Running head: LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 1

TLS 322 Language Arts Case Study Benchmark

Jennifer Thornton
University of Arizona
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 2

Table of Contents
Data Collection and Analysis

I. Description of Case Study

Student...3
II. Funds of Knowledge Interview

Transcription.4-5
III. Classroom Observation Anecdotal Notes and

Reflection6-10

Writing Samples

IV. Writing Sample 1..

11-12
V. Writing Sample

2..1

3-14
VI. Writing Sample

3..1

5-16
VII. Students Literacy Strengths and

Challenges..17

Lesson Plan

VIII. Sentence Fluency Lesson

Plan...............................18-20

Lesson Analysis and Reflection

IX. Analysis on Sentence Fluency

Lesson.21
X. Writing Sample 4 from

Lesson.22-25
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 3

XI. Lesson

Reflection

.26

Overall Case Study Reflection

I. Case Study

Reflection

27

*All names in this Benchmark Study are pseudonyms to protect the privacy

of the students.

Data Collection and Analysis

Description of Case Study Student
Adrian is a male student in fourth grade at R Elementary. He is of
Puerto Rican decent and moved to Tucson, Arizona at a very young age. He
has curly brown hair with a blonde stripe down the middle. He has brown
eyes and dark skin. Adrian is always well kept and is of a healthy stature for
his age. His typical outfit of choice is basketball shorts and a shirt
representing one of his favorite sports teams. Adrian lives close to his
elementary school, which suggests that his family is of a middle socio-
economic background.
In regards to language, both of Adrians parents are fluent in Spanish
and speak it at home. While Spanish was Adrians first language, he started
learning English as soon as he moved to Tucson and therefore, primarily
speaks English. He says that he understands Spanish, but has difficulty
speaking or writing it. He receives weekly language support from the ELD
Resource Teacher at R Elementary. While he struggles with writing, the
resource teacher says that he is making improvements each week when he
works with her and he showing progress in the general education classroom
as well.
Adrians family is greatly involved in football. His dad is the coach of a
high school football team in Tucson and both Adrian and his brother are
quarterbacks for local peewee football teams. He constantly talks about
football with his best friend Orion, who is a running back on the same team
as Adrian. Adrian is incredibly outgoing and loves to be active, whether that
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 4

involves playing sports or dancing to the latest hit on the radio. He is an

active participant in the classroom, even when he is unsure of the correct
answer. He has a positive attitude towards every subject, except writing
because it is the subject he struggles with the most.
Adrian and his observer differ in almost every way. They are of
different genders, ethnicity, cultural backgrounds, and while he excels in
sports, his observer does not. Writing was also one of his observers
strongest subjects in elementary school and the subject they enjoyed most,
while Adrian has his reservations about writing. The observer selected Adrian
for this case study because he is an English Language Learner who still
struggles with written English. His observer was also intrigued by his undying
love of football and felt confident in their abilities to respond to his funds of
knowledge through writing in order to change his attitude about writing.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 5

Funds of Knowledge Interview Transcription

Interview
Date: September 8, 2016
Location: R Elementary School, Tucson, Arizona

1. Q: Tell me 5 things that I dont know about you.

A: I like football. My favorite color is blue. I like basketball, baseball,
soccer. All the sports. I have three brothers and no sisters. Im the
youngest. My oldest brother is 22.

2. Q: What are some of the things you most like to do? What
could I find you doing when you arent in school?
A: Play football with my friends. Im on a football team here with my
friend Orion. The Carolina Panthers are my favorite team.

3. Q: If I were going to walk from the school to your house, what

are some things/places that I would see?
A: Um, a nursery for plants, a wash there, construction work. Thats
pretty much it. I live close to school.

4. Q: Where do you like to go with family/friends? What do you do

there?
A: My favorite place to go is Golf n Stuff. I like the bumper boats, but I
dont like their laser tag. Its just a tent and boring.

5. Q: What kinds of things do you do with family/friends at home?

A: Um, play football in my backyard. Like well make lines with flour
because I got grass in my backyard. I have a huge backyardplay
video games. I think my favorite video game would have to be Madden
16. I also draw.

6. Q: Who lives with you in your house?

A: My brother, Trey, my mom, and my dad. My brother goes here.

7. Q: Do you ever help your mom/dad/other family member with

things? What kinds of things do you help them with?
A: Help my dad with football cause hes the offensive coordinator at T
High. I take out the trash, but I dont have chores. I just do that on my
own.

8. Q: What are some things that your family members are good
at?
A: My dad is pretty good at drawing. He drew my mom once.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 6

9. Q: We learn things at school, at home, and in our community?

Besides your teachers, who has taught you something? What
did that person teach you?
A: My momI mean my dad. He would teach me lots of stuff about
dinosaurs. How they were created and stuff.

