Written Formative Assessment
Kanieshamm
FormativeAssessmentExamples2.rtfCIR 412 Formative Assessment Form
Student’s Name (First Only): Kaci
School: XXXX Elementary
Examiner:
Age: 10
Grade: 5
Date of Assessment (may take multiple days): Reading Interest Survey & MRQ on September 12, 2019; Spelling Assessment on September 17, 2019; Passage Reading Fluency on September 19, 2019; Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension on September 24 & 26, 2019
Directions: Record all significant summary information collected from assessment.
Part I: Assessment of Interests and Motivations
Summary of Student’s interests and/or motivations for reading (up to 2 brief paragraphs):
Farrah ultimately enjoys reading. She likes reading fiction and nonfiction books about animals. She expressed to me that fiction contains more animation and real-life lessons, while nonfiction contains more real-life facts. She likes to read in quiet places so that she is better able to concentrate. Two of her favorite books are I Survive (series) and The Notebook of D oom. She is very self-aware when it comes to her reading strengths and weaknesses. She struggles with identifying unknown words within a text. She described it as, “I can’t read big words because I’m afraid of being wrong and getting embarrassed.” She puts a lot of pressure on herself and internalizes her mistakes. This can sometimes get in the way of her love for reading. While checking off various types of books she enjoys reading, Farrah made sure to include that she enjoys reading picture books, but not if the entire book is filled with pictures. She prefers the book to provide a visual every now and then to help represent a character’s feelings or happenings within the story.
In terms of what motivates her to read, she likes when the questions in books made her think. She does not have to be the best at reading, but grades are a motivator for her to better her reading skills and abilities. If the teacher discusses something interesting in class, she will feel intrigued and want to read more about it. Her parents are not as involved in her assignments as much as they want to be because they work long hours, but Farrah expresses how encouraging they are when they get to spend time together. She benefits from the encouragement in class, but she does not like to be called on or put on-the-spot for any form of recognition (positive or negative). She would rather the teacher pull her aside. Ultimately, she is motivated to read when stories are personalized, engaging, and of interest to her. She does not give up easily, despite the pressure she puts on herself.
Summary of Student’s background knowledge if assessed (up to 1 brief paragraph):
The students are currently reading Tuck Everlasting in class and plan to have a test on it in the next couple of weeks. Farrah is not as involved as other students in open class discussion and activities about the book because it is not of interest to her. She is currently reading another I Survive book she purchased at the Scholastic Book Fair. She can spit facts about animals, what to do if you are stranded in the woods, earthquakes and tornadoes. She thrives in science class and is very successful in math lessons. When students are working together completing assignments on Tuck Everlasting , she does not appear to know as much background information about the given topics, if any.
Informal evaluation of verbal skills (up to 1 brief paragraph):
Farrah has good verbal skills. She is able to communicate her thoughts thoroughly and redirect her thinking if she rambles or gets off topic. She struggles with finding the “perfect” word or phrase to describe the way that she feels or thinks. It is evident to me that she wants to improve and understand vocabulary while reading as well as in everyday life; however, it has not been something that has come easy for her. She does not like being called on in class because even if she is on-task, she tends to draw a blank. She turns red, feels embarrassed, and loses her train of thought. It happened last week during a morning work activity when she was asked to read her poem aloud. Her classmates did not understand her apprehensiveness, so they pressured her with questions like, “What’s the big deal? Just read it.” Once I pulled her aside to administer an assessment, she almost broke into tears. I encouraged her and provided a time when I felt similarly. I reminded her that she is human and allowed to feel all of these emotions even if they are misunderstood by others. I told her how much I liked her poem and had her tell me about it. I ended the session by telling her to, ‘be gentle with yourself because you are doing the best that you can.” She walked back in the classroom and involved herself in the lesson as best she could. A little encouragement and having your feelings validated goes a long way at an age where nothing makes sense about your body and the world.
Part II: Phonological Awareness/Phonics and/or Spelling Assessment
You may find that you need to use the PAST to assess phonological awareness or The Phonics and Word Reading Survey if your student struggles in these areas. If so, include information on those results.
