Group+9-5772

= = Choose **one case** study to evaluate from these two examples: Home/school connections are important at all times but especially critical during the early years of schools. In both of these cases, the parents have already been active in the development of literacy. Now both sets of parents want more. What can you do to help them on the road to literacy.
 * =__ CASE STUDY #1 __=

** CASE STUDY #1: Susie **
Susie is a happy middle-class first grade student. Since birth, her parents talked with her as if she were an adult and spent much time reading with her. Suzie developed a love of reading early and her parents continued supporting her love by purchasing books and giving them as gifts. She loves her personal library of well over 100 books. When Susie entered first grade she had highly developed skills, listened well and understood a great deal. She was confident and secure and anxious to learn. However, after just one week of school Suzie finishes early and does nothing after completion of school tasks. She states that she is bored.

What are the strengths?

MANDY: The strengths that Susie has are; books, supportive family, a love of reading, and confidence. SUSANNAH: I agree. Peggy: Susie is well grounded with the support of her family. She has developed a love and desire for the written word early in life. She had high expectations when she began school. Mandy: That's right, the high expectations. I think that that helps a child when they start school to be positive, istead of being afraid or upset about school.

What are the needs? MANDY: Susie needs to be challeged more. She is bored, and usually when children are bord no good comes from it. She is also finishing her work too early. SUSANNAH: She is probably doing Focus or Buckledown work books. What exactly does the teacher count as "reading" especially if Mandy is the only person in the class who really knows how to read? Peggy: I agree with you Mandy, she needs to be challenged. If she isn't challenged she could develop a negative attitude towards learning in general. Mandy: I don't really understand the "need" for workbooks all the time. There may be a time and a place, and they may work with some students. But I think with all the technology and resourses available the teacher should be creative. SUSANNAH: Yes, especially when the "consumable" workbooks are not really consumable, so we have to buy our own paper to run off copies for 23 students. Next year is going to be different. I have alot more self confidense, and even if I have to use the workbooks, I will put them up in Promethean board and we can go through them like that and with activotes.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?

MANDY: I think that the teacher should talk about incorporating writing into her reading program. Susie could start journaling after she is done reading. If she journals she will develop writing skills, and will not be bored after she competes schools tasks. SUSANNAH: Yes. I would also ask the parents what things Mandy has like to read about in the past - do an interest survey - what does she fiind interesting? Peggy: Again you are right on about the writing. It is important to connect reading and writing. Journals are good, but maybe encouraging her to write her own stories or re-write one of her favorite stories, add illustrations to her writing, these could also help her develop creativity. Later in her school days she would have a headstart for some of the literacy skills needed when exploring literature. SUSANNAH: I also like Dr. Sargent's idea that they can write to pre-K and Kdg and exchange pictures for writing, etc..

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

MANDY: The teacher could give her activities such as concept maps, KWL charts, cross-word puzzles to complete while she doing her school tasks. Susie will be doing something productive with her time, instead of being bored or sitting and waiting for other students to finish their work. SUSANNAH: Yes. The student might also be able to get on the computer and do reading activities on it, and maybe even work with another student who is struggling. The teacher can find some reading activities such as making smaller words from larger words that can be geared to her reading level. Peggy: Both of you have made some very good suggestions. Through your suggestion listed she would also be strengthening her spelling skills. She could also make shape books. Mandy: That's a great idea to have her work with a struggling reader. It will build her self-confidence and help the struggling student also.

== MANDY: I am glad that we this case study disusses "wait time". I feel as though a lot of students time is wasted while they are waiting for classmates to finish their work. We as teachers should alway have a meaniful activity for students to be involved in so they do not become bored as did Susie. == == Peggy: I am one to encourage students to be creative. If they don't have anything to do, then I make sure there is something available for them. Many classrooms would have less behavior problems if there were pre-planned extra activities to help students stay engaged in learning. ==

** CASE STUDY #1: Sam **
Sam is a first grader who will turn six this November. He comes from a middle-class English-speaking family, with two parents who read to him on a regular basis. His parents are very interested in the progress and activities he does in class.

He actively participates in class discussions, even though there are times when he will make an error in syntax with word forms, like talk-ed, for talked.

At independent time, he regularly chooses picture books and studies the pictures. He does not spend any time looking at the words. If he chooses a book with more words, the topics will be sharks or dinosaurs. He does know the basic letters but confuses b and d, I and j, x and z, p and ,i and l. He knows basically his concepts about print. He can figure out his initial and ending consonants but is slow and choppy. His writing can only be deciphered if Sam reads the text to the teacher.

What are the strengths? Renee- One of Sam's strengths is his parental involvement. Peggy: Yes, Renee, he does have good support from his parents. He also has established verbal self confidence because he actively participates in discussions and doesn't let errors stop him from this participation. Susannah: He is definitely "reading" for meaning and does choose topics that he is interested in.