10. Q: Does anyone in your home and community read? Who

is it? What do they read?
A: My mom. She reads some chapter book then shell do a summary
on it. I dont like to read, but I like to write sometimes. Only when its
not for school and its about football.

11. Q: Do you know some people who can speak a language

other than English but not English? Tell me some people you
know who can speak English but not another language. Do you
know some people who can speak English AND another
language? What are those languages?
A: My mom. She speaks Puerto Rican and Mexican.

12. Q: Can you understand both English and Spanish when

someone speaks to you?
A: I understand Mexican and English.

13. Q: Can you speak both languages? Do you think it is a

good thing to know both languages? Why? Can you read both?
Write both?
A: Im Puerto Rican, but I dont speak Spanish anymore. I understand it
though. I can read Mexican sometimes; it just depends on the words. I
cant write it though.

Summary and Analysis

Adrian is very vocal in sharing his experiences with others. While he
doesnt always refer to everything in the proper way (Mexican instead of
Spanish), he is very confident in sharing information about his personal
life. Football plays a very big role in his life and when assignments connect to
his funds of knowledge in regards to his favorite sport, he enjoys doing the
work and it does not feel like an unnecessary task. Adrian is a kind and
honest student who enjoys helping his parents and does things around the
house just to be helpful, even when he is not asked. He understands the
culture he comes from, and can relate to the Puerto Rican culture as his mom
constantly tells him stories about living in Puerto Rico. Adrian is very proud of
his dad and his coaching abilities and loves to be his assistant on the sideline
when he can be. Adrian does not see the additional language support he
receives as a setback. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to get better at
his writing skills as he has mentioned to me in passing.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 7
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 8

Classroom Observation Anecdotal Notes and Reflection

Observation conducted on September 12, 2016
7:40am-8:00am
Adrian walks into class talking with Orion about their football game
from Saturday.
He takes his chair from his desk and puts it on the floor, but then turns
around to keep talking to Orion.
Adrian is very engaged in his conversation and doesnt realize his
teacher Mrs. H is talking.
Mrs. H calls out Adrians name and he turns around to listen to the
daily agenda.
The principal comes on the announcements Adrian stands for the
pledge and then sits back in his chair. He immediately turns back to
Orion.
He keeps talking until the announcements end and then stops once
Mrs. H starts talking again.
Adrian is called to pick a job for the week and he chooses the job of
banker.

8:00am-8:30am
Math Simple Solutions
Adrian successfully highlights the problems in his Simple Solutions
book. He calls me over to check his highlighting and it is correct. He
starts to work on the math problems.
Adrian raises his hand to have help on three problems he does not
understand. He gets frustrated when Mrs. H tries to lead him to the
correct answer instead of giving him the answer. It takes him a few
tries to get the problem.
Adrian is in the first half of the class to finish his Simple Solutions. He is
told to take out a book until it is time to go over the answers.
He puts a book on his desk, opens it, and then closes it again. He turns
back to Orion who is still doing his work and starts to distract him by
talking to him. Remember when John ran 50 yards to get that one
touchdown?!
Mrs. H walks over and asks Adrian to read instead of distracting Orion.
Adrian follows her directions for a few minutes, but then turns back to
Orion. The two talk for a couple minutes until Mrs. H says it is time to
go over the answers.
Adrian follows along and raises his hand to answer one of the
questions he asked for help on. He explains how to do the problem with
the students. He smiles when Mrs. H says, Thats correct!

8:30am-10:00am
Math Engage New York
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 9

Mrs. H starts to teach the math lesson.

Adrian takes out his textbook and follows along. He stays focused on
following Mrs. H throughout the entire 45-minute lesson. He doesnt
ask any questions, but he does exactly what is asked of him.
Mrs. H has the students break off on their own and start to work on the
problem sets in the textbook for the remaining 45-minutes of the math
period. Before starting, Adrian turns back to Orion to start talking. This
time, their friend Jenna joins in. They start talking about playing
football at recess and who is going to be the team captain.
Mrs. H notices that Jenna is out of her seat. She sends her back to her
seat and tells Adrian and Orion to stop talking and get back to work.
Adrian starts to work on the first problem. Before he finishes that
problem, he turns back to Orion to talk. They are not the only students
talking. The overall voice level of the class is quite loud, especially for
independent work.
Mrs. H says, Give me 5! and holds her hand up to get students
attention. She tells them it is too loud and everyone needs to get to
work in order to have their full break time at 10. She asks Adrian to
come sit at her table to do his work since he continues to talk to Orion.
Adrian moves to her table without hesitation or attitude.
Adrian completes the rest of his math with little assistance and works
on his homework until break.
Adrian is very focused when he is away from Orion.

