Using word parts, such as prefixes, to determine word meanings is an invaluable skill that can help students better comprehend vocabulary words when reading (Freeman & Freeman, 2014). Since my focal student reads below grade level, this skill was something that I knew would assist her as a reader and student. However, before choosing a targeted skill, I decided to ask her English Language Arts teacher and our academic resource specialist what they felt Juana would benefit from most. They suggested vocabulary development since she already receives additional support in reading fluency and comprehension.

The progress monitoring tool I selected is a simple one. It consists of a list words with common affixes. Each week, I asked Juana the following questions using two of the words from the list: What is the prefix in ____? What does the prefix ____ mean? What does the word _____ mean? How do you know? Her answer to the first question determined if she could identify the prefix. The next question showed me if she knew the prefix’s meaning, and the last revealed if she knew what the word meant, and possibly if she used the prefix to help her determine the word’s meaning. As I continued progress monitoring, I realized that my order of questions was not as helpful to Juana’s thought process as it could have been, and in the following section I will explain how I changed my order of questions to better help Juana make connections between prefixes and word meanings.