Reading analysis

I started this week’s session by asking Viri: ¿Qué hacen los buenos lectores?  She responded by saying “vean los dibujos y las palabras y los números en las páginas para buscar cosas.”  I believe that she is referring to the non-fiction texts that we have been studying, and the table of contents that we can use to look up different parts of a text.  Since we have been looking at non-fiction texts, I thought it was interested that she incorporated that.  I have to admit that I was a little disappointed to not hear her say think.   We talk a lot about how good readers think about the text and make connections, and she does this to some point. Viri said she prefers non-fiction texts and could tell me what a non-fiction text is.  However, she said that her favorite book is a fiction book called “Tigre, tigre” and I usually see her choose fiction texts over non-fiction.  Viri loves to read one on one with teachers, and also enjoys guided reading groups.  She says that she loves to read at school and at home because reading is fun. 

Viri has been receiving Title services this year as well as guided reading with me and an academic after school program.  After coming into the school year as a non-reader, Viri has made strides in her reading.  Viri is an instructional text reading level 8 in Spanish and a level 0 in English. 

Viri makes connections, predictions and comments about a text when prompted.  However, when she reads, Viri seldom makes connections with the actual text, but may make connections to the pictures on the pages.  When asked to summarize a story, Viri can give an overall idea of things that happen in the text, but she often misses expanding on the details.  When asked to give more details, she often says “no sé que más.”   This is because of her monitoring issues which I explore in the next paragraph.  When I asked Viri to read a story to me in English, she quickly told me that she does not read English.  I asked her to look at the page and tell me if there are any words she might know, or to tell me about the pictures.  She was able to tell me about the pictures and read some of the words on the page to me.  While Viri understands that we read for meaning, she is inconsistent with her usage of comprehension strategies and will seldom use them unless she is prompted. 

When it comes to monitoring, Viri is struggling.  In Spanish, Viri often reads letter reversals in two letter words, and only sometimes go back to reread and correct for meaning.  Viri sometimes reads the first syllable of a word and then fills in what comes next by using a word that might fit in with the picture but not make sense.  For example, Viri read a book in Spanish “Día soleado, día llovioso.”  She read “al” instead of “la” and “ay” instead of “ya.”  I do not think that she would pass the letter reversal part of the Concepts About Print test.  Viri also read “nubes” instead of “nuevo” (there were clouds in the picture) and “lloverá” instead of “llovía.” 

In English, Viri looked at the book “Big or Little” which is a level 2.  This is after she was unable to identify any words in a level 1 book.  Viri said “oh, I know this book.”  She has read this book before in Spanish.  Viri looked at the title and read “Big or little.”  Viri was able to read high frequency words such as “I, big, bus, am, is, a, truck.”  Viri also knew that there was a pattern in the book.  The pattern that repeats itself is “I am little.”  She knew that it said something of that sort, but she consistently substituted the word “tiny” for “little.” 

Viri has had no English literacy instruction in school or at home.  She says that her sister has books in English that she brings home, but that Viri only reads the pictures and doesn’t know the words.  Since Viri is not allowed to speak English at home, I find it interesting that her reading, writing and oral language behaviors are consistently showing an understanding of both the differences and similarities between the two languages.  What is interesting is that while Viri uses Spanish vowel sounds when writing in English, she does not read the same way.  In fact, while she doesn’t like to try words that she is not sure about in English, the words that she does read are not read using her understanding of letter sounds in Spanish, but rather what she knows already about English.   

Writing Analysis

This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Viri and having her draw and write English and Spanish.  She is a struggling writer in Spanish who has improved immensely since she was my student in summer school just 8 months ago.  That said, she often leaves out letter sounds in Spanish, so I was curious to see what she would write for me in English.

During writing time (in Spanish), Viri always has an idea that she would like to write about.  Since Spanish is her dominant language, she always seems comfortable describing orally what she will write about.  I would say that Viri is at the phonetic stage in her writing in Spanish.  Viri is able to match most of the phonetic sounds to letters.  Viri has pretty typical errors at this stage such as leaving out the “h” in “hoy” and the “h” in “hermana.”  Other difficult-to-hear sounds that Viri leaves out in Spanish are words such as leaving out the “n” in “pintamos” and the “n” in “grande.”  

When I asked her to draw a picture and write about it for me in English, Viri thought a long time about what she might draw.  Finally, she drew a stick figure little girl with a blue marker, added a yellow smile and a black string of hair. 

She then wrote:

ai lai tu gou tu fechin en du waroho

Viri read it to me:  “I like to go to fishing in the water.” 

In her less dominant language of English, Viri’s writing is probably at the phonetic stage.  Viri is well aware of the fact that writing in English and Spanish look different.  I know Viri is not at the semiphonetic stage still, but I am wondering if she might be at an early phonetic stage because she leaves out not just difficult-to-hear sounds, but obvious ones like the “k” in like and the “t” in water.  However, unlike monolingual Spanish dominant writers at this stage, Viri uses more than just vowels, she uses consonants.   Consistent with a simultaneous bilingual at the phonetic stage, the vowels that Viri writes in English use the Spanish vowel sounds.  Also, very consistent with a Spanish dominant student learning English, Viri misses the “th” sound in the word “the” and instead writes a “d” sound in place of it.  

Viri’s ideas in her writing in both languages are usually simple and lack details.  She tends to use the same vocabulary but occasionally will seek help to incorporate new vocabulary into her writing.  The organization in her writing is more circular as would be expected for the discourse pattern of a Spanish dominant student, although it is sometimes so disorganized that it is hard to read because she often goes for length over organization (she has just recently learned that her own writing can go across several pages and be more than just one phrase long). 

