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Brynn Greenway
Professor Voetberg
Education 202
May 12, 2015
Final Synthesis
Over the past two and a half months I have been privileged enough to have spent two
hours every week observing Mrs. Joness second grade class at Brown Elementary School. While
I was there I got to take part in the classs reading time. During this time I was especially
privileged to spend time with a girl who I will refer to as AY. AY is a hard-worker and is helpful
to her teacher and her peers. I saw many strong personal qualities in this student that made
working with her enjoyable. I spent time getting to know AY on a personal level and was also
able to notice that she seemed to struggle with her reading, which is an area that her teacher has
concerns about as well (Jones, April 24). I have also examined factors in her personal life like
her neighborhood, school, home, social class, and language that have most likely influenced
AYs education, but I believe that she has shown strengths and weaknesses with certain aspects
of her attention and memory that could be affecting her reading ability as well.
I believe that Purplesville, Michigan is a very safe and family friendly area. There are
multiple residential areas that could be homes to families, and throughout the neighborhood
people of all ages can be seen walking or riding their bikes. There is a bike line on the main road
that goes through this neighborhood. There are also bus stops where people can wait to take the
city bus. This neighborhood contains two parks; both of them have playgrounds, baseball
diamonds, and soccer fields. These parks seem like they are great places for families who do not
necessarily have big yards to come and play. Located across the street from one of these parks is
a security building. The location of this building is very convenient because parents can worry
less about their children while they are playing. Parents can also take comfort in the fact that in
2011 this neighborhood had a lower crime rate than the United States crime rate (City-Data.com,

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2015). This neighborhood also uses speed bumps in its residential areas in order to help keep
people from driving recklessly. Another safety precaution is the crossing guards that are around
after school to help people cross the streets safely. These crossing guards are very helpful
because there are four other schools just within a mile radius of Brown Elementary School. In
order to fill four schools, there must be a lot of families with children living in the area, which
means there are a lot of people that need help crossing the street safely. Based on this evidence,
Purplesville seems to be a safe place to raise a family.
In addition to being a family friendly environment, Purplesville appears to be a diverse
area. One type of diversity that this neighborhood seems to have is racial. The two most
prevalent races according to City-Data.com (2015) are white and Hispanic; there is a population
of approximately 770,969 people, and about seventy-two percent of these people are white and
nineteen percent Hispanic (City-Data.com, 2015). The businesses in the area, such as the gas
stations, salons, auto shops, restaurants, and grocery stores, have Spanish names and also signs
that are translated in English and Spanish. The large percentage of white people actually
surprised me because when I visited the neighborhood, most of the people I saw appeared to be
Hispanic or black. Based on my observations and the data about the neighborhood, I believe that
Purplesville has a variety in races among its residence.
Another type of diversity that appears to be a part of Purplesville is the wide range in
income. According to City-Data.com (2015), the average yearly income is 40,000 dollars, but
based on my observations there seems to a wide range of income. On one street, I observed a
rusty car without tires parked in a driveway a few houses down from an expensive looking
convertible without scratches or rust marks. These people are neighbors, but appear to have
completely different levels of income. The houses also provide further evidence that there is a
variety of incomes. Some of the houses have yards big enough for swing sets and swimming