What are the needs? Renee- Sam needs to work on his word recognition and writing skills. Peggy: I agree. Susannah: Yes.

What strategies/things could be recommended to parents and what is your rationale? Renee- HIs parents could use flash cards to help Sam build his word recognition skills. His parents already read to him on a regular basis, but Sam needs to see the words that are being read. Peggy: His parents could also encourage him to write in a journal and edit for him to see his errors. It appears he may have fine motor skill deficits, and working with clay by rolling pieces out and shaping them into letters would help with direction of letters such as b, d, p, etc. and spelling words with the clay would increase correct spelling. Suannah: I think that writing letters and words on the table with shaving cream would be fun for him. Maybe writing in pudding would be possible at home because the parents could provide him with a sanitary surface.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? Renee- Sam's teacher could use sight words for a Word Bingo game with Sam and his class. Peggy: His teacher could use magnetic letters on a magnet board for him to practice letters and words. Susannah: If the teacher had a chance to work on-on-one with him or at a center with clay, it would help him get his letters straight if he made the entire lowercase alphabet in clay - first with correct letters for reference, and then by himself. All the multimedia ideas that we got on Thursday's Parent Lesson (later one) would help.

Additional thoughts:
|| = = hoose from one of these case studies to elaborate on the topic of phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the foundation for phonics and must be acquired and used with ease before you start the reading and phonics processes.
 * =__Case Study #2 Phonemic Awareness__=

**__ CASE STUDY #2: __**
Mitch, a first grade student, was retained in kindergarten is now eight years old. After assessing him on concepts about print, word tests, phonemic awareness and phonics tests, and spelling inventories, he showed lack of process in most areas. In concepts about print, he stumbled on specific instructions on word and letter order and the name and use of punctuation He had difficulty in hearing words in speech, hearing syllables, beginning and final sounds and sound matching for phonemic awareness. He could correctly identify upper and lower case letters and sounds but could not note the digraphs, blends, short and long vowel patters and "vce" and vowel teams. In spelling he usually spelled the first and last consonant correctly and the short a and I but the other short vowels or other vowel patterns were guesses. His sight word vocabulary was low.

What are the strengths? Peggy: Mitch's strength is correctly identifying upper and lower case letters and their individual sounds. Mandy: I agree. He also recognized the first and last letter of the words he was spelling. Susannah: It does not list enough information to determine many atrengths. An informal interest inventory would help a lot. Renee; I agree his strength is letter recognition.

What are the needs? Peggy: Mitch needs to be referred for hearing testing. He stumbles on specific instructions, has difficulty hearing words in speech, syllables, beginning and final sounds, matching sounds, as well as digraphs, blends, short and long vowel patterns,etc. He only hears beginning and ending consonants consistently. All of these weaknesses need to be addressed first by answering the question, "Does he have a hearing disability?" Mandy: I agree that he should have a hearing screening. I think he would also benifit from a vison screening as well if he is having difficulty with sigh words as well. Renee: He needs to build on his sight word vocabulary and decoding words. I agree he needs a vision and hearing screening. Susannah: He needs the systematic teaching of phonics and phonemics and spelling. I would work with him using "Words Their Way" games.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?

Peggy: First I would encourage the parents to use objects or pictures with specific sounds to help Mitch associate the sounds to letter and spelling. Matching games, such as, "memory", or flashcard games would help him with his sight vocabulary, and there are computerized games that would help him to learn association. Repretition, repretition is used to transfer learning into long term memory such as memorizing sight words. Mandy: I would have the parents lable items around the house so that there are vocabulary words everywhere. I would also give them website to go on and practice with him at home. Renee: I agree that pictues with words will help him make a connection with words and help him build on his vocabulary skills. Also to read to him at home. Susannah: Once he finished withe th "Words Their Way" games, I would let him take them home, to play at home He could even teach younger siblings, if he head any.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

Peggy: Pair him with a strong reader and give him hands on learning strategies. Mandy: I might try putting him on the computer with some headphones. Maybe this would allow him to "tune out" the other noise going on in the class, and or hear better. Peggy: Didn't think about the blocking out other sounds, but that is a good idea. Susannah: I think that most strategies that would work with ELL students would also work with him. For example, using pictures and illustrative gestures, slowing down, using reptition, giving him a better chance to understand, even if he cannot hear well. I really like the idea of pairing him with another student who can help him along. Renee: I agree that small group or pair reading with another student would be helpful. the teacher could use word wall activities to build his vocabulary skills,

** CASE STUDY #2 **
Angel, a kindergartner, is behind most of her classmates in reading readiness. When she came to the school, she had no awareness of letters, letter sounds and names. She has learned to sing the ABC song but cannot place the letters in order without the song. She knows some concepts about print: the left-right order and the return sweep and the front/back/author of book. She can show the first part of the story, the first part of a word but cannot show the beginning of a sentence. She does not know her punctuation marks. She does not know the 1 to 1 correspondence of words and cannot follow along with the teacher reading the story. All in all she tries to learn and participates eagerly in class. She like the rote method and loves to do things kinesthetically.

