I used my daughter Kara for this book project. I thought she would be a good candidate as she is in second grade. I believe her to be an average reader with a need for further reading instruction. I also chose to work with Kara because I will be a high school science teacher. Dowling College decided that students under this major do not need to take the one credit corequisite course that goes along with the Literacy Acquisition class. My experience and interaction in an early elementary classroom setting is not something that I can use as a building block for my teaching studies. Kara was used as my model for this assignment to gain insight, and to analyze a student who is learning to read.
I began this project by asking Kara to read "Be My Valenslime", by S. K. Arden, aloud. I thought this book to be appropriate for her reading level. Also, it seemed to fit her playful personality.
In order to better assess Kara without interruption I made a copy of the book for my own use. By having my own copy I could follow along and make notes without distracting her concentration. Along with my copy of the book I had prepared a guide as to what I was looking for in Kara's reading* .
As Kara began to read "My Valenslime" I could see by her expressions that she had comprehension for what was going on in the story. Kara was able to demonstrate that she understands the use of punctuation by slightly animating each character. On occasion she hesitated on certain words. This told me that she had problems decoding. A lack of experience with some of these words may have contributed to her trepidation. However, she did successfully sound-it-out on her own.
There were six or so words that she gave up quickly on without even trying to make sense of them; the "itch" sound, as in, sandwich, itch and snatched, were examples of such words. Later in the book she read similar sounding words with greater ease after we discussed the "itch" sound.