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pools; others do not have room in their yards for these things and the paint on their houses seems
to be chipped and faded. Both of these types of diversity make Purplesville unique and can help
shape the perspectives of the neighborhoods residence.
Brown Elementary School reflects a similar racial diversity as the neighborhood and is
very accommodating to students of all backgrounds. My first time walking through the school, I
immediately noticed that it is very welcoming to Spanish speakers. All of the signs inside the
school and the schools website are translated into Spanish and English (Brown Elementary
School, 2015). I also noticed that the take-home assignments are written in both languages as
well. This shows that the school is aware that not all of the students parents speak English. I
think that this extra effort encourages parents to be involved with their childs education. The
school also provides assistance to students who are trying to learn English by having three
classrooms for English learning students (Brown Elementary School, 2015). The
accommodations that this school provides to Hispanic students and families show that the school
values diversity and reaching out to people of all backgrounds.
During recess, I was able to observe other classes in addition to my class which gave me
a better idea of the racial makeup of the entire school. It seemed to me that about eighty percent
of the students had darker skin and appeared to be Hispanic to me. This idea was supported by
the Spanish I heard being spoke between students. I believe that the students feel comfortable
speaking Spanish in this school. This is a positive trait because according to an article by a
teacher named Jessica Whitney (2005) students learn best when they feel comfortable with their
own culture at school. After doing further research, I discovered that roughly seventy-one
percent of the students are Hispanic, eighteen percent are white, and twelve percent are black
(Purplesville Public Schools, 2011). Considering the statistics about the neighborhood having
mostly white people, I would have thought that there would have been more white students. This

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led me to wonder where all the white students were. After looking at the racial makeups of other
schools around Brown Elementary, I found that they had similar racial compositions. I think that
because this school and the schools surrounding it are open to Spanish speaking students, many
Hispanic families are drawn to this school district. This might be creating a level of segregation
because the neighborhood statistics show a majority of white people living in the area, but the
schools racial composition does not show as significant of a proportion of white people. Overall,
I believe this school is welcoming to people of all races which is a very desirable quality to have
in a school.
Although racial diversity is one of the qualities I noticed right away when I observed this
school, I also found several other elements that I believe make Brown Elementary School a great
place for students to learn. This school offers early childhood classes and grades kindergarten
through twelfth grade. There are thirty teachers who are all female except for one male teacher.
They teach the five hundred and fifty students that attend Brown Elementary School. (Brown
Elementary School, 2015). The hallways are decorated with pictures of animals like giraffes and
otters. Each student also gets a green locker to put their belongings in. Outside of the building is
a play area that is fenced in and contains two main playsets with slides and climbing walls. There
is also a gaga ball pit, basketball hoops, jump ropes, hopscotch, soccer, and a hill that the kids
roll down. To me this school seems like a friendly environment for students such as AY to learn
and grow intellectually.
As I have gotten to know AY more, I have learned more about her home life in relation to
her school life. I know that AY has attended Brown Elementary for at least two years now
because her teacher told me that she missed the last month of first grade. According to her
teacher, it was a family emergency, but she was pretty sure that it has to do with AYs mothers
immigration issues. Her teacher was also unsure where her mother was currently, but she knew

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that AYs legal guardian was currently her twenty-three year old sister. AY also lives with her
two brothers, and she does not know who her father is. I found out later, after talking to AY, that
her mother was currently living in Mexico. This made me wonder how much of the situation AY
was aware of and how big of a distraction this was to her while she was at school. I thought that
she seemed sad when she told me her mother was in Mexico, but I do not know how much of the
situation she really comprehends. AY also told me a woman who helps people with their
problems comes to her house on Wednesdays. I think that maybe this woman could be a social
worker who checks in on AY and her family. AY told me a story about how her brothers dog
attacked her dog, and this leads me to believe that there is or was some level of chaos going on in
her home. According to her teacher, this year she has had much better attendance than last year
and AY completes her assignments on time, so it seems possible that her life at home is
beginning to settle down; however, I think it is important to keep in mind that AY seems to have
a lot going on at home and this could potentially be a distraction from her school work.
While I learned about AYs home life, I began to discover more information about her
social class as well. I have reason to believe that AY comes from a lower social class. One reason
why I believe this that AY wore the same pair of leggings every time that I visited the school. It
is possible that she just happened to wear them on the days I was there, but it does not seem
likely to me. I also noticed that she only has four or five colored pencils. The ones she does have
are from different sets and it seems like maybe she found them on the ground. When the students
colored, she borrowed colors from the girl that sat next to her. Another piece of evidence that
supports that she comes from a lower social class is that I overheard her telling another student
that she goes to an after school program called GROUP 22. After doing further research on this
program, I discovered that it is a free program for at risk kids and parents have to apply to send
their kids there (GROUP 22). AY qualified for this program, so it seems reasonable to believe