10:00am-10:30am
Morning Break
Once outside, Adrian immediately grabs a football and races over to
the field.
He plays football with a large group from his class throughout the
entire break. He looks extremely happy to be playing football.
As Adrian comes back into class, he talks about how awesome the
football game was and how hell have to play it again during lunch.
He is very energetic upon returning to class and fixated on his team
winning the game during break. He recalls all the plays to Orion until
Mrs. H regains everyones attention to move on to the next activity.

10:30am-11:15am
Reading Harcourt: The Bakers Neighbor
Mrs. H talks to the students about what a play is. She introduces the
story for the week and has the students go over the vocabulary words
for the students. Adrian does not volunteer to define any of the
vocabulary words even though students are asked to use context clues
to define the words.
Mrs. H asks students to follow along as they listen to the play.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 10

Adrian follows her directions and uses his finger to follow along with
the narration.
At the end of the play, Mrs. H asks students to share what the play is
about. Adrian is called on and says, The play is about Pablo wanting to
smell pies from the bakery, but Manuel doesnt want him to. He is
unable to answer Mrs. Hs next question: Why does Manuel not want
him smelling his pies? Another student answers, Because he isnt
paying to smell the pies. Adrian exclaims, Oh, yeah!

11:15am-11:30am
ELA Daily Oral Language (DOL)
Mrs. H passes out the DOL for the week and gives students 5 minutes
to complete it. This weeks DOL consists of correcting two sentences,
choosing antonyms and synonyms, and writing the plural of singular
nouns.
Adrian starts to work on his DOL. He raises his hand to ask for a
reminder on what an antonym is. When Mrs. H says, Opposite, he
says, Oh, right! and circles the correct antonym.
Mrs. H gains the students attention and starts to correct the DOL. She
called on Adrian to define antonym and he smiled and threw his fist
in the air when she said, Correct!
Once the DOL has been corrected, Mrs. H has the students line up for
lunch. Adrian lines up in front of Orion and starts to talk to him about
the football game they are going to play at lunch. Adrian walks out of
the classroom smiling and quickly speed walks to the door.

11:30am-12:15pm
Recess and Lunch
Students were outside and in the lunchroom during this time no
observations recorded.

12:15pm-12:45pm
Reading DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) Time
Adrian walks into class, gets a drink of water, sits down in his seat, and
puts his head down.
When Mrs. H walks in, she turns the lights off and tells students to
quietly get a book out of their desk and start reading. Adrian says that
he is tired, but still retrieves a book from his desk and asks if he can
read on the rug. Mrs. H agrees to it and Adrian walks to the rug and sits
down.
Adrian reads for the entire 30 minutes with no interruptions or
distractions. He read the Guinness Book of World Record during this
time.

12:45pm-1:30pm
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 11

ELA Weekend News

Mrs. H instructs students that it is time to start their Weekend News.
She draws a model on the bored for what she is looking for. She writes
the title at the top of the page and date. She instructs students to
indent their paragraphs, stay in between the margins, and write at
least one full page with no space between the paragraphs.
Adrian writes the title and date on his paper, but then raises his hand
to say he doesnt know what to write about. Mrs. H says, Write about
your football game. I know it was a good one since you spent all
morning talking to Orion about it. Adrian says, Oh, yeah! and starts
to write.
After about 10 minutes, Adrian goes to turn in his writing to Mrs. H. She
takes a look and sees that he has only written half of a page. She asks
Adrian to return to his desk and finish writing.
He walks away frustrated and says, I dont know what else to write!
His cheerful demeanor is no longer there, and he quickly shuts his
journal and starts to talk to Orion. Mrs. H asks if he needs to sit at her
table again and he says no. He opens his journal and writes a few more
sentences. Mrs. H accepts his three-quarters of a page because he was
able to get back on task and tried his best to write a full page.
She later told me that she allows Adrian to write a little less than the
requirement since he is still working on improving his written English
and gets very discouraged and frustrated when he cant write as easily
as some of his classmates. With a smaller length requirement, he is
much more likely to complete the full assignment in accordance with
this modification.
1:30pm-1:45pm
ELA Greek Myths
Mrs. H calls the students to the rug and reads a story from the Greek
Mythology book in preparation for the students Greek Mythology
research assignment.
Adrian sits right in front of Mrs. H and listens intently to the story. He
has a big smile on his face and seems to enjoy the story.

