Example Student Profile for Final Project Case Study

A Case Study of a Second Grade Student

To develop a lesson plan from this case study, review the materials below that describe a second-grade student in a Midwest suburban school. This example includes:

• a description prepared by the teacher that discusses the student’s background, attitudes, and progress in developing literacy;
• the student’s latest Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory and the Feature Inventory Analysis; and
• two samples of the student’s writing (taken in October and May of the school year).

STUDENT PROFILE 
Description of student’s background, attitudes, and progress in developing literacy:

Karen is a second grader and lives in a rural Midwest town. She is seven years old. She has a brother who is five years older, and her parents have been members of the community since their childhood. They attended the same elementary school that Karen attends. Some of the current teachers were teaching when Karen’s parents went to school. Karen is outgoing and considered a tomboy by her friends and family. Her grandparents and aunt live in the community and serve as caregivers when needed. Karen appears to be a very happy, social child. Karen’s progress falls within the mean of the class. She usually receives average ratings on class assignments and sometimes does not put forth full effort. She seems to want to get seat-work done quickly so that she can move on to more active tasks. Although she is outgoing and eager to participate during class discussions, she does not venture to answer when she is not sure of the answer. She does not like to predict or hypothesize. Her reading level is a 24 on the Developmental Reading Assessment. Second graders usually score between 24-28 at this time of the year. Karen’s spelling is progressing. Her scores on the Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory (PSI) assessment are recorded in the table below. 

Results from the Spelling Tests: 

Writing Sample 1:  October 3

I have a tree fort and this is watt you wude see.  A slide a firmensploe and a bag.  A coch and you wud see cloer croite and a later.  Trees holding it up and you wude see tape on the wols.  My tree fort is behind my house it is cool because it has stuff to play with and it is coll because it has a firmersploe.

Writing Sample 2: May 5

They are getting reddy for Oregon.  Kate fond a cat and she namd it snuggs and she did not tell anebody. Kate’s ma said that cat had ben folny us and Kate new she had to tell the truth and ma said that she could keep Snuggs.