Kate+Dwyer



Log 7 NAME: Katelyn Dwyer STUDENT: Davide COURSE: 15:299:565 – Clinical Practicum in Reading INSTRUCTOR: Dr. McLean Sessions #13 and 14 Dates: March 22 and 25, 2011 Times: March 22 (12:15 – 12:45 P.M.); March 25 (2:30 – 3:00 P.M.) Location: Linwood Middle School – Room 740 and Linwood Library Quick Outline of Session: 1. Goal of Tutoring Session 2. Tutoring Session Summary and Observation 3. Reading Connections/Critical Reflection 4. Next Step

Goal of the Tutoring Session: To begin our thirteenth session, I wanted to review Davide’s responses on the “Motivations for Reading Questionnaire” and “Tell Me What You Like” questionnaires. I wanted to praise some of the information he provided regarding how important he views reading and his compliance to directions and instructions. Another goal is to discuss an area of concern: self-confidence. After this discussion, I will teach Davide the Five Finger rule to independently select a text, since it is important that he be able to select an appropriate book on his instructional level when I, or another teacher, is not around. Davide will then select an instructional level non-fiction book which interests him. I mentioned in class that Davide has some difficulty with non-fiction text, so after reaction from my peers, I felt it necessary to review the structure and parts of a non-fiction book so that Davide is able to focus on comprehension and fluency. Lastly, he will create a foldable book to focus of understanding new vocabulary to help Davide to better understand the book.

