ED615

Case Study 2-4

11-20-2017

Writing and Spelling: Samples and Analysis 


Some of Mackenzie’s writing and spelling characteristics are masked by the use of technology in class.
Mackenzie (like all of our middle school students) does most of her work on the computer, and is able to
use the spelling and grammar checker before submissions. Even so, some of Mackenzie’s unmastered
skills are present in these final samples (attached), and others I write about from having witnessed in
class (on one-draft/temporary writing assignments).

I would like to talk about Mackenzie’s progression during this class, but as her instructor and I have
discussed, there’s been little to this point. This student is in the lowest level ELA course, doing work far
below her peers, even though her Star Reading report puts her at just below grade level. Her teacher
has alluded to health problems and emotional fragility I have not been privy to understanding. He does
not feel this student is ready for a “tough approach” at this time.

Based on short and long vowel confusion (not shown in these samples), I would say Mackenzie is a
“Within Word Pattern Speller”. She often confuses the short and long vowel sound when spelling, even
though she properly decodes them while reading. She neglected the “Bossy E” in “sides”, spelling “sids”
in her latest writing sample (attached). Normally I would say that may just be an oversite, but it’s
consistent with misconceptions I’ve seen in this student in terms of dropping the “e” to add a suffix.
Mackenzie also periodically misspells basic sight words and confuses homophones (as seen in her
November sample with “to” instead of “two”.

The most surprising and persistent error, is Mackenzie’s failure to capitalize appropriately. This can be
seen in her September sample where her teacher capitalizes the proper noun, Edward (seen in the
revision notes) for her. It is seen again in her October sample where she doesn’t capitalize the proper
noun, Jesse. And it is seen in her most recent sample (November) where she doesn’t capitalize many of
the proper nouns for people in that piece. This error extends to all types of proper nouns (not just
people’s names), and I have also seen many instances where Mackenzie fails to capitalize the beginning
letter in sentences (a 3rd grade skill).

While Mackenzie’s reading scores are on-grade-level, her performance on comprehension tests is often
very low. I’m attaching an exit ticket from my reading lesson (Hellen’s Eyes, a photobiography) where
Mackenzie answered every question wrong. I approached her teacher, confused because she had done
so well (verbally) during the lesson. My reading lesson tested comprehension throughout, and
Mackenzie showed understanding and even applied concepts from the material. Her teacher confirmed
that this was something he also sees; that Mackenzie’s verbal answers and written responses are often
contradictory. All of the kids in this particular Ela class have trouble expressing themselves in writing,
and the written pieces you’re seeing are heavily scaffolded.

Analyzing Mackenzie’s earliest writing samples:

Mackenzie is a shy child unwilling or unable to open up to adults. She has a hard time forming opinions
verbally and in writing. What might seem like opinion or insight in this piece, is really heavy scaffolding,
the thoughts and ideas coming from her teacher.

Mackenzie’s ides are often jumbled, her subject isn’t always clear. For instance, Mackenzie writes…
“Another method the author uses is actions. At first her actions are small but helpful, she doesn’t know
it.” She’s talking about the actions of Alyce, the main character, but she writes it in a way that you might
think she means the author’s actions. Also, the sentence makes no sense, she (Alyce) doesn’t know
what? It’s an incomplete thought. She is also not hearing the redundancies in her writing, such as when
she writes “self confidence in herself”.

After doing the miscue reading analysis with Mackenzie, I was shocked to find how little comprehension
she had of what she’d just read. Mackenzie’s lack of attention to words and their meaning are the main
reason I can’t consider her a Derivational Constancy Speller. Her reading, her spelling, and her writing,
show the same lack of attention to words and meaning. I don’t know if this is a sign that some skills need
re-teaching, or if Mackenzie is just having a hard time concentrating due to the previously mentioned
health challenges

Analyzing Mackenzie’s most recent writing sample:

Her opening sentence is a good example of the lack of clarity and poor grammar in Mackenzie’s writing.
“Media expresses stories in different ways such as the movie The Miracle Worker and Helen's Eyes”. The
idea is correct, but the sentences aren’t fluid and she often confuses subjects; she means “different
types of media. Her second sentence again confuses the message: “…Helen Keller’s struggle to be taught
how to understand the meaning of words…” Helen’s struggle wasn’t with “being taught”, as the
structure of this sentence would make it seem. In her final sentence of this piece, Mackenzie confuses
homophones, using “to” instead of “two”; and in many instances (not displayed in these attachments),
she has trouble keeping her tense consistent.

