Hypotheses About Jose's Mistakes

Data results were shared with Jose’s teacher and mother to develop hypotheses about his difficulties with identifying sight words. Three hypotheses were generated and reviewed.

The first hypothesis proposed that Jose’s sight word identification performance was due to motivation difficulties when completing his reading assignments. However, formal evaluation data, classroom observations, and teacher and parent information indicated he completes his reading assignments to the best of his ability and does not experience motivation difficulties. Based on this information, this hypothesis was rejected.

The second hypothesis proposed that Jose’s sight word performance was due to a skill deficit. Recent evaluation data suggested Jose was performing below grade level in reading, specifically
Prior to the session, the tutor sets a session criterion for mastery: e.g., Jose will name all sight words in the deck correctly 3 times in a row. The tutor shows each card to Jose and asks, “What is this word?” If Jose is able to name the cards correctly within 2 seconds, the tutor puts the card at the back of the deck and presents the next card. If the student names the card incorrectly or hesitates for longer than 2 seconds, that card temporarily becomes a ‘drill card’. The tutor (1) shows the drill card, says the sight word aloud, and has the student repeat the sight word correctly, (2) returns that drill card to the deck 2 places back from the front of the stack, (3) following succession, and (4) then ends the drill-card procedure by placing that flashcard at the back of the stack. When the tutor has reviewed all of the flashcards in the stack at least once and has no drill cards in play, the tutor shuffles the cards before again presenting the sight words to the student. When Jose attains mastery criterion, the tutor repeats the above procedures with a new deck of 10 sight