Case Study
Harper, October 2014
Student
Examiner
Dates of Evaluation
Student Birthdate
Chronological Age
School
Grade
Gender
Harper P.
Jennifer Dickey
September 22, 2014 to October 29, 2014
January 25, 2005
9 years, 9 months
Richmond Public Schools
Fourth
Male
Reason for Intervention
Harper was referred to the tutoring program because he did not pass his third grade
reading SOL. Based on the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, Harper does not really enjoy
reading for academic or recreational purposes. He scored within the tenth percentile overall in
the survey. Harper scored 22/ 40 on academic and 20/ 40 on recreational reading. This shows
that Harper is not interested in reading on his own. The student interview provided an insight
into Harper’s home and social life. He spends quite a bit of time each week at baseball practice
or with friends or relatives. This does not leave much time for homework. His parents also value
outside play much more than homework. They feel that he is given too much work to bring home
and that the SOLs are not important. They also spend little time working on schoolwork or
reading with him. This gives insight into his attitude regarding reading and school.
During the testing sessions, Harper worked diligently on the tasks at hand. At times, he
rushed through assignments to get to the next activity, but slowed down when he was reminded
to. The scores on these tests are deemed to be his best results.
Spelling Assessment
Primary Spelling Inventory
Feature Points: 49/56
Words Spelled Correctly: 17/26
Elementary Spelling Inventory
Feature Points: 44/62
Words Spelled Correctly: 13/25
Elementary Spelling Inventory Reassessment
Feature Points: 45/62
Words Spelled Correctly: 14/25
Spelling Stage: Middle Within Word Pattern
Known
Beginning and final
consonants
Short Vowels
Digraphs
Blends
Common Long Vowels
Using but Confusing
Other Vowels
Inflected Endings
Syllable junctures
Unaccented final
syllables
Absent
Harder suffixes
Bases or Roots
Harper correctly spelled 17 out of 26 words on the primary spelling inventory. He got 49 out of
56 feature points on this list. He has a firm grasp on initial and final consonants, short vowels,
digraphs, and blends. He got all of the points possible for these features. On the elementary
inventory Harper correctly spelled 13 out of 25 words and got 44 out of 62 feature points. On
both lists he was using but confusing other vowels (3/7 and 4/7) and inflected endings (5/7 and
2/5). He is also using and confusing syllable junctures (3/5), unaccented final syllables (3/5).
Harder suffixes and bases or roots were both absent.
Qualitative Reading Inventory
Word Lists Results:
Word List Level
Total Identified
Automatically
Identified
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Upper Middle School
High School
20/20, 100%
19/20, 95%
16/20, 80%
19/20, 95%
17/20, 85%
14/20, 70%
13/20, 65%
8/20, 40%
20/20, 100%
19/20, 95%
16/20, 80%
16/20, 80%
9/20, 45%
3/20, 15%
5/20, 25%
1/20, 5%
Independent,
Instructional,
Frustration?
Independent
Independent
Instructional
Independent
Instructional
Instructional
Frustration
Frustration
Passage Results:
Passage
Level and
Title
Type of
Text
4 Johnny
Narrative
Appleseed
Prior
Knowledge
(Score/
Rating)
7/12 points
58%
Familiar
Oral Reading Fluency
(Score/
Rating)
Retelling
(Number
of ideas)
Comprehension Overall
Level
99% total
accuracy,
total
acceptability
4 miscues
67.2
WPM/
66
CWPM
3/47
6%
1/8 Correct
12.5%
Explicit: 1/4
25%
Implicit: 0/4
0%
Frustration
3/5 Correct
60%
Explicit: 3/5
60%
No Implicit
Questions
Frustration
3/5 Correct
60%
Explicit: 2/3
67%
Implicit: 1/2
50%
Frustration
7/8 Correct
87.5%
Explicit: 4/4
100%
Implicit: 3/4
75%
Instructional
6/8 Correct
75%
Explicit: 4/4
100%
Implicit: 2/4
50%
Instructional
4/8 Correct
PrePrimer 3
Spring
and Fall
Narrative
5/9 points
56%
Familiar
95% total
accuracy,
total
acceptability,
4 miscues
120
WPM/
114
CWPM
9/28
32%
PrePrimer 2
People at
Work
Expository 7/9 points
78%
Familiar
100% total
accuracy/
total
acceptability,
0 miscues
Independent
98
WPM/
98
CWPM
6/17
35%
2 What
Can I Get
For My
Toy?
