Artifact 1D: Assessments

 

Louis Stevens III

C&T 842

Dr. Karen Jorgensen

01 July 2022

 

QRI Summary

Name of striving reader (pseudonym): Jeremiah

 Name of evaluator: Mr. Louis Stevens III

 Grade level of striving reader: 5th going into 6th

Date(s) of evaluation: 05/26/22, 06/08/22, 06/15/22

 Striving reader’s chronological age: 13

 School Word List Level: 4^th grade

Instructional Narrative Reading Level: 3^rd grade

 Instructional Expository Reading Level: 3^rd grade

            Jeremiah is a striving reader entering the 6^th grade in the fall of 2022. Jeremiah was a student of mine throughout the 2021-22 schoolyear and a student of mine in summer school this year as well. Because of this familiarity, Jeremiah and I share an established teacher-student relationship and rapport. Our tutoring sessions took place following the summer school lunch breaks at a Toledo Public Library branch. These sessions were hosted on Thursdays (with 6 meetings) and lasted approximate 50 minutes. The library has sensory wobble chairs and child desks that Jeremiah deemed would be the most comfortable by which to work. Our first session was held in my classroom at my desk. Jeremiah displays optimism and grew in confidence, as I hope to demonstrate below.

I.                     Interest Inventory/Card Game and Book Tasting

To view the book tastings list, please see Appendix A.

 

Book tasting observations:

The purpose of the following exercises is to build a tutoring rapport with Jeremiah, informally assess his abilities, engage with his interests, and learn what strategies and methodology may be helpful to put him in the best position to succeed as a striving reader. We conducted the tutoring session in my classroom the Friday before summer school began for a length of approximately one hour. Notes were taken during our session and later translated into the attached documents and my observations below. This data will be used as a foundational understanding of our lesson baseline for our meetings.

Jeremiah flipped through each book and seemed to approach the task genuinely. Was most excited about Dog Man, something he was familiar with (though below his grade level). Tended to be disinterested in books with female protagonists. Seemed to gravitate books that he perceived would be exciting or “easy.” It is likely that we will proceed with the Lightning Thief as a novel. While Jeremiah is shy about his reading difficulties, he is cooperative and honest in what interests or disinterests him. The card game did reveal his interests in technology and media that may be engaging. He is frustrated with school materials he finds boring. I believe that Jeremiah found the book tasting activity to be more enjoyable than the card game activity, which was modified to appear more game like than my attached word box. This was designed with convenience for myself and the professor in mind.

Information synthesis is key to Jeremiah’s reading growth because it allows us to see the full-picture and have a wide lens in identifying the need for change in my direction, as well as highlight areas of strength and growth. We have begun a portfolio in the vein of the composition notebook model that Dr. Jorgensen shared in our last meeting. I believe that granting Jeremiah a semblance of choice in our meetings and recording writing artifacts will allow for the greatest potential in growth.

Card Game questions and answers can be found in Appendix B.

            Card game observations:

The card game helped reveal to me is Jeremiah’s affinity for technology and allowed me to conceptualize how I can utilize this in our lessons through eBook resources, interactive book comprehension games or auto-readers. I also gained an understanding of Jeremiah’s goals for academics and his opinions on last year’s school experience. He is optimistic about 6^th grade.

II.                  QRI Word Lists (Word Recognition in Isolation)

Level: 3^rd grade

List 1: 16/17 (94% accuracy) - independent

List 2: 19/20 (95% accuracy) - independent

List 3: 17/20 (85% accuracy) - instructional

List 4: 18/20 (90% accuracy) - independent

List 5: 20/20 (100% accuracy) - independent

List 6: 15/20 (75% accuracy) - instructional

Jeremiah can typically self-correct close cognates and displays at grade level ability in phonemic awareness.

III.                QRI Oral Narrative and Expository Passages (Word Recognition in Context)

Passage Name: Cats – Lions and Tigers in Your House

Passage starting level: Three

Total Miscues: 15

Meaning Changing Miscues: 5

Rate: 32 WPM

Correct WPM: 30

IND-INST-FRUS: Frustration

Notes: Jeremiah sounds out words and tends to chunk together syllables. He uses syllabication as a decoding method. Jeremiah self-monitors for comprehension and there are times that he looks at the beginning and ending sounds then inserts his own sounds in the middle.

