Case Study on Zoey

For the purposes of this paper, Zoey is a pseudonym. The students real name, age, and grade level are not used in this assessment.

Abstract

Reading Fluency is an important factor in a student’s ability to learn. Students with low reading fluency have a difficult time keeping up with their peers, keeping up with the work, and this effects their overall learning. Zoey is an autistic 6^th grade student who is falling behind on her academics and showing signs of growing frustrations. It has been reported by Zoey’s teachers that at times she refused to complete her work, turns in blank assignments and refuses to read out loud. Zoey struggles with reading fluency as she read slower than most of her peers and has a difficult time keeping up with the work. This study explores Zoey’s academics to figure out why her reading fluency is low and what approached can help her overcome this.

Introduction

The subject for my case study is an autistic 6^th grade female student named Zoey Willougby. When Zoey started in Preschool, she was disabled and did not speak until she was almost 5 years old. Since then, her vocabulary and her verbal language skills have increased dramatically. She was placed into inclusion classes in kindergarten and then regular education classes in first grade. Zoey has reported difficulties in 6^th grade, noting that the work is much harder than it was in elementary school. Some of her teachers have noted that Zoey is often distracted in class and does not complete all of her assignments. This was never the case with Zoey in the past.

In middle school, many students’ scores are often lower than they have been in elementary school since they are more concerned with making friends and their social life then their grades. While this might be the case with Zoey; she reports having difficulties keeping up with assignments and that she is afraid to read aloud in class. This educational hurdle not only affects her comprehension, but her participation grade as well.

Zoey reports that the work has gotten a lot harder for her this year. She also states that she does not like reading aloud and sometimes she tries to be quick so it will be over, but then she forgets what she read when the passage is too difficult or long. Her grades have also showed a decrease over the last trimester.

When looking over different ways to help Zoey, I wanted to focus on helping her with her reading fluency. Several strategies that have proven effective in this are Reader’ theatre, Authentic Literature and the use of Technology in the classroom.

Literature Review

There are many techniques that help teachers facilitate learning for their students. For helping students reading comprehension, and fluency, Reader’s Theater, using authentic literature and using technology can greatly increases students’ performance.

Reader’s Theater

Reader’s Theater is a creative tool used help student feel more comfortable reading and gaining confidence in using their voice and developing a better understanding of the voice of their characters. “As many teachers know, Reader’s Theater is an interpretive reading activity in which readers use their voices to bring characters to life, (“‘I Never Thought I Could Be a Star’: A Readers Theater Ticket to …”, n.d.). This concept helps students gain confidence in their speaking voice as well as learning a character. “Reader’s theater methodology is a research-based and approved method of teaching reading fluency and comprehension, meeting over 50 common core standards for English Language art, literacy and most state language arts standards,” (“Reader’s Theater is Research Based – Playbooks® Publishing”, n.d.).

Reader’s Theater is a method of reading a story aloud, like a play, without memorization, props, or a stage. Students are assigned a character role and read their part with expression, meaning, and enthusiasm. It’s best done in small groups so students can practice their roles prior to reading in front of an audience.

Acting out story dialogue compels readers to work more closely with the text to interpret and project meaning into the experience. As a result, students show an improvement in vocabulary, comprehension, and retention. Repeated readings in multi-leveled small groups are the only proven method of building reading fluency.

Authentic Literature

Another tool educators often use is authentic literature. “Authentic literature refers to narrative and expository texts that are written in the original, natural language of the authors. These texts are not written with a controlled vocabulary or rewritten to achieve a particular score according to a readability formula (Routman, 1991),” (Authentic Literature, n.d.). These are texts students want to read and chose to read. Many times, students ask why we need to learn this or that. When you use authentic literature, the students have choice in what they are reading, and they can see why they are reading.

“Authentic literature is not just for children who can already read or for gifted students. It is for all students as they learn to read — including students experiencing various difficulties with learning, (Chomsky, 1978; Morrow, 1992; Pinnell, Fried, & Estice, 1990) and second language learners,” (Larrick, 1987; Rigg & Allen, 1989). “We don’t achieve literacy and then give children literature; we achieve literacy through literature (Huck, 1989, p. 258),” (Authentic Literature, n.d.).