Narrative
2/9 points
22%
Unfamiliar
98% total
accuracy,
total
acceptability,
3 miscues
91
WPM/
89
CWPM
12/38
32%
10/12
points
Familiar
98% total
accuracy,
total
acceptability,
6 miscues
94
WPM/
92
CWPM
17/55
31%
98% total
87
25/47
3 The Trip Narrative
to the Zoo
3 Cats:
Expository 9/12 points
Frustration
Frustration
Frustration
Instructional
Instructional
Instructional
Lions and
Tigers in
Your
House
Familiar
accuracy,
WPM/
total
86
acceptability, CWPM
4 miscues
53%
50%
Explicit: 2/4
50%
Implicit: 2/4
50%
W/O lookbacks
Frustration
6/8 Correct
75%
Explicit: 4/4
100%
Implicit: 2/4
50%
W/ look-backs
Instructional
Overall Instructional Level
Word Recognition on Lists
Harper was able to automatically identify every word on the first grade list. On the
second grade list, he got 95% of the words automatically and correct. His one miscue on this list
was saying “through” for though. On the third grade list he read 80% of the words correctly, and
all of these were automatic. On the fourth grade list he sounded out the words, stretched each
sound out before saying the whole word. On this list, he only had one error and that was saying
“inventor” for adventurer. On the fifth grade list Harper was able to identify 45% of the words
automatically and 85% of the words total. With the words he missed, he would sound them out
and then say a different word that had a similar beginning and ending sound. For example, he
said action for the word attention. He also added an –ed to the end of attend. Harper was able to
identify 70% of the words on the sixth grade list, however only 15% were identified
automatically. On the upper middle school list Harper scored frustration. He correctly identified
65% of the words, with 25% of the words being identified automatically. Harper also did the ???
list, which was at frustration level. He read 40% of the words on this list correctly.
Performance on QRI Reading Passages
Harper started with a level four passage called “Johnny Appleseed”. On this passage, he
read 99% of the words correctly which put him at an independent level. However, on the
comprehension he got one out of the eight questions correct. Because of this, the passage was at
frustration level.
Due to examiner error, Harper went from a fourth grade passage to two pre-primer
passages. On “Spring and Fall”, a pre-primer 3 passage, he scored independent in word
recognition (95% total accuracy with no meaning-changing miscues). He also read a pre-primer
2 passage titled “People at Work” and read with 100% total accuracy. On both passages, he
scored 60% on the comprehension questions making these texts technically frustration level.
Because the pre-primer passages were given in error, Harper went back up to a second
level text. He read “What Can I Get for My Toy” with 98% accuracy and 100% total
acceptability. On the comprehension question he scored an 88%, making this text within his
instructional level. To further study his reading level, Harper was given a third grade text called
“The Trip to the Zoo”. He read this story with 98% accuracy and 99% total acceptability. He
scored 75% on the comprehension questions, meaning that this text was also instructional level.
The final text that Harper read was an expository passage called “Cats: Tigers and Lions
in Your House”. He read the passage with 98% total accuracy and 100% total acceptability.
Without look-backs, Harper scored 50% on the comprehension questions, in the frustration
range. With look-backs, Harper scored 75% on the comprehension questions, putting him within
the instructional range for this passage.
