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.