Introduction

The purpose of this case study is to apply intervention strategies to help a struggling learner and understand the student’s literacy skills after interventions. During this case study, I have gathered data through pre-assessments and post assessments. Through the pre assessments, I have analyzed the student’s work to plan remediation lessons to help this student in a chosen literacy category to improve their skills in this category. To protect the identity of this student, I will refer to this student using the pseudonym, Cookie. From the Aims Web universal screener, Cookie scored a 5% on the national level for spelling. From the spelling inventory, I noticed that Cookie struggles with spelling words that are plural, specifically words that just add an (s) on the end, and words that change a (y) to an ( i +es). In the following sections I will discuss the evidence I have found from the assessments administered, lessons developed, and how they were implemented.

Demographic Profile

Interest Inventory

I conducted an interest inventory to gain perspective of Cookie’s likes and dislikes. At first, it was difficult to determine her true interests because she seemed unsure about how to answer some of the questions. However, after reviewing her responses more closely, I was able to gain meaningful insight. I learned that she loves cats and dogs and wants to learn more about them. She enjoys reading—especially funny books—but becomes frustrated when she encounters unfamiliar words. She also shared that she does not enjoy reading magazines or newspapers. Overall, she likes reading because it feels quiet, calming, and makes her feel happy and relaxed.

Running Record (Diagnostic Assessment)

I conducted a running record for a 4th-grade student, and her accuracy score fell within the shaded “hard” range, indicating that the text was too difficult for her to read independently. During the assessment, I also noticed that she did not demonstrate expression or phrasing while reading. Her reading sounded monotone and word-by-word at times, which suggests she may be focusing heavily on decoding and accuracy rather than fluency or comprehension. The running record also confirmed that she struggles with plural word endings. She frequently omitted or misread endings such as –s, –es, and –ies, which affected both her accuracy and her overall fluency. These errors suggest she may need targeted instruction and practice with identifying, decoding, and applying plural endings in connected text.

Primary Spelling Inventory (Diagnostic Assessment)

I conducted a primary spelling inventory with this student. I chose a variety of words to see what specifically I needed to focus on with this student. The words this student was required to spell include: spoil, serving, chewed, carries, marched, shower, bottle, ripen, cellar, pleasure, and opposition.

Writing Sample (Diagnostic Assessment)

Writing Standard- 4.W.PDW.4

From the story we read, I conducted a writing sample, which showed that she struggled to put spaces in between words, making it difficult to understand what she was trying to write. Her writing sample also showed that she struggled with answering comprehension questions from the text she read. From this writing sample I realized that her struggle with the comprehension questions also could stem from her spending a lot of effort decoding words.

Universal Screener Data

This student's Aims Web scores show that the student scored 5% on the national level for spelling. This data provides evidence of a high need for interventions focusing on spelling.

Cookie made 70% of the words plural by adding an ('s) making the word possessive.

Conducting a pre-assessment I chose 10 words that had plural endings to gauge where specifically the student was struggling. The words featured in the spelling inventory are the words: boys, parties, stories, plays, ladies, cryed, candies, babies, ponies, and monkeys. On the spelling inventory, the student spelled 2/10 words correctly emphasizing the student’s difficulty spelling words with plural endings. Based on this pre-assessment I designed 3 intervention strategies focusing on improving this student’s understanding of plural word endings, and how sometimes the plural form may change the spelling of a word such as ‘baby’ to ‘babies’.

Intervention 1- Word sort (+s) & (y>i+es)

For the first intervention the student was required to sort words into the correct category based on the plural endings. The two categories the words needed to be sorted into were plural endings, (+s) and (y>i+es). During this intervention I noticed Cookie first struggled to sort words into the appropriate category. The words she struggled with are ponies, stories, parties, cities, fireflies, families, duties, ladies, toys, journeys, valleys, and trays. Once she was finished sorting the words, I reminded her to look at the plural ending patterns and see if she needed to make any changes. After reviewing her work, she correctly recategorized all of the words she missed except for ‘candies’ and ‘cities’. Noticing these two words, I asked her how to spell the word ‘city’. She told me that it is spelled “s-i-t-i”. Realizing this, I was able to correct this misunderstanding by reviewing what sounds the letters c and s make. We then reviewed the spelling of the word. Then, she looked over her work once more, correctly placing the words candies and cities in the appropriate category. From this intervention I realized that Cookie still struggles with phonics which impacts her skill in spelling. I also recognized from this intervention she tends to not review her work unless prompted to do so, when she reviews her work she naturally begins to correct herself.

Intervention 2- Highlighting (y>i+es) & (+s) endings in a story

At the start of the intervention, we reviewed the plural word endings patterns. Then I gave her the instructions for the activity. The second intervention required Cookie to read two prompts that adhered to her interests of animals and contained plural words with (+s) and (y>i+es) endings. During this intervention, she read the prompts highlighting words with (+s) endings in yellow, and words with (y>i+es) endings in pink. During her first read-through, she highlighted only a few words in yellow and two words in pink. I then prompted her to slow down and read the prompt again, this time focusing solely on highlighting words in pink that ended with (y > i + es). On this second attempt, she improved significantly—she identified nearly all of the (y > i + es) words and even caught some (+s) words she had previously missed. Noticing that she was more successful when concentrating on one task at a time, I had her read the second prompt using the same strategy: highlight one type of ending during the first read and the next ending during the second. This approach allowed her to notice and correctly identify many more words. This also verified the need for her to review her work after she completes something.

