Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary

Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C

Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Case Study Assignment

Case Study Lesson #1 – February 28/ March 1

KEEP THESE HEADINGS AND ADD THE DETAILED INFORMATION BELOW EACH.

Partners
1. Introductions: (How will you introduce yourself in a relatable way? How will you invite response from the
student?)
Hi students, I’m Ms. Wilson, and this is Ms. Raya. Today we are going to be reading together.
Do you like to read? What kinds of books do you like to read?
Well, today Ms. Raya is going to be reading you a book called Here It Is!
Make sure you are listening as she reads.

Partners (one partner takes the lead)

2. Read Aloud a short picture book: (Identify the title, author, a brief summary of the book as well as a few
places you may stop to invite prediction, support an inference, build background knowledge, and or support
vocabulary development. What TEKS are you supporting?)
Title: Here It Is!
Author: Susan Meyers
Summary:
In this book, a mother and daughter go to the grocery store and do some grocery shopping.
Throughout the book the daughter helps her mother find the grocery items. Each time, the mother cannot
find an item, but when she does find it, she says, “Here it is!”
Introduction:
Today, I am going to read you this book.
Okay, the title of the book is “Here It Is”
Now, what do you see on the cover?
What is happening?
The young girl wants milk; can you spot the milk?
Do you think the young girl will be able to find the ice cream? Why or why not?
Stopping points:
Pg. 2: On this page Marta, the daughter, helps the mother locate the milk. I ask the students if they can spot
the milk on the page.
Pg.10: On this page Marta finds the jam for her mother. I ask the students if they eat jam, if so what do they
put it on.
Pg. 14: On this page it does not say if Marta found the ice cream. I ask students if they think Marta will find
it.
TEKS:
110.b.14: Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Expository Text. Students analyze, make inferences and
draw conclusions about expository text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are
expected to:
(A) restate the main idea, heard or read;
(B) identify important facts or details in text, heard or read;

Divide Responsibilities (1-2 students/teacher)

3. Administer the Interest Inventory: (Summarize what you learned about the students from this conversation.)
In this conversation, we learned that Izaiah, Alvea, and Jacob all have a sibling under the age of 1. In addition,
Alvea could not even remember how many brothers he had, because he has so many! He also has one sister. Izaiah
likes to talk about food; he mentioned tamales, pizza, and beans as being some of his favorite foods. Alvea opened
up almost immediately, and told Becca that his baby sister is very sick and has been in the hospital for a few days.
Upon hearing this, Izaiah told Becca that he has never met his father, but that he knows he lives in Mexico. He told
me he isn’t here because “it is so hard to get a green card.” Becca was not expecting the conversation to go this way,
but in asking about their families she got quite a response. Because of this, she was not able to move on to any of the
other questions. Ianthe talked to Jacob, and he really likes to play basketball and baseball. He talked a lot about how
his baseball team was starting to practice again, so he was very excited. He likes hitting; he once hit a home run!
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Jacob also had several friends in his class, but they were in other reading groups. Of the three students, Jacob
seemed more shy and reserved, while Alvea and Izaiah were outgoing and eager to speak whenever they could.

Divide Responsibilities (1-2 students/teacher)

4. Observing Reading Behaviors on a Familiar Book: Record the title, author, and text level. (As the student
reads a familiar text, take anecdotal notes as you observe his/her reading behaviors. Use the language of the
Important Behaviors to Notice and Support handout to guide your “noticings.” What type of reader (Emergent,
Early, Transitional, or Self-Extending Reader do you believe your student to be? Why?)

Title: We Can Run

Author: Susan Meyers
Level: C

Alvea Izaiah Jacob

• Shows one-to-one
• Replaces “monkeys” with
“we”
• Uses visual cues
consistently
• Skips words he cannot
immediately sound out
• Uses visual cue for
“kangaroo”
• Says “dolphin” while
pointing at the word
“whale”, but notices the
“w” and self-corrects
• Spells “climb” with a k
• Showed good
comprehension
• Understood each page
because of the pictures
• Sounds out unknown words
• Uses visual cues
• Follows Alvea – if he got
stuck, he would listen to
Alvea and “catch up” to
him so that they could read
“together”
• Relates some of the pictures
to his own life (swinging)
• On the final page, takes his
time looking at each word
(pictures aren’t as helpful
on this page)
• Struggles with the word
“children”
• Points at words
• Some trouble with the word
“crawl” – vowel
• Reads word bubbles on the
final page from the left and
down the page, then to the
right and up the next page
(out of order)
• Can match each action verb
to the picture

We believe these readers are mostly emergent readers. In terms of comprehension, they could display elements of
early readers, but this is with a lot of support. These students struggle with one-to-one correspondence, recognizing
patterns in words, and they rely heavily on illustrations to decode unknown words. Although they showed a few
times that they can use the structure of words to decode, they are not using this strategy consistently, and do not
know they are using it.

Divide Responsibilities (1-2 students/ teacher)

5. Administer the Primary Spelling Inventory (see attached): (Submit the SCORED assessment as an appendix
and SUMMARIZE the results of this assessment. What can you say about this student’s understanding of spelling,
phonics, and word analysis?)

These students show solidarity with the initial and final consonant, especially in shorter words (3-4 letters). These
students had some trouble with short vowels, but only showed these problems when the words were longer than 3
letters or contained a silent e. However, these students had the most problems when there was a diagraph or long
vowel pattern present. These students seem to understand the sounds of the consonants, because they sounded out
each word orally by sound when they were presented. For example, for the word “gum”, they all repeated “/g/ /u/
/m/.” Even through their sounding out, however, they all missed the middle vowel, putting an “o” instead of a “u”.
In addition, these students did not struggle with consonant blends, telling me that they have had a lot of exposure to
consonants and their sounds in different words. Their struggle with vowels tells me that they just do not have the
practice or knowledge of vowels and their sounds in words.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Partners (other partner takes the lead if there is time)
6. Additional OPTIONAL activities: Read aloud an additional book or ask the child to write a response to the one
of the books.

