Individual Child Project Final Writing Jacqueline Zientara CI 475 University of Illinois Ur!

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Zientara 2 Introduction* As a result of studying the various aspects of one childs literacy habits and abilities, it is easier to see where they might need improvement and further development. For the purposes of this paper Ill call the student livia.! livia is a "rd grade student, at #arrie $usey %lementary &chool in #hampaign, I'. In this study I investigated her literacy environment, her individual behaviors, her reading interests, running records, reading assessments, one(on(one discussions, and then decided what recommendations I would have for her as a reader. +iteracy ,nviron#ent* livia is fortunate enough to attend a school that has lots of literature available for her. %very )onday students have time to go to the library and chec* out boo*s to bring home. In the classroom there are also two large boo*shelves where boo*s are organi+ed by reading level and genre. ,uring the day students are able to go over to the boo*shelves and pic* out whatever boo*s they would li*e to read after they finish wor*ing. In the third grade students are as*ed to focus on comprehension, much of the wor* we do with reading is centered around an essential -uestion,! it is common to hear the teacher as* what the purpose for reading is, what are we loo*ing to learn from a story, all of these -uestions are very common in the classroom. &tudents also wor* on spelling and grammar at several *ey points during the day. &hared reading is often centered around vocabulary words that the students wor* on during activities li*e daily five word drawers where they have to use the words in their various writing activities. &tudents follow along in literature anthologies during shared reading time. this helps them to stay focused on the te/t rather than +oning out. 0ead aloud time, however, is time for students

Zientara " to 1ust en1oy a story and calm down after lunch2recess. 3ithin the fifteen minutes of read aloud, students can draw, put their heads down, or 1ust listen to the teacher read a fun boo*. 4uided reading time happens everyday. students are pulled to the bac* table in predetermined groups based on AI)& 3%$ scores and other comprehension assessments. 5he te/ts used are basic readers, but often(writing activities are more focused on. 0ead to self is what we refer to as independent reading, and this is always the option for students as soon as they finish in class wor*. )ost students have a 1ust right boo* in their des* they can pull out, otherwise they can go into the class library and find one. 6ust right readers are determined by students ability to read the first page and the bac* cover easily. Individual Child -!servation* $y observing livia specifically for a period of time, I noticed several things about the way she wor*s. 5he first thing I noticed was that often, livia loo*s li*e she is daydreaming, but really shes 1ust thin*ing. 3hen I thought she wasnt listening I would as* her a -uestion and she would *now e/actly how to answer it, in fact she often gave more information than I needed at the time. 5he ne/t thing I noticed was that livia ma*es careful notes when she sees things happening on the board. 7isual learning seems to wor* best for her, so when we wor* on spelling words, it is best for her if we write the word the find the pattern in the words we are learning and underline it. For one of the observations I did, livia was sitting beside a student that is the fastest reader in the whole third grade. 8e tended to finish -uic*ly, then turn and tal* to livia and distract her from doing her wor*. ften she would try to finish things, but would get so distracted by his comments that she wouldnt get through day(to(day wor*. livia does very little

Zientara 9 spea*ing in class, this could be because she is 1ust very soft spo*en, or because she goes to speech once a wee* and is self(conscious about the stutter they are trying to smooth out. In small group wor* she spea*s, but not often. &he fre-uently writes things down and wor*s while in small groups, attempting to participate without engaging in discussion. .tudent Intervie/s and 0eading Conferences* Interviews with livia helped me to understand some of the things she en1oyed reading about. I -uic*ly reali+ed when she said that she li*ed reading because she li*es learning new things, that she is a very in-uisitive reader. 5ending to pic* boo*s that are informational : boo*s about a particular topic, which is usually educational, but she also says she en1oys mystery and humor boo*s. &he decides if a boo* is right for her by loo*ing at the first page and seeing if she *nows all the words. &he uses school time to loo* at new boo*s, but when shes at home she li*es to reread boo*s li*e Charlottes Web, and other series boo*s li*e the series The Thing Thats Missing. 8er favorite author is ;ope sborne, the creator of The Magic Tree House series. &he often pic*s boo*s from this series to read at home to her )om and ,ad. livia en1oys watching ;o*<mon at home on 57, but she doesnt get to watch much. &he does consider herself a good reader, but sometimes she finds words difficult. livia especially en1oys when her teacher reads because she uses accents and different voices for all the characters and she li*es to hear the silly way her teacher sounds.

0unning 0ecords* 0unning records with livia were interesting. &he reads at a constant rate, including inflection in her voice for -uestions. &ometimes she even reread words or

Zientara = sentences in order to put in a certain tone after reali+ing what the end loo*ed li*e. livia made mista*es li*e saying command! instead of commotion! and irises! was a real struggle. &he did not as* how to say the words, rather, she 1ust said the parts she could sound out and then mumbled past the rest. ther times, she read words with an e/tra letter, but this she often self corrected. ver all she scored highly. 5he cues I noticed were things li*e loo*ing for familiar root words and then trying to add the ending. 5his strategy manifests itself in the way that she read aloud because she would sometimes read words 1ointly : as if she *new the first part was correct because those letter combinations and sounds made sense but the second part was not as clear to her. I also had a chance to loo* at livias AI)& web scores from the beginning of the school year at #arrie $usey. &he scored above average, with> error, and ??@ accuracy. 5hese scores were considered high in her class, she ran*ed 29th out of A2 students. 1iscussion* From what Ive seen livia is e/posed to literature fre-uently everyday. &he reads every time there is a chance in class and usually says she li*es reading. 8er writing is not as strong as her reading s*ills, some assessments show that she can bubble in the correct answer in a multiple choice -uestion, however when she is re-uired to write the answer she struggles to put the right words together to say all the things she *nows. I *now this because of her responses when as*ed what we 1ust read as compared to what she writes. it ends up being much shorter when the latter is true. I also *now from parent teacher conferences, and a reading program livia participates in at the school, that she has lots of boo*s at her disposal and four other siblings to read to. According to her parents, livia fre-uently pic*s up boo*s that her older sister read and will flip though them and

Zientara A read to them at night. 0eco##endations* I would recommend that livia be moved to the front so that she is more li*ely to interact and participate in class. I would also recommend she wor* on writing at home. Bow that she has a decent grasp on reading it would be most beneficial for her to wor* on her writing s*ills in a 1ournal at home of some *ind. 5his would help her to *now how to e/plain her answers and might even help her to participate in class more. I would further recommend that livia move to focus on comprehension in her independent reading time, I often got answers that summari+ed a whole series but, she did not understand things li*e se-uencing so Im sure this would be a beneficial step for her to ta*e moving forward. In class, we often have the students write stories and descriptions for pictures. It would be beneficial to try and have her write stories with se-uencing words so she understands the flow of a story and how to brea* it into chun*s. I would also li*e to see some more wor* with finding *ey details in stories. 3e wor* on this, however, because of livias relatively high reading scores and somewhat developed writing, I would say she could benefit greatly from some e/tra instruction and focus on writing out the *ey details of a story. 5his will be helpful once she starts to loo* at I&A5 and #ommon #ore testing because so much is focused on finding big ideas, understanding them, and *nowing the theme of a passage.