Written Vocabulary
56 Words (in 10 minutes)
Harper was able to write 56 words in ten minutes. When he got stuck, he was prompted by the
examiner to think of his favorite foods, things he liked to do, and colors. He attempted to spell 59
words and misspelled three of the words. He was able to spell the beginning and ending sounds
of all of the words.
Writing Sample
Six Traits Writing Rubric 16/30
Harper scored a four (proficient) in ideas and content. His story that he wrote had a main idea
and some supporting details. He scored a three (developing) in word choice and conventions. In
his writing, there was no elaboration and errors were made with spelling, grammar, and
punctuation. However, these errors did not prevent the reader from understanding the passage.
He scored a two (emerging) on organization, voice, and sentence fluency. This is because the
story was not organized in a fashion that made sense and there was little personality in the
writing. Also, most of the sentences were of similar length and had little variety in structure or
word choice.
Standardized Vocabulary Test
PPVT 4, Raw Score: 158, Standard Score: 104, Percentile Rank: 61%, Confidence Interval 97110
Harper scored within the high average for his age group for the PPVT. He was nine years and
eight months when tested, however his score was the equivalent of ten years and five months.
His stanine score was a six and he was in the 61st percentile.
Summary of Assessment Results
Harper’s assessments indicate that he is having difficulty with comprehension, spelling, and
writing. As he was completing the assessments, he was attentive and worked diligently. These
are believed to be an accurate depiction of his abilities. He relies heavily on the sounds of words
when spelling, but confuses some of the spelling rules. Harper has difficulty recalling facts from
a story that he has read or answering comprehension questions afterwards. Harper is able to
make a prediction before reading a story and is able to relate the prediction to the title and theme
of the story, however he has difficulty with organizing the details and key events of a story.
Harper scored within the high average range for vocabulary on the PPVT. This demonstrates that
he understands the meaning of words and word usage. Harper is able to write known words
without sounding out the words and is able to sound out words that are less familiar to him. The
one inconsistency with Harper’s assessments, was that while doing the QRI, he performed lower
on the pre-primer texts than on the level 3 passages. He was given these pre-primer passages in
error. The inconsistency from these passages might have resulted from the material being too
easy so Harper was not paying close attention to the story. Another reason could have been that
by the time we got to the level 3 passages, Harper had much more experience with taking the
QRI. Either way, level 3 was the appropriate level for him.
Recommendations for Instruction
Word Recognition
Harper scored very high on word recognition on both the word lists and in the passages.
He should continue to work on reading texts within his level and become more automatic in
decoding words that are difficult. This can be accomplished through reading and word study.
These will help him to be able to recognize words with more automaticity. Harper needs to read
leveled texts to continue learning new words. He also needs to define and use the words that he
is learning in his word study. It is also important that direct vocabulary instruction is
incorporated into the tutoring time. Examples of this could be defining new words found in a
leveled text, creating a pocket dictionary of new words learned, or even a word of the day to start
out the sessions. These will continue to build upon his vocabulary knowledge.
Comprehension
Harper did well on the second and third grade comprehension questions. He struggled
more with implicit questions than the explicit ones. He can work on this by reading stories and
talking about information within the story that is not explicitly stated. Harper could benefit from
Question and Answer Response to help with comprehension. It is also important to pause during
the story so that he can talk about what has happened as he is reading. This allows him to
organize smaller amounts of information at times. Harper also really struggled with recalling
facts from the story. To work on this he should be reading and retelling stories often to further
develop this skill. This can be done using graphic organizers and story maps to retell the
important details of the story and to work on sequencing of events in the story. It is also
important that Harper answer questions about the texts that he is reading to practice this skill.
Fluency
There are many activities that Harper can work on to improve fluency. One idea is to read
poetry. This will help because of the natural rhyme that poetry has. Another activity to work on
is learning to pause at punctuation. He can also record himself reading a familiar text and listen
to it to hear how his reading sounds aloud. This gives him the opportunity to listen to his reading
afterwards. The tutor needs to model fluent reading so that he can hear how it sounds. Echo and
choral reading are good ways of doing this. Practice is also very important in developing fluency.