What are the strengths? Mandy: Angel is happy to learn in class. She loves hands-on acivities and understands print concepts. Angel can also identify the first part of a story.

What are the needs? Mandy: Angel needs to learn how to put her ABC in order without singing the song. She needs to be taught punctuation marks and that would help her with knowing where the beginning of the sentence is. SUSANNAH: She needs more experiences interacting with books and print.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? Mandy: First thing we would have to get her to recognize and understand the ABC order. I would have the parents put magnetic letters in a pile in front of her and then have her place them in order on a cookie sheet. The parents could also go on reading/letter websites to help her. Susannah: She could make the alphabet out of clay with an alphabet to copy right above the clay letters. She could use magnetic letters and make words on the refridgerator, so they would stay up. I would have her start pretend writing, such as making grocery lists with her mother, and writing thank you letters. Even the scribbles are the beginning of understanding print.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? Mandy: I would have her use different taxtile activities to help her learn her letter placement. I would also give her sheets to complete everyday with missing ABC letters on them and she would have to place the correct missing letter on the sheet. Susannah: I would have her participate with the other students in making books. Making a book that has each student's photo, or a counting book, or an extension of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Kids love reading books they have had a part in making. I would have her hold up the correct letters with the help of friends to the book,Chicka, chicka Boom Boom! I would have a word board that would have letters on it and she would help put up pictures that went with the letter. Have her works with other students to help her identify letters. Have lots of opportunities to read and look at lots of books - to choose a book for me to read. Pair her up with a 4th grade student who needs to read to her.

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #3 Phonics__=

** CASE STUDY #3 **
The third grade class has a high percentage of Title I students with the vast majority as English speakers. Most of their parents work very hard at their jobs and do not have the time to read to their children or focus on skills which will improve literacy in the classroom. When the teacher reads to them, they enjoy their story time and respond readily within the discussions. They seem to enjoy independent reading of looking at books or reading to themselves. Four students in this class are especially in need; they are in the emergent level and they know some sight words. They read word by word and consider reading a laborious chore. From testing, the children shows that they know most initial consonant sounds and use them randomly to guess at word but they ignore the final consonants and medial sounds. The writing and spelling are on a lower developmental level of about beginning first grade.

What are the strengths? Mandy: The students enjoy story time and like to discuss what they have read. Peggy. Also the students are enjoying learning. That is a very import point for a classroom teacher. It shows the teacher makes learning interesting. Susannah: They will, at least, take an interest in getting free books when the opportunity arises!

Renee: The students enjoy independent reading time and reading to themselves.

What are the needs? Mandy: The chidren need more parent support at home. They also need to work on spelling. Peggy. They also need more interactive writing activities incorporated in their daily work. Susannah: They also need explicit instruction on reading stretegies, phonics and vocabulary. And they need books at home. Renee: The students also need to increase their fluency skills.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? Mandy: The parents could set the children up online with reading websites. Also, they could buy their kids books on tape/CD and have the students listen and follow along with a book if the parents are going to be home to read to them. I know there are some different applications where stories/books can be down loaded to phones so the kids could use their parents phones. Peggy: I agree, there are several different types of technology parents can tap into, but the most important would be to encourage parents to take 10 mins at bedtime to read aloud or share read even if it is just a page or two. This isn't just building reading, but for students of this age they need to develop communication with their parents. Susannah: Yes, it is soo difficult for parents living from day to day, working so hard. There is little time left over for reading. Maybe there could be reading games that the student could check out and bring home and play with siblings. Renee: The parents can provide books at home for the students to read to themselves or take the children to a library on the weekend.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? Mandy: I would send a story home with the students along with a journal. The kids could read the story and then respond in the journal. I think the journal will help because they like disscussing what they've read. Then each day at school there can be a time reserved for the student's to share they're journal entries. Peggy: The teacher could do pair reading, reading theaters, but one thing the teacher may wish to think about is inviting a parent (as schedules would allow) to come once a month and read to the students. (Or, invite a grandparent, aunt, uncle, neighbor.) Another idea is plan a student parent night once or twice a semester for parents to come to the classroom in the evening and the students could share a favorite passage, or students and parents have reading time together. Susannah: I think those are great ideas! The kids seem to get along well and are fun loving, so phonics games, words their way games, or reading centers might also be of help. Renee: Repeated readings for fluency skills and Word Bingo games for word recognition skills would be helpful.