PAST/Phonics Word Reading information (up to 1 brief paragraph explaining the assessment tool used & results):
Tutoring Recommendations based on PAST/Phonics Word Reading (up to 2 brief paragraphs discussing what specific areas to focus on for tutoring based on PAST/Phonics. Ex: 1 paragraph on blending phonemes and 1 paragraph on long vowels)
The PAST assessment was the only one administered. I chose to administer it because I wanted to see where the student was before the spelling assessment. The PAST assessment determined her syllable, phoneme and on-set rime levels. After the student was adamant about her spelling and pronunciation weaknesses during the Interest Survey, I was a little surprised to see that she scored a 12/12. I did allow her to say the words aloud, so that helped her with spelling out each letter and pronouncing the word in syllables.
Words Their Way Spelling Assessment information (up to 1 brief paragraph explaining the assessment tool used):
The Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Assessment (ESI) is a list of twenty-five spelling words ordered by difficulty to “sample features of the letter name-alphabetic to derivational relations stages” (Bear et. al., 2016, p. 323). For this assignment, an appendix in the back of the Words Their Way by Donald R. Bear, et. al. was used to analyze misspelled words. The assessor is required to state the list of twenty-five words individually along with their example sentences, then have the student write down how they think the words are to be spelled. There had to be at least five or six errors made by the student in order for the spelling inventory to be analyzed. If students spelled more than twenty words correctly on the ESI, they were to try the Upper-Level Spelling Inventory (USI) that contained thirty-one words at a more advanced level. In this instance, Farrah wrote all twenty-five spelling words with five or more mistakes. The analyzed data is filled in the chart below as well as tutoring recommendations by the assessor.
Fill in chart below:
Blends and Digraphs
Other Vowels
Long Vowels
Short Vowels
Initial and Final Consonants
Inflected Endings and Syllable Juncture
Unaccented Final Syllables
Advanced Affixes
Bases or Roots
Feature Points
Words Spelled Correctly
Totals
13/13
4/7
4/5
5/5
7/7
7/10
3/5
2/5
1/5
46/62
14/25
Tutoring Recommendations based on Spelling Assessment (up to 2 brief paragraphs discussing what specific areas to focus on for tutoring based on spelling assessment. For instance, 1 paragraph on Greek/Latin Roots and 1 paragraph on Inflected Endings)
Farrah needs to work more closely on Other Vowels, for example, -er in serving and -ar in carries; Unaccented Final Syllables, for example, -or in favor and -ar in cellar; Advanced Affixes, for example, -ure in pleasure, -ate in fortunate, -ent in confident and -tion in opposition; Bases and Roots, for example, pleas- in pleasure, fortun- in fortunate and confid- in confident. Firstly, the Other Vowels consist of hard “r” endings. There is typically a root word and then a hard “r” ending; for instance, sailor, cellar, shower. Both the Other Vowels section and Unaccented Final Syllables section can be practiced using word trees. The unaccented final syllables can be tricky though. To a student that has not differentiated between two words that sound the same but have different endings will spell the word based off of how it sounds. For example, the word saddle could have these potential endings; -el, -le, or -al. These will be a focus in the tutoring sessions because words are not always spelled how they sound sure, but unaccented final syllables are confusing for students because they all sound similar when pronounced aloud. Advanced Affixes and Bases & Roots can be confusing for students because they put prefixes, suffixes and root words all together into practice. These will be a focus in the tutoring sessions because there is confusion when differing between root versus base words. Advanced Suffixes are not always spelled the way they sound. They may contain silent letters, so the best way to understand the various affixes are to practice writing and using them. Part III: Reading Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension
Fluency & Vocabulary:
Word Reading Fluency: N/A
Passage Reading Fluency: Out of 241 words, Farrah read 134 words, but she missed 5 words, so her overall CWPM was 129.
Comprehension:
Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension: Out of 20 questions, Farrah missed 5.
Oral Language and Vocabulary Observations (up to 1 brief paragraph)
Farrah was able to comprehend the story, tell me about important events and answer the questions to her best ability. We had to work in the hallway and students were being loud walking back and forth to class. Even with the various distractions, Farrah was able to concentrate and do her best. She did become insecure when she came across words she was unfamiliar with. The story was about a game called Buzkashi in Afghanistan. The word Buzkashi was written multiple times in the story and when I asked her to read aloud a specific paragraph or tell me about the major events or characters in the story, she would become soft-spoken with words/names like Buzkashi, Habib, Zula and Afghanistan. She enjoyed the activity because she was able to not only learn more vocabulary words, but become informed about another culture’s way of life.
