Sixth Grade Reading Assessment Interest

Sixth Grade Reading Assessment

Interest Inventory:

Jessica's interest inventory suggests three main directions of potential focus: (1)

Animals, Wildlife Issues, and Animal Husbandry/Care, (2) Sports (i.e. Soccer), and (3)

Global Peace and Environmental Issues. While not specified as a specific interest, Jessica also indicated some concerns about international peace ("I wish that there was world peace") and excessive government involvement ("NO GOVERNMENT!").

Jessica expressed a general interest in animals and Oceanography, as well as a possible vocational goal of pursuing veterinary sciences to become a veterinarian.

Jessica repeatedly expressed her interest in playing soccer while (indirectly) indicating simultaneously that she may sometimes play even when she is too tired for the activity.

Jessica mentioned her interest in oceans, "environmental happenings,"

Jessica did not specify any reasons or the origin of her particular interests, but reading between the lines and extrapolating from her answers would suggest certain directions for continued inquiry and for the possible focus of subsequent lesson content based on her expressed interests.

Her interest in animals is somewhat typical for 6th grade students, especially girls.

Likewise, many students mention veterinary science at this age, which suggests that future lesson material might be helpful if it provided any opportunity for Jessica to explore this area to determine whether or not hers is a passing interest or a lasting one. Additionally, Jessica expressed both an interest in science readings as well as a possible discrepancy between her level of interest in science and her related aptitude for science-related subject matter prerequisites at higher levels, in that mathematics is sometimes "confusing" for her.

Therefore, with respect to Jessica's interest in science and animals, future lessons might emphasize exposure to veterinary science, but also alternative channels for her interest in this subject matter that are suitable for non-technical science studies. The specific goal would be to allow Jessica to explore her interest fully even if she later determines that her academic interests and aptitudes are more suitable to liberal arts than to mathematics-based hard science. In this regard, future lessons might also incorporate oceanography and environmental science in conjunction with wildlife readings to further broaden Jessica's potential areas of future academic and vocational interests as well.

Finally, whereas soccer is more of a recreational than academic interest, I would provide reading material that presents science-based disciplines such as sports medicine, physical therapy, and sports psychology, while at the same time emphasizing that sports are supposed to be fun and not another "obligation." The rationale for this is simply to make sure that Jessica is not playing more soccer than she enjoys when she is "tired" in order to maintain an image for popularity sake ("I often worry about what people say about me").

Attitude Survey:

Jessica's survey questions indicate an interesting apparent dichotomy which simultaneously provides some possible insight into identifying a potential limitation of her potential for academic success as well as a way of maximizing her academic potential.

Jessica repeatedly expressed her fondness for reading as an activity while at the same time expressing ambivalence with respect to reading about subjects of less interest to her. She enjoys time spent reading, she considers books to be good gifts. And she strongly disagrees with the proposition that books aren't worth finishing. However, Jessica also indicates ambivalence and indecision ("can't decide") about the degree of reward of reading and about the prospect of including more reading time in the school day.

To maximize the potential academic benefit of Jessica's enjoyment of reading as an activity, I might encourage her to create suggested reading lists (either by book or by subject matter) and allow her choices to form the basis of structured lessons incorporating her areas of interest rather than lessons whose subject matter bores her despite her interest in reading.

At this stage, Jessica might lose interest in reading by failing to recognize that it is some subjects rather than reading that undermine her enjoyment. Finally, I would also take the opportunity to distinguish reading for pleasure from reading for necessity, to further protect against any detrimental effect that future academic assigned reading material detract from her natural fondness for reading.

Word List:

Jessica performed quite well on word recognition lists, which is likely related to beneficial effects of her enjoyment of reading. Her responses suggest two distinct bases for her errors, both of which should be easily redressed through targeted future lessons:

Unfamiliar Words:

On both the 10th and 11th Grade word lists, Jessica had some difficulty with words simply because they were unfamiliar to her and not yet in her vocabulary. However, Jessica already possesses the requisite reading skills to sound out the words anachronism, euphoria, incongruity, and pianissimo, despite the frustration she exhibited when encountering unfamiliar words. With respect to words within Jessica's ability to sound out by applying her existing skills, Jessica needs little more than reassurance that her skills are sufficient to help her sound out many unfamiliar words. This includes reminding her that there is no shame or embarrassment in not recognizing a word but that panicking can undermine her ability to employ her existing skills fully.

Unfamiliar Construction:

Jessica also had some difficulty with unfamiliar construction (ex. benign, hybrid, bivouac, blithe, and chagrin). The advice about resisting her initial frustration or intimidation by unfamiliar words is also useful in connection with considering possible pronunciation or meaning of words using unfamiliar letter combinations or foreign derivations. In this regard, academic materials with exercises focusing on uncommon word construction would likely be very useful for Jessica.

In general, Jessica reads above her grade level and her existing skills should enable her to perform better on word recognition even beyond her current reading ability. The combination of reassurance and specific instruction on recognizing uncommon word construction should quickly raise Jessica's reading level even higher with relatively minimal effort.

Comprehension Questions:

Jessica's comprehension of the story was above expectation for her grade level, but hampered somewhat by the relation between her personal interest in animals and veterinary science and her age-appropriate unfamiliarity with subject matter. Specifically, Jessica focused almost exclusively on the description of Vronsky's competitiveness, his kicking his horse and of the decision to shoot the wounded mare.

Jessica named the story "Cruel People Shouldn't Be Allowed to Have Horses" and she characterized Vronsky as a "bad man who whips and kicks helpless animals for no reason." Clearly, Jessica's conclusions were more functions of her mindset and unfamiliarity with the nature of horse racing than of her misunderstanding the subject matter by virtue of comprehension issues. Similarly, Jessica's interest in veterinary science and her unfamiliarity with the necessity of putting down severely injured horses to minimize their suffering lead to her concluding that "... he didn't even want to find out if the horse could be saved, so he just killed her instead of taking her to the vet." For this reason, I would attribute

Jessica's failure to identify the main idea and protagonist's character traits to the traumatic nature of the fate that befell the horse rather than to issues of reading mechanics.

In general, Jessica's reading comprehension was well above her grade level, again, as might be expected by virtue of her fondness for reading. This again underscores the need to provide Jessica with lesson subject matter conducive to maintaining her interest in reading instead of lesson subject matter that which Jessica is so disinterested that she misconstrues it as being a function of reading.

The Running Record:

Predictably, Jessica had few problems reading aloud and exhibited inattention to and difficulty employing her skills to sound out unfamiliar words. She quickly read through the words stature, bifocals, and covey, pronouncing them "statter," "bifuccles," and "co-vee," respectively. As in her self-description of reading "fast" when she reads aloud, Jessica passed quickly over the unfamiliar words very quickly, almost as if her reading speed could obscure her lack of understanding. If anything, Jessica's apparent equating of reading speed as an indication of reading well undermines her comprehension more than technical difficulty.