Teaching Inquiry Data

Question: Who advocates for students to succeed during and after high school?
Exceptionality: English Language Learner

Artifact #1: Individual Student Survey Results

Artifact #2: Student Writing: Memoir (with my comments)

Léa Nuevo
Mr.Eliason/Mrs.Wetzel
2B AP English
09/19/2018

A Spark of Last Hope

I was always sitting in that box of fake happiness. Commented [1]: I can't wait to see where you take this
hook!

My mom just woke me up. It is 9:30 am. “Hurry up, we have to leave in ten,” she says.
Packing my school work in my bag, wiping the tears from my eyes and stepping into this
beautiful world that is also filled with gloom. Looking out to the trees waving in the wind on my Commented [2]: Missing a subject

way to the hospice, I thought about the times where my family laughed at my grandpa’s
“frenglish”. “You don’t understand my french?” Papé says, laughing, every time someone was
bemused by his strong french accent. Sadly, those laughs faded into a sea of sadness.
Stepping out of the car with my thoughts taking over my mind, I look up to the sky
thinking “It is such a beautiful day outside.” As I enter the hospice anxiousness and apprehension Commented [3]: Need comma "As I enter the hospice,
anxiousness..."
were swirling in my stomach as if it were the home of butterflies. “Come on hun, this way,”
Mom says. Looking down at my feet I follow her path while smelling this poignant hospital
smell. I walk around the second level, passing by rooms filled with fabricated smiles. “Hi dad,”
Mom says smiling while entering room 216. “Hi my girls,” says Papé as I look over with my
eyes full of hope. As I sit down I look up to the Portugal against France soccer game that is on
the right hand corner of the room. The tv screen is as small as the math notebook on my laps but Commented [4]: Singular vs. Possessive; need "lap"

my eyes manage to find the soccer game more important than my notes. “We are going to lose,”
my sister says. “Stop it! We aren’t,” I answer as hope was slowly fading away in room 216. Commented [5]: I like what you're doing here, double
meaning of "hope". Nice use of metaphor!
Portugal defeats France right as Uncle Greg and Uncle G step through the door. “How’s
it going?” Doctor Avery says walking in the room. As my family starts interacting with her.
“Girls, go in the hallway for a minute with your cousins please” Grandma says. As I overhear the
doctor’s news about my grandpa’s prognosis a great tremor overtook me as tears are trying not to
escape my eyes but end up racing down my face. My little cousins were sitting right next to me
but they could not feel farther away. The screen of their iPads were taking over their emotions
and making them oblivious of what a rollercoaster the next few days were about to be. Walking Commented [6]: word choice, need "to"

up to the door I could see the fake smiles turning into a harsh reality of sorrow. “Let’s go get
dinner at Panera really quick,” Dad says trying to find an excuse to leave my mom and her two
brothers alone with their Dad. I left the room walking past what soon will be an empty box.
I wake up to a scream. As I jump out of bed I start running down the stairs as I listen to
the sound of wailing and suffering echoing throughout my house. A great sob escapes her as she Commented [7]: So powerful, Lisa

tries to cover her face with her shaking hands. There, on the bathroom floor my mom falls to her
knees, crying out. A tear of my own was coming, but I wouldn’t let it fall as I try to stay strong.
My body looks calm compare to how tangle my mind is. Thoughts whirl through my head as I Commented [8]: Past vs. Present tense: "compared"
Commented [9]: "tangled"
wander “Why is this happening to us.” As I keep looking at my mom’s tears of pain streaming
Commented [10]: Word Choice: wonder, and need a
down her cheeks, I realize that the world we live in is not so beautiful after all. comma
Commented [11]: punctuation, should be a ?
My grandpa was an incredible man, husband, father, son, brother and grandfather. I was
mad at the world. “You took away my Papé for no reason,” I thought to myself. As the age of Commented [12]: Word choice: "at"

fourteen I understood that happiness can turn into sadness, as well as tears can turn into laughs.
“Life is not fair,” I kept thinking over and over in my head. At this very moment it all made
sense to me. No matter how unfair life is, I still have to enjoy every single moment of it. There is
always “sunshine in the rain,” I thought. Although Papé is gone I recognize how lucky I am to
have spent time with him every single day for three months. Papé teaching me how to play poker
and laughing on how I always ended up using his money to play, watching baseball on tv for the Commented [13]: Word Choice: "at"

first time, opening the fridge to what once used to be a full container of ice cream and blaming
Papé for eating all of it when my grandma asked “where did the ice cream go?” Maybe I do not Commented [14]: Need comma
Commented [15]: Capitalize
have anyone to blame for the missing ice cream anymore but those moments spent with him will
always stick with me throughout my life.

