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 cartoon character, in four stages of humor. The student circles one of the cartoon characters that match 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 also 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. After reading his Parent Interview, his mother stated that Jake says he likes to read but he really does not want to read. He likes to please and make you happy. I could see that right away. She said they do read to him every night but he does not initiate it. She admitted that she, herself was not a reader, but that her other son and her husband love to read. She wants Jake to love reading also. She wrote that he did enjoy comic books and books about nature. I will see what nonfiction books I can steer him too. One comment she stated made me smile. He demonstrated this to me and I cracked up. He does modulate his voice and take on the persona of a character. That is a strength in reading that I know I will encourage to develop his prosody. After reading his Attitude Survey, I could see similar patterns. 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.

When I first met up with Jake, he selected one of his ten books for his self-selected reading after our assessments. I chose the Words Their Way Assessment because the evidence from his teacher pointed toward developing his vocabulary for increased fluency in reading. WTW does an excellent job pinpointing where to start in instruction. I then started the assessments and administered the Words Their Way Assessment to assess Jake’s spelling/orthographic progress. Overall, Jake scored within the middle range of the Within Words Pattern. I administered the Primary Spelling Inventory first. Jake scored 7/7 correct on Initial and Final Consonants, and 7/7 in short vowels, digraphs, and blends. In vowels he scored 4/5 and 5/7. In inflected endings he scored 4/7 correct. I decided to administer the Elementary Spelling Inventory next because he did achieve a perfect score five categories in a row on the Primary Spelling Inventory. On the Elementary Spelling Inventory, Jake again scored within the middle range of the Within Words Pattern. Jake scored 7/7 in Initial and Final Consonants. In Vowels he scored 5/5. In Digraphs and Blends he scored a 6/6 then a 7/7. In Common Long Vowels he scored 4/5 and on Other Vowels he scored 4/7.

With the aforementioned evidence, I feel comfortable starting Jake in long vowels for his spelling/vocabulary work next week. Reviewing his spelling paper, I did observe many letters that will require review in formation. He has an open o and a. His letters float on the lines. The g, n, m, and u are slightly smaller and open also. He has a backward slant. For comprehension in his reading next week, I will to ask him to write his responses in a journal. I will pay attention to how he is holding his pencil, and forming his letters. Then I will decide if I want to assess his penmanship. I will also talk to his teacher to see if she is concerned.

My next assessment for Jake was to assess his fluency, and comprehension. At his school, the Fountas and Pinnell Assessment is used. I have experience using it and I concur with its reliability and validity. I administered the Fountas & Pinnell (2011), to Jake, using a fiction piece, Ernie Learns, Level L. Jake read orally with an accuracy of 97%. He read with a fluency level of 2 out of 3. His Oral Reading Rate was 69 WPM. He had 6 miscues and 5 self-corrections. His miscues and self-corrections were 4 for meaning 3 each for Semantic and Visual cues. His comprehension was excellent with a 10/10. He earned an extra point for adding information to his understanding. I decided to have him read the nonfiction book next to see if he would gain similar results. His teacher was concerned about his comprehension.

He then read the nonfiction piece, Hang on Baby Monkey, also Level L. He seemed to enjoy this book and appeared at ease as he read. His accuracy was 99% with a fluency level of 2 out of 3. His Oral Reading Rate was 78 WPM. He had 3 miscues and 2 self-corrections. Three were meaning miscues, with two each for semantic and visual. His comprehension was 8/10. Overall his comprehension was acceptable. His confusion came in with understanding the purpose of headings.

In reflecting on Jakes reading, I analyzed his reading strengths. He has learned to use his reading strategies. He does not depend on one strategy more than another. His comprehension is spot on at the L level. I would recommend that his teacher keep him at the M level. The concern that I have is for his Oral Reading Rate. According to Fountas and Pinnell, Jake should read at the range of 90 to 120 WPM. He is currently at 69% in fiction, and 78% in nonfiction. I would recommend that that we work on first building his sight word vocabulary to help increase his fluency. I also will have him reread texts that he has chosen on successive weeks. For comprehension, we will discuss while he is reading those strategies that are warranted for fiction or nonfiction. Thankfully, we had enough time for him to read Splat the Cat Sings Flat. He become engrossed in what he was reading and his little cough started to decrease. He read with exaggeration and giggled at Splat the Cats’ antics. We will reread this book next week. I will also begin to time his reading to gage his progress in fluency. We had a lovely closure to our tutoring session.

Next week we will continue our work with a schedule that we will stick to for the rest of our sessions, as recommended by Caldwell and Leslie in Chapter 13 of Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Inventory Assessment. So What Do W Do Now?

1. We will reread Splat the Cat Sings Flat to work on fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. We will write any words in our journal and on cards that we think we need to continue reviewing. Questions for the book this week: 1) Why was Splat afraid to sing? 2) What gave him the courage to sing? 3) How did the children react to Splat when he did sing? 4) What did his teacher and his parents say when he sang at “Parents Night’?

2. We will work on our word study using WTW, list #48 to work on long vowel patterns.

3. We will read from a book from the ten we chose from our first week together. He will read, orally, silently, or echo read. We will discuss the text

4. Follow it up next week with rereading and answering questions in his journal.

This week was really interesting to me with Jake. He was completely captivated by my taping of his reading. We both enjoyed listening to him read. He felt that he showed brilliance at his intonation, and expression. He was very pleased and did not think he needed to improve. I tell you, there is nothing wrong with his confidence!

After our discussion, we followed our lesson and worked on word study. He sorted his words in the long vowel pattern. He read through his words, and only said cute for chute. He then read over his written list from last week with his words in ABC order. We worked on meanings of the words. I would ask a question from all four columns, and he would have to find the word and restate giving the word in the answer. For example, “What would the king or queen choose to sit on in his or her kingdom?” Jake would answer, “The king or queen would sit on the throne”. We took turns using all the words. Then I showed him the program, Spelling City that I have as an AP on my I Pad. I have his spelling list downloaded so he can work on the words next week.

Our next task brought us to our nonfiction book, The Bravest Dog Ever, The True Story of Balto. I gave him the choice of how he would like to read. He chose that we both read a hundred words, then switch. We proceeded to read. I modeled intonation and reading with prosody, pausing using “think - alouds” to help Jake with the theme of the book. When Jake read, I encouraged him, noted his miscues and assisted and guided him. We finished the book and he was very taken by the story. He really had no background knowledge. I asked him if he wanted to learn more about Balto and I got an enthusiastic, yes! I showed him the website where we could follow the Iditarod that will start March 7. I did secure several more books for him to read about Balto and the Iditarod. He found the website to be really interesting. I plan to spend a little more time letting him navigate the website next week to familiarize himself with the previous races, mushers, and dog teams.

Our time was running out so I stated that we would reread Balto then he could write questions that this book, other books, or the website answers. In the article by Donna Ogle, and Amy Correa-Kovtun, they used an approach to assist in the skill of comprehension of nonfiction texts called, “Partner Reading and Content, Too (PRC2)”. One strategy was encouraging the partners in asking their partners questions. I thought I would have Jake use these as his springboard for writing questions next week. They are:

“1. What was most important? Why? Explain.

2. What was most interesting? Why? Explain.

3. What connections can you make? Explain.

4. What could the author make clearer? Explain.”

1) Jake will continue to work on fluency to increase his prosody and comprehension. He will create questions and answers after reading books about Balto, and the Iditarod Website.

CCSS Standards

1. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension

2. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.

2) Jake will continue working on word study WTW, list # 48 using his spelling list and the website Spelling City.

3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

4. Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

This week was a quite revealing with Jake. In his effort to read like the wind, he was rushing so much his concentration led him far away from reading for meaning. I am growing more concerned about his comprehension. He seems to be growing more confident but I know he is not attending to the reading. In the article, “Moving From Explicit to Implicit: A Case Study of Improving Inferential

Comprehension”, it brought the problem up of the Fourth Grade Slump. I am concerned that is where Jake is headed next year where the stakes get higher.

We finished rereading The True Story of Balto. I explained that he was going to think up questions about the book. It took about five minutes for him to understand that I wanted him to be the teacher and write the questions. He started thinking of questions and remarked that he could not think of anything. I said that was OK, but he would just need to quietly reread the story so he could read for meaning, then he would be able to think of questions. He immediately came up with, “What was your favorite part in the story?” I suggested he needed to come up with a question that had to do with the facts in the story, The True Story of Balto. Then he came up with, "What page did Balto get the medicine?” I said that would be a “right there” question. He needed to try to think about what happened in the story. Next he said, “How did you like the story?” I said that was also an opinion question and I wanted him to think about facts he remembered from the story. He looked perplexed. That is when I realized that he was “fake reading”, as the article suggested happens to struggling readers. I explained in a retelling, the important details lead to the main idea. He then ended with this last question, “ What was the problem with Balto’s paw?” Next week, we will work on a summary of our new book. He is only remembering details but not the sequence of facts and main idea.

