Descriptive Review of a Child

University of Pennsylvania Urban Teaching Apprenticeship Program

Term II Integrated Assignment

Samantha Crystal
October 14, 2018
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Table of Contents
Section 1: Descriptive Review ................................................................................................ 2
B. Physical Presence and Gestures ............................................................................................2
C. Expression of Emotion ..........................................................................................................4
D. Connections with Other People .............................................................................................5
E. Interests and Preferences ......................................................................................................6
F. Formal and Informal Learning .............................................................................................7
Section 2: The Child as a Reader and Writer ......................................................................... 9
A. Literacy Assets and Interests ................................................................................................9
B. Analysis of Writing Sample ................................................................................................ 10
C. Analysis of Running Record ............................................................................................... 11
D. Analysis of Reading Comprehension................................................................................... 12
E. Implications for Teaching ................................................................................................... 13
Section 3: The Child as a Mathematician............................................................................. 14
Section 4: Responding to Focusing Question ....................................................................... 19
Section 5: Letter to Caregiver(s) .......................................................................................... 20
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Section 1: Descriptive Review

EB is one of 24 third graders in my classroom. He attends Penn Alexander School in

Spruce Hill, a section of West Philadelphia. He has been attending Penn Alexander since

Kindergarten. He lives with his mom, dad, and two brothers a few blocks from the school, and

talks about them frequently. EB falls just slightly below instructional level compared to the rest

of his class. This descriptive review was a way for me to observe EB’s learning behaviors and

assist him in communicating effectively through writing.

A. Focusing Question

What strategies and habits of mind can be introduced to EB in order to facilitate stronger

communication skills through writing and speaking?

B. Physical Presence and Gestures

EB is an eight-year-old boy of short stature. His arms are long and lanky, and are often

swinging by his side, and his legs are skinny. He has blond shoulder-length hair parted to the left

side, and he often has to push it away from his eyes. His face is pale and thin, almost ghost-like.

EB’s presence in the classroom varies by activity. Working individually, EB stays in his seat,

but determining his level of engagement is challenging. He often asks me to use the bathroom,

and when I told him how I noticed he tries to leave right before our math lessons start, he gave

me a sly smile that told me he knew exactly what he was doing. During whole-group lessons

when sitting on the carpet, EB is easily distracted by classmates. When sitting near students who

are focused on the lesson, he distracts himself by playing with whatever he can find around him.

EB seems to want to keep his hands busy, whether it be wiggling his fingers, or fidgeting with
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his pencil. On several occasions, I have had to redirect EB’s attention from playing with small

objects to listening to the classroom teacher’s instructions. For the most part, though, his body

stays still - it’s his hands that are constantly moving.

EB completes most tasks slowly. His brain seems to register what anyone says a few

seconds late. For example, when the class transitions between activities, the teacher will give

explicit instructions about what should be put away or taken out before continuing and awards

the group who transitions the quickest a ClassDojo point. EB’s group often has to push him to

move faster for fear of losing the opportunity to earn their group points. I have also noticed on

multiple occasions EB will raise his hand after the teacher has already moved on to the next

question or activity. As a result, EB does not often share with the whole group, even in times he

may want to. When he does raise his hand to share an answer, his arm is always stiff and straight

in the air, coupled with a sense of urgency.

EB has a quiet, high-pitched voice. Even though he speaks quietly, he uses precise

language, enunciating each vowel sound and dragging out the last word of a sentence.

Frequently he can be heard saying “What are we dooooing?” or “Can I go to the

baaaathrooom?” He is more comfortable speaking with small groups of peers, or to me when

working one-on-one. When he speaks in front of the whole class, the teacher often reminds him

to speak up. I think EB has a fear of being “incorrect,” because during a low-stakes, small group

activity, he is much more willing to share ideas than within the whole group.

Despite EB’s quiet stillness on the carpet or at his desk, he is eager to participate in

activities that involve moving his body. Every so often, our class uses GoNoodle to take a brain

break, which involves getting up and dancing. We also have movements that correspond to the

sight words we are learning, and EB is always eager to get up and move, although he does not
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often say the sight words along with the class. Physically, EB is slight and does not have much

of a problem navigating the often-crowded classroom. He, along with his classmates, frequently

dab during transitions or while walking through the school. EB is often be found at the back of

the line when the class travels in the hallway. It is unclear whether this is because he wants to

draw less attention to himself or, so he can play with other students without getting noticed.

