On 1/29/2015 I met my new, young friend, “Jake”. I administered an attitude assessment and a reading words list assessment to him. He is a third grade student attending Yankee Ridge Elementary School in Urbana, Illinois. In order to assess Jake’s attitude and motivation towards reading, I administered the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS; McKenna & Kear, 1990). This survey is commonly referred to as the “Garfield” as students choose from one of the pictorial representations of Garfield, a carton character, in four stages of humor. The student circles one of the cartoon characters that matches his own attitude toward recreational and academic reading. The survey shows Garfield in these stages: (i.e. a 1 to 4 scale; 1 = sad/mad Garfield; 2 = annoyed Garfield; 3 = pleased Garfield; 4 = excited /joyful Garfield). On this survey, Jake’s attitude towards recreational reading was at the 17th percentile, which was in the low range as compared to his grade level peers. His attitude score for academic reading was at the 22nd percentile, which was in the low range compared to his grade level peers. Overall, Jake’s attitude/motivation toward reading on the “Garfield” was at the15th percentile, which was also in the low range as compared to other students at his grade level.

Next I administered the Graded Reading Words Assessment (IRA, McAndrews, Stephanie L. 2008) to Jake, in order to assess his ability to read words in isolation. Jake mastered the Grade 1 and Grade 2 lists with a score of 20/20 words. He scored 19/ 20 in the third grade list with 1 self – correction, and 1 error. On the 4^th grade list he scored 18/20, with 1 self-correction and 2 errors. I decided to stop at the 4^th grade list because Jake was showing signs of frustration and I felt there would be no benefit to continue the assessment.

We did not have time for further assessing, so I asked him if he had a book he would like to read. We went back to his classroom and he brought out the book, African Cats, Sita the Cheetah, a Level 2 Disney Nature book. He proceeded to read the 32-page book orally to me. Immediately, he started to cough at the beginning of each page of reading, an immediate defense mechanism, although his overall demeanor appeared relaxed, outgoing, pleasant and respectful. I took notes during his reading. He made 3 self-corrections, 4 miscued words, (wildabeast for wildebeest), (perk for prick), (the for their), (they for there). He started one conversation about what he was reading, then lost his place, so I helped him find the correct page. After reading the book, I suggested we go to the library and look for books. He enthusiastically agreed and we proceeded to find 10 books that he thought would be fun to read. He chose a book to replace Sita the Cheetah.

Wow, what an absolutely enchanting time I spent with Jake. We had an immediate rapport. He was eager to please and was happy to work with me. Reflecting on his attitude survey, I can see that he is eager to start new things, buy new books and that he likes school. His interests in reading start to decline when he reads silently, orally, for free time at school, or at home. It appears that he wants to be a competent reader but he does not think he is. I was pleased with the fact that he chose to read a book aloud to me, and that he enthusiastically chose 11 books from the library. Next week, I will give him a reading, and spelling assessment to further investigate his reading, and spelling abilities. Upon reflection of Chapter 1 in, Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Assessment, I have just started my investigation therefore I need more evidence before I can begin to implement instruction. Jake is a reasonable student and his difficulties in reading are evident, I just do not yet know the depth of his struggles yet. I believe fluency will be an avenue I will have to pursue and to do this I need to engage him in real reading. “Students need to be actively involved in real reading, and teacher read-alouds coupled with student discussion are just as important as phonological activities in developing reading proficiency.” (Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Assessment, Chapter 4, p.63).