Spelling in both languages seems to be somewhat difficult for Viri as far as slowing down to hear all of the consonant letters.  She consistently misses consonant letter sounds in both languages.  Viri does not have errors in sentence structure in Spanish, however does have more difficulty in English.  For example, she wrote “I like to go to fishing in the water.”  The use of the phrase “go to fishing” seems to be the result of her using what she knows about grammar in Spanish and applying it to English.

When looking at the miscue analysis, I did not see evidence of code-switching in any of Viri’s writing.  Similar to her oral language, Viri tends to stay in one language when she writes, and avoids code-switching.  This is probably even more evident in her writing because she cannot just code-switch depending on who she is communicating with like she can orally.  Viri uses L1 spellings and applies them to L2 words.  For example, she writes “ai” for “I,” “en” for “in” and “lai” for “like.”  She also records some sounds with little knowledge of the language code.  This includes things like “fechin” for “fishing” and “waroho” for “water.”  Viri’s example does not show any confusion of word boundaries.  

Oral Language Development: 1st 30 minute session

My student is definitely a simultaneous bilingual.  She is oral language dominant in Spanish.  She went to preschool at Head Start and has attended elementary school in the Dual Language Immersion program for kindergarten and first grade.  I have noticed that she often assumes people can’t understand something in one language and she is quick to translate.  It has been difficult to get her out of this habit this year because it really enables kids in the DLI program if she does that.  Since her parents do not speak English, I think she is accustomed to quickly translating between people when she is out with her family. 

When this student speaks, there is evidence of code-switching.  The other day in math groups in Spanish, I gave them a story problem and she was talking about it in Spanish and then said “Oh my gosh, this is so hard” and then went back to speaking in Spanish.  This is very typical for her, especially when she is in a group with or talking to friends who she knows speak English as their first language.  She occasionally throws in words in English when she is speaking in Spanish such as “Rachael, tu backpack.”  The only example of linguistic blending I have heard my student say is “púchale.”  I believe that my student does not use more code-switching because it is not accepted in her home.  I think that this strict isolation in her home has helped her develop the two languages more separately. 

This student has positive attitudes about speaking in both languages.  I believe she has a positive attitude about both languages because she is not shy to speak and loves to chat with friends in either language.  My student easily changes from one language to another depending on who she is playing with at recess or whose attention she is trying to get.  She seems comfortable and happy using both languages.  The student’s academic language is definitely higher in Spanish than in English.  Many people who hear her speak might assume she knows more English than she does because she is very confident and very chatty.  However, while she has great social language, she has not really developed much academic language in English yet. 

Because I work in a Dual Language Immersion environment, I am not able to speak with my student in English.  However, she speaks English occasionally in front of me with classmates, at recess and in specials classes.  Her teacher for English time just left on maternity leave, so I have minimal information from her.  I have done my best to consider my student’s English oral language proficiency from what I know and what I have heard from other teachers. 

Looking at the speaking rubric from the WIDA Consortium, my student’s assessments show that her oral language in Spanish is higher than in English.  I would say that she would receive a 4 in linguistic complexity in Spanish and a 2 in English.  For vocabulary usage, she would receive a 3 in Spanish and a 1 or a 2 in English.  As far as language control, I believe that she would be about a 5 in Spanish and a 3 in English. 

My student received a 1 for speaking and listening on the ACCESS test last year.  This year, looking at the Can Do Descriptors, I can see that she has progressed in her English oral language this year.  This student is able to ask WH- questions and describe pictures, events, objects and people.  She is able to restate some facts such as what she knows about plants or nutrition from English time.  While she can retell very basic stories and articulate predictions, I am not sure that she can really describe processes in any detail.  For this reason, I would have to give her a Beginning Level 2 in her English Oral Language. 

Looking at the Can-Do Descriptors for my student’s Spanish oral language, I would say that she is more of an Expanding Level 4.  My student can give oral reports (first grade level) and can articulate creative solutions when there is a problem posed or a real life conflict.  She loves to discuss issues and can explain what happens in a story in her own words in Spanish.  

Change in student

He tenido que cambiar el estudiante con él que voy a trabajar por problemas con su asistencia.  He escogido a un estudiante que va a estar presente todas las semanas.  Entonces, cambié mi estudiante previo por un estudiante diferente.  Ella es bilingüe simultáneos que tiene padres mexicanos pero ella nació aquí. 

En su casa, ella y sus hermanos tienen prohibido hablar en ingles porque los padres quieren conservar su idioma.  Esta estudiante tiene la dominancia de español en su lenguaje oral.  Ella fue a Head Start y ha estado en el kindergarten y primer grado en el programa de doble inmersión. 

La introducción de mi estudiante

Yo voy a estar trabajando con un niño de mi clase de primer grado en el programa de doble inmersión.  Él estaba en el programa de doble inmersión también el año pasado.  El estudiante habla ingles y español en su casa y le gusta leer en los dos idiomas.  Su nivel de lectura, escritura y lenguaje oral es más fuerte en el español. 

El estudiante juega con sus amigos pero también juega solo muchas veces.  En la escuela, le gusta mucho hacer las matemáticas y leer libros nuevos en los grupos de lectura.  Lo que no le gusta en la escuela es tener que sentar quieto.  Muchas veces se desespera porque se distrae mucho pero realmente quiere hacer todo su trabajo.  Cuando le pregunto sobre su vida afuera de la escuela, me cuenta mucho de los video juegos y de programas en la televisión.