week 5

assignment 2

ELL Case Study

Paul De Carlo

ELL Case Study:

Student background information:

Bryan is a 19 year old 12th grader enrolled in the special education program at his district. Bryan was born and raised in the United States. He was never properly given the appropriate education and was sadly pushed through the system. He is currently enrolled in special education classes due to his low level of academic performance in ELA, and Mathematics. Bryan currently lives in a single family home with his grandmother and mother. His parents are divorced and his father lives upstate New York. Bryan is currently trying to achieve a high school local diploma within the next year. However, he is struggling significantly with his academics. Bryan requires a small class room environment with minimal distractions to be successful with his academic achievements. Bryan’s long term goal is to enroll in a trade school after high school and to be competitively employed as a plumber. For Bryan to achieve his short term and long term goals, he will have to enhance his fundamentals in English as well as his basic problem solving in mathematical operations. Bryan has missed a significant amount of his eleventh and twelfth grade years due to inescapable life experiences.

Bryan tends to lose focus very easily when he is not actively engaged or if he feels the lesson doesn’t appeal to him. If the subject or a topic doesn’t appeal to Bryan he either tunes out, day dreams, or becomes disruptive towards other students. Bryan’s disruptiveness is caused by him asking irrelevant questions or making outlandish comments to another student. Bryan is a struggling reader; he becomes so frustrated with reading that he refuses to go to his ELA class 3 out of 5 of the school days. He is very discouraged with his level of reading and feels as if other students are criticizing him when he is asked to read aloud. Bryan works best when he works independently with the teacher or someone that he is comfortable with. He has low self-esteem and is afraid to take the initiative or risk with his academics. He becomes frustrated when he is told he is wrong and gives up easily on himself. What I’ve noticed through observing Bryan in his ELA class is that his teacher takes the time to over with him words that he doesn’t understand and has difficulty pronouncing. When Bryan is struggling to pronounce a word the teacher will instruct Bryan how to pronounce the word correctly. The teacher will say “great job Bryan, but try sounding the word out such as…..” In doing so this gives Bryan the positive motivation that he requires to continue reading and completing the passage.

 Currently Bryan’s favorite subjects are math and living environment. These two subjects require minimal reading and comprehension. Most of the words are familiar to Bryan. Bryan is able to understand mathematics because he can memorize the formulas and steps to solve a problem. Since he has been in this program he is able to determine when to use certain operations.

Assessment Analysis:

In Bryan’s ELA class he seems to get lost within the comprehension of the book that they are reading. Bryan uses an index card to follow along as the class takes turns reading aloud as a group. The teacher generally has group discussions to review and reflect what was currently read. Bryan usually stays quite as this point of the lesson or gets out of his seat and walks out of the classroom. He becomes so frustrated that he gives up on himself. When Bryan is willing to work, the teacher works independently with him. The teacher works with Bryan by assessing him on words that he is familiar with and words that he struggles to read and understand. Bryan’s pronunciation of words makes it difficult to understand him due to his dialect. We as educators are able to understand what he is saying, but at times he must lapse or repeat the sentence that he is trying to express. Bryan tends to do well until one of his fellow classmates mimics him. This discourages Bryan tremendously; the student that mimics him is reprimanded for bullying. The teacher also practices silent independent reading, group reading, and reading as a class aloud. Bryan is better able to comprehend what is being read when the reader reads at a slower pace. This allows Bryan more decoding time, which can at times make Bran lose focus. As for his writing samples he tends to write English and spell words correctly. However, makes many grammatical errors, and tends to miss arrange words, which obscures the meaning. This is common miscues for an ELL student that speaks another language other than English. Bryan sometimes realizes his mistakes and is able to correct them on his own. The main reason that Bryan struggles with comprehension is because he is unable to understand the unfamiliar vocabulary words. One of Bryan’s favorite subjects is math. Math is a language within itself, in which he is able to comprehend. He is able to understand math when it’s related to relief situations. Bryan is native born to the United States, so he is able to count and understand numbers in spoken and written English.  As Bryan’s math teacher I was able to accommodate his needs to have him understand mathematics. I was well aware of his struggles with ELA ( reading and writing in English) so I created his lesson to force him to write and read more as compared to other students. Bryan would sit in the front row first chair, to allow him better assistance from the teacher. Recommendations that should be made in Bryan’s learning is front row seating, refocusing, related lesson to real situations, and individualized learning.

