Child Study Project

Introduction

For this project, I used my little sister and chose to conceal her name by using student in place of it. Student during the project period was age 9 and half way through fourth grade in a small Southeast Iowa school district. Student typically does well in school and on assessment tests, coming home with mostly, A’s on her report cards and scoring in the 90^th percentile on test such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.

Student’s classroom environment is somewhat laid back and does not allow for much free reading and writing time during the school day. Surprisingly when asked if she liked reading and writing student responded by saying that she in fact did not like reading or writing. She stated that she felt writing was boring and she only read in her free time if she was bored.

Student’s history with literacy begins at around six months and continues up until the age where she was able to read independently. Student’s parents disclosed that when younger student was read to at least every evening before bed by sisters or parents.      

Writing

Summary

On day of session one, student arrived at my apartment around 5:00pm on a Saturday night, the parents left immediately to go to a basketball game. The only other people in the apartment were my boyfriend who was working in the other room and my dog. Student was not ready to work upon arrival probably because she had just had a long car ride to my apartment, approximately one hour. Before we began, student and I watched some television, played a game, and entertained the dog. After about one hour, I sat student down and talked with her about the project. She was excited to be part of the project. I began by asking her some of the interview questions

Interviewer (me): "How do you feel about writing?"

Student: "I don’t like writing; its boring."

Interviewer: "Why not? Do you think you are a good writer?"

Student: "No."

Interviewer: "Why do you feel that way?"

Student: "My friends say I am a sloppy writer."

Interviewer: "How do you do grade wise on writing projects in school?"

Student: "I do good, I think."

Later when I ask the parents about student’s writing work and grades in school, her parents say that she does well in writing/ language arts in school. The parents also said student scored on the high end of her grade level for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.

Interviewer: "What would you call writing? How would you define it?"

Student: "Words, homework, a way of describing something."

Interviewer: "Why do you think we write? What do you think the purpose of writing is?"

Student: "It can be used to give ideas, facts, opinions, and to persuade."

These later I found were the teachers view on writing not student’s, I wish at the time I would have recognized this and probed deeper with the question.

Interviewer: "Do you ever write independently for fun at home?"

Student: "About once every two months. I like to write/type stories, murder mysteries, and about movies."

The parents later told me that student does write independently at home, they gave me some of student’s work to look at, see sample two.

Interviewer: "Who is someone you know that is a good writer and why do you think that?"

Student: "My teacher and my friend because they explain things well."

Interviewer: "What about someone who is a famous writer?"

Student: "Mary Dawning Haun because she has good descriptions and Nancy Drew because I like mysteries and I like the beginning and end of her books."

Interviewer: "Can you write me a short story right now?"

Student: "Sure."

At this point student began to try and think of a topic to write about. I did not want to rush her thinking so I allowed her to think. She thought and thought spitting out different ideas as they came to her. I got out the book My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. We went through the pictures trying to spark an idea. Finally, after about thirty minutes student began to write her own version of the movie Finding Nemo. What she produced is sample number one entitled Finding Fabio. We decided to finish with that and continue the project later.

On the day of session two student again was at my apartment however, this time student’s mother was present during the interview questions. The mother brought samples of student’s writing to the session. We began the session right after returning from shopping. Student and I sat on the couch, the mother sat next to student. I began by asking the following questions

Interviewer: I presented students writing sample one, "Can you tell me what you think of this piece of writing? Do you feel it is a good piece?"

Student: "I think it is good. I think I did a good job."

Interviewer: "Do you think this sample accurately represents your writing abilities?"

Student: "Yes."

I then presented student with other samples given to me by the parents.

Interviewer: I presented writing sample two, "Can you tell me what you think of this piece? Is the second page a revision?"

Student: "I think this is a good story. Yes."

Interviewer: "Do you feel the revision is better than the original? Why?"

Student: "Yes. Because it is written nicer."

After reviewing some samples I asked student more questions about writing.

Interviewer: "What resources do you use to spell?"

Student: "I look it up in the textbook. If I can’t find it then I make it up?"

Interviewer: "What do you mean by make it up?"

Student: "I sound it out."

Interviewer: "Do you do one or more rereading for revising? What do you think about when revising?"

Student: "Sometimes. Correct mechanics such as indenting and spelling."

Interviewer: "Do you do one or more rereading for editing? What do you think about when editing?"

Student: "Sometimes. I look through to see mistakes."

Interviewer: "Can you identify different writing styles? (Sample two) What was the writing style you were trying to achieve here?"