Part IV: Instructional Implications (IF-THEN Analyses)
List and explain at least 3 strengths you noticed with your tutoring student. (at least 3 brief paragraphs. 1 paragraph per strength)
Farrah had many strengths during each of the assessments. The first strength would have to be attitude. Despite her reading insecurities, she wants to better he skills/abilities, and is willing to go the extra mile. It is inspiring and motivating for me as an educator and as a college student when I feel discouraged. She loves to read. It is very important to her to be a good reader. She has a ton of different interests so searching for a passage that is of interest to her is not difficult at all. She has a lot of family and teacher support, so she wants to make them proud. Another one of my goals is to foster her love of reading because it will be a huge benefit for the rest of her life.
Secondly, Farrah was curious about her mistakes during the Spelling Inventory. After we finished it, she elicited a conversation with me about the spelling errors, about the English language in general, and how to improve. She is one curious-minded and determined student. I am eager to see how she will feel about the upcoming plan I have tentatively made for our sessions.
Lastly, Farrah has impeccable comprehension skills. When reading aloud, she is not as confident, so she speeds through the given passage making a lot of careless errors. She is then not able to give me a thorough summary of events. If she is given the option to read silently, she knows she will be stating unknown words incorrectly, but they will be to herself, so it’s fine. She will ask me about unknown words but I try to facilitate a space where I encourage her to find a given answer. After reading silently, she is able to give me a thorough and elaborate summary of events as well as answer questions I may have.
List and explain at least 2 weaknesses you noticed with your tutoring student. These will be the focus of your tutoring sessions lessons. (at least 2 brief paragraphs. 1 paragraph per weakness)
Farrah struggles with determining unknown words, spelling, and reading aloud. She is insecure of her own ability and that makes encouragement my main focus during these sessions. These are things that can be practiced and developed over time. There are several strategies and methods to try with Farrah to determine what works for her when establishing unknown words in a text. Encouragement and confidence are one thing, but putting in the work/practice is another, and I am planning to focus on all of the above.
Secondly, Farrah struggles with spelling words that contain complicated/advanced affixes, unaccented final syllables, base & root words and other vowels (outside of short and long). The same errors were repeated throughout the spelling inventory exercise. She is aware that she struggles with spelling, but I want her to be informed of exactly what it is about a specific spelling word that confuses/frustrates her. The activities below in the plan are ways I want to try and improve her spelling abilities/skills.
Part V: Tutoring Sessions Overview
Tutoring Session Number
Opening Activity (1-3 Minutes)
Addressing Weakness 1 activity (5-7 minutes)
Addressing Weakness 2 activity (5-7 minutes
Closing Activity and Reminders of what to work on for next time (1-3 minutes)
1-Advanced Affixes, Base & Root Words, Unaccented Final Syllables
Brain Break & Encouragement
Cut and Paste Word Tree Activity
Worksheet
Personal Examples and Goals for Next Time
2- Advanced Affixes, Base & Root Words, Unaccented Final Syllables
Brain Break & Encouragement
Flash Cards
Root vs. Base Words sheet
Practice Spelling Inventory
3-Spelling
Brain Break & Encouragement
Create a story. Student must use all of their spelling words to create a story
Newspaper Spelling: Spotting unknown words within a text (strategies to identify their meanings)
Spelling Inventory
4-Spelling
Brain Break & Encouragement
Finish Newspaper Spelling
Free-write
Spelling Inventory
5-Comprehension
Brain Break & Encouragement; Create a bookmark
Small excerpts from an info text
Questions about excerpts
Longer passage
Post-Tutoring reassessment and Summative Report Writing to take place after sessions end
Please note the above is a plan. For the formative assessment report, you will fill this out with your initial ideas for a tutoring plan based on your assessment and the 5 components of reading. Once you have completed all sessions, you will fill this chart out for the summative assessment report with what you actually did in your tutoring sessions.
CIR 412 Formative Assessment Form
Student’s Name (First Only): Caleb
School: XXXX Elementary
Examiner:
Age: 13
Grade: 5
Date of Assessment (may take multiple days): September 19, 2019 and October 2, 2019
Directions: Record all significant summary information collected from assessment.