SOLOM Report:

Bryan’s SOLOM report score is a 15. He scored 2 out of 5 in comprehension. He understands most of what is said at slower than normal speed, requires some repetition. At times the slowing of speech can cause Bryan to lose focus on the topic or main idea of the story being discussed. Bryan’s fluency score is 4 out of 5. His speech in everyday conversation is generally fluent. However at times he tends to lapse and has some difficulty searching for words to express in English. Bryan scored 3 out of 5 in vocabularies. He frequently gets confused with word meaning and uses the wrong words. His conversation is somewhat limited due to his lack of English vocabulary. He scored 2 out of 5 in pronunciations. At times it is very difficult to understand Bryan because he speeds up his speech. It sounds almost like he is mumbling. His increase in speech speed causes him to have pronunciation issues and he must frequently repeat himself to be understood. Bryan scored 3 out of 5 in grammar. His writing samples were actually very acceptable given his level of ELA skills. His spelling of words was appropriate however he had many grammatical errors that obscured the meaning of his sentences. His word ordering caused his sentence structure to be below average. This could be recognized as a very common error with ELL students because most foreign languages the word order is much different as compared to the English language.

Instruction:

Currently in Bryan’s ELA class, the class is reading a book titled Into the Wild. I made sure that his ELA teacher was aware that Bryan was a Struggling ELA student prior to them reading the book. I observed Bryan and the instruction of how the teacher implemented teaching techniques that would assist Bryan in his struggles. His teacher would have the class read the book aloud, each student taking a turn reading a page or two pages each. Bryan is required to sit in the front of the class, and is not required to read if he chooses. As the class reads Bryan is required to write down or fill in main ideas, and character names to keep him engaged in the lesson. After the class reads 2 chapters they watch the movie that is based on the book. The class only watches up to or a little past the point that they reached in the book. This technique helps Bryan to reinforce the meanings and main idea within the book. At times the class will have silent reading; this is when the teacher will work independently with Bryan to enhance his comprehension, pronunciation, vocabulary, and fluency. The teacher would give Bryan homework assignments that would entail him to read a section of the book and answer or fill in questions of what is happening in the story.  At the end of the week the class would be assessed on what they have read. The quiz would include general questions about the book, as well as vocabulary discussed. Over the course of the 6 weeks Bryan’s scores have increased from a 50 to a 75. This is a tremendous improvement over a period of 6 weeks. In order to continue his performance in ELA Bryan should attend summer school to prevent regression as well as be enrolled in a read 180 class in September to assist him with any other difficulties or skills that he may lack. Bryan doesn’t like to work his peers mainly because they are much younger then him and he feels as if they are making fun of him. He becomes easily discouraged and frustrated; he enjoys working with the teacher or teaching assistant individually.

Reflection:

I am Bryan’s math teacher as well as his homeroom teacher for the program that he is enrolled in. From Bryan’s first day in the program until now, he has made tremendous improvements academically and emotionally. A lot of his academic interference was due to frustration and lack of motivation. At times he still makes errors, however is able to correct his mistakes on his own. One of Bryan’s underlying issues is that he doesn’t speak English at home. His family’s main language is Spanish. I feel that for Bryan to get more experience in practicing English is to get involved with more community activities. I have made many suggestions to his parents to help Bryan with his English Language learning at home. However, they’ve been non-compliant. Bryan is eager to learn English and much other academic knowledge; however he receives no motivation and assistance from his home environment. I felt that this case study was of use to me. Especially to test my knowledge and skills, that I can express and assess my students. I have built a professional relationship with each one of my students to the point in which I know and understand their individual struggles academically and emotionally. The tough part about being an educator is knowing your students, how to determine what their needs are, and how to accommodate their needs. 