Pete the Cat: Pete’s Big Lunch

REFLECTION AFTER THE CASE STUDY LESSON #1

Please answer the following questions after teaching the lesson:
1. Based upon the assessments you gathered during this lesson, what are the collective strengths of the readers
in terms of comprehension, word solving, and fluency and expression?
These readers show strength in using visual cues (illustrations) to solve unknown or more difficult words.
There were a few times that the readers used the word structure to solve words. For example, Alvea
guessed that “whale” was dolphin based on the picture, but when looking at the word more closely, he
noticed that the word started with a “w”, meaning it could not be dolphin. Thus, he corrected the word to
“whale”. In addition, these readers showed that they could comprehend very simple texts effectively.
Although these texts did not have a complex plot, the readers were able to answer simple questions and
retell the story effectively, especially in our second read-aloud of the Pete the Cat book

2. What is this group’s most pressing need (1-2) in reading? What evidence supports your claim?
These readers have trouble slowing down and revisiting words they do not recognize or cannot decode
immediately. Most of the time, the readers skip over words that are more difficult and move on to the next
phrase, which takes away from their comprehension, especially when we move to more complex texts with
a true beginning, middle and end. For example, Alvea would often skip words as he read aloud, and when
asked to go back and look at a word again, he said: “Why? I don’t know that word.” This tells me that these
readers lack self-correction skills. Another need is one-to-one correspondence and pointing to each word as
they read aloud. Not only do I think this would help them slow down and solve every word, but I think it
will encourage the readers to decode words and improve their comprehension. Finally, I think this will
encourage students to appeal for words they cannot decode on their own. Izaiah struggled with several
words but never asked for help, so I think that being able to see exactly what word the readers are
struggling with through their pointing will help me as a teacher to help them more specifically.

3. Looking ahead to the next lesson, what teaching decisions will you make as you plan the next lesson?
In my next lesson, I will probably move these readers apart while they read independently. A problem that
arose during this lesson was Izaiah following Alvea as he read. When Izaiah would come to a section he
did not recognize immediately or could not decode, he would listen to Alvea and start reading with him. I
want to be able to hear the readers individually, so I would sit in between the students next time I ask them
to read independently. Another decision I would make for the next lesson is that I want to draw attention to
their strategies by pointing them out specifically. A way that I can make them aware of their self-correction
strategies is to explicitly tell them that they self-corrected. For example, when Alvea self-corrected dolphin
for whale, I could have said “I like how you corrected words by looking at the first sound,” so that next
time he might apply the recognition of the first sound to another unknown word.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Case Study Lesson #2 – March 7/8
Your Role for this Lesson: Teacher: __x__ Observer:____ (If you are the observer, you will only submit the
reflection for this lesson.)

KEEP THESE HEADINGS AND ADD THE DETAILED INFORMATION BELOW EACH.

1. Word Study Lesson: (5-8 minutes)

Using the results of the primary spelling inventory, plan a phonics lesson that builds on the students’
current understandings of phonics while addressing their most pressing need. Use your textbook Making
Sense of Phonics as a guide. Note the lesson # if appropriate.

Lesson Objective: Short Vowels, Building words (Making Sense of Phonics pp. 58-59) – Students will
be able to build three letter words with a short vowel surrounded by two consonants with letter magnets.
Students will also be able to read these words out loud with correct pronunciation.

TEKS:
110.b.3.A: decode words in context and in isolation by applying common letter-sound correspondences,
including: (ii) single letters (vowels) including short a, short e, short i, short o, short u.
110.b.22.B: use letter-sound patterns to spell: (i) consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Materials and Procedures: Letter magnets, magnet board

1. I will make the first word, “hit”, on my magnet board. I will read the word then ask the
students to read it with me.
2. Next, I will tell the students I am going to change one letter and make a new word.
3. I will change the “i” in “hit” to a “a” to make “hat”. I will have students read the word with
me.
4. Students will continue this process with me building the word on the board, but now they will
build the word with their own letters at the table. I will write the words on my board as we
add them.
5. Students will change the “t” to a “d”. What word did you make? (had)
6. Students will change the “h” to an “s”. What word did you make? (sad)
7. Students will change the “d” to a “t”. What word did you make? (sat)
8. Students will change the “a” to an “e”. What word did you make? (set)
9. Students will change the “e” to an “i”. What word did you make? (sit)
10. Students will change the “s” to a “b”. What word did you make? (bit)
11. Students will change the “i” to a “u”. What word did you make? (but)
12. Students will change the “b” to an “n”. What word did you make? (nut)
13. The students and I will read the list of words down out loud.
14. I will ask students to build a word with three letters that uses an “e” in the middle. (possible:
ten, hen, pen, bed, red, fed, leg, bet, set)
15. I will ask each student to read his word aloud.
16. If time allows, I will ask students to build a word with three letters that uses a “u” in the
middle. (possible: gum, yum, fun, run, sun, rub, tub)

Informal Assessment: (How will you check for understanding? Remember informal assessments should
NOT be worksheets.)
Throughout this procedure, I will check to see if students are building words correctly and independently.
An important consideration I will make is that students pronounce the words correctly out loud after
building them, which is why I will have students individually say their words aloud when they build new
words on their own. In addition, an informal assessment I have built into my lesson is steps 14-16, where
students are taking their practice of building three-letter words with a short vowel and applying it to
independent practice.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

2. Guided Reading Lesson: (10 – 15 minutes)

TEKS:
110.b.9.B: describe characters in a story and the reasons for their actions and feelings.
110.b.6.C: determine what words mean from how they are used in a sentence, either heard or read.
110.b.9.A: describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end with
attention to the sequence of events.

Lesson Goal: What goal do you have for these readers in this lesson?
In this lesson, the goal is that readers should be able to read with one-to-one correspondence, identify
characters and describe their feelings and relation to the plot, and show evidence of comprehension through
re-telling the story.

Planning:
A. Provide a brief overview of the text that you selected for this group.
In this story, Quack, the duck, goes around visiting different farm animals. When he gets
to each animal, the animal introduces himself by saying, “I am a ___,” followed by the
sound he makes. Each time, Quack responds by saying he is that animal and makes their
sound. The animal gets mad, and says he is not a cow, horse, or pig. Finally, at the end of
the book, Quack realizes he is a duck, and all the animals celebrate by affirming that he is
indeed, a duck.
B. What level is this text, and why did you select this particular book? Carefully consider the
characteristics that make this text easy/hard and explain how these characteristics match the
strengths/needs of the readers in this student. (Refer to GR book))
This text is a Level C, and we chose this text because most of our readers are between A-
D levels, putting C right in the middle. This text is very repetitive in its overall structure,
just changing the animal and sound each time. For this reason, it is very similar to the
other books we were choosing from, however this was the only text we had that
contained an actual plot. Although the plot is not extensive, it does contain a problem and
a solution, which I think will allow us to test the readers’ comprehension more effectively.
In our first meeting with these students, I noticed that most of them were able to decode
unknown words by using the illustrations, so I am interested to see if the illustrations in
this book help them in the same way, since this book follows a storyline instead of just
naming activities, as was in “We can Run.” Additionally, these students seemed to lack
some skills in one-to-one correspondence, or at least in pointing to each word as they
read. This book contains few words on each page, hopefully encouraging them to use
one-to-one correspondence and recognize that each word on the page represents one
spoken word. This book is short, so because our readers show characteristics mostly of an
emergent reader, I think this text will keep them engaged without frustrating them as they
read independently.
C. Write a book introduction for the text selected for the guided reading lesson in the space
below. (This should be a script of what you plan to say.)
Today we are going to read a book called Quack is a Duck. Let’s look at the cover.
What animals do you see? (pig, elephant, horse, duck)
Where do we normally see these animals? (farm)
[Point at Quack] This is Quack the Duck. Now, [because of the title of this book], do we
think Quack is going to be pretty important in this story? (yes)
Let’s turn to page 2. Here we can see Quack is talking to the cow. Have you ever heard a
cow before? What does a cow sound like? (moo)
Let’s point to where on the page that the cow says this. [page 4]
Hmm. The cow looks pretty angry right here [page 5]. I wonder if Quack did something
to Cow to make him mad.
Let’s turn the page. It looks like Quack is meeting with all the different animals, what do
you think?
Point to the word “neigh” [page 6]. Say it with me, “neigh”.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Quack is talking to all the different animals, but it seems like he may be confused about
something. Let’s keep reading to find out what happens to Quack.

