Background Information

Name: Kentrell Simmons

Age: 8 years 5 months
Date of Birth: April 1st, 2013

Parents Names: Shawn and Avery Simmons
Date Evaluated: September 1st, 2021.
Evaluator: Anisha Cato

Grade Placement: Grade 3

The instrument used: Norm-referenced test., Criterion-referenced assessment, Oral and written question, and Observation/Demonstration Checklist.

Background and Referral

Kentrell, a third-grader hasn't been performing up to the standard that is expected of a third-grade student. His teacher Ms. Cato realized this and decided to have a screening for the students in her class and came to the conclusion that Kentrell is noticeably behind when it comes to the reading aspect of the class. Ms. Cato dealt with an issue similar to this in the past so she took action to move him up the tier levels all the way up to tier 1. Ms. Cato thought it might be the lack of involvement on the parents' part but it seems like he has a lot of help at home.

Parent Conference

Kentrell has been living with his mother his whole life despite only having occasional visits from his father; they have a very good relationship. His mother spoke about how he is outside of school and he is a very energized child who likes to stay indoors and play video games or watch videos in his free time. The problem concerning his reading arose about a year ago randomly, he used to be top of the class but at that moment he just stopped progressing causing him to fall behind. With his mother being a single parent she didn't have the money to pay for a tutor so she waited and hoped he could regain the spark he had over a year ago.

Classroom Observations

Ms. Cato kept a close eye on Kentrell throughout the classroom when reading exercises were being carried out. When the entire class is reading at the same time he seems to remain silent or on the rare occasion, he does speak he struggles to keep up with the speed the other students are reading at. Ms. Cato decided to give the class a short story and told them to come to her desk and read one on one with her and when compared to the other students he struggles to identify and read fluently even though he does know the words that are written in the book.

Test Interpretation

 The interpretation from the series of tests was that when it comes to the longer questions where Kentrell is required to read and analyze before answering, he is falling behind. The majority of the longer questions were left out but by the way, he started to attempt the question shows that he leaves the question out when he thinks the time is running out on him. Kentrell seems to excel in areas where a lot of short questions and short answers are required. As an example, in subject areas such as math where a simple straightforward question is given he gets correct but the question where a lot of reading is required it's either interpreted wrongly or left out.

Summary and Conclusions

 At the moment Kentrell is operating below the level of an average third-grade student in the field of fluent reading, word recognition, and sentence analysis. The fact that he is introverted makes it difficult to try group-based learning with him which limits the number of methods that can be used. These difficulties cause him to fall behind the rest of the students, it mainly hinders his time management during a test in every subject area. This may get worse over time and it will reach the level where he may not be able to read a sentence even after studying it over and over.

Recommendations

• Kentrell will benefit from having a more one-on-one tutor, once he feels comfortable with the individual and shows his true colors, is when the advancement in his progress shall start to reflect in his scores.
• Different resources should be used when teaching. Resources such as videos (visual), music (auditory), or exercises that get him moving such as the TPR can keep him interested and may help to see that regular teaching with just notes and reading doesn't seem to work.
• The program for low achieving students in this area called Earobics will definitely be an effective way of allowing him to catch up and knowing that they are professionals in this area might make him more confident.