running record and reflection

Candidate’s Name: Paul De Carlo    

Grade Level: 2^nd grade

Title of the lesson:  The Great Zoo Escape

Length of the lesson: 20 minute mini lesson (running record)

Central focus of the lesson Student will be able to recognize the main idea and the environment of the story. Student will be able to self-correct word recognition as well as meanings of words and phrases.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching ●     Students currently read based on their skill or grade level. Students within the class read either at, above, or below their current grade level. Students currently have learned rhyme of words of similar families as well as prefix and suffix of words. Students work independently with the teacher as a reading buddy once a week, twice a week if needed. Students are given spelling and oral language quizzes every Friday to assess their knowledge.

Common Core State Standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.A Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.C Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Students will be able to describe the setting of the story as well as analyze the main idea. Vocabulary ●     Students will be able to analyze, categorize the main idea using word recognition of familiar and unfamiliar words. ●     Creature, animals, amphibians, cheered, shouted, flock, ostrich. Sentence Level ●     Suffix ending of a word and its sound to identify word tense. Sentence structure.Fluency. Discourse ●     Text structure would consist of the correct spelling, pronunciation, and recognition of different words. Conversation, discussion. Fluency.

Learning objectives Students will recognize similar spelling of words with different meanings. Students will decode words of one syllable. Students will understand how to self-correct mispronounced words. Students will reread and sound out unfamiliar words.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) ●    Formal assessment- students will tur and talk to a partner to discuss their evaluation of the passage and an experience that they once had at a zoo. Informal assessment- Students students will reread the passage and will write and draw an experience that they had at the zoo.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Your design should be based on the following: ●      Students will read aloud the passage The Great Zoo Escape as a group. 5 minutes ●     Students and the teacher will discuss what the main idea and environment of the story is. 10 minutes. Students will write a short explanation of the main idea and environment of the story as well as an experience that they once had at a zoo. 10 minutes. Struggling students and students with IEPs will be permitted to illustrate an experience that they had at a zoo. They will also be given a copy of the passage in larger font and be required to sit in the front closest to the teacher.

Instructional resources and materials Smartboard Large lined paper Pen/marker List of words Work sheet Quiz sheet

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014

Reflection:

The student Andrew that I did my running record with is a 2^nd grader that reads on his grade level with minimal errors. The running record began with Andrew taking the lead and reading the passage The Great Zoo Escape on his own. I supervised Andrew as he read to record his miscues as well as his comprehension, punctuation, and pronunciation of all words and phrases (sentence structures). Andrew read the passage at a decent pace and only seemed to have struggled with pronouncing words that were unfamiliar to him. He struggled to pronounce words such as ostrich and flock. These two words are not very common in passages. However, Andrew was able to reread and sound out the words to pronounce them correctly. Andrew also made some visual mistakes such as saying animal instead of animals. As he progressed through the passage he began to pay closer attention and made less visual mistakes. The final mistakes that Andrew made where in regards to sentence structure, tense of words, and pronunciation. He would read cheer and shout, instead of cheered and shouted. Andrew made several errors in total mostly visual and only two structured. His overall accuracy rate was 92.7 percent and his error rate was 13.85. These data would conclude that Andrew is a proficient reader for his grade level. I never performed a running record, prior to doing one I never knew what it was. This is definitely new to me as far as evaluating a student’s reading level. I plan on teaching mathematics at the high school level, so I will not be doing much of this. Generally teachers at the high school level use a computer based evaluation program known as the NWEA Map testing. The students are required to take two exams twice a year; Mathematics and ELA. I feel that the NWEA Map testing is great for someone such as myself who isn’t an expert in ELA to evaluate their students reading levels. However, the running record is more of an in depth, hands on evaluation that will better assist an ELA teacher. 

week 4

Assignment 1

•&νβσπ;What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?

