Part II: Summary of Instruction and Response to Instruction

Prior to my intervention sessions with Charlie, I constructed a few goals to help guide my
instruction and strategies. Each of my goals for Charlie were carefully selected and stated, as
discussed in the action plan of this study. The goals were determined based on the specific needs
of my puzzle child, Charlie. As displayed from previously administered assessments and
activities, I constructed three major goals for Charlie during our tutoring sessions throughout the
course of this semester. Charlie and I consistently worked together throughout the school year
during RTI to enhance his literacy skills. During our sessions, we focused on various practices
and concepts consisting of fluency, comprehension and word study. All of the skills and
concepts discussed during our sessions were carefully constructed and implemented to help
develop and enhance Charlies literacy skills.
One of the goals, as discussed in my action plan, was to help expand Charlies
understanding of vowel team features through word study. After analyzing an informal decoding
inventory given last semester and a developmental spelling analysis, as seen in appendix A.1, it
was evident Charlie needed some assistance with vowel team features located within words. At
the conclusion of the tutoring sessions, my hope for Charlie was that he would be able to display
growth in the vowel team word features displayed on the DSA. In many instances during our
intervention, the features we discussed mirrored the features Charlie was working with during his
RTI block. To help achieve the goal of expanding his within word feature of vowel teams, I
implemented multiple hands-on strategies ranging from word sorts and letter tile manipulatives
to help attain the goal my goal of expanding Charlies vowel team recognition.
When completing word study with Charlie, I focused on a feature, sometimes two,
throughout the course of each week. The features I focused instruction the instruction on
pertained to the vowel team features located within words. At the beginning of a week, Charlie
would be given a word sort with a specific feature, adapted from Word Sorts for Within Word
Pattern Spellers (2009). When beginning a word study lesson, Charlie would cut out the terms
from the word sort. After the words were cut out and on his desk, Charlie and I would go
through the features of each category and say them out loud to each other (an example of one of
the sorts used is displayed in appendix A.5). I felt that it was important for Charlie to say the
word out loud as it helped reinforce the sound of the specific feature, as well as the pattern that
needed to be identified when completing the sort. After going through and orally saying the
vowel feature of each category, Charlie completed the sort on his desk. The words were
scattered across the desk and Charlie would have to correctly place the word in the appropriate
column based on its specific feature. Whenever Charlie placed a word in the appropriate
category, he would then have to say the word to reinforce the sound of each specific vowel team
feature. I would also specifically ask him to make orally make the sound of the feature displayed
in the word. Continually repeating the sound of each feature was an importance strategy used
during the word study portion of intervention. When the word sort was complete correctly,
Charlie would then have to paste the terms into his RTI journal in alphabetical order to have as a
reference.
After the words were sorted correctly and glued into his RTI journal, Charlie and I shifted
into working with the letter tiles manipulative. Letter tiles are a plastic manipulative that allows
for letters to be easily moved around and manipulated by the student when constructing words.
With the tiles, the consonants are labeled on blue tiles, while the vowels are labeled on red tiles.
The different colors allowed for Charlie and I to focus on the specific vowel features discussed

during a particular week, in addition to the sounds they make when said. Adding and taking
away letters allowed for Charlie to visually see the difference in words, as well as hear them. I
truly feel that this activity put Charlie in a situation to be successful as he was consistently
engaged and interested. When working with the letter tiles during our sessions, I would first ask
Charlie to spell words that were displayed in the word sort. An example of Charlie working with
the letters tiles from one of our sessions is displayed in appendix A.5. After using the tiles to
spell words from the sort, Charlie would then have to repeat the word and say it out loud to me.
The letter tile manipulative was heavily employed throughout my word study instruction as it
allowed for Charlie to be actively engaged with his learning by moving the tiles to reiterate the
word and its sound. In addition, the letter tile activity allowed for me to talk with Charlie about
the specific feature of the word and how the sound of words can change when letters are moved.
The sorts completed throughout our time during intervention were directly related to the areas of
struggle displayed on the informal decoding inventory and developmental spelling analysis. The
letter tiles manipulative also allowed for me to extend Charlies thinking and understanding with
a specific word feature by having him spell and work with additional words that were not
displayed on the word sort cards. This activity allowed for me to tell whether or not Charlie
truly understood the feature of the word.