Tutoring Session Summary/Observations: In a previous session, I had Davide complete the “Motivations for Reading” questionnaire and the “Tell Me What You Like” survey. After, I was able to score these surveys which were telling. As far as the “Tell Me What You Like” survey goes, it is evident that Davide is a fan of mysteries and books dealing with jungles and animals. When we return to fictional books, I will be sure that Davide selects a book on one of these topics, as it will hopefully hold his interest. However, I wanted to focus more in-depth on the “Motivations for Reading” questionnaire. In a previous log, I detailed that Davide received primarily twos on the sections indicated on the form. I am happy to report that he received threes in the categories of “Importance of Reading” and “Compliance.” Obviously, he wants to follow directions and do well in reading. Upon a second review of the scores on this questionnaire, it became apparent to me that Davide’s glaringly low score was in the “Reading Recognition” category. He does not enjoy receiving compliments, nor does it seem as if he receives compliments outside of my class. This was troubling to me; if a struggling student lacks self-confidence and does not like to be complimented or recognized, he or she might not believe they can be successful at all. I felt that this was an important enough issue that we should devote a portion of our tutoring session to it. When I asked Davide why he doesn’t like compliments, he explained it is because he feels like he isn’t a great reader. I went into detail about how much progress he has made, just over the few tutoring sessions he had, and that if he continues to work hard, he will soon be a fabulous reader. As the conversation continued, I learned of the many unfortunate obstacles that Davide has had to overcome on his journey to become a better reader. He is of Portuguese descent, and he said his dad primarily speaks Portuguese, so he cannot really help him with his reading. His mom has read with him once or twice, he indicated, but due to her broken English, she cannot aid him as much as is necessary. He explained that his mom said he read well, but he expressed that he thinks she was just saying it to be nice because it was before we began our tutoring sessions so he knows he wasn’t good at reading. He went on to explain that he won’t read with his brother because he makes fun of him. Lastly, when I asked Davide about his previous reading classes, he explained that his reading teacher last year would criticize him regularly, telling him that he wasn’t a good reader and speaking to him in a very offensive and degrading manner. She even ended the school year last year by commenting how happy she was that she wouldn’t have to see Davide again next year. He noted, “We did not get along at all.” I went on to explain to Davide how well he is doing this year, how hard he is working, and how much he has improved just over the last few weeks. I proceeded to explain how difficult he is making it to be successful by dwelling on the negative people’s comments. While I told him this is a difficult task, I said it is critical that he let go of their horrible comments and work toward his successful reading future. I then asked if he would like to work with another Linwood student, perhaps a member of the Honor Society, and he said he would rather not cause he doesn’t like what others have to say about his reading at times. Given all of the information he just opened up to me with, I decided it would be counterproductive to push this idea at this point. Instead, we continued with our session. Most of our first session was utilized to discuss Davide’s past experience with reading and the importance of self-confidence and knowing that he can be successful. However, we were also able to cover the five finger rule for selecting books. I explained and modeled the five finger rule for Davide, since I will not always be there to assist him with making appropriate book selections. That is where we concluded our thirteenth session. To resume our work, Davide and I visited the library at our school to select a book that he could read independently. I have seen some good progress with Davide’s oral reading, fluency, and comprehension of fiction books; since reading non-fiction is just as important (and will impact the students in other content areas in school), I decided we should resume our work with a non-fiction text. Davide selected the book, World War II: Moments in History. First, I had him flip to a random page and attempt to read it. He read it well with the exception of the words “Liningrad” and “suburb” (bolded word). As he was only unsure of two words, Davide was able to determine that this was an appropriate selection for him. Next, I asked him to identify how a non-fiction book like this differs from a fiction book and how each part is meant to help a reader. I wanted him to first work to identify these differences; any he missed or was unsure of, I would highlight for him. He first identified pictures and captions, explaining they helped the reader to visualize the events and give extra information. Next, he identified the timelines, explaining that they are listed in chronological order (one of our root words!). He moved on to point out that there were chapter titles (versus just numbers); then we established that some authors of fiction books do provide readers with titles. He also identified that there are charts with information. When I asked if this was more or less helpful than the rest of the information, Davide explained that it was probably more helpful because it was really specific and easy to read. Those were the features that Davide identified independently. I then had to highlight for him that in addition to charts, non-fiction books often contain some of the following graphs: pie, line, bar, histogram, etc. Also, Davide did not discuss the bolded vocabulary words. Once I pointed them out to him, it was evident that he knew this feature, as he commented, “Oh, those are words we need to know to read the book.” I am now confident that Davide has an adequate understanding of the parts of an informational book so he can focus more on the understanding of this particular text. Davide was assigned pages to read during class (as part of our Reader’s Workshop unit) and for homework as independent reading. To conclude our session, I taught him how to make a foldable book for recording important vocabulary. I asked him, as he was reading, to identify seven important vocabulary words prior to our next session. On each page of the book, he will record the word, and to incorporate the dictionary, will identify the part of speech and definition. Then, using that information, he will write a sentence with the vocabulary word, correctly using it in a sentence. To ensure that Davide understood the process and expectations of the assignment, together we completed a page for the term suburbs. Now that Davide had a model, I was confident that he would be able to complete this activity independently. We will discuss this assignment to start our next session.

