felt able to answer that question, but his
answer was very vague, stating basic things someone might do if they were in a forest, but not
picking out in specific elements in the story that might affect the prediction.

Ryker also struggles with fluency, particularly with using expression and phrasing while
reading. He is so focused on accurately reading whats on the page and sounding out words that
he forgets to incorporate expression in his voice and his phrasing ends up sounding choppy and
irregular. For example, while reading Alabama Moon, Ryker came across a sentence that read
Loneliness was something Id have to wait on to pass, like Pap said it would (Key, 41). He
ended up reading it would over again, confused as to how the sentence could end with
would and grappling for words that he felt were missing. Upon not finding any, he moved on
to the next sentence in the next paragraph still confused, but convinced that he read all the words
that were there. Phrasing and expression would help him better understand how that sentence
was intended to be read which would clear up his confusion in comprehension.
In his writing, my main concern is Rykers lack of punctuation. In his journal entry, his
writing is focused, but both the main idea and two supporting details are all in one, long
sentence. To develop his writing further, punctuation needs to be incorporated so that he can
separate his thoughts. This will make his writing more comprehensive and allow him to further
elaborate on parts in his writing.
Instructional Suggestions
Implementing the strategy Make Your Voice Match the Meaning would be a great way
to help improve Rykers fluency and expression while reading. This strategy challenges students
to not just read the words on a page, but to think about the words they are reading and what they
mean. Based on the words meaning, what the author is trying to say, or what type of text they
are reading, the reader then needs to decide what type of voice they should be reading the the
text in. For example, while reading I might model this strategy by thinking aloud What is this
passage about? I would then answer that question aloud, as well as describe what emotion Im
going to read with because of what I know is going on in the story. I would then model the
emotion I decided on in the tone of my voice as I continued to read. After I have modeled this
strategy for the class, I would discuss different ways in which readers can tell how to read a
passage. For example, I would make a chart and have a column that lists different genres and
then have the next column list ideas for how we should read that genre or particular text
features that might show up in that genre. Once students have seen me model the strategy and
have helped create a chart that talks about how to read different genres and text features, I will
have students practice making their voices match the texts meaning. Whether they are doing
partner reads or reading silently, I might go around and ask students what is happening in the
story, how these events affect how they read it, and then ask them to read a passage with that
emotion. This strategy could greatly benefit all students in my current placement, but especially
Ryker as adding expression into his reading will help improve his fluency and comprehension.
To further improve Rykers fluency and phrasing I would use the Punctuation Inside a
Sentence strategy. This strategy requests that students pay attention to the punctuation inside a
sentence, such as commas, dashes, and semicolons, and then read up to that punctuation before

taking a short pause and continuing on. I think this strategy would be particularly useful to
implement when I read one-on-one with Ryker as it offers him guidelines of how to phrase a
sentence. By drawing attention to the punctuation in each sentence, Ryker can read the words
between each punctuation mark as a phrase, prompting him to read with greater fluency which
will in turn improve his comprehension. Drawing attention to the punctuation in the books he
reads will also be a great way for him to become more aware of punctuation in general, including
in his own writing. Seeing how punctuation is modeled in books will hopefully serve as a good
example of how he can begin to incorporate punctuation in his own writing.
In order help Ryker develop his reading comprehension, I would implement the
Empathize to Understand strategy in class. This strategy asks students to put themselves in the
characters shoes, evaluate what is happening to the character at that point in time, and then
image how they might react. This strategy reframes the idea of inferring and predicting by
asking the reader to put themselves in the position of the character. Upon asking lots of
questions about what Ryker thought might happen next in Alabama Moon, he became flustered
and didnt respond well, but as soon as I asked him what he would do in that situation, he gave
me a response. Rather than asking lots of story-based questions to prepare a student to make a
prediction, this strategy requests students draw upon their prior knowledge, life experiences, and
empathy to think about how they might react in the characters situation. By comparing how
they would act to how the character ended up acting, readers can develop a better understanding
of the character and the story. I can model this strategy during read aloud as well as prompt
students to share how they might react if they were in the characters shoes during discussion
when reading in small groups or on a sticky note during SSR time.
Reflection
Completing this child study greatly increased my awareness of my students abilities.
Prior to conducting this study, I would have struggled to identify specific problematic areas of a
childs literacy. After conducting four different types of assessments, I have a better idea of
what kind of behavior I should be looking for when assessing a childs reading and writing.
Analyzing a writing sample and conducting a running record were particularly beneficial tools
that assisted me in being able to pinpoint exactly where my student struggles.
From this study, I also realized the importance of prioritizing areas of improvement when
working with a child. Sometimes if a student is struggling in one area of literacy, this area of
need can manifest itself in other aspects of their reading and writing. The realization of these
numerous needs can seem overwhelming at times, but this study allowed me to practice getting
over that feeling of being overwhelmed and start prioritizing what the student needs to work on.
By picking and choosing the most problematic area in a childs literacy, I might be indirectly
able to help them in other aspects of their literacy as well, as the processes in reading and writing
are extremely interconnected. Also by focusing on one or two of the biggest areas of concern of
a student, I am refraining from overwhelming the student by pointing out too many weaknesses

at one time. After completing this study, I now feel more confident in being able to analyze a
childs reading and writing abilities, prioritize their areas of needs, and implement responsive
strategies to improve the areas in which the student struggles.
This study also highlights the extremely active role in which teachers need to play in
developing a childs literacy future. The way in which a child experiences reading and writing in
elementary school will likely shape how they feel about it for the rest of their school career.
Teachers need to conduct running records and analyze writing samples of students in order to
proactively assist students in improving aspects of their reading and writing that they struggle
with. By improving these areas of need early on, they wont grow into bigger problems later on.