There are many ways to use authentic literature in the classroom for all grade levels from Kindergarten through High School. Some of the ways to use authentic literature in the classroom are by using read aloud, guided reading groups, reading workshops, independent reading, etc.

When I teach high school, I often allow my students to read the newspaper. This is the great example of Authentic literature. Many times, students will read sprots articles or current events. I also ask students what books the enjoy reading and give them the reading interest survey. Since our school library is on the small side, my local library allows me to take books out for my students. So sometimes we go through their online system and pick books out.

Technology

Finally, in the 21st century, children are exposed early to technology. Technology is a valuable resource for all students, but especially struggling readers and English Language learners. In order to keep up with the inundation of technology, teachers are using technology more frequently in the classroom. There are many web-based resources and apps that help the students with various aspects of reading from comprehension and fluency to grammar. There are many ways to incorporate technology in the curriculum and also help struggling readers.

School districts have relied more on technology over the last few years due to Covid. Some students have been forced to become virtual students and teachers have had to teach both on-line and in the classroom.

During Covid, most people, not just students had to rely on technology to work and study. School districts had to provide their students with computers and change their lessons to adapt to using technology. Students at first has difficult time with technology and learning how to use it but now that they are more comfortable with it, they chose to use technology more and more.

“Technology is an integral part of almost every aspect of life today. While reading will always be an essential skill, a digital approach makes sense with today’s mix of in-class, at -home, and hybrid learning. Digital project work can help you connect with learners to the books they read, better evaluate their comprehension, and build literacy skills like vocabulary research and fluency, (Kolk, n.d.).

Technology must engage the learning, it can be especially helpful for English Language learners, and it helps teachers bridge in class and at home learning. Most teachers are now required to use technology in their lessons. Now, they are often evaluated on how they are using technology and if they are actively researching new methods.

Methods/Procedures

Setting

Zoey Willoughby is a 6^th grade student of this researcher. Zoey has been falling behind this year, which is unusual for her. Her grades, her participation in class, and her overall performance has been suffering. Zoey was tested on her reading comprehension, her reading speed, and vocabulary and her fluency by using the QRI. This test was performed so that this researcher could have a better understanding of where she was struggling and then come up with a plan to help her. In any situation, at times there is more going on with a student than just academics. Sometimes in middle school, students become more concerned with their social life than their academics.

Research Questions

The goal of this study is to investigate the impact of an approach on students who are falling behind the rest of their peers and showing frustration in their academic practices when no frustration was present in the past. The researchers sought to explore the following questions:

How can teachers determine the area a student is struggling in?

What role does the integration of technology applications have on the learning experience?

What impact does the use of authentic literature have in remediating adolescent readers?

Procedures

Most of the lessons were delivered to Zoey in the classroom and in person, however she was quarantined for some time and had covid. Some of her lessons were delivered via google classroom.

Zoey worked with me for two weeks working on reading comprehension and fluency. Zoey reports having difficulty reading out loud. The first test done with Zoey was the QRI test. This test was performed to determine where she was struggling and then from that create an action plan for her. I conducted this study because I saw one of my students struggling and I wanted to figure out where they were struggling and how I can help them.

First, I gave Zoey a choice of different reading comprehensions packets to pick from. She chooses ones that excited her. This is how we used Authentic Literature. For my high school students, we often use the newspaper. They will look through the sports section and sometimes current events.

Then Zoey and I found a quiet place to work. She often expressed get anxiety with reading out loud in front of her class. She states that she would mess up and studder at times and she did not want to be made fun of. In our quiet place, Zoey was more comfortable reading and working on her fluency. Though her reading speed is within the range of the rest of her class, when she reads at that speed she does not remember as well as when she reads at a comfortable speed for her. This creates problems when there is more reading required for her. As she goes on in her education, she will be required to read more and more. We need to help her get to a reading pace that she can keep up with her classmates and comprehend what she read. The more she practiced, the better and more confident she became. In school students are required to read aloud in class and if they refused to do so then they often lose point in participation and their overall grade.

In class, we use the Lexia system. Lexia Reading is a computerized reading program that provides phonics instruction and gives students independent practice in basic reading skills. Lexia Reading is designed to supplement regular classroom instruction and to support skill development in the five areas of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel. These five areas are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

While working on this program, each student has a set amount of time given each week to work on their 3 areas, word study, grammar and comprehension. When a student is having difficulty in a section, a lesson is generated for the teacher to work on with that student.

