A Case Study of a Student's Journey Toward Thoughtful Response to Text

In this article, we describe our research involving the administration of the Critical Reading Inventory–2 (CRI–2), an informal reading inventory that places special emphasis on thoughtful response to text and higher level thinking. We administered the CRI–2 to a group of students to obtain diagnostic data for guiding instruction. The data for this case study indicated that 1 student was strong in text-based comprehension but was clearly struggling with higher level comprehension. Intervention strategies incorporated guided instruction emphasizing themes and character traits. The student also participated in collaborative follow-up activities that included modifications of Question the Author and Discussion Webs. Both of these activities required the use of story information to support the positions that students took in response to the higher level questions. After the completion of the instruction, students completed posttests using the CRI–2. We share the results and discuss the implications for teachers.