Reader Case Study Documentation

Kylie Hubbard

EDLI 635

Fall 2016

Dr. Hsu

ELL Case Study

            My student, who I will refer to as J, is in the 6^th grade, with a K-12 population of roughly 11,000 students and attends one of two middle schools of roughly 760 students. This particular middle school is grades 6^th – 8^th; the 6^th graders have ELA, Science, Social Studies, Math, and what is referred to as ENCORE classes such as Technology, Art, Music, and Dance. The students move from room to room for each subject to prepare them for a high school schedule. I was able to observe J in his ELA class. The school currently does have an ELL program, which J is no longer enrolled in; rather he is in a room with two ELA teachers; who co-teach and one special education teacher. This classroom is also an Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and Academic Intervention Services (AIS) room. These services help students like J, who are no long ELL students but are still struggling to be on level or maintain their level of proficiency.

J is a bilingual student, with his native language being Spanish, and primary language at home. His teachers mentioned that his parents do speak some English, but often J is a translator between teacher and parent. Since J’s parents do not have a strong English literacy background, I was informed that he does not receive a lot of assistance on his homework or projects at home. I was told however, that his parents do make a great effort in following up with his teachers regarding J’s academics. Showing a concern for his education and future educational career.

Overall, J is preforming at a 2nd grade level, while he is proficient in phonological awareness; he remains levels below in vocabulary, literacy, and comprehension. The data is collected from the digital i-Ready ELA testing program, which measures the growth of individual students not just in ELA, but also in Math and Reading. The teacher then uses the assessments to aid in the development of their curriculum.

According to J’s SOLOM ratings, J is in Phase 2 with a score of 14. From the rating I can conclude that his strengths are in pronunciation, scoring a 4 and his weakness is in grammar, scoring a 1. When a student, at this age, is preforming at this level, it is clear they are relying on vocabulary, phrases, and concepts that are familiar to them. In addition, students are using the following cues to aid in their comprehension, visual and contextual. His writing demonstrates short and basic use of vocabulary with common language structure; with recurrent errors.

J’s comprehension, which is demonstrated through instruction, is that if the teacher slows down her instruction he will have a better understanding of the assigned task. Repetition is also another strategy, which was often used while providing instruction. After speaking with the special education teacher about various strategies to use to help aid in J’s comprehension; I suggested highlighting key words and phrases that he might not be familiar with. I was informed that this is something that he should be doing already, however he often forgets to use these strategies without being reminded to do so. While we were working together, this is something that I tried to work on become routine for J.

He often has more success speaking with students or teachers who have knowledge of the Spanish language verses students or teachers who do not have an understanding of the Spanish language. Leaving more explanation needed to fully understand what J is trying to communicate; which also is part of his vocabulary usage. J has a weak understanding of the English vocabulary and how to express himself, often falling back on Spanish words to help convey his point. Often becoming frustrated with the task at hand. Whether he is speaking in Spanish or English his pronunciation is always intelligible, even if clarification on meaning is needed. Grammar is where J struggles the most, affecting his ability to properly improve his ELA skills.

The class period starts with a Do Now, which is projected onto the back wall; usually the Do Now involves a form of technology; such as iPads. J comes in, settles down around the same pace as his group mates. However, his attention can easily be drawn to another student or students. Once the class gets started on their Do Now, he will stay engaged for short periods of time, with one of the teachers periodically redirecting him. If J is playing an educational game on the iPad he remains on task, however when there was a spelling lesson he lost interest several times.  I concluded this was due to not having full understanding of how the words should be used in a sentence and how to spell them properly.

One of the lessons that I observed was a spelling and vocabulary assignment that incorporated the iPads, but did not rely on them. Students were assigned words from the weeks reading of Eleven, they were to use the iPads to look up the terms at Dictionary.com, then record the definition in their notebooks. Some students did not want to use the iPads, but preferred to use an actually dictionary. J wanted to use the iPad, he looked up the words and recorded them roughly at the same pace as his classmates. One of the beneficial features of using the iPad is that Dictionary.com will speak the word to you so you can hear it being pronounced. Many of the students, including J used this feature to help them recognize the word. However, once he was finished he needed a lot of redirect on the next activity, which was practicing spelling them. I sat with him and would say the words, chucking them and sounding them out. He would start to write the word, however he would loose interest once he became frustrated with not being able to identify the phonic sounds.

When a vocabulary test was given students had to match words with the definition, both of which were provided. There were 10 questions in all, J only matched four of the ten correctly: Elaborate, Rigorous, Metaphor, and Meager. Together we looked at the other six words: Simile, Jovial, Diligent, Abundant, Beneficial, and Leisure and devised a plan for how he could remember the definitions. Since he enjoyed using the iPad we created flashcards in a Quizlet account, allowing him to quiz himself when he had “down time” in class. This account also allows him to add more words that he was or will struggle with. Quizlet also has a feature that will speak the words and the definitions to you, aiding any student that might be a visual and audio learner.

