Cristina Giansante

EDE727- Espinosa
June 10, 2014

Assessment of an English Language Learner


I. Language Ecology of School and Classroom Environment

I am currently observing an ESL student at Mamaroneck Avenue Elementary
School in ---, New York. ----- Elementary School serves 624 students (103 students
with disabilities). The racial make up of the school is 48% Hispanic, 31% White,
18% African American, 2% Asian, and 1 % Other. Currently 12% of the students
live below the poverty level and 48% receive free or subsidized breakfast and lunch.
In addition, 21% of the students at Mamaroneck Avenue have limited English
proficiency.
When entering -----Elementary School one can immediately get the sense of a
community, and that is what has kept me volunteering and substituting here. The
languages in the neighborhood vary from English, to Spanish, and there has been an
increasing Creole population within the last few years. The walls are full of student
artwork, pictures of staff and students, awards, and many bright warm colors.
Languages are very present upon entering; there is a large Welcome sign in the
front entrance that says, Welcome in roughly 25 languages, all of which represent
the student body, painted on the wall. When you reach the front desk there are
many flyers and signs in both English and Spanish. Due to such a high population of
Hispanics at Mamaroneck Avenue School, the Spanish language is used almost as
much as English on the walls of the schools, and the bilingual office manager
translates and double sides every flyer that goes home to all students.
The classroom is an ESL general education class, which means out of 23
students, one third of the class has limited English proficiency. The class is made up
of 12 boys and 11 girls, ages 9 and 10. 11 Hispanic students, 7 White, 3 African
American, and 2 Indian students make up this fourth grade class. There is a
Hungarian boy, and a Colombian girl that who are new to the country as of
September and have extremely limited English communication skills. In the morning
an ESL teacher pushes in for one hour during Reading and Writing, and in the
afternoon she pulls 7 of these students out for Social Studies.
The classroom space is utilized in a functioning way; the one thing I do not
like is how the book library is against the perimeter walls of the room. During
bookshop the students who are shopping distract and bump into the other students
who are at their desks silently reading. The library consists of both leveled (Fountas
and Pinnell) and non-leveled books for students to browse through. There are no
multicultural books, or foreign language books available to the students. In the back
corner of the room are three student computers that are primarily used by the ELLs.
During reading lessons the teacher will allow the students to go on Imagine
Learning instead. Every empty space on the wall is covered with chart paper that
shows the language structures, math concepts, and any other important content
information the students are working on. The teacher, like Celic, has placed the
students in collaborative group arrangements. Each student is strategically placed in
their table groups; they are placed next to students who will not distract one
another, but will encourage them as learners. The students who are easily distracted
are placed at the front tables next to the SMARTboard. The ESL students are placed
next to students who speak Spanish and can assist them; only bilingual students
who the teacher feels will be of assistance to the ELL students are placed next to the
ELL students. The only time the students change up their seats during the day is
when they do word work.

