Paola Bribiesca CI 475-Cohort 4 Individual Child Project Context: Peanut Butter* Elementary School is an exceptional school with an evident

emphasis on diversity. Students from all different backgrounds are found in each classroom. It is admired by many teachers at other schools, like Queen* Elementary School, for its high AYP scores, disciplined students, and extraordinary teachers. Serving grades K through 5th, this school provides instruction to just over 400 students. One teacher in particular, Ms. Garfield*, has been teaching for nine years and expresses how important the field of teaching is. She believes educators are responsible for giving students a good solid foundation before entering the real world. Five years prior to being transferred to Peanut Butter Elementary to teach third graders, Ms. Garfield started working at another local school as a fifth grade teacher. As an AfricanAmerican, she adds to the schools reputation of fostering unity among individuals of all ethnic backgrounds. Ms. Garfields third grade classroom consists of twenty-four diverse students. Some are AfricanAmerican, Asian, White, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or mixed. They are all arranged in groups of four and the six sections are organized in two columns with three rows. This set-up takes up about half of the classroom. On the other side of the classroom, Ms. Garfield has carpet and two bookshelves, as well as a chair where she sits during a shared reading lesson. All books on the shelves are organized by subject or topic. She also has a semi circle table where she works with her reading groups during centers. During centers, she has groups doing one of the following: writing in their journal about any topic they pick from a box with specific topics and questions; reading-to-self; reading a Time for Kids magazine and filling out a worksheet; reading a non-

fiction story; repeat reading; listening to a story using a provided device and headphones and reading along; and reading to someone else. For the most part, the environment in the classroom is teacher guided, but sometimes she gives students a few options on the type of material they want to read. About forty-five minutes are dedicated toward reading in the morning, and thirty minutes in the afternoon. Students spend the first fifteen minutes every morning working on phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency. Vocabulary is seldom the focus of instruction. Students work on their comprehension skills about once or twice a week, when they are in reading groups and using Time for Kids magazines to fill out their worksheets. Because this is a school of choice, Peanut Butter does not offer special programs for English Language Learners (ELLs). There are many other schools offering ESL and bilingual programs, which parents can apply for. Because Peanut Butter Elementary does not have the adequate resources to provide for ESL students, Ms. Garfield has been having a difficult time helping Kayla* succeed in the classroom. Kayla is a very polite and respectful, young girl who recently moved to the Champaign area all the way from Africa. Because she has not lived in the United States for a very long time, she still has a hard time with communication and comprehension of the English language. I chose to analyze this individual child because she is an ELL student and Miss Garfield recommended her for my case study. What I learned about my student: When Kayla works independently, she completes all her assignments. She does not socialize with any of her classmates, except Justin*. She is a very smart girl; however, the downfall is that Kaylas comprehension of the English language is still developing, so she tends to take

instructions very literal. Miss Garfield mentioned that she feels Kayla should be in an ESL program because she would be provided with a classroom environment that best suits her needs; however, her parents oppose to Miss Garfields suggestion and they believe she is fully capable of succeeding in her current classroom. In regards to Kaylas personality, she has trouble making her own choices. One of Miss Garfields goals for Kayla is to help her communicate effectively, Shes not dumb. She just doesnt understand what youre saying. One thing that stood out to me was Kaylas What Is a Globe? assignment when I was grading papers. The packet had three globes which were shown from a different angle. On the next pages, she was asked questions like Name two continents, to which she answered: South Pole and North Pole. Another question was In which continent do you live? Kayla answered Africa. The very last part of the packet stated: On all three globes, color the oceans blue. Color the continents green. Instead of going back to the front of the packet, Kayla drew the three globes under the question and colored the continents green and the ocean blue. Her drawings were pretty accurate for a third grader, which left me impressed; but I was concerned with some of her answers on the assignment. On another occasion, the teacher instructed Kayla, Bring your reading box to the table. Kayla did what Miss Garfield said, although that was not what Miss Garfield meant. Kayla grabbed her reading box and sat at her desk. Usually, students use their reading boxes at the reading groups table, which is what Miss Garfield had meant when she said the table. Miss Garfield looked at Kayla and had to rephrase her sentence and use her finger to point at the reading table, Bring your reading box to the reading groups table. This time, Kayla took her reading box to the reading groups table, just as Miss Garfield had originally requested. Another incident I noticed was when Miss Garfield had her students work on narrative stories. She asked students to write about a memory you have. Miss Garfield wrote her own narrative on a large