Susannah: Me, too. Infact, one student said he was tired, numerous days during the year, because his parents had returned home so late, once again, from the casino.
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 * =__Case Study #4: Vocabulary__=

My Two Favorite Books on Vocabulary state the following: The authors of Beck, McKeown, and Kucan’s Bringing Words to Life suggest that a robust approach to vocabulary involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought-provoking, playful, and interactive follow-up. (2). They add that vocabulary work in middle school and high school should allow deeper explorations of language, how language gives meaning and how words mean what they mean. (85). In their vision of best practices, vocabulary is more rooted to a text and dealt with in a way that both teaches the words and brings enriched understanding to the text. (85).

Marzano agrees”direct instruction in vocabulary works”(68), and even mentions the work of Beck and McKeown in explaining that “effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions” (70). Marzano’s approach for effectively teaching vocabulary consists of six steps that are very similar to the approach described in Bringing Words to Life. He encourages nonlinguistic representations to build vocabulary, and clarifies that he means not just mental pictures, but also "associated sounds, smells, and sensations of touch or movement (21). Marzano encourages the shaping of word meaning through multiple exposures including the process of creating metaphors. He states that, Research indicates that metaphor activities can help students better understand the abstract features of information. . . . In terms of vocabulary instruction, a teacher might present students with metaphors or ask them to create their own metaphors (73).

However, Marzano writes that “Beck, McKeown, and Kucan’s focus on tier-two words as the appropriate target of vocabulary instruction” is a mistake (88). He stresses that “subject-specific terms are the best target for direct vocabulary instruction” and provides a list of 7,923 subject-specific terms in the appendix of his book.

The Opening Articles and the podcasts can help with the development of the vocabulary plan.

** CASE STUDY #4 **
Amy is a 11th grade student from a upper-middle class area in an affluent high school. She has twenty hours of community service hours that she has to complete and has decided to help tutor students at a near-by after school elementary program. She wants to come one hour every day for a month. The teacher in the program wants her to work on vocabulary development and make it fun. She has come to you for advice about how to help students with word conscientious. What are you going to tell her? (Oh, by the way, Jenks Middle School has set up a program like this on Saturday mornings to help with vocabulary development).

What can be the strengths and weaknesses of this plan? PEGGY: The first things that comes to mind is, if the high school student is from an affluent area, are the elementary students also from the same social environment. This would make a difference if the elementary were of a lower social environment. The vocabulary could be surpress and basic vocabulary would be needed to meet the needs of the students. Whereas, if they are from an affluent area the vocabulary could be broadened. The strength is that she will work with them everyday and that she has the opportunity of flexiblility to make the activities fun. SUSANNAH: It would be better if she could plan with someone at the beginning - it is a lot to pull togethet all at once on the spot. She aslo needs to make sure that the entire hour is not devoted entirely to vocabulary - as we know, comprehension and fluency strategies are equally important and should be applied in a cyclical way so that the vocabulary stretgies help fluency, the fluency strategies help with comprehension, and comprehension leads to increased voacbulary skills. I would also assess where the students are with BEAR spelling test so that phonics an phoneme deficits could be explicitly addressed. MANDY: I would give the high school student different games and hands on activities to do with the students. The kids have been at school all day, and they will want something fun to keep their interest because they are tired and thinking about going home and having snack and watching t.v. :) RENEE: I would suggest to her to focus on vocabulary the whole time. I would suggest the first day that she give the students an interest inventory to find out their interest and background knowledge. Also, a fun activity for a meet and greet with the students. I would suggest that she spend about ten minutes to read aloud a children's book each day. I believe the strength is that the students will benefit from small group tutoring. The students will benefit from being read to. I beieve the weakness will be that not all of the students will be on the same level of word knowledge.

What strategies/programs would help with the students? What is your rationale? PEGGY: I would use differnt vocabulary strategies to make learning vocabulary fun. Then the one consistent strategy I would impliment daily would definitely be the picture dictionary combined with the personal dictionary. The reason for this is the visual respresentation for each word will help the students remember the word and the development of the personal dictionary will give them the written definition and how to use the word. SUSANNAH: I like the Predict-O-Gram strategy and "Know it well", "Seen it" and "No clue strategy, where student interact with vcabulary from the text and see if they can prdecy how a word id going to be used in the text and whether they know it or not. They will then be active readers as they read. Most of the students I have used these strategies with, love "discovering" and recognizing the vocabulary in the text, and by the end of the reading they "Know it well". MANDY: I would have the students make their own personal word wall that is a small size they could keep with them. They would be able to take it home and feel proud of all the words they have learned, and could use them at home.

