This document discusses a case study of a student named Zek who is struggling with reading in 3rd grade. Initial assessments found gaps in Zek's phonemic awareness and letter identification skills. The teacher implemented a 10-day program to teach Zek letters and their sounds. Data was collected on Zek's progress, finding a discrepancy between his actual and desired levels of letter recognition and sounds. The program helped Zek start to identify letters and sounds, though continued support will be needed for him to fully develop reading skills. The document advocates for early identification and intervention for students at risk for reading difficulties.

1. Sped 510
Program Modification
Sped 510
Program Modification
The Whysand Wherefores: A Repertoire
Christopher G. Aguilar, Ph.D.
Presenter
Dorothy S. Tarol, Ph. D.
Professor
2019 Pambansang Ulirang Guro
M.A.Ed. SpEd.
University of San Agustin
Graduate School

2. The Jump
To be Fair is not Always Equal
The Case of ZEK

3. The Case
TIP of the ICEBERG
Name: Zek
Grade Level: Grade 3
Age: 9 years old
Looked healthy
Respectful
Shy
Timorous
Friendly
Smiles a lot

4. Initial Test
Engagement Letter Recognition

5. Measurement
Justification
Early identification is crucial
when it comes to helping
Zek who is having trouble
learning to read.
Focus
..early identification of
children at risk for problems
in learning to read
the goal is to describe the
procedures that will allow
me to identify Zek’s need in
reading before he
experience serious failure

6. The Deep Down Gaps
•Phonemic awareness - identify, and
manipulate individual sounds
•Letter identification is a skill that involves being
able to say the names of both upper and lower case
letters of the alphabet quickly, without having to
think very long about each letter

7. Descending Assumption
 Zek is destined to be a poor reader at the end of his elementary
school as evidenced of his difficulties in understanding and applying
the alphabetic principle in deciphering unfamiliar words.
 Zek is characterized by slower than normal development of a "sight
vocabulary" of words he can read fluently and automatically.
 Zek’s general intelligence and verbal ability are associated with
weaknesses in phonological processing.
 Zek entered school significantly delayed in a much broader range of
pre-reading skills.
 Zek as an IP belongs to the minority status or lower socioeconomic
status which limits his access to nutritional food and school exposure that caused
the deficiency in both of the critical kinds of knowledge and skill required for his
good reading comprehension.

8. Breaking the Grounds

9. TheLearningStrandOneoftheIPcurriculumisCommunicationSkills
This strand aims to develop the ability of the IP learners to access, critically process
and effectively make use of available information in a variety of media to be able to:
a.) function effectively as a member of the family, community, nation and the world;
and b.) actively participate in community and economic development.

10. Reality Check
Research compelling findings:
• children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up
• the poor first-grade reader almost invariably continues to be a poor reader (Francis, Shaywitz,
Stuebing, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1996; Torgesen & Burgess, 1998).
• "Matthew effects" (the rich get richer and the poor get poorer) associated with failure to acquire
early word reading skills
 negative attitudes toward reading (Oka & Paris, 1986)
 reduced opportunities for vocabulary growth (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985)
 missed opportunities for development of reading comprehension strategies (Brown, Palinscar, &
Purcell, 1986)
 less actual practice in reading than other children receive (Allington, 1984)

11. Damage Reduction
• acquire any necessary skill for
reading letters
• receive sufficient
opportunities to practice it
• word-level skills and
knowledge to be taught
would include phonemic
awareness, letter-sound
correspondences, and
blending skills.

12. Bridging Modification
Modifications alter the content
or lower the standards or
expectations
Allow meaningful participation
and enhanced learning
experiences (instead of just
leveling the playing field, it
changes the game).

13. Data-Based Program Modification (DBPM)
• Brings alternative solutions to
the learning problems
encountered by students in
school
• Aids teachers in modifying
instructions for children with
diverse needs
1.Discrepancies identified
• letter name knowledge
• letter-sound knowledge
2. Program proposed
• Time series
3. Objective
• To name and write 2-3 letters
and associate sounds every
meeting for ten days.

