Fieldwork Hours

Please use this link to access my fieldwork hours for the course.  Click on the fieldwork hours document tab.

https://www.taskstream.com/ts/dipinto/Fieldworkhours

ELL Case Study/Writing Project

Please follow this link to find my complete ELL project on Taskstream :
Click on the tab that says "ELL Case Study"

https://www.taskstream.com/ts/dipinto/MayaELLCaseStudyforELLWritingProject

ELL Case Study -- Lesson Plan

Please follow this link to find my lesson plan for my ELL Case Study

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j20VTRiUt6NBpHNFXjSfg3iN-AtmC5usgW0RfN6IWLI/pub

ELL Case Study - Classroom Observations, Reflections & Instructional Planning

ELL Case Study

April 2016

Classroom Observations, Writing Samples, Instructional Planning/Decision Making

Maya’s written English is impressive considering where she was at the start of the year.  Her attitude toward writing is noteworthy; she loves to write and is highly motivated.  This was expressed by her teachers and noted by me in my observation of her participation in the writing lesson and approach to our work together.  Maya has a lot to say and is very eager to do all of the things Hilary teaches her.  The writing program in our school is quite rigorous, and Maya demonstrates a great deal of mastery within this program.  Maya’s writing is understandable to her and her reader but sometimes has irregular grammar or sentence structure.  She uses sound spelling and known sight words to get her thoughts down.  Maya refers to the word wall for spelling words that she does not fully know.  The clarity and organization of Maya’s thoughts is not always strong, and this was an area of  focus in our work together on her butterflies book chapter about food/diet.  Here is a sample of Maya’s writing which I looked at prior to working with her.  This is the table of contents and introduction to her butterflies book.  

 

A few things caught my attention about Maya’s writing development when I read these samples. The first was that I was very impressed that she as able to do this work independently.  I have been teaching this curriculum for years and I know that it can be challenging for all students to take the information they have learned from reading research, and apply it to writing an informational book.  I did note that Maya’s table of contents was not very clear and organized, and this is a sign that she may not be thinking about her writing in a clear and organized structure, which is essential for informational writing.  The introduction is like an outline for the book.  This coupled with what Hilary explained about organization in her writing, pointed to an instructional need in this area.  Maya’s  introduction is catchy and she demonstrates that she understands that one way to introduce your topic is to catch your reader’s attention, and to start with a place/setting that matches what you know about your insect’s habitat.  The chart below was used to teach this mini lesson in her classroom.  Maya meets all areas of expectations based on this chart.

Maya shows areas of need in organization of her written ideas (less evidenced in this piece but expressed by her teachers and evidenced in other areas), spelling high frequency words and unknown words, and some mechanics/neatness (upper and lowercase letters, handwriting, writing across lines).  I used this information to help guide my work with her.  

Classroom Observation

April 14, 2016

Math Workshop

Prior to working with Maya on writing, I observed her at work in the classroom during a math lesson and independent work time.  The focus of the lesson was on solving addition and subtraction story problems using place value.  I came in close to the end of the lesson.  Students were practicing a problem on white boards on the rug with Hilary.  Maya was paying very close attention and applying Hilary’s instruction about how to show the work accurately and efficiently to her own written work.  I noted how Maya’s gaze kept moving up to the board where Hilary was demonstrating and back down to her own board to cross check.   When the lesson ended and Hilary asked students to erase boards and sit on them, Maya kept going to finish her work, showing commitment and persistence.  

When it came time for Maya and her classmates to work on a story problem packet independently, Maya was very slow to start, and hovered around HIllary while Hilary was busy with a small group.  She was very observant of everything that was going on in the room.  I noted that Maya did not say a word to Hillary to get her attention.  She just stood there and waited for Hilary to notice her and talk with her.  This took quite a while to accomplish.  Eventually HIlary had Maya sit next to her and reviewed with Maya what to do.  She also offered words of encouragement.  Maya chose to work independently near Hilary on the rug and not at her seat.  She was working on this problem:

Kim had 85 apples.

She got 30 more apples.

How many apples does Kim have now?

Maya’s work looked like this:

When complete Maya returned to Hillary to show her.  Hilary offered more words of encouragement and Maya returned to her spot to keep going.  I thought it was interesting that Hilary did not correct Maya’s computational error but instead made the instructional decision to encourage and foster independence.  I would agree with this decision because it appears that this is what Maya needs most.  Her work on the next problem further supports this thinking.  