C. Expression of Emotion

I have not observed EB expressing any extreme emotions like anger or sadness. He is

one of a handful of students in my class who have not cried (at least not yet). He is usually very

neutral in his expression. I have watched EB closely in the morning to gauge what mood he is in

at the start of the day. In the mornings, he appears groggy and has trouble paying attention, but

as the day goes on his energy grows. The first thing students do when they walk into the

classroom is find their desks and take out their morning journal, a binder of worksheets

containing math and reading questions. Having watched EB enter the classroom and begin his

morning work, it appears this task makes him sleepier. However, when the class comes back

after lunch and recess, EB’s temperament has made a 180-degree turn. During our “heads down,

cool down” time, which happens after lunch, EB fidgets at his desk and has trouble sitting still.

It is hard to tell whether EB is playing around or showing serious feelings. In the

classroom, his desk is behind another student’s who faces away from him during independent

work, but when facing towards the front of the class, they are often side-by-side. They sit

towards the back of the class, so they can often be seen fooling around during whole-group

instruction, poking each other with their pencils. One day in particular stands out to me because

the classmate behind EB poked him on the shoulder, and EB said “Stop!” in a whisper, but the
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tone of his voice indicated he was irritated with his classmate’s behavior. I know EB and this

classmate are friends, which is why I had questioned the legitimacy of his irritation.

EB does not often get called out in class for misbehaving because of how quiet and

reserved he is. The teacher uses a behavior chart to track individual students’ actions throughout

the day, and students will be put on yellow if they need a warning, or red if they have been told

multiple times to stop a behavior. I have only seen EB switched to yellow once; the teacher

noticed he was not focused on the worksheet the class was doing. Rather than motivating him to

continue the worksheet, this “punishment” caused him to completely shut down, and he had his

head on his desk for the remainder of the block. While his reaction did not result in an outburst,

this tells me EB responds better to gentle reminders, and negative reinforcement will only negate

the behavior without replacing it with something more positive.

D. Connections with Other People

EB seems to come most alive when working in small groups. The class moves frequently

from their desks, situated in groups, to the carpet. The desks do not directly face the front of the

room (from where most of the instruction is conducted) but they face the other group members.

Because EB’s desk does not face the teacher during instruction that occurs while at their desks,

there is less eye contact and engagement by EB. Every Monday, the class gets a packet of

homework for the week, and the teacher reviews each page, so students will know what is

expected of them. During this time, I frequently have to remind EB of which page he should be

on. When he is on the correct page or section, however, it seems to only be for show, as a way to

look like he understands what the group is doing.

EB appears to be most comfortable working in small groups or partnerships rather than in

a whole-group setting. He occasionally raises his hand during group discussions, but his voice
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becomes timid and quiet, and his responses are usually only a few words. I have noticed that

when the class is given a task that involves talking in small groups, he is less willing to

participate when the teacher observes. When I take over in the whole group setting, EB seems

more willing to participate, though still does not raise his hand as much as many of his

classmates.

As previously mentioned, EB is chatty only around certain students. He is friendly with

many students but shy around others; he is more eager to collaborate with classmates he has

known for a few years. Some of the students he is friendliest with have been at the same school

with him since Kindergarten. During a whole-group reading lesson, he was paired for a turn-

and-talk with a girl who is new to the school, and neither of them said a word to each other

during the two-minute period. EB is also regularly paired with this girl as well as another

classmate for some small-group literacy activities. During one of the lessons, the teacher

suggested I sit with that small group and support them with the assignment. Had I not been

sitting with them, I wonder if the group would have sat in silence the whole time.

E. Interests and Preferences

One of the activities EB gets most excited about in class is using the Chromebooks or

iPads to play math games and listen to stories. Unfortunately, though, these devices are only

allowed out during “Hodge Podge,” which is when students are supposed to work on any

classwork that they haven’t finished yet. As mentioned in Section B, EB often does not

complete work in a timely manner, so during Hodge Podge he always has work to finish. He is

also pulled out of the classroom for reading support during our independent reading time, which

gives him very few opportunities to read for enjoyment.