14. Conference with the Teacher
• Reading Problem
• A. Oral reading
How does Zek read compared to others in the
group?
Ans. Cannot Read
• B. Comprehension
Does he seem to understand what he reads?
Ans. No
• C. Letter Attack
Does he attempt unknown letters?
Ans. No
What kind of words does he missed?
Ans. All
• D. How willing is he to read? Ans. Very willing
• E. How willing is he to listen to stories?
• Ans. Very willing
• 2. Are there any teacher-perceived obstacles
to performing as desired?
• Ans. Learning Disability
• 3. What specific kind of assistance would be
most useful to the teacher?
• Ans. Direct Service
• 4. What are teacher priorities for the student?
• Ans. Alphabets and sounds-1 year below grade
level

15. Case Report Summary
• Problem Selection
• Who owns the problem?
Are the problems those that teacher/parent/student/others identify?
What are priorities
• Summarize Interview Data
• 1. Are the problems those that the teacher identifies?
• Zek cannot identify alphabets and had problems with pronunciation.
2. Are the problems those that the parent identifies?
3. Are the problems those that the student identifies?
• Zek said he cannot recognize the alphabets.
4. Other Comments.

16. Summary of Priority Ranking
Priority Teacher Parent Student Others Mean
Alphabet 1 0 1 0 1
Phonetics 1 0 1 0 1
Counting 0 0 0 0 0
Reading 0 0 0 0 0
English terms 0 0 0 0 0

17. DeterminingZeks’ActualProgressintheLetterSkillSequence
• Step 1. Select the material.
the teacher prepared the
4 letter item for each 10
sessions and phonemic
exercises
1 Aa Bb Cc 5. Mm Nn Oo
2 Dd Ee Ff 6. Pp Qq Rr
3 Gg Hh Ii 7. Ss Tt Uu
4.Jj Kk Ll 8. Vv Ww Xx
9. Yy Zz

18. DeterminingZeks’ActualProgressintheLetterSkillSequence
• Step 2. Collect the Data
a. The teacher identified
category 52 or mastery
level for Zek where his
progress was desired in
letter recognition and
pronunciation.
b. Zek was asked to recognize
three letter and recorded
the correct and incorrect
responses

19. DeterminingZeks’ActualProgressintheLetterSkillSequence
• Step 3. Summarize the data
a. The teacher totaled the
number of correct and
incorrect words decoded
and pronounced.
b. The data each batch of
letters were ordered from
high to low and the
medians were selected.
• Step 4. Determine Criteria
Instructional Level
2 words
Mastery level
3 words
Frustration Level
0 word

20. Smart Graphs
Progress or Mastery Graph Performance Graph

21. DeterminingZeks’ActualProgressintheLetterSkillSequence
Discrepancy Ratio Worksheet
Student: Zek
Letter recognition
Desired level
Actual Level
Discrepancy
10 days
6 days
1.6
School:
Letter sounds
10 days
4 days
2.5
Teacher:

22. DeterminingZeks’ActualProgressintheLetterSkillSequence
Case Report Summary
Behavior
Letter Recognition Letter sounds
Discrepancy
1.6 2.5
• Reflection
• Zek was taught for ten days. I saw in him
the interest to learn. Although ten days is
not enough for his learning but definitely
a transformation was made.
He can definitely identify letters of the
alphabet and corresponding sounds.
Although, it is a very long journey for Zek
in learning to read and enjoy the
beautiful stories but I knew sooner or
later he can manage because the first
step towards this end had been
started.

23. TheJUMP
We all love to jump. We jump for a lot of reasons. We jump for our winnings. We jump for our success. We jump for our excitements. We jump because we want to
celebrate. We jump because we just love to jump or simply we jump because Dr. Tarol said so. For whatever reason that we jump we are pretty sure that it comes
with gladness. And we just had our jumps either high or low it came with gladness… because we have served the likes of ZEKs in an IP community.