1:45pm-2:00pm
Dismissal Procedures
The students all sit in their desks and wait to receive their homework.
Once they receive their homework, they put it in their backpack, stack
their chair on the desk, and then line up at the door and wait for the
bell.
Adrian follows all dismissal procedures. He walks out of the door as
soon as the bell rings and smiles as he rushes to his afterschool
program.

Classroom Observation Reflection

LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 12

Based on this observation, it appears as though Adrian can get easily

distracted, but stays on task when presented with a subject that he feels
confident with. He was the most attentive during the math portions of the
day and showed the most frustrations when it came to writing and reading
until he found a level of comfort that was appropriate for him (i.e. sitting on
the rug during DEAR time). His funds of knowledge were observed
throughout the day as nearly all of his social conversations revolved around
football.
Adrians confidence level was extremely high throughout the day. As
soon as he asked a question and was able to determine the correct answer,
he was incredibly eager to share his answers and it appeared as though he
yearned for moments of validation from his teacher. Unlike other students in
the class who stay off task the second they get off task in the first place,
Adrian was able to jump right back into what he was doing as soon as he was
directed to by Mrs. H. He is very aware that he gets easily distracted, and is
not discouraged when he is asked to sit at Mrs. Hs table. With minor
prompting, Adrian is able to get his work done throughout the day. Currently,
he only receives modifications in writing, but allowing him to write a few
sentences less than the standard requirement boosts his confidence level
because he is given a task that has a greater success rate of achievement
since he still refining his written English skills.
Adrian is a very social and active member of the classroom. Often
times, he sets the mood of the classroom, as he is always smiling and willing
to talk to those around him. There is not a member of the class that Adrian is
unable to work with, which causes there to be many distractions for Adrian in
the class as he enjoys talking to anyone seated around him. However, he is
constantly trying to improve his listening skills and ability to stay focused. He
is concerned with doing well in the classroom as he must do well and follow
the classroom rules to play football. Having the incentive of playing football
to guide Adrians academic work is incredibly beneficial for him. While he
may get frustrated when sent back to his desk to fix or complete his work to
the standards Mrs. H holds for him, he never refuses unlike other students.
He gets his work done at a pace that is comfortable for him and is making
leaps and bounds every day.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 13

Writing Sample 1

Prompt: If you could be any football player in the world, who would you be
and why?
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 14

Rational for Selecting the Prompt

Adrian has demonstrated an absolute love for football. He has made it
very clear on multiple occasions that he enjoys writing about football. By
observing Adrian, I have seen what he is capable of in terms of writing when
he does not enjoy the prompt he is given. I wanted to see what he would be
able to produce when given a prompt that he is passionate about.

Grading
*Details stated in above attachment*

Ideas: 4
Organization: 3
Voice: 4
Word Choice: 2
Sentence Fluency: 1
Conventions: 2

Holistic score: 2.5

Adrians Response to Writing

Adrian knew right away that he was going to write about Cam Newton.
He seemed very eager to put his pencil to paper and share his ideas. As he
was writing, I noticed that he writes constantly without stopping; however,
he writes so continuously that he does not stop at the end of sentences. His
writing is just one, large run-on sentence until the very end where he puts a
period. I was also very surprised to see the length of Adrians writing sample.
He had about half of the length in the attachment above written down before
saying, Im finished. When I asked him to try and expand his ideas even
more and be more detailed, he appeared very frustrated and said, I dont
know what to write about! After further prompting, he was able to write a
couple more lines. Overall, the reader is able to understand the main idea in
Adrians writing, but it lacks detail and flow.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 15

Writing Sample 2

Prompt: Free choice write about anything you would like to for 15 minutes.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 16

Rational for Selecting the Prompt

Adrian had mentioned in his Funds of Knowledge Interview that he
wrote at home sometimes and enjoyed writing when he did not have to
follow a prompt. Therefore, I decided to give him the opportunity to write
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 17

about anything he wanted to for 15 minutes. I had anticipated that he would

choose to write about football, and determined that as a correct assumption
when he immediately said, Can I write about football again? His face lit up
when I said, Of course! You can write about anything you want to. Based on
his reaction, I was predicting a full page of writing about football. However,
that was not the case, as noted in Adrians Response to Writing.