At the conclusion of the word study portion of intervention, I administered the same DSA
word list from the beginning of the year as seen in appendix A.3. Administering the same DSA
allowed for me to determine whether or not Charlie was acquiring the vowel team word features
discussed throughout the course of intervention. Re-administering the same DSA also let me
know if the strategies I used throughout the lessons were effective for Charlie. After
administering and analyzing the DSA, I was able to determine that Charlie did display growth
with specific word features. A graph displays the word feature results from both DSAs
administered during the spring semester, as seen in appendix A.4. Charlie was able to show
growth by spelling more words correctly, in addition to properly identifying features of words, as
displayed in appendix A.2.
Building Charlies inferential reasoning and comprehension skills when reading leveled
(expository) texts was another goal constructed in my action plan. Directed reading thinking
activities (DRTA) and texts of his interest based from the interest survey (appendix C.7), were
incorporated into the majority of the lessons pertaining to comprehension. When analyzing the
qualitative reading inventory assessments administered from last semester, Charlie tested
instructional with comprehension at the second grade level with an expository text. Implicit
questions were challenging for Charlie, which is why many of the lessons and strategies focused
on inferential reasoning and working with implicit questions. During our sessions, I was able to
select expository texts based from the interest survey completed last semester (appendix C.7).
When reading expository texts, I felt that it was important to pick texts that were interesting for
Charlie. Incorporating these texts of interest throughout our lessons allowed for Charlie to be
thoroughly engaged and attracted with the content, while also enhancing his implicit and explicit
comprehension skills.
Prior to constructing my comprehension lesson, I selected a few expository texts that fit
Charlies instructional reading level (Rigby level 23-28). Many of the leveled texts I selected for
our sessions were expository, as the expository text is what Charlie tested instructional at last
semester. Knowing Charlies interests, as displayed on his interest survey, I decided to select
texts that related to cars, airplanes and science. To build Charlies inferential comprehension and
reasoning skills, I heavily relied on implementing a directed thinking activity prior (DRTA) to

reading the texts. The DRTA required for Charlie to make predictions about the text prior to
reading. A listing of the DRTAs implemented during our sessions is displayed in appendices
C.1 and C.2. With the first few DRTAs, Charlie previewed the text to make predictions and
was able to look at the pictures associated with the selection of the text. After looking at the text,
Charlie had to construct four predictions about the selection of the text and record it on his
DRTA graphic organizer. Charlie was not required to read the full text and focused only on a
specific selection of the text. With the first DRTA administered, Charlie relied heavily on the
pictures as two of the four predictions were based off of the images displayed around the text of
the selection. In addition, Charlie had to answer a few brief questions on the DRTA prior to
reading the text. The pre-reading questions were extremely similar to those displayed on an
anticipation guide, which resulted in him being attentive throughout the text to determine if his
predictions were correct. At the conclusion of reading each text, Charlie had to verbally give me
a summary of the text he just read. I would ask him to tell me the most important parts of the
story. After verbally summarizing, Charlie had to go back and determine whether or not his
hypothesis/prediction was correct. In many instances, his prediction was not explicitly displayed
in the text, which allowed for me to extend his thinking through questioning. Not having his
prediction explicitly displayed in the text allowed for me to work on his inferential reasoning
skills, and to get him to think beyond what was explicitly stated in the text. As we progressed
throughout our sessions, I started to cover up pictures when implementing the pre-reading
section of DRTA. This scaffold of allowing him to initially look at pictures and then backing
him off was executed in a way to where Charlie would not become solely dependent on the
images when working with the text. Covering the pictures required Charlie to make predictions
solely based from the headings of the selection, displayed in appendix C.2. Not seeing the
pictures definitely made Charlie think deeper and more critical about his predictions made. The
DRTA was a vital strategy utilized throughout our comprehension sessions that allowed for
Charlie to be focused throughout his reading of the text.
