Case Study Introduction Jane is 10 years old and in the fifth grade at Congers Elementary School.

She lives at home with her parents and one sister. Janes dad works but her mom does not. Even though Jane has a sister she has a room to herself and her only chore at home is to clean her room. However, Jane receives no weekly allowance for keeping her room clean. Jane does not belong to any clubs at school or outside of school but she does attend dance class after school a few times a week. Janes parents do not give her a bedtime but she generally goes to bed at around 10 oclock. Jane reports that she loves school. Her favorite subject is Social Studies and her least favorite subject is Math. Jane completes any homework she has in her room at her desk; at times her mom helps her with her homework. Jane considers herself an okay reader. She thought that her reading was poor but has recently improved. Jane believes that her reading would improve even more if she read for more than twenty minutes a night. She thinks that her first grade teacher helped her to have the love of reading that she does today. In general, Jane likes to read as long as she enjoys what she is reading. Her favorite genre to read is mystery and her favorite type of writing assignment is writing realistic fiction. If Jane attended a new school she would like the teachers to know that she likes to dance and that she needs help with math. Jane believes that knowing how to read will help her succeed in the future by doing well in school and getting a job. If Jane were to help someone else learn how to read, she would read to them and then have them repeat what she read so that they could learn to read smoothly. Running Record

On March 29, 2012, Jane was asked to read aloud from the novel, Because of WinnDixie. A running record of Janes oral reading miscues was recorded and a brief comprehension check was taken. Jane chose to read the book because she saw the movie and likes reading books about animals. Prior to Jane reading the book aloud she said that the book was easy for her to read so far. In terms of word recognition, Jane had two miscues. Janes miscues consisted of a deletion of a word and insertion but both miscues still allowed for the sentence to make sense. Therefore, she did not reinspect the text and self-correct herself. Jane reads with fluency but reads very quickly. In terms of comprehension, Jane had a good grasp of what she read. She used implicit details from the story to retell what occurred. Jane did not use any intonation, but she did pause appropriately at all forms of punctuation. After Jane read she stated that she believed her strength as a reader was that she read smoothly and her weakness was that she stutters. Although Jane stutters, it does not affect her comprehension of what she reads. Columbia Reading Assessment On March 9, 2012, Jane was administered a Columbia Reading Assessment. At this time, she reads independently on a fourth grade level and instructionally on a fifth grade level. In terms of word recognition she read with 97% accuracy. Her word recognition is at a beginning fifth grade level. She is below the level in her reading she should be at this point of fifth grade. Two of Janes miscues consisted of her pronouncing words wrong and she did not correct herself. Janes other error was inserting a different word instead of the word written. However, the word she inserted did make sense in the sentence. In terms of fluency, Jane paused correctly at punctuation marks and read smoothly. However, she used no inflection

when reading the dialogue in the selected text. In terms of comprehension, Jane was asked four questions two were literal questions and two were inferential questions. Jane got one literal question right and one inferential question. Jane reads the words but does not seem to be aware of what she is reading. Her comprehension skills are at a fourth grade level. Although Jane is not reading independently on grade level she has shown great improvement in her reading since the beginning of the year. When Jane was tested in September she read independently at a third grade level, independently at a beginning fourth grade level, and was frustrational at the fourth grade level. In January, she was retested but showed no improvement and her reading levels remained the same. After currently testing Janes reading ability, her independent reading level did improve but she still cannot read independently at a fifth grade level. Writing Assessment On January 25, 2012, Jane was asked to write a passage on what Alexander Bell would think about the Iphone 4. At the time the class was learning about different inventors. Jane was unenthusiastic about the topic because she enjoys writing realistic fiction. In terms of content, Jane organized her paper well. At first she talked about how she thought Bell would feel and then gave the reasons why she thought he would feel that way. Jane could have written a better lead-in to draw readers attention. In addition, Janes conclusion does not leaving a lasting impression on the reader. The concluding sentence is just a reinstatement of her opinion which is similar to the opening sentence. Janes uses basic vocabulary words in her writing. She uses words that she knows how to spell so that there is a limited risk of her being wrong. Although Jane used basic vocabulary she did forget some medial consonants in words

or to add e onto the ends of some words. In addition, Jane used few adjectives in her writing. Since the paper was comparing two things she should have used more descriptive words to prove her point. In terms of mechanics, Jane used proper sentence structure and capitalization in her writing. Janes punctuation at the end of sentences was correct but she needs to work on her usage of commas. Jane appears to be a within-word pattern speller. This means that she can spell most one-syllable short-vowel words and is experimenting with long-vowel patterns in words. Jane was given the Ganski spelling assessment and the results showed that she has difficulty with consonant doubling and awareness of words that are homophones. In addition, she mistakes the sound the letter t makes in words as the letter d and she mistakes the long u sound as the sound the letter a makes. Stage 3 of spelling (with-in word patterns), which is for 7-9 year olds is the stage she is currently working at (with-in word patterns). Stage 4 of spelling, which is for 9-11 year olds is the point where Jane should be at in her spelling. Syllables and Affixes Spelling (stage 4) focuses on consonant doubling, multisyllabic words, homophones, and compound words which are areas of spelling Jane needs to improve in. Conclusion After conducting several informal assessments, I have concluded that Janes strengths as a reader are her fluency and word recognition while reading. She has most difficulty in reading with her comprehension skills. To further develop her skills as a reader, Jane should be encouraged to make story maps while she is reading in order to draw attention to important details in the text. In addition, Jane needs to work on her inferencing skills by trying to make personal connections between what she is reading in a piece of literature and her own life. Janes strengths as a writer are her organization, punctuation, and capitalization. She has the

most difficulty in writing with her lead-ins, conclusions, and vocabulary selection. To further develop her skills as a writer, Jane should be encouraged to edit her pieces of writing to engage others that read her writing. It may be helpful to provide Jane with mentor text to provide her with different examples of good lead-ins and conclusions. In order to improve her vocabulary Jane should be encouraged to use words that are not part of her comfort zone and that she may have to look up in a dictionary to learn how to spell. Jane could be required to use three challenging words in every piece of writing. This not only helps to improve her vocabulary usage but it helps improve her spelling. Janes spelling needs to be brought up to grade level. Although worksheets and workbooks are tedious and boring it may be helpful for Jane to complete exercises involving phonics in order to improve her spelling and vocabulary. In order, for Jane to be successful in sixth grade she will need to continue reading and writing over the summer so she does not fall further behind her fellow peers.