case study- week two/ three- organization
Organization
is crucial to running a program with 92 students and 115 volunteer mentors.
D is very organized. Every resource has its own container for
storage. Every activity or repeated lesson is laminated for continuous
use. It took two weeks to test our
students, working around teacher schedules, sudden fire drills, and absenteeism.
It took 3 days to take each classroom’s tested student body and to organize the
results into a spreadsheet. The data
does give an overview of the percentage of students who are independent,
instructional and frustrated levels. It
is easy to note who is at a higher level of word call/ sight vocabulary and at
a lower level of reading comprehension.
What was more beneficial than the raw scores of students was the
anecdotal record of notations made while students were reading. Going through the notes that I took on each
student’s hesitation, enunciation and pronunciation, I was able, working with
D’s expertise, to note the number of students who would need to work on
understanding short or long vowel sounds, r constructions, vowel pairing etc. Assessment
should be to find out what students can do, not what they can’t. This is why
building rapport, listening carefully to their language and noting everything
is crucial to trust, enthusiasm and success. Reading is a complex interactive
process NRP (2000). Lenski, S.,
Ehlers-Zavala,F., Daniel,M,C., & Xiaogin,S.(2006) and these conversations continue to help us scaffold their learning (Vygotsky).
62%
of the population at our school is Bilingual and there is pressure for the
entire school population to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on standard
assessments. Home culture is a factor in
learning especially when the home engages in activities in a primary language
other than English (Lenski, S., Daniel,M.,
Ehlers-Zavala,F., &Alvavero, M., 2004). English as a Second Language (ESL) students
are at a disadvantage with assessments that do not accommodate for linguistic
variations from culture to culture (Ying, Z.,Klinger, D.A., Living,C., Fox,J., & Doe,C.,2011). . All
languages differ in their structural nature so that the delivery of a test
question will be lost in translation if it is only presented in English. Misinterpretation can affect the assessment
score and cause a wrong diagnosis of a student’s inability or disability. ESL students are often over represented in
Special Education services due to poor testing (Lenski, S. et al. p26) Our
Spanish speaking students’ pronunciation is different from an English language,
emergent reader and it influences their comprehension in a slightly different
way. I recorded missing sounds, h, ing,
oo, ou which were letter
associations that were Spanish instead of English. This is important to correct
in young readers reading monosyllabic and multi syllabic words with fluency and
not losing context. I was unable to
notate nuances and linguistic variations that vary greatly, within a Spanish
speaking cultures. Future tense can vary
greatly for Mexican and Cuban dialogue as compared to Argentinian or Spaniard (Lenski, et al. pg 22). While this program does not have alternative
assessments the school has many teachers and assistants who teach lessons in
Spanish and English. For example, three
of the five first grade classrooms are Spanish speaking first with introductory
English. The literacy program is taught only
in English because most of the mentors are not bilingual. Students will
primarily work on vowel sound and letter development with an easier level of
reading comprehension. When their vocabulary
gains fluency, weekly, anecdotal assessment will help with new placements. (Basic
Reading 11th edition provides an updated checklist for identifying
these changes).
Students are organized into reading levels and strategy lessons prior to the first day of mentoring. Ranking from emergent to fluent by color: (Star being the lowest reading level) red, orange, yellow, green, blue, white. Most students needed to review skills that were already taught. D explained that there were several reasons. Many students do not read over the summer. It is quite possible that they encounter no reading materials or texts of any kind. A majority of ESL students will not see any reading materials, text of any kind including television shows that are in English. Their relatives and family will most likely be Spanish speaking with little to no English. As first generation English speakers they will not encounter English within these communities. Tests indicate that these students’ reading is low. But, once students engage in the daily, school routines, they accelerate with the repetition and routine. This is why 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders are placed within similar levels. Students are working with the mentor and not each other, they really don’t notice the heterogeneous groupings.
Finding lessons and
worksheets with simple instructions for mentors view and explain to a student
is the next task. Due to the nature of
differences between emergent readers and ESL students, D will present similar
assignments (short vowels) but will use slightly different worksheets. It was
explained that mentors who have little teaching experience are not necessarily comfortable
giving directions to children. They will receive some instruction at the
orientation. More than one publisher, program, resource is mined for compatible
lessons. Scholastic, STAT, SRA, are several reliable
resources.
A weekly lesson guide needs to be generated for each level. Students need to be sorted back into piles by classroom. Each student has their own folder. The folder is labeled with the time that they will receive instruction and each time slot is assigned to a classroom. This means that the time students are pulled from daily instruction has a minimal, group impact on the home classroom. Each folder holds a reading log, a vocabulary log, a vocabulary pocket with laminated words. Words are color coded by subject: science, geography, etc.. These words are sorted by level of difficulty in pockets kept on a classroom wall. They live there all year long. D is able to take a set of words, put them in the folder and remove them for future use. Each folder has a mentor’s guide for reading or vocabulary teaching strategies listed and taped to the inside pocket to find quickly. The folders also contain a composition journal, a scholastic or SRA reading skills chart and SRA question/answer prompts for writing in the composition notebook. D has determined what routines will be utilized year long and then fits the lessons within the consistent routines.
Ultimately D decides
where students are placed in the literacy program. But teachers and special educators are included in this
conversation. I overheard one
conversation. The teacher did not use
the same assessment with all students and therefore had different results than
D for placement. She did review the data
that D put together for her. She wanted
to keep her lower levels with her at all times.
Students on the “bubble” who needed isolated issues and attention would
be assigned to D. This was a class in
which one of the two white level students was able to enter the program. They are independent readers but would
accelerate even more with one on one attention of a mentor. D explained that teachers need to feel like
the program is for them. Visibility with
teacher, their perception that the literacy instructor works very hard gives
them the assurance that the pull out time, though disruptive to classroom
organization is worth it.
Ultimately D decides where students are placed in
the literacy program. But teachers and
special educators are included in this conversation. I overheard one conversation. The teacher did not use the same assessment
with all students and therefore had different results than D for placement. She did review the data that D put together
for her. She wanted to keep her lower
levels with her at all times. Students
on the “bubble”, meaning that their assessment improvement would move them into
a higher percentage with a greater impact on the school AYP, would be assigned
to D. This was a class in which one of
two white level students was able to enter the program. As independent readers they would accelerate
even more with one on one attention of a mentor. D explained that teachers need to feel like
the program is for them. Visibility with
teacher, their perception that the literacy instructor works very hard gives
them the assurance that the pull out time, though disruptive to classroom
organization is worth it.
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