At the conclusion of reading the leveled texts about cars and astronauts, Charlie
participated in an activity where he had to pull comprehension cards out from a cup pertaining to
the text that was just read. For each text read, I constructed two explicit questions and two
implicit questions, as displayed in appendix C.3. The questions asked were constructed in a way
to model those seen in the QRI assessment. When Charlie pulled a question from the cup, he had
to orally answer the question pertaining to the particular text. Having multiple exposures to
inferential and implicit questions is a strategy that I felt would be beneficial to attaining the goal.
In addition, as Charlie was answering the questions I was able to help him work through the
thinking of questions not explicitly displayed in the text. The questions in the cup were used as a
formative assessment to inform me whether or not Charlie was progressing inferential reasoning
skills.
To determine if growth was made, I administered a QRI assessment, from Qualitative
Reading Inventory (2011), at the end of the spring semester. In the fall, Charlie tested
instructional at a second grade expository level in regards to comprehension. Out of the eight
total questions, Charlie missed two that both happened to be implicit. I administered another
second grade level expository text at the conclusion of the tutoring sessions, one different from
the fall. Charlie first started with answering pre-reading questions and then shifted into the
reading of the actual text. At the conclusion of the reading, Charlie had to orally answer the
eight questions (4 implicit and 4 explicit). Charlie was able to answer all of the questions

correctly, both implicit and explicit. A specific explanation and reasoning can be found in the
challenges and successes portion of this case study.
The last goal that was discussed during my action plan focused on building Charlies
fluency. Charlie tested instructional in the fall at a second grade level (about halfway through
the second grade year). To help promote and build his fluency, I wanted to expand his sight
word knowledge. At the beginning of every tutoring session, Charlie would practice and learn
ten new sight words via flashcards. Each week, we would go through and continue to build on
the words discussed. Many of the sight words practiced also directly correlated to the word
features categories that were discussed throughout the course of the word study lessons. A full
list of the sight words implemented can be found in appendix B.6. Over time, Charlie had
exposure to well over 100 sight words, in which he was able to identify by the conclusion of our
sessions. As discussed in the action plan, the sight words were implemented to help expand his
word knowledge, which in theory would aide potential growth in fluency.
As discussed earlier, the leveled texts were heavily utilized throughout the tutoring
sessions. When working with fluency, I consistently implemented running records on the first
read of the leveled text to act as a formative assessment to track any potential growth in regards
to fluency. The leveled texts used during the comprehension activities were also used when
conducting the running records. When working with the leveled readers, Charlie would read
through the text by himself the first time through the text. The texts that were charted in
appendix B.5 consisted of Rigby levels 23, 26 and 28. On the first read, I would conduct a
running record to track miscues and words read per minute (can be found in appendices B.1B.3). The running records allowed for me to track miscues, as well as determine the words read
per minute average with each passage. The running records allowed for me to see if there were
any patterns or connections with word struggles that focused on particular features discussed
throughout the words study portion of our intervention. After the running records assessment
and first read were complete, we would chorally read the text together. If time permitted, we
would go through and read the text twice. Choral reading allowed for me to model potential
unknown words to Charlie, in addition to displaying the qualities associated with a strong reader.
I planned to utilize Hasbrouck fluency norms throughout the sessions, but was unable to do so
due to lack of time. Charts pertaining to running records assessments and average words read
per minute are displayed in appendices B.4-B.5.
In my action plan, I had set a goal to include a writing piece at the conclusion of each
lesson. Writing pieces during our sessions ranged form journal entries about a text, to actual
questions pertaining to one of the leveled readers read during the session. With time being
limited, the journal entries were sometimes not completed entirely. At the conclusion of each
journal entry, I felt it was important for me to reply back to Charlies response. Replying back to
Charlie allowed for him to see a strong model of writing and to build our rapport. A sample of
the journal entry and response is displayed in appendix D. I used the journal entry as a formative
assessment to see the skills and understanding of spelling and sentence structure.
Throughout the semester, Charlie worked extremely hard and always put forth his best
effort when working with me. Whether it was working with fluency, word study or
comprehension, Charlie always did his best to get the most out of each session. I feel that with
the time I was given, I was able to utilize the skills and strategies I felt most appropriate for
Charlies literacy and developmental needs. A chart of skills and resources used throughout this
case study can be found in appendix E. The full list of APA citations is also located in section
E of the appendix.

