Case Report

Working with my struggling reader has been a wonderful learning experience. I have enjoyed watching my student grow as a reader. This student had a few different instructional needs. While meeting with the reader we focused on comprehension skills and different tools readers can use to help them comprehend the text they are reading. When I completed running records, I realized she used visual and structural cues while many times neglecting the meaning.  I also provided my student with a spelling inventory. Through this document I was able to see that my reader struggled with words containing long vowels.

During the time my student and I worked together my student made great strides. When my student and I first met, she had difficulty comprehending/retelling text. She would need to be provided with many prompts to help guide her. By the end of our time she was able to comprehend/retell text independently without any prompts. We also spent time on working with long vowel sounds. She still struggles with distinguishing words with long “O” and long “U” sounds. I would recommend that this student continues to work on words containing long vowels.  I would also suggest continuing to work on her comprehension skill. Even though she improved tremendously I think it would be beneficial to continue providing the student with different strategies that she can implement while reading. I recommend the parents of this student go online and find different games that focus on long vowel words. I would also recommend that her parents and her teacher visit fccr.org. This site will provide them with multiple resources for both reading comprehension and activities to strengthen her knowledge of long vowel words. I also recommend that a parent read to this student, or the parent and student read together. This will allow the student to continue to have rich discussions about the text she is being exposed to. Lastly, I recommend that the teacher allow the student a designated time during the day to read, once she is done reading have her write a quick paragraph about what is going on in her book. The teacher should allow her to use different resources that help get her thoughts (retelling the text) down on paper.

 I have learned a lot from this case study. This caused me to examine the meetings with my struggling reader very extensively. I had to administer multiple assessments to decide what I needed to focus on with my student. I have learned how to approach a student who is struggling in a certain area, and help build their confidence so they are excited about learning and working towards becoming a better reader. I also learned the importance and power of compliments and positive reinforcement. By providing compliments and positive reinforcements my student always had a positive attitude towards what we were doing in our lessons, even if she was struggling. I have learned the importance of incorporating interactive activities that help keep your student engaged and excited to learn. While meeting with my student I discovered multiple resources that helped her use questioning and visualizing strategies to help her comprehend and retell what she was reading. This experience has been life changing. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a student grow!