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Based on my observations, it seems EB enjoys building and creating. During our math

block, the students used base 10 blocks to design a structure that could be replicated on paper. I

observed EB during this activity and noticed he had intentional, sustained focus on constructing

a design that would remain standing. He also enjoyed working with a group of students to come

up with a final design - the group decided on a spaceship landscape.

Figure 1: Base 10 Spaceship Design

Even when working independently, EB seems more engaged in hands-on activities than in basic

worksheets or writing assignments. When given the opportunity, EB chooses to use connecting

cubes to work through math problems.

From my conversations with EB, I can tell he enjoys sports, especially football. If the

Eagles played a game on Sunday, EB always comes into class on Monday with a comment about

the game, win or lose. Much like the other boys in my class, EB enjoys playing video games like

Fortnite and Minecraft. He talks a lot about his family’s cats and the time he spends on the

weekends or after school playing with them.

F. Formal and Informal Learning

Many of the lessons we do as a whole group do not seem to engage EB. These lessons

usually involve the students sitting at their desks or on the carpet with books out in front of them,
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following along as the teacher reads from the text and asks questions. During these lessons, EB

rarely raises his hand, and often catches my eye if I am sitting close to him; I then will have to

redirect his focus. Typically, the teacher will introduce a topic to the class and then will have

students either work in partners or go straight to working independently. While EB seems to be

paying attention during whole group lessons, once he is tasked to complete individual work it

takes him a long time to get started, so much so that without prompting, he will sit at his desk

and write nothing. For example, after reading a chapter of Matilda aloud, I gave the class two

free-write questions and asked them to choose one to respond to in their writer’s

notebook. Students were given about ten minutes to think and respond to their chosen question,

and during these ten minutes EB did not write a single word on his paper. It seems this may not

be a lack of comprehension of the novel, but more a deficit in writing abilities. I infer this

because when asked to recall the details of a chapter we read three days earlier, EB was able to

retell with accuracy using specific quotes from the text.

It is hard to tell what EB’s preferred subjects are. He has expressed to me that he “is not

good at math” (which my observations and his classwork do not support) but I am unsure about

whether or not his thoughts about how good he is at a particular subject relate to how much he

likes that subject. As mentioned in section E, EB enjoys building and using materials, which is

most commonly done in math. He appears to enjoy any activity that involves reading the most.

EB gets pulled out of the classroom every day for 45 minutes with a group of five other kids in

my class for reading support. I was able to observe one of their sessions, and saw that most of

the instruction involved each student having a pre-selected text at their appropriate reading level

and reading it silently to themselves until the reading support teacher asked them to read aloud

at certain times, noting the things they do well and giving them tips to apply as they continue
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reading. In the last five minutes of the 30-minute session, each student got a choice of what to

read or write about. The reading support teacher gave EB a comic book that she knew he would

enjoy. Overall EB seemed a lot livelier during this small-group lesson than he does during whole

class instruction. I think he may feel more comfortable working at his own pace surrounded by

other students who have similar needs.

Section 2: The Child as a Reader and Writer

A. Literacy Assets and Interests

My focus child, EB, shows interest in reading at home and in the classroom. From

observation, he chooses books quickly during independent reading time and seems engaged in

the chosen text. The students in my class go to our classroom library once a week, as well as the

school library once a week. They are tasked with choosing a fiction and nonfiction book at each

location. EB has chosen books such as Captain Underpants and the Ninjago book series. During

my literacy interview, I asked him a few questions about his favorite books, and he said he

enjoyed reading Harry Potter with his parents. He said he prefers to read alone, but his parents

sometimes read bedtime stories to him. Judging by the fact that EB prefers reading alone, I can

infer that his parents read Harry Potter with him because the books might be too difficult for him

to read independently. His favorite place to read is in his house because he has a room with

bookshelves on the wall. He prefers physical books to digital texts, but sometimes looks at

pictures in magazines or uses a laptop to read. I asked EB why he likes to read, and he said, “for

fun.”

