Observation Report #1

Brandy Mathewson

September 9, 2018

Classroom and ELL Student Information

Mia
First Grade
English Proficiency Level 1.7
Ms. Mathewson
Blue Ridge Primary
Tuesday September 4, 2018
There are 23 students in the classroom.
There are 6 ELL students in the classroom. 1, 1.7, 1.7, 1.9, 1.9, and 5.0

The Classroom Context

The students in this classroom all have an assigned seat at a table of four or five students. This

is their personal space and is used at different times throughout the day. My desk is off to the

side of the classroom, and is not used much, if at all during the teaching day. I mostly use a

guided reading table, sit on the floor, or join the students at their seat for small groups. Around

the room you will see anchor charts that we have made together, student work, a word wall,

growth mindset reminders, as well as content materials that we use such as a Number Corner

display. My focal ELL has a seat at a table in the middle of the room, however moves about the

classroom throughout the day. When we meet on the carpet for whole group she sits in the

first row in front of me. During this observation, Mia is sitting at a small group reading table

with me. We are reading a level C book describing objects as soft and hard. In this lesson I am

focusing on what strategies she is using to read unfamiliar words. Our lesson focus is within the

domain of reading. This lesson was effective in helping me understand what strategies Mia is
using when she reads and how she applies those strategies, as well as how she interacts with

and her comfort level with other students in the group. Using his book, Mia is looking at

pictures to help her make the connection between the Spanish word and the English word for

the object. This is working on both her English proficiency and content-area knowledge.

Language Use

For the purpose of this observation, I am just focusing on the small group that I am working

with. During this time my rate of speech varied. While I was explaining or addressing the group

I talked using conversational speech. When we were reading a sentence together I slowed way

down and focused on one to one matching with the words on the page and the sounds they

make. At times we had to stop and discuss a word and how it related to the picture on the

page to understand the meaning. Throughout the time I also just listened to the students

reading and took notes of the strategies they were using to read a word and make meaning of

the word. Because I am not a Spanish speaker, I am not able to use the student’s home

language, however I do have several Spanish speakers in the class and at one point in the lesson

we did have a conversation about what one particular word was in Spanish and the English

pronunciation to help Mia. Throughout this time I was offering corrective feedback to each of

the students within our conversations. Mia’s rate of speech also varied. During discussions she

was much more comfortable participating, when she was reading she was a lot more slow and

unsure. Most of the vocabulary within the book was familiar to her, however when she came to

a word she did not know how to read she would just stop. When I would ask her questions she

would shake her head no, look at the ceiling, and play with her hands and the table. When I
noticed this happening I had the rest of the group continue and worked with Mia for a few

minutes to see how she was processing this new word. What I learned was interesting, this is

how our conversation went.

Me: “Look at the picture, is there a clue in the picture?”

Mia: Looks and makes a few squeaky noises.

Me: Pointing, “What is this called?”

Mia: “I don’t know…I don’t know…I I only know it in Spanish.”

Me: “Okay, how do you say it in Spanish?”

Mia: Shaking her head no

Me: “It’s okay.”

Mia: Shaking her head no again…toalla.” (quietly)

Me: “Toalla, you just taught me something new.”

Mia: smiling

Me: “In English it’s called a towel.”

Mia: “Towel”

Me: “Look at the word and try to say it now”

Mia: “A towel is not hard, a towel is soft.”

This hesitancy to tell me the word in Spanish was very different than what I have witnessed

from her before. She often speaks Spanish in the classroom with her peers and is usually the

first to translate for a friend who does not understand English. Mia is a very social person and

will sometimes get distracted talking to a friend, but most of the time she actively participates

in class discussions although doesn’t ask many questions. I am just beginning to understand the
English proficiency levels, but based on the rubric and the information provided to me from the

WIDA test Mia is a 1.7 proficiency.

Reflections and Connections to Readings

This observation was centered on the classroom interaction of Mia. Based on the interactions

and observation I had with her I referred back to Chapter 3 Individual Differences in Language

learning of Lightbrown and Spada’s book How Languages are Learned (2013). More specifically

the section on Motivation in the Classroom. Not so much the motivation Mia comes to class

with, but my teaching style and how it affects her motivation. Based on the research

referenced in this section, the way a teacher purposefully engages with a student, conveys

purpose in learning goals, provides friendly competition, and encourages self-evaluation,

teamwork, a safe environment to fail and try again, and celebrates successes has a major

impact on a student’s attitude and language learning within the classroom. (Guilloteaux and

Dornyei 2008, referenced on page 88 Lightbrown and Spada) This research stuck out to me

because of how I have seen Mia react and her comfort level within the different dynamics of

our classroom. Especially when she was so hesitant to speak to me in Spanish. Although I

promote the students speaