Case Study Student - LuAnn

Profile

LuAnn is a seven-year-old, 2nd grade student. She is a black, African American student
who lives with both parents, her older brother, and two younger sisters. LuAnn has four older
half-siblings who live in another state. English is her home language.
LuAnn loves her family. Her mom works from home, and her dad has been unable to
work due to an injury. LuAnn’s favorite thing to do is play outside. She has a bicycle and roller
skates. She says when she is good at school, they get to play outside. She loves to play and take
care of her little sisters who are 3 and 4 years old. Her brother is in third grade now and attends
the same school. LuAnn says she wants to learn how to read so she can move up to the third
grade, like her brother did. When she grows up, she would like to teach people how to drive. She
does not like reading when she is presented with many pages and each of the pages has a lot of
words.
LuAnn is identified as a student with emotional disturbance and specific learning
disability in basic reading skills and reading comprehension. She is a caring individual who loves
to help adults and other students. Her disability of emotional disturbance often gets in her way of
learning because some days it is difficult to get her to enter the classroom. On other days, she has
a strong desire to learn. When she is hesitant or unwilling to enter the class, she states that she is
worried about her mom or her dad. She fears something bad will happen to them when she is
away from them. She is currently on a behavior tracker to monitor her behavior and to motivate
her to participate in class.
Her beginning of the year DIBELS composite score was 292, well below the benchmark.
She scored a 6 in Basic Comprehension, which is at benchmark. She scored well below
benchmark in all other areas: letter sounds, decoding, word reading, reading fluency, and reading
accuracy. According to LuAnn’s teachers, she can identify the sounds of most letters that she has
been taught so far. She currently struggles with identifying the consonant digraphs of ‘th’ and
‘sh’. Although she knows the sounds associated with many of the letters, she is unable to name
all 26 letters of the alphabet. According to LuAnn’s teachers, her academic strengths are in math
computation.
LuAnn’s goals in her individualized education plan include one for reading fluency. By
the end of the school year, her goal is to read 70 words per minute at her instructional level. This
is a very ambitious goal that was made even more challenging through virtual learning. Her
writing goal is to write four complete sentences that demonstrate proper use of nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs. Given simple two- to four-word sentences, she is able to identify the
subject and verb in 3 out of 5 trials.
A preliminary assessment plan should first include assessing LuAnn’s phonemic
awareness. It is important to determine if she can distinguish the beginning, middle, and final
sounds in words. Assessments in phonics and fluency are also very important at her reading
level. This is to find out which sounds she accurately matches to the letters and then to get a
baseline for how quickly and accurately she can blend those sounds to make words. Assessing
LuAnn’s vocabulary and comprehension will also be helpful but would need to be assessed
orally. If her oral vocabulary is strong, she can make connections between the words she knows
and the words she reads. If it is not strong, then a plan should be put into place to build her
vocabulary skills. Comprehension relies on vocabulary knowledge and the ability to understand
the main ideas and important parts of texts. Of the five domains, assessing the phonemic
awareness, phonics, and fluency are the most important at LuAnn’s reading level.

Phonics/Phonemic Awareness Assessment and Plan

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
LuAnn’s score on DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency was 30. She was able to accurately
identify most phonemes in the words. She only made three errors. She did not say the final /t/ at
the end of ‘last’ and ‘soft’. This is a consistent error of missing the final /t/ in the end of a
voiceless consonant blend. The third error was missing the /r/ in ‘grain’. I would need more data
to determine if this is a consistent error. I considered that maybe she made the error in ‘grain’
because there were more than three phonemes, but she accurately segmented two words with
four phonemes. LuAnn is in second grade. The benchmark for mastering this skill is 40 or more
by the end of first grade. Therefore, she is well below the benchmark and in need of intensive
support. Despite the three errors, LuAnn’s accuracy was high, but did not come with
automaticity.

Nonsense Word Fluency

LuAnn’s score on DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency assessment was 21 correct letter sounds
(CLS) and 1 whole word read (WWR). The benchmark for a second grader at the beginning of
the year is 54 CLS and 13 WWR. She scored well below the benchmark for both CLS and WWR
and is in need of intensive support. Of the eight words attempted, she read one whole word. Four
of the eight words she sounded out and then said the whole word. The consistent error made was
saying a long ‘e’ instead of the short ‘e’. This could be expected because of the reading program
she is in. It introduces all vowels as short vowels, with exception of the ‘e’. The sound for the
letter ‘e’ is introduced as a long vowel sound. It was just during the week of this assessment that
the short ‘e’ was introduced. She is learning to determine when it should be long and when it
should be short. She read over 90% of the attempted sounds accurately but did not read the
words fluently or with automaticity.

Fluency Assessment
To assess LuAnn’s oral reading fluency, she read from three texts of the DIBELS Oral Reading
Fluency, Level 1. On the first text she read six words correctly. On the second she read one word
correctly, and on the third text she read five words correctly. Her DORF score for BOY would be
5 words per minute. The benchmark for 2nd grade students at BOY is 52 words. She does require
intensive interventions with 1-to-1 supports to provide plenty of opportunities to practice the
automaticity of reading words she knows and applying the phonics skills she has learned.

Vocabulary Assessment
LuAnn is a beginning reader, so I administered the CORE Vocabulary Screening Form 2A
verbally. She answered 20 out of 30 words correct. This places her at the strategic performance
level, which would cause her to have some difficulty understanding grade-level material. She is
unable to access the grade-level texts, but she could understand most of a discussion about grade-
level topics. She would greatly benefit from a consistent routine to learn Tier 2 words.
Comprehension Assessment
I administered the CORE Reading Maze Comprehension 2-A to LuAnn as a listening
comprehension assessment. She was able to get 15 words correct out of 20. That is above the
benchmark for the 2nd grade reading comprehension. I did not use the 3-minute time limit
because it was a receptive comprehension assessment. Although the assessment took more than 3
minutes, she did not hesitate when responding. She sounded confident in most of her answers.
She is proficient at grade-level listening comprehension.

Disciplinary Literacy
LuAnn is a beginning reader, so I read the excerpt to her. I read it once, then I reread the sections
that contained information for the responses before I asked the questions. LuAnn demonstrated
some prior knowledge about the topic of fish. She was able to summarize information on one
page, but unable to pick out the most important ideas and details from the entire text. She was
unable to make inferences about the topic. She was able to make a basic connection with a text
she has read in the past, but unable to make connections between her own features and the fish
features. The ability to make that connection is also related to her vocabulary knowledge. She
was unable to determine what a ‘feature’ was or what a ‘school’ was based on the information
provided on the pages, even though the definition of feature was provided. She was unable to
explain her metacognitive process, but she knew it was important to think. LuAnn would benefit
from learning to summarize the texts by identifying the main idea and some important details.
Teaching her how to use a web graphic organizer may help her. A second priority for her to learn
is drawing inferences. Once she understands the process of making inferences, she would get a
deeper understanding of the text, a better grasp on the vocabulary, with eventually being able to
explain her thought process when she does not understand something.

Case Study Writing Results

This writing assessment was given virtually. Before the assessment, I provided LuAnn with
some ideas for writing and asked if she would like to write about any of those or something else.
She wanted to write about her mom. I could not see what she was writing because of the camera
angle, so I asked her to read it to me when she finished. Most of her sentences were complete. “I
love my mom.” “I love my dad.” “My mom is nice.” Conversely, the writing sample contains
seven letters. I am unable to make a phonetic relationship between what was written and what
she intended to write. Most of her letters are aligned to the bottom line but lack appropriate size.

LuAnn is writing about 2 years below grade level. She should have a plan that includes 20 to 30
minutes of daily handwriting to improve the automaticity of forming the letters. Included in that
practice should be simple sentence writing that contain only a subject and verb but also
incorporate the letters she is practicing and the words she is learning to read. She should say the
sound of the letters as she writes them, then spell the word.
Summary
LuAnn is a beginning reader that needs intensive interventions. Her areas of strength include
phonemic awareness and oral vocabulary. She was very accurate with the phonemic
segmentation assessment, and she was also mostly accurate when identifying the sounds in
nonsense words. She did not meet the benchmark for these two assessments because of her
fluency rate. LuAnn has a high need to increase her vocabulary knowledge. When given the
CORE vocabulary screening verbally, she was able to answer nearly 67% correctly. She can
follow most of the class discussions until it relies on text references. LuAnn should have a
consistent routine set up to learn Tier 2 words. As her vocabulary bank fills, I expect her class
participation to increase, as well. According to the CORE Reading MAZE assessment, LuAnn’s
listening comprehension is at a level that would allow her to follow most of a class discussion.
However, when listening to a grade level science book, she was unable to demonstrate her
comprehension at a similar level.