3. Actions During the Lesson: Observe the readers and “dip in” to support word solving and/or
comprehension. Take anecdotal notes as you observe. Be ready to prompt for strategic reading. Record the
notes on a separate paper and summarize your observations in the space below, including specific
examples from the lesson.

Alvea Izaiah Jacob

• Couldn’t find “neigh”,
pointed at “horse”
• Skips word “neigh”
• Has trouble reading
independently
• Skips words he struggles
with
• Points to each word but
does not verbalize word
with point
• Gets “red”
• With letters “b”, “I”, and
“t”, spells “bti”
• Uses letters to spell “tes”
but pronounces it “set”
• Very distracted
throughout word study
• Struggles with most short
vowels in spelling, but not
in pronunciation
• Says he’s a “helper”
• Answers most of the
questions
• Says book is “so easy to
read”
• Finished reading very
early, skipped most of
book
• Uses picture for reference
• Misses comprehending
the story the first time –
after a reread understands
that the moral of the story
is to “always be
ourselves”
• Says word “bit” as “bite”
• Uses word “sit” to
recognize the
pronunciation for “bit”
• Gets “bat” and “sat”
• Trouble with short “I” and
short “e”
• To recognize word “oink”,
uses first letter
• Uses inflection on word
“not”
• Says “set” as “sat”
• Then corrects to say “set”
as “said”
• Finally repeats again to
say “sat” correctly’
• With letters “n”, “o”, and
“t”, spells “ont”
• Recognizes “not” and
“nod” have “no”
• Trouble with short “i”

4. Teaching Point After the Lesson: Explain how you supported comprehension after the reading and how
you praised or supported strategy development after the lesson. (What TEKS are you supporting?)

So, that was a fun story, right? Can someone tell me who all the characters were in this story?
What was Quack doing that made these animals mad?
Do you think this is a happy story, sad story, funny story, or a scary story? Why?
What happened to Quack at the end?
Turn with me to page 2. Was the cow talking to Quack? This is what we call dialogue in a story, it means
that the characters are talking to each other.
Turn with me to page 8. Point to this word right here [oink]. How did you know what this word
was?

5. Reading Response: (5-8 minutes)

Ask the student to respond to the guided reading text in a written format.

TEKS:
110.b.9.A: describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end with
attention to the sequence of events.
110.b.19.C: write brief comments on literary or informational texts.

Writing Prompt:
Tell me what happened in this story in your own words.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
6. Read Aloud: (if time permits)
Title: There is a Bird on your Head!
Author: Mo Willems
Short Summary: In this book, Elephant and Piggie are having a conversation and Elephant asks if there is
something on his head. Piggie says there is a bird on his head! Elephant panics but after the bird leaves, two
more birds take its place, and Piggie says they are in love. Elephant is confused and afraid. Piggie looks
and sees that the birds are making a nest, and there are eggs. Elephant is not happy, but Piggie says there is
good news because they are hatching! At this point Elephant is very distressed, so Piggie suggests that he
ask them to leave. When he asks, the birds leave. Elephant thanks Piggie in the end.
Why you selected this text: I think this text will engage the students after a long lesson of challenging
reading work. In addition, it is light-hearted and funny; the conversation between Piggie and Elephant is
relatable for children, because Piggie helps Elephant solve his problem in a kind way. The plain
background makes the words stand out, hopefully turning the students’ focus to the words and their
relationship to the sound I make when I read them.

Email this entire document minus the reflection below and minus the Lesson #3 & 4 templates to your coach by
the beginning of class on March 7/8.