IV.                Comprehension of narrative and expository passages

 IND-INST-FRUS: Instructional

Background knowledge: Jeremiah has an interest and understanding of housecats that was transferable in his ability to comprehend the text. Jeremiah could predict the content of the story based on the title.

 Overall engagement: Jeremiah was engaged with the content of the passage but was not interested in reading the passage initially.

 Persistence, Attitude, Refusals, Frustrations: Jeremiah grew fatigued near the end of the passage. As a striving reader, he was persistent and did not refuse any of the QRI process. Jeremiah showed signs of frustration when he did not immediately recognize a word.

V.                  Fluency

As referenced above, Jeremiah shows strength in phonics awareness and decoding. His reading automaticity is an area for development, and he sometimes sacrifices reading speed for accuracy. Jeremiah reads with proper emotion and annunciation often when appropriate. Jeremiah does tend to slow his reading pace when nearing the end of the passage, a sign of fatigue.

VI.                Other Pertinent Information

Jeremiah usually displays excitement at the beginning of our lessons and enjoys activities like the Bananagram word activity and card game activity. Jeremiah expends effort during our tutoring time and is often relieved to be done. He feels rewarded when he sees satisfactory results on reading assessments. Jeremiah has admitted to “feeling dumb” in sessions 1 and 2 (05/26 and 06/08) but has repeatedly thanked me for helping him to achieve. Jeremiah and I usually meet after summer school and a break to play basketball, which may have affected his reading energy level.

VII.              Summary

Jeremiah’s approximate level in word recognition of 3^rd and 4^th grade vocabulary is independent. Jeremiah scored at least 75% in each reading list and demonstrates a consistent ability to self-correct most of his miscues at this grade level. Jeremiah’s approximate reading level in the expository passages and narrative passages is instructional. Jeremiah demonstrates the ability to recall information from a passage with infrequent lookbacks. An area for development in Jeremiah’s passage reading is the summary skill and reading rate. Jeremiah shows strength in decoding in a passage context.

VIII.            Areas for Practice

Based on the data gathered, I would make the following instructional recommendations for Jeremiah’s future instruction and intervention. Firstly, Jeremiah should advance to more grade-level appropriate vocabulary for recognition practice. While Jeremiah may tend to pause for subject-specific vocabulary in a reading passage context, he accelerates at a word recognition-based list. This list was selected based on a diagnostic assigned through school (I-Ready Reading), but it is not challenging him to practice at the 3^rd grade level.

Secondly, Jeremiah should continue to focus on his areas for development. This is primarily his ability to gain reading automatically and decoding in multisyllabic words he encounters in a natural reading context. Since Jeremiah has demonstrated strength in his ability to master letter-sound correspondence, continuing to reinforce those strategies through practice will put him in a position to succeed.

In addition to practicing with authentic materials like non-fiction passages found in Qualitative Reading Inventory, Jeremiah will receive tailored instruction in the form of vocabulary games such as the think-pair-share and word roots ladders. Jeremiah would benefit from continued practice at his current level until he builds more reading confidence and shows assessment improvement in the Quantitative tallies included with the QRI passage response form.

 In a 45-minute tutoring lesson, Jeremiah should also receive a time to read narrative chapter books that interest him with the evaluator acting as a guide or resource. The evaluator’s primary objective during this time will be to guide, observe, and field questions and support. It will be important to discuss the reading and give Jeremiah an opportunity to evaluate himself, ask questions, and retell details of the passage. This will allow Jeremiah to build confidence in his independent reading ability without feeling judged.

 

 

  

References

Caldwell, J. S., & Leslie, L. (2013). Intervention strategies to follow informal reading inventory                                 assessment (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2016). Qualitative reading inventory (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Florida State University. (2022, June 9). Fifth Grade Literacy Walkthrough. Florida Center for                                        Reading Research. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from                                                                                                   https://fcrr.org/sites/g/files/upcbnu2836/files/media/PDFs/literacy-                                                                          walkthrough/Fifth%20Grade%20Walkthrough_FINAL_PDF_5.16.22.pdf

Lipson, M. Y., & Wixson, K. K. (2013). Assessment of reading and writing difficulties: An                                                interactive approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix A

Book tasting categories and responses:                                                                          

Books I would not like to read:

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Books that look interesting:

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordian

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Books I am not sure about:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Books that I could read easily:

Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

 

 

  

Appendix B