Josue Jimenez

EDSP 525

Case Study

Dr. Ramirez

August 14, 2019

Kaylee is a nine and a half year old , second grade student who attends Riverdale Elementary.

Her academic and behavioral difficulties began in preschool. Kaylee was referred for Pscyoeducational

evaluation by both her parents and teacher. Her parents are concerned about her interpersonal and

academic development, whilst her teachers are concerned about her learning ability. Kaylee was

observed during regular classroom time and at intervention. While reading aloud with other students she

did not follow along with others and struggled to name words she was reading aloud. She also showed

difficulty with high frequency flash cards. During intervention, while reading aloud a mid first grade

text she made a few errors.

Screening and Assessments

During screening , Kaylee was indicated to be experiencing moderate difficulty on the Social

Skills Improvement System. Additionally, her score on the CELF-4 screening test was below criterion

with main areas of concern being receptive and expressive language, – content and structure, and –

verbal working memory . As a result of her scores on the CELF-4 she was diagnosed with a

Speech/Language impairment as her deficits in language skills adversely affected her communication in

academic and social settings. Her scores on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Third Edition

(the Wechsler is ​an individually administered measure of oral language, reading, written language, and

mathematics​)​ were consistently in the below average range for ELA domains, and average for

Mathematical processes (See image 1.1). The NEPSY-II Subtests also provides insight into the students

memory. Of 5 categories the test examines, which include List Memory, Narrative Memory Free Recall,

Narrative Memory Free and Cued Recall, Affect Recognition, and Theory of mind, the student was only
at level on two of five being Affect Recognition and Narrative Memory Free and Cued Recall (See

image 1.2). Kaylees Phonological Processing was also examined using the Comprehensive Test of

Phonological Processing (CTDPP). Kaylee was shown to be below average in the areas of Alternate

Phonological Awareness and Phonological Memory while remaining average in Phonological

Awareness and Rapid Naming (See image 1.3). Kayless recall abilities were also assessed using the

Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition (DAS-II). She was shown to be below the average in every

domain assessed with the exception of the speed of information processing (See image 1.4). ​Kaylee's

cognitive abilities were also measured with the Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition (DAS-II), and

were found to be below average in domains that include Verbal Ability, Spatial Ability, NonVerbal

Reasoning, and Special NonVerbal Composite(See image 1.5).

Fluency

In the long history of reading instruction, one would assume that there have always been

varying levels of one on one instruction between educator and pupil. After the age of Piaget however,

educators now identify scaffolding as one of the more effective tools in teaching fluency. A prime

example of this is presented in “Fluency, It's all about audience,'' which recounts an educators use of

video recordings of readings to model previously read text for students (Leathers, 2017). More

specifically, the rereading of familiar text is the tool utilized in the study. The motivation of the student

is that the recordings would be used not only for the student to have more exposure to the text, but to

show progress to his parents , which increased his motivation. Having this weekly recording to do for

ones parents is something that can be easily replicated with classroom technology, and gives motivation

for repeated readings to students.

proficient peer and modeling by an adult (Stevens et al, 2017). Specifically, this is one doing what is

known as an LPP or listening passage preview. During this intervention the reader who is modeling for

the student reads the passage first, which would ideally give the student an opportunity to read for

context during his or her own reading afterwards. One important detail about LPPs is that the reader

receives feedback immediately during the reading from the more proficient reader. The practice of

modeling and peer reading was said to increase reading rate and comprehension, but did not show a

direct increase to reading accuracy. These findings are consistent with other forms of intervention for

reading fluency.

A third incarnation of fluency practice is provided in “Books for two voices” wherein Maggie

Chase and Eun Son provide a roadmap of how to prepare students for engaged reading (Son, 2018). The

authors provide the background of scaffolding readings for students which then progresses into paired

readings where students can use “character sticks” to remember which part of the text was theirs to read.

The students can then switch characters as they complete the text, and upon completing a text get to

complete a self reflection that highlights what areas of reading they felt competent in , and what areas

they feel they need more practice. In this instance, the teachers noted that the use of character reading

was not only beneficial for fluency but specifically was great practice for porosity as they switched back

and forth between characters and showed eagerness to portray the different characters in the stories.

