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Leslie Anne Shilling
Case Study: Kennedy
I chose to do my case study with a student named Kennedy. Kennedy is an African
American female student in the second grade at Carter Lawrence Magnet School. She is in Mrs.
Hartley’s all girls class. Kennedy enjoys reading about snakes and other animals. The best book
she ever read was Cat in the Hat. She gets books from the library regularly and has a lot of books
at home. Kennedy has one little brother who she likes to read to, but she also likes for her mom
to read to her as well. Kennedy is best friends with Aisa and they like to play games and walk
Aisa’s dog. Currently, Kennedy wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Kennedy said she
would wish for a car, a dog, and sisters if she could have three wishes.
Kennedy’s reading level when I began testing was MNPS Level 20 according to her
teacher. In this class, a level 20 is the green group, which is about on grade level. Kennedy is on
the lower end of this group and would benefit from some extra assessments and one-on-one help.
When I tested Kennedy using a level 20 book, she had a lot of miscues, so I dropped down to a
level 19 for the second test. Kennedy still had too many miscues for this to be on a guided
reading level. I asked her teacher about it and she confirmed what I thought: Kennedy rushes
when she reads and misses a lot of words that she does actually know. But because she rushes,
she misses them. This insight helped me a lot when I gave her assessments. Kennedy also
struggles with spelling and fluency.
The first assessment I gave Kennedy was for phonological awareness. She can hear
separate words in speech, blend and isolate phonemes, isolate beginning sounds, distinguish long
and short vowels, and classify categories of words with no problems. Kennedy correctly
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identified words with one and three syllables, but pronounced two syllable words as one syllable.
Instead of rhyming the blend for the word “fry”, she rhymed the long “i” sound by saying “pie”.
Kennedy also struggled with phoneme manipulation. She could easily manipulate compound
words when asked to take away part of the word, but she had trouble when asked to take away
the beginning sound. For example, Kennedy would take away the beginning blend or add the
letters to the end of the word instead of adding or subtracting one letter. For example, “slap
without the s” was pronounced “ap” because she took away “sl”; “add /t/ to /ap/” was
pronounced “at”. She also had trouble isolating final and middle sounds in words. She mixed up
the middle and first sounds and did not identify any final sounds.
Pronouncing two syllable words with only one syllable tells me that Kennedy is
pronouncing the words incorrectly. She may be unfamiliar with the words but I think she is just
saying them incorrectly. If she can learn to pronounce them correctly, she will have no problem
breaking them into the correct amount of syllables. I do not think that Kennedy has any issues
with rhyming because she only missed the blend rhyme for “fry.” Honestly, I don’t know if I
could have rhymed the blend either. Also, the resource teacher told me that every student she has
tested has missed that question. To help with phoneme manipulation, I would have Kennedy
draw a rhyme story, read some phonics books like The Giant’s Toe or Willy the Wimp, and learn
sound isolation and segmentation songs. The sound isolation and segmentation songs would help
Kennedy learn to isolate the separate sounds that make up a word.
The second assessment I did with Kennedy was for sight words. I showed Kennedy the
list of sight words and she read them individually. She correctly identified 179 of the 220 words.
She only missed one or two words in the lists until list eight. She missed a few words lists eight,
nine, and ten but she missed 5 on list eleven. These results tell me that she is doing well but
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mostly struggling with the hardest list. Since she is still about 5 weeks from the end of 2nd grade,
I think that she has time to work on that last list and the other various words she missed. I would
use sight word flash cards and have her practice the words in any spare time she. The goal is for
her to be able to read all 220 words by the end of second grade and this is achievable for
Kennedy.
The third assessment was a phonics inventory. Kennedy could identify consonant sounds
and vowels. She could also read y as a vowel, short vowel words, and r-controlled vowel words.
She had trouble identifying the consonant blends “scr” and “str” but identified the other blends
correctly. The silent “e” rule was difficult; Kennedy missed three of the five words. Words with
double vowels and diphthongs also gave her trouble. She missed about half of the words in each
of these categories.