Next we followed the plan, and got right to Words Their Way Spelling. Jake did an awesome job sorting, and reading his words. We then looked at his flash cards form his last book and he read his three words perfectly. So we opened up his next Balto book, The Incredible Life of Balto, by Meghan McCarthy, which is at a higher level. We were able to read 4 pages. He had three miscues, (although, conditions, and enthusiastic), that I wrote down for him. He can make a card for them next week. This picture book biography has a different twist in the Balto history. I want Jake to detect the changes, and start comprehending this book. Hopefully it will perk up his recollection of The True Story of Balto we reread this week.

My plan for Jake next week is to again focus on his fluency, word knowledge and comprehension. His lack of memory from our second reading of The True Story of Balto, tells me he is reading words and not reading for meaning. My goal is to have Jake read three or more books about Balto to compare the authors’ perspectives. He needs to read with inference in order to do this. I am going to have to use the think aloud with him and ask probing questions while we read next week to encourage him to start reading like a “good reader”.

Jake was running behind on this day, 3/4/2015 due to his teacher being out and the substitute, reading teacher and I getting our wires crossed. After a shaky start I decided to lighten the mood and start with a twelve-minute clip of the movie, Balto. I wanted Jake to compare the introduction of this movie with his recollection of The True Story of Balto and the beginning of the second Balto book, The Incredible Life of Balto. He really was intrigued by this and was immediately pointing out the differences. He commented on how the movie started with people in New York City. I asked him why he thought they started there? He remembered from The True Story of Balto, that they had built a statue of Balto in Central Park. I suggested we continue reading The Incredible Life of Balto and see what we would learn from our second book. I got out the graphic organizer and asked if he could fill in what happened at first in this second Balto book? He immediately said the children were sick with diphtheria in Nome. I asked what happened next in both books so far, and he did remember the dog sled teams were commissioned to do a relay to get the antitoxin to the sick children. I was so pleased that he was now remembering and I really think the movie sparked his memory. We continued reading The Incredible Life of Balto and he was able to fill in the next event, “The dogs were able to successfully deliver the antitoxin”. He was surprised that The Incredible Life of Balto only attributed two pages to the 700-mile trip the twenty dog teams ran in the relay to deliver the medicine. I asked Jake there were any other facts missing in The Incredible Life of Balto. He was aghast that they didn’t even put in how hard the relay was and how Gunner had to help Balto with his sore, frozen paws. I told him I was pleased he noticed how different the authors told the story. We were running out of time so I told him we would finish our book tomorrow and wrap up our graphic organizer then. I gave him his "Words Their Way" spelling baggie to take home for practice because I was planning on giving him a final quiz next week. He then reviewed his three vocabulary words, and wrote the words, although, conditions, and enthusiastic on new cards. We wrapped it up and he promised to watch the rest of the Balto movie on Netflix and practice his spelling words. I told him I would be back the next day, Thursday so we could finish his book. I also planned to give him his Fountas &Pinnell Assessment because we did not have time due to our late start. I also wanted to practice his spelling words on Spelling City tomorrow. I was very pleased with how much we did get done though.

Today on Monday March 9, 2015, I met with Jake. He told me he slept and slept and had a bad tummy ache. He seemed fine but a little sluggish. I gathered up my Fountas & Pinnell materials while Jake practiced his spelling list using the “Hide a Word Game” two times. Then he finished reading the book, The Incredible Life of Balto. He answered the last section of his graphic organizer, “Finally”. He came up with a great conclusion, “Finally, Balto was donated to the Cleveland Zoo. I asked him to read over all of his responses and he found two errors, which he corrected without my suggestion! He wrote his three words from last week, (exhausted, eventually, and wreath). From today, I only added, “toured” for next week. He read over his list of nine words perfectly. He really enjoyed the two Balto books and the movie. I am going to continue onto the next book, The Great Serum Race by Debbie S. Miller next week. It was time for the F&Ps so I asked him to choose which he wanted to read first. He chose, Ernie Learns. His comprehension was 10/10 because he shared additional understanding. He read with 99% accuracy with three self corrections. His three miscues were two deletions and one miscue that was a meaning miscue, I for she. His prosody was a 2/3. His Oral Reading Rate was 68 wpm. Overall in a month’s time his accuracy and self - corrections improved, but all other measures stayed the same. Next he read Hang On, Baby Monkey. His comprehension was 10/10 because he shared additional understanding. He read with 98% accuracy with two self - corrections. Out of the five miscues, three were meaning based and two were syntax miscues. His prosody was 2/3. His fluency was 74 wpm. Overall in a month’s time, his comprehension went up, but his accuracy went from 99 to 98%, and fluency went down from 78 to 74 wpm. I was a little surprised but still pleased that he is comprehending what he reads, and that was most telling to me in regards to his progress. I then asked if would like to take a spelling test on Spelling City. He was very engaged and took the test much faster than if I had asked him to take a writing spelling test. Time was of the essence today. He got 22/24, 92% correct. His errors were “qute” for “quote”, and “rote” for “wrote”. He immediately commented, “Oh, I know what I did, Oh, now I will remember.” I was very pleased with his efforts. He got ready to leave and said, “I’ll see you…?” I told him I would see him next week, since I was sure his teacher would say I could continue tutoring him.