II. Snapshot of Student

The student I have chosen for my assessment is a student whom I work with
both inside and outside of the classroom. I originally met this student during my
undergraduate student teaching in the fall of 2012; he was in my third grade ELL
general education class. I have continued to work with this student even after
student teaching because of his will and dedication to learn. Currently my student is
10 years old and in the fourth grade. For the purpose of this assessment, and to keep
his identity private, I will refer to him as Jack. Jack has dark features and tan skin.
He is a very small student for his age group; both height and weight wise, and has an
even smaller voice. He is an extremely friendly boy, but very shy and timid at first.
He is currently considered an intermediate ELL on the brink of advanced. If you
enter the classroom for the first time and approach Jack he will not make eye
contact, he will however smile, and quietly answer your questions with minimal
words. During class time he is still very quiet but is not afraid to take chances and
participate when he feels he may know an answer, or have input on a subject. Jack
has a handful of friends in the class in which he spends his free time with and he
really does open up with them, especially in smaller groups.
Jack came from Mexico with his mother, father, and older brother when he
was six years old. He had never spoken a word of English until his first day of first
grade. When I asked Jack who his teacher was for first grade he named the sheltered
immersion teacher. Jack also has a younger brother who is in first grade currently;
he is very protective over his younger brother. I have met him on several occasions
and he also gets pulled for ESL even though he was born in this country. Neither of
Jacks parents speaks English, but when I have met them in previous parent teacher
conferences when I was student teaching, the translator mentioned that his parents
were both very well educated in Mexico and that they came to the United States so
their children could receive the best educations.
Jack is becoming a bilingual student very quickly; during class time he is
often using translanguing depending on whom he is speaking with. When Jack is
speaking to native English speakers, or doing group work he is speaking English, but
during recess and when speaking to fellow Spanish peers he switches between
English and Spanish. The only time I see Jack really struggle with English is when he
is reading; his writing has come a very long way, but Jack has a hard time with
sounds and letter recognition still. During class he will be hesitant to participate,
and will always avoid reading aloud. He tends to get frustrated and worked up while
reading and will often have to take a break to calm down. We are currently working
on ways to calm him down while reading and to see if any sensory objects will help
him. We have been testing out several reading strategies to see what he enjoys and
benefits from the most. When I work with Jack alone he still gets frustrated with
reading but I have an easier time working with him to calm down and take chances
then when he is in a large setting.
When I interviewed Jack I began with his interests to ease him into
conversation. When jack is at home his favorite thing to do is build Legos, he wants
to be a builder when he grows up. He said his room was full of Lego creations and he
enjoys building and collecting them. On the weekends he plays recreational soccer
and watches soccer with his dad and brothers. His favorite soccer team is Liverpool
because Suarez, a Uruguayan player, is on the team, and dad says hes the best
player. His favorite movies are all super hero Marvel movies, and the Lego movie.
Jack also enjoys playing outside, and riding his bike with his cousin.
When discussing Jack as a learner he stated his favorite content areas were
math and science; he wishes his class did more science. His least favorite content
areas are reading and writing. Jack claims that reading is the worst. He tells me he
is not good at it like the rest of his peers in class, and thats what I am always helping
him (with reading). He says spelling is difficult for him and some times he cant
remember the words in English. Jack says he likes to create stories about Legos he
builds but its hard for him to write it down. Jack has wonderful and creative ideas,
but his organization, and structure keep him from writing a clear and coherent
piece, which he should have began to develop at the third grade level (Anchor 4,
Owocki).
Jack is brilliant in math, the concepts click immediately for him, and he
flourishes during this time, but when we switch gears to reading or writing his
whole demeanor changes. Its almost as if hes a totally different student. I love how
he mentioned his love for creating stories that are inspired by his Lego designs; I am
going to take that and base more tutoring sessions are this encourage his writing.
Its very stressful to see how frustrated he gets with reading. Although Jack has
completed nearly four years in English centered classrooms his language proficiency
is still intermediate. He does speak very well and fluent so many instructors dont
immediately realize he is still an ELL.

III. Social and Academic Language Function

As previously mentioned Jack struggles the most with reading and writing.
During our after school tutoring sessions, we spend a majority of our time working
on reading and writing. There have been several times where Jack has been so
frustrated hes yelled or even thrown his pencil in distress because he has such a
hard time with reading and expressing his ideas. I believed vocabulary plays a large
role in his reading and writing and unfortunately Jacks vocabulary is not at the
fourth grade level quite yet.
Jack is reading at the second grade level. During our sessions I completed several
running records, starting at the fourth grade level, and continued until we found his
instructional, and independent level, which was at the second grade level. Jacks
fluency affects his comprehension skills greatly due to his lack of details during
retell. While reading Jack often omits word endings, especially s, or ed. Jack also
has a hard time reading words with silent es at the end of words, as well as
understanding how to read a CVVC word correctly. When Jack gets tired, and
frustrated, he begins to omit words without even attempting to sound them out
because he ideally just wants to be done. When I spoke with his teacher, Mrs.
Jackson, she told me that Jack often refrains from participating in read alouds, or
responding to readings. She even has a difficult time getting him to read aloud
during DRAs. During reading, Jack is most successful when either a teacher, or
fellow student reads aloud to him; it is then that his comprehension of the text is
significantly higher than if he was to have read it. During independent reading, Jack
reads picture books and very short stories such as Dr. Seuss. We have found that Dr.
Seuss helps Jack with his word recognition and fluency development. Jack also loves
Goosebumps, so as a reward when we have successful sessions, we read a
Goosebumps chapter together. Currently, we are working toward Jack reading to me
aloud. Although Goosebumps is not quite on his reading level, he is always willing to
try and take chances with the book, so I always take my opportunities!
Jacks writing proves that he lacks conventions of print, mixes up tenses, and
lacks detail. His lack of vocabulary, especially adjectives, takes away from his
writing. His class was working on narratives, but Jack was working on a tailored
version; he is still creating pieces by using picture boxes and word prompts.
Currently Jack is writing about his trip to the Yankee game with his father. We
started with an illustration to help Jack gather his ideas and details. His quality of
writing lacks detail and range; I would say he is about a second grade writing level
as well. When I tutor Jack at home we work on describing words and play a lot of
games that include the use of adjectives. Its evident that his language is not fully
developed yet because he often asks me for help finding proper words. Jack is very
creative and his writing would be exceptional if his language and quality was a bit
more developed. When we work together and Jack really hits his stride while
writing and coming up with ideas, its clear that he does really enjoy writing and his
confidence skyrockets. When Jack is placed in a group he is never the first to grab
the marker or pen and ask to be the scribe. He prefers to speak and share his
answers with his peers, especially because he has the opportunity to discuss with a
peer in Spanish to find proper vocabulary words.
To get an understanding of Jacks development and use of spoken language in
different social and curriculum contexts, aside from our tutoring sessions, I
observed him in two settings: during science group work, and during physical
education. I also used Celics (2009) language structure checklist to see where Jack
was at as far as language needs and developments. This helped me understand
where he was showing signs of using a particular structure and where he
completely lacked a structure. During science Jack got into his group (Mrs. J assigned
science groups earlier in the year.) that consists of an L1 from Colombia, two L3s
(himself and another student from the Dominican Republic), and a native English
speaker, who is just under grade level in reading and writing as well. The students
were responsible for exploring and discussing simple machines that were placed on
their table: pencil, screw, wedge, wheel and axel. During their examination they
were to make observations and Jack absolutely took lead of this. While examining
the objects he shared his thoughts in Spanish to his L1 partner. I noticed that he
gravitated to this student a lot and was very helpful in assisting the student. When
he was discussing his observations he started to get very excited and would start to
use translanguaging to express his ideas. He was one of the first students to put his
hand up and share with the class his observations; it was like he became a totally
different person than he was from reading and writing workshop. During physical
education I got an opportunity to see Jack in a social context. The students were
playing a team sport called capture the flag. Coach S told me that Jack was
extremely competitive and sometimes gets frustrated if his teammates make
mistakes. He was very vocal and yelled in both Spanish and English to encourage his
teammates. Jack appears to be a leader; hes extremely confident during physical
education. At times I noticed that he would get so excited that he would yell in
Spanish, which demonstrated to me that Spanish is his first language to express
feeling.