REFLECTION AFTER THE CASE STUDY LESSON #2

For Teacher:
Please answer the following questions after teaching the lesson:
1. As you PLANNED this lesson, what teaching decisions did you make? Why did you make them? What
sources of teacher knowledge were you drawing upon to make those decisions? (Be specific.)
During the planning of this lesson, I knew I wanted a strong objective for my students so that all
my decisions could reflect this objective. For this particular lesson, I wanted my students to focus on the
characters of the story and how they reacted to one another in an emotional way. I also wanted my students to
understand the overall meaning and lesson of the story. Because of this objective, I made a lot of my post-
reading questions prompt my students to think deeply about the characters and their reasoning for their different
emotions throughout the story. This also meant that during my introduction, I pointed out tricky words (neigh),
so that my students could focus on meaning rather than strict decoding. I made these decisions because I knew
that my students had a difficult time with making inferences and reading for meaning. During our previous
meeting, my students were very interested in reading quickly, and a lot of times missed the point of the text.
Because of this, I planned to ask many questions, such as a re-tell of the story and explanation of particular
characters on particular pages, that would prompt my students to think about the text in terms of its meaning
rather than just a bunch of words on a page that the readers could read quickly.
2. You began the lesson with a detailed and thoughtful plan, but teaching does not always go according to
plan. What “in-the-moment” teaching decisions did you make? Why did you make them? What sources of
teacher knowledge were you drawing upon to make those decisions? Were they effective and how do you
know?
During the lesson, I made lots of changes to my lesson to accommodate the way my readers were
reacting to the text. For example, in my word study lesson, I changed many of the words I had planned to use,
because my students seemed to need specific help with particular short vowels, such as e and i. On the other
hand, my students had a great grasp on short a vowels, so I did not spend much time on those, when in my
lesson I had several words containing short a vowels. During the guided reading lesson, my students did not
read very well independently. They struggled with whisper reading, so I had quite a bit of trouble hearing them
and because of this, some of them were not actually reading. I think that two of my students were making the
independent reading a bit of a race, so they were not reading for meaning at all. This definitely changed my plan
for the post-reading questions, and changed my overall objective for the lesson. Instead of focusing on the
emotions of the different characters throughout the story, I instead had to focus most of my questions on straight
comprehension. Immediately after reading, my students thought that the reason the animals were mad was
because they fell asleep and the duck woke them up. This was clearly not what happened in the story, so I
encouraged my students to go back and reread the pages where the animals were angry, and upon closer reads,
the students quickly understood that the animals were mad because the duck thought he was that animal. I also
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
added in questions that related the text to my student’s lives, which was not in my plan. I hoped this would
make the text more meaningful to my students and encourage them to read for meaning more often in the future.
Lastly, I did not do the writing response with my students because I felt it would overwhelm them, since they
had so many problems with simply understanding the meaning of the text.
3. Looking ahead to the next lesson, what teaching decisions will you make as you plan the next lesson?
I will first modify the way I do independent reading. For this lesson, I modeled the whisper
reading for my students, but they did not reciprocate in the way I had modeled. For next time, I will have each
student model the whisper reading before we start reading, so I can either tell them to speak louder, or softer. I
will also not be afraid to ask my students to speak up when they are reading independently, because it will help
me as a teacher understand them as readers. I think that a way to improve the independent reading session is to
have the observer focus on listening to one student while the teacher focuses on the other two. Finally, I would
modify the word study lesson significantly. I think that focusing on one, maybe two short vowels for the entire
lesson would really benefit my students. Switching between the short vowels was confusing to them, and I
noticed that all the students could spell the words correctly but had trouble saying them out loud correctly. For
this reason, I would focus a lot of the lesson on speaking instead of building and manipulating the words. For
example, I would make the lesson so that I was the only one using the magnetic letters, and I would build words
and have the students repeat them, focusing on the correct pronunciation of either short e or short i vowels.
4. As you reflected on these questions, how did the Teacher Decision Making Framework (TDM) guide your
decisions?
Throughout my planning, I had a firm goal in mind, so I always wanted my students to understand
the meaning of the story above all else. This greatly affected my decisions because my students ended up
needing a lot more support with comprehension than I had planned for. I had to make many in-the-moment
decisions that focused my students on the individual characters and what was actually happening in the story,
rather than the big picture.
5. What did your coach help you think about?
My coach helped my think about modeling the whisper reading for my students before giving
them independent time to read. She also helped me think about ways I could specifically point out strategies my
students were using to solve words, so that my students would understand that they were using a strategy and
that it worked for them. I did this with the word “oink”, and I think it helped affirm the strategy of using the
first sound to solve an unknown word with my students. My coach also suggested that I add in ways to make the
text relevant to my students’ lives, which I ended up doing. I think this really helped them see the big picture of
the text in the end, which they did. After I had asked them what they do when a friend copies something they do,
they started to unravel the moral of the story. They said the lesson of the story was that it is always better to be
yourself, which is exactly right. Even though it took a lot of support, they did understand the moral of the story.
She also suggested that a great question to ask if students are not responding with complete enough answers is,
“Why do you think that?”. Finally, one of my students finished reading extremely quickly, and I do not think
that he really read the text at all. She suggested that I ask him to go back and re-read, which would hopefully
encourage him to read for meaning the second time around instead of just flying through.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

Case Study Lesson #3 – March 21/22

Your Role for this Lesson: Teacher:____ Observer:__x__ (If you are the observer, you will only
submit the reflection for this lesson.)

KEEP THESE HEADINGS AND ADD THE DETAILED INFORMATION BELOW EACH.

1. Word Study Lesson: (4-6 minutes)

Using the results of the primary spelling inventory, plan a phonics lesson that builds on the student’s
current understandings of phonics while addressing his/her most pressing need. Use your textbook Making
Sense of Phonics as a guide. Note the lesson # if appropriate.
Lesson Objective: Distinguishing long and short vowels. the students will be able to pronounce the
first, middle, and end letters.
TEKS:
110.b.2.B: distinguish between long- and short-vowel sounds in spoken one-syllable words.
110.b.2.E: isolate initial, medial, and final sounds in one-syllable spoken words

Materials and Procedures: Letter Magnets and board

1. I will start by making the word “bit” on the board and ask the students to read it.
2. I will then add “e” at the end and make the word “bite” I will then ask the students to read it.
3. I will ask the students to create “Sam”
4. Separate the S-A-M and sound out each letter.
5. Students will put together the three letters and say the word.
6. After, I will add “e” to the end of Sam to create “same”.
7. Students will read “Same” from the board.
8. I will ask students to create the word “Tim”
9. Sound out T-I-M and separate each letter.
10. Put together and say “TIM” again.
11. I will ask students to add an e to the end and ask what the word is now,
12. The students will then spell out the word and say the word.
13. I will ask students to spell out “pin” on their board
14. The students will then separate the word into P-I-N and sound out every letter.
15. I will emphasize on the “I”, so students can pay attention to the difference of sounds once the “e” is added
at the end.
16. I will ask students to spell out “kite”.
17. Students will sound out the word.
18. I will take the “e” from “kite” and ask students what word it is.
19. I will then ask students to spell it and say the word.

Informal Assessment:
During the word study, I will watch and check if students are spelling the words correctly. Also, I will check if they
pronounce the words differently with the short and long vowels. Another thing to consider is if students can
pronounce each letter of a one syllable word correctly when they separate it in three sections. In steps 16-19 I
switched by starting with a long vowel word and converting it to a short vowel word. By starting with the long
vowel, I switch up the routine and allows students to practice and not rely on the short vowel word to create the long
vowel word.

Divide Responsibility (1-2 students/teacher)

2. Take a Running Record on the guided reading book from last session (4-6 minutes)
Embed the scored and analyzed running record here.
*see Appendix*
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

3. Guided Reading Lesson: (10 – 15 minutes)

TEKS:
110.b.9.A: describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end with
attention to the sequence of events
110.b.9.B: describe characters in a story and the reasons for their actions and feelings.
110.b.14.B: use text features (e.g., title, tables of contents, illustrations) to locate specific information in
text.
Lesson Goal: What goal do you have for these readers in this lesson?
The goal of this lesson is for the readers to retell the story in order, describe the character and what the
solution to the problem is. Also, the students should be able to make a prediction of the end based on text
features.
Planning:
A. Provide a brief overview of the text that you selected for this group.
The book selected is A Hungry Knight, by Michelle Dufresne. In the book, a mouse named
Little Knight is hungry. He goes out to look for food throughout the house and eventually
comes across some cheese but the cheese is on a mousetrap. He outsmarts the mouse trap by
using his knight sword and ends up eating the cheese and easing his hunger.
B. What level is this text, and why did you select this particular book? Carefully consider the
characteristics that make this text easy/hard and explain how these characteristics match the
strengths/needs of the readers in this student. (Refer to GR book))
The level of this book is C. The reason we continued to stay on the same level as the prior
book, because in the prior lesson the students seemed to have some difficulty with one-to–one
reading and some comprehension questions. The Hungry Night has more of a plot, allowing
students to have better comprehension. This book also contains slightly more words than the
prior book, but allows students to also decode words. The book is short but has enough text to
have a beginning, middle and end as well as a problem and solution.
C. Write a book introduction for the text selected for the guided reading lesson in the space
below. (This should be a script of what you plan to say.)
Today we will be reading this book called “The Hungry Knight”. What do we see on the
cover? What do you think when you hear “knight”?
What is the hungry night looking at? Do you think he might want that cheese? What is the
cheese on? Are mouse traps dangerous?
[Turn to page 3]- What does this bubble mean? Is he may be thinking about food? Why?
[page 4]- Where does it look like Little knight is? How can you tell?
[Turn to page 8] Where can we usually find food?
[Turn to page 10] What does it look like is happening here? Let’s find out if the hungry knight
gets his food.

Actions During the Lesson: Observe the readers and “dip in” to support word solving and/or
comprehension. Take anecdotal notes as you observe. Be ready to prompt for strategic reading. Record the
notes on a separate paper and summarize your observations in the space below, including specific
examples from the lesson.

Alvea Jacob Izaiah

• Absent • Absent for Word Study • “bit” = correct
Guided Reading • Says “bite” as “bit”
• Didn’t know what a • Still notices “e” in “bite”
knight was is silent
• Thought bubble – he’s • For each word, he said
hungry the word, sounded it out,
• Usually find food in the and then attempted to
kitchen spell
• “He’s gonna get • Says “same” as
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
trapped” “Sammy”
• replaces “little” for • Spells “tim” as “tiq”
“lunch” • “pin” = correct, sounded
• replaces “looking” for out each letter
“looked” • Says “pine” as
• repeated word “looked” “pin….nny”
with entire sentence to • “kit” = correct, says he
understand has seen this word at
• trouble pointing to home (first aid kit)
words • “mat” = correct
• reads with inflection on Guided Reading
exclamation points and • says “k” makes “ck”
quotes sound
• trouble with word • sounds out “ght” as hard
“cheese” consonants
• says “lick” for “like” • knew nights wear armor
• knows mouse is happy and shields
because he did not get • thought bubble means
trapped he’s thinking about
• trouble inferring humor cheese
• Little Knight must be
hungry because he’s
rubbing his stomach
• Must be in a giant’s
house
• Did not understand what
the quotations meant
• Thought he might
escape the trap
• Replaces “little” for
“lunch” throughout story
• Appealed for “knight”
throughout
• Knew mouse was happy
because he found the
cheese
• Understood problem

Teaching Point After the Lesson: Explain how you supported comprehension after the reading and how
you praised or supported strategy development after the lesson. (What TEKS are you supporting?)

That was an exciting ending was it not? What you think was going to happen? Why?
Who can tell me who the characters in the book were?

What was he? Can you describe him to me?

Do you think this was a happy or sad story? Why?
On page 10, (point at the word cheese) what is this word? How did you know/figure it out?

4. Reading Response: (if time permits)

Ask the student to respond to the guided reading text in a written format.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
TEKS: 110.b.9.A: describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end with
attention to the sequence of events

Writing Prompt:
Students will write about what happened in the book in chronological order.

5. Read Aloud: (if time permits)

Title: STAND TALL MOLLY LOU MELON
Author: Patty Novell
Short Summary: Molly Lou Melon is unique and her grandmother reminds her to embrace her uniqueness.
One boy then attempts to bully Molly Lou Melon but Molly remembers what her grandmother told her and
embraces her uniqueness. Eventually the bully becomes friends with Molly Lou Melon.
Why you selected this text: I selected this book because it shows how a person can be loved by being their selves no
matter what other people may say. The vivid illustration gives life to the text and students may also use the
illustrations as a reference.

REFLECTION AFTER THE CASE STUDY LESSON #3

For Observer:
1. As your partner PLANNED this lesson, what teaching decisions did your partner make? Why did she make
them? What sources of teacher knowledge was she drawing upon to make those decisions? (Be specific.)
My partner had a clear goal while planning her lesson. She wanted the readers to be able to recall
the story correctly, show comprehension strategies such as prediction, and also crosscheck information in the
text with pictures to solve unknown words. Through her introduction, she introduces this idea of using pictures
as hints by asking guiding questions about the cover of the book. Through these questions, students are actively
using visual cues to make predictions about the story. I think she was drawing upon her knowledge of the
readers and their responses to the previous week’s lesson. Last week, the readers struggled to answer basic
comprehension questions, so Ianthe made her lesson tailor to the needs of the readers as individuals. In addition,
I think she made decisions based upon what she knew would help readers problem-solve independently, which
at their level is using pictures. Our readers sometimes use the initial letter or sound to solve words, but mostly
they use pictures as their first clue. For this reason, Ianthe made this a skill that the readers would be
encouraged to use throughout reading the story. For the word study lesson, Ianthe also used last week’s lesson
as a guide for her plan for this week. Last week, I tried teaching all short vowels in one lesson, and the students
showed definitive strengths and weaknesses with particular short vowels. For example, the students were very
comfortable with and exceled at short “a” sounds, but had a lot of trouble with the short “I” sound. Ianthe used
this information to plan her lesson this week, and focused only on short “I” sounds. She chose to push the
students by adding long “I” sounds as well, so that students could begin to see the comparisons between the two
sounds when present in words.
2. Your partner began the lesson with a detailed and thoughtful plan, but teaching does not always go
according to plan. What “in-the-moment” teaching decisions did your partner make? Why do you think she
made them? What sources of teacher knowledge was she drawing upon to make those decisions? Were the
decisions effective and how do you know?
My partner planned this lesson assuming all three students would be present, and at the start of the
lesson there was only one student. This obviously immediately changed her plan, and it was changed again
when a second student showed up right after she had finished her book introduction. During the word study
lesson, Ianthe stuck to her lesson plan pretty precisely. She focused more on long “I” words because the student
had a lot of trouble saying them correctly. For the guided reading lesson, Ianthe had to give the book
introduction twice, and her second introduction was much faster and succinct. Although she introduced the
word “knight” to the students in her introduction, when it came time for the students to read independently they
struggled to decode the word and say it aloud. Additionally, they struggled with the word “little”, which Ianthe
did not plan for. This messed with their comprehension in the beginning of the story, since they were so tripped
up by these words, and they were reoccurring throughout the story. At the end of the guided reading lesson,
Ianthe ran short on time, so she was only really able to ask the students if the story was happy or sad, and why
they thought that.
3. Looking ahead to the next lesson, what teaching decisions will you make as you plan the next lesson?
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
We are making a conscious effort to focus only on short vowels, specifically the short “e” and
short “I” vowels during the word study lesson. Bringing long vowels with a silent “e” seemed to confuse the
student more. For the guided reading lesson, we are going to focus on tricky, reoccurring words in a more
comprehensive way before the independent reading so that students can focus on comprehension rather than
decoding. Our students showed through their running records this week that they are very capable of reading
texts fluently and reading for meaning, but they might be better at this if they are reading while separated from
one another. We think that they might be distracted and unfamiliar with guided reading, so they don’t display
some of the clues during guided reading that they did during the running record. For this reason, we are going to
spread the students out significantly during the independent reading so that we can truly allow them an
opportunity to comprehend the story, and thus ask them deeper questions. We also want to introduce the idea of
themes or big ideas to the students in our next lesson.
4. As you reflected on these questions, how did the Teacher Decision Making Framework (TDM) guide your
reflections on the decisions?
We chose a text that would push readers to focus on comprehension, so we focused on the readers’
strengths from the last lesson (reading fluently and using pictures to solve words), to build and add new
challenges with comprehension through a text with a more complex plot. We had a clear goal for this lesson,
and the readers achieved it because of our choice of text. It supported them in what they were good at but also
challenged them by presenting a more complex plot than the previous one.
5. What did your coach help you think about?
Our coach encouraged us to remind readers to speak up during independent reading, and
encouraged Ianthe when the second student arrived in the middle of her lesson. She supported Ianthe by asking
her to repeat the introduction but give a shortened version. Additionally, she suggested that we make a future
goal for our students to infer humor, which we want to include in our next lesson.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