I gathered up his papers, and pencil and returned to his classroom. His teacher, Mrs. Outlaw greeted me and asked if I had been able to tutor him. I answered in the affirmative. I shared his results and she was pleased with his 92% in spelling, and his perfect comprehension scores on the two F&Ps. I told her his prosody and fluency had not improved, and she commented that she saw the same thing in class. Although, she did mention that his parents have seen a changed attitude at home. Now, Jake and his dad are reading The Hobbit every night. Jake’s mom told Mrs. Outlaw that they appreciate what I have done and wanted to thank me for my efforts with him because they are seeing changes in him in just this past month. That was wonderful news! I look forward to continuing my work with Jake, and his teacher said she was happy for me to continue.

Jake has demonstrated to me a curious, informed desire to learn. He has been very agreeable and respectful these last several weeks. He has always tried to accomplish the tasks I have prepared for him. I was always astonished how smoothly I was able to follow through my lesson plans with him. He certainly did respond to the “Balto” project and was genuinely interested in reading the books. When I told him I had found another book about Balto, he said he wanted to read it too. I told him that I could help him write a synthesis of the Balto story from different author’s perspectives. He nodded but I know I will have to continue to scaffold instruction to help him continue to read for comprehension. He was vey enthused to keep reading about Balto though. I was disappointed because it is only two days to the Iditarod and I wanted to show him the website again but his absence prevented that. I plan to show him the results of the race next week and the footage from the finals.

In the spirit of Nancy Frey, purpose and knowing how to approach a task is the door to success. Checking for understanding, and giving immediate feedback ensures student involvement. Students need to be engaged and will succeed if educators give students clear goals and state how to be successful in implementation. I heartily concur and value her perspective. I very carefully planned Jake’s weekly work to ensure his success. I always clearly stated what we were going to accomplish by sharing the plan every time we met. I praised his reading, and noted his words that he struggled with. He knew he would need to write the words down and practice them. All his work stayed in a binder and he could easily flip through his binder and check his work. He created the cover picture for his binder that was all the important things in his life. I know he liked looking at his binder in our meetings. Jim Rubin in, “Organizing and Evaluating Results From Multiple Reading Assessments”, also recommended organizing test results to deepen understanding for grouping, and placing students in appropriate books at instructional levels. I tried to follow that insight as well. I also appreciated Rachel Karchmer-Klein, and Valerie Harlow Shinas’ point of view when instructing students in reading. They helped me realize that you can’t take technology out of reading. Technology cannot be swept under the rug or ignored. We need to make it available, teach how to use it, and assess it everyday with technology tools. I wanted to keep Jake as engaged as possible, that is why I chose to use Spelling City for Vocabulary development, the Iditarod site to get Jake interested in Balto, the hero dog and how his legacy started. I brought in the Balto movie to get him synthesizing and looking at author’s perspectives.

I hope that I used Jakes precious school time to encourage him, validate his abilities and lead him to wanting to read and not be afraid of it. I think he is starting to like reading or he wouldn’t have told me he wants to read more Balto books. I did find another wonderful, beautifully illustrated book, a National Geographic book for Kids, called, Animal Stories, Heartwarming True Tales From the Animal Kingdom. Of course as luck would have it, “The Sled Dog Who Helped Save the Children of Nome”, is the first story! I want him to branch out. I intend to ask if he would like to read about other famous animal heroes and move into a research project. I think, “The sky’s the limit”. I can’t wait to keep moving ahead with my wonderful, young protégé.