Part I: Assessment of Interests and Motivations
Caleb expresses a low overall personal motivation to read for pleasure, and there few genres which interest him enough to pursue them of his own volition. He does express some interest in reading comic books and will occasionally voluntarily engage in reading them. Caleb considers sounding out words to be difficult, so he does most of his reading at school because it is required. He does not have a favorite reading place, but he does read at school where he enjoys positive feedback regarding his reading.
Reading has been a source of struggle for Caleb. He has not developed a high interest in reading for enjoyment. Caleb does not read to his family members. Further, he does not think of himself as a good reader when compared to his peers. Caleb states that he sees pictures in his mind when reading only sometimes, and he does not always feel confident that he understands the texts he reads. He feels motivated by academic success and is concerned that he could be retained again due to poor grades.
Summary of Student’s background knowledge if assessed (up to 1 brief paragraph):
Caleb has developed the ability to read at an acceptable speed when compared to his peers, but he performs poorly when assessed on reading comprehension. Further, Caleb was not able to complete the writing of the alphabet independently. His phonics skills are of particular concern.
Informal evaluation of verbal skills (up to 1 brief paragraph):
Caleb speaks clearly and expresses himself verbally at a similar level as his peers. He has no problems articulating words, and he does not appear to struggle with any function of his speech.
Part II: Phonological Awareness/Phonics and/or Spelling Assessment
Caleb’s phonics and word reading skills were assessed using the LETRS Phonics and Word Reading Survey. The results showed that while Caleb reads most words quickly and correctly, he lacks some foundational knowledge of letter names and sounds. In addition, he struggled to write the end of the alphabet and ultimately could not recall w, x, or y. Caleb was unable to name the lowercase letters j and g. Further, he was unable to correctly recall the sounds of the letters w, j, y, and g. Also, of note were Caleb’s struggle to read words containing mixed syllables with a consonant –le ending.
Tutoring Recommendations based on PAST/Phonics Word Reading:
Based on Caleb’s assessment results, tutoring should focus on Caleb’s alphabetic knowledge of the letters j and g and their sounds. Caleb’s tutoring should also focus on learning the corresponding letter sounds of w and x. Tutoring should focus on letter naming and sounds as well as automaticity of the alphabet. Caleb’s alphabetic recall should also be a focus of tutoring.
Caleb’s tutoring should further address his difficulty reading words containing mixed syllables with the consonant –le ending. Caleb read 6 of 10 incorrectly, so he needs lessons focusing on this skill. Caleb should receive tutoring on this phonetic skill.
Spelling Inventory Results (primary)
Initial Consonants
Final Consonants
Short Vowels
Digraphs
Blends
Common Long Vowels
Other Vowels
Inflected Endings
Correct Spelling
Feature Points
Totals
7/7
7/7
7/7
7/7
7/7
7/7
7/7
6/7
25
55
The results of Caleb’s assessment, along with the results of his LETRS word survey show that Caleb’s basic spelling ability is higher than the assessor initially suspected, and the next level spelling inventory should therefore be given to Caleb for further information. At this time, inflected endings appear to be the main area for spelling improvement for Caleb.
Part III: Reading Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension
Fluency & Vocabulary:
Word Reading Fluency: not applicable
Passage Reading Fluency: 183 words per minute with 100% accuracy
Comprehension:
Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension: 11/20 answered correctly
Oral Language and Vocabulary Observations
Caleb oral language skills appear similar to those of his peers. Caleb appears to both use and understanding vocabulary similarly to his peers. He does not appear to struggle to understand what I say or to express himself adequately.
Part IV: Instructional Implications (IF-THEN Analyses)
Caleb has a large amount of personal motivation to improve his reading. While he is not particularly motivated by the process of reading because he has not experienced very much enjoyment from reading, he does value reading as an important academic skill. Caleb has expressed that he understands reading is a key element to his academic success. He has expressed that reading is an important life skill.
Caleb’s reading rate with a passage was 183 words per minute with 100% accuracy. Caleb has learned to read quickly. Despite lacking some foundational knowledge, Caleb has managed to learn to decode text at a rate comparable to his peers.
Caleb’s initial spelling inventory results show he has good foundational spelling skills. His knowledge of consonants, vowels, digraphs, blends, and various other spelling features were excellent.
Caleb has weaknesses in areas involving certain letter names and their corresponding sounds. He lacks automatic knowledge of the alphabet also. He requires remediation with the letters w, y, x, j, and g.