Part II: Challenges and Successes during Intervention

Throughout the course of the semester, Charlie experienced many challenges and
successes. One challenge in particular related to the lack of growth displayed with the fluency
intervention. I feel that Charlie responded as well as he could have in the situation. Reflecting
on my previous lesson plans, I simply did not implement enough effective strategies and skills
during instruction to provide growth in regards to fluency. As displayed on the graph in
appendix B.4, Charlies words read per minute average ranged from approximately 83.4 words to
72 words. When comparing the spring scores with the fall scores, the numbers were very similar
and slightly declined. Charlie is still significantly below his suggested grade level average, by
approximately 60 words, as seen on appendix B.4. In the fifth grade, according to the Fountas
and Pinnell (2009) oral fluency norms, Charlie should be reading between 140-180 words per
minute. I noticed that certain words in the text gave Charlie trouble, resulting in him pausing for
extended time to try and figure the word out. The highest recorded words per minute for a text
was 83.4 (still well below the suggested average), which related to the X-Zone: Car Crazy (2005)
text that he was extremely excited to read. I think the X-Zone: Car Crazy (2005) text was a key
factor for him earning his highest words per minute score, as this was an area of high interest for
Charlie, according to the interest survey seen in appendix C.7. Higher interest means he most
likely had extensive background knowledge with the subject, allowing him to easily identify
certain words. In addition to his struggling rate, Charlie also tested at a frustration level for all of
the Rigby leveled texts read, besides level 23. As displayed on the graph seen in appendix B.5,
Charlie stayed consistent with his accuracy rate and did not show any major signs of growth.
However, the highest score from the spring regarding accuracy came from a text that Charlie had
significant background knowledge on. Entering the spring, Charlie tested instructional at a
Rigby level 21 text. When progressing to the Rigby level 23 text, Charlies accuracy stayed the
same while declining when moving to the level 26 and 28 text. After reflecting on my time with
Charlie and reviewing the data, I wish I had spent more time with Charlie and building his
fluency and rate. Throughout our sessions together, this definitely was an area that was not
addressed near as much as word study and comprehension. As displayed by the results on
appendix B.5, no growth or improvement was displayed. I feel that if I would have implemented
more strategies besides sight word expansion and choral reading, Charlie may have been able to
display some forms of growth. One strategy I would have liked to implement more throughout
this study is multiple readings of a text. As discussed by Marcell (2011), when a student reads
the same text multiple times, the rate and accuracy of the reader goes up. Although I did
implement a few strategies to promote fluency and accuracy, it is evident by the data that they
were not effective for Charlie needs.
Another challenge Charlie displayed throughout the tutoring sessions pertained to his
writing. When coming back from the Vanderbilt and metro spring break, I wanted to conclude
our tutoring sessions with a brief journal entry. The journal entries generally related to the
leveled texts read during our intervention session, or reading in general. After reviewing the
writing sample seen in appendix D, it is evident that Charlie still has some challenges in regards
to writing. I feel that Charlie may have struggled with the journal entries, as I did not always put
Charlie in a situation to be successful with the activity. I feel that journaling/writing activities
were ineffective due to insufficient time given at the end of class to complete the activity.
Charlies body language at the end of many sessions showed signs of feeling rushed with the
activity, resulting in not his best academic work. As displayed in appendix D, his sentences were

short and choppy and not written in paragraph form. In the future, I would make sure to embed
the journal/writing activity earlier in the lesson to make sure there was sufficient time give to
complete the task. I also would try to make a stronger effort with embedding the words
discussed throughout word study with the planned writing activity.
