Jessica's Reading Analysis

**As a note, Jessica is a 2^nd grader in a monolingual English school.  I have been teaching a small Spanish literacy group to my Spanish speakers for 20 min per day this year, but this is Jessica’s first and most likely, will be her only formal instruction in Spanish if she remains in our school district.**

Jessica can articulate what good readers do in both languages, although her knowledge of how to read in Spanish has been limited, she has quickly learned how to transfer her skills from English into Spanish during this school year.  Jessica wants very much to please me, as her classroom teacher, and therefore, makes a show of using her reading strategies, especially in Spanish.  She shows me when she chooses to take home Spanish books to read for the night and tells me about her reading and writing experiences when they are in Spanish.  She has been very proud to learn how to read and write in Spanish this year and both her mother and I continue to praise and give much positive feedback for her enthusiasm.

Jessica is reading at a Rigby level 23 in English, which is exactly at grade level.  She has continued throughout the school year making the appropriate gains in her English reading levels.  In Spanish, Jessica is reading at a Rigby level 11, which is a little over one grade level below; however, Jessica began this year as a new reader to Spanish, so she has also made significant growth in her Spanish reading level as well this year. 

          In terms of Jessica’s vocabulary knowledge and strategic behaviors in reading, these both are very similar in both of her languages.  Jessica has quickly learned how to break apart the Spanish words into syllables to better read them and relies on her prediction of words and understanding of the story to make appropriate word guesses if she cannot figure out a word quickly.  Although Jessica uses this same strategy in English, she has also learned important sight words and a variety of spelling patterns to help her decode words.  One area that is unique to Spanish is that a few of Jessica’s mistakes were because she predicted the word instead of decoding the word.  In this case, she made three errors in the running record because she mispronounced the word.  This is most likely because either her parents do not use the correct pronunciation or because she has never read the words, she can only use her sense of hearing to make sense of the sounds.  For example, she read the word silla as the word “sila” and the word ruedas as the word “redas”.  When I asked her what a silla de ruedas was, she pointed to the wheelchair, therefore, she clearly knew the vocabulary, but did not know the correct pronunciation of the words.  On the other hand, in English, most of Jessica’s reading errors had to do with her lack of understanding of the vocabulary.  She was able to break apart the words and almost make the right sounds, but then when I asked her what the word meant, she had no idea.  For example, some of her mistakes were:  gallop, fully, tufts, and browsing.  It was interesting to see how her strategies for decoding and her ability to understand vocabulary in the story were so closely linked.    

          In terms of comprehension, Jessica was able to summarize and answer all of the questions, including a detailed retelling of the Spanish book that she read.  In all of the books that I have read with Jessica in Spanish, although there have been vocabulary words that she struggles with, she has been able to understand the problem and the solution of the story.  I believe this is mostly due to her lower level of reading in Spanish.  Most of the stories at her reading level are more simplistic and often students do not tend to have as many comprehension difficulties.  In contrast, although Jessica has been learning how to use comprehension strategies in English, it continues to be her reading group’s area of struggle and I believe that it is mostly due to their higher reading level.  When I work with Jessica in her small guided reading group, I focus my lessons and teachings on how to use our comprehension strategies to understand the book.  Jessica tends to do a good job of stopping to ask questions, clarifying what she has read or asking the meaning of a specific new vocabulary word.  For these reasons, Jessica has been continuing at grade level in reading in English throughout the year. 

          Overall, Jessica reads fluently in both languages and is able to transfer her knowledge of both decoding skills and comprehension skills to both languages.  Clearly she is a stronger reader in English, but that is due to her three years of formal literacy instruction in English versus her limited formal literacy instruction in Spanish during only this school year.  Jessica enjoys reading and has been a very enthusiastic learner in both languages; this is partly because of her desire to please and also due to her continual success as a learner.

Writing Analysis

          As an important note, Jessica has grown up in a predominately Spanish speaking home, but has attended a school where Spanish has not been taught formally.  This school year, 2^nd grade, is her first year to have a 20 min. daily literacy lesson in Spanish. 

For the English portion of this writing analysis, the class was asked to write a St. Patrick’s Day story about a pot of gold.  Jessica wrote a well developed, ten sentence story that had a clear beginning, middle and ending. Jessica’s story resembles other typical fairy tales, like Hansel and Gretel.  Jessica wrote about a little boy and little girl who were walking through the forest.  In the forest, a leprechaun hid a pot of gold from the children.  The children gave up looking for the pot of gold, but then returned the next day to ask the leprechaun to help them find the pot of gold.  Finally, the leprechaun gave them the pot of gold because the children were poor. 

Jessica used a typical English discourse pattern for the organization of her story.  She introduced the characters and setting, she then moved on to the problem and then the characters solved the problem in the end.  Jessica was able to give a few details in her story, used a variety of words, varied her sentence lengths, used different beginnings within her sentences, and presented a clear problem and solution.  Jessica understands difficult vowel-consonant agreements, is able to spell sight words correctly, and uses spelling patterns, like the silent e, throughout her story.  Therefore, in Jessica’s written English development, I would put her at the transitional stage, according to Rubin and Carlan. 

