GSU John Case Study

John is nine years and two months old and is in the fourth grade. His teacher, Tessa, has found that he has considerable difficulty understanding not only his social studies and science textbooks but also the stories in the third grade-level reading book used by her slowest-paced group. His oral reading, however, is flawless, and he even reads the social studies and science passages with considerable fluency. Tessa first noticed that he has extremely vague concepts pertaining to biological terms and then pursued his understanding of more common terms. She found that he knows only superficially, or not at all, words from his reading book such as revenge, comrade, foundation, and craftsmen.

1. From this brief description of his reading, what are his areas of strength on which she could build?

2.What are your ideas about how Tessa might provide support so that John would feel that he is a part of the classroom group and be encouraged to continue to develop his reading strategies