Brandon: Case 3 – Intermediate Grade

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Partner 1: Jessica Hatcher Partner 2: Sarah Warfield

Stage of Reading Justification (must include at least 4 reasons)

What is his stage of reading? - Informal measures show that he is reading at a fifth grade
Intermediate level, which typically correlates with the intermediate stage.
- If his errors mostly consist of content words that shows he
needs to increase his academic vocabulary, which shows he
has already mastered the necessary reading skills for
decoding and comprehension, indicating he has left the
transitional stage.
- His decreased motivation is typical of the intermediate
stage.
- His writing sample is fluent and is full of expression. His
voice clearly comes through as he describes his adventure
with his dad. This kind of writing correlates with the
intermediate reading stage.

Stage of Spelling Justification (must include at least 3 reasons)

What is his stage of spelling? - On the Developmental Spelling Analysis, he had a stage
Early Syllable Juncture score of 8 on the Syllable Juncture section, which means that
it was slightly too hard for him, but assuming he did well on
Also score using Ganske Chapter 2 the previous stage test, he is early in the Syllable Juncture
Stage stage.
K L M N O
Score - His score of 2 on doubling and e-drop indicates that he is
2 3 4 1 0 8 using but confusing this feature, but mostly confusing the
doubling feature, so he is likely early in this stage because it
comes relatively early in the stage progression chart.
- His reading stage is Intermediate, which usually
corresponds to the Syllable Juncture spelling stage.
Word Knowledge Justification
How would you address needs in word What feature – why?
knowledge? - His developmental spelling analysis shows that he is still
1. What feature would you target?
Doubling and e-drop with “ed” and “ing”
struggling with doubling. He only received a feature score of
two for that feature. Given that his stage score indicates that
he is still early in the stage it also makes sense to start with
the first feature.
2. What is an example of one sorting
What sorting contrast – why?
contrast that exemplifies the feature?
- This sorting contrast will introduce him to and building his
quit/quitting vs. use/using knowledge of the concept of doubling and e-drop, which is a
foundational understanding for the rest of the features in
this stage.
3. What is the essential understanding
of this feature? How would you
explain it to Brandon?
When to double vs. when to e-drop.
When there is an e on the end of the
word, you need to drop the e and add the
suffix, and if there isn’t you double the
consonant and add the suffix.
4. What grouping format would you use
for Word Knowledge instruction?
Homogenous
Reading Fluency
How would you address needs in reading
fluency?
1. What are the main goals of reading
fluency for students in this stage of
reading?
Prosody, Accuracy, and Rate
2. What are Brandon’s fluency needs (if
What fluency needs – why?
any)?
- Brandon needs to work especially on his expression. The
Expression and Rate.
3. What grouping format would you use
for fluency instruction?
Homogenous
Reading Comprehension &
Vocabulary
How would you address needs in
comprehension/vocabulary?
1. What are the main goals of reading
comprehension at this stage of
reading?
Increased metacognitive awareness of
comprehension.
Motivation to read for pleasure.
Increasing fluency.
What essential understanding – explain?
- In order to be able to utilize this feature correctly, Brandon
needs to understand when to use one feature over the other.
This knowledge of words will serve as the firm foundation
for the rest of this feature and his future word knowledge.
What grouping format – why?
- Even at the intermediate stage, homogenous groups are still
the most appropriate grouping format for word knowledge
instruction.
Justification
What main goals – why?
- Students at this stage need to work on prosody, accuracy,
and rate, because in order to further build their fluency,
they need to have a faster rate, and read with more
expression and accuracy. Accuracy can be built with more
experience with unknown words.
study notes that he is lacking expression, and his rate is only
111 wpm, which is a marginal rate (for fifth grade it should
be 140 wpm). In order to build his fluency, these skills need
to be honed and with unknown vocabulary he will gain
knowledge with practice.
What grouping format – why?
- Homogeneous grouping is more appropriate for fluency
work. If there is opportunity to work with him one on one
that would likely be the most beneficial for the student.
Particularly as working on fluency can make a student feel
vulnerable. That being said, the more exposure the student
has to fluent models, whether from adults or peers, the
better.
Justification
What main goals – why?
- In order to grow as a reader, students at this stage need to
learn to become aware of their own reading. They need to
self-monitor their own comprehension, and learn to pause,
slow down or speed up, based on their current level of
comprehension. They also need to learn strategies such as
looking at context clues, asking questions, and making
predictions.

2. What are the main goals of
vocabulary at this stage of reading?
Increasing vocabulary, particularly
academic vocabulary.
Increasing background knowledge.
3. What grouping format would you use
for comprehension and vocabulary
instruction?
Heterogeneous, but with differentiated
texts.
- Additionally, students at this level need to be motivated to
read for themselves and not their teacher. If they are not
motivated to read for pleasure than their reading
development will stagnate and they will become even more
resistant to “school reading.”
- Increasing fluency will also aide in their comprehension.
Fluency is necessary, although not sufficient in and of itself,
for comprehension.
What comprehension/vocabulary needs – why?
- At this stage the students have mostly learned how to
decode words, now they need to increase their vocabulary,
particularly their academic vocabulary, in order to fully
comprehend the texts that they are reading.
- Part of what will assist them in increasing their vocabulary
will be increasing their background knowledge. The more a
student knows about the text that they are reading the more
vocabulary they will be able to comprehend.
What grouping format – why?
- All students in a classroom can benefit from the same
comprehension and vocabulary instruction. Reading is a
recursive skill and circling back to and reviewing strategies
and new vocabulary and new background information can
be beneficial for all of the students. That being said,
depending on the range of readers in a classroom, it would
likely be appropriate to use differentiated and/or tiered
texts so that all of the students have the opportunity to
comprehend the text at their own instructional level.