Reading Connections/Critical Reflections: One challenge I have encountered with Davids is finding texts that he wants to read versus ones that he has to read as he seems to have limited interests. These two reading interest questionnaires were very helpful in identifying some of Davide’s interests and habits as a reader. However, these surveys proved to be even more helpful and telling than I originally thought. Davide has struggled with reading throughout his life, and the adults around him have not made his situation any better. As Morrow highlights, “The success of a literacy program, to a certain extent, depends on the literacy environment at home” (322). While Davide’s mom is a very friendly and supportive woman, her broken English and the fact that her husband barely speaks English makes it very difficult for them to truly support Davide’s learning. Therefore, he has little support at home in the vein of improving his reading. An even more detrimental aspect of Davide’s past is his sixth grade teacher. This woman has scarred Davide as a student due to her negative, harsh comments, her limited support, and she has severely damaged his confidence. Davide does not like receiving compliments, even now, because he is afraid that people will revert to be like his teacher. After hearing the difficulties Davide has endured in his pursuit of becoming a better reader, it is understandable why he would be so reluctant to accept compliments and why his self-confidence is so poor. As Gavelek so astutely points out, “. . .Teachers can either create an atmosphere in which taking intellectual risks is safe and encouraged, or one in which risk taking leaves students vulnerable to both adults’ and peers’ harsh criticism” (189). While I think it will take time and continuity, I think Davide can eventually overcome the damaging comments from his former teacher. My colleagues and I always make a concerted effort to treat all of our students with the utmost respect and promote a learning environment of respect and rapport amongst all members. As Davide sees that his teachers are unwavering in their demands for a respectful learning community, I think he will realize that most teachers, and people, are not like his other teacher. I will do my part to help him by maintaining a respectful classroom environment and compliment Davide whenever possible. After this critical discussion, we moved on to our other work. I started by explaining the five finger rule to Davide, as discussed in “10 Ways to Teach and Support Struggling Adolescent Readers” by Thomas and Wexler. Using this simple strategy, I feel that I am equipping Davide with a little bit of independence. Rather than struggling through a book that is entirely too difficult for him or breezing by a book that doesn’t offer him any challenges, he now has a strategy which is likely to help him find an appropriate text. After selecting World War II: Moments in History, I had Davide implement the five finger rule for me to observe. He did so beautifully. He explained he selected this book because he likes history and he really liked the play Anne Frank and wanted to learn more about World War II. I was thrilled to see that he was interested enough by a piece of literature to springboard him into a new piece of literature. Next, as we went through the structure and elements of the informational text, Davide gained confidence by highlighting the elements he knew. Then, I was able to teach him the elements he did not already know. That way, he felt a little more comfortable with the structure of the text and could focus more on his fluency and comprehension of the text. As I was reviewing the elements of the informational text with Davide, I noticed that this particular text was a little bit challenging. While I toyed with the idea of suggesting Davide consider another book, I decided against it for two reasons. First, I thought it may be detrimental to Davide’s self-confidence if he inferred that I thought he could not handle the text. Second, as Morrow suggests, “One reason for using on-level material that might be too difficult for some was to allow the children new and interesting concepts. If below-level readers are exposed only to material at their instructional level, they often miss enrichment activities that are experienced by other students” (324). While I feel this text may be a little challenging, I think a challenge will be good for Davide, and I do not think it is so challenging that Davide will be frustrated or discouraged by the book. Thus, he is continuing to read it. Lastly, I had Davide create a foldable dictionary to accompany his informational book. By using this foldable, he is able to identify vocabulary or terms important to his understanding, as well as incorporate writing into his lesson by recording original sentences to demonstrate his understanding of these words. We will review Davide’s progress with the comprehension of the text and the vocabulary during our next session.

Next Step: During our sessions next week, we will focus on: • Review personal foldable vocabulary book • The teacher modeling effective oral reading and implementing “Say Something” to see Davide’s thoughts while reading • Complete phrase cued, repeated readings of Davide’s informational texts • Enhance Davide’s language and vocabulary with a personal folder • Begin concluding assessments to mark progress over our tutoring sessions References: Casteel, D.B., and Narkawicz, M.G. (2006). Effectiveness of Foldables™ Versus Lecture/Worksheet in Teaching Social Studies in Third Grade Classrooms. Forum on Public Policy.

Gavelek, J. R., Raphael, T.E. (1996). Changing talk about text: New roles for teachers and students. Language Arts, 73, p. 182 – 191. Morrow, L., Kuhn, M., & Schwanenflugel, P. (2006). The family fluency program. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 322-333. Thomas, C., & Wexler, J. (2007). 10 ways to teach and support struggling adolescent readers. Kappy Delta Pi (fall), 23-27.

Log 6 NAME: Katelyn Dwyer STUDENT: Davide COURSE: 15:299:565 – Clinical Practicum in Reading INSTRUCTOR: Dr. McLean Sessions #11 and 12 Dates: March 15 and 18, 2011 Times: March 15 (12:15 – 12:45 P.M.); March 18 (2:30 – 3:00 P.M.) Location: Linwood Middle School – Room 740 Quick Outline of Session: 1. Goal of Tutoring Session 2. Tutoring Session Summary and Observation 3. Reading Connections/Critical Reflection 4. Next Step

Goal of the Tutoring Session: To begin our eleventh session, Davide will conduct a word sort, using root words to group words with similarities. To incorporate writing into our session, Davide will work on applying the meanings of one group of multisyllabic words to a root word vocabulary tree. In an effort to allow Davide to read more fluently, he will continue with repeated readings of a phrase cued text. Then, he will transition to an unaltered text, working to continue to read fluently, maintaining meaning. Lastly, to practice questioning and thinking about a text, Davide will construct his own questions to help with the discussion of the text.