Kennedy needs practice reading “scr” and “str” words to learn these blends. Because she
identified the other blends correctly, I think that she just does not recognize these particular
blends. Since she could identify about half of the words correctly for silent “e”, double vowels
and diphthongs, I think Kennedy needs more practice with these rules. She has some concept of
the rules but only applies the rules half of the time. To help with this, I would choose guided
reading books that focus on silent “e” words, double vowel words, and words with diphthongs. I
would also use Make-A-Word Letter Bags or magnets. I would teach her the saying “When two
vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” to help her remember which vowel to
pronounce in double vowel words. She needs to memorize the rules and pronunciations that she
has trouble with, but reading these words in guided reading books would be beneficial.
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The next assessment I did consisted of two running records. When I began testing,
Kennedy was at a MNPS Level 20 reading level for her guided reading group. So, the first book I
used was a level 20. Kennedy had 21 miscues out of the 204 words in the passage. I was
surprised at how many miscues she had on this passage that was supposed to be on level. This
passage had weird character names like Enklewinkle and Stickyprickle but I told her the names
before we read the passage and I did not count those words when she missed them. The words
she missed were words that she should be able to read correctly. Although so many words were
misread, Kennedy’s comprehension of the story was flawless. She did not hesitate once when
answering the comprehension questions.
Because there were so many miscues in the first passage, I chose a Level 19 book for the
second passage. The number of miscues in the second passage was significantly less, but still too
high; she had 12 miscues with the level 19 passage. But again, she answered the comprehension
questions perfectly. I realize that based on the number of miscues, Kennedy should be retested at
a lower level but I think she is capable of reading at a level 20 or higher for guided reading
because she is making mistakes by not paying close attention.
Kennedy has a tendency to rush through her work and reading. She skips words or
doesn’t read the entire word, usually saying a word that begins with the same few letters. If she
would slow down and take her time, I think she would have a lot less miscues in the running
record. This opinion is based on the fact that Kennedy is very intelligent and she has no problems
with comprehending what she reads, even if she reads it incorrectly. I admit that I have no idea
how she can read a passage incorrectly but still understand exactly what the story is about.
Listening to her read, it is easy to see that she rushes because she is reading very quickly. If she
would slow down when she reads, her running record would have significantly less miscues.
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Kennedy seems to be an average second grader. Her reading level may increase if she
slowed down when she read; her sight word identification would increase if she practiced the
words a little more; and she can improve her phonological awareness and phonics skills through
guided reading, songs, word sorts, make a letter bags, and other activities focused on her specific
weaknesses.
I think that Kennedy could benefit from fluency exercises and spelling help. Kennedy
rushes through her reading; she reads the wrong words but she reads them quickly and fairly
monotone. However when we performed Reader’s Theater, Kennedy read her lines accurately
and very smoothly. She had time to learn and practice the lines she read which tells me that if she
would take her time in other reading that she could read fluently. To practice fluency, I would
have Kennedy continue with guided reading groups and participate in partner and echo reading.
Kennedy would benefit greatly from partner and echo reading because it would allow her a
chance to listen to someone else reading as well. I’m not sure why she feels that she has to rush
through the text, but when she rushes a lot of words of read incorrectly. I have already seen that
reader’s theater helped Kennedy. Partner, Choral, and Echo Reading could also help her learn to
take her time.
For help with spelling, a miniature word wall is what I would suggest. If Kennedy could
keep a running of list on her desk or in a notebook of words that she frequently misspells, she
might make the mistakes less often. A word list or word wall could also be turned into flashcards
that she could practice to become more familiar with the words. I would also have Kennedy play
some spelling games on the computer or try to find some handouts that she could use for extra
practice. More exposure and practice with words that she misses often might help her learn to
recognize and remember them.
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I would like to see Kennedy continue to read at home with her mom and brother. The
trips to the library and having numerous books at home are important to continue. She is very
involved and pays attention during class. I want her to continue to work diligently and ask for
help when she needs it. Extra practice with flashcards and games would help her learn and
remember the rules she is having trouble with. Hopefully through the combination of all the
things I have listed throughout this report, Kennedy could improve her reading and writing and
pass on level.