Data Collection

Zoey was assessed using the Qualitative Reading Inventory – 6^th Edition. It was found that Zoey was in the independent range for word reading accuracy and in the instructional range for comprehension on the Fourth Grade Word list. She accurately read the Primer passage with 98% accuracy. Zoey correctly answered 4 out of 4 explicit comprehension questions correctly and 1 out of 2 implicit comprehension questions at this Fourth Grade Level. When she went back to the text, she answered everything correctly.

The Fifth level passage was found to be at the instructional level. Zoey did well with word fluency and only had 7 miscues but when it came time to remember what she read, that showed her difficulties. She scored 70 percent on the concept questions and within the instructional range on comprehension questions, scoring a 7 out of 8.

The sixth level for Word Recognition and Comprehension for Zoey was found to be at the frustration level. Zoey had more difficulty with this passage; however, her fluency was good, and she only had 14 miscues. She scored 58 percent on the concept questions and within the instructional range on comprehension questions, scoring a 4 out of 8 on the comprehension questions.

Zoey scored in the independent reading for reading accuracy at the Level 4 reading passage. She can read 132 words per minute and is within the independent range for both word identification, concept questions and comprehension questions.

Zoey scored in the instructional level at the Level 5 reading passage. She read 72 words correct per minute for her oral reading fluency and Instructional for comprehension based on the comprehension questions.

Zoey scored in the frustration level at the Level 6 reading passage. She read 121 words correct per minute for her oral reading fluency and frustration for comprehension based on the comprehension questions.

For the oral reading portion of the QRI-6 assessment, there are passages varying from the pre-primer level through high school. Total accuracy scores are calculated from the number of miscues the student makes while reading aloud. The comprehension question score is calculated based on the child’s ability to answer explicitly directly from the text and implicit questions that require the student to go beyond the text and make an inference based on what they read.

When working with Zoey, I created a fluency chart to map out how she improves over time, and we used an Oral Reading Fluency chart to see what percentile Zoey scored. Zoey first started in the 25^th percentile scoring 122 words per minute. She increased to 150 words per minute putting her in the 50^th percentile and finally ended at 204 words per minute, putting her in the 90^th percentile. Zoey states the more she read with me, the more comfortable she became. She was able to comprehend the passages when she read slow and as time went on and her speed picked up, she was still able to comprehend. She stated that in class she sometimes tries to read fast to be done with it, or when the class is taking turns reading, she will count the paragraphs to it is her turn and practice the one she had to read. By doing this, Zoey misses what the rest of her peers have read as she has been focused on practicing her section. This is all to avoid mistakes and avoid being made fun of for stuttering or not knowing or saying words wrong.

Zoey reports that the work has gotten a lot harder for her this year, than it had been before. She also states that she does not like reading aloud and sometimes she tries to be quick so it will be over, but then she forgets what she read when the passage is too difficult or long. Her grades have also shown and decreased over the last trimester. Could this be because she is having a difficult time keeping up or other influences. Zoey also reports on her Reading Interest Survey, that she used to enjoy reading but not she wants to play with her friends more. She says she still enjoys reading but she likes reading comics online, she likes supernatural stories, and some mysteries but only online. Her mother had gotten her a kindle in hopes of encouraging her to read more; however, Zoey states she prefers to read on the computer.

My interactions with Zoey are limited. In middle school students change classes each period unlike in Elementary school where the teacher has the same students all day long. So, one of the difficulties in this report is finding time to work with Zoey and keeping Zoey caught up with the rest of the class.

Findings

Using the results of the QRI, found this student to have a weakness in comprehension and fluency. During the student interview, it was reported that this student found the work harder this year and reports that it was hard to keep up with her classmates. For this reason, the teacher chose to work on reading fluency.

Data revealed that this student was having difficulties keeping up with reading. Her reading fluency and words per minute were below that of her classmates. Lessons focuses over fluency such as expression, phrasing, smoothness and pace. The student chose various comprehension packets to read. She chose ones that interested her. This student actively worked one on one with the teacher reading each section out loud.