Student: "Yes. I was trying to tell the truth about cats."

Interviewer: "What do you see as your strengths as a writer? Do you have goals to make yourself a better writer?"

Student: "Punctuation and capitalization. Yes. Work on spelling, word spacing, and uniformed writing."

Interviewer: "What role do you see writing playing in your life?

Student: "I will use it for school, email, and journals."

We finished the session by looking at writing samples three and four, both which were done at school. Student stated the same for these samples as for samples one and two, she said she felt both pieces were good.  

Interpretation

Session one went well student was excited to be a part of the project and willing to answer posed questions. I was however concerned with the amount of time that was spent "stalling" attempting to think of an idea for the short story. I felt like she was having trouble coming up with ideas, it was as if she was not familiar with the concept of coming up with story ideas. I did find that in the classroom, topics for writing or writing categories are typically given to student.

After examining students writing sample one, from session one, I think student has trouble creating a story from scratch and making it fit together nicely. The story in sample one does not really include a beginning, middle, and, end. The story is not well thought out and not very descriptive. I am concerned about this quality simply because there was a great amount of time taken to think of the story idea and then to write the story, session one’s time lasted over one hour. I am wondering if this quality would have been improved if the story were written for school. Student appears to be familiar with punctuation and other grammatical items. Student is familiar with text directionality, capitalization, and creating pictures that match the text. At this point student needs to work on perfecting quality of story including spelling, punctuation, clarity, and story line.

Session two went well however I wish student’s mother was not present because I feel she impacted students answers. When I gave student samples of her writing she was able to recall the goal of the writing piece. We talked about each piece and information that student knew about writing and writing mechanics.

Student talked about revising and editing as if she knew what they were. However when specifically asked student responded that revising was "correct mechanics such as indenting and spelling" and responded that editing was looking through to find mistakes. From this response I was able to see that student was slightly confused when it came to revising and editing.

Student seems to understand there are different writing styles however she does not seem to know the actual names of the styles. I determined this by listening to her response about her writing style with a specific piece, "I was trying to tell the truth about cats". This says that she knows what her objective was but does not realize that the style for this writing is called non-fiction.

Student needs to work on vocabulary associated with writing and writing mechanics to be clear on what her goals as a writer are and to improve her writing skills. It is apparent from student responses that she knows what her strengths as a writer are, the mechanics of writing, and seems to understand she needs to work on improving her writing, although I am not sure if she knows exactly what needs to be improved or how to improve it. Student also seems to know some purposes of writing such as it plays and will play many roles through out her life.     

Reading

Summary

Session one took place at my apartment and in the car. We began in the car on our way to Cedar Rapids. The radio was off and we sat next to each other, the mother was driving. I talked with student about the reading portion of the project that we were going to start, I included information about questions and the reading on tape activity. We then began the questions

Interviewer: "How do you feel about reading?"

Student: "I like it only if I like what I am reading. Don’t like school reading."

The parents of student said that student likes to read at home before bedtime. It was also said that student seems to read more at mom’s house than at dad’s house. Maybe this is because there is more reading being modeled in mom’s house than there is in dads house.

Interviewer: "What would you say reading is? How would you define reading?"

Student: "Way to learn new information."

Interviewer: "What is the purpose for reading?"

Student: "To learn new information."

Student’s answers seem to be coming from the teacher. In other words the student does not really know the purpose of reason for reading she is just told by her teachers that reading is a way to learn information, this shows that student has no real personal connections with reading.

Interviewer: "Do you ever read independently?"

Student: "Yes, when I am bored."

Interviewer: "Who is someone you know that is a good reader? What makes them a good reader?"

Student: "My teacher because he explains what he reads and he doesn’t mess up when reading out loud to us."

Interviewer: "How do you feel about yourself as a reader? Are you a good reader, okay reader, poor reader?"

Student: "I am a good reader. (laughs) I just want to make myself look good."

When we return home from a shopping trip student and I go into another room, the office. I again explain what is going to happen for this project, I let her know I can’t help her and that she will read a section and then explain to me what the section was about. She goes to the book shelf and pulls out Green Eggs And Ham, a book that is clearly below her reading level. I get a stack of books some below grade level, some right at grade level, and some above grade level. I give her a choice of what she wants to read, she chooses Junie B. Jones and that Meanie Jim’s Birthday miscue number one, which is one that is below her grade level. I start the tape and have to get her started. She starts out a little bumpy but eventually gets better.