Grading
*Details stated in above attachmentnote: voice should say could use more
of AdrianI only know this is him by the topic*

Ideas: 2
Organization: 2
Voice: 2
Word Choice: 1
Sentence Fluency: 1
Conventions: 2

Holistic score: 1.5

Adrians Response to Writing

Adrian appeared very excited to write even more about football. He
said he wanted to write about another famous football player and chose to
write about Teddy Bridgewater and why he is an important NFL player. As he
started to write, it seemed as though he knew exactly what he wanted to say
about Teddy, as he wrote what is written on the page before stopping. When
he got to the end, he had not even been writing for five minutes before
asking if he could be done. As I did with the first writing sample, I asked him
to expand upon his ideas and he said he could not do so. When I asked him
to try, he became very frustrated, said he didnt know what else to say, and
requested to go back to his desk. Noticing the frustration and lack of
confidence in Adrian that I had never witnessed to that extent before, I
allowed him to go back to his desk and collected what he had written.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 18

Writing Sample 3

Prompt: Write about what you did over this past weekend.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 19

Rational for Selecting the Prompt

In the writing samples one and two, I was able to observe Adrians
writing capabilities when he had the opportunity to write about his favorite
topic and when he was given the chance to write about anything he wanted
to. For this third sample, I decided to give him a prompt that he is incredibly
familiar with. Every Monday, the students in Mrs. Hs class are asked to write
about what they did over the weekend in what is called their Weekend News.
Adrian usually struggles with writing about his weekend and it takes him
awhile to finish. Therefore, I wanted to give him the familiar Weekend News
prompt to see what he would produce when working on it in a one-on-one
setting.

Grading
*Details stated in above attachment*

Ideas: 3
Organization: 3
Voice: 5
Word Choice: 2
Sentence Fluency: 1
Conventions: 1

Holistic score: 2.5

Adrians Response to Writing

When given the prompt, Adrian exclaimed, I had such a great
weekend! I actually know what to write about. I was relieved to hear this as
he had been so defeated by the end of his last writing sample. As Adrian
started to write, he became fixated on the spelling of words and continually
asked me for help with spelling. I explained that he was just in the drafting
stage of the writing process and it was okay to have misspellings because he
would be able to fix them in the editing stage. When I told him to try his
best, he was content with that answer and continued writing. Adrian
continued writing until he had said everything he wanted to. He did not ask
to stop after a few lines. He wrote continuously and without hesitation. While
his writing needs work on the organization of his ideas and sentence fluency,
he was able to write a full page and was incredibly proud of himself once he
finished, as he ran up to Mrs. H and said, Look, Mrs. H! I wrote a full page!
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 20

Students Literacy Strengths and Challenges

Upon examining the three writing samples from above, it is clear that
Adrian greatly struggles with word choice, sentence fluency, and
conventions. These three traits continuously bring down his writing scores
and greatly affect the overall readability of his writing. It is clear that Adrian
enjoys writing about football, but it can also be determined by the above
three samples that he is able to write extensively when provided with a
prompt that is familiar to him. Seeing as there were three traits affecting his
writing, I assessed the three samples to determine which trait affected
Adrians writing the most. On all three samples, Adrian received a one on
sentence fluency. His writing lacked flow and it was difficult to determine the
rhythm behind it as he typically wrote in one long sentence; therefore, the
reader was unable to easily determine where one thought started and the
next one ended.
For the lesson with Adrian, I wanted to focus on his strengths, while
working to improve his challenges. I had observed his undying love for
football and eagerness to put his pen to paper when he was able to write
about football and his favorite players. Therefore, I knew I was going to use
football as the topic of my lesson to encourage him and inspire him to write. I
also wanted him to understand that sentence fluency is what makes a paper
come to life and allows the writing to flow nicely and be easily read. Adrian is
very good about knowing what he wants to write about, even if he stops
short of the length requirement. However, it is difficult to follow his ideas due
to the lack of flow between each sentence. Therefore, the following lesson
plan has Adrian look at sentence fluency as a lifeline of a paper, as the
lesson works to answer the essential question, How can I improve my
sentence fluency when writing a paper?
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 21

Benchmark Writing Lesson: Sentence Fluency

Teacher Name: Jennifer Thornton Date Submitted:

11/4/16
Student Name: Adrian Date Taught:
11/14/16
Grade Level: 4 Duration: 45 minutes

Lesson Focus (students major 6 trait challenge): Sentence Fluency

Essential Question(s): How can I improve my sentence fluency when

writing a paper?

Arizona State/Common Core Standard(s):

Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and
usage when writing or speaking.
a. Use relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative
adverbs (where, when, why).
b. Form and use the progressive (e.g., I was walking; I am walking; I will
be walking) verb tenses.
c. Use modal auxiliaries (e.g., can, may, must) to convey various
conditions.
d. Order adjectives within sentences according to conventional patterns
(e.g., a small red bag rather than a red small bag).
e. Form and use prepositional phrases.
f. Produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate
fragments and run-ons.
g. Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there,
their). (4.L.1)
h. Write and organize one or more paragraphs about a topic. (AZ.4.L.1)

Content Area Objective(s) Blooms Taxonomy:

1. SWBAT recognize various sentence structures in a text. (Level 2
Comprehension)
2. SWBAT formulate various sentence structures in a written summary.
(Level 5 Synthesis).

