Based on my assessment of him, here are the things I know. My student reads about 94 words per minute and 86 words correct per minute, which was collected on three different readings. One reading was a one-minute reading of the fictional book he is currently reading. A second reading was a non-fiction excerpt and a third reading was a fictional story excerpt. Based on his WCPM he is reading between 10-25th percentiles for his grade according to Hasbrook & Tindal. With this information, they suggest that he needs a fluency-building program and needs to improve his reading by 0.8 words per week.
When I observed my student reading I noticed that he often reads without notice to periods, often repeating the 3rd through 5th words in a sentence (this seems to be where he pauses instead). Additionally, when he is reading aloud he is lacking prosody and expression. Based on the data I have, and my observations I see that regarding fluency he lacks speed and expression. His low fluency is also affecting his reading comprehension. When reading, his focus is on word identification and not on comprehension.
In order to focus on comprehension, I asked my student to retell both the non-fiction and fictional story to me after he read. When retelling the story, my student was able to recall more for the fictional story. He recalled fewer details for the non-fiction story. Based on my observation I would assess him differently in these two situations. For retelling of fiction I would say he provides partial retelling (2 points). For retelling of non-fiction I would say he provides a fragmentary retelling (1 point).
Learning Objectives for lesson
Based on my knowledge of my student’s reading comprehension and fluency, I would focus my lesson for him on fluency. I would work on fluency first because I believe it is his lower fluency level that is affecting his comprehension abilities. With this student, I want to specifically work on reading aloud and teaching him to focus on reading with expression and rhythm. I would most likely choose a text that is at an independent level in order to help him feel successful and allow him the opportunity to focus on expression and rhythm without difficult vocabulary getting in his way. Additionally, I would read with him in order to model my reading. Other than this, I am open to any suggestions that anyone may have.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you have learned a lot about your buddy! I appreciate the time you took to describe your buddy’s interests and abilities. You were very detailed, even explaining that he repeats the third through fifth word in a sentence. That is a well noted pattern. It is interesting to read more about the other sixth grade buddies and one thing I’m noticing is that many of the students do not read with expression. My buddy is like yours in that he ignores periods and basically keeps reading until he needs to take a breath. My buddy is super personable, too, so I wonder why these kids are lacking expression when reading aloud. Are they embarrassed, uncomfortable, what?
I think you make a wise choice to focus on fluency. It seems evident that if he was stronger in that area he would be able to comprehend more of what he is reading. Definitely go with a text that is at or even a bit below his independent reading level so he can focus on the objective of the lesson which you named as fluency (expression and rhythm). If you also read aloud, he may open up and feel that it’s okay to read with expression (maybe he feels silly?). I like everything you are saying here and I look forward to hearing more about the specific text passage you select for your lesson. We can chat more in class as a group.
-Tristen
Kristin,
ReplyDeletethis sounds like a frustrating scenario. I remember talking with you about your overall impressions working with this child in our previous session. Something that really resonated for me was the way you drew attention to the idea that your buddy is spending so much time and giving so much effort to reading each word that he is missing the bigger picture--because he can't see beyond and is having a difficult time making connections between words and between sentences, and between paragraphs. I think we talked about modeling periods and commas, and how these sound. I still wonder how this migh tbe incorporated with poetry, because there is such awesome rhythm in poetry. Another way I wonder if you could address "prosody" is to have a conversation with him, record it, and listen to the conversation together. Then, write exactly what was said, only you have to feel in the places where he can HEAR intonations, and decide--does a period go here? shoul dit be a comma, etc. Or, can he highlight the punctuation. Maybe for this student, 1 on 1 reading would be very advantageous because he could hear modeled the intonation. I agree with you about having a book at an independent level, so that he is working with more manageable words. Can't wait to hear how it turns out!
Mrs. H,
ReplyDeleteYou provide a very thorough analysis of your student's reading ability and I agree with your assessment that his lack of fluency may be affecting his comprehension. I can see why you would want to focus a lesson on his reading fluency. It will be very important for you to choose a text with lots of expression and action, both to engage your student's interest and to accomplish your goals. I am curious to know how you will go about this lesson - will the student reread the passage multiple times? When you demonstrate for him how to read with expression, will you use the same text or a different one? I am only a little concerned that your student may find the lesson discouraging if he has to constantly reread a passage because he "isn't doing it right". Does that make sense? I would encourage you to flush this lesson out a little bit more, specifically thinking of how you will encourage and respond to your student's reading attempts.