Literacy Strengths and Areas of Need of a Second Grade Student

Case study
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Introduction
Once children reach the 2nd grade, they are often ready to speed up their reading and learning process. This agency is due to the fact that 2nd grade students are usually adjusted to a more rigorous learning environment and seek to further expand their skills and knowledge. Their brains have also grown and can therefore take in more information and grasp more things. However, when the appropriate teaching and pedagogic tools are not used, some 2nd grade students may not acquire the necessary literacy skills. Such scenarios require the use of kid watching, which focuses on individual students’ needs, to instill literacy skills through the implementation of class tasks tailored to students’ interests. This case study employs kid watching to identify the literacy strengths and areas of need of a 2nd grade student. The case study also offers recommendations that address the recognized area of need.
The focus student
The focus student is Brian Taylor (7 years-old), a Caucasian American who is tall for his age but well behaved. He mostly wears clothes that are too big and sometimes it seems that he is swimming in them rather than wearing them. Taylor is in 2nd grade at Sunset Ridge Elementary School in Overland Park, Kansas. Generally, Taylor has a basic sight vocabulary and shows independent interest in constructing meaning from print. Taylor loves learning about the earth because he stated that he loves “making predictions and finding patterns in nature” in the interest survey. The study will be conducted in a grade 2 classroom that has the teacher’s desk as the focal point and cohesive colors on borders and bulletin boards. There were three participants (Taylor and other two children) although the focus was on Taylor.
Assessment
Taylor’s literacy skills will be assessed through kid watching. Kid watching is a technique of observing students purposefully to identify their academic strengths and needs (Goodman, 2018). It entails having to observe the kid for quite a while, so as to clearly try and figure them out. The kid is observed as he engages in all the facets of their life, be it academic, social or sports. Kid watching is usually followed by tasks and teaching strategies that address the identified students' needs. During kid watching, emphasis will be placed on observing what Taylor likes to read or write, how he reads and writes, and how he listens during story telling. Taylor will also be asked questions by the other two students and observation will be made regarding how he answers them. Children learn though watching and observing others. It is an important constituent of observational learning.
Literacy strengths
Literacy strengths are the levels of ability that a child display in the various skills expected of them, such as reading, writing, relating with others and also playing. The differences between these strengths usually points to the respective developing personalities and characters of these kids, which can either be molded in the right direction, or let to follow a particular path. Although Taylor has a broad set of literacy strengths, his ability to listen with interest to stories a...