Language Objective(s):
1. SWBAT read a passage on a 2016 NFL Superstar.
2. SWBAT record and discuss various sentence structures the author uses.
3. SWBAT write a summary about the text they read using varied
sentence structures.

New Vocabulary (2-5 words): sentence fluency, run-ons, sentence

fragments
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 22

Anticipatory Set: Ask the student to define what they think sentence
fluency is and what good sentence fluency looks like in a piece of writing.
They will read a passage on their favorite football player in Football
Superstars 2016 and discuss what they noticed about the passages
sentence fluency.

Learning Experiences: Students will activate their prior knowledge of

sentence fluency in the anticipatory set. They will read a passage and record
the first word of the first ten sentences and the number of words in each of
those sentences. They will make a line graph to visually show them how the
sentences are varied in the passage. This will provide them with the
opportunity to see the importance of having complete, but varied sentence
structures in a text in order to improve the readability and flow of the
passage for the reader. The students will then be able to apply their
experiences using the sentence fluency check as they write a summary of
the passage using various sentence lengths.

Teacher Actions:
1. Engage student in anticipatory set.
2. Give student a Sentence Fluency Check recording sheet.
3. Explain that the student will be focusing on the first ten sentences of
the passage on their favorite NFL player.
4. Have students look at each sentence and record the first word of the
sentence and the word count for that sentence. (Do the first two-three
sentences with the student and then have them complete the
recording sheet on their own with guidance if your student needs it.
5. Have students take their data from the first half of the sheet and
complete the line graph on the bottom half of the sheet.
6. Ask student to discuss what the graph looks like (anticipated answer
life line, heart beat).
7. Discuss what happens if the line becomes flat or barely moves (youre
dead/dying). Explain that this is what occurs with writing when we
dont have a variety of sentence lengths to keep our writing interesting
and livelier.
8. Give student the task of writing a two-paragraph summary of the
passage they read in Football Superstars 2016 using varying sentence
lengths.

Student Actions:
1. Student will participate in anticipatory set and discuss what they think
good sentence fluency looks like in writing.
2. Obtain Sentence Fluency Check recording sheet.
3. Select a passage on their favorite NFL superstar (anticipated selection
Cam Newton) and focus on the first ten sentences.
4. Look at the first word of each of the sentences and record the first
word and how many total words are in each sentence. Complete the
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 23

first two sentences on the recording sheet with the teacher and
attempt the rest on their own.
5. Complete a line graph for their recorded data.
6. Discuss what the graph looks like.
7. Discuss what happens when the line becomes flat or barely moving.
Student will attentively listen as teacher makes connection between
line graph and what occurs when the line becomes flat in our writing.
8. Student will write a two-paragraph summary on the passage they read
using various sentence lengths.

Possibilities for Differentiation:

Students can analyze a piece of their writing for sentence fluency before
looking at a written text. Then, they could compare their writing sample to
the passage they read.

Closure:
Have student read their summary out loud and then have them discuss the
sentence fluency of their paper once they have finished reading it. Does it
flow? Why or why not? If time allows, student can record their varied
sentence lengths and make a line graph to see if their writing is lively.

Assessment (formative and/or summative):

Formative assessment student will complete the sentence fluency check
and line graph and answers questions in regards to what the line looks like
and what happens in our writing when the line is flat. This will allow for a
check of student understanding of knowing the importance of effective
sentence fluency in their writing.

Formative assessment students will compose a two-paragraph summary of

the text they read using varied sentence lengths to show whether or not they
have met the content objectives.

Materials/Resources:
Football Superstars 2016 by K.C. Kelley
Sentence Fluency Check adapted from Adventures in Literacy Land
Pencil
Paper
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 24