In terms of any miscues, Jessica did not use any code switching within this story.  Jessica’s mistakes throughout the story were mostly due to grammar.  For example, Jessica used quotation marks to show someone speaking one time, but did not carry that throughout her entire story, although her characters spoke many other times.  Jessica said that “the lepercond hided the pot of gold so the kids do not get some of his gold.”  This sentence has both a verb-subject disagreement and also the incorrect past tense use of the word ‘hide’.  She made very few spelling errors:  lepercond (leprechaun), havint (haven’t), and por (poor).  Lastly, she did miss a few periods and capitalizations to end and begin her sentences.

In the small Spanish literacy group, the students were asked to write about either their favorite birthday and explain why it was their favorite, or to write about what a favorite birthday would look like to them.  This topic was chosen because we had just read a book about a little girl’s first piñata at her birthday party.  It is important to note that just a few months ago, Jessica and the other children in this Spanish literacy group felt very stuck if asked to write anything in Spanish.  They all would just sit and wait for a more guided writing lesson.  Nobody wanted to participate in independent writing.  It is possible that all of these children have seen very little written text or communication in Spanish before this year.  After getting to know their families, many of their parents have very little formal education and most likely do not use writing as a form of communication.  Finally, after several months of mostly guided writing instruction, I was excited to see that the students were willing to participate in this independent writing activity.  All four students took some time to consider the topic and then began to write, regardless of the fact that they did not always know how to spell or write a given word.  Jessica wrote a four sentence paragraph, after I asked her to add more details to her paragraph.  Jessica chose to write about her dream birthday, which would be fun with many gifts and money.  She would get $50 in order to buy a purple bicycle and purple and blue earrings.

Although more difficult to decide, I believe that Jessica used a more typical Spanish form of discourse in her writing.  She started with her main idea “Yo quiero on cumpleaños diverted (I want a fun birthday)” and then the rest of the paragraph was simply the details of what she wanted for her birthday.  Jessica did not use any transitional words in her writing, like she did in her English paper (next, then, etc.)  She did not add many details or use many unique words, other than colors to describe her desired objects.  She began two sentences with “Yo quiero..” (I want), another sentence began with the word “Con” (with) and the last sentence began with “Y” (and).  Her sentence structure was very simple and although she gave a few specific examples:  pastel de elado (helado), regalos, dinero, bicicleta, y arêtes; there were no other details about a party, friends or family, activities, etc.

In terms of other miscues, Jessica did not use any code-switching in her Spanish writing.  Her spelling and grammatical errors mirrored her English schooling.  For example, she wrote “on” instead of un, she wrote “diverted” instead of divertido, she did know to make “morado” morada because of feminine bicicleta, nor add –es to the word “azul” after referring to her arêtes.  Lastly, she did not know that “elado” has a silent ‘h’ in the front, nor did she know that “ninero” is spelt diñero.  Overall, I would put Jessica at the phonetic stage or possibly moving into the transitional stage of writing in Spanish, according to Rubin and Carlan.  Jessica had some errors due to the different phonetic systems of English and Spanish and she lacked more details in her writing.  Although Jessica did not make a significant number of mistakes in her Spanish writing, she seemed more concerned with making her writing perfect than on getting down her ideas.

Overall, Jessica is a much stronger and confident writer in English, which is not surprising given her level of schooling in English so far.  However, I am very happy with her progress in Spanish literacy this year and feel that given her ability to transfer ideas between the two languages, she will continue to grow in length, confidence and details in her written Spanish development for the remaining part of this school year.

Oral Language Development

          As mentioned earlier, Jessica has attended a school where only English has been formally taught in grades K-2, although she has always had bilingual teachers.  This year in 2^nd grade is the first time that Jessica has had any literacy instruction in Spanish.  Jessica has grown up in a home where both her parents only speak Spanish and her older siblings speak a combination of Spanish and English.  Therefore, Jessica appears to be a simultaneous bilingual, who has been surrounded by both English and Spanish throughout her life.  Jessica speaks mostly Spanish at home, although she speaks both English and Spanish with her older siblings.  Spanish was Jessica’s first formal language as a toddler, but since she has grown up in Middleton, WI, she has always been surrounded by English in the community, within her apartment building and on the television.  At this point in her life, Jessica has a much stronger vocabulary and oral language ability in English, due to her English only instruction throughout school.  Therefore, I believe that Jessica is clearly English dominant at this point in her life.

