Logan Case Study

University of South Florida

Logan (pseudonym) is a 5 year old white boy in Kindergarten. His mother works in an

assistant teacher role at the school, also in Kindergarten. He has an older sister, still in

elementary, who reads with him often at home and seems to have a very supportive and loving

family. He is outgoing and loves his friends, but is not necessarily super talkative or shy. He is a

people pleaser and enjoys doing acts of kindness for peers and the teachers on a daily basis.

Many students often ask if they can “celebrate” something kind or helpful he did for them, and

he has earned several “kindness awards” at our school.

During my initial interview with Logan, I learned that he loves dinosaurs and all kinds of

animals. He talked a lot about reading dinosaur books in particular. I learned that he loves

reading for fun, and sometimes he would rather read than play at home. He mostly reads books

for fun as opposed to reading to learn, and seemed a little unsure about how he felt when it came

to reading for learning. One of my bigger wonderings for Logan is “How can I introduce books

that he will enjoy and learn from?”

Assessment Procedure

I did several assessments with Logan: The KSI, CORE (modified), a running record, and

concepts of print. Additionally, my CT performed a comprehension test on the whole class,

which I will present as Logan’s comprehension since I was unable to run the QRI with him.

To administer the KSI, I printed out pictures to represent each word and read the words

off to Logan, showing him the corresponding pictures to the words. I also introduced the

assessment with an example, mat, where I went to show him how I would sound out the word

mat and use the picture to help me, but he jumped ahead and said, “I know how to spell mat!”
and then spelled it out. I continued and did the demonstration, praising him for knowing, before

having him spell the other words in the assessment.

To administer the CORE with a kindergartener, I took the first grade form 1A and only

had Logan complete the first ten questions. I also read the word in the box and the words to

choose from, asked him to point to the word he thought meant about the same as the word in the

box, and I underlined which word he pointed to. I did not help him or give him any hints, just

read the words off to him with the verbiage, “The word in the box is __,” followed by me

pointing at each other word and then saying the word as I pointed.

For Logan’s running record, I prepared with the book printed out, the paper for me to fill

out printed, and the words in the text written out on my paper. I had a pen with me and checked

off or marked any words he incorrectly said. I went back and later filled out the MSV section

based on if Logan’s errors made sense (M), if they looked similar to the actual word (V), or if

they sounded similar to the actual word (S).

To administer the concepts of print, I brought in a children’s book for Logan to look at,

and flipped open to pages and handed him the book and asked him a list of questions about the

book. I asked him where I should start reading the book, how I should hold the book, and various

questions about where to locate things in the book, such as a space, a letter, a word, and a

sentence. I marked down what he answered correctly and incorrectly on a sheet of paper as we

went through the questions.

My CT administered a comprehension assessment to the whole class, including Logan,

that consisted of 2 stories that were read aloud, with three questions to each story following the

stories. Each story showed only pictures or a picture for the students to see on their copy of the

test, and each question only showed three pictures, one for each answer choice. The teacher
would read the story, questions, and answer choices from their copy of the test, but the students

did not have access to the written words, only the pictures, so it was partially based on their

listening comprehension skills.

Assessment Results

KSI

The KSI (Appendix B) only had five questions, and Logan received a correct score of

4/5. Logan was asked to spell several words after being told the word and shown a picture to go

along with the word. The only word Logan misspelled was kid, which he spelled as keds. This

may partially have been my fault, as the photo I showed him had multiple kids. He might have

otherwise spelled ked. He correctly answered all five beginning phonemes, and correctly

answered 4/5 middle and ending phonemes, for a total phonetically acceptable score of 13/15.

This shows that Logan’s spelling ability is excellent for this point in the kindergarten. Based on

this, I should have continued on and given him the PSI (Primary Spelling Inventory) to see

where he was in this assessment with it being the next step up, but failed to do so.

CORE

On the CORE (Appendix A), Logan performed extremely well. I took one of the first

grade CORE assessments and had Logan do numbers 1-10 instead of the full assessment to make

it more developmentally appropriate. Being that there was no CORE assessment designed for

Kindergarten, it seemed like the most reasonable thing to do to shorten the assessment as a whole

for him and go with the first grade assessment, which was the closest to grade level for a vocab

assessment I could get. He only missed 1/10 questions, meaning he received a correct score of

9/10, which would be the 1st grade benchmark level. This means Logan’s vocabulary is great for
his grade level. At this point, I could have continued with the CORE, first testing more at first

grade level and, if necessary, continuing into second grade to find Logan’s benchmark. However,

I failed to do this.