Case Study Lesson #4 – April 4/5

Your Role for this Lesson: Teacher:____ Observer:____
For Lesson #4, you and your partner will work as a team. Decide how you will divide the lesson
responsibilities. Indicate your role in each part of the lesson.

KEEP THESE HEADINGS BUT ADD THE DETAILED INFORMATION BELOW EACH.

1. Word Study Lesson - Ianthe: (4-6 minutes)

Using the results of the primary spelling inventory, plan a phonics lesson that builds on the student’s
current understandings of phonics while addressing his/her most pressing need. Use your textbook Making
Sense of Phonics as a guide. Note the lesson # if appropriate.
Lesson Objective: short vowels, building and decoding words- Students will be able to separate the
initial, medial and final sounds of consonant-vowel-consonant words and pronounce the words correctly.
Students will also decode words with consonant digraphs and also consonant-vowel-consonant words.
TEKS:
110.b.2.E: isolate initial, medial, and final sounds in one-syllable spoken words
110.b.22.B.i.use letter-sound patterns to spell: consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words
110.b.3.A.iv. decode words in context and in isolation by applying common letter-sound correspondences
Including: consonant digraphs including ch, tch, sh, th=as in thing, wh, ng, ck, kn, -dge, and ph.

Materials and Procedures: Magnet letters and board

Words: ( Duck, sock, fish, mat, mad, cat, car)
1. I will start by making the word “duck” on the board.
2. Then I will ask students to take look and tell me what the word is.
3. I will then model to the students separating the initial (“d”), medial (“u”) and final (“ck”) sounds. Once I
separate them I will make the sound for each part of the word and then put it together.
4. I will then make the word “sock” on the board.
5. I will then ask students to tell me the word and to separate the sounds and bring together just as
demonstrated with the word before.
6. The next word will be “fish” and ask students to tell me the word, separate the consonant, vowel , and
consonant digraph and bring together as a word.
7. Next, I will ask the students if they remember the word “mat” and if not explain to them what a “mat” is.
8. I will ask them to spell the word “mat” out for me, and to do so to sound out every letter in the word.
9. The next word the students will be “mad” I will give an example of the word in a sentence.
10. The students will sound out the word and spell it out with their magnetic letters.
11. I will ask the students to spell out the word “cat”
12. I will then ask students to create the word “car” immediately ask students “What letter we will have to
change? How do you know?”
If time permits (bad, bar, back, ball)

Informal Assessment:
Through this process, I will check if students are able to separate the one-syllable words in the three sections (initial,
medial, and final sounds) doing so orally and by using their magnetic letters. I will keep in mind that the students
may be confused about the final sound of the words duck, sock, and fish, because they end in with consonant
digraphs. To avoid this confusion, I will activate the students’ prior knowledge and ask the students if they have
seen those two letters together before. If they have I will ask if they can give me an example, if not I will show them
the word “duck”. I tell the students the sound “ck” makes and how we can use it in the word duck. Once I ask the
students to tell me what the word “sock” is, I will check if the students were able to identify “ck” and the correct
sound. The words in steps 7-12 most of them are in an order to where they are required to replace one letter to create
the next word. For example, the word in step 7 is “mat” and the word in step 9 is “mad”. In this portion of the word
study I will check if students are using their letter-sound patterns to spell the consonant-vowel-consonant words.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

2. Take a Running Record on the guided reading book from last session (4-6 minutes)
Embed the scored and analyzed running record here.
*see Appendix*

3. Guided Reading Lesson - Becca: (10 – 15 minutes)

TEKS:
110.b.9.A: describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end with
attention to the sequence of events.
110.b.9.B: describe characters in a story and the reasons for their actions and feelings.
Lesson Goal: What goal do you have for these readers in this lesson?
Students should be able to use one-to-one correspondence by pointing to individual words while reading,
effectively comprehend the main ideas of the story through re-telling, and describe characters and their
actions in the story. Students will also be able to predict future events in the story using the pictures.

Planning:
A. Provide a brief overview of the text that you selected for this group.
The text we selected is Blackberries by Beverly Randell. This text is about Mother Bear, Father Bear, and
Baby Bear, and their adventure while looking for blackberries. Each character carries a basket to collect
blackberries in. While they are picking blackberries, Father Bear and Mother Bear lose track of Baby Bear.
They shout to him, and when they find him, his basket is completely empty. When Father Bear asks Baby
Bear where his blackberries are, he points to his stomach saying, “Inside me”.

B. What level is this text, and why did you select this particular book? Carefully consider the
characteristics that make this text easy/hard and explain how these characteristics match the strengths/needs
of the readers in this student. (Refer to GR book))
This text is Level D, but we feel it is on the easier end of this level. Our previous two texts have been Level
C, so we thought this was an appropriate time to transition them to the next level of text. Last week our
students showed that they can use pictures to solve words they don’t know, and they can comprehend a
story by re-telling. For this reason, we wanted a text that had a plot line that was easy to follow but still
structured as a story with a problem and solution. In addition, we wanted to increase the level of vocabulary
for the text this week, since our students did very well decoding last week. This text has a lot of repetition,
but some of the words are most likely going to be unknown for these students, such as “blackberries”. Our
readers have trouble staying focused while reading independently, so we chose this text because it is
repetitive enough that they will be able to stay engaged without getting frustrated, but challenging and
engaging enough to keep them interested in what will happen at the end of the story. Finally, this text has
multiple places for the students to use the pictures as clues for what will happen in the story. Last week, in
A Hungry Knight, the students started to get the hang of using pictures as tools for foreshadowing, but we
want to really emphasize it this week, so this text was a great one for introducing this idea again.