Teachers generally have word walls in the classroom of tough words that students may having identifying or understanding. Teachers will also have reading material and books that are on, above, or below the students level of reading that are relevant to the key content to be taught.

•&νβσπ;How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?

Vocabulary is selected according to the level of difficulty of the word and what tier that it may fall under, more basic words are of a lower tier than those that are not as commonly used.

•&νβσπ;How much time do they allocate to word study?

Teachers generally allocate 30-45 minutes a day to word study. Depending on how long each period is.

•&νβσπ;What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?

Most teachers encourage students to define words, sound out words that are unfamiliar or take weekly spelling test. To enhance word recognition and memorization.

•&νβσπ;How do they differentiate instruction and tasks based on their students' needs?

If a student is struggling the teacher will sit independently with that student 2 to 3 times a week to enhance that student’s level of learning. If required the teacher will communicate with the parents to assist the student at home to help reinforce the lesson or topic.

Reading element	Instruction	Opportunities for practice	Texts/materials
Fluency	Teacher read aloud Model fluent reading to students	Readers theater Independent reading	Plays scripts Variety of books relevant to key content areas
Vocabulary	Spelling test Explain unfamiliar words (different tier words)	Word wall Spelling test Defining words Independent writing	Independent writing Spelling test Vocabulary books
Decoding	Teacher reflections Sounding out tough words	Independent reading Group reading Shared reading Popcorn game	Read books relevant to key content subjects Word meaning and research

assignment 2

1. How can you ensure that your struggling readers have access to texts they can easily read?
Ensure that you have material in key content areas such as math, science, and social studies that will apply to the students learning and grade level. Match a student’s conception, interest and academic ability (grade level) to the book that is to be read.
2. How can you foster a learning environment in which students have many opportunities to practice reading?  The learning environment that would have to be set in place is a non-interruptive environment that allows the students silence to read and think of their ideas. The students would practice Small group instruction, and turn and talk reflections on what they have read in their readings. The teacher should demonstrate the coaching techniques and move around the room to sit in on each group or individual reader to ensure the students understand what they are reading.
3. Describe ways in which you can model fluent reading in your classroom throughout the day.
 I would model fluent reading in my classroom by reading aloud to my students. This will give them an understanding of what fluent reading sounds like. As I read to my students I will pause to reflect on my theory of what is and might occur throughout the story. As the story change I will pause to reflect with the students of how my theory has changed.

assignment 3

1. Explain the three levels of words and how you can use word levels to decide which words to teach.
Basic words  (bed ,look, run)
high frequency   (freeway, hurricane)
low frequency (isotope, asphalt)
A great way to have students learn word levels is by giving students a vocabulary pretest every Monday and a real test every Friday of the same list of words.

2. How do you teach your students to "chunk" words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction?

Have student’s record information about each chunk into a graphic organizer. This helps when student are struggling to identify keys words and ideas. It develops their ability to paraphrase and organize their data.
3. Based on Professor Allington's comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom?

I would foster word study in my classroom by giving students a spelling pretest every Monday and a real test with the same words that Friday. To enhance the word study I would require the students to do an Independent writing assignment using 15 of the 20 words that are given to them to be spelled correctly on their Friday test. 

week 3 mini lesson

Candidate’s Name: Paul De Carlo

Grade Level: 3^rd grade

Title of the lesson: At the play ground

Length of the lesson: 20 minute mini lesson

Central focus of the lesson (The central focus should align with the CCSS/content standards and support students to develop an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills for comprehending or composing texts in meaningful contexts) Key questions: Students will be able to identify the main idea and environment within the story.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Key questions: ●     Students currently read based on their skill or grade level. Students within the class read either at one reading level above or below their current grade. Students currently have learned rhyme of words of similar families as well as prefix and suffix of words. Students work independently with the teacher as a reading buddy once a week, twice a week if needed. Students are given oral language quizzes every Friday to assess their knowledge.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.A Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.C Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Students will identify main idea, and setting of the story. Vocabulary ●     Students will be able to analyze categorize and describe the main idea and environment of the story in detail. Sentence Level ●     Suffix ending of a word and its sound. Fluency. Discourse ●     Text structure would consist of the spelling, pronunciation, and recognition of different words. Fluency.

