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Case Study #1: Brian
(For the sake of privacy, Brians last name is omitted.)
1. Description of students physical, linguistic, creative, social, and academic strengths and
weaknesses noted through my personal observations and interactions with him.
Firstly, Brian has been suspected of having a learning/processing disability. His mother
is up front about his sibling being in la clase especial. He is slow to commit new information to
memory, which is exponentially more difficult when also acquiring a second language. Simple
number recall causes a challenge, though he is completely unaware of the fact. In teaching a
subtraction is which we ate cookies to make the cookies disappear, he struggled to remember
how many were present before one was eaten. Then, we represented the take away with proper
notation. By writing it down, he was given access to the problem. This demonstrated that the
issue did not lie in number recognition, rather in recall. In this light, Brian benefits from multiple
modalities. Chances are, the neurons will fire with at least one.
Brian displays the typical characteristics of a young boy. For free choice, he runs straight
to the train set or blocks. In social situations, he exhibits the traits of a leader, taking charge in
the goings-on of his peers. He is expressivemakes himself known by calling out in group
instruction and by making sure that he loudest in social conversations. Though his expression is
admirable and even encouraged, it can be disruptive. Brian is slow to think and fast to respond.
He is considerably more engaged when using manipulatives. His capacity to acquire vocabulary
was increased in the implementation of my hands-on science lesson (see Culturally Responsive
Unit). By providing the experience, he was given something tangible to relate to the vocabulary.
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Brians soft side is demonstrated when his mam is present for family reading time. She
reads with him nearly everyday, even acting as the surrogate to students whose parents could
not be there. She is in actively developing English-language skills, even makes a point of
conversing with the teacher and the other English-dominant adults. She displays concern of
grammar, asking the teachers for clarification. These qualities are echoed in Brian. He flourishes
when given the opportunity to work in cooperative groups. He is concerned with correctness,
which is most often demonstrated in academic situations. For example, he displays considerable
discomfort was asked to spell independently. He simply responds, I cant, when asked to use
invented spelling in journal writing. This pain will be eased over time, the more he is encouraged
to generate his own thoughts. Up until recently, most writing activities involved copying the
teachers model off the whiteboard. It comes as no surprise that he is uncomfortable when he is
suddenly required to write on his own. With his take-charge personality, I do not anticipate that
this issue will continue for long.
2. Administered SOLOMS and specific analysis regarding their English language fluency.
In formal/academic setting, Brians English-language capacity is fairly low as detailed by
the SOLOM assessment below. In terms of comprehension, he benefits greatly from teacher
speech adjustment. The teachers soft, slow, and repetitive speech patterns are well-received as
demonstrated by his ability to generate his own thoughts. For example, the teacher asked
students to complete the following sentence: I like Peter Rabbit because... She paused for a
considerable amount of time before asking the student to respond. For Brian, this lapse of time
allowed time for processing. He responded with, ...because he is sweet. In terms of oral
fluency, Brian is not easily forced into silence because of his outgoing nature. However, when
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the question is perceived to have a right answer, he often freezes with the fear of getting it
wrong. In terms of vocabulary, his academic language is very limited (especially terms of
comparison). For example, the terms bigger/smaller were challenging descriptors for Brian to
understand. Though he could easily name the characters Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny
(tangible stuffed animals the teacher had on hand), he struggled to identify which one was
bigger/smaller. In terms of pronunciation, he is compelled to repeat himself even though he is
well-understood. This goes back to his obsession with correctness. In terms of grammar, he is
limited to basic patterns. He generates short, practiced sentence structures such as the cat ran
fast (noun-verb-adjective).
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In non-formal/play settings, Brians language capacity is a mixed bag detailed by the
SOLOM assessment below. The social interaction observed included expression in both Spanish
and English. In terms of comprehension, his score is considerably higher because he engaged
himself with Spanish-dominant speakers (his peers being the most resistant to the use of
English). In terms of fluency, he had little trouble searching for the correct manner of expression
because he had two languages to pull from. He responded in English, then felt compelled to
repeat himself in Spanish (often with more detail). In terms of vocabulary, he is a culprit of
misusing words, most often a result of simple translation. In terms of pronunciation, his mind
speaks faster than his words. For this reason, he slurs words together occasionally leading to
misunderstanding. In terms of grammar, Brian misuses conventions in both languages. There is
little consistency in sentence structure, which is a matter of practice.