One of the major successes displayed throughout the intervention sessions related to
Charlies overall growth displayed on the developmental spelling analysis. Charlie displayed a
significant growth from his initial DSA and improved by answering six more words correctly for
a total of 14/25, as displayed on appendices A.1 and A.2. Many of the words Charlie improved
on related to word features that were heavily discussed and practiced throughout the word study
portion of our tutoring sessions. With the Word Journeys (2013) features scoring system,
students can earn one point for the correct spelling of the feature and two points for spelling the
feature correct as well as the remaining part of the word. Each feature category can earn up to
ten total points. As seen on the features spelled correctly graph, appendix A.4, Charlie increased
his points from five to nine on the VCe patterns. In regards to the r-controlled vowel category,
Charlie declined in points earned, dropping from eight earned to six earned. With long vowel
patterns, Charlie increased his points earned from two points on the initial, to six on the second
administering of the DSA. The last two categories, complex consonants and abstract vowels,
both showed as point growth of four points for each category. This increase in all categories
except the r-controlled vowel, informed me that the word sort and letter tile activity was effective
as Charlie was able to identify the features and/or spell a few more word correctly. Per the data,
Charlie showed that he was starting to acquire the concept of the word features. All of the
features that displayed growth were heavily worked on during our sessions throughout the
semester. I feel that the implementation of the word sorts and letter tile activities helped aide his
success. As discussed by Wells and Narkon (2011), word sorts and word games actively engage
students in exploration and analysis as they search for similarities and recognize difference
between and among words, compare and contrast word features and form generalizations that
they can apply to new words. Wells and Narkon (2011) also discuss that word sorts can provide
a reason and context for students to be intrinsically motivated to complete the activity. The letter
tiles allowed for Charlie to interact with and visually see the word, in addition to hearing the
word being said. The movement also helped with his engagement of the activity. We were able
to manipulate and move the tiles around to change the pronunciation and spelling of words,
specifically when working with long vowel, VCe and abstract vowel patterns throughout the
word study lessons. Charlie was able to improve in all of these categories, despite his
declination with the r-controlled vowel patterns. The results displayed on appendix A.4 allowed
for me to determine that Charlie responded well to completing the word sort activities and letter
tile manipulative. Throughout this activity, I was able to extend Charlies thinking by having
him spell additional words that were not displayed from the word sorts, which I feel also played
a critical part in his growth as displayed on the charts in appendix A.4. Issuing extension words
allowed me to determine whether or not Charlie was starting to comprehend the feature. The
extension allowed for Charlie to have multiple exposures to the feature, resulting in the positive
growth displayed. Charlie did well when working with the words not displayed on the word sort,
which let me know that he truly was starting to comprehend the features we were discussing.
Another success displayed throughout this case study was Charlie becoming a deeper
thinker and engaged reader in regards to answering implicit and explicit comprehension question
pertaining to a particular text. Multiple activities, ranging from directed reading thinking
activities to answering comprehension pertaining to the text read, were fundamental in his

growth as a reader, as seen by the progress made in appendix C.6. I feel that the DRTA played a
significant role in his growth, as Charlie had to make predictions about what he was getting
ready to read. The first DRTA permitted for Charlie to use the pictures in the text to make
predictions, with the second text having the pictures covered when making predictions. The prereading, during reading and post reading strategies implemented throughout the DRTA were
fundamental in building his reasoning and comprehension skills. The aspects of the DRTA are
what helped his growth in explicit and implicit comprehension of the text. As stated by Haggard
(1988), the DRTA increases comprehension of the student through its emphasis on studentgenerated predictions, speculations and conclusions of the text being read. The first DRTA
activity was slightly challenging for Charlie in the beginning. However, the DRTA did help
support Charlies growth in reasoning and comprehension of each new text. Throughout the
course of our tutoring sessions, Charlie displayed signs of growth pertaining to implicit
reasoning by being able to answer and explain instances that were not explicitly stated in the text
read. This was definitely a success, due to our minimal time together over the course of the
semester. In addition, I feel that the comprehension cards I constructed, seen in appendix C.3,
played a critical role in being able to effectively answer implicit questions. Charlie answered the
questions verbally to me, which allowed for me to extend his thinking. I feel that this
opportunity for conversations and extension allowed for Charlie to deepen his critical thinking
skills, which was displayed on his last text reading during intervention. During our final
sessions, I had Charlie read a level 28 text relating to airplanes. At the conclusion of reading the
airplanes text, I gave Charlie four questions to answer, two explicit and two implicit. Charlie did
a great job in answering all of the questions, including the implicit based questions. I feel that
the comprehension cards played a significant role in the growth of his reasoning skills as it
reinforced implicit and explicit example questions. Charlie also is a student who always benefits
from verbal support. The cards allowed for me to give Charlie the support he needed in order to
maximize his growth in comprehension. At the conclusion of the tutoring sessions, Charlie was
administered another QRI passage to read. The text, a second grade expository text, was the
same level he tested instructional at last semester. As seen in appendix A.6, Charlie was able to
correctly answer two more implicit questions when given another QRI at the same level. The
results displayed growth and informed me that the interventions and activities I was completing
with Charlie were beneficial and effective.