Learning objectives Students will recognize similar spelling of words with different meanings. Students will decode words of one syllable. Students will understand how to self-correct mispronounced words.

Formal and informal assessment Formal assessment- students will be given an oral language quiz. Students will be given a quiz every Friday. The assessment will help the students to evaluate themselves on their knowledge and become aware of their level of phonics. Struggling student that fail will be given extra attention and will have an increase amount of time with the teacher the following week to catch them up on the material. Informal assessment- Students will reread the story individually and write 2 sentences describing the main idea and environment. As well as tell a brief story of an experience they had at a pay ground. .

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Your design should be based on the following: ●     Students will read aloud the passage At the playground as a group. 5 minutes ●     students and teacher will discuss what the main idea and environment of the story is. 10 minutes. Students will write a short explanation of the main idea and environment of the story as well as an experience that they once had at playground.

Instructional resources and materials Smartboard Large lined paper Pen/marker List of words Work sheet Quiz sheet

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014

week 3 assignment 1

Candidate’s Name: Paul De Carlo

Grade Level: 3^rd grade

Title of the lesson: learning similar words

Length of the lesson: 45 minutes

Central focus of the lesson (The central focus should align with the CCSS/content standards and support students to develop an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills for comprehending or composing texts in meaningful contexts) Key questions: Students will be able to understand how to use words and correct context using self-corect word recognition techniques.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Key questions: ●     Students currently read based on their skill or grade level. Students within the class read either at one reading level above or below their current grade. Students currently have learned rhyme of words of similar families as well as prefix and suffix of words. Students will make errors pronouncing certain words, but will use self-correcting techniques to enhance fluency.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.A Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.C Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Students will identify the different spelling and meaning of closely related words. Vocabulary ●     Students will be able to analyze categorize and describe similar words in spelling but with different meanings. ●     Content specific vocabulary would be the phonics of words with long I and long e endings. Sentence Level ●     Suffix ending of a word and its sound. Discourse ●     Text structure would consist of the spelling, pronunciation, and recognition of different words.

Learning objectives Students will recognize similar spelling of words with different meanings. Students will decode words of one syllable. Students will understand how to self-correct mispronounced words.

Formal and informal assessment Formal assessment- students will be given spelling a quiz on similar words with different spellings and will be required to write a sentence as well as spell the word correctly. Struggling students and ELL students will be given extra attention when needed. They will have independent work with the teacher the following week to address any weaknesses. Informal assessment- as a students work  as a group to identify letters and the sounds that they make the teacher will call on specific students during the lesson to have them identify specific letters and their sounds. As students complete their guided practice work I circulate the room to check in on each individual student to observe how they are progressing. ELL and students with IEPs will be given extra attention when needed. However, I would like for them to build their independent learning skills.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Your design should be based on the following: ●     Review- 3 minutes Teacher will hold up flashcards and call on students to identify vocabulary.  ●     Preview- 5 minutes Remind the students that similar words may mean the same thing but spelled differently. Explain how at the end of a word it can make it singular or plural. ●     Modeling- 10 minutes Teacher will hold up pictures or word cards and the students will say and act out the meaning of the word or image. ●     Independent practice- 10 minutes Students will be given a work sheet and will identify similar words with the same meaning but different spelling.

Instructional resources and materials Smartboard Large lined paper Pen/marker List of words Work sheet Quiz sheet