The interventions that I propose are in the areas of fluency and vocabulary. LuAnn should have
time to practice and track her fluency daily. She knows most of her sounds and can blend the
sounds accurately. She hesitates to read the word in its entirety before sounding it out. If she
were to practice the same text for 2-3 days and track her rate, she would see herself improving,
which could motivate her to practice more. Her fluency impedes her reading comprehension, so
until the fluency rate increases, I would continue providing LuAnn supports in her content
classes that allow her access to the grade-level curriculum. The other area that will provide high
leverage in LuAnn’s reading is vocabulary. She should have a consistent routine for learning
Tier 2 words that she will encounter in different classes and throughout her life. The teacher
should keep a word wall up to help LuAnn and other students recall the words they learned, but
also for the teacher to remember to use the words frequently in different contexts. LuAnn can
make her own picture dictionary with the words she learns. The pictures can help her remember
the meaning. Writing captions can help her remember how to use the word. With these
intervention plans in place LuAnn will take a big chunk out of her learning gaps by the end of
this year.
 Case Study Lesson Plan: Vocabulary

Brief Lesson Description

• This is a 5-day vocabulary lesson that uses a read aloud book to teach some Tier 2
words. This could be used as a science lesson or ELA lesson.

Learning Objectives

• SWBAT determine the meaning of the words observe, curious, exploration, and
personality by using a text.
• §110.4. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 2, Adopted 2017. (3) Developing and
sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and
thinking--vocabulary. The student uses newly acquired vocabulary expressively. The
student is expected to: (A) use print or digital resources to determine meaning and
pronunciation of unknown words

Materials
-a copy of the book I am Jane Goodall, by Brad Meltzer (even better if there is a copy for each
student)
-Printed words observe, curious, personalities for the Word Wall
-Student notebooks, pencils
-a bag of props such as hat, scarf, pen, pencil

Instructional Arrangement
This lesson is a whole-class lesson
One teacher
In the classroom and outside

Teaching Procedures and Techniques

• Day 1- Before reading, let students know you are going to ask them to tell you about the
main character of the book.
• read the book to the class straight through. If students have a copy, they can follow
along.
• Think-pair-share: Have students think about the main character, with their partner share
something they noticed or wondered about the main character.
• Day 2- Read the book again. When you come to the word ‘curious’ stop. Post or write
the word on the board. Have students think about what that word means. Ask them to
listen to other words on that page that can help them determine what curious means.
Settle on a definition similar to, “wonder about things, want to know more about
things”
• Ask students to notice, “What is Jane curious about?” and continue the story. Stop
occasionally to let students think about what she is curious about.
• Think-pair-share: What is Jane curious about? Students use the sentence stem: “Jane is
curious about __________. I know because _________.”
• In their notebooks, students write the word curious and draw a picture of something
that will remind them of the meaning of curious.
• Day 3-Review the word ‘curious’ by asking students what the word means, sharing some
ways Jane was curious and sharing some of their pictures they drew the day before.
• Ask students, when Jane was curious about something, what did she do to learn about
it? Reread the story again. Stop to ask how she learned about a chicken laying eggs.
Introduce the word ‘observe’ to watch closely and carefully. Ask, “What else does Jane
observe?” Read the rest of the story. Pause when the word ‘observe’ if used or when
Jane is described as observing something.
• Think-Pair-Share: What are some things Jane observed? Remind students to start with
their sentence with, “Jane observed…”
• Observation game: Ask students if they think they are good observers? Are they good at
observing things, looking carefully and noticing details? Choose one student to be in
front of the class. The will stand or pose in front of the class for 60 sec. Students observe
the student. Then, the class looks away. The student in front of the class will change 4
things about them. For example, turn their hat backwards, roll up one pantleg, untuck
their shirt, hold a pen. The class turns back around. What changes do they observe? Play
the game a couple of times.
• Students finish by writing the word ‘observe in their notebooks with a picture to help
them remember what it means.
• Day 4-Review the words ‘curious’ and ‘observe’ by having students share their pictures
with their partner. Students write a sentence under their pictures that uses the
vocabulary word. Students share their sentences.
• Introduce the word ‘personality.’ Give students the definition. “Personality is the kind of
person someone is. Personality includes someone’s emotions and their actions” Provide
some personality words: shy, loud, caring, brave, mean, curious, kind. Ask, “What words
could you use to describe Jane’s personality?” Read the book again, stop occasionally to
ask, “What kind of a person [does what Jane is doing]? What is her personality?” Write
the words that describe her personality on the board. Some examples are: curious, kind,
brave.
• Practice observing again. Take the class outside with their pencils and notebooks. Have
them write or draw their observations.
Assessment of Student Learning (How will you assess whether, or not the student has met the
learning objectives?)

• On Day 5- Students complete fill in the blanks using the words we learned from the
book: Jane was a ______________ girl. She would __________ animals by watching
them closely to learn about them. She learned that chimpanzees have ____________
just like humans because chimpanzees can be calm, excited, shy, or strong.
Completed Assessments