Writing

Traditional spelling and handwriting are topics that have gone through dramatic changes in grade

school in recent years with things like cursive handwriting being left out in some classrooms while areas
like typing and computer keyboarding have been taught. However, according to Datchuk and Dembek,

sentence writing retains the critical features of handwriting and spelling mastery. Another key feature of

composition is the cognitive approach of composition that dictates a student will need to master the

more rudimentary prerequisites to effective writing such as spelling, sentence craft and handwriting

before mastering composition. This also means that interventions for composition will include practice

on the aforementioned areas (Datchuk 2018).

Intervention for Fluency

According to literature for fluency intervention an effective intervention should include group

work for readings in addition to further motivations for students to do repeated readings. For Kaylee's

fluency intervention the reading schedule utilizing the table below was employed . Firstly was choral

reading to provide modeling by students by pairing them up with partners and have them read in unison.

Next is a paired reading where students would take turns portraying the different characters in the story

while reading, and they would take turns reading as different characters. The echo reading would be a

way for them to follow along while the teacher models , and then read back what the teacher has read

afterwards. The fourth activity would be a timed reading to assess how far students are progressing in

the repeating of the text. The final activity of the week would be the motivation component which would

be a recording to show progress in fluency from the week before potential and it is something that can

be shared with the parents of the student. The duration of the repeated reading intervention was four

weeks initially.
 Text Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Choral Paired Echo Reading Timed Video

Choral Paired Echo Reading Timed Video

Choral Paired Echo Reading Timed Video

Choral Paired Echo Reading Timed Video

Intervention for Writing

For Kaylees writing intervention I chose to utilize explicit instruction. The rationale behind the

methods used for this intervention being that exposure to vocabulary, spelling practice, phonics and

writing practice are all foundations for spelling. The duration of the intervention was also a month long.
We begin the week by practicing phoneme deletion and addition. The second day will utilize the

learning of new vocabulary words via the dictionary and the sight words for the grade. The third day the

student familiarize herself with less commonly used words or words that don't follow typical rules. The

fourth day we did tracing activities to copy text. The assessment for the intervention will come on friday

where we use a comic/story template to use words that we have come across during the week in order to

tell a story which the student writes out.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Phoneme Practice Dictionary/Sight Irregular words Tracing Story Write

Phoneme Practice Dictionary/Sight Irregular words Tracing Story Write

Phoneme Practice Dictionary/Sight Irregular words Tracing Story Write

Phoneme Practice Dictionary/sight Irregular words Tracing Story Write

Results

The areas of focus for the intervention were those of reading fluency and spelling. After a month

long intervention Kaylee showed progress both in her work and increased motivation to do classwork.

She showed progress at the end of the week assessment in both domains (The weekly assessments being

video recordings and story assignment as assessments for fluency and writing respectively). The

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition was readministered and Kaylee was shown to

have seen improvements in the domains of Oral Reading Fluency/Reading Comprehension, and

Spelling/Sentence Composition. Prior to intervention she scored below average and low in all ELA
domains. After receiving intervention for spelling and reading fluency she scored average in all of the

addresses domains with scores in the low 90s up from scores in the 70s and 80s.
 References

Datchuk, S., & Dembek, G. (2018). Adapting a Sentence Intervention with Spelling and Handwriting

Support for Elementary Students with Writing Difficulties: A Preliminary Investigation.(Report).

Insights on Learning Disabilities: From Prevailing Theories to Validated Practices​, ​15(​ 1), 7–27.

Leathers, J. (2017). Fluency: It’s All About Audience. ​Reading Teacher,​ ​70(​ 4), 499–499. h
​ ttps://doi.org/10​.

Stevens, E., Walker, M., Vaughn, S., & Jiménez, J. (2017). The Effects of Reading Fluency Interventions

on the Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Performance of Elementary Students With Learning

Disabilities: A Synthesis of the Research from 2001 to 2014. ​Journal of Learning Disabilities,​ ​50(​ 5),

576–590. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219416638028

1002/trtr.1534

Son, E., & Chase, M. (2018). Books for Two Voices: Fluency Practice With Beginning Readers. ​Reading

Teacher,​ ​72​(2), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1700

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