Student then told me about what she read. Student was able to give a good retelling of the story. Student left out a few minor details and included some less important details, but she was able to retell the story accurately.

Session two was done at student’s house in the living room when no one else was home. Since student already knew the procedures I did not have to explain them again. Student chose a book from the same stack as before, this time she chose one that was at grade level Chocolate Fever which is miscue number two. Student read this book more smoothly than the previous miscue book.

Student then told me about what she had read. This time it was slightly harder for her to tell me what she had read about. This might be due to the fact there was no real story yet. Student did a pretty accurate retelling of the story.

Session three was done at student’s home in the living room father was downstairs working on a project of his own. Student was familiar with the readings so I did not have to give any directions. I asked student if she had any questions and she did not, so we began. Student picked from the stack of books I brought, Shiloh, a grade level book used for miscue three. This book gave her a little trouble and it did not run as smoothly as Chocolate Fever, the other grade level choice. This is possibly because the book is written with a lot of slang words and "southern talk" which makes it difficult to read.

During the retelling student was able to give specific scenarios or descriptions from the text but was not able to give a very accurate retelling of what was going on in the story.

Session four was the same day as session three, at student’s house in the living room, father downstairs. For this session I chose the book for student so that we would have a wide variety of material, below grade level, at grade level, and above grade level. The book chosen was Little Women, miscue four. Student read this book smoothly but had trouble with some of the more complex words. 

Despite some of the difficult vocabulary with in the text student was able to give an accurate retelling of what happened in the text. When finished with this miscue I asked student a few more questions concerning reading

Interviewer: "What strategies do you use when reading independently?"

Student: "Skip, make prediction, use picture cues."

Interviewer: "What do you do when you come to a word you don’t know?"

Student: "I try to sound it out."

Interviewer: "Can you tell me what type of books you enjoy?"

Student: "Mystery books."

Interviewer: "How did you feel about yourself as a reader throughout this project?"

Student: "I thought I did a good job."

Interpretation

Reading sessions went well, student was engaged in questions and excited to make the reading tape. I feel that students answers to questions during the first reading session may have been "teacher" answers and were somewhat guided by the mother. These "teacher" answers could be coming from the school, because the student does not get much if any free reading time during the school day. Therefore, she sees reading as a way of learning information, because a majority of the day she is reading from a textbook trying to learn new information. The student does however appear to have a lot of knowledge about reading; she has set in her mind what a good reader is and feels like she is successful as a reader.

Student does many good things when reading a segment from a text. Student is able to notice mistakes and self correct them, she reruns sentences to have them make more sense or to make sure it sounds right, she attempts to sound out unfamiliar words using first letters, student is able to substitute some unfamiliar words with words that mean the same thing or fit into the sentence structure.

Student is a strong reader she is able to read fluently and make sense of what she is reading. This seems to be positive however, I believe at this time student reads but does not gain any personal satisfaction or connections to the reading, she is just reading. This is possibly part of the "teacher" answers, she is reading because that is what everyone parents and teachers say is good for a student to do. Student does not just plow through text she takes time to correct mistakes or make sure the sentence sounds correct. Student uses expression during her reading, which I believe, is used to give her a better sense of the texts meaning. Student as stated before scored in the 90^th percentile on Iowa Test of Basic Skills, her reading score was at the 6^th or 7^th grade level. Student displayed that same reading ability in this project reading all text she was given at a correctness level of 90% or higher.

It will be important for her reading confidence level to be addressed and maintained, because I don’t feel she is yet at the level she wants to be at, confidence to make substitutions when she is not sure of a word.  Student is a fluent reader and is able to read many grade level and higher books independently. This is because she is able to correct mistakes and know when something she is reading does not making sense.  

Writing and Reading Curricular Recommendations

Whole Class

My whole class curriculum will be broad enough to touch as many readers and writers needs and abilities as possible. Students will have both independent reading and writing time during the school day along with guided/whole class reading and writing. The reading and writing curriculum will include: writing and reading workshops, daily read aloud time, guided/small reading groups, mini lessons that are directed to students needs, along with interdisciplinary links of reading and writing into the classroom curriculum.

Within my classroom I believe that there is no need for leveling books, it only creates a barrier for students who are struggling readers. Rather I believe the teacher needs to have high expectations for each student. The teachers attitudes and expectations for students is more important in the students education that leveling books and placing students in ability groups. According to Shanon, "teacher expectations can and do affect how much students learn", the higher the expectations of the teacher the higher the achievement of the student. As the teacher I need to determine each student’s strengths and weaknesses and adjust my teaching to what they need as readers and writers. Each student will have individual or small group time with me so that I will be able to assess their progress throughout the year and help to direct my teaching to what a particular student need. 

