Tiffany’s big strength was her word recognition skills. The word recognition was very strong in the word list and then it just sharply dropped all at once. She seemed to be on a roll and then spat. Then on the passages word recognition was 99% and 99% - 95%. It was comprehension that pulled her to frustration quickly. However, the sequencing questions got the highest percent at an overall 66%.
In comprehension she found a weakness. The inference questions were the lowest at 30%. I got a great deal of "I don’t know" and "I don’t remember" kinds of responses. Comprehension is what pulled her down to frustration almost immediately. She was a great word caller, but the content did not seem to be absorbed.
Target Area: Comprehension Specific Goal: Details
The four strategies I would use are KWL charts, sharing a story with her and having her find the "magic", encouraging and asking "wondering" questions, and having her find the main idea and have to support it with detail.
The KWL chart would be presented and explained to her. Then we would fill in the column on what she already knows and wants to know. I would ask her to really pay attention for details to be able to fill in the last column of what she learned when we are finished reading. After we finish the reading we would attend to filling in the column we discussed before we read. This would help her to pay more attention to the details because she has to know what to put in the last column after she is finished. The assessment on this would simply be for he to be able to correctly fill in the last part of the chart on her own after it being modeled to her first.
The second strategy I would use would be the "wondering" questions strategy. This simply means that I would make it somewhat an interactive read aloud, only with her reading it aloud. I would ask her questions along the way that would cause her to wonder and wan to pay attention to the story and the details that make up the story. The assessment on this strategy would be the way her thinking process during reading would be made oral in nature. You could attend to the way she responds to that type of question as your assessment.
The third strategy would be what I call finding the "magic". This just simply means we would share a story together, her reading it. Before we read we would discuss what she thinks the book will be about and what she thinks will make the book special based on the title and cover of the book. After she has read the book orally to me we would then check to see if what she originally thought the book would be about was correct. I would give her some of the details that I noticed while she read to give her an idea of what I am asking her to do. I would then ask her to give me some of the details that support our findings. The assessment for this strategy would be the observations of change and improvement you would be able to notice in her.
The fourth strategy I would use is the relationship between main idea and detail. She seemed to be fairly good at finding the main idea. In order to back up what she found the main idea to be, she would have to give me details in the story that prove her main idea is correct. The assessment for this strategy would simply be for her to be able to back her main idea with accurate detail. However, before asking her to do this on her own, I would do one with her to model the procedure and thought process that this strategy requires. If she seems to understand with just one model then she would be asked to do the exercise independently. If she still appears to struggle I would let her do the next one independently, but very guided. I would allow her to try it but I would be there to keep her on the right track and assist her in any way I needed to.
To administer my Intervention Plan I combined the "wondering" strategy and the main idea/ detail relationship strategy. We did the both of them at one time. The only thing that changed some was the actual reading of the book. We had to use a teacher’s classroom during he planning period because the library was full. That meant there were several people in there and coming in and out. When I asked her to read the book I had chosen to use she almost cried and asked if I could please read it to her. I did not want to upset her that badly, so I read the book to her instead.
I chose to use the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. She had never read or heard this book before. I asked her to predict what the book was going to be about by looking at the title and the cover of the book. She predicted that the animals would find or wear the mitten. After the prediction I began to read. I drew her attention to the margins of the page that give you clues about what might happen next. When I got to the part were the hedgehog wedges his way into the mitten she interrupted to say there was no way another animal could fit into the mitten. Then came the owl, badger, and fox. Then when I turned the page and she realized the bear was getting into the mitten she was so surprised. Her eyes were wide and her interest seemed peeked to really listen to the ending. She leaned closer to the book and really looked at the pages. She then giggled when the field mouse got on the bears nose. She laughed when the mouse made the bear sneeze. She wanted to say the aaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-ca-chew! We finished the rest of the book. When we finished I asked her if she thought her prediction was correct. She said, "Yes, sort of. They did find it and in a way they wore it. They actually crawled up in it." She asked to list the animals that got into the mitten one more time before she left for P.E. I told her that would be great. So we listed them and then she went to her P. E. class.
I feel this worked very well. She started out a little nervous but by the end she was noticing detail and interact with good quality literature.