I was not able to ask EB about whether or not he writes for enjoyment, but from

observation during writing lessons I would guess he does not. He typically writes slowly and
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uses short sentences, and it takes him much longer than other students to put his pen to paper;

sometimes he needs frequent prompting to begin written work. EB similarly is slow to speak in

academic contexts; he has difficulty formulating thoughts. Students decorated their writing

notebooks for inspiration and I have found EB

loves cats, specifically his own cat. He has

written about his cat on his writing notebook, on

his “writing heart” – an activity we did to get the

kids thinking about topics to write about – and in

his biography poem.

Figure 2: EB's Writing Heart

B. Analysis of Writing Sample

Based on the pieces of writing I analyzed, I would place EB at a within word pattern stage of

spelling. Though many of his words are not spelled correctly, he seems to be using context clues

to spell words based on the sounds certain letters make. In some words, he leaves out critical

letters, like the “e” in the word “cute” and the “r” in “crazy.” When looking at EB’s word study

inventory, many of his mistakes seem logical based on the way the words sound. The first sounds

in most of the words he spells are accurate, but the middle sounds usually have letter

combinations that he is not sure how to write. The majority of his letters (except for “z”) are

written correctly – he knows the difference between a B and a D, etc.

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Figure 4: Draft of Bio Poem

Figure 3: Sight Word Spelling Test

C. Analysis of Running Record

For my running record, I tested EB on a book that was one level above his Fountas and

Pinnell reading level – his level as of March 2018 was L, but the book I gave him was level M. I

did this because I tested him at level L and he read with 98% accuracy, only making 5 errors on

words out of the 111 he read. When testing him again, I gave him the choice of reading either

Amelia Bedelia or Rainbow Fish, and he chose to read Rainbow Fish. Out of the first 100 words

in the story, EB made 2 errors, making his accuracy rate 98%. Although this is higher than his

instructional level, I think Rainbow Fish is an appropriate level for EB because he can read most

words accurately but lacks some fluency skills. The errors EB made were due to skipping words

while reading. My assumption is that EB was attempting to make up for his lack of fluency

skills by reading more quickly, but this led to him mumbling words together and sometimes

skipping words all together. The sentence he made errors on was “Please give me one of your
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shiny scales;” EB omitted the words “of” and “your.” Eliminating these words tells me EB has

structure/syntax skills and recognizes meaning cues but lack some visual cues. I also noticed

that EB is aware of how question marks and exclamation points differ from periods, but he

frequently forgets to pause after a sentence ends.

D. Analysis of Reading Comprehension

For EB’s reading comprehension assessment, I used the book Rainbow Fish that he had

already read for his running record. EB was familiar with the text from looking at the cover but

had never read it before. He was excited to dive in to the story upon seeing the colorful

illustration on the cover. EB read the novel aloud, and I stopped him at various points to ask oral

comprehension questions.

The first question I asked EB was to describe Rainbow Fish as a character from reading

the first three pages. EB said “Rainbow Fish is selfish and mean because he has all the scales

and he doesn’t want to share.” Then, a few pages later, I had EB summarize what has happened

in the story so far giving 2-3 details. He told me that 1) Little Blue Fish asked Rainbow Fish for

a scale, 2) The Little Blue Fish got upset because he couldn’t have a scale, and 3) Rainbow Fish

said “Who do you think you are? Get away from me!” I was impressed by EB’s ability to recall

specific quotes from the text, especially because the quote he used was not on the page he was

looking at. Then, I chose a quote from the text – “A rather peculiar feeling came over Rainbow

Fish.” I asked EB to infer what the Rainbow Fish was feeling based on what he had read before,

and he said “Happiness, because that’s what the octopus said he would feel (when he shared his

scales).” Even though this was not the answer I had in mind, he did use information from

previous pages to inform his response.

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Finally, I asked EB about the change in Rainbow Fish’s character from the beginning of

the story and what the message of the story is. He told me that at the beginning “he was selfish

and a superstar – at the end he was happy and had a lot of friends.” Then he added that at the

beginning Rainbow Fish cared most about his scales, and at the end he cared most about his

friends. The lesson he took away from the story was “Always share.” I asked if he wanted to add

anything to this and he said no. After we read the whole story and finished the assessment, EB

commented that there should be a second Rainbow Fish story because even though the fish had

one shiny scale left on his body, there were other shiny scales on his fin that he could give away.