In my classroom the writing workshop will be set up similar to that described in Atwell’s book In the Middle. There will be a writing center where students can find supplies needed for the writing process (example Atwell pg. 119). Students will generate their own list of starter stories and place it in their designated writing folder. This will allow students to have a resource to use when they get stuck thinking of a topic to write about. During this writing workshop time students will work on pieces and have the opportunity to conference with me about their writing or troubles that they are having. If I find that several students are having the same problems I will do a whole class mini lesson on that topic. The whole purpose of this workshop time will be to let students think, create, perfect, and personalize their writing.   

In my classroom the reading workshop will be set up similar to the writing workshop but with a small nook or corner with pillows and several books, not specifically labeled. Students will choose to read a book that they feel confident with as a reader (a book that is like riding a bike on level ground, not too hard but also challenging). Students will then complete a reflection of the book including personal thoughts and reactions to the book. I will review these reflections and determine if the student understood what they were reading. If a student were having trouble during independent reading time I would pull them aside for a conference about problem areas and possible solutions to those problems. If the whole class is struggling with for example; picking books, reading and reflecting, or other reading related problems, I would direct a whole class mini lesson on that topic to clarify my expectations.

Along with the reading workshop their will be daily read aloud selections, these might have to do with a particular topic/subject, a holiday, or the book could just be a fun selection. The purpose of this read aloud time is to allow students to hear a story read and talk with peers about the story pulling out the main ideas and interesting points and to have an enjoyable reading experience. This time should be short and should include all students.

Also within my classroom their will be guided reading groups. These will not be determined by ability level, students will be placed in groups according to interests in topics or books. During this guided reading time students will have mini lessons, readings, and discussions. This time will give students a chance to choose a topic or book that they are interested in and discuss it with their peers, therefore students will have some practice with reading and reflecting. This will also give me a chance to assess the students reading progress.

Through out the rest of the day their will be reading and writing interdisciplinary links that will be spread throughout the curriculum. This will allow students to use their reading and writing knowledge and skills in areas that they may enjoy more. These interdisciplinary links will include short readings, reflections, writing assignments, and journaling. The students will then be allowed to use their reading and writing throughout the day, which will help to make them more successful and confident during individual reading and writing time.      

Individual

For this particular student the reading and writing curriculum needs to be fun and needs to allow the student to read and write about things that she enjoys. I feel this student will do well in most classroom settings because she is such a strong student. However I think that she needs some assistance in making reading and writing more personal for her. 

By having the reading and writing workshops I am allowing this student to choose materials or topics in which she is interested in. This will give student an enjoyable and positive feeling each time instead of dreading reading and writing.

I believe that the reading and writing workshop will give the student the chance to practice and perfect her mechanics and content of stories. It is also my hope that the student will begin to feel confident in choosing a writing topic and will be able to write with enthusiasm and expression of her personal thoughts and ideas. It is also my hope that student will be able to make personal connections with both reading and writing through this classroom setting.

As stated in the whole class curriculum I will be available during the reading and writing workshop time for conferences with students. During this conference time student and I would work on making reading and writing more personal, in other words we would make it meaningful and important to her. Would we make connections between her reading and writing, since she already has some authors’ books that she enjoys reading.

I would recommend that she try to achieve a particular style in her writing, possibly one from a book she has read; this will help her to make personal connections between her reading and her writing. She will be able to see how a writer can develop their craft because she will be following in the footsteps of writers that she already loves. All of this I believe will help in changing her views on reading and writing, she will begin to see reading and writing as more than a chore.

Lastly in our conference time student and I will fill out evaluation questionnaires. These will be used by student and me, the student will fill out the questionnaire (similar to that in Atwell’s book page 303) and evaluate her writing pieces, I will also evaluate her writing and give her positive feedback on how to make it better if need be. By having the student fill out the evaluation questionnaire it allows them to gain "perspective on what they have accomplished as writers and readers" (Atwell 303). This student needs to know what she is able to do and what she needs to work on and these evaluations will give her insight into what she needs to know as a reader and writer. After we have completed the evaluations student and I will then set goals on what she needs to work on to improve her reading and writing. 

At this time, I believe the most important issue with this student is that she has and continues to have more and more positive interactions with reading and writing in the classroom and that she finds a way to make reading and writing personal and important to her.

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