Introduction
This paper presents a detailed case study of a child who struggles with literacy problems. In general, there is a vast variety of ways in which this illiteracy manifests itself among children. For example, problems with text comprehension may be present because of learning disabilities or inadequate reading instructions from parents.
Therefore, the problem of struggles with learning is multidimensional and highly context-specific. It requires a close analysis of each case to find appropriate solutions. In this paper, the case of an eight-year-old boy, Adam, will be the main unit of analysis. Fountas & Pinnell’s leveled literacy intervention effectively identified Adam’s weakness in text memorization and strength in word decoding.
Background
Child’s Social Background
The child for this case study was chosen from a friend’s family living in a relatively poor area of the city. This child’s name is Adam, and he is eight years old. He is studying in K-3 grade, which belongs to the elementary school. Adam has many friends at school, so he does not feel uncomfortable when attending school. According to Adam, he has never faced bullying or humiliation from peers.
What deserves special attention is the socioeconomic status of his family. The father and mother are working-class representatives and have a rather low salary, which is below the average for the region. At the same time, work takes a lot of time from parents, which leads to a lack of attention to the child regarding his education. In addition to mom and dad, Adam has no relatives who live nearby and are ready to help with the child’s education. It led to the child’s detachment from his parents and the lack of motivation to learn and find new knowledge.
Reading Struggles
Reading struggles refer to an individual’s difficulties when comprehending and reading written text. These difficulties are reflected in various ways, including slow reading speed, significantly flawed reading fluency, issues with decoding words, and low comprehension abilities. In addition, another typology of reading issues consists of cognitive, behavioral, and physical attributes.
Cognitive issues refer to some characteristics of brain activity that may affect the phonological processing and memorization of information. Behavioral traits of reading struggles mean some anxieties and uncertainties related to reading. Finally, physical attributes are some physical symptoms that may interfere with the reading process. For example, it can be headaches, eye strain, and other similar painful symptoms.
In the case of Adam, his conditions can be explained through cognitive and emotional attributes. It seems that there are no physical barriers that influence reading struggles. The main aspect of Adam’s struggles is his poor ability to understand and remember what he reads. For example, the common parents’ concern is that Adam hardly remembers the details of stories that he reads. Nevertheless, Adam has no problems recognizing and decoding written text. The only concern is that Adam has a low reading speed.
Another problem is emotional: it is hard for Adam to sit in one place for a long time. Hence, he is often distracted by his smartphone and toys that are placed everywhere in the apartment. As his parents admitted, even in the empty flat, Adam would find something that would distract him from learning and reading activities.
Administration of the Assessment
Another aspect that should be described appropriately before introducing assessments is how the study was administered. Establishing comfortable conditions for the respondent to isolate different intervening variables that may hinder the assessment results was crucial. Firstly, choosing a quiet space without interruptions and distractions is essential. Secondly, the expert should be polite and cheerful toward the respondent. Such a supportive mental atmosphere will make the participant more relaxed and concentrated. Finally, the rules of the assessment should allow breaks if they are necessary. It will contribute to less anxiety and focus during the reading task.
The apartment where the assessment was administered was appropriate for the analysis. The assessment happened in Adam’s father’s office inside the apartment, so there were only bookshelves, and computers were turned off from objects that required additional mention. As it was emphasized, the child could demonstrate poor concentration due to constant distractions. In this case, it was considered beforehand, and the location of the room and the devices were supposed to be put away to let Adam focus on his assessment. Therefore, the environment has to include minimal objects for distraction, good lighting, and no noise (Stahl et al., 2019). This way, it will be possible to conduct a successful assessment.
Adam was seated at a table, and the researcher sat in a chair beside him. During the experiment, the parents left the apartment so that there would be no extra sounds around. During the assessment, Adam experienced no anxieties and confusion that may not be explained by his emotional or cognitive response to the reading process. The behavior demonstrated by the student was not concerning, and the child listened to the educator’s instructions closely without interruptions. Thus, it can be said that all the reactions and responses described below were controlled and protected from external influences.
Summative Assessments
Fountas & Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention
Fountas & Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention (F&P) is a research-based intensive assessment created to evaluate learners’ struggles with reading issues. This method has gained popularity due to its literacy resources, which are considered standards in the modern approach to students who read below the grade level (Thomas & Dyches, 2019). Nevertheless, this approach was criticized by the academic community because of “majoritarian narratives” in its resources that favor white learners and disregard people of color (Thomas & Dyches, 2019, p. 12). Despite the critique, F&P will be used as another summative assessment to analyze Adam’s struggles.
Fountas & Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention can benefit Adam in many ways. First, the program is personalized to meet his individual needs. Adam will receive one-on-one instruction, allowing him to receive immediate feedback and support. This personalized instruction will help Adam to build the necessary skills and strategies to improve his reading and comprehension. Second, the intervention provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy skills (Spear-Swerling, 2022).
The program builds on students’ existing knowledge and skills, providing them with new strategies and techniques to improve their reading and comprehension (Spear-Swerling, 2022). This structured approach will help Adam develop a solid reading and comprehension foundation. Third, F&P includes many materials and resources to support students’ learning (Spear-Swerling, 2022). The program includes books, instructional materials, and assessments to help monitor students’ progress (Spear-Swerling, 2022). These materials and resources will help Adam to continue to build his skills and knowledge in reading and comprehension.
