Headly, Erin 12/16/12 ENDR 557/Critical Assessment For the past quarter, I have been working in a third grade

bilingual classroom, composed entirely of ELL students. During my time with these students, I have paid particular attention to one boy who seems to be struggling more than his peers. For the purposes of this case study, I will refer to this student as Joe. Joe is 9 years old and his first language is Spanish. Though he has been attending schools in the same district since Kindergarten, he is having trouble meeting grade level expectations for literacy. His EPR (Elementary Progress Report) currently has him placed at a reading level of 1, though he should ideally be at level 4. He is at level 10 for the EDL (Evaluacin del Desarrollo de la Lectura, the Spanish version of the Developmental Reading Assessment), though he should ideally be at level 30. His most recent OAKS scores, from November 2, 2012, indicate a score of 1 in reading, 2 in math, 2 in written language, and 3 in science. Even before attaining this information, I could see that Joe was having academic challenges. He enjoys reading so much that he has asked the teacher to bring in more books from her personal collection. Just recently, she brought in a big book about cars, set it on Joe's desk, and said, As requested by my avid reader!However, when I listen to him read, I notice that he does not read with much fluency. In terms of comprehension, he is usually able to grasp the main ideas, but struggles with details. His enthusiasm for reading is encouraging, because I think he will continue to improve with practice. I am more concerned about my student's writing. I do not have any writing samples from this student, but I have observed him complete many writing activities in class. What I usually see on his paper is close to illegible because he combines English and Spanish words. Sometimes, he tries to write in English, but he uses Spanish phonics, or a mix of English and Spanish phonics, to spell his words. An example of this is the word vehicle, which my student would write as behikel. In using the b, he is thinking of the way a v sounds in Spanish. This is confusing even in Spanish, hence the popular question'V' de vaca o 'B' de burro? ('V' as in vaca or 'B' as in burro?) While I can often decipher his

words and see his thought process, it is sometimes difficult for me to unlearn my own language skills and deconstruct his writing. My interview with Joe gave me more insight into these observations. I asked him the following questions in Spanish in English and gave him the option to answer in either language: How do you see yourself as a learner? What subjects do you feel good about? What subjects are hard for you? What makes you feel successful in school? What makes learning harder for you? What are your goals?

Joe told me that he sees himself as a good learner because he learns a lot in class and he feels comfortable around the other students. He feels like he is really good at math, but finds reading and writing more difficult. He told me that he gets particularly stressed during Dictado (writing based on passage that is read aloud, then self-corrections as teacher models how to write it.) After hearing this, I noticed that Joe tends to ask to go to the bathroom at least once during this activity. Sometimes, he is able to work with me or the co-teacher in a small group of other students who struggle to complete the dictados. Even when he receives extra guidance, his paper is still almost completely filled with selfcorrections by the end of the activity. In addition to the stress he experiences during dictado, he also mentioned that dislikes activities on the carpet because he is physically uncomfortable on the carpet and is easily by distracted by his peers. In response to my question about his goals, he told me that he wants to do well in third grade and become a football player someday. I asked him if he thought school was important to reach this goal, and he said yes, because you have to do well in school to be able to get a good job. When I talked to my teacher about this student , she told me that she is in the process of

referring this student for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan.) She has been documenting her intervention strategies to submit as evidence for this referral. Her focus areas for the intervention have been phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The skill she has been measuring in this intervention I his ability to retell the character, setting, and plot of a story. She has collected data on four days, which shows the following: Date 09/28/12 10/05/12 10/11/12 10/19/12 Plot (2/4) (3/4) (2/4) (3/4) Character (2/4) (3/4) (3/4) (2/4)

The teacher's conclusion based on this data is: 4 data points not meeting projected individualized aimline, alterable variables must be considered or alternate intervention. In other words, this intervention has not been an accurate reflection of Joe's abilities, so she is considering another type of intervention. She has since run another intervention measuring the same skill, with the same results and conclusion. The intervention and progress monitoring form also shows that Joe has a perfect attendance record and has no behavioral issues. It has a list of his past teachers since kindergarten and his ELL Language Level by area. He is at a level 1 in comprehension, 1 in reading, 1 in listening, 2 in speaking, and 1 in writing. Aside from the referral process, the teacher told me that she has high hopes for the student because of his love for reading, but is still worried about his reading and writing and math skills. We both feel that his conversational English is very good or comparable to that of his peers. However, he definitely struggles with academic language development, as is evidenced in his anxiety around the dictados. The dictados nearly always use subject-specific vocabulary so that the teacher can use them as at anticipatory sets or closures for other lessons. I think this highlights an important issue that we discussed in our forum this semester. My peers and I talked about the difficulty of assessing our

students' language needs based on conversational abilities. Many students are like Joe in that they are capable of carrying on a very coherent conversation in English but struggle to grasp and use academic language. Additionally, these students may not be able to spell the words they are comfortable using in conversation. It is important that we take the time to get to know these students through assessment, observation, and conversation, because appearances and first impressions can be very misleading. I have used the information I gathered about Joe to try and lower his stress level during Dictado and other activities that require him to write in English. When my teaching partner and I asked students to work in their science inquiry journals, I noticed that Joe was just staring at his paper, hardly writing anything. I also saw that what he had written was a mix of Spanish and English, and barely legible. I put my hand on his shoulder and whispered Prefieres escribir en espaol? Would you prefer to write in Spanish? He nodded his head yes, so I told him that he could. By the end of the activity, he had filled the whole page. On another day, I noticed that Brian was struggling through Dictado. When he came up to ask me if he could go to the bathroom, I said no, because I thought he should spend his time working on his writing. He smiled because he was embarrassed and walked back to his seat, looking defeated. I knew he was feeling stressed because of our conversation, so I went over to his desk, put my hand on his shoulder, and said Joe, I know this is challenging, but I believe that you can do it. You'll be fine. I'm not sure if my words made much of a difference, but I do know that he sat through the rest of the activity and kept working on his writing. Joe has helped me develop my own strategies for working with ELL students, as is evidenced in the way I've responded to his struggles with writing. I plan to use similar strategies in my future classroom. Specifically, I will take the time to get to know my students and use assessments to differentiate my instruction to meet their needs. For example, since Joe told me that he has trouble focusing when he is sitting on the carpet, I may set up a chair and desk for him near the carpet so he can still be a part of the activity but be in a better space for learning. There are also simple gestures,

like posting anchor charts in English and Spanish and giving students the option to complete certain assignments in English or Spanish, that can lower the overall stress levels of ELL students and make them feel more welcome in the classroom. As Schumann's acculturation model suggests, ELL students will be more likely to build language if cultural distance (between their culture and the culture associated with the target language) is lower. While I cannot control what happens to these students outside of my classroom, I will work ensure that my classroom is a safe space that lowers cultural distance and helps prime my students for learning.