Noah Davis / Final Case Study / 1
Noah is a charming 3rd grader, age 8, from an average family and seems very well taken care of. He has an older sister who will graduate from East Burke High School this year. Noah’s favorite subject in school is math and during the weekends he absolutely loves playing video games especially Sonic Unleashed on the WII. Noah is always excited to get to work and his relaxed, easy going attitude is an absolute joy to work with during each tutor session. He is remarkably bright and full of oodles of information which he brings to the table every week. This helps with his comprehension once we get started on the story; however he works at an exceptionally slow pace – whether he is reading or writing. This, on the other hand, hurts his comprehension.
On February 17, 2007, I gave him his first IRI and at first glance, I thought we needed to work on comprehension and fluency with Noah. His flash word recognition performance is fine through 4th grade with a 65%. He recognizes words with automaticity; however his rate was extremely slow. With a 2nd grade passage, he read 97 wpm which is at instructional level and had a frustration score of 30% for comprehension. In a 3rd grade passage, he read torturously slow with a rate of 68% which is a frustration level and had a 42% in comprehension. However, in both 2nd and 3rd grade passages, he had 100% and 99% accuracy with no meaning change errors. This shows that although he reads slowly and extremely carefully one would assume he does not comprehend that well. This put Noah at a late 2nd grade instructional level due to his rate. Therefore, after consulting with Dr. Morris, I decided his instructional level was a 2-2 and his frustrational level was 3rd due to rate; however, we would move quickly into a 3rd grade book. During our tutoring sessions I concentrated on fluency, comprehension, and writing only.
I stated earlier that Noah’s print process is strong and he possibly lacked in comprehension and fluency. After working with him for a few days, it was clearthat Noah’s weakness was fluency and nerves had a little impact on the outcome of the IRI. Yet I am not sure if it will have any influence on his comprehension and/or rate.
On February 22, 2011, I started Noah on a late 2nd grade book (2-2) The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad by F.N. Monjoe. He had some background knowledge of the Underground Railroad as well as Harriet Tubman so we were off to a great start. We started out with partner reading which he enjoyedand right away his predictions were great. On the other hand, the basic comprehension literal questions were not easy for him; he had to continuously look back in the book. The next time I had him read part of the story silently and again he had to look back through the book to answer. However, when we got together at the next tutor session and reviewed what we had previously read, he remembered everything about the book. Then, as we got further through the book, he began comprehending a lot easier – the answers were coming easier. Hence, I concluded that Noah is a child that needs to read further into a book and really rely on his experiences and his prior knowledge before he can comprehend what is fully happening. As we finished The Drinking Gourd, it was a pleasure for me to listen to him read and listen to him explain his answers and his predictions because he was right on target. However, it was still extremely slow.
For the 2nd book, I kept him on a 2-2 and started The Long Way Westward by Joan Sandin, however as soon as Dr. Morris listened to him read, he recommended that we move up to a 3rd grade book. So, we started a biography on Frederick Douglass which was a perfect follow up toThe Drinking Gourd. We really breezed through the biography together, and Noah did an amazing job of making text to text connections as well as wonderful predictions. This time his comprehension was much improved. The more we read; the more he understood and the more he could answer. It was an amazing journey for us both. He read some silently but most of it was oral to work on his fluency.
Fluency was really important for Noah to improve so we worked hard on this. We did some easy reading, partner reading, oral reading with the DRTA, and some DLTA. However, the most important strategy we used and now I am a firm believer in is – Repeated Readings. Noah started the repeated readings on The Drinking Gourd first and went from 170 words in 2 minutes and ended with 215 after 8 trials. We also did four trials of The Long Way Westward and he started with 165 words in 2 minutes and he ended with 202 words in 2 minutes. This shows some consistency. On March 22nd, Noah started a chapter in Frederick Douglass a 3rd grade book and read 193 words in 2 minutes. Then, on March 30th, the same chapter he read 250 words. This is unbelievable proof. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Noah didn’t mind writing but he wrote the same as he read – extremely slow. He took his time and thought it thoroughly through the first time. There was a beginning, a middle, and an end in every story. Sometimesthere was dialogueand expression but there was no emotion or description. So, we worked on adding emotion or descriptive words to his writing. One time he even wrote an expository essay on slavery. Two examples follow:
First example, One day me and my mom went shopping. It was a plain shopping day. We went to Food Lion. Everything there was always plain. I got to push the cart a few times. I’m so glad I got to spend a little time with my mom.
Second example, The slaves work hard. The slaved worked with their hands called field hands. The slave master treated them mean. If they made a mistake the master will whip them.
If the slaves learned how to read and write they can get an idea of how to get free. The masters did not want the slaves to read and write because of that.
The slaves want to be free because they don’t want to have any more masters or any more hard work. They can follow the North Star to the north or they can follow the Underground Railroad to be free.
On April 7th, I gave Noah a 2nd IRI. He was much more calm, cool, and collected. From the start, I knew his results were going to be higher but I didn’t really fathom they would be this high. I am extremely proud of Noah. In just 1 ½ months, he went from a 2-2 instructional level moving to 3rd quickly to a late 3rd possibly early 4th instructional level. This is justified by 80% Flash scores in 3rd and 4th grades along with 100% and 99% accuracy which shows strong print processing skills. Rate at 3rd grade improved astronomically – up from a 68 to a 103 which is mid-range for a third grader. Silent reading rate is still slow for 3rd grade.
I recommend Noah continue the repeated readings in a 3rd grade book that he is interested in to keep improving his fluency. I believe this will improve his comprehension as well. I also recommend Noah read books slightly below his independent level silently (2-2) to improve his silent reading fluency, but the teacher needs to hold him accountable and monitor his comprehension while he is reading.