I will say in this latest piece Mackenzie’s voice comes through some, sharing opinions and reasoning.
This is nice to hear as her earlier pieces were mechanical and stilted. She was not as heavily scaffolded in
this writing and came up with some of these points on her own.

These pieces are short, expository, and heavily scaffolded, so it’s hard to judge Mackenzie’s ability to
write her own ideas with voice and fluidity, but I would say Mackenzie started the semester, a writer
that was pretty weak in all of the traits detailed by the Education Northwest guidelines. In this latest
piece (November), I’m happy to see some of her own ideation, and a bit more fluency starting to
immerge in her sentences. Though the closing sentence would benefit from a comma (after conclusion)
and she has confused the homophones (to and two), there’s a confidence and a strong point of view in
her November conclusion.

I have scored and attached the 6+1 rubric for assessing writing (grade 3-12 students) from Education
Northwest, and based it on this final sample.

Books/ Reading List:

Historical Fiction:

Milkweed (courage theme)

The Road from Home (courage theme)

My Name is Not Easy (courage / local culture)

Aleutian Sparrow (courage / local culture)

Science Fiction:

The BFG

James and the Giant Peach

Any unread Lemony Snickets (series)

The Mermaid Sister

Divergent (series)

Hunger Games (series)

 Twilight (series)

Literature

Lord of the flies

Memoires of a Geisha

Call of the Wild or White Fang

Where the Red Fern Grows

Owl in the Family

Life of Pi

Fun novels:

The Fault in our Stars

The Perks of being a Wallflower

Biography:

Arctic Homestead

Iditarod Dream

Reputation (Taylor Swift)

Informational:

National Geographic

Scholastic News (subscription)

Time for Kids

Muse (tween based STEM stories)

Writing Topics:

I would like to see what Mackenzie can do when choosing her own writing topics, however after my
conversations with her I don’t believe Mackenzie would ever chose to write. I think Mackenzie is much
more comfortable talking with peers than adults right now, so I would suggest getting her involved in a
peer reading group where students read and discuss a shared book. Short writing assignments that
come from this group work, like book reports or opinion pieces, could lead her into writing and sharing.

I think a Readers/Writers workshop would be a very valuable experience for Mackenzie, but I think it has
to start with reading. Her comprehension is so low right now, she can’t embrace reading (and why write
if you don’t understand why people read?)

During my interviews with her, she showed no indication of understanding why people read or what
value it has. The only modeling of reading Mackenzie could recall, was her mother sometimes reading
romance novels. Being immersed in reading and writing for all types of purposes and seeing her peers
model “getting lost in a novel” would be great exposure for her. Informational texts would broaden her
vocabulary and give her new words to use in her writing.

I would let her do a lot of free writing and one-draft writing, tackling grammar and capitalization (her
main ELA weaknesses) as separate word work, until such time as Mackenzie has had a chance to
embrace reading and writing. More structured, expository writing and structured essays can be
gradually introduced as she feels some mastery over the mechanics of sentence structure (first), then
paragraphs.

I would have her read material with a clear sequence of events, and have her break down the elements
of story in short written reports.

Topics are almost impossible to choose for Mackenzie as she was unwilling to offer even one thing that
interests her (in my interviews). Perhaps journal writing about her health or personal issues should be
encouraged (ensuring no one would read this very personal work).

I think Mackenzie will find her own topics once she can understand the purpose of writing, and that is
going to start with reading comprehension (which is much weaker than her fluency records indicate).

Journal Notes / Lessons & Activities with Child:

My teacher did not want me “helicopter helping” Mackenzie or the other kids. The room was much too
small (with only seven students) to have 3 adults “teaching”. One student had a fulltime Aide working
with him, Mr. Ward worked with the rest.

I have a background in Art History. In the beginning of the semester (September 4-15th) the students did
a Cathedral unit. I roamed around commenting and helping scaffold learning as they drew cathedral
elements and labeled them. I also have a relationship with a boy (I was Aide for in 5th grade) who was
working on behavioral management in this class. I worked with him several times in September and
October, counseling him to stay on task (and telling him I was proud of his improved 7th grade behavior).
I’m happy to say he was recently moved into a more advanced class.

I worked with the kids before and after the lessons I taught, reading Hellen’s Eyes for many days past my
lesson (10/23-25); sharing dialogic reading time with the kids. But for the most part I took notes and
observed. I will turn these notes in on a separate assignment.