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3. Additional assessment or activity completed along with a summary of what it tells me about
the student and how this information is useful to me as a teacher.
The interests inventory pictured below was created by Brian, but details facts about
Alvaro. The activity was created to evaluate his ability to dialogue and record the responses
appropriately. The order of events were as follows: (1) trace partners hand, (2) ask given
questions, and (3) record responses. The questions were generated by me, but it was the
students job to ask them to each other. The questions were as follows:
(1) What is your favorite book?
(2) How many siblings do you have?
(3) What is your favorite color?
(4) What is your favorite animal?
(5) What is your favorite holiday?
Similar activities often encourage a sense of all about me. In dialoging and recording with a
partner, the sense is rather all about we. First, the product assesses the student on his ability to
organize the given information. I modeled how to do so by recording my partners responses, one
on each finger (angled vertically). Though Brian did not organize the information in the exact
same way, his is no less valid. However, his product demonstrates an inability to both organize
and record Alvaros responses appropriately. The lack of structure was not beneficial for Brians
success. In the future, I would provide structure by simply asking Brian to record his partners
responses on the backside of the paper. Moreover, Brians use of drawing to communicate
Clifford the Big Red Dog(thumb) demonstrates resourcefulness. Especially in the lower grades,
drawings should be validated as a mode of communication. Third, the completed product
demonstrates ability to effectively interview a classmate. Even though the questions were
generated by me, Brian dialogued with the proper call/response technique.
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4. Any additional documents or activities and how they were or were not useful to you in
determining their strengths and weaknesses.
With the teachers direction, I implemented a whole class instructional lesson in thestudents writing journal. At the start of every journal entry, the students write the date in a
sentence. The format is consistent and is modeled by the teacher. Second, the class generates one
sentence collaboratively. In this case, the class butterflies hatched out of their crysallis over the
weekend. The students had the opportunity to observe and talk about the event amongst
themselves. The collaborative sentence was generated and written on the whiteboard for the
students to copy. Then, the students had to generate one sentence on their own with the prompt,
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They are... Brians writing sample (below) demonstrates that he has not processed word/
sentence structure. Many of the words blend together, demonstrating that he needs additional
reminders to add a space or finger between each word. His self-generated sentence is short, but
demonstrates an understanding of phonemes. I can attest that this spelling was generated
personally (I sat beside him, exaggerating each letter sound).
Today is Monday, May 2, 2011. The butterflies came out of the crysallis. They are cute.
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The following are document copies fromBrians cumulative files and are intended for my
personal use only. The initial identification (to the
left) details his scores on the California English
Language Development Test (CELDT). The
purpose of the test is to identify new students who
are ELs, monitor student progress, and help decide
when students are fully proficient in academic
English. Brian was assessed before he entered
kindergarten, providing the school information for
placement. Surprisingly, his scores are on par with
his late bird counterparts. This is most likely
because of expressive nature.
The second document (below) detailsBrians basic phonics skills, ability to read one syllable words, and oral blending. In his first
assessment of the Basic Phonics Skills Test (BPST), it is evident that Brian had little or no letter
recognition. The records demonstrate a series of guesses, even saying numbers for letters.
However, his records of phonemic awareness demonstrates an understanding of sound blending.
He appropriately responded six times out of ten, a score expected in his first trimester. The
disparity between the scores lies in the mode of assessment. He struggles with visual processing
demonstrated by his inability to recognize the written letter with its name. He is linguistically
gifted demonstrated by his ability to respond accurately to oral prompting.
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5. List of instructional recommendations that I would make to the teacher to address the needs
and strengths of the student.
In content-oriented lessons, limit the teacher-talk. Brian benefits from a conversational
approach to learning. He is much more likely to process the new knowledge if he
verbalizes his thoughts to the teacher and his peers.
Brian would benefit from increased practice with sentence patterning (i.e., the song-based
activity summarized here). This sentence patterning chart is used similar toMadLibs in
that the students fill in the appropriate words. The sentence is sung to the tune of The
Farmer in the Dell. For example,
The creepy, crawly spider The creepy, crawly spider The creepy, crawly spider lays in the web.
Adjective Noun VerbPrepositional
Phrase
Creepy
Crawly
Brian needs encouragement to be independent in his writing. The teacher-directed format
of the writing journals is of no benefit to him. Far more important is his ability to
generate and record his own thoughts. Simply, he needs to be released from his concern
with correctness.
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