Tutoring Session Summary/Observations: To begin our eleventh tutoring session, I had Davide reiterate to me the purpose of completing the word sorts. He explained that they were to pronounce new words using other words that he already knew and to learn new words. Then, I had Davide complete another word sort with five different roots and the corresponding words. As in our other sessions, Davide sorted these words accurately and employed a mixture of the covert and overt strategies to decode the new, unfamiliar words. Throughout all of our word sorts, Davide and I have discussed the meanings of the words and we have orally utilized these words within sentences. However, Davide has not yet incorporated them into writing activities, so I decided to include that in today’s session. In our book club book. When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do, there is an excellent activity called “vocabulary tree,” so I modified the activity a bit so Davide could complete a root word tree. I asked Davide to select a root, and he chose “rupt” – to break. We went through each word that Davide sorted containing the root “rupt” – abrupt, interrupt, rupture, bankrupt, and erupt. To conclude our session, Davide began to work on his root word tree. In the trunk, he wrote the root and the meaning. Then, there are four thick branches. At the base of the branch, Davide wrote the word derived from the root and its meaning. Then, as he proceeds up the branch, he constructed a sentence utilizing each word, with context clues demonstrating his understanding of the word. Then, on slender branches shooting off of the thicker branches, he recorded a field or area where this word may be used. (ex. tract – “to pull, drag, or move;” attract – to pull objects nearer; The chance to travel around the world attracted me to a job as a flight attendant.; field – careers). Davide shared his responses for the word “interrupt” writing a sentence that utilized effective context clues. He spent the last few minutes of the session working on the root tree activity; he completed the remainder of the activity before our next session.

At our twelfth session, we began by reviewing the work Davide did on his root word tree. He did very well following the directions of the assignment, writing sentences which demonstrated his understanding of the new words and the roots, and identifying fields or areas where these words would be utilized. Additionally, Davide was able to read the sentences, including the multisyllabic vocabulary words, with fluency. After praising Davide on a job well done, we return to The Soccer Mystery. Since I aim to create some consistency within our sessions, we again practice phrase cued reading. Davide read the next page in the book, pausing briefly at one dash, and allowing a longer pause for two dashes. After his first reading of the text, which he read fluently, I stopped to seize a teachable moment. The paragraph in the text read, “She opened the back door and they walked into the kitchen. Mrs. McGregor, the housekeeper, was stirring something in a big bowl.” Davide read this paragraph well, pausing appropriately. However, instead of stirring, Davide pronounced the word steering. While the punctuation is close to that of the correct word, the more glaring problem is that Davide was not using the given context clues to adjust his reading appropriately. We returned to the paragraph and I asked Davide probing questions like, “What is Mrs. McGregor’s job?” “Where was she working?” and “What items is she using?” After correctly responding to these questions, I asked Davide, “What do people usually do in the kitchen with big bowls?” Then, he was able to correct his pronunciation of stirring. Using this example, we discussed the importance of using the clues the author gives us in a text to correct identify and pronounce unfamiliar words. Davide then read the selection twice more using the phrased cued text. After, he was given an unaltered copy of the text, and Davide read the page with great fluency. In order to aid Davide in creating questions regarding the text, I asked him to create a thin and a thick question about the reading. Thin and thick questions are terms we use frequently in class. A thin question is one that can be answered directly with information from the text (a who, what, when, where type of question). Davide asked, “Where are the kids going while Mrs. McGregor is cooking?” A thick question is one where the reader needs to use his/her knowledge, combined with the text, to respond. Davide questioned, “Do you think Mrs. McGregor is cooking a cake for the Aldens? Explain.” Based on these related questions, it is obvious that Davide has an understanding of the text. After answering his own questions, we concluded our twelfth session.