Caleb struggles with reading comprehension. Despite reading words quickly, his reading comprehension results show he does not discern meaning from text adequately. A primary focus of Caleb’s interventions should be on reading comprehension strategies.
Part V: Tutoring Sessions Overview
Tutoring Session Number
Opening Activity (1-3 Minutes)
Addressing Weakness 1 activity (5-7 minutes)
Addressing Weakness 2 activity (5-7 minutes
Closing Activity and Reminders of what to work on for next time (1-3 minutes)
1
Choral read
Reading Comprehension strategy #1
Alphabetic/Phonics activity
Youtube video
Think about for next time:
Over the next week, think of one time when reading comprehension was hard for you. What subject was it? Why was it difficult? What could have made it easier? Be prepared with your example.
2
Shared read/modeling
Reading Comprehension strategy #2
Alphabetic/Phonics activity
Youtube video
Two dollar summary (each word worth 10 cents)
3
Reading along with audiobook
Reading Comprehension strategy #3
Alphabetic/Phonics activity
Youtube video
Think about for next time:
What do you want help with?
4
Think Aloud/modeling
Reading Comprehension strategy #4
Alphabetic/Phonics activity
Youtube video
Think about for next time:
What strategy have you used on your own? Why did you use it? Was it helpful?
5
Read aloud (student)
Reading Comprehension strategy #5
Alphabetic/Phonics activity
Youtube video
Two dollar summary (each word worth 10 cents)
Post-Tutoring reassessment and Summative Report Writing to take place after sessions end
Please note the above is a plan. For the formative assessment report, you will fill this out with your initial ideas for a tutoring plan based on your assessment and the 5 components of reading. Once you have completed all sessions, you will fill this chart out for the summative assessment report with what you actually did in your tutoring sessions.
CIR 412 Formative Assessment Form
Student’s Name: Joshua
School:
Examiner:
Age: 10
Grade: 5th
Date of Assessment: October 4th, 2019
Part I: Assessment of Interests and Motivations
Joshua is an intelligent student but struggles with accurately conveying his thoughts both verbally and in his writing. I frequently find him reading silly comic books and attempting to imitate them. He enjoys reading for pleasure with books of his choosing. He is a student in my second block class, and I have the opportunity to work with him daily. When we work on reading analytically, he often misses the main idea/theme of the text by a long shot. Joshua regularly updates me with the books he reads at home and tells me about his favorite reading spot, the back of the house where his siblings are not heard. Joshua has a twin brother who is a higher performing student than him. While he has never explicitly stated his frustration, I believe this has an effect on his motivation to soar academically in his reading and writing. Joshua stated that he grows frustrated during complex reading because there are many words he does not know. He also stated he wants to become a better writer by the end of fifth grade. I believe that support from me, one of his regular and consistent teachers, will allow Joshua the ability to improve his reading and writing.
Summary of Student’s background knowledge:
I did not distinctly set out to assess his background knowledge because he is a student of mine. I have been observing Joshua from the first day of school. At first, Joshua struggled with behavior in our class. After working with him in centers, I realized the behavior stemmed from a lack of confidence in his writing and comprehension skills. Joshua scored a 454 on MAAP, putting him at Performance Level 3. At the end of the Spring 2019 semester, Joshua scored in the 61st percentile on NWEA. Understanding his capabilities and regularly working with him has proven to me that he is capable and has room to grow on NWEA and MAAP.
Informal evaluation of verbal skills:
Joshua struggles to enunciate his words when speaking, especially to his peers. He tends to shy away from speaking loudly to adults when other people are present. When I spend time with him one on one, he has no trouble speaking clearly. He does not receive accommodations for his speech; however, I believe intentional, individual support will boost his confidence and ability to concisely and accurately verbally share his thoughts.
Part II: Phonological Awareness/Phonics and/or Spelling Assessment
I assessed Joshua with a short spelling test consisting of 31 words from Words Their Way. These words are commonly found in the informational and narrative writings we focus on in class. I did not expect him to excel with these words and his score is roughly what I anticipated (13/31). The words contained features such as: Greek/Latin elements, affixes, reduced vowels, inflected endings, and more. He was not anxious and did not spend any time worrying during the test. The spelling test was administered prior to the comprehension assessment.