C. Write a book introduction for the text selected for the guided reading lesson in the space below. (This
should be a script of what you plan to say.)
Engage readers, give main idea, set a purpose for reading
Today we are going to read a story called Blackberries. Say that word after me. “Blackberries.” Your turn!
Can anyone point to the blackberries on the cover?
Has anyone ever eaten a blackberry? What word is “blackberry” similar to? (blueberry, strawberry)
Let’s look at the cover again. What does this bear look like he is doing? (picking blackberries)
Good! Turn with me to page 2. I see three bears on this page, can you point to Father Bear in the picture?
How about Mother Bear and Baby Bear? These are the main characters of this story.
In this book, Father Bear, Mother Bear, and Baby Bear go to look for blackberries to collect in
their baskets.
Turn with me to page 10. In this picture, what do you think is happening? Can Father Bear and Mother
Bear see Baby Bear? (No, Baby Bear is hiding)
Hmm. It looks to me like there may be a problem in the story right here. Let’s read to find out what
happens to Baby Bear as gathers blackberries with his family. I want you to focus on the problem that
Father Bear, Mother Bear, and Baby Bear run into, and how they solve this problem at the end of the story.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

4. Actions During the Lesson: Observe the readers and “dip in” to support word solving and/or comprehension.
Take anecdotal notes as you observe. Be ready to prompt for strategic reading. Record the notes on a separate paper
and summarize your observations in the space below, including specific examples from the lesson.

Alvea Izaiah Jacob

Word Study
• Follows others
• Says “sock” as “snake”
• Doesn’t participate much
• Sounds out “fish” before
saying entire word
• Spells “mat” as “tam” until
reminded to think about
first sound
• Knew “d” went instead of a
“t” in “mat” to make “mad”
• “cat” = c/a/t
Guided Reading
• recognizes “blackberries”
has 2 b’s
• says Baby Bear is putting
blackberries in the basket
• predicts that Baby Bear is
eating the blackberries
• able to list characters
• struggles with decoding
independently
• appealed for most of the
text, especially with the
words “said”, “basket”, and
“shouted”
• after two pages, understood
words “bear”, “mother”,
“father”, and “baby” and no
longer needed appeal
• recognizes the problem, but
not the solution
• even though he struggled
with reading independently,
he still comprehended
accurately
Word Study
• “ck” makes hard k sound
• “back” = “duck” at first,
but then self-corrects
• “sock” = correct
• recognizes “ck” from
“duck”
• knows “ckos” is not a word
• says “fish” as “fix”
• then self corrects to say the
“sh” sound
• knows that to make “cat”,
we need to add an “-at” to
the c
Guided Reading
• recognizes Baby Bear is
playing with the
blackberries by using the
visual picture
• reads “said” instead of
“shouted”
• reads very quickly
• has trouble pointing to
words
• figures out that Baby Bear
was the one eating the
blackberries
• thinks Baby Bear is funny
• relates story to his life (a
time when he was really
hungry)
Word Study
• “ck” makes hard k sound
• sounds out correctly
• asks about rearranging
word “sock” to make
“ckos”
• “fish” = correct
• thought that to make “mad”
from “mat” the d went on
the end of “mat”, making
“matd”
• sounds out “cat” to build it
• “car” spelled c/o/r at first,
but self-corrects to car
Guided Reading
• recognized the word “baby”
during walk through
• struggled with word “this”,
but self-corrected to get it
by using individual sounds
• reads “mother” as
“mommy” throughout the
story
• reads “bucket” instead of
“basket”
• thinks Baby Bear is funny
for eating all the
blackberries

Teaching Point After the Lesson: Explain how you supported comprehension after the reading and how you
praised or supported strategy development after the lesson. (What TEKS are you supporting?)

Can anyone tell me who the characters in this story were? (Mother Bear, Father Bear, Baby Bear)
Good! So what were these characters doing in this story? (picking blackberries and putting them in their baskets)
Let’s turn to page 10 again. Can anyone tell me what was happening here? What problem happened on this page?
(Father Bear and Mother Bear could not find Baby Bear)
Did they find him? (yes)
Let’s turn to page 15. Read this page and the next one aloud with me: “Father Bear looked in Baby Bear’s basket.
‘Where are your blackberries?’ he said. ‘In here,’ said Baby Bear. ‘Inside me.’”
So what was the ending of this story? (Baby bear had an empty basket because he ate all his blackberries)
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Do you think Baby Bear is mean? Funny? Serious? Why do you think this? (funny, because he ate all the
blackberries and didn’t put any in his basket)
Have you ever been so hungry that you ate all your food before anyone else ate his or hers?

4. Reading Response: (if time permits)

Ask the student to respond to the guided reading text in a written format.
TEKS:
110.b.9.A: describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end
with attention to the sequence of events.
110.b.19.C: write brief comments on literary or informational texts.
Writing Prompt:
Tell me about this story in your own words.

5. Read Aloud - Ianthe: (if time permits)

Title: I Don’t Like Koala
Author: Sean Ferrel
Short Summary: A young boy named Adam receives a toy koala, but he does not like the way the Koala
looks at him. Every time Adam sees the Koala, he thinks the Koala is always looking at him. Adam dislikes
that the Koala is always around him and wishes to get rid of him. One night, when Adam is laying in bed
he sees a scary shadow outside his window and he figures that the Koala is always near him to protect him
from the “terrible terrible”. In the end Adam ends up falling in love with his toy Koala.