Always have that one little spark of last hope.

Artifact #3: In-School (non-class time) Observations/Field Notes

September 17th, during Mustang Morning (10:45am)

Lisa came in to discuss her memoir today. She is in the brainstorming stage, but she desires a
lot of affirmation and guidance this close to the start of the year. This means that she is coming
in for writer’s conferences daily during Mustang Morning. Today she expressed that she feels
insecure about her vocabulary skills. She feels as though she missed the foundational
vocabulary years. Not only is she able to recognize this, she is also able to self-advocate so that
she can improve her skills along with her grammar! She feels unsure about representing her
story about her relationship with her grandfather adequately, because the assignment requires
a lot of descriptive writing. She mentioned that her mom gave her the idea for how she has
started her draft—which shows me that her mom is helping her with her English homework at
home.

October 4th, after school for Parent Teacher Conferences

Lisa’s mom got caught in traffic on the way to conferences, so she came into our room after
field hockey practice to conduct her own parent-teacher conference. She brought a list of
questions, including how she can improve her writing skills and reading comprehension in order
to keep up with the AP curriculum. It seems to me as though someone has coached her along
the way to know which questions to ask teachers, because we hear the same questions about
vocabulary repeatedly. However, her questions were necessary and helpful for her own
education. She is a strong self-advocate when it comes to her education.

October 23rd , during Mustang Morning (11:00am)

Lisa came in for a conference today regarding her American Dream essay. In our conversation,
she admitted that she does not know anything about the American Dream or its context (we
are still at the beginning of our unit. After some background discussion, she disclosed the
reasons that her family moved to the United States. She said that her family moved to the U.S.
from France because her parents think the school system is better. He parents also wanted her
to learn English and go to a good college to become a lawyer, which she could not do with in a
rural French school education. Ultimately, she decided to argue that the American Dream
means that “children are their parents’ future.”
Artifact #4: Parent Teacher Conference/Parent Interview

Mrs. Nuevo came for a parent-teacher conference today (second round) to discuss Lisa’s
concussion. She recently had her fourth, sports-related concussion and has fallen behind in
class. However, in our discussion we gained some information about Lisa’s educational past and
her parents’ view of it.
 Mom expressed an ongoing concern about Lisa’s vocabulary and reading
comprehension as an ELL, but now also with her concussion.
 Mom mentioned how much more she likes Lisa’s teachers in the United States. In
France, Lisa’s teachers were culturally more likely to “turn off” at the end of the work
day instead of working hard to develop the whole child. Lisa’s first English teacher in the
United States (7th grade) worked after school with her frequently, at the request of her
parents but also willingly, and Mom thinks that helped Lisa exponentially in her
language development.
 She talked about how she and her husband practice additional English at home to help
her advance as quickly as possible.
 Mom wants Lisa to pursue whatever she wants in her career, but would really like her to
be an international lawyer and use her bilingualism.
Artifact #5: Grades/Individual Conference Record

Annotative Note: Lisa has a mid-range A in the class which she works very hard for. The
gradebook does not reflect this explicitly, but she has re-written every piece of writing for this
class so far and received a new grade on each essay. At the bottom (“Writers Conferences”) you
can see that she has come for 6 explicit writers conferences, which are extra credit, but she also
comes for informal writers conferences daily during Mustang Morning which do not go on record.
 She has low scores on all of the vocabulary quizzes, which she cannot control to fit her
language level. She does not receive accommodations. (Vocabulary is slightly below grade
level.)
 Her exemptions are from her head injury, a concussion during Field Hockey season, which
is an additional exceptionality that surfaced after the inquiry process began.