Reading Connections/Critical Reflections: Again during this session, Davide was able to use the overt and covert strategy to decode unfamiliar, multisyllabic words. Without my prompting, I can see that Davide is working to use this strategy more covertly than overtly. Even in class, when I am observing him (and the other students), I can hear him chunking the word into parts to try to correctly pronounce unfamiliar words. He was able to correctly group the words. In previous sessions, we have discussed the meaning of the root, and the related meanings of the words containing the root. However, Davide has not yet incorporated them into his writing. One great way to do this was with a vocabulary tree, as discussed in When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers. I used the general framework of Beers’ activity, with some adjustments. With the tree, Davide reviewed the meaning of the root, identified other words that contained the root and their meanings, writing a sentence using the word and context clues to demonstrate his understanding, and identifying areas where these words are used. As Beers explains, “Vocabulary trees are great for teaching roots – mostly because you can put the root in the root of three and then see how that root can branch out. It’s a nice way of making this concept very concrete to students who often need those tangible connections” as Davide does. (190) I think this visual representation helped Davide to see how words sharing the same root are related. Also, with the additional element of identifying an area where this word would be used, Davide has to apply his knowledge. He did very well with this activity.

When we reconvened, Davide again turned to The Soccer Mystery. As Kuhn discusses, “Fluent readers make appropriate use of phrasing, pitch, and emphasis in their reading” (339). While Davide is making progress in this vein, he is far from where he needs to be. Therefore, I have been combining repeated readings, which have also led to “gains in fluency,” with phrased cued texts (Kuhn 339). By “parsing or segmenting texts for children [it] help[s] them with prosody and enhances their comprehension as well,” according to Dr. Lesley Morrow (323). By using the dashes to indicate appropriate places for pausing, I think it has helped Davide to feel more comfortable pausing while reading, especially when the author intends for the pauses to be natural.

However, I was not satisfied with some of Davide’s decoding, as it was evident that he was not using the meaning within the text to help him to decode unfamiliar words. As is outlined in rule three in the Ten Rules for Reading by Deborah Litt, “If what you’re reading doesn’t make sense, it’s your job (as the reader) to figure out what was wrong and fix it” (571). While Davide is aware of this because we discuss and apply it in class, he did not seem to put this rule into practice himself. By returning to the text and identifying the clues of “kitchen,” “housekeeper,” and “big bowl,” he was able to identify the error in his pronunciation and fix it. After, we discussed the necessity to use the clues the author gives us, and the meanings created with those clues, to adjust our reading as necessary. After Davide completed three repeated, phrased cued readings and a reading of the unaltered text, I was happy with Davide’s performance. He maintained phrasing and fluency throughout the page as he read the unaltered text. In class, my students and I discuss the difference between “thin” (literal, fact-level questions), which help us keep the facts of the text straight, and the more important “thick” (think and search) questions, which combine what is indicated in the text with the knowledge of the reader. By having Davide create questions about the text, I am trying to instill in him the notion that “proficient readers constantly check their comprehension through self-questioning” (Buehl 158). Due to the practice and application we have done in class, Davide is able to differentiate between thin and thick questions. Through additional practice, I believe Davide will get to a point where he asks these questions on his own while he is reading, without reminders from me.

One of the concerns I discussed in our grad school class was that I wasn’t seeing as much transfer of the skills that Davide and I were working on to his classwork. I am pleased to say that when Davide was partner reading in class and I was observing, I heard him covertly chunk an unfamiliar word and then pronounce it correctly. When he realized I was standing there, he looked up at me for a nod of affirmation. After my smile and nod, he wore a grin of success. While I know there is still a lot of work to be done, I am seeing more progress and transfer of skills, which is reassuring.

Next Step: During our sessions next week, we will focus on: • Practicing the Five Finger rule to independently select a text • Review responses on the “Motivations for Reading Questionnaire” and “Tell Me What You Like” Questionnaire • Select an instructional level non-fiction book • Review the structure and parts of a non-fiction book • Create a foldable book to focus of understanding new vocabulary to help Davide understand the book • Enhance Davide’s language and vocabulary with a personal folder

References: Archer, A., Gleason, M., & Vachon, V. (2003). Decoding and fluency: Foundation skills for struggling older readers. Learning Disability Quarterly, 26, 89-101.

Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. 2003, New Hampshire: Heinemann.

Buehl, D. (2009). Self-questioning taxonomy. From Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, Third Edition. International Reading Association.

Kuhn, M. (2004). Helping students become accurate, expressive readers: Fluency instruction for small groups. The Reading Teacher, 58(4), 338 – 344.

Litt, D. 10 rules for reading. The Reading Teacher, 60(6), 570-574.

Morrow, L., Kuhn, M., & Schwanenflugel, P. (2006). The family fluency program. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 322-333.

Teaching Scenario

I am currently tutoring, Davide, a seventh grader who I also teach. He is new to our district this year, as he and his family recently moved from Elizabeth. Since he came to my class, based on my observations and his performance in class, he has been in my lower Guided Reading group; however, it was not until I began tutoring him that I realized he is between two and three reading levels below where he should be. While Davide has a very strong sight vocabulary, he has difficulty decoding multisyllabic words, and when he is unsure of a word, he typically identifies the first letter or blends and simply guesses at the end of the word. Additionally, his reading pace is very slow and he lacks fluency when he reads.

In the last few tutoring sessions, as well as the future sessions, I will be working on modeling fluent reading so Davide can hear appropriate reading with inflection and meaning. Additionally, so Davide can increase his speed, gain self-confidence, and practice decoding unfamiliar words, Davide will participate in repeated readings of poetry, non-fiction, and fiction texts at his independent (and later instructional) level. Lastly, we will work on using words parts (primarily roots, prefixes, and suffixes) to help to decode, pronounce, and look for meaning in new and challenging words.

My questions about tutoring Davide are:

1. What would be an effective way to incorporate writing practice within the tutoring sessions? Or, with Davide’s reading weaknesses, should I focus primarily on reading? 2. As our tutoring sessions take place in two thirty minute increments during the course of the week, how can I add continuity and fluidity to our sessions? 3. When I spoke with Davide about his interests so that I could find texts that he would enjoy reading, he replied that he likes soccer. When I asked for other interests, or genres, so that I could find books for him, it was very difficult to pinpoint interests in his daily life. Have any of you experienced this, and if so, how have you gone about finding appropriate texts that would increase the student’s motivation to read and make them want to read voluntarily?

Tutoring Log 1 NAME: Katelyn Dwyer STUDENT: Davide COURSE: 15:299:565 – Clinical Practicum in Reading INSTRUCTOR: Dr. McLean Sessions #1 and 2 Dates: February 8 and 11, 2011 Times: February 8 (12:15 – 12:45 P.M.); February 11 (2:30 – 3:00 P.M.) Location: Linwood Middle School – Room 740

Brief Background Information Davide is a seventh-grade student in my Academic Language Arts block (the on-grade level class; Reading and Writing). Davide is new to our district this year. He and his family moved from Elizabeth to North Brunswick this summer. Early on in the school year, I had a conference with Davide’s mother, as she was concerned about his progress in all classes, but particularly Language Arts.

Since the start of the school year, Davide has been in my lower level during Guided Reading groups. In these groups, I equip my students with the necessary background knowledge to understand the stories and passages they are reading. Davide has some concrete comprehension skills, like mediocre retelling, identification of explicitly stated character traits, and making satisfactory text-to-self connections. However, other critical thinking comprehension skills, like inferences, strong predictions, the use of context clues, etc. seem to be very difficult for Davide. As far as his fluency goes, Davide appears to have a vast sight vocabulary; however, he struggles with some multi-syllabic words. He is very hesitant to participate in the whole class setting, typically does not volunteer to read in front of all of his classmates, and is only vocal when he is conferencing with me or in a small group setting.