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that she and her family are living in some level of poverty. Another program that AY is involved
in that indicates she comes from a lower social class is a sack meal program. This involves her
getting a sack meal after school that she can take home to eat for dinner. I found out that the
organization is called Kids Food Basket and that this program is only offered in schools where
eighty percent of the students are living below the poverty line (Kids Food Basket). Not only is
AY getting assistance from these programs, but she also told me that she lived in a trailer park for
a period of time. Living in a trailer park does not necessarily mean that a person is living in
poverty, but looking at all of the evidence and taking into consideration that her current caretaker
is her twenty-three year old sister, there seems to be reason to believe that she comes from a low
income family.
Language is another factor that could possibly have an effect on AYs education. AY is
bilingual, meaning she can speak two languages (Woolfolk, 2008, p. 329). She speaks both
English and Spanish, but she told me that she feels like her English is better than her Spanish.
She explained to me that lately she has been speaking English more at home to help her siblings
learn. I am not sure how she developed the ability to speak English better than her siblings did,
but I think it is possible that she has been more exposed to English at school, and it could also be
possible that her siblings did not grow up in the United States or attend an English speaking
school. She utilizes her bilingualism to help the teacher communicate with other students who do
not speak very good English. An example of when AY demonstrated her bilingualism is when her
class made Mothers Day projects that involved gluing a poem onto a piece of paper in
whichever language they preferred. AY was the only one to glue both a Spanish and English
version of the poem to her paper. I think that this shows that she feels comfortable with both
languages. This is to her advantage because students who are bilingual have been shown to not
get frustrated as easily, be persistent, be good independent workers, and are able to retain

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information more easily (Woolfolk, 2008, p. 352). If AY continues to use both languages, then
her bilingualism could give her an advantage over other students.
After reading with AY, I started to wonder what effect being bilingual had on her reading
ability. I was curious if knowing two languages confused her while she read because there were
times when she seemed to forget phonemes or the sounds in words and letters (Levine, 2002, p.
130). For example, when we read together she could not read the word suspicious because she
did not seem to know that the cs do not make the same sound that they do in the word cat. She
also did this with the word giraffe. She sounded it out with the letter g making the same sound as
in golf. This could be because in Spanish and English some of the letters make different
sounds. This could potentially be confusing her and causing her to have difficulty reading. I
believe that overall her bilingualism is an asset to her, but she needs to work on distinguishing
between languages when she reads.
Memory is also a factor that may be contributing to her low reading scores. I began to
wonder if AY had a weakness in her short term memory, where information is held for a brief
amount of time (Levine, 2002, p. 94), when I noticed that while she was doing her independent
reading she was talking to herself. According to Levine (2002, p. 98), this is a useful exercise to
store information better for those who struggle with short term memory. As previously stated, AY
seems to have issues remembering phenomes; this could potentially connect to her issues with
short term memory because there are theories that say that phenomes and short term memory are
connected (Leinenger, 2014). I noticed another indicator of problems with her short term
memory when she was reading to me and she came across the word lanterns and did not know
it. We sounded it out together, but when the word came up later in the story, she did not seem to
recognize it. I noticed this multiple times with other words. I knew from Levine (2002) that the
short-term memory also serves as one of our minds relay stations (p.94). When data enters our