RENEE: I would suggest that the children's book she reads have some words unknown to the students. I would suggest she use vocabulary strategies and fun activities with the students and to focus on the unknown words from the children's book. What would the program look like? PEGGY: I would design different strategies for learning vocabulary to keep it fun. At the end of each day the students would add the new vocabulary words to their dictionary. I would require each student to have a spiral notebook for their dictionary. As each new vocabulary word was introduced I would have them find a picture to discribe the word, look the definition up in the dictionary and write what the definition means in terms that they understand, identify the part of speech for the word, then use the word in a sentence ( if the word can be used more than one part of speech, each would be identified and a sentence written for each usage). Depending upon the age of the elementary student would depend upon if they would identify antonyms and synonyms. Also, the class would design a BB with word splash for review of vocabulary words. SUSANNAH: It would also be good to have a "reward" of students who fu=inish early, being able to play "free rice.com" or "spellingcity.com" because it is a fun way t interact with vocabulary! MANDY: Yes, I think that it would be a good thing to incorporate technology to the program. Students love to be on the computer and the smartboard. Technology makes learning fun for them because it seems like they're "playing". RENEE: The program would have several different vocabulary strategies and fun activities including, word webs, word journals, word bingo, and word of the day activities. I would also include hands-on activities and technology to enhance learning.

** CASE STUDY #4 **
Your Title I school has low vocabulary scores on both Oklahoma assessments and national assessments. Your principal has challenged you and your colleagues to help students have more word conscientious and be able to use vocabulary more effectively. The population of your students is basically ½ Caucasian, ¼ Native American and ¼ ELL students.

What strategies/ideas can be given specifically for teachers? Susannah: I think the push should be school-wide. We have a Vocabulary Hat parade on a reading day. That day we invite people from the community over to read to classes. A man who impersonates Will Rogers (from Will Roger's museum in Claremore) visited this year, among others. Each student comes up with a vocabulary word to make a hat about. For example, the hat with the word "floral" would be covered with plastic or paper home made flowers. This could be a kind of program "kick-off". Then, maybe get in touch with RIF, that donates new books for kids, so kids get their won books. Ask for donation of used magazines. Schedule field trip to the local public library to look at books and so the kids can find out how to get free membership and explain it to their parents who might not speak any English. School wide competions of grade levels competeing to read books, vocabulary hung on hallways, on bulleting boards, word of the week announced with the morning announcements. Students who are "caught" using the vocabulary word get their name put in a drawing for free books.

What strategies/ideas can you set up for students? SUSANNAH: Students can get together and make posters using some vocabulary words and posting in hallways, cafeteria. Students can make vocabulary journals of words they encounter that they do not know. Students write about things they already know, but try to come up with better vocabulary, such as using the word "large" instead of big. Use Words Their way instruction about pre-fixes, suffixes, and word origins. Have students come up with their own metaphors and similies using various vocabulary. Use a word wall for vocabulary words that arise in the classroom. Expose students to vocabulary before they read expository text. Do not try to learn too many vocabulary words at a time. I read somewhere that students can not learn more than 5 new words a day (or was it a week?). Students can stand up next to their desks and figure out a motion to go with each vocabulary word that reminds them of what the word means.

What can you share with your parents? SUSANNAH: Have rep. from public library come to parent meetings and tell about what libraries can do for them. Send information home. Have students tell parents about strategies - create bookmarks with vocabulary home.

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #5: Fluency__=

CASE STUDY #5
Anne is a sixth grader who has fair word attack skills but lacks fluency because she reads without expression and ignores punctuation. This issue interferes with her comprehension; she does not monitor what she reads. She is unable to retell a passage or answer questions on the various levels of understanding. Anne's word attack skills are around the fourth grade and her comprehension level to be near third grade level. On the other hand, her recognition and use of good vocabulary words is apparent in her speech.

Anne has stated that her love is to watch educational television and learn as much science and history that she can. In her textbook she says that she uses her picture cues, graphs, and charts as well as her knowledge about the topic to get her through the reading. She adds to the class discussion but her topics are not necessarily found in the textbooks. She loves her social studies and science classes and usually gets good grades in them.

Anne looks at the pictures and other visuals during her reading time and states that reading is not enjoyable.

What are the strengths? PEGGY: Anne's strength is vocabulary words and oral speech. She also has an inquisitive mind which stimulates her desire to learn through visual learning. SUSANNAH: She seems to have broad prior knowledge and background to multiple subjects. She is eager to participate in class discussion. She is willing to learn and probably has good parental support at home, with some kind of literacy environment at home beacuse she takes advantage of opportunities to learn about things she is interested in. MANDY: Annes strenth is that she uses pciture cue, graphs, ad charts to help her with her reading. She also has okay word attack skills. RENEE: Anne's strengths are her word recognition and vocabulary skills. She loves social studies, science and history and has a strong desire to learn more about these subjects.

