Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Keystone Assignment: QRI5 Assessment

Brandy Blanchard
EDLI 636
Spring 2017
Dr. Hsu
Keystone assignment: QRI5 Written Report
1 Student: both narrative and expository pieces used for assessment

Student Background: The student I worked with for my QRI5 assessment is a 7th grader we will refer to as JD or J. J is a Caucasian male who has been diagnosed with autism and is reading at a 2nd grade level per his classroom teacher. JD is in a special education classroom specifically designed to address student’s life skills needs. He receives speech services as pull out and push in sessions multiple times a week. The first thing I noticed about JD is his extensive knowledge in history and social studies, particularly focusing on presidents, past and present. I wanted to take the teacher’s assessment of her student into consideration, but wanted to start with the primer level reading list to see if I would come up with the same conclusions as the classroom teacher. The word lists were read over a few different class periods, with breaks in between, as to not overwhelm the student.

Assessment: I began the assessment with the provided word lists and started at the pre-primer level. I wanted to see JDs reaction to the different lists and get my own idea of his reading level and abilities while keeping in mind what grade level his teacher placed him on. One the pre-primer list, J scored a 17/17 or 100% on the first list, and on the second list he read “where” instead of “were” but then identified the word correctly. This gave him a score of 19/20 or 95%. Both lists put him at the independent reading level for pre-primer. On both the primer and first grade reading lists, student scored 95% which kept him at the independent level. On the second-grade level list, J scored a total 18/20 or 90%. He automatically read 14 correctly and then identified 4 others (pieces, insects, weather, noticed) with still have him considered independent reader at the second-grade level. When we moved onto the third-grade list, J became frustrated at this level. Out of 20 words, he could only automatically identify 10/20, and correctly identified three more. This third-grade level gave J a 65%, placing him at the frustration level. I decided here that the best level to place JD would be second-grade independent, with higher level second-grade passages as his instructional level.
The next step I took was to have JD read both a narrative and expository text. For the narrative, we started with some basic concept questions so I could get an idea of his prior knowledge and see if he showed an interest in the topic, and would therefore find the reading engaging. After having him answer the concept questions, I felt like JD would do well with this passage as far as reading and comprehension. The student made 5 errors while reading, and read 87 WCPM. When it came time for recall, the student could retell 24 out of the 38 details in the story, or 6% of the story. When it came time to answer level 2 questions, he struggled to recall key details in the text. For an expository text, I chose a text about U.S presidents because I knew he had a great deal of prior knowledge in that subject. I was surprised to find that the results of the expository reading were like the results of his narrative assessment. Even though he had a great deal of prior knowledge on the topic, he became frustrated with the assessment.

Student strengths and needs: After the assessment, I determined that the student is very eager to please and becomes frustrated and upset when he can’t answer the questions or retell the story correctly. A positive of JD is that he is willing to learn and wants to work to improve on his reading and retelling skills. He wants to be able to read texts about the presidents and remember what he read. JD’s needs and academic goals are to work on fluency and confidence while he is reading. As his fluency improves, comprehension will become easier for J. He often replaces unknown words with words that look similar. He is able to get a basic idea of the story but is unable to recall key details in the text.
To work with JD on his needs, I have decided that he needs to focus on improving fluency along with learning comprehension strategies (such as graphic organizers and retelling) and discussing a story out loud while he reads.

Reflection: Overall I really enjoyed administering the QRI5 assessment and getting to work with my student JD. The most important thing I learned while working with JD, and other students in my field placement, is that you cannot judge a student based on their IEP’s or what other students in the class are like. Each of the students are unique individuals and need to have their instruction designed specifically to reach their personal goals and targets. Using both a narrative an expository text allowed me to see different sides of the student and get an in depth understanding of where the student thrives, and where he needs extra attention. The QRI5 helped me design a lesson that will help one particular student in his area of need. The idea that all students are different motivates me to look at each QRI5, or any other assessment, with fresh eyes and to remember that all students do not need the same thing, have the same strengths or interests, and need to be treated as individuals with specialized instruction whenever possible. 

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