Blends and Digraphs
Vowels
Complex Consonants
Inflected Endings and Syllable Juncture
Unaccented Final Syllables
Affixes
Reduced Vowels in Unaccented Syllables
Greek and Latin Elements
Assimilated Prefixes
Feature Points
Words Spelled Correctly
Totals
5/5
9/9
5/7
7/8
6/9
7/10
6/7
4/7
5/6
54/68
13/31
Tutoring Recommendations based on Spelling Assessment:
On the spelling assessment, Joshua scored the lowest on Greek and Latin Elements and Unaccented Final Syllables scoring 4/7 and 6/9, respectively. Tutoring sessions will focus on these two sections to improve his overall spelling assessment score. Regular practice of identifying and using roots will be vital to his success in spelling. Joshua will first need to become more familiar identifying Greek and Latin roots before he feels comfortable spelling words that feature these roots.
The second skill that we will focus on during tutoring is spelling words with unaccented final syllables. Joshua commonly misspelled words with a variety of unaccented final syllables, but his incorrect spelling was decipherable. The majority of his writing is completed in Google docs with the assistance of spell check. In order to improve Joshua’s spelling with unaccented final syllables, he will need practice correctly identifying words containing these syllables and practice spelling without spell check or on paper. These two areas of tutoring should greatly improve his overall spelling abilities.
Part III: Reading Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension
Fluency & Vocabulary:
Word Reading Fluency: N/A
Passage Reading Fluency:
Joshua correctly read 135 words per minute with no errors on the easyCBM Passage Reading Fluency 5_1.
Comprehension:
Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension:
Joshua completed the easyCBM Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension 5_1 assessment. He scored 30% with only six questions correct.
Oral Language and Vocabulary Observations:
As previously stated, Joshua struggles to accurately enunciate his words during conversation, but can fluently read a passage with 100% accuracy. However, when evaluating his spelling tests scores, it is apparent he can easily and fluently decode words but struggles to write them without any other word context. Joshua frequently uses basic and standard vocabulary when speaking but attempts to use more complex words in his writing even if the words are used incorrectly.
Part IV: Instructional Implications
Joshua is a fluent reader when provided with easy texts. He correctly read 135 words per minute with no errors during the fluency assessment. He has no issues decoding and fluently reading texts when he feels confident. I have noticed Joshua struggling with the more complex informational texts during class. While I have not conducted a passage fluency on one of these texts, I suspect the wpm rate is much lower than 135. He is excellent at reading confidently, loudly, and fluently with familiar or easy texts.
Joshua is also aware of the areas he struggles in. This is a strength because he knows where to expect struggle and appropriately accommodate for it. While he is critical of himself, he also notes the room for improvement he has. Watching things ‘click’ with Joshua is a fantastic occurrence as his confidence in his abilities increase. When he improves in an area, he intentionally utilizes this skill in other areas of his academics.
Joshua’s most prominent strength is his ability to think abstractly. He finds himself pushing the envelope in positive ways. When asked to complete an assignment, he does not complete an average or typical amount or type of work. He responds to questions and prompts in a creative, challenging way that I often do not anticipate. This skill will benefit him as he continues to practice his reading compression, spelling, and vocabulary.
List and explain at least 2 weaknesses you noticed with your tutoring student.
After analyzing Joshua’s results, it is obvious that he struggles with vocabulary and spelling. Because he struggles in these, areas his comprehension suffer. He stated that he has trouble reading difficult texts because there are so many words he doesn’t know. He cannot even pronounce difficult words which stems from a lack of phonics abilities. This directly effects his ability and confidence to comprehend the text.
Focusing on spelling with Greek/Latin elements and unaccented final syllables will increase his ability to identify and use these words. This will increase his vocabulary bank and improve his comprehension abilities. Focusing on comprehension and vocabulary without identifying spelling weakness would likely prove unbeneficial to Joshua. If he cannot spell and identify these words, I cannot expect him to successfully comprehend the text. By focusing on his spelling abilities with two challenging areas such as Greek/Latin elements and unaccented syllables will improve his scores on the spelling and comprehension assessments.
Part V: Tutoring Sessions Overview
Tutoring Session Number
Opening Activity (1-3 Minutes)
Addressing Weakness 1 activity (5-7 minutes)
Addressing Weakness 2 activity (5-7 minutes
Closing Activity and Reminders of what to work on for next time (1-3 minutes)
1 (phonics)
We will look at a few of the incorrectly spelled words from his spelling test without knowing they are incorrect. I will ask him to break apart the words to assess his phonics skills prior to intervention.