Harper needs to practice reading familiar poetry and stories to improve his fluency.
Writing
To give Harper the opportunity to practice writing, he should be given time to write each
day. One idea for this is to give him a journal that he is able to add to each day to build upon a
story that he starts. He also needs to work on organizing his ideas while writing. To do this he
should work on different prewriting techniques such as brainstorming, listing, and drawing
pictures. This will help with the details in his writing as well. Harper also needs to work on
adding more details into his story. One activity that he can do to work on this is to come up with
different ways of describing an object.
Word Study
To improve upon Harper’s spelling it is important that time is devoted to word study. He
should begin with other vowels in the within word pattern stage. He needs to spend time with
word study in each session. It is also important that time is devoted to discussing the words and
the feature that is being studied. This will help him to recognize these features in other words
that he comes across while reading. Harper needs to play games and do sorts with the words to
become more familiar with them. It also a good idea to keep all of his word work organized so
that he can look back at it to help refresh his mind on certain features.
Reassessment/Accomplishments
Word Study
Harper was reassessed on the elementary spelling inventory at the end of the tutoring
program. His score increased by one feature point and one total word. Other than one word
(opposition) Harper did the same on both inventories. However, some of his misspellings
showed that he was putting more effort into listening to the sounds of the words. For instance on
the first inventory, he spelled carries as “charys” and on the second one he spelled it “carys”. His
spelling has improved overall in his writing as well. He was also able to correctly identify the
features (-ew and –ue, and –air and –are) that were worked on during word study and use them in
his writings. Harper’s improvement in spelling has translated into his writing as well. Harper is
able to take the words and spelling patterns that he has studied in word study and translate them
to his reading and writing.
Comprehension
His comprehension was greatly improved since he first took the QRI. He is able to
answer questions about the stories that he is reading. This was true for both fiction and
nonfiction texts. On each of the texts that he read, he was asked questions during and after
reading the text. He was able to answer all of them correctly. This was true regardless of whether
or not he was allowed to look back at the text. Harper is able to retell the main parts of a story
with little assistance. He can retell the setting, characters, and the main idea without assistance.
He demonstrated this orally and in writing.
Fluency
He improved in his reading fluency also. Harper went from reading disfluently and
ignoring to punctuation to being able to pause for punctuation and to read more fluently than
before. He stopped reading so quickly, and paid more attention to the words that he was reading.
His CWPM has been consistently increasing throughout the semester. He is able to self correct
most of his errors while reading without braking his concentration on the text. This is an
improvement from the beginning of the semester when he very rarely self corrected while
reading.
Writing
Harper showed the greatest improvement in his writing. In the beginning of the program
he would not do any prewriting and wrote just a short paragraph for his writing sample.
Throughout the last month of tutoring Harper worked on creating his own story. He wrote the
text, edited, and created a final copy of the book using an online storyboard. Creating his own
book allowed Harper to work through the entire writing process. This experience allowed him to
start with an idea and create a final, published copy of his story. He also worked on writing for
academic purposes. He is able to write short summaries and answer questions about the stories
that he read. Harper’s final writing showed growth in spelling, composition, sentence structure,
punctuation, and word choice.
Attitude
Harper’s attitude toward reading has become much more positive. In the beginning of the
program he was reluctant to read any nonfiction texts. However, he grew to like reading the
nonfiction leveled texts especially about animals. He was also very eager for the tutoring
sessions and to read the books, especially when he got to choose the text. Harper became excited
to read outside of the tutoring sessions at well. He was eager to share the details of books that he
was reading during his free reading time and at home. Harper was very interested in reading
books that he could relate to. He enjoyed sharing his ideas about stories. He went from being
very negative about reading to having a positive attitude towards reading for school and
enjoyment.