Overall, from this assessment, I believe EB has effective comprehension skills. His

answers show he understood what was happening in the story. In the future, I would coach him

on digging deeper to analyze the lesson/message of the story. As a class, we have just begun

talking about central message, so with practice, EB will become more confident in understanding

the central message and supporting his thinking with evidence.

E. Implications for Teaching

Overall, my next steps for teaching EB in reading and writing would focus

on engagement. My goal is to keep EB motivated and attentive throughout our literacy block by

giving him choices as frequently as possible. Despite his interest in reading independently, he

often lacks focus in whole-group instruction. It would be useful for EB to have specific goals

addressing one of the areas in which he needs improvement, such as stopping after a period or

reading with greater fluency. Students are expected to complete a reading log during

independent reading, but otherwise do not have any other assigned tasks related to their reading.
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Giving EB a specific goal to address as he reads and allowing him to self-monitor his progress

toward that goal, will create independence and self-efficacy.

Since EB seems to enjoy reading independently, his interest in specific genres, authors,

and series can be used to guide his spelling and fluency. For example, EB has expressed interest

in the Harry Potter series. To try to make his spelling words more engaging, he could choose a

few words per chapter that he is motivated to learn to spell to write down and study by

recognizing phonetics and vowel patterns.

Section 3: The Child as a Mathematician

I conducted my math interview with EB, a third-grade student at Penn

Alexander. Throughout the semester, he has been eager to help me complete my “homework,”

but when I told him we were going to be using math for my next assignment he informed me that

he “isn’t good at math.” I did my best to assure EB that I would not be assessing him based on

his answers, that this was just a way for me to get a sense of the methods students use to solve

math problems. I took EB out to the seating area in the hallway, so he would not be distracted by

fellow classmates. I gave him a few pieces of paper, a pen, and a box of linking cubes to help

him solve the problems. In our 30-minute interview, EB answered questions using additive

reasoning with subtraction and base 10 number sense, as well as multiplicative reasoning.

Analyzing EB’s responses to the base 10 problems leads me to believe EB has a strong

understanding of place value. He wrote the number sixteen easily - although he wrote his six

backwards - and counted six cubes to represent the ones place, and then ten cubes to represent

the tens place. When he finished, this was the structure he came up with:
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Figure 5: EB's Arrangement of 16 Cubes

I asked him how many cubes he had total, and instead of saying sixteen immediately, he counted

up by ones using his finger until he got to sixteen. EB used the counting all strategy when asked

to add five more tiles to his sixteen. When asked to share how many he ended up with, instead of

counting up five from sixteen, he counted up starting from one. At this point, it was unclear to

me whether this was because EB could not figure out how to count up from sixteen, or if he

wanted to double check his answer by counting individually. Even when constructing the group

of sixteen, as you can see in the picture EB made a 4 by 4 array but did not use the rows and

columns to determine the number of cubes.

I can further determine that EB’s strategy for solving this problem is in the Early

Additive stage because of his arrangement of groups of ten. Using the 21 cubes he already, EB

successfully separated the cubes into two groups of tens with one left over.

Figure 7: Arrangement of 21 Cubes Figure 6: EB's Separation of Groups of 10

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In order to support EB’s mathematical development, I would take a next step to make EB

more familiar with tens frames and the use of flexible counting strategies to conceptually subitize

a tens frame. At this point in the year, we are beginning to introduce multiplication as a way to

figure out how many items are in equal groups. Having the foundation of basic arrays such as

ten frames would allow EB to solve base 10 problems more efficiently.

