Portrait of a reader: Ben - Ongoing assessments in action

Ben arrived mid-year to my fourth grade classroom. His cumulative folder did not have current assessment scores to indicate what reading level was considered instructional and independent for Ben. I asked Ben to talk a little about his interests outside of school, to tell me some books he had read and enjoyed, and to tell me about his family. Ben’s interest in race cars was immediately apparent. In fact, Ben had a book that he carried to and from school everyday in his backpack that mentioned his father, a former race car driver. Ben read from this book, written at a sixth grade level, each day for silent sustained reading time.

Ben seemed to have difficulty when we read articles during our science class. The articles were written on a fourth grade level. When the class discussed the severe weather conditions, which were the subject of the science articles, Ben seemed very interested. He just did not seem to be getting meaning from the articles when he was asked to read them on his own. Ben was reluctant to try reading the articles. This surprised me a bit, as I had seen him tackle that sixth grade level book each day.

I asked Ben to read a little of the race car book to me, but I did not take a running record. Ben read from this book fluently and with expression. Ben was obviously familiar with the text and so I did not think it would be the most appropriate text for a valid running record. I chose a passage out of an anthology about old-fashioned cars that was written on a fourth-grade level. I actually thought the text might be a bit on the easy side for Ben. Ben appeared interested in the sketch of an old Ford at the top of the passage, and he began reading. I set the purpose for Ben’s reading by saying, “Read to see why everyone wanted a Ford.”

Ben relied heavily on visual cues. He came to complete stops before unfamiliar words and attempted to sound the words out letter by letter. Many times, these attempts had Ben calling non-sense words. Ben did not make self-corrections, but continued through the reading. When I asked Ben to retell the story, he struggled. Ben used many of the same terms used in the book and did not seem to be putting the story into his own words. One section of the text told how “people were racing out to buy Fords.” When Ben retold the story, he said, “People were out racing their Fords.” When he summarized the passage, he repeated what I had said in setting the purpose for the story: “And everyone wanted a Ford.”

After I completed the analysis of the cueing systems, it was clear to me that Ben was losing meaning in his reading for several reasons. Ben did not make use of meaning cues at all during his reading. Ben relied heavily (almost 90%) on visual cues. While using visual cues can be a strength, Ben looked at the letters within each word separately, not in chunks. This lack of “chunking” resulted in non-sense words. This is where reading was breaking down for Ben. He could not make meaning of his reading if the words he was reading were non-sensical. Ben was not familiar with some of the terms in the book and could not use context clues to figure out the meaning of certain vocabulary because of the non-sensical words he was creating. Syntax cues were neglected in cases where Ben was attempting a word in a letter by letter manner. However, he did self-correct when leaving the suffix “ed” off the word “fixed.” So, when he could anticipate words or solve them letter by letter to produce an actual word, Ben could then use syntax to self-correct where needed.

So, how was it that Ben could read his self-selected text about race-cars so easily, when it was a sixth grade level book? Ben was familiar with many of the terms in his race-car book. He had prior knowledge of the kind of vocabulary that is used when discussing race cars. This prior knowledge allowed him to anticipate certain words. Paired with a partial visual (maybe a first letter in a word), Ben used his knowledge of race-car terminology and an initial sound to be able to more fluently read a higher level text. Within the context of race-car reading, Ben was reading above grade level. He was using meaning cues all of the time. However, when I presented Ben with a book on a lower level, he did not read to the level I thought he would. I selected a passage about cars, which interested him, but reading about old-fashioned car production and popularity of a certain car was very different than the modern race car experiences with which Ben was familiar.

I presented Ben with the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT). This simple assessment can give an approximate grade level for a child’s reading. In hindsight, I should have used the SORTbefore attempting a passage reading with Ben, as I would have seen Ben’s work at the word level first and might not have been so surprised by his struggle with the passage. Ben’s reading level according to the SORTwas third grade, sixth month. This meant that text written at the third grade, sixth month level would be appropriate for Ben to learn from.

I made use of carefully planned mini-lessons which used Ben’s strengths to bolster his needs in reading. I used CLOZE activities in which a passage was shown with certain words blanked out. A separate word bank contained the missing words that needed to be filled in. Before asking Ben to solve for the missing words, I went over each vocabulary word. Most of the words came from social studies or science content. Ben read the passage, plugging in the vocabulary words by anticipating terms and using partial visuals. I wanted Ben to see that this reading strategy he relied on so heavily in the world of reading about race-cars could be applied in other kinds of reading. Also, I worked in small groups with mini-lessons on chunking words.

A follow-up running record two months after the first one showed Ben making use of meaning cues 50% of the time. Although the level of text remained at the end of third grade level, Ben’s comprehension of what he read was stronger. Ben did not read any words in a non-sensical manner and made more attempts to self-correct. Ben had grown as a reader because of the strategic planning I was able to do, based on information I gleaned from his initial running record.