In our school, we operate in teams so the Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies teachers educate almost all of the same students. As a team, we decided to conference with Davide’s mom because his progress was slipping considerably. It was there that I learned that last year in Language Arts, Davide would get yelled at frequently for his performance in class. According to his mom, when the teacher was dismissing the students on the last day of school last year, she ended her relationship with Davide by saying (something along the lines of), “I am really glad I won’t be seeing you again next year.” This comment, and the teacher-student relationship it seems Davide and his Language Arts teacher had, would appear to have contributed to his below-grade level comprehension and fluency skills, as well as his obvious lack of self-confidence.

Quick Outline of Session: 1. Goal of Tutoring Session 2. Tutoring Session Summary and Observation 3. Reading Connections/Critical Reflection 4. Next Step

Goal of the Tutoring Session:

My goal for these two tutoring sessions was to administer many of the Ekwall/Shanker Reading Inventories. While I am Davide’s teacher and am well aware of the fact that he is a struggling reader, I do not yet know his independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels, or all of his spelling capabilities and weaknesses. In order to have a concrete vantage point for where to begin our tutoring sessions, as well as the growth Davide makes over the course of our sessions, I administered many assessments.

Tutoring Session Summary/Observations: I began our session by describing of what our work over the next few weeks would consist. I explained to Davide that I felt he was a very intelligent young man, but we need to equip him with new strategies to read more fluently and comprehend more of the text. Per my conversation with his mom, I can tell that a very critical component of Davide’s success will be to make sure that he knows I think he is totally capable of success, in the effort to increase his own self-confidence. As our conversation moved forward, Davide explained that he was not really interested in reading, and he did not frequently read unless it was something assigned as part of our class. Before beginning the Ekwall/Shanker assessments, I described for Davide, in a very non-threatening way, that these practice tests were just to try to see what we needed to work on and what he was already really good at. I began with the San Diego Quick Assessment or Graded Word List (GWL). Each grade level had 10 words. Davide’s incorrect responses were as follows (correct word in regular print; Davide’s response in italics):

• PP, P, and 1 – all correct • 2 – quietly – quickly • 3 – frightened – frightnend • 4 – interrupted – in ter ped • 5 – acquainted – ac quient ed • 6- abolish – a bal ish; apparatus – apertus; necessity – necesserity • 7 – dominion – dom in ition; sundry – sun dry; capillary – cap i lary; impetuous – i per tus; enumerate – e nup tate ; condescend – con di send Based on this assessment, it appears that Davide’s independent reading level is fifth grade; instructional reading level is between fifth and sixth grade; and his frustration reading level is sixth grade, which would begin to explain why he struggles with the texts we are reading in class, as they are seventh grade texts. Over the remainder of these two sessions, I conducted assessments using oral, silent, and listening passages of various grade levels.

For the oral reading passages, Davide’s performance was as follows: Grade Level - 4 Number of Words - 176 Number of Word Recognition Errors -3 Number of Comprehension Questions - 10 Number of Correct Comprehension Questions - 7 Level - Instructional

Grade Level - 5 Number of Words - 148 Number of Word Recognition Errors -1 Number of Comprehension Questions - 10 Number of Correct Comprehension Questions - 9 Level - Independent

Grade Level - 6 Number of Words - 154 Number of Word Recognition Errors -6 Number of Comprehension Questions - 10 Number of Correct Comprehension Questions - 4 Level - Frustration

Based on his oral reading assessments, Davide’s accuracy is fairly high; however, it took him a while to read these passages and his comprehension was below grade level.

For the silent reading passages, Davide’s performance was as follows: Grade Level - 4 Time (in seconds) - 87 Reading Rate - Slow Number of Comprehension Questions - 10 Number of Correct Comprehension Questions - 4 Level - Frustration

Grade Level - 5 Time (in seconds) - 85 Reading Rate - Slow Number of Comprehension Questions - 10 Number of Correct Comprehension Questions - 3 Level - Frustration

Based on these silent reading assessments, Davide reads very slowly (probably in an effort to decode unfamiliar words), but seems to be comprehending very little of what he is reading, even at two or three grades below his grade level.