Maya approached the next problem very slowly.  The problem was:  

Alex had 47 apples.

She got 30 more.

How  many apples does Alex have now?

Maya’s work looked like this:

Maya shows evidence of understanding and made no computational errors.  I noted that at this point that she started to embellish her written work rather than move forward.  It was a little puzzling to me why she was not continuing given that she was able to read the problems, understand them and solve them.  Somehow she was not feeling the confidence to forge ahead without teacher support.  These were important things for me to see before working with Maya and are windows into her motivation, feelings, and performance in school.  

I decided that given what I had observed about Maya as a student, what I learned from her writing samples, the information I gathered from the language and literacy rubrics, and what she is working on in the classroom writing curriculum, that I would work with Maya on planning and writing a section of her insect book about butterflies for my mentoring and writing sample.  Hilary and I discussed this and agreed that it was instructionally sound for Maya and would be beneficial

Interview Summary - Cooperating Teacher - ELL Case Study

ELL Case Study

EDLI 636

Cooperating Teacher Interview

Maya’s ESL teacher, Melanie, has been teaching ESL for five years and was previously a classroom teacher in an ICT classroom for 6 years; she is ESL and Special Ed licensed.  Melanie explained that In her early years of teaching ESL at PS 321,  the ELL population was mostly Latino and Asian and now the population is mostly Western European.  The student group is more heterogenous than ever with most students speaking different languages.  Many of the students’ families came to New York for their professional careers.  A large majority of these students have strong prior school experiences, a great deal of prior knowledge, and sometimes speak a little English.  A smaller portion of the students come from other areas of the world with parents moving to the United States for a variety of reasons.   

Our ELL population is very diverse and we have never had a full pull out ESL classroom. The ESL model for our school is for ELLs to be placed in regular classrooms and receive a combination of pull out and push in ESL services with a lot of sheltered instruction.  The classroom and ESL teachers collaborate to meet the needs of  individual students.  Melanie has run the ESL program at our school for the past 5 years.  She teaches all of the lower and upper grade students.  Maya, my case study student, is in the first grade.  

In response to the interview questions regarding Melanie’s perception of ELLs learning motivation and performance in school, she commented that it is really no different than other students, and it depends on the child and his/her nature and experience.  She said that talking is always the last frontier for ELLs and a silent period is to be expected, particularly for students who come to the school speaking little to no English.  “Talking is always the scariest for them because they know that people are going to react and respond.  This opens up a conversation which they may not be ready for”.  She also mentioned that culture can play a factor in a student’s performance and motivation.  “If the child’s culture is very different than the one they are coming into, we can expect that their transition and adjustment will be different.  It is always helpful to find out as much as we can about the student and his/her experience through the family, and to find ways to best support that child/family’s transition based on what we know.  It is always easiest to do this when the parent or a family member speaks some English, but when that is not the case, we are able to find translators either in the school or community.”  

When asked specifically about ELLs reading and writing performance, she said that it varies and is relative to the student’s prior school experience, home environment, prior knowledge, and language, which can vary widely.  “We have a lot of kids who come with a great deal of literacy skills that they transfer”.  This is due in large part to the growing population of ELLs who come to our school from western Europe and from highly educated families.  Many of these students have had solid prior learning experiences that they transfer to English.  

When asked about difficulties that ELLs encounter in school, Melanie said that the learning differences and variations she sees within the ELL population are the same as it is with any other demographic.  “Like any other demographic, there is a large range and continuum in learning with ELLs.  Sometimes you will get a student who struggled with their native language and will struggle with English.  Right now I have a student who is showing signs of dyslexia in English and it turns out she had similar issues in her native language.”  A student’s native language can also play a role in a child’s adjustment to learning English.  “Students who come to our school speaking languages that are more closely related to English are going to have an easier time learning English than students whose native language varies dramatically from English, like Arabic or Japanese. However, the personality of the student and prior learning experience are also strong factors.”   