Running Records

Logan’s running record (Appendix C) was on a level B book from reading a-z (lexile

level 20). Logan’s results on this running record should be properly interpreted. While his raw

scores show that he made 11 errors, 7 of these were the same word (he said tortoise instead of

turtle). Logan sped through the book, causing him to make more errors than he may have if he

had simply taken a moment more to look at the letters. Out of these errors, 8 of these had

meaning marked, 7 had syntax marked, and 4 had visual marked. I noticed that most of his

errors, even the 6 that were not all the same word, were due to him speeding through the text. He

said eat instead of eats, for example, something I know he could have got if he had taken his

time.

Concept of Print

Finally, Logan performed very well on the concepts of print (Appendix D) assessment.

He was able to correctly show me everything except for a sentence and end of a sentence. When

asked to locate a sentence he showed me a single word, and when asked to locate the end of a

sentence he showed me the final letter in the sentence instead of pointing to a punctuation mark.

This shows me that while he does have a good understanding of how books work and where to

locate most things in a book, he is uncertain about what sentences are or how they work.

Comprehension Assessment

While I was unable to run the QRI with Logan, I was able to acquire the results of the

comprehension assessment my CT did with the class. Logan received a score of 4/6 for his first
comprehension test of the year, which was much better than most of his peers. However, in our

work later throughout the semester, I noticed that, despite this, he seemed to struggle with

comprehension, prompting me to change my focus for his guided reading activities.

Conclusion

After these assessments, I determined that Logan has an excellent vocabulary due to his

CORE results (Appendix A), especially considering that I gave him a modified version of the

first grade CORE assessment, and great spelling skills (phonemic awareness) for this point in

kindergarten based on his KSI results (Appendix B). His areas of need lay more in how he was

speeding through text, as I could see in his running record (Appendix C), but I also feel like it is

important to consider the lack of knowledge about sentences from his concepts of print

(Appendix D). Based on Logan’s performance on the comprehension test, I would say that his

comprehension is at instructional level. He was not quite at benchmark level (which would have

been 5 or 6 out of 6).

Finally, Logan’s writing piece (Appendix E) demonstrated that he has the ability to form

a complete sentence using logical letter sounds. He showed an ability to space words apart from

each other, revise his sentence on his own accord, and spell a few words correctly (albeit, they

were I and a).

Initial Instruction Plan

Instructional Goals

At this point, my goals for Logan were as follows:

multiple drawings) about a topic of his choice. Being that he has an understanding

of how to write full sentences, I will be able to work with him on this and help

him write multiple sentences about a single topic.

2. Logan will be able to read a text at his level, matching letters to sounds and

“sounding out” the words, taking his time. This is because of the struggles with

reading too quickly and not slowing down his reading, causing him to make

mistakes.

I changed my instructional reading goal for Logan after realizing that his comprehension

didn’t seem to be where it needed to be during our guided reading lessons. He was having

trouble remembering basic details and could not tell me what the story was about. I decided then

to make my goal for Logan: Logan will be able to tell me the main idea and several details of

each story we read. Later, upon discussing realistic expectations with my CT, I decided to focus

more on Logan remembering details, with any understanding of the main idea being a bonus in

comprehension.

Instructional Methods/Strategies

A strategy I would use for both goals is to choose texts and topics that interest Logan. My

inquiry project in level 2 focused on intrinsic motivation, and something I found while working

on the inquiry through literature and experience was that choosing topics of interest can go a

long way regarding a student’s motivation. When it comes to accomplishing goal one, there are a

few main strategies that come to mind. One is using drawings, graphic organizers, and charts

frequently during our planning, as they are good ways to communicate at this point since Logan

is in kindergarten. Another is through one-on-one discussion. This will allow me to give Logan
feedback in real time for his planning and we will work together on the planning and

brainstorming. It will also help us when we move onto him drafting his story, where I will be

able to continue giving him feedback and helping him create a finished product that he likes and

is in line with the goal. For goal two, I mostly plan to use guided reading instruction to

accomplish this, with a focus on matching letters and sounds, taking time to read and sound out

words, and using prompts with Logan to get him to read more closely. For example, if we have a

book where there is a horse and the text says horse, I can ask him, “How do you know it’s horse

and not pony?” I can also use prompts to have him look back on what he just read incorrectly.

For example, “Let’s look at this word again. What is the beginning sound? Can you sound out

the word with me, thinking about the sounds the letters make?” Word work to focus on letter

sounds, such as through using colored tiles to make words from sounds, can also be beneficial in

ensuring Logan knows his sounds and how to form words using them.

Plans for Continuous Assessment

I plan to assess for goal 2 regularly using running records on day 2 of Logan’s guided

reading plans. This will allow me to see if he is making careless errors or errors on the same

word in the same way he did in the initial running record. I plan to record these sessions so I can

go back and reference it as needed for the running record. I do not think I need anything else at

this time to assess Logan regularly with regarding these goals, although I may like to run a QRI

on him at some point to get an idea of where his comprehension lies. As I collect more running

records, I will add to the appendix on this case study, and keep the hard copies filed with the rest

of Logan’s work at my house.

Appendix

C
D

Appendix E