Tutoring and Assessment Case Study for Educ.

331
Candidate: Amanda Carpenter
Subject: Reading
331 Instructor: Dr. B. Wilson
Date: October 18, 2015

# of students: 1
Assessing: Word recognition
Grade Level(s): 7
School: Hayes Middle School
Coop Teacher: Ms. Vantassel
Date of Pretest: October 6, 2015
Average pre-test score: 5%
Date of Posttest: 10/23/15
Average post-test score: 49%

Decision about Who, What and How to tutor/teach and How to assess:
Ms. Vantassel and I decided it would be best if I would just do the tutoring option. I was in a
MI classroom of 5 students. She was concerned if she allowed me to teach a lesson to the students
that they would have a hard time handling the routine change. She suggested I work on reading
skills since I was going to teach English. She placed me with a 7th grade student that was reading
below a 1st grade level. Our plan was for me to tutor him 2 hours a week, for 3 weeks. I
administered the pre-test on 10/9/15, which was a Dolch First Grade Sight Vocabulary assessment.
The test is normally to be timed for one minute but the IEP of this particular student states that
none of his tests are to be timed. He was only able to read 2 of the words during the administration
of the pre-test. The data showed me he needed extensive teaching in reading and word
recognition.
Tutoring Lesson/Unit and Assessment Description:
I assessed the student with a Dolch 1st grade Sight Word Assessment pretest. The pretest is the
same as the posttest and it is attached to this report. I gave the pretest on 10/9/15 and then gave the
post test 3 weeks later, after tutoring the students for 6 hours. The test was the standard assessment
that was created by Dolch. It consisted of 41 sight words that should be recognized by all first
grade students. The method I used to tutor my student was through one on one instruction. We

spent 2 hours each week working on these words. We played games that incorporated the words,
such as the board game I created, scavenger hunts where the student would identify the words in
bulletin boards or posters in the school hallways, and ABC mouse on the computer. I even created
words searches that incorporated the words. I was hoping this would help him to recognize these
words more quickly and accurately. We also worked on letter sounds and sound blends so that he
could learn to sound out the words more effectively.

Link to Standards:
Since I am working on a 1st grade level skill, I included the Standards for 1st grade
ELA.1.R.C7.1

know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.

decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.

Results of Assessments:
The results of the assessments are listed in the table below.
Student
A

Pre-Test/Week 1
5%

The scores when graphed look like this:

Week 2
37%

Post-Test Week 3
49%

As the table and the graph show, Student A made significant gains from the pre-test to the posttest. After looking over the data he has mastered recognizing one syllable words. He still needs
intensive work in recognizing two syllable words. He did show a 44% improvement over the course
of the 3 week tutoring session. I believe with 3 more weeks of intensive tutoring he would have
mastered them all with a 90% or higher accuracy.
Disaggregated Data
N/A
Reflection and Data-based Decision Making:
The data shows that Student A needed intensive one on one instruction in reading and
recognizing first grade sight words. Upon completion of the pre-test, I was able to determine he was
only able to read the list of 41 sight words that are determined for a first grader with a 5% accuracy.
The first week, I would read them aloud to him and have him to repeat. We played scrabble where he
had to spell the words with letter tiles and I allowed him to play the board game I created for sight
words. After the first week he went from a 5% accuracy to 37% accuracy. I could see he was
definitely making progress. The following week he was having a hard time concentrating so we
played a scavenger hunt game. We walked through the halls and he tried to identify sight words on
bulletin boards and posters that were hanging in the hallways. I also noticed that while completing the
pre-test he became overwhelmed when all the words were in front of him on the paper. I decided since
the test was untimed that I would write each individual word on a whiteboard that way he would only
see one word at a time.
The data from the post-test shows that Student A went from a 5% accuracy to a 49% accuracy.
I was very pleased with this considering he made a 44% gain in only three weeks. For the most part
he mastered two and three letter words with only one syllable. I determined he still needs intensive
instruction with 4 or more letter words containing more than one syllable. I feel that with a few more
weeks of intensive one on one training he would be able to master these as well. He was a very bright

child that seems to do better with one on one instruction. He is very fidgety and has a hard time
staying focused. He needed a lot of redirecting to keep him on task. But as you can see from the data
he was able to overcome some of these difficulties and make significant gains towards his end goal of
reading on a first grade level with a 99% accuracy.

Pre-Test Week One

Dolch Sight Words Reading Assessment: Grade One
Student Name: _Student 1________________
Assessment Dates: 1st _10/6/15_______ 2nd _10/16/15___ 3rd _10/23/15________
1

2 3

2 3

2 3

after

has

over

again

her

put

an

him

round

any

his

some

ask

how

stop

as

just

take

by

know

thank

could

let

them

every

live

then

fly

may

think

from

of

walk

give

old

were

going

once

when

had

open

Week Two
Dolch Sight Words Reading Assessment: Grade One
Student Name: _Student 1________________
Assessment Dates: 1st _10/9/15_______ 2nd _10/16/15___ 3rd _10/23/15________
1

2 3

2 3

2 3

after

has

over

again

her

put

an

him

round

any

his

some

ask

how

stop

as

just

take

by

know

thank

could

let

them

every

live

then

fly

may

think

from

of

walk

give

old

were

going

once

when

had

open

Week Three / Post-test

Dolch Sight Words Reading Assessment: Grade One
Student Name: _Student 1________________
Assessment Dates: 1st _10/9/15_______ 2nd _10/16/15___ 3rd _10/23/15________
1

2 3

2 3

2 3

after

has

over

again

her

put

an

him

round

any

his

some

ask

how

stop

as

just

take

by

know

thank

could

let

them

every

live

then

fly

may

think

from

of

walk

give

old

were

going

once

when

had

open