Just for a basis of comparison, I conducted one listening comprehension assessment. Here are Davide’s results: Grade Level - 6 Number of Comprehension Questions - 10 Number of Correct Comprehension Questions - 9 Level - Independent

Since I am a more fluent reader, I am reaching the conclusion that Davide’s word decoding, slow reading rate, and fluency are all contributing to his limited comprehension, since he attained a sixth grade independent reading level when he was listening to the passage as opposed to reading it on his own, whether orally or silently. Furthermore, I asked Davide whether he felt he was a better oral or silent reader. I did not have to wait long for a response.

Davide: “Oh, I am definitely better at reading out loud.” Me: “That’s good. On these passages, you did perform better when you read out loud. So, when you have pages to read for homework, do you read them out loud?” Davide: “No.” Me: “But if you already know that you read better when you read out loud, why wouldn’t you read out loud at home when no one else is around?” Davide: “I don’t know.” He later told me that he couldn’t read out loud at home because his brother was home, and he would interrupt him. I asked if they shared a bedroom, and he replied no. I think these were excuses Davide was offering because he is not confident enough in his oral reading abilities for others to hear. This discussion concluded our first two tutoring sessions.

Reading Connections/Critical Reflections: It is obvious that the negative experiences of prior teachers and work with literature has hampered Davide’s learning, in addition to creating weaknesses with fluency and comprehension. It will be very important that I work to enhance Davide’s self-confidence, so that he feels he can attack a text successfully. As I now know that Davide’s oral and silent comprehension level is much below grade level, around a fifth grade reading level, I need to have Davide read at his independent level to gain confidence, speed, and fluency.

As Melanie Kuhn detailed in “Helping students become accurate, expressive reader: Fluency instruction for small groups,” “it is likely that instruction designed to develop learners’ fluency will lead to improvements on their comprehension as well” (339). When Davide reads orally, he gets all of the sight words correct, but some multisyllabic words are incorrect. Additionally, he reads (both orally and silently) at a slow pace. It is evident that he is focusing so much on decoding and reading the words accurately, that his speed and comprehension are falling to the waist side. He needs to listen to stronger readers as a model, as well as participate in partner, choral, and repeated reading to improve his fluency. According to Anita Archer in “Decoding and Fluency: Foundation Skills for Struggling Older Readers,” “When listening comprehension exceeds reading comprehension [as it does in Davide’s case], inaccurate and slow word recognition is likely to be the cause” (89). To improve this, we will work on repeated readings at Davide’s independent (and eventually instructional) level, as well as to work on strategies to decode unfamiliar, multisyllabic words.

Over the next few weeks of tutoring, I will work diligently to minimize the reading, fluency, and comprehension gap between Davide and peers on-grade level. As evidenced by Archer, “One critical result of laborious decoding and low fluency is little reading practice. Lack of practice produces a delay of development of automaticity and speed. As struggling readers continue to read very slowly, they are exposed to less text. . .and choose activities other than reading. . .The gap between the best readers and the weakest readers widens” (96). Davide has already indicated that he does not really enjoy reading, and that he rarely reads voluntarily. I need to help him succeed and find texts that interest him so that he is able to practice and enjoy reading. While Davide is below grade level, he possesses the skills needed to shrink, and eventually eliminate, this gap between himself and his on-grade level peers. By increasing his confidence and increasing his speed with texts at his independent level, he will become a more fluent reader who is able to comprehend more of the text. By completing word study and word decoding activities, Davide will become better equipped to attack text closer to or on his grade level, which will contain more challenging vocabulary. I look forward to working with Davide in these areas over the next few months.

Next Step: During our sessions next week, we will focus on: • Reading Interests (to find independent reading texts pertaining to Davide’s interests) • Repeated Readings using Poetry (focusing on expression and chunking) • Fry and Dolch’s Word Lists to identify success with sight words • Use prefixes and root words to decode and pronounce unfamiliar, multisyllabic words

References: Archer, A., Gleason, M., & Vachon, V. (2003). Decoding and fluency: Foundation skills for struggling older readers. Learning Disability Quarterly, 26, 89-101. Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. 2003, New Hampshire: Heinemann. Kuhn, M. (2004). Helping students become accurate, expressive readers: Fluency instruction for small groups. The Reading Teacher, 58(4), 338 – 344.