Analysis of Sentence Fluency Lesson

When designing this lesson plan, I knew that I wanted to start by

introducing the topic of the lesson to engage Adrian right from the beginning.
Therefore, I decided to present the book Football Superstars 2016 and
explain that we would use this book to improve Adrians sentence fluency. By
tailoring this lesson to coincide with Adrians funds of knowledge, the goal is
for him to improve his sentence fluency and realize that writing can be
enjoyable and he will improve the more he practices. The anticipatory set
allows Adrian to activate his prior knowledge, as he defines sentence fluency
and also informs me of what he does and does not know in regards to
sentence fluency. This will allow me to modify elements of the lesson plan
throughout my teaching in order to best accommodate Adrians needs.
After reading the excerpt on Cam Newton during the introduction part
of this lesson, I will have Adrian fill out a worksheet that looks at the first ten
sentences of the passage. The handout has Adrian write down the first word
in each of the first ten sentences and count the words in each of the
sentences. Then, he will create a line graph based on the data and determine
what it looks like. The goal of this activity is for Adrian to determine that the
sentences in the passage look like a lifeline when graphed because there is
variance between the sentences. Adrian will then have the opportunity to
apply his findings from the activity in his own writing by writing a summary
of the passage and work towards varying his sentence lengths.
Overall, this lesson will allow me to identify what Adrian knows about
sentence fluency and what he still needs to learn. I anticipate that he will be
incredibly excited about this lesson as he has the opportunity to learn even
more about his favorite football player while improving his writing skills. I will
engage Adrian right from the beginning by incorporating his funds of
knowledge into the anticipatory set and lesson as a whole. He will also have
the opportunity to participate in a fun activity that teaches him about
sentence fluency to present the main goal of the lesson before having to put
his pencil to paper. By using a book as the foundation for this lesson plan,
Adrian will have a model placed in front of him to reference as he writes his
summary on the passage. I hope that Adrian will come out of this lesson a
stronger, more confident writer who focuses on improving his sentence
fluency in the papers he writes. I would like for him to think of sentence
fluency as the lifeline of his paper and focus on writing sentences that flow
well together, so that others can successfully read his wonderful ideas.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 25

Sentence Fluency Check Handout

LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 26

Sentence Fluency Line Graph

LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 27

Writing Sample 4 from Sentence Fluency Lesson

Prompt: Write a summary on the Cam Newton reading from Football

Superstars 2016.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 28

Rational for Selecting the Prompt

In accordance with the aforementioned lesson plan, this prompt was
designed for Adrian to apply his findings from the sentence fluency activity
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 29

to write a summary of his favorite football player from the book Football
Superstars 2016.

Grading
Ideas: 5
All of Adrians ideas are clearly presented and the reader can easily
determine why Cam Newton is his favorite quarterback. However, it is
difficult to determine that Adrian is talking about Cams career as a
college player and not an NFL player in his first paragraph.
Organization: 6
The writing is written in chronological order and has a beginning,
middle, and end. The conclusion references the beginning while
restating the main idea of the paper.
Voice: 5
There are details that set this writing apart from a standard paper and
make it unique to Adrian. However, due to the summarizing of an
already printed passage, it is difficult to hear Adrians voice throughout
this entire sample.
Word Choice: 3
Adrian varies the Word Choice more often than usual (i.e. best
quarterback versus my favorite quarterback), but he does not use
vocabulary words above a fourth grade level and some of the language
references the language in the text.
Sentence Fluency: 5
This paper flows nicely and is easily read by the reader. The sentence
lengths are varied and dont always start with the same word. If these
sentences were graphed, they would show a distinct lifeline. Instead of
representing the previous samples and being one, long sentence,
Adrian has broken the passage down into multiple sentences. While
some of the sentences are a bit short, the overall readability of this
paper is greatly improved from Adrians original writing samples.
Conventions: 2
Adrian still demonstrates challenges with conventions. He is missing
commas in between phrases and complete sentences and does not
capitalize everything that needs to be capitalized. Adrian did not indent
the first paragraph and also needs to edit a few verb tenses.

Holistic score: 4.5

Adrians Response to Writing

Adrian once again showed an eagerness to write. He continually
referenced the passage when writing the summary, which demonstrated an
understanding of what the prompt was asking for. He wrote an incredible
amount of information and it is easily readable. He was very happy with his
final product and shared that he learned more about Cam Newton that he did
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 30

not know before reading the passage. He was also able to explain that his
writing had a lifeline by explaining that his sentences were of different
lengths and he had more than just one, run-on sentence.
Sentence Fluency Lesson Reflection