With losing time from multiple intervention sessions, I did have to revise some of my
initial suggestions for intervention discussed in my action plan. One area I revised related to
utilizing the Hasbrouck fluency norms for multiple readings of a text. Due to the time restraints,
this activity was not implemented with my student as much as I initially desired. I also did not
implement fluency practices and strategies as much as I discussed throughout my action plan.
After working with Charlie during my first few sessions, I felt spending more time with word
study and comprehension were more beneficial to his particular needs.
The next steps for intervention with Charlie should continue to focus on word study and
fluency. As seen throughout appendix B, Charlie continues to display many miscues during his
reading, which is strongly affecting his rate. Many of these miscues are minor that I feel could
most likely be fixed throughout continued word study activities and exercises. For example,
Charlie displayed multiple miscues that were a result of using the incorrect inflectional ending. I
also think continuing to participate in choral reading and participating in multiple readings of a
text are great ways to help build Charlies fluency and rate. I was able to tap into Charlies
interests with the texts read, which resulted in me receiving his full interest and engagement of

the activity. Lastly, incorporating consistent writing strategies and practices will be fundamental
for Charlies literacy growth. When asking for Charlie to write throughout the intervention
process, I consistently received short and compact sentences that were often incomplete
thoughts. The writing strategies and practices could easily be integrated with the word study
portion during RTI by either journaling or through written response.
Part II: Conclusion and Critical Self-Reflection
The experiences encountered throughout this study have given me valuable insight on
how to effectively work with adolescent students, specifically Charlie. Throughout the tutoring
process, I wanted to make sure my lessons and activities were engaging and beneficial to
Charlies literacy growth. To assist in doing this, I needed to understand Charlies interests
inside and outside of school. Knowing Charlies interests allowed for me to pull texts that would
gauge his interest and motivate him to read. I was able to notice that Charlie displayed higher
motivation to read a text he was interested in, when compared to seeing unfamiliar texts. Having
interests in many of the texts read allowed for him to engage in meaningful conversation with his
summary, which in turn was significant in his comprehension growth. It is important to
understand every text read is not always going to be interesting to the reader. However, pulling
texts of interest at the appropriate level played a critical role in Charlies comprehension growth
throughout the tutoring sessions.
In addition, extending Charlies thinking through questioning and the DRTA was
fundamental to the comprehension growth displayed. Extending Charlies thinking as he
summarized the text allowed for him to make the necessary gains with his implicit reasoning
skills. Through my questioning, Charlie was able to think deeper about events throughout the
text, in addition to reading between the lines. Continuing to work on his implicit reasoning is a
skill that Charlie will hopefully continue to work on, which will be essential to his continued
literacy growth in the future.
Throughout this study, I also was able to see the importance of keeping adolescents
engaged throughout the learning process. In certain sessions, I could tell that Charlie was not
interested or engaged with the activity or lesson. On days when there was little interest or
engagement, Charlie displayed struggles in regards to the content that was discussed throughout
the session. Lack of engagement from Charlie generally resulted in lower performance
throughout the activities and formative assessments. However, when working with a lesson or
activity the required engagement from Charlie, he tended to attain more of the material
discussed. For example, when Charlie was working with the letter tiles manipulative throughout
our word study sessions, he was engaged with his learning and enjoyed having the opportunity to
manipulate the letter tiles. In my final developmental spelling analysis administered to Charlie,
he displayed growth in all but one of the word feature categories assessed. This growth
displayed throughout appendix A.4 showed the importance of keeping Charlie actively engaged
throughout his learning as he was able to display he understood the material from our sessions.
As a future coach, I plan to make student engagement a critical aspect of my literacy instruction.
I truly feel that engagement in learning needs to be a part of the school culture, especially
throughout literacy instruction. From working with Charlie, I was able to witness significant
literacy growth when he was actively engaged with his learning. When adolescents have the
opportunity to interact and engage with what they are learning, it allows for students to make
meaningful connections with material resulting in retention of content.