What are the needs? PEGGY: Anne needs to work on comprehension, word attack, and fluency. SUSANNAH: Reading without expression is a big problem - she is probably reading books that are too hard for her to read. She reminds me alot of me. She has difficulty focusing on the task or subject at hand, prefering to deflect by turning the discussion to things she already knows. She needs to know wht she needs to learn about certain things beacsue she seems used to just focusing on what she wants to learn, so unless she has a reasin why, she will not focus her attention on the "need to" startegies. MANDY: Although looking at picture cues and graphs can be a strength, it can also have a negative affect as well because she relies on pictures too much. She also needs to work on comprehension skills. RENEE: Anne needs to improve her fiuncey and then her reading comprehension will improve also.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? PEGGY: Take her to the library to get books about her favorite topics and have her read aloud to them (to increase fluency). Have her describe or draw what she has read (to help her comprehension through visual activities) Have her retell about a topic she read about. Have her make a list of words she has trouble reading and review the list often. SUSANNAH: Have her tell them what she is learning about at school. Perhaps they could even help her pre-view text that she will be introduced to the following week so that she will have a "heads up" on the reading and vocabulary ahead of time. MANDY: I would give her choices when it comes time to read a book. I would provide her with several books on topics that she is interested on. I think that she would try harder to learn to read if she is able to read about things she enjoys learning about. RENEE: I would suggest she engage in repeated readings of lower level books to improve her fluency skills. Maybe she could read to a younger brother or sister or even her parents. She loves science, social studies and history so I would provide her books on those topics.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? PEGGY: One, the teacher could find reader theatres for Anne to participate in reading for expression and punctuation. Two, the teacher could ask Anne to write a discriptive paragraph over what she has read. Three: Anne should keep a personal dictionary or picture dictionary to assist her with words she doesn't read well. Four: the teacher should allow Anne to check out graphic novels that cover the materials topics when available. SUSANNAH: Anne could do some paired reading with a peer who does have good expression. This would help her fluency. Anne could also "help" first graders with their reading skills and read stories to them with expression.This would help with fluency. It would be great if there were leveled readers with the expository texts so that Anne could have an easier text to read - actually Anne could research the expository text and have the librarian help her find related texts on her reading level. This would help with comprehension. Annie could work with a small group which would help with her energy - and free it up for comprehension. MANDY: I would let her go to pbs kids online (since she likes tv shows) and have her read the books and play the activities they have on the website. Almost all of pbs progams and website are educational sources that will encourage Anne to become successful. RENEE: Anne could read to a 2nd grade buddy student a 2nd grade level book to improve her fluency skills. The teacher could use KWL charts with the students to help improve comprehension skills.

** CASE STUDY #5 **
Charlie, a kind, helpful and positive young man, is not reading with fluency. His comprehension retelling was concise and included all the pertinent information. His writing and spelling are poor; some of his spelling are trane (train), closit (closet), case (chase) and beches (beaches) which Words Their Way says is Using but Abusing. He scored perfectly on alphabet names, consonant sounds, consonant digraphs, and consonant blends. He missed several short vowel words. In long vowel sections, vowel pairs, and silent e, he read all words correctly.

His performance in the classroom is inconsistent. When reading text, he appears to use context and other strategies to back up his phonics decoding skills. Sometimes he seems to be guessing vowel sounds almost randomly as he tries each one out. He ends up with the right word, but the process is laborious. He self corrects about 1 out of every 3 miscues. His pace is slow and choppy.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #6 Comprehension__=

CASE STUDY #6
Sydney, a 7th grade student at Lance Middle High School, is not at all confident about her reading. Daily, she seems to be on the verge of tears, when discussions and extensions take place. She confesses to you that she has faked her way through elementary school and now she knows she won?t be able to do the same thing at the middle school level. She asks you for help.

What are the strengths? PEGGY: Her strength is the ability to own up to her weakness. SUSANNAH: She also has the strength and tenacity to "hang in there" all this time, when it has been so difficult and scary for her. MANDY: She is an honest person and evidently a smart person to be able to go this far without teachers realizing she can't read. RENEE: She has used reading strategies to "fake" her way through elementary school. She is asking for help because she wants to be a good reader and a successful students.

What are the needs? PEGGY: Sydney needs to build confidence in herself. SUSANNAH: She needs to get reading strategies taught to her explicitly, so she has a huge tool box when she walks into the classroom. MANDY: She needs to improve her reading skills, and build self esteem. RENEE: She needs to build her confidence by improving her reading skills. She needs the support and help of her middle school teachers.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? PEGGY: Sydney needs to follow along as texts are read aloud. This would help her to know how words that she is unsure of are pronounced when her classmates read aloud. When she does understand something during discussions she should ask questions. SUSANNAH: I would be good if she could be paired with a "buddy" who can help her keep her place, and help her finding answers to questions in the text. MANDY: I think that she should be matched with a higher reader in the class. They can work together to increase Sydney's reading skills. The higher reader will also gain confidence in themselves because they are helping a fellow classmate.