Observing a student who was struggling with reading comprehension and fluency really helped me to understand their point of view and how we, as teachers can better assist these students. I was able to see where J struggled and offer assistance to make improvements. My suggestion for further instruction would be to use more interactive activities; I feel this will capture his attention for longer periods of time. Check frequently to see if he adding words to his Quizlet, if he vocabulary is improving by using this strategy.

Reflection

After observing J’s comprehension and fluency level, I learned that J falls under the lower level for a 6^th grader. Even though there are three teachers in the classroom, which is designed to aid ELL students, I believe J can benefit from more one-on-one time with one of the classroom teachers, or even begin to receive ELL services again.

J’s SOLOM and LEP/ELL evaluation were very similar. He scored moderately on comprehension, fluency, pronunciation, and vocabulary according to the SOLOM rubric with all three scoring a 3; corresponding with him scoring along with the intermediate levels of medium for listening and reading in the LEP/ELL rubric.  With regards to J’s vocabulary he scored a 4 according to the SOLOM demonstrating he has an understanding of the vocabulary he is familiar with, but still struggles to retain any new vocabulary. This corresponds with the LEP/ELL rubric where he is considered to be in the intermediate – high level. I observed a difference in his writing skills and ability; according to the SOLOM rubric his writing/grammar scores at a 1, after reviewing a sample of his writing I concluded his score on an LEP/ELL to at the beginning – high level.

I observed that J’s phonic awareness correlated with his SOLOM and LEP/ELL rubric scorings. J struggles with his final-e, soft c, and soft g sounds. This was demonstrated in his short story assignment “My Hero’s Journey.” The assignment was to answer a series of questions/prompts to write a two-page story about how they view heroes. According to the narrative rubric assigned to the “My Hero’s Journey,” I gave him a score of 55 out of 100.

The rubric was broken down into Content and Information, Organization, and Grammar and Fluency.  The scoring was as follows: Content and Information: Fair, which provided 30 points and read: “Includes limited narrative techniques and few details. There may be some irrelevant points that distract from the purpose.” While he provided details, his narrative was lacking, a way to improve this skill is to continue writing as a storyteller. He also received a Fair, which provided 15 points for his Organization, “Sequence of ideas needs more organization. Paragraphs may be missing.” J demonstrated that he could organize his thoughts in a sequence of events, but lacked the understanding of breaking it into actual paragraphs. His story does not have a clear beginning, middle, and end; a way to help J to break his story into parts is to practice identifying the beginning, middle, and end in other groups stories. If he can succeed in identifying them in others he will be able to succeed in breaking his own stories apart. Lastly, is the Grammar and Fluency portion, this is where J struggles the most and was evident in his SOLOM and LEP/ELL rubrics as well. J received a score of Needs Work, which provided 10 points and read: “Command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage needs work.” He struggled with spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, not meeting the conventions of the standard English language.

 When first looking at J’s story, his writing resembles a student in 1^st -3^rd grade, not 6^th grade. As mentioned in his Organization section, J’s story runs together, creating a lack of fluency. The reader cannot identify where it begins or ends, much less where the “meat” of the story is. After reading the story and deciphering words, J demonstrated understanding of the assignment but is struggling to use standard English grammar. It is clear that J has an interesting story to tell, however his inability to communicate his thought and words to an English reader holds him back from sharing his ideas.

My approach to helping J with this would be to advise a stronger use of vocabulary, spelling, and grammar games or activities; which he demonstrated understanding with in earlier lessons. While working on these skills, J can also be working to improve his penmanship, writing structure, and organization skills. Strategies that can be implemented into J’s every day routine is to have him practice penmanship sheets, when he finished his Do Now activities he can transition into one of the sheets. Simply practicing this a 2-4 times a week will help him to improve his penmanship.  An additional strategy that would prove to be beneficial is to have J study, define, and spell five-ten extra vocabulary words a week. At the end of the week J could be assessed on them by using them in a short story to combine his writing and vocabulary skills. With these improvements, J will be able to communicate his ideas and thoughts, allowing an English reader proper fluency. 

From my observations of bilingual students who are no longer considered to be ELL students, but matriculated in an AIS and ICT classroom, continue to struggle with their standard English reading, writing, comprehension, grammar, and fluency. I observed students who struggled to understand the assignments and instruction from the teacher, causing them to become frustrated and/or lost. If I were to have students who struggled to this capacity I would implement the following strategies: print the Do Now for the students, have them underline the words they do not recognize, and circle the words they recognize but do not recall the meaning. Going forward I would develop a word chart to include those words, which they can reference, in order to help them quickly recall what the term means. Students will improve their vocabulary, understanding, and grammar by being able to complete their Do Now’s more efficiently by properly understanding and using the words they struggled with in its appropriate context.

Most importantly, bilingual students need to see that you, the teacher, are working to help them succeed in their educational career as well as their future. We need to encourage bilingual students to continue to use their native language, while working to improve their English language skills and understanding. That being a student and adult that is bilingual is nothing but beneficial to them and who they surround themselves with. As a bilingual student or teacher, you can bring an abundance of knowledge to someone who only speaks one language. Perhaps the student can even educate their teacher with new vocabulary, leaving that classroom feeling as though they have learned something but have also education someone else.