Over the course of my tutoring sessions, I was able to grasp the high volume of
assessments administered to students throughout the course of the week. On multiple occasions
throughout the course of the year, I had to adjust multiple lessons of mine due to the large
amounts of assessments that Charlie had to complete with the middle school. Charlie would
come back from his major assessment and would be mentally tired and not interested in working
with the material I had planned. I planned on assessing him, but soon realized it would be
counter-productive for what I was trying to attain. This high amount of testing for many students
is unfortunate. However, it made me take a step back and determine the true purpose and reason
for each assessment and activities I administered and if it aligned with the goal for session. I
found myself on a few occasions changing or deleting the activity and assessment, due to its lack
of purpose to the goal of the lesson. As a future literacy coach or teacher, it is fundamental to
choose assignments and assessments that are appropriate to the students learning needs. In
addition, understanding the amount of assessments students complete on a daily basis is critical.
I did not feel it was appropriate to administer literacy assessments, like the QRI, after Charlie
had to take a high-stakes test such as the TN Ready. As a future literacy teacher or coach, I want
to make sure my students enjoy reading. Over-assessing students and administering unnecessary
assessments is one way to turn them away from reading. Choosing appropriate assessments and
activities that drive instruction, in addition to administering them at an appropriate time, will be
critical in keeping my future students motivated to read.
Throughout the process of working with Charlie, I was able to experience first-hand that
engagement was a critical factor in his literacy growth. Charlies active engagement in the word
study and comprehension lessons displayed the two largest areas of growth across pertaining to
the skills discussed throughout our tutoring sessions. As a future literacy coach of adolescents,
active engagement of students will be a critical component of my instruction. Similarly, I plan to
be cognizant of student interests and embed them throughout instruction and activities. This will
help students stay intrinsically motivated to read. During my tutoring sessions, I was able to do
this with Charlie and it helped keep him interested and engaged with the content and skills
discussed during our time together. Throughout the course of my action plan, I had many goals
for Charlie. To help attain these goals, I held Charlie to high expectations during our sessions.
Holding high expectations to all students is something I feel is critical to their growth as student,
as it holds them accountable in their learning. Charlie was able to meet and exceed two of our
major goals in a short window of time, which displays the potential Charlie has in regards to
literacy. Overall, my experiences from working with Charlie have allowed for me to grow
professionally and personally as a future literacy coach/teacher. The experiences from this study
have shaped how I will approach my future role as a literacy coach.

References Cited/Implemented During Intervention Sessions

Armstrong, Cindy. Car Crazy. Lindfield, N.S.W.: Scholastic Education, 2005. Print. X-Zone.
Ganske, Kathy. Word Journeys: Assessment-Guided Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary
Instruction (2nd Edition). Guilford Publications, 2013. Print.
Haggard, Martha Rapp. "Developing Critical Thinking with the Directed Reading-Thinking
Activity." The Reading Teacher 41.6 (1988): 526-33. ProQuest. Web.
Heinemann. "Fountas and Pinnell Recommended Oral Reading Rates." 2009. Web.
Invernizzi, Marcia. Word Sorts for Within Word Pattern Spellers. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon/Pearson, 2009. Print.
Leslie, Lauren, and JoAnne Caldwell. Qualitative Reading Inventory. Boston, MA:
Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2011. Print.
Marcell, Barclay. "Putting Fluency on a Fitness Plan : Building Fluency's Meaning-Making
Muscles." Read Teach The Reading Teacher 65.4 (2011): 242-49. Web.
McKenna, Michael C., and Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl. Assessment for Reading Instruction.
New York City: Guilford, 2015. Print.
Ramos, Darleen. Behind the Scenes at the Airport. Chicago: Wright Group;/McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Print.
Richardson, Christopher. So You Want to Be an Astronaut? Lindfield, N.S.W.: Scholastic
Education, 2005. Print.
Wells, J. C., and D. E. Narkon. "Motivate Students to Engage in Word Study Using Vocabulary
Games." Intervention in School and Clinic 47.1 (2011): 45-49. Web.