piece of paper. Kayla wrote about the time she went to the hair salon for the first time. When Miss Garfield asked students to share their story, Kayla volunteered to be the first one. When Miss Garfield shared her own story, Kayla copied it into her notebook, which Miss Garfield later pointed out to me. There was another time when Kayla was in the Grab and Write center. She was supposed to pick three cards from a box which each include writing instructions about a specific topic and a few guiding questions provided to help get the student started. As I walked around to check her work, I noticed Kayla interpreted the instructions literally. Since the name of the center is called Grab and Write, Kayla grabbed three cards and wrote out the instructions from each of the cards onto her journal; however, she did not follow what was instructed on each card. In addition to understanding things literally, Kayla lacks in communicating with others, especially with Miss Garfield and me. I have had other students voluntarily come up to me and enthusiastically share about what they did during the weekend or about a TV show they watched the night before; but I have not seen this behavior in Kayla. She also lacks in smiling. For example, when I look at her, I feel like she knows I am watching her and she looks back at me; if I smile, she keeps a straight face. She does not do it to be funny because she always has a serious face. One time, I asked her to smile because it was a beautiful day; she gave me a smile but quickly resumed to her straight facial expression. I also know she was not being sarcastic because it is not part of her personality to act in such way. I also interviewed Kayla about her interests and found a few interesting facts. For example, I learned that Kayla does not read at home and she does not own a library card. When she is at home, she usually watches television, uses the computer, plays basketball, and listens to music. When I asked what her favorite book was she mentioned the title Bad Kitty Takes a Bath. Her favorite types of books deal with horror, science fiction, and humor.

Reading Conferences: I conducted two reading conferences with Kayla and for the first conference she chose the book The Great Dinosaur Race, which is a fiction book. I asked Kayla why she had picked this particular book and she told me it was because Harry, the bully, is mean. She considered the reading level of this book to be just right for her. When I asked her to read a few pages and summarize up to that point she said, Harry the bully, is mean. He can shout to small dinosaurs. Dodo is excited to have a race against Harry. We had not yet gotten to that point in the story, so I realized she was summarizing by memory of the entire book, and not based on the few pages I asked her to read. I did notice that she used tone when she read. For example, when she read what Dodo was saying in the story, she used a different voice; she did the same for Harrys part. Later, when I asked her to summarize what she had just read in two of the pages I pointed to, Kayla gave me an accurate answer. Throughout the story, Kayla stumbled on very few words; I also noticed that she is a fast reader, but she tends to look through the book when being asked to summarize it. For the next reading conference, Kayla read the book Freds Polka-Dot Socks. I noticed Kayla still summarized some of the story when being asked why she chose the particular book, instead of giving her own opinion. She also had a difficult time understanding some of the parts in the story because she did not accurately explain what was happening. On the contrary, she still implemented her use of different voices for the characters. Running Record: For the running record, I asked Miss Garfield what Kaylas reading level was and then picked a book accordingly. The book was about Beetles and I chose a page in the book and typed out the page I was going to pick for her to read. I printed out the page and used it to conduct the running

record. When Kayla was done reading, she had read a total of 117 words. She was marked five times for substitution, three times for self-correction, and twice for repetition. The words she had trouble pronouncing were: bubble, varieties, species, and solitary. Kayla scored a 92.3% on her running record and her self-correction rate was calculated as a 4. Although Kayla struggled with some of the words, she always made an attempt to pronounce them. Whenever she made an error, she made every attempt possible to correct herself, even if she was unsuccessful. Data Analysis, Reflection, and Recommendations: Based on the data I collected, I believe that Kayla is an outstanding student. The only thing that holds her back is the lack of ESL strategies, which she needs to understand what is expected of her or what it is that she needs to do. For example, when I saw the worksheet that I had been grading, I noticed that she needs clear, specific instructions. The question that asked her to color in the three globes could have been worded differently for Kayla to understand what she needed to do. A better example of clear directions could have been Go to the first page in the packet. On all three globes, find the continents and color them green. Then find the oceans and color them blue. Also, Kayla seems to be confused about where she lives. Im pretty sure she understands that she is currently in the United States of America; however, I am not sure she understands that she now lives here; it is evident when she answered the question What continent do you live in with Africa. The other example is when Miss Garfield had to speak slowly and clearly to Kayla and provide specific instructions so she would know where to go. It is evident that Kay needs to be placed in an ESL classroom where will not have such a difficult time comprehending directions. Although I understand that her parents oppose this suggestion, I think Miss Garfield should seek resources online and do what she can to learn how she can help Kayla. The use of repetition and modeling seems to work well for Kayla. I learned in my CI 415

class that many ELL students take directions in a literal way even if it does not always make sense. A goal I have set for Kayla is to get her reading a bit more at home because I learned that she does not do much reading after school. One way I can help make this happen is by sending a letter to her parents suggesting that they take her to the library more often and that she gets a library card, or that she is provided with more reading material at home. A sheet will be sent home with Kayla every day and she will have to read thirty minutes daily and get it signed by her parents. Another goal is to look over Kaylas assignments and pay attention to the parts where she may interpret them literally. I will then provide more specific instructions so that she understands what to do. This project definitely helped me understand that not all ELL students have low proficiency in the classroom. By doing my case study on Kayla, it opened my eyes and I saw that sometimes students lack of comprehension of the English language can often be mistaken for low academic ability. I also learned that when I have my own classroom I will need to be prepared in talking to parents and making suggestions because some may oppose to what I have to say. This means that I may have to make more of an effort on my part to ensure that my ELL students do not fall behind.