Jordan Huffman
CRI Narratives
April 8, 2014
Introduction:
The child I was placed with was Aliyah, and she is a fourth grader at a local elementary school.
She is eleven years old, and she should be in the sixth grade. She is on a beginning fourth grade
reading level. I first observed her on January twenty-eighth, and we first met together on January
30, 2014.
Interest Inventory:
On January 30, 2014, I gave her the interest inventory to learn what types of things she
was in to, especially about her interests as far as reading are concerned. The interest inventory
helps the examiner learn more about a student’s background knowledge and interests, which can
help a teacher find appealing material to help the student learn more efficiently. Based on the
interest inventory I gave to Aliyah, I learned that she really enjoys math but is struggling in it.
She is struggling in most subjects actually. She dislikes history and social studies. However,
Aliyah has interests in Taylor Swift and Sponge Bob. She does not know what kind of future
reading she would like to do or what she would enjoy reading. So my goal will be to find her
something she enjoys reading, and I hope that she will be able to continue reading the rest of the
series after our time together is finished. Aliyah watches a lot of TV and plays a lot of computer
games, and she does not read very much in her free time at home. She is supposed to be reading
twenty minutes a night, but nobody reads with her at night so lead me to believe that she does not
always do it. She thinks comprehending and understanding large words is very difficult when it
comes to reading. Chapter books are hard for her because she does not understand most of the
words.
Reading Attitude Survey:
Aliyah and I worked on her reading attitude survey on January 30, 2014.
The reading attitudes survey helps the teacher understand a child’s attitude about reading at
school, home, and for pleasure. Based on the test I distributed to Aliyah, I found out that she
prefers not to read in her free time. She shared with me that she hates to read out loud in class,
and she is not overly thrilled about reading at school or anywhere else, independently. She does
enjoy worksheets she is asked to do at school about her readings she was assigned. However, she
did say she liked when she found a good book and she can enjoy starting to read the new,
exciting material.
Concepts of Print:
On February 4, 2013, Aliyah took the Concepts of Print assessment. Concepts of Print is
mostly used for younger aged children to learn how well the child can work a book. It checks a
student’s understanding of letters, words, sentences, punctuation, and how to manipulate the
book. Her book concepts assessment shows that she has strength in manipulating a book. As far
as directionality and text concepts, she did well in all areas with very little trouble. However, she
did pick a capital letter in a word that was all capital letters at the end of the sentence rather than
a beginning letter of a sentence. For punctuation marks, Aliyah struggled more in this category,
having trouble with what each punctuation mark is. She particularly had trouble mixing up the
question mark and exclamation mark.
Initial Consonant Sound Test:
Aliyah took the Initial Consonant Sounds Test on February 4, 2014. The purpose of this
test is to help a teacher determine a student’s ability in segmenting the beginnings of sounds in
spoken words. Aliyah scored a ten, and her developmental level was developing. From this
assessment, I propose that Aliyah may need more work on phonemes.
Phonemic Segmentation Test:
On February 6, 2014, Aliyah took the Phonemic Segmentation Test. This particular test is
used for understanding the knowledge of how well a student can decode sounds of spoken words.
This test focuses on the beginning, middle, and end of words. The student received a twelve out
of fifteen as a score for this test. This means she is developing. However, on all three of her
mistakes she said a wrong answer and immediately corrected herself to the right answer. So she
could also be close to proficient. Based on this, Aliyah may need help with the middle sounds of
spoken words.
Blending Sounds Test-Onset and Rime:
On the same day, February 6th, I assessed her on the Blending Sounds Test on onset and
rime, which is a test that displays a student’s ability to comprehend and blend phonemes to
produce words. Aliyah scored a twenty-nine out of thirty-one, which is the proficient stage of
development. Therefore, she does not need more work on blending phonemes based on this
assessment tools.
Phonics Test:
On February 25, 2014, Aliyah took the Phonics Test, which is an assessment tool for
phonics abilities for children that specifically include consonant sounds, correct pronunciation of
common rimes, syllabication, affixes, and r-controlled vowels. All of these items are embedded
in the words that the student is asked to read so that the teacher can analyze the student’s ability
on each fundamental area. Aliyah made four mistakes in the initial sounds, leaving her in the
emergent stage. She also made four mistakes in the rime section, which again placed her in the
emergent stage. She made two mistakes in syllabication, and that put her in the developing stage.
Aliyah made no mistakes with affixes or r-controlled vowels, so she was in the proficient stage
for development.
Blending Sounds Test: Individual Sounds:
The Blending Sounds Test: Individual Sounds was taken on February 18, 2014. The
purpose of this assessment is to check phonemic awareness by blending individual sounds into
words. It measures the student’s ability to hear spoken words and segment the phonemes. Aliyah
scored a twenty-eight out of thirty on this assessment and was in the proficient developmental
stage. She said men instead of man. So if I went further into phonemes with her I could revisit /a/
and /e/ sounds. Overall, Aliyah does not need much extra practice working on blending
individual sounds.