Melanie noted that because our current ELL population is largely European, with students whose parents speak some English, many of the students don’t rely on native language for an extended period of time and are able to transfer what they know to English more quickly.  A difficulty that she has noted with some students is their adjustment to not being the learner they were in their native language.  “Sometimes kids are accustomed to being a really great math student and now they cannot follow the math lesson. Or they may get upset that they have to read books that feel simple compared to what they were reading in their native language.  It can be a humbling experience for some kids, particularly older children.  Everything we do in school is based around oral language and learning can suddenly become difficult for ELLs when it once was not; this can be frustrating.  For students who do not have a bold personality, and are not willing to take risks, the adjustment can be hard.  We have to be sensitive to all of that”.  

We did talk about outliers, kids who do not fall under the larger group of European families.  “We do still get kids who come from all over the world and may not speak any English at all; they may also come from a very different culture on many levels.  We know that these kids are going to have difficulty and are going to have meltdowns.  At first we have to do all that we can to help these kids understand basics and communicate their basic needs.  Pictures can be very helpful for this.  And whenever we can find another student or staff member who speaks their language, that person can be of tremendous comfort and help to the student.”  

In our discussion about how classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties Melanie talked about how teachers modify the curriculum and “take things down a notch”, when working with ELLs who are new to the school and English.  A big theme in this part of our interview was the strength of the classroom teacher.  Melanie takes into consideration how supportive and strong the classroom teacher is when thinking about her work with teachers and ELLs.  “When a student is in a classroom with a strong teacher - a teacher who knows the curriculum and uses a lot of supports in his/her teaching - ELLs typically thrive because these are the kinds of supports they need.   If the classroom is not as supportive, I can help create better access to the curriculum and support the teacher in helping the student.”  Melanie talked about how we let ELLs write and even read in their native language alongside English to support ongoing academic development and skill transfer.  Some specific ways that Melanie and classroom teachers try to resolve learning difficulties are to mindfully partner ELLs in mixed level partnerships and groups to support peer modeling, explicitly teach phonics, and whenever possible, pair an ELL up with another student who does speak their language.  In our school this is often easy because our ELLs speak so many different languages.  

Melanie is extraordinarily good with children and with parents. I have known her for years and she has this sense of calm and control, paired with extensive, practical knowledge that make her very effective in her position.  Melanie has a gift for putting children and parents at ease, and offering sound, practical advice.  She has years of experience working with students and families from a wide range of social ,cultural, linguistic, religious and economic backgrounds.  She brings knowledge of English language learning and cultural sensitivity to all she does.   

Week 12 Assignment #3 Prezi Presentation: Integrating Technology in Literacy Instruction

Use this link to find my Prezi Presentation:

http://prezi.com/m5r9x4ei8vif/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Week 12 Assignment 2

After reading the articles in the Using Technology to Support Literacy link on the Scholastic website and the Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum brochure, I became more aware of the current issues surrounding information and communication technology (ICT)  in literacy education and tools that can be used to integrate more technology in the literacy curriculum through electronic publishing.  

The Scholastic articles provided information about electronic publishing in the areas of:

• Digital tools for storytelling
• Story idea sources for electronic publishing
• Tips and tools for planning lessons in electronic publishing
• Tips and tools for managing technology in the classroom when doing electronic publishing
• Ideas for cameras, software and tools to use
• Examples of electronically published pieces from students
• Steps for making a digital video with students
• Assessment and rubric ideas for teachers
• Ideas for using web tools across curricular areas
• Examples of how teachers have had students use web tools for publishing

The Scholastic articles were very practical in nature, offering resources and materials for teachers to use when planning to do electronic videos or publishing.

The Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum brochure provided an overview of how current technology has created new literacies for our students.  This reality, coupled with the amount of information we are getting and being driven to online, is creating new educational needs for our students in the area of literacy.  The brochure highlights the current challenges for teachers to meet the needs of new literacies, including:

• Insufficient access to technology in schools across the country and world
• Insufficient teacher education in new literacies in teacher education programs
• Insufficient professional development (time, money and opportunities) for teachers to learn how to address new literacies in their classrooms
• Access to technology and equipment in classrooms
• Insufficient understanding among teachers, administrator and educational policy makers about what new literacy skills are required by new forms of ICT and how can we best support students in acquiring these new literacies  
• Insufficient research in these areas has made it difficult to develop these understandings.  

Please use this Google document to view my lesson plan for Integrating Technology with Literacy

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uW9Dn-JDWRE1_BjtYUI67Uw7V4G-M4NdUhFyis2VL98/pub