IV. Instructional Implications and Recommendations

To meet the academic and linguistic needs of my student there are several
teaching practices that could be incorporated into his instruction. As Owocki and
Celic have both mentioned, Jack would and does greatly benefit from the use of
models and visuals. Allowing him to use models and visuals to complete work can
help increase his use of details and adjectives. Allowing Jack access to Owockis
graphic organizers to help scaffold his writing and reading can help Jack break down
thick content and further his writing range. Celics idea of bilingual picture
dictionaries being accessible in the classroom could be especially helpful to Jack
because as previously stated, he is often asking for help with vocabulary; this can be
an essential tool to help build and further develop his language. During reading Jack
would benefit from paired reading where he is paired with a skilled reader, perhaps
a former ELL if possible, who will help him understand the language and read along
with him until he is ready to read independently. I also believe books on tape could
benefit Jack to help him make his own connections visually and auditory, and can
increase his comprehension and retell skills. These types of shared reading can
provide Jack with an opportunity to not only hear the language but see it as well.
Celics word study strategy is something that should absolutely be included in Jacks
instructional plan because it will allow him an opportunity to examine spelling and
language structures, with the support of the teacher.
To help Jack aid his stress and frustration with reading and writing, I think
proper breaks, stretching, and more group work would be beneficial to help break
up the long tasks he must complete in class. While at home during tutoring sessions
Jack has started intermissions where we get up and do stretches and calisthenics
to relieve stress and get his brain pumping again; he really enjoys this and it has
thus far prevented him from any outbursts of frustration. Jack and I have begun to
work on conventions of print and detail in writing; he works very well when given
prompts. To increase Jacks reading level we are focusing on guided reading to
further develop his fluency, decoding, and reading comprehension.
Jacks language is developing appropriately for his level of proficiency and when
his confidence is high he is very successful. I am concerned that Jack will not receive
enough small group work and will continue to struggle in his reading and writing, or
that it wont progress appropriately. I personally believe that Jack would benefit
from sheltered instruction. Sheltered instruction would place Jack in a small group
where he would learn by doing. This type of instruction includes a lot of visual
demonstrations, discovery learning, and allows students to access their L1 to clarify
information in English.






































References

Celic, C. M. (2009). English language learners day by day, K-6: a complete guide to
literacy, content-area, and language instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Owocki, G. (2012). The common core lesson book, K-5: working with increasingly
complex literature, informational text, and foundational reading skills.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Owocki, G. (2012). The common core writing book, K-5: lessons for a range of tasks,
purposes, and audience K-5. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.