RENEE: She can use context clues,look for root words, prefixes, suffixes and endings to help her with unknown words. What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? PEGGY: The teacher could find short passages for Sydney to read aloud in order for her not to be overwhelmed or embarrassed to read. The teacher could have Sydney preread helping her with the words she misses before asking her to read aloud. Before discussion time, Sydney could be given the questions that are going to be discussed to take home and find the answers beforehand. Also, the teacher could assign a peer tutor for Sydney. SUSANNAH: I agree with the above. Also, if Anne could research of read leveled books about the subject that she understands and make a report of some kind to the class. Infact the class could do short research on the subject and Anne just do it at ther reading level - with graphic novels. MANDY: I agree with what Peggy said. We had a student who struggled with reading, so everyday we would give her the story we would be reading the next day. If she had any problems with the passage she would come in before school and we would clear up any questions she had. This helped her to be more confident when she read, and I think this would work for Sydney too. RENEE: I agree with all the suggestions, I also feel that she is going to need after school tutoring or one-on-one with a T.A. or teacher to get cought up on her reading skills or even summer school. The teacher could use KWL charts for reading comprehension skills.

** CASE STUDY #6 **
In a sixth grade class of twenty-eight students, composed mostly of English speakers at various levels of ability and skills, the teacher needs to devise strategies which deal with comprehension. Most students do not have a lot of difficulty with word attack, but their reading comprehension scores on a standardize test range from the 22nd percentile to the 65th percentage. In the Oklahoma PASS objective tests, you note that they read the passages but they seemed to miss key points in comprehension. You also know that the students like to discuss the topic but don?t always understand the text and have a hard time supporting their answers from the text.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do?

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #7 Comprehension__=

** CASE STUDY # 7 **
Brandon, a soon to be eighth grader, was a student in the summer reading program for struggling readers. He was assigned to this program because of his test scores and the Reading Sufficiency Plan. Also his mother wanted to have help for him before he went to high school. The teacher gave an informal reading inventory and the reading level was several levels lower than his grade placement. During the conference with Brandon, he shared that he felt that he was a good reader and was often called upon to read orally in class. His reading was rhythmic and generally true to text and his accuracy rate was about 89%. He had trouble retelling and his comprehension was minimal. Brandon was also very talkative and excited and saw no need for strategy instruction to help with his comprehension.

What are the strengths? PEGGY: Brandon has self confidence. His accuracy rate of what he is able to read is strong. SUSANNAH: He enjoys reading out loud, and has reasonable expression. MANDY: Brandon thinks he is a good reader and often displayed text accuracy. RENEE: Brandon has confidence in reading aloud in class and his reading accuracy rate is 89%.

What are the needs? PEGGY: Brandon reads below level, he has trouble with retelling and comprehension, and appears to have an attitude problem. SUSANNAH: He also has an attention problem that is hugely interefering with his comprehension. Brandon had probably decided that what he does not know is probably not worth knowing - and who's perfect anyway - so what if I miss a few details? He has such difficulty with attention and it takes so much energy that he will do anything to avoid having to focus, and strategies for comprehension just sound to him like "more work". He is charismatic and cute, so he hopes that what he does is "enough". He is happy to "get by" - and who needs college anyway? Everyone should just chill and enjoy fun and friends like he does. Brandon needs to be convinced that it is worth learning and using comprehension startegies. MANDY: Failure to recognize he had a problem and needed help. Also, he had poor comprehension skills, and talked too much in class. RENEE: Brandon needs to improve his retelling and reading comprehension skills. He may need to be tested for ADHD due to his lack of focus and high activity levels during class. He needs to take ownership of his educational needs before he enters high school.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? PEGGY: First find things Brandon is interested in for reading interest materials. Then use graphic novels, magazines, newspapers, or trade books to engage him in reading. Boys like to do more hands on activities than to sit and read. So text messaging, email reading could be avenues that would spark Brandon to read. To engage boys in reading they must first want to read, this is why teachers must find out what is interesting for them. SUSANNAH: Ignore Brandon's efforts to deflect from the topic on hand. Find out Brandon's interests and what he might like to do when he "grows up". Invite a professional in his area of interest and have them come and discuss how important comprehension is for their job. Have a role model to Brandon encourage him and ask him how his comprehension skills are doing. MANDY: I would make sure that Brandon reads the text three times in three different ways. One of my mentor teachers taught me this and it works really well for comprehension. I used this tactic with my tutee this summer and it worked wonders. He would read with the whole class, then read wih a partner, and finally re-read the story on his own highlighting the answers to questions the teacher will provide. RENEE: The teacher should allow Brandon choices of books that interest him. He should be allowed to use computer programs to motivate him to read more. The teacher should allow him to stand up in class if he has a hard time sitting for long periods of time.