Letter Naming Test
Aliyah took this assessment on February 18, 2014. The point of this assessment is to
determine if a student can identify letters of the alphabet in both upper case and lowercase forms.
Aliyah scored a twenty-six out of twenty-six on all three forms, lowercase, uppercase, and upper
and lower case mixed together. She therefore scored proficient on the Letter Naming Test, and
she knows all the letters of the alphabet in both forms.
Form A Reader’s Passage Selection:
On Form A Reader’s Passages, which is the form of sentences for initial passage
selection for a student, I had Aliyah start reading at level two. She read to level five, where she
made two mistakes. I determined that by this we needed to start on level four when she would
read the passage because level five would be too difficult for her. Level four would be a more
appropriate level for where she is currently at in her development. We took this assessment on
February 25, 2014.
Comprehensive Reading Inventory: Oral and Silent Reading Assessment- Level 4:
This test was administered on February twenty-seventh. On the silent reading
comprehension narrative for level four, Aliyah silently read the passage and answered three out
of three character-characterization questions correctly, one out of one setting question correctly,
two out of two story problems correctly, and two out of two problem resolution problems
correctly. From this assessment, it shows that she does not need work on anything in a particular
area. She also got six out of six literal questions correct and one out of one language question
correct. Her silent reading score was on an easy developmental level.
For the analysis of miscues, as she read the first one hundred words of the passage out
loud to me, she made two errors. One mistake was a mispronunciation and the other was
substitution. Error analysis included: one meaning cue, one syntax cue, and two visual cues. Her
fluency was a fluent reader for this passage. She needs more work on mispronunciation of words,
substitution of words, and visual cues. For her oral reading accuracy she made two to five oral
errors, which is adequate. So we moved on to the next passage.
Silent Reading Comprehension Level 5:
After silently reading passage one of level five, Aliyah answered four questions
completely correct and three somewhat correct out of eight questions provided for the
assessment. She correctly answered two and a half of the literal questions out of three, she got
both character-characterization questions partially correct, one out of one setting questions
correct, two out of three problem resolution correct, one of theme kind of correct, two out of
three inferential, and the evaluative and expressive language questions partially correct. Aliyah’s
mistakes show that she needs to work on all of the elements because she had problems with all of
them and not just one certain area. Aliyah’s score for the silent reading puts her at a between
adequate and too hard level.
Oral Reading Comprehension Level 5:
For the Oral Reading and Analysis of Miscues portion of the assessment, Aliyah had ten
miscues. She missed for questions based on her mispronunciation, substituted four words, had
two teacher assists, and one omission. She had error analysis including: two meaning cues, six
visual cues, and no syntax cues. Her level of fluency for this passage was at mixed phrasing.
From this assessment, I determined that Aliyah needed work on substitution and visual miscues.
Her oral reading level was too hard, so therefore we did not move on to level six. Instead, Aliyah
would take the listening comprehension assessment, as I read to her for level six.
Listening Comprehension Level 6:
After listening to the passage for level six, Aliyah answered three out of the eight
questions correctly; two partially correct, and answered three incorrect. She correctly answered
one out of two story problem questions, one out of one problem resolution correctly, one out of
two problem resolution attempts correctly, missed the one vocabulary question, answered part of
one setting question correctly, and part of one character-characterization question correctly.
Aliyah got the three correct for literal and two partially correct for literal for a grand total of five
literal questions. This was one of her strengths. She got two out of two inferential questions
incorrect. She also got the one expressive language question incorrect. Aliyah needs to work on
inferential and expressive language questions. She also needs to work on story problem
resolution, problem resolution attempts, vocabulary, setting, and character-characterization.
Aliyah’s score puts her listening level below level six.
Summary:
Throughout all the assessment Aliyah took part in, her results show that Aliyah is at an
instructional level of level four. Level four was the last place Aliyah scored easy on her silent
reading and adequate on her oral reading, leaving her at a just right instructional level.
Aliyah reads with fluency at level four. She reads with mixed phrasing at level five. Patterns
noticed in comprehension were that Aliyah should continue work on character-characterization,
problem resolution attempts story grammar elements, and inferential, evaluative, literal, and
expressive language levels of comprehension. Aliyah seems to do well with setting and story
problems. Patterns for types of miscues Aliyah needs work on include substitution and
mispronunciation. She seems to do well on insertions and omissions, and for the most part
teacher assists. Patterns noticed for meaning, syntax, and visual cue usage was that Aliyah
should work on meaning and visual cues. She appears to do pretty well on syntax cues.