Intervention 3- Changing words to plural with (+s) & (y>i+es)

The final intervention began with a review of the spelling patterns for plural endings (+s) and (y > i + es). We revisited the grammar rules for forming plurals, which helped shift the way she thought about spelling these words. I presented her with a list of singular nouns and asked her to make each one plural using either the (+s) or (y > i + es) ending. The images for this activity are shown below. During this intervention, she initially missed two words, but she independently went back and corrected them without any prompting. I let her know I was proud of her for choosing to review her work and making revisions on her own. When I asked how she felt about spelling plural words after completing the interventions, she shared that it now felt easier. Overall, this intervention was very successful.

Post Assessment

For the post-assessement, I used the same 10 words that were used on the pre-assesment to understand how much this student grew on her knowledge of plural word endings from the intervention strategies. The post-assessment provided evidence that the student improved on her spelling ability of plural words. Cookie spelled 8/10 words correctly on the post assessment showing 60% improvement after the intervention strategies. I showed Cookie how much she improved from the initial assessment of her spelling and she was also very proud of herself. She said she felt more comfortable spelling plural endings and she felt like spelling was easier after the interventions. The spelling interventions resulted in improvement which will impact other areas of reading for Cookie.

Parent Letter

To the parent/ guardian of Cookie,

I have been working closely with your daughter to improve a skill in a specific area of literacy. I conducted diagnostic assessments to determine a specific area of struggle. From the diagnostic assessments, I realized she struggled with words that contained plural endings, specifically (+s) and (y>i+es) .

Based on the data I gathered, I administered a pre-assessment using the words: boys, parties, stories, plays, ladies, cryed, candies, babies, ponies, and monkeys. After the pre-assessment I carried out 3 interventions with your daughter to improve this skill. Each intervention was about 15 minutes each and they are something you could continue in your home. The first intervention required Cookie to sort words in the correct category based on the plural spelling category. An example of this is she needed to put the word ‘ponies’ in the category under the spelling pattern (y>i+es). She struggled at first during this intervention, but when I asked her to go back and look over her work she changed some of the words to the correct category without me telling her which words were in the incorrect category. For the second intervention, she had to read a short story, highlighting words that ended in (+s) in yellow and words that ended in (y>i+es) in pink. This intervention, she also struggled, but persevered though and after taking her time to read it again she showed more improvement. The 3rd assessment required her to make words plural by applying the plural ending grammar rules and adding (+S) or (y>i+es) to the end of words to make them plural. An example of this is she changed the word country to countries. The post-assessment addressed the same 10 words that were addressed on the pre-assessment. On the post-assessment, your daughter spelled 8/10 of the words correctly showing 60% improvement from the pre-assessment.

I am very proud of Cookie. Telling her about the results, she mentioned to me that she felt more confident spelling words that were plural. I highly suggest continuing intervention activities similar to these with your daughter. The intervention strategies you complete with her at home can be focused on spelling, or could be focused on a different literacy skill such as writing or comprehension. Cookie made little progress between each intervention strategy which resulted in high improvement after 3 interventions. The interventions don’t have to be long, the interventions we completed in class were about 15 minutes each. Cookie’s improvement on spelling will result in improvement in other areas of literacy as well such as reading fluency, comprehension, and writing. Literacy is composed of elements that are intertwined with one another, so improving one area will impact other areas as well. Thank you so much for allowing me to work with your child!

Have a wonderful evening,

Keira Merritt

ETSU Student Teacher

Final Thoughts

Concluding the case study, I realized how influential critically designed interventions are to students. I was worried at the beginning of this case study when I gathered data from the interest inventory, spelling inventory, and AIMs Web data. On the intervention inventory, the student misunderstood some of the questions on the interest inventory, for example: she marked the column that said she has never played outside before (which I know is not true because the students play outside daily during recess). She marked other columns on the interest inventory leading to me thinking she may have misread what it was asking. Going through the interventions she made little progress from intervention to intervention, but in the end the little progress between interventions resulted in great progress on the post-assessment. These interventions built Cookie’s confidence in reading and her own skills. Cookie wrote me a letter after all of the interventions mentioning she was grateful I helped her in math (there are many word problems in math which these interventions also helped with) and reading. Concluding this case study, I realized how impactful 3 interventions are when they are critically designed to focus on improving a skill. I also gained confidence in my ability to teach literacy and help students who are struggling in literacy. I am more cautious on my pronunciation of words as well. This study has motivated me to work more closely with struggling learners and to implement interventions designed to improve one focus area, because that will result in improving other areas as well.

Final Thoughts

Concluding the case study, I realized how influential critically designed interventions are to students. I was worried at the beginning of this case study when I gathered data from the interest inventory, spelling inventory, and AIMs Web data. On the intervention inventory, the student misunderstood some of the questions on the interest inventory, for example: she marked the column that said she has never played outside before (which I know is not true because the students play outside daily during recess). She marked other columns on the interest inventory leading to me thinking she may have misread what it was asking. Going through the interventions she made little progress from intervention to intervention, but in the end the little progress between interventions resulted in great progress on the post-assessment. These interventions built Cookie’s confidence in reading and her own skills. Cookie wrote me a letter after all of the interventions mentioning she was grateful I helped her in math (there are many word problems in math which these interventions also helped with) and reading. Concluding this case study, I realized how impactful 3 interventions are when they are critically designed to focus on improving a skill. I also gained confidence in my ability to teach literacy and help students who are struggling in literacy. I am more cautious on my pronunciation of words as well. This study has motivated me to work more closely with struggling learners and to implement interventions designed to improve one focus area, because that will result in improving other areas as well.

Paper

docs.google.com/document/d/19LhfpE8LIDj_9DPao0GvGoiqgXcVZD2DsvJltf24V9U/edit?usp=sharing

Merritt_Literacy_Case_Study_Project