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mind we do one of four things: send them to the long-term memory for later use, use them right
away and forget them, use them and then save them for later, or do nothing with it The next time
I read with AY and we came across a word she did not know, which was the word daughter, I
told her it was an important word and would probably come up again. When the word came up
she knew it and did not seem to hesitate at all. I believe that when I told her that the word was
important she put it into her active working memory.
I believe that AY has a strong active working memory based on the previous situation
and other examples that I observed. The active working memory is the place where multiple
intentions or components of any activity are held in place long enough to complete that activity
(Levine, 2002, p. 100). The active working memory is also the place where the long term and
short term memory come together (Voetberg, 2015). I noticed that she remembered that one of
the minor characters introduced at the beginning of the book had the same last name as another
minor character introduced later in the book. I think that she kept this information in her head
and used it later on. AY also used her strong active working memory when the teacher asked her
questions about what had happened in the book they had just read together as a class. She
answered the questions correctly and showed that she was keeping this information in her head.
Based on these examples, AY demonstrates a weak short term memory and a strong active
working memory. Her strong active working memory will give her an advantage and by
strengthening her short term memory she will make her active memory even stronger.
AY has not only shown strengths and weaknesses in memory, but she has also shown
strengths and weaknesses in attention. One piece of attention she seems to struggle with is the
selection control which is the ability to prioritize information and decide what is worth
remembering and what is not worth remembering (Levine, 2002, p. 65). I believe she
demonstrated this weakness in a previous example when I had noticed her forgetting words that

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she had already learned, but when I told her the word daughter was important, she did not
seem to have any trouble remembering it later. I think that when AY comes across a new word,
she does not always sort it correctly. I think that she does not recognize it as a significant word
and does not put it into her active working memory. However, when I specifically told her that it
was an important word, she put it as a higher priority and it was put into her active working
memory for later use.
Her weakness in selection control could possibly be having an effect on her reading
comprehension. I noticed that when she was finishing reading a book to me and at the end of the
book she noticed that a photograph that was in one of the pictures was facing a different direction
than it was in the beginning of the book. This was not relevant to the storyline, but she prioritized
it enough to keep it stored in her memory. I have also observed AY getting grades that are not
considered passing (lower than a three out of five) on two of her reading comprehension quizzes
that she has taken while I was there. Her selection control could possibly be having an effect on
her reading comprehension because she could possibly not be picking out the most useful
information. When the teacher is reading a book out loud to the class, the teacher will stop and
discuss the important parts of the book. In these situations, AY does not seem to have as much
difficulty with reading comprehension; however, when AY reads to herself, she does not have
anyone to help her prioritize information causing her to miss relevant parts of the book. I believe
that it is possible that by improving her selection control she will improve her reading
comprehension as well.
While her selection control may not be her strongest asset, she seems to show a strength
in mind activity control. The mind activity control is the ability to make connections to real life
experiences (Levine, 2002, p. 70). I noticed that AY made several connections throughout the
day. One day she made a specific connection to how a lion was eating a giraffe in the book she

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was reading and connected this to the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, in which a similar
scene had happened. Another time I saw AY use her strong mind activity control was when the
class was talking about a character in the book and they were talking about how hold the
character was. AY related this to how old her sister was, and this gave her a better understanding
of the characters age because she was able to connect it to her life. I also had the opportunity to
observe a connection she made in a book she was writing for a class project. The book had to be
realistic fiction, so she wrote about a family whose father had left them. I believe that she
understood what a realistic fiction book meant because she understood that fathers leaving was
realistic because her own father left her. A member of the National Council of Teachers of
English claims that when students take what they are learning and connect it to their own
experiences it gives them a better understanding of the material (Simon). Because of this, I
believe that AYs ability to make connections to what she is learning will give her an advantage
in her educational journey.
After collecting my data and relating it to what I have learned, I was able to identify a
few possible strengths and weaknesses that AY has. Her neighborhood, school, and home life
have shaped her into an independent and hard-working student. By using these two personal
qualities she will most likely be able to overcome her obstacles that include her lower social
class, weak short term memory and weak selection control. Her ability to speak two languages,
strong mind activity control, and strong active working memory give her an advantage that she
can continue to develop in order to improve her reading skills and become the best student
possible. I believe that she has an immense amount of potential and a great personality that will
allow her to achieve anything despite any challenges she may face.

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