          This year in my classroom, I have ran a Spanish literacy group every day with Jessica and three other Spanish speakers in my room.  We read leveled Spanish books, have learned how to write in Spanish and spend the entire 20 minutes communicating and learning together in Spanish.  Throughout the day, I occassionally use Spanish to give routine directions to my entire class and Jessica always feels very proud to explain what I am saying to her classmates.  Through these experiences, I believe that Jessica has developed a sense of pride in her ability to speak, read and write in Spanish.  Her parents have also expressed their joy and appreciation that Jessica is learning to read and write in Spanish.  Therefore, when I met with Jessica to converse in Spanish, it was a natural setting to meet and work together.

          In Jessica’s Spanish communication, she displayed some code-switching.  Jessica’s main form of code-switching was intra-sentential code-switching.  She often relied on her strong English vocabulary by putting in an English word into a Spanish sentence, for example “el Saturday fui con mi cousin a..” and “sí, más durante el summer”.  However, I did notice that at one point she said ”poner el newspaper en la mesa”, but when I asked her “cómo se dice newspaper in español” she responded with “periódico”.  So, I am still unclear if she sometimes knows the Spanish vocabulary, but thinks of the English word first and therefore, that is the word that comes out in a conversation or if at times she does not know the Spanish vocabulary word and uses her strong English vocabulary to supplement within a conversation. 

          Jessica’s Spanish language development would be somewhere between a level 3 Developing and 4 Expanding on the WIDA Speaking Rubric.  In Linguistic Complexity, Jessica is at a strong level 4, as she is able to give many details and variety within a conversation about a topic.  Her speaking style seems to fit within a Spanish language culture of a more circular explanation about her topic.  In Vocabulary Usage, Jessica is between a level 2 Beginning and a level 3 Developing.  This is the area where she struggles within the Spanish language to find the exact words that she wants when describing something.  Based on conversations that I have heard her have with her parents, she often code-switches when she does not know the Spanish vocabulary word she is looking to use.  Her general language is strong; it is only in more specific vocabulary that she uses her English words to continue her thoughts.  Lastly, in Language Control, Jessica most closely resembles a level 4 Expanding.  She speaks in an extremely fluent manner, however, will make some syntactic and semantic errors within a conversation.  Her errors do not impede on the general understanding and seem developmentally appropriate.

          In my conversation in English with Jessica, she did not use any form of code-switching.  At times I noticed a few mistakes with plural nouns and irregular verb usage (mouses, he going to, she thinked).  When she did not know a word that she wanted to use, she used many details to explain her meaning, but did not switch to Spanish, even though she knows that I am bilingual.  I was always able to clearly understand Jessica, I was able to figure out what vocabulary word she was missing within her sentences, and she spoke very fluently.

Jessica’s English oral language is somewhere between a level 3 Developing and a level 4 Expanding.  Her Linguistic Complexity is at a level 4, where she uses a variety of sentence lengths to explain in great detail her ideas.  Her conversation very closely follows a Spanish oral language in terms of organization.  At times I have asked her to repeat or have asked to clarify her main point because of the circular format of her explanation.  Her Vocabulary Usage is somewhere between a 3 Developing and 4 Expanding.  Her English vocabulary is much greater than her Spanish vocabulary; however, she still is learning new academic and technical words.  Her level of English vocabulary seems very developmentally appropriate for her grade level.  Lastly, her Language Control is between a level 3 Developing and a level 4 Expanding.  As stated earlier, most of her mistakes within language control are with more complex pieces of English grammar, including irregular plural nouns and verbs.  These mistakes did not affect my understanding of her story nor did they impact our conversation.

Introducion de mi estudiante

Mi Estudiante

Le presento a Jessica, mi niña linda en mi clase de segundo grado.  Ella tiene siete años y tiene dos hermanas mayores.  Jessica vive con sus hermanas, su mamá y su papá.  Su familia es mexicana y hablan español en casa.  Jessica ha visitado a México dos veces, donde ella todavía tiene mucha familia.  Jessica es una niña muy responsable, respetosa, ayuda a sus compañeros en la clase, sonreí siempre y le encanta ir a la escuela.  En clase, ella es muy lista matemática y está en el promedio de la clase para literatura en ingles.  Ella presta atención en la clase y trabaja muy duro durante el tiempo de trabajo independiente. 

Jessica ha asistido al distrito de Middleton-Cross Plains en toda su educación.  Ella asistió en el programa 4K durante parte del año, donde tuvo una maestra que habló inglés solamente, pero había una maestra ayudante que habló español e inglés con los niños.  En nuestra escuela, no hay instrucción formal en español en ningún grado.  Jessica estuvo en clases con maestras quienes hablan español en kindergarten, primer, y segundo grado.  Este año es la primera vez que ella está aprendiendo a escribir y a leer en español en la escuela.  En mi clase, tengo solamente treinta minutos cada día para instrucción en español con un grupo pequeño de estudiantes mexicanos.  El resto de la instrucción de literatura es en inglés.  Debido a este cambio en su instrucción de literatura, la mamá de Jessica me dijo que Jessica está más interesada en hablar español y hace preguntas sobre el idioma.