Using authentic literature, I allowed Zoey to pick topics she was interested. Some of the topics were from 6.1 (sixth grade first month) the later ones were 6.7 or 6.8. I found with those she struggled more. She needs more practice than these little lessons. I mean I will keep doing them as they are helping her. Her response is more focused on being afraid to mess up reading aloud in class and not being made fun of. Zoey is autistic and has anxiety so knowing that her response makes sense.

Zoey started working one on one with her teacher. She chose Authentic Literature that interested her and read them aloud with her teacher. Zoey reports that when asked to read aloud in class she became nervous and often studders over her words. There is more work in 6^th grade than there was in 5th grade and more reading. Zoey was having a difficult time keeping up with the reading and therefore falling behind in class. This is another reason why we focused on her fluency and overall comprehension.

The chart below shows how many words Zoey read per minute during her one-on-one sections. You can see a gradual increase from where she started.

Below is the fluency rubric to evaluated Zoey’s progress

	1	2	3	4
Expression and Volume	Reads in a quiet voice as if to get words out. The reading does not sound natural like talking to a friend.	Reads in a quiet voice. The Reading sounds natural in part of the text, but the reader doesn’t always sound like they are talking to a friend.	Reads with volume and expression. However, sometimes the reader slips into expressionless reading and does not sound like they are talking to a friend.	Reads with varied volume and expression. The reader sounds like they are talking to a friend with their voice matching the interpretation of the passage.
phrasing	Reads word-by-word in a monotone voice.	Reads in two- or three-word phrases, not adhering to punctuation stress of intonation.	Reads with a mixture of run-ons, mid-sentence pauses for breath, and some choppiness. There is reasonable stress and intonation.	Reads with good phrasing, adhering to punctuation, stress and intonation.
Smoothness	Frequently hesitates while reading, sounds out words, and repeats words of phrases. The reader makes multiple attempts to read the same passage.	Reads with extended pauses of hesitations. The reader has many “rough spots.”	Reads with occasional breaks in rhythm. The reader has difficulty with specific words and/or sentence structures.	Reads smoothly with some breaks, but self corrects with difficult words or sentence structures.
Pace	Reads slowly and laboriously.	Reads moderately slowly.	Reads fast and slow throughout the reading	Reads at a conversational pace through the reading.

The chart below shows how she scored on the fluency rubric over our lessons.

Zoey’s scores were overall were the same. Toward the end her scores overall improved.

Discussion/Recommendations

The result of this study is to demonstrate the value of various reading fluency activities for students. Reading Fluency is related to comprehension. When students are in elementary school grades, they are learning how to read but as they get older, they are reading to learn. This can be difficult for students who struggle with sounding out words, and for those who read at a slower pace their classmates. “Receiving feedback from an attentive instructor is key to helping students improve their reading skills,” (Reading Fluency Activities for Older Students, n.d.).

In Zoey’s case, she struggled with keeping up with her classmates. She words read per minute was slower than most of her classmates. She measured in the beginning of this study at the 25^TH percentile. She stated the work in 6^th grade is harder than it was in 5^th grade and there is more reading, and she cannot keep up with it.

Based on this assessment, we created reading comprehension packets for Zoey to work on. Because Zoey has often stated that she has great anxiety reading aloud in class, she worked one on one with the teacher. As time went on she became more comfortable reading, and her words per minute increased as did her comprehension.

In conclusion, the more the student reads aloud the better and more comfortably they will become. Students reading below grade level will benefit from the Readers’ Workshop Model, different apps to assist then with reading as well as practicing to read aloud. The more practice the students has in a positive environment will enhance their overall experience.

References

Authentic Literature. (n.d.). LessonSense.com. https://www.lessonsense.com/tips/authentic-literature/

“I Never Thought I Could Be a Star”: A Readers Theatre Ticket to. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/20202073]

Kolk, M. (n.d.). 5 reasons to use technology in your reading program. Web.tech4learning.com. https://web.tech4learning.com/5-reasons-to-use-technology-in-your-reading-program

Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2016). Qualitative reading inventory (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon

Reading Fluency Activities for Older Students. (n.d.). Education – Seattle PI. Retrieved April 7, 2022, from https://education.seattlepi.com/reading-fluency-activities-older-students -3873.html

Reader’s Theater is Research Based – Playbooks® Publishing. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://readerstheater.com/pages/research-based