(**NOTE: There is a BIG problem with wiki - at least big for me. As I type in my response - the program often spontaneously switches over to having me NOT insert my text, so that any text infront of me gets deleted, one letter at a time (even though there is at least 4 balnk lines between my teat and the next block of text). Since the text that is being deleted is at least 3 blank lines ahead, I do not notice it until it is too late. Since we cannot undo anything, or cut & paste, I have to lose everything I have written and cancel out of the wiki without saving any of my changes, to get the original text back. Then I have to completely re-write my responses - watching constantly for the lines below to make sure they are not being deleted, and saving my text and getting back on to this wiki over and over again. This is hugely inefficient. This has happened on my laptop, my husbands computer, NSU computer lab computers and NSU library computers, so It is a fault of the program. THEREFORE, whatever was coming next has been almost completely obliterated. I do know that it was a response by PEGGY to the next question - whetever that was. She should be given full credit for her answer, whetever it was. And, if we save this draft and then try to get back in too quickly, it asks you if you really meant to save it as you asked!) RENEE: I had the same problem several different times. I am thankful I did not delete anyones comments. It was very frustrating though.**

interest to him. So the teacher could get the magazine and have Brandon read aloud to her and then have him explain what he read about. If is is about an engine, have Brandon tell everything he read about engines, maybe even use the KWL strategy.

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #8: Metacognition__=

Metacognition is having the students think while they read. They are to think about if the text is making sense and what they can do to help the text make sense. They are to think about how their minds are processing the information into long term memory. They are to think about the television reading that should be taking place. Thus, these two case studies are typical about the lack of metacognition. Select one and make a plan.

Robert is an eighth grade student at Jenks Middle School and has been referred to you, the resource teacher, for evaluation because of his poor comprehension in content subjects. Both his teachers and parents are concerned and stated that although Robert doesn’t seem to have difficulty reading the words, he does not have the ability to understand and repeat what he has read. He seems to have the most trouble in science class.

What are the strengths? SUSANNAH: Robert's strengths are that he has good word recognition, that he can word call easily.

PEGGY: I agree that he has good word recognition and word call. MANDY: He has parental support. RENEE: Robert's strengths are his word recognition skills and partental support.

What are the needs? SUSANNAH: **Robert needs comprehension and fluency skills**. (Another thing that wiki does is to make your cursor jump spontaneously to another line, so poor typists, like myself, who watch their fingers, instead of the text they are typing, look up and the answer is is the wrong spot) Here is what I was trying to type under "needs" yet, it ended up under "strengths, so I had to retype it here: **Although Robert can read words easily, he actually does not have good vocabulary skills since he does not understand new vocabulary, especially with expository text, such as science books. He probably does not have good prior knowledge, or a wide based vocabulary.**

PEGGY: First I agree with you about the "line jumping" I don't know how many times I've looked up to re-read something and said "where did that go?" Anyway, yes he needs help with comprehension. MANDY: He has poor comprehension skills and has difficulty in science class. RENEE: Robert needs to improve his reading comprehension skills.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? SUSANNAH: Robert needs to Before, During, and After comprehension and vocabulary activities, so he knows why he is reading, what he needs to focus on, and so that he can transfer some of what he learns to long term memory. He needs a peer to work with who has higher comprehension skills, who can help him figure out what is impcrtant. He could make a vocabulary dictionary. He could make a KWL chart. He needs to be actively engaged in his reading, and know what he does know and does not know.

PEGGY: I agree. You could be right Susannah about the prior knowledge and vocabulary and the strategies you listed would be on target. MANDY: I always go to answer this question and you guys take my thought right out of my head:) I guess we are on the same page. Anyways, what I was going to say was that I thought he would do well with a KWL chart. I think making a graphic oraganizer for science class would help as well. RENEE: I agree with all the above. Robert needs to use reading comprehension strategies while he reads.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? SUSANNAH: She/he could have her students work in groups or peers to attack the text. She/he could find other texts at a lower level of comprehension for Robert to use to scaffold his prior knowledge. She could let Robert take the initiative to write questions for a chapter before the oher students even read it. Robert shoud try, with a peer, to retall the information covered. Robert could listen to tapes or watch video to increase his prior knowledge and comprehension.

PEGGY: Good answer Susannah. It could also be he isn't interested in science or that he would have a better understanding with more visual or hands on activities to help him grasp the science vocab and comprehension.

MANDY: I would think he would do better if he could incorporate some technology into his assignemtns. Maybe studying something on a science website or "playing" around on the Smartboard. Also, I think he would benifit from completing science experiments or lab activities. RENEE: I agree with the small groups projects in the classroom. That way he will he will have the support of his peers and not have to answer all the questions on his own. Just like we are doing on our wiki discussions. I have learned so much from each of you. Thank you.. Additional thoughts:RENEE: I also had problems with the cursor line jumping it too was very frustrating and a waste of my time. == ==

** CASE STUDY #8 **
At Open House, a group of parents voiced their concerns that their children could read the words in their textbooks, yet they didn’t understand what they were reading. The parents said they can figure out the words (word attack skills) and can read fluently, but they don’t know the main ideas, analyzing text, or taking notes. They said that the kids had a hard time with homework that involved answering questions from their textbooks or looking up information from other sources. Further, they said that their kids don’t do their homework without lots of prodding; the parents say it’s a battle every night. The kids say that homework is boring.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do?

Additional thoughts:
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