Keystone Assignement

Here is my Unit Plan Weather 

Keystone Assignment

ELL Reader Case Study

ELL Reader Case Study

I did my observation field work at George R. Staley Upper Elementary School, grades 5-6, which is located in Rome, New York. The student that I observed was a 5^th grade ELL student named Cristina Lopez. Cristina is a 10-years-old girl who prefers to be called by her nickname “CeCe.” CeCe was born in Utica, New York. Her parents are both from Puerto Rico who both speak little English. Her father speaks more English than her mother does. She has one older sister that is in the 8^th grade and two younger brothers (3^rd grade & 2years old). CeCe speaks Spanish and English fluently. CeCe speaks English very well; she even says she speaks it better than her older sister. CeCe is in Mrs. Cianfrocco’s 5^th grade class. She is the only ELL student in her class, which is a total of 21 students. 

I did my observation hours with the AIS reading teacher Ms. Lanzi. This year the AIS teachers are pushing into the classrooms instead of pulling the students out. I think this is a great way for the students that need extra help from the AIS teachers to be able to get the extra help they need and not miss the lesson by leaving the room. By working with Ms. Lanzi it really gave me the opportunity to observe CeCe in the classroom and to work with her when the class broke up into groups. When we broke up into groups 4 students including CeCe came to the back table to work with Mr. Lanzi and I. CeCe spoke English very well, but sometimes struggled with her reading. CeCe would get discouraged if she didn’t know a word and pout. I told her to look at the words around it for clues of what the word could be. I also told her to sound the word out. I noticed this worked very well for her. Most of the time she ended up figuring out the word with little help, but getting her to sound it out on her own or telling her to look for clues was the hard part. CeCe would rather just ask what the word was instead of trying to figure it out on her own. I did noticed after working with her for awhile, that she knew I wasn’t going to just give her the word automatically...so she started on her own looking for context clues or sounding out the word on her own.

The students had to listen and read some of the passages from the chapter that they were on. Then the teacher would ask some questions about the chapter that they were reading and the students had to answer the question and also find the evidence that supports their answer in the chapter. CeCe raised her hand on almost every question the teacher asked. CeCe knew the correct answer, but sometimes struggled with what she wanted to say. Mrs. Cianfrocco understood what CeCe was getting at and helped her along. I thought this was great! Instead of telling CeCe she was wrong or not giving her a chance to explain, Mrs. Cianfrocco helped her along, but didn’t give her the answer. She encouraged her and guided CeCe in saying the correct answer. I thought this really showed great patient.

I completed the SOLOM Proficiency Assessment after I observed CeCe for a few weeks. Based on my observation CeCe scored a 4 in comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. I also scored CeCe on the ELL observation rubric. I scored CeCe at the Advance-High Level-Listening. She can comprehend many important aspects of oral language on social and academic topics, such as main points, most details, speaker’s purpose, attitudes, levels of formality, and inferences. She can understand sufficient vocabulary, idioms, colloquial expressions, and cultural references to understand detailed stories of general popular interest. I scored CeCe at the Advanced-Low Level-Speaking. She can communicate effectively in most daily social and school situations. She can initiate and participate in conversations with confidence, speaking on familiar social and academic topics. Grammar and pronunciation errors still arise but rarely impede communication. Her speech is reasonably fluent and they are usually easily understood by native English speakers.  I scored CeCe at the Advanced- Low-Level-Reading. She can understand main ideas, key words, and important details in lengthier passages in a wider range of personal and academic texts. She can understand most new words, given a clear context (she uses context clues to figure out words she cannot read). Lastly I scored CeCe at the Advanced-Low-Level-Writing as well. She can construct coherent paragraphs on familiar concrete topics, with clear main ideas and some supporting details, and with a developing sense of audience (she has a little more trouble writing independently rather than having a little help writing her answers with supporting evidence).  Her errors, however, rarely interfere with communication.

One strategy that I found that worked really well for CeCe was model reading. When Ms. Cianfrocco read a chapter or a passage out loud first and CeCe heard the correct sounds of each words allowed CeCe to pronounce that word correctly when she read it. I think this is a great strategy for CeCe and other ELL students. They first listen and hear fluent readers read so they can comprehend what a fluent English-speaker/reader should sound like. Model reading also allows the student to focus on the story and what is being read. They can comprehend what is going on more easily than reading the passage themselves. I noticed this worked really well for CeCe…when Ms. Cianfrocco read a passage out loud and asked questions CeCe easily answered the question correctly. When CeCe had to read independently she still raised her hand to answer the question but often struggled with answering it correctly. I think by model reading CeCe was able to focus more on what was going on in the chapter rather than focusing on reading the words correctly.

I don’t know if this is a strategy, but I think it is a great thing that Ms. Cianfrocco did with CeCe. Having great patience, during one of the lessons I really noticed this. I know being a teacher requires you to have patience, but I really noticed this worked for CeCe. Ms. Cianfrocco continually called on CeCe… waited and guided her if she needed help in answering the questions. I think this is a great strategy to keep CeCe interested and motivate in learning. Ms. Cianfrocco didn’t just give CeCe the answer when she struggled, but instead encouraged her to find and say the correct answer. I thought this was a great way to motivate CeCe.

Overall I had a great experience working with CeCe and observing Ms. Cianfrocco’s class. I really enjoyed working with the AIS reading teacher Ms. Lanzi as well. Working with Ms. Lanzi really gave me another look at teaching all together. Pushing into the classroom instead of pulling the students out is a great idea I think. Now the students can work with their peers and follow along with the teacher instead of being removed from the classroom. I don’t think I would have got to spend as much time with CeCe if we had to pull her out instead of coming into the classroom and working with her. I got to work with her and also observe her at the same time! I think that Ms. Cianfrocco and Ms. Lanzi are both great educators and have some great strategies for both ELL students and native English –speaking students. I would have liked to see Ms. Cianfrocco encourage CeCe to practice her Spanish as well. I think it is an awesome talent to speak another language. Ms. Cianfrocco doesn’t speak Spanish, but maybe encourage CeCe to speak both at home or even allow CeCe to teach the class a Spanish word a week maybe. I think this could be a cool thing to bring to the classroom. This field work was overall a great experience which taught me many new exciting things.