EB continued to use cubes to help him solve problems in the next section of the

interview. When I introduced the section, I told him “you can use your head, the paper, or the

cubes to help you figure out the answer.” EB immediately responded “cubes,” indicating he felt

most confident using a visual model. Although the word problems took him a bit longer to

figure out, he was more engaged because I included his name and his friends’ names in the

problems. At certain times, however, he got distracted by the objects mentioned in the problem

rather than focusing on the numbers. For example, when I read “EB has 14 toy cars. He gives 5

toy cars to his friend. How many toy cars does EB have left?” he responded “I actually have 100

at home. Can my friend be Novah?” While it seems EB was more eager to solve these problems,

it was still difficult for him to pull out what was most important, especially when having the

problem read out loud. When I read the first word problem, EB paused to “think” for a minute,

and then said, “I take five away?” He paused again for a few seconds, and then after my asking if

he wanted to try using the cubes, he asked “How many do we start with?” EB had a difficult time

remembering the context of the problem. To solve, he started with one of the groups of ten he

had already created for the previous problem, but counted the cubes up by ones to remind

himself of how many he had in his structure, added four more, and then took five cubes off of the

structure, and counted up by ones to see how many were left in the larger grouping - this is how

he came to his answer of 9. He said, “I counted 14 and then took five off of 14 and then I
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counted how many were in the bigger pile and it was 9.” As I began to introduce the next

problem, EB interjected with “now I know that 5+9=14!” This tells me he has knowledge that

subtraction problems can be viewed as addition problems using the same numbers in different

arrangements. He took the result unknown problem and created a change unknown problem,

making it an easier problem to conceptualize.

Based on the way EB solved these problems, I can tell he has a strong sense of

cardinality; he knew that the number he ended on when counting meant that was the total number

of cubes left. Similarly, EB understands counting up from the number he left off with.

It was difficult for EB to conceptualize the part-part-whole questions. When I introduced

the first part-part-whole problem, he asked me to repeat the numbers. I tried rephrasing the

question, saying “if 6 marbles are blue, and there are 14 marbles total, how many marbles are

red?” Changing the wording definitely helped; EB grabbed fourteen cubes, counted them up by

ones to double check he had the right amount, and then said “8” as his final answer. I had no

idea how he came to this conclusion, so I asked, “How did you know it was 8?” He said, “I

counted.” I responded, “Counted what? How did you know to stop at 8?” and he concluded “I

counted 6 first *puts his hand on 6 cubes in the group* and then this was the last one I counted

*points to a cube* and I went 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.” Analyzing his response and the way he

organized his cubes, it seems EB is able to subitize certain numbers, like 6, but cannot do it with

larger numbers as is evident in his organization of groups of ten in our base 10 problems.

Figure 8: EB showing how he solved the marble

problem
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Despite EB’s previous methods for solving separate/subtraction problems, one problem

in this category stood out to me as unique because of his strategy. I asked, “Jamison has 17

stickers and Dai has 11 stickers. How many more stickers does Jamison have than Dai?” This

was the first problem for which EB did not need to use the cubes He knew it was six “since

11+6=17. Anything plus 11 equals one more than it equals with 10.” EB used compensation to

change the number 11 to the number 10, because he was more familiar with it. As with the other

subtraction problems, he changed the context in his head to make it an addition problem.

Transitioning to the multiplication problems, EB was able to use his knowledge about

drawing equal groups to help him solve a multiplication equation. Initially, he determined that

3x4 was equal to 14 - “it was the first thing that came to my head” -- but after drawing a picture,

he was able to get the correct answer. EB also was able to recognize the difference between 3x4

and 4x3. Initially, he drew four apples with three worms on each apple and counted up by ones

to figure out how many worms there were. Then, he said, “maybe I should put four worms

instead of three.” I asked him why he changed his picture, and he said, “because it’s three times

four.” EB’s strategy for solving this multiplication problem puts him at the Early Additive

section of the OGAP framework. He successfully drew a model to represent 3x4, and was able

to self-correct, but counted the objects he drew up by ones.

EB seems to have a solid grasp of the base 10 system and recognizes that numbers within

tens or hundreds represent more than just the written digit. I would suggest EB work with more

problems that require subitizing. Though his answers for all the problems were correct (after

self-corrections for a few) EB would benefit from learning a more efficient strategy that would

help him solve problems more quickly. It seemed as if EB found it difficult to follow the word

problems when recited. Having him practice more written word problems would help him
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become more confident in his solutions and would once again allow him to become more

efficient.