The assignments that were given to Adam during the F&P assessment are presented in Tables 1-4. The first step was to read the text of a small story and try to understand the main idea and details of the text. The text consisted of 386 words and was created specifically for K-3 students (“Max’s good habit,” n.d.). The second step was to ask several questions within and beyond the text to evaluate Adam’s level of understanding. Thirdly, the last task was to understand how the participant could write or draw about reading. Such a creative assignment is one of the features of F&P assignments. In addition, it is evident that this type of assessment is focused on text comprehension.
This test contributed to a clearer picture of Adam’s strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, Adam responded creatively to questions about and beyond the text. He was incredibly detailed about his intentions to prepare the project on Australian wildlife. It shows Adam’s great potential for critical and creative thinking. On the other hand, he experienced significant issues describing information within the text. After reading the story, he understood the general context but experienced difficulties describing some details from the story. It again proved the previous assumption that he has difficulties with text comprehension and memorization.
Adam’s Current Literacy Function
One assessment supervised over the time period of four days was effective in determining Adam’s current reading struggles. Currently, the main problem is related to memorizing key facts about the readings. It was evident during the F&P assessment that Adam did not answer the questions about the text properly. He received a poor score, the borderline between limited and approaching proficiency. However, the summative assessments did not show any signs that these problems are located at a frustration level.
First, it is necessary to begin the analysis with the F&P assignment from within the text. The child was provided with two open-ended questions relating to the text, with the first one about the team’s presentation and the second one about Max’s qualities. Adam’s key understanding of two text excerpts from the text received a score of 1 on each answer. As seen in Table 1, this score indicates that Adam is not proficient in understanding the text’s main ideas. The next section of the assignments involved understanding beyond and about the text, with the first task to identify possible posters about volcanoes and the second question about personal reflections and preferences. Here, Adam’s scores were slightly better in comparison with previous tasks. Adam’s score for the question about the volcano description was 2. As seen in Table 2, this score indicates that Adam has a limited understanding of the descriptive language used in the text, as Adam’s personal answer backed by information received a score of 3. This score additionally indicates that Adam does not have a proficient understanding of the text and can barely apply it to his own experiences.
As for the following assessments, Adam was tested on comprehension and asked about the topic that he would like to present to his classmates, and he was asked to draw a picture of the topic. The student scored two on this task, and, as seen from Table 3, this indicates that both the drawing and response correspond to the assignment.
Finally, Adam was tested on word recognition, including his ability to state their meanings. Out of 12 words, the student was able to identify 9, which is a proficient level. From Table 4, it can be seen that the most complicated and unrecognized words were “heard,” “policy,” and “nuclear.” Therefore, based on Adam’s scores, he is not proficient in understanding the text’s main ideas and descriptive language. However, Adam’s comprehension and decoding of words are proficient.
Furthermore, it is necessary to stress that specific weaknesses and strengths were identified during the administration of the assessment. Adam’s strengths lie in his ability to identify words, where he was able to recognize 75% of the words presented to him. Aside from this, the child was able not only to identify and decode the word but also to provide his examples voluntarily. It may indicate that although he is skillful in decoding words, he has difficulties with working memory and integrating it with previous knowledge. It seems that these problems lie at the instructional level.
Adam’s weaknesses lie in his comprehension of the text. He scored one on both key understanding scores, indicating that he has difficulty understanding the text’s main ideas. Additionally, his score of 2 on the volcano description question indicates that he has a limited understanding of descriptive language. Adam will improve his results by chunking information, repeating texts aloud, and visualizing the main ideas. It is additionally essential to recognize that a possible limitation was that all the assessment instructions indicated that an examiner should provide a comfortable environment without distractions. In the case of Adam, one of the factors that may also have a contributing effect is the distractions around him, such as smartphones and toys.
Hence, Adam’s assessment scores indicate that he struggles with understanding the text’s main ideas and descriptive language. However, he has shown strength in identifying words. Based on these scores, it would benefit Adam to focus on improving his comprehension skills through targeted interventions and strategies. With constant training and using similar assessments involving text-related and reflection-based assignments, Adam could improve his reading and comprehension skills significantly.
Conclusion
Finally, this article describes conducting case studies to determine a child’s literacy difficulties. In general, many assessment systems are similar, so the specialist needs to form a clear plan for combining several approaches. As for the assessment itself, the primary respondent in all studies was Adam, an 8-year-old child from a working-class family. Prior to this, his parents complained about Adam’s inability to remember information. Testing confirmed this feature but concluded that proper instruction can correct this problem. However, Adam showed average results in a study of his ability to work with single words.
The child’s main weaknesses included text comprehension and recollection, and there were minor weaknesses in reflection. However, Adam successfully recognized and decoded the presented words, with proficient decoding of 75% of the terms. Therefore, the child would benefit significantly from similar assessments that would involve text-related and reflection-based assignments. The main recommendation for future research is that the next case study should focus on generating the correct instructions in order to correct the problems identified by the test.
References
Huq, K. (2019). Cookie and the most annoying boy in the world. Bonnier Publishing Fiction.
Max’s good habit. (n.d.). Reading & Math for K-5. Web.
Spear-Swerling, L. (2022). Structured literacy interventions: Teaching students with reading difficulties, grades K-6.Guilford Publications.
Stahl, K. A. D., Flanigan, K., & McKenna, M. C. (2019). Assessment for reading instruction. Guilford Publications.
Thomas, D., & Dyches, J. (2019). The hidden curriculum of reading intervention: A critical content analysis of Fountas & Pinnell’s leveled literacy intervention. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51(5), 601-618. Web.