Upon beginning my lesson with Adrian, I knew that he would be

engaged once he discovered that the lesson would be using a football book.
However, I was not sure what to expect when asking him to define sentence
fluency because I was unfamiliar with what he knew and did not know about
the six traits of writing. When I asked him to define sentence fluency he said,
Sentence fluency means you have sentences in your paper. Without telling
him if he was correct or incorrect, I asked, What would it mean if I said the
sentences flow well in the paper? Adrian thought about the question for a
while and answered, I think it means that the words come together like a
song. You know, like the sentences are easy to read. I informed him that we
were going to explore sentence fluency to determine how to improve the
sentence fluency in his writing, and he seemed content with that task.
When it came time for Adrian to read the passage, he was very
excited. He stated in his interview that he does not typically enjoy reading,
but that was hard to determine based on his reading of the passage. He
would even pause to comment on what he just read, which demonstrated his
stellar comprehension of the text. At the end, he provided a verbal summary
of the text and talked about why he thinks Cam Newton is the best football
player, which I was not expecting. He was incredibly engaged in the lesson
and was excited to work on the activity when I presented it. We filled out the
chart for the first two sentences together, and then he did the rest on his
own. After he charted his data on the graph, I asked him what the graph
looked like. He responded with, Mountains. I was not anticipating that
response, so I quickly thought of how to ask a question to still get the goal of
the activity across. I asked him, What makes mountains exciting to look at?
Adrian responded with, Theyre really big and have peaks. Then I asked,
What if they dont have peaks? Adrian: Then they are flat and boring. I
was glad that I was still able to get the point of the activity across even
though he responded in a different way than expected. I still wanted to relate
it back to a lifeline though, so I introduced the idea that the graph also
looked like a lifeline, which meant that the paper was exciting and alive. He
responded very well to this idea and said, Yeah, but its kinda dead at the
beginning. Theres no movement here, as he pointed to the first four
sentences which were all the same length. His response showed that he had
truly mastered the activity objective and I was confident that he could apply
his findings from the activity to his own writing.
When asking Adrian to take what he learned from the sentence fluency
chart and graph and apply it to his writing as he wrote a summary of the
passage, I was expecting some push back since I asked him for two complete
paragraphs. However, he immediately got to work after defining what a
summary was and successfully wrote two paragraphs that had a distinct
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 31

beginning, middle, and end. He was content with using the passage as a
resource first before asking me any questions. The only two questions he had
were at the very end when he asked, Did I write enough? Can I check my
lifeline yet? I was incredibly stunned by his question and proud of his
accomplishments throughout this lesson that had a remarkably positive
outcome. Overall, Adrian was able to answer the essential question and
achieve the lesson objectives. His writing product showed a drastic
improvement from the first three samples and it appeared as though Adrian
will focus on improving his sentence fluency in his future writing.
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 32

Case Study Reflection

This case study allowed me to learn a great deal about Adrian and how
students learn to write. After observing Adrian in the class for a few weeks
before conducting my funds of knowledge interview with him, I knew that he
was incredibly passionate about football, but I did not know the degree to
which football impacted his life. Upon conducting the funds of knowledge
interview with Adrian, I was able to infer that football has taught him to be
the confident and social individual he is. His observation proved his
confidence as a student and I was able to see what a team player he is
because of his experience with football. With each step in this case study, I
was able to discover more about Adrian and use that knowledge to teach a
meaningful lesson that helped him improve his sentence fluency. Adrian is an
incredibly bright student who is eager to learn and continually develop his
academic skills. While writing does not come easy for him, he tries his
hardest to produce quality work and is incredibly proud of his
accomplishments when he creates a piece of writing that impresses his
teacher. Adrian made this case study incredibly enjoyable, as he never
refused to try something new and was honest when he felt that the task was
too difficult for him. Through this case study, Adrian helped me to learn a
great deal about how to inspire students to write and what assistance they
need in order to produce quality work.
In looking at Adrians writing strengths and challenges, it was clear
that he does not receive a lot of support in terms of word choice, sentence
fluency, and conventions, while he does receive assistance in writing his
ideas down on paper and sounding like himself when he writes. While he is
pulled out weekly by the schools ELD teacher, he focuses more on reading
comprehension and copying down sentences instead of the six traits of
writing. As determined in the lesson and classroom observation, Adrian does
not greatly struggle with reading comprehension, while he does struggle with
writing in accordance with the six traits. It would be so beneficial for Adrian if
he could work on developing his writing skills when pulled out by the ELD
teacher. While this case study primarily focused on his love of football, it
would also be helpful for Adrian to start pulling away from always writing
about football and have other topics inspire him to write (i.e. favorite food,
adventure stories, favorite book, etc.). The more exposure Adrian has to
writing a variety of topics, the more his writing will improve. The literacy
program in both his ELD classroom and his general education classroom
could greatly benefit from Writers Workshops and exposure to writing more
about just the students weekend.
After exploring the topics discussed in this course over the semester
and analyzing the findings in this case study, the ability for students to
choose what they write about is so important in inspiring them to write.
When students have choice, they do not feel forced to write about a topic
that may not interest them or a topic that they are unfamiliar with. This
choice allows them to produce incredible writing samples that allow them to
LANGUAGE ARTS CASE STUDY BENCHMARK 33

explore their creative side and determine that writing does not have to be a
dreadful task. As students produce more and more writing samples that they
are passionate about, teachers are able to learn so much about their
students, much like I learned about Adrian in this case study. Writing is so
important and by giving students a choice in what they write about and
connecting to their funds of knowledge, they are able to develop a newfound
passion for writing, much like Adrian did in this case study.