Section 4: Responding to Focusing Question

Analyzing EB’s interactions in the classroom have given me a more solid grasp of the

type of learner he is. I was able to observe EB in different modes of learning – small group,

individual, and whole-group. My focus question, “What strategies and habits of mind can be

introduced to EB in order to facilitate stronger communication skills through writing and

speaking?” can be addressed in all of these modes of learning, although initially would be most

effective when applied during individual or small-group instruction since they are less

threatening formats. I would first focus on oral communication – for written assignments,

having EB respond verbally first could help him formulate his thoughts prior to writing them

down. Initially, a teacher could write his response down for him or provide scaffolding as he

writes. It seems EB feels stuck during writing lessons, perhaps because he does not have an

adequate amount of time to think before writing. Working with a classmate who has strong

communication skills would enhance EB’s confidence in class. Judging by his lack of

participation in whole-group discussions, it may also be helpful if he could first turn and talk

before sharing to the class, or if his partner could sometimes share EB’s response, taking the

pressure off EB to share a “correct” answer. A whole-class shift to thinking with growth mindset

may also benefit EB’s confidence

To provide EB with more opportunities for class participation or written communication,

I believe it would be supportive to give him topics of interest to write about and provide

opportunities to write frequently with frequent feedback and the incorporation of self-assessment
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tools. His main interests, as mentioned in part F, are his family cat, football, and Fortnite. These

would be three topics that EB could expand on in a personal narrative. One of the reasons EB

may be hesitant to write in class may be lack of interest in a teacher generated topic. Although

we cannot always make every assignment engaging for every student, it is important for EB to

experience the joy of writing. It may also be useful to provide EB with sentence starters to

scaffold his expression of ideas.

As is evident in section E, EB’s favorite mode of learning seems to involve the use of

technology. This could help enhance EB’s writing skills by providing him with ways to

communicate through typing vs. with hand-written work. This could also include finding and

videos about writing, or even watching short videos that provide inspiration for different writing

topics.

Section 5: Letter to Caregiver(s)

Dear Mr. and Mrs. B,

I wanted to take the time to reach out to you about EB’s progress so far in 3 grade. We
rd

are about a month into the school year, and EB seems very well-adjusted to the classroom. He

has a strong social bond with his classmates and has quickly become familiar with class norms

and expectations. It is clear EB loves to read – he is always engaged during independent reading

and has mentioned how he reads at home frequently. He also loves to talk about his family,

especially his cats. EB always comes to school in the morning with a smile – he is eager to

engage in new activities, and loves collaborating with his peers on reading and math

assignments.
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Something I have noticed about EB is that he has some difficulty responding to a writing

prompt in a timely manner. It takes EB longer to put his pen to paper than most of his

classmates. I will be working one-on-one with EB using multiple strategies, such as providing

him with sentence starters to help support his written expression. EB also seems to enjoy

drawing. Using his interest in drawing could help to provide him with a foundation of what to

write about. To start out, I will be asking EB to respond to writing prompts orally or to sketch

his ideas, so he is prepared to write, and once I have his thoughts down on paper, I will go back

and have him revise and rewrite what he has expressed verbally. In this manner, EB will be able

to respond to writing prompts without the initial pressure of immediately putting his thoughts on

paper.

In order for EB to improve his writing stamina, it is important for him to be writing

frequently. This is where you come in! At home, EB can practice writing frequently, even in

informal settings. Judging by EB’s preferences in class, he might benefit from using websites or

apps for writing practice. “Write About This” is a great resource for building stamina – the app

has various pictures to choose from, in which you orally communicate what’s happening in the

picture, and have it read back to you. EB can use this app at home to continue improving his

quality of writing and ideas. Having continued targeted feedback and encouragement about his

writing in school and at home can give EB more confidence to persevere. I will do my best to

make writing an enjoyable outlet through which EB can express his creativity, emotions, and

thoughts.

I look forward to collaborating with you this year to help EB become the best student he

can be. I look forward to learning more about EB’s approach to learning and to seeing him
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progress throughout the school year. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to

me through phone, email, or on ClassDojo.

All the best,

Ms. Crystal