REFLECTION AFTER THE CASE STUDY LESSON #4

For Teacher: Please answer the following questions after teaching the lesson: GUIDED READING
1. As you PLANNED this lesson, what teaching decisions did you make? Why did you make them? What
sources of teacher knowledge were you drawing upon to make those decisions? (Be specific.)
During the planning of this lesson, I very deliberately made decisions that helped to challenge our
readers without frustrating them too much. I chose to focus less on literal comprehension of the text but rather
on hidden messages, predictions, and characters’ feelings. Since my students were very successful the last two
lessons on re-telling the story, I wanted to focus on the deeper aspects of the story. In addition, I was very
deliberate in my planning of the introduction. Since students were bogged down last week by words they did
not recognize, and were forced to appeal throughout the entire independent read (knight), I wanted to make sure
I identified any tricky words this week before having students read by themselves. Additionally, our readers
struggle with using clues other than the picture to problem-solve unknown words. For this reason, I wanted to
have places throughout the lesson to encourage readers to use the first letter or first sound of a word to solve it
in addition to the picture. I wanted readers to move past the visual clues of pictures and move towards
understanding how the structure of the words relates to how the readers say it. Finally, our readers have had
trouble the past three weeks with reading independently during the guided reading lessons. Because of this, I
made it a point in my planning to explicitly state my goal for the readers right before they started to read.
Additionally, I wanted to make it a point to separate readers so that they would focus on reading and not on
each other. I planned this based on my observations of previous weeks.
2. You began the lesson with a detailed and thoughtful plan, but teaching does not always go according to
plan. What “in-the-moment” teaching decisions did you make? Why did you make them? What sources of
teacher knowledge were you drawing upon to make those decisions? Were they effective and how do you
know?
I made many in-the-moment teaching decisions this week. For example, my readers were very
talkative this week during the book introduction so I had to choose what comments to respond to and elaborate
and which ones to move on from. Specifically, Izaiah constantly relates every part of a story to his own life, so
it is important for me to recognize this and respond to his comments, to encourage his text-to-self connections,
but it is also important for me to focus on the goal of the lesson and attend to all the readers. For these reasons, I
had to “filter” my responses to Izaiah. During the reading, I focused almost solely on Alvea. I did not plan for
this, but he needed a lot of help during the independent reading. He appealed on almost every word, and took a
very long time to get through the text. This was really the first week that he could focus on reading completely
by himself, so he wasn’t able to just follow Izaiah or Jacob’s reading. Because of this, I wasn’t able to observe
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Izaiah or Jacob much while they whisper-read independently. It also affected my overall time, and I had to
shorten my post-reading questions and comments. After reading, I made a few changes to my questions,
skipping over some of the ones focusing more on literal comprehension, because the students were able to
identify the characters and plot line affectively. I also chose to focus a little more on the bolded word “me” that
I had planned for students to reread together. This was not in my plan, but because students read the word with
no inflection, I wanted to make sure students recognized that the word “me” looked different than the words
around it. I think this decision was slightly effective, because the students did recognize that the word was
bolded, however they did not really understand the use of inflection on that word.
3. As you reflected on these questions, how did the Teacher Decision Making Framework (TDM) guide your
decisions?
This week, I chose a text that was a level up on purpose, to challenge readers in their decoding and
problem-solving skills. Because this text had many more difficult words than previous texts, I had to use this
knowledge while planning my introduction. The readers’ abilities were constantly at the forefront of my
decisions. I most often use observations from previous weeks to plan the next week’s activities, because my
students had a lot of trouble with very basic skills, so it was natural to build the next week off the previous.
4. What did you coach help you think about?
My coach really helped me think about asking follow-up questions like “how” and “why”, rather
than just one-word answers. She pushed me to really allow students to read independently, so that I could see
them as completely individual readers during the guided reading lesson.
5. Imagine that you were in a parent/teacher conference with one of your case study student’s parent or
guardian. Articulate his/her strengths and needs related to reading, writing, and/or phonics.
As I worked with Izaiah, I immediately could see that he has a love for reading. Based on my
observations, I would categorize Izaiah as an early reader. As the weeks progressed, I could see that Izaiah has a
strong level of comprehension. He really understands the “big idea” that authors often put into stories and he
was consistently able to communicate this to me after reading. Izaiah is able to identify important events and
characters that appear in texts accurately, but he is also able to look beyond this and use strategies such as
predicting, inferring, and making text-to-self connections. In addition, Izaiah does a great job using pictures to
solve words he cannot successfully decode initially. In our word study lessons, Izaiah was very deliberate about
articulating each sound in a word, to make sure he was pronouncing it correctly. Izaiah is very good at using
individual sounds to build words he does not know, and he is confident with the short “a” and short “o” vowels.
One of Izaiah’s most pressing needs is his ability to stay focused while reading independently. During our
guided reading sessions, he had some difficulty reading aloud and maintaining one-to-one correspondence by
pointing at each word as he read. Additionally, Izaiah did not self-correct words. I think this is due to the fact
that he wanted to finish reading as quickly as possible, so rather than use word-solving strategies he would
simply move on even if he had missed a word or substituted incorrectly. In word study, Izaiah’s most pressing
need is the short “i” vowel. Overall, Izaiah is a joy to work with, and he makes reading a personal experience by
allowing me to see into his life through his connections to each story we read.

For Observer: WORD STUDY/READ ALOUD

1. As your partner PLANNED this lesson, what teaching decisions did your partner make? Why did she make
them? What sources of teacher knowledge was she drawing upon to make those decisions? (Be specific.)
As Ianthe planned this lesson, she was considering the previous week’s problems and successes.
The previous lesson, students were introduced to long vowels and short vowels in pairs, to compare the
difference in sound. The students really struggled with the long vowels, but were successful with most short
vowels. For this reason, Ianthe chose to focus primarily on short vowel sounds, but introduced the idea of CVC
words and changed the goal. Ianthe wanted students to focus on initial and final consonants of a word, and we
had previously only focused on the vowels. I think this change was to introduce something new to the students,
as we could tell they were frustrated in the last word study lesson. Not only was Ianthe drawing upon her
observations of students’ strengths and needs from previous lessons, but she was also always keeping in mind
the primary spelling inventory of the students. She knew what their capabilities were at all times and made sure
to make her lessons within the realm of their abilities while also pushing them to discover new elements of
words.
2. Your partner began the lesson with a detailed and thoughtful plan, but teaching does not always go
according to plan. What “in-the-moment” teaching decisions did your partner make? Why do you think she
made them? What sources of teacher knowledge was she drawing upon to make those decisions? Were the
decisions effective and how do you know?
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
My partner stayed pretty true to her lesson throughout. She used all the words she had planned for,
and asked all the follow-up questions on her plan. However, our students became very distracted by the
magnetic letters during the lesson, so Ianthe needed to stop and remind them to focus many times throughout
the lesson. In addition, a decision she made in the moment was to have all students say the word, sound out each
letter, and then spell it. This specific procedure was not in her plan, but she repeated this phrase, “say, sound out,
spell” often throughout the lesson. I think Ianthe recognized that our students thrive when there is a clear goal in
mind, and explicit procedures in place. She used this knowledge to help focus the readers and guide them to her
goal.

Submit this entire document to d2L to the Case Study Assignment dropbox by April 4/5. Then email
a copy of the complete assignment to your coach.
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

APPENDIX
Primary Spelling Inventory

Running Record (Quack is a Duck)

Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis
Name: Becca Wilson School: Rosemont Elementary
Case Study Students: Izaiah, Alvea, Jacob Level: C
Partner’s Name: Ianthe Raya Coach’s Name: Miranda Otis

Running Record (A Hungry Knight)