While using words with Greek/Latin elements, we will use flashcards to correctly break apart the word into individual letters. After we have worked together to break down the words with Greek/Latin roots, we will compare the correct spelling to his incorrect spelling. I want him to recognize his mistakes.
I will select misspelled words from his test containing unaccented final syllables to break apart. We will complete the same process as weakness #1 activity in order for Joshua to identify his mistake and compare the spellings.
I will challenge Joshua to avoid using spell check during the week if possible. I want him to jot down words he commonly finds himself misspelling in his writing.
2 (phonemic awareness)
Discussing the importance of being able to accurately identify and use Greek/Latin elements and unaccented final syllables through phonemic awareness.
With a list of common Greek/Latin roots, Joshua will practice accurately identifying the associated sound to create a connection between roots and phonemic awareness. After completion, he will brainstorm a list of words containing these roots before practicing speaking and writing the most difficult ones.
With the same structure of weakness #1 activity, Joshua will be given a short list on commonly used words containing unaccented final syllables. To link phonemic awareness to the final syllables, we will practice verbalizing the endings as well as the whole word.
Remind Joshua to consistently strive to not only find but utilize words with Greek/Latin elements and unaccented final syllables.
3 (vocabulary)
To begin, I will ask Joshua to think back to our first individual session away from regular class. I want him to remember his statement concerning difficult texts and his lack of vocabulary knowledge. With prompting (if necessary) I want him to remember his goal of becoming a better writer by the end of fifth grade.
Before the session, I will create an online set of flash cards containing challenging words with Greek/Latin elements. Using the roots, we will identify the meaning of the word and practice using them in sentences. We will treat this activity as partner work. I will do some, he will do some.
I will review his writing and select words that contain unaccented final syllables and ask Joshua to define these for me. When he struggles to accurately define a word, we will use of knowledge of roots, base words, and the final syllable meaning to define the word and use them in the sentence.
I will propose a challenge to Joshua. During class or in his writing, any time I find a difficult vocabulary word used, I will give him a tally mark. At the end of the week, if he used at least 15 words, I will bring him a treat. I am hoping this will increase motivation and confidence when writing and speaking to his peers.
4 (comprehension)
I will begin by asking Joshua to explain the importance of being able to understand text after reading. I want him to make a list on a dry erase board of the ways he can practice comprehending challenging texts.
I will select a narrative text that contain a high number of roots. As he reads out loud to me, I want him to highlight any words containing roots. Immediately after he finishes, I will ask him to summarize the text. I expect him to struggle with this as he will not know the meaning of every word. After, I will ask him if any of the highlighted words are unfamiliar to him and if it impairs his ability to comprehend the text. If they are, I will ask him to attempt to define them using the skills we have been practicing (phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness). We will verbally make the connection between the skills we are practicing and overall comprehension of text.
I will select an informational text that contain a high number of unaccented final syllables. As he reads out loud to me, I want him to highlight the words that contain these final syllables and develop a summary statement after reading. I want him to use the fin al syllables we have been practicing in identifying the unfamiliar words. He will verbalize the shift in his comprehension when he can define unfamiliar words using final syllables.
I will remind Joshua that in order to be a successful reader and writer, he must be able to comprehend complex texts. I want him to try and find a challenging library book for us to read together and practice our comprehension skills.
5 (fluency)
We will begin with making a chart showing the five components of reading. Joshua will begin this session understanding that these components work together to create fluency readers and writers.
Joshua will practice reading a text containing roots out loud. I want him to focus on his reading having a cadence and enunciating his words. If his reading gets choppy or he starts mumbling, I will stop him and ask him what gave him trouble. If necessary, he will be given an index card to track his reading as to not get overwhelmed or lost.
Joshua will practice reading a text containing unaccented final syllables out loud. I want him to focus on his reading having a cadence and enunciating his words. If his reading gets choppy or he starts mumbling, I will stop him and ask him what gave him trouble. If necessary, he will be given an index card to track his reading as to not get overwhelmed or lost.
I will congratulate Joshua on completing intervention sessions with me. We will retake the spelling test, passage fluency, and reading comprehension. We will compare our thoughts on his improvement and ways to continue practice both in the classroom and at home.
