Ethnographic Case Study

Using Miscue Analysis

Dr. LiwanagCurriculum 510 June 3,2010

Linsday DeFeo,

Emily O’Leary,

Colleen McNamara,

& Jamie Rondeau

Ethnographic Case Study Using Miscue Analysis

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Foundational Knowledge

Creating a Literate

Environment

Assessment, Diagnosis, and

Evaluation

Instructional Strategies and

Curriculum Materials

Professional Development

Appendices

References

Foundational

Knowledge

BACKGROUND:

- John is an 18 year old

high school senior.

- He is a Caucasian male.

- His first and only

language is English.

- He currently lives, and

has always lived, in a

suburban neighborhood.

Foundational

Knowledge

BIMOR: John’s BIMOR revealed that he believes fluency is important in reading. He also stated that contextual clues are important in reading through difficult passages. John received phonics (Sub-Skills) literacy instruction. John is interested in reading about cars, sports, and videogames.

John does not truly view himself as a reader and reads to please his parents and teachers.John believes that he should read more to become a better reader.

Cultural Factors:

John’s lack of interest in reading due may

be due to the lack of choice in reading in the

upper grades of school (8th-12th grade).

In high school, reading is not viewed as

“cool.” This may affect John’s view towards

reading.Foundational

Knowledge

Psychological Factors:

John’s focus is on many other areas of life,

other than reading.

John is at the stage of development where

he is very self-centered and focused on what

makes him happy. Reading does not fall into

that category.

Linguistic Factors:John grew up in a very reading oriented family. His home environment has fostered reading of all kinds.

Foundational

Knowledge

Application to Other

Students and Settings:

- It is important to be aware that

high school students need time to

read for pleasure regardless of the

type of book or setting.

- Time, in high school, is spent

reading pre-chosen books and

students do not receive a choice of

what they would like to read. This

diminishes the lifelong reading

process.

Creating a Literate Environment

Holistic Theory of Reading

–Reading is an active, meaning-making process– Reading is a language process– Readers have knowledge about

language and their world–Authors have knowledge about

language and their world

(Goodman, Watson, & Burke, 2005)

Creating a Literate Environment

• The holistic theory of reading promotes comprehension above all other aspects of reading.

• Though fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary are all important strategies for reading, they are insignificant if the reader cannot find meaning in what was read.

• Readers use their knowledge of language and the world around them to make sense of the words on a page. Because of this, all readers may interpret the same piece of text in a different way.

• We used our holistic theoretical framework to help us understand John’s background and reading processes.

• John was taught using the commercial product, “Hooked on Phonics” and thus, reads for accuracy, rather than comprehension. John did not have an overwhelming amount of miscues in either of his analyzed readings. However, he performed poorly on both unaided retells.

Creating a Literate Environment

• Since John was taught to read with the assumption that accuracy and fluency are the primary goals, he may not pay close attention to the actual plot line of the story, which would help him comprehend what is actually happening.

• We used our holistic theoretical framework to analyze our data by primarily focusing on John’s need for comprehension skills to better have a complete experience with the reading, in which he can derive meaning that he is able to understand and relate to his own life.

Creating a Literate Environment

• Since classroom teachers must keep the goal of complete and diverse comprehension for all readers in mind, it is important that they seek a wide variety of print and non-print materials for their classroom for students to have access to.

• Since literacy does not only include reading, but also speaking, listening, and writing, teachers can promote diverse experiences for students to engage in that highlight these aspects of literacy.

• Teachers must also use materials that are diverse in reading level, form (books, plays, media, audio, etc.), and author’s purpose.

Creating a Literate Environment

Assessment, Diagnosis, and Evaluation

Reading John is a very fluent reader. He uses phonemic awareness, word identification and vocabulary to help him read fluently.

John also used contextual clues, prediction, and confirm/disconfirm strategies to read through difficult portions of the text. John’s observed reading showed that his language sense

was at 94% and his word substitution was very high as well : 89% for graphic similarity and 87% for sound similarity.

Overall, John’s reading demonstrates that he has many qualities of a proficient reader.

John’s comprehension skills were much lower than expected. He received an average of only 62/100 on his retelling guides.

John did show that he was reading for meaning through repetitions, insertions, and substitutions.

John could recall important details about events and actions.

Assessment, Diagnosis, and Evaluation

Retelling –

Aided &

Unaided

John missed important details about characters and setting, specifically character traits and setting locations.

John’s thematic ideas were lacking, possibly from his phonics based literacy instruction.

John could benefit from comprehension instruction and vocabulary expansion.

• John’s strategies demonstrate the instruction he received focus on fluency.

Assessment, Diagnosis, and Evaluation

Overall

Analysis

•John’s school environment does not foster lifelong reading in a way that he is able to grasp onto, and therefore he chooses not to read.

• In a sub skills approach, the texts are given without theme and specific details John lacks both details and ideas about theme.

Instructional Strategies and

Curriculum Materials:Comprehension Strategies

• Check for understanding• Back up and reread• Monitor and fix up• Retell the story• Use prior knowledge to connect with

text• Make a picture or mental image• Ask questions throughout the reading

process• Predict what will happen; use text to

confirm, infer, and support with evidence

• Use text features (titles, headings, captions, graphic features)

• Summarize text; include sequence of main events• Use main idea and supporting details to determine importance• Determine and analyze author’s purpose and support with text• Recognize literacy elements (genre, plot, character, setting, problem/resolution, theme)• Recognize and explain cause-and-effect relationships• Compare and contrast within and between texts

Instructional Strategies and

Curriculum Materials:Expanding Vocabulary Strategies

• Voracious reading• Tune in to interesting words

and use new vocabulary in speaking and writing

• Use pictures, illustrations, and diagrams

• Use word parts to determine the meaning of words (prefixes, suffixes, origins, abbreviations, etc.)

• Use prior knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning• Ask someone to define the word• Use dictionaries, thesauruses, and glossaries as tools

(Boushey & Moser, 2009)

Word Collector for Expanding Vocabulary

(Boushey & Moser, 2009)

• Initial teaching of literacy can later affect a student’s views and abilities in literacy.– Ex. John was taught using the “Hooked on

Phonics” program, which focuses on fluency. Therefore, John lacks comprehension skills.

• Teachers should promote positive skills towards becoming life-long learners in all situations at all ages.

Professional Development

• The background of a student’s literacy development undoubtedly affects their feelings and opinions towards reading, as well as the strategies they use to help them read, write, listen and speak.

• Teachers need to take this into consideration when planning and implementing lessons.

• Holistic Theory of Reading– Readers have knowledge about language and their

worlds.• Slight changes students make in reading.• For John, particularly omissions and ending changes,

are not necessarily wrong. They represent the student’s ability to show personal construction of meaning and linking their own personal background to the text based on their expectations of the text itself.

Professional Development

• Changing attitudes towards literacy– For older students, it is difficult to change the feelings

towards reading and literacy.– For John, he reads to please, not because he wants to.– We believe that this is because of his lack of quality

instruction that focused on meaning and comprehension as the core of reading.

– The purpose of reading was to read fluently, therefore, in John’s eyes, why should he continue reading, when he is a fluent reader now?

Professional Development

• It is our job as teachers to recognize the struggles of our readers, and teach students strategies in order to boost their confidence and liking towards reading.

• Not only do we need to teach the strategies but we also need to teach how to use the strategies effectively.

• There needs to be continuous purpose and motivation involved for the children to want to read.

Professional Development

• Teachers must always keep in mind the need for diversity in the classroom.– Students come from all different backgrounds and

places.– We as teachers need to provide a vast variety of

texts and levels for our students to have exposure to and engage with.

– Not every student will be interested in the same books, nor will they take away the same information and feelings from a text as another student may.

Professional Development

• Use of text in authentic ways is critical. (Holistic reading)– By allowing students to have choices, it will give them

an opportunity to see that reading can be enjoyable, and the students may be more likely willing to read the books that are assigned as a part of the curriculum.

– By providing students with the chance to pick something of interest to them, they can connect with the text more easily and use their cultural background to help create meaning that links to their own lives.

Professional Development

• Collaboration– Opens new doors– Allows us to look at the case study from multiple

perspectives– Build off of one another– We, as teachers, should be the backbone and

support for our students, as our colleagues are for us

Professional Development

• In conclusion:– This case study of John has taught us much about

how a miscue analysis can be implemented, interpreted, and used to better pinpoint the needs of struggling readers.

– As a result, it assists us, as teachers, to better design lessons and strategies to instruct and support our students as readers and literacy learners.

Professional Development

1. BIMOR2. The Tell Tale Heart Miscue3. Statistical Analysis of The Tell Tale

Heart4. Retelling guide from The Tell Tale

Heart5. Reader Profile from The Tell Tale

Heart6. The Man Who Loved Flowers Miscue7. Statistical Analysis of The Man Who

Loved Flowers8. Retelling Guide from The Man Who

Loved Flowers9. Reader Profile from The Man Who

Loved Flowers

Appendices

ReferencesBoushey, G, & Moser, J. (2009). The CAFE book: Engaging all students in daily

literacy assessment & instruction. Portland, OR: Stenhouse Publishers.

Goodman, K. (1996). On reading. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

Goodman, Y., Watson, D., & Burke,C. (2005). Reading miscue inventory: From evaluation

to instruction. New York, NY: Richard C. Owens Publishers, Inc.

King, S. (1979). The man who loves flowers. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Paulson, E. J. & Freeman, A.E. (2003). Insights from the eyes: The science of effective reading

instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Poe, E.A. (1843). The tell tale heart. New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc.