Learning Case Study - Literacy

Learning Case Study - Literacy Assessment

This case study on literacy assessment is a summary of my findings from my observations of the literacy exercises for classmates who attended a sixth grade class in Rockland County, NY. The subjects represent different learning curves and this report is a culmination of all data collected from the exercises, various books and other sources. The report attempts to therefore link all of the materials together and then perform a comparison and draw conclusions of the two subjects and process. The report attempts to clarify my hypothesis of what the subjects were attempting to construct mentally as they engaged in these literary activities. In addition, the report summary tries to answer some basic questions in regard to the overall assessment and results and the process.

This summary must first address how each child did in regard to performance on their spelling assessments. This narrative presents the multiple observations over the period of the assessment and should provide insights into what the children were attempting to construct mentally as they engaged in the literary activities. My focus was on assessing the needs of the students to verify if they worked and thought at the same high level as the rest of the student population. These observations provided an opportunity to understand how teaching can enhance a student's life if certain educational necessities like spelling and reading are addressed in a positive way. For these two subjects there was a marked difference in comprehensive strategies used and the results of the comprehensive accuracy ratings favored subject 2:

Subject 1: Comprehension Accuracy Rate: 1/9,-Word Solving Strategies Used: graphophonic, Comprehension Strategies Used: language clues, background knowledge. The overall accuracy rate was 13/261.

Subject 2: Comprehension Accuracy Rate: 5/10,-Word Solving Strategies Used: none- he skipped words, Comprehension Strategies Used: none observed. The overall accuracy rate was 19/261.

Self-esteem is considered an extremely important part of a healthy psyche by the medical and psychological professions. Each of the children in this study seemed self-confident in regard to social standing but the self reading perception was greatly varied in these two subjects. Each child, in other words child had a self-perception of their own reading abilities which affected their overall self-esteem. Historical tendencies and current skills play a major roll in one's

Subject 1: Was not as confident with his ability to read as Subject 2. Reading was not a priority and he was still self-admittedly using techniques from previous grades that should have been already mentally processed and left behind for more advanced reading techniques. "When I was a kid, my teacher in 3rd grade always said to say it in bits, like chop the word up." I still do that, " and for the question of what happens when you get stuck on a word he replied, "Just mainly that or just ask somebody"

Subject 2: Was a much more confident reader and this is most likely because of the ability to use phonics' based reading and thinking process. The subject had advanced phonics' in a previous grade and those principles have carried forward into the self-esteem and confidence in regard to reading. He has a viable solution for answering his own questions regarding words or sounds he does not know.

According to the analysis of the spelling features, both boys are in similar spelling stages, however, the phonics background in subject 2 will help him develop faster as both a readier and a speller. The children were both using phonetic spelling techniques to pass the spelling portion of the assessment, however, subject one is using it unconsciously and basing his decisions on must likely incorrect phonetic definitions as opposed to subject 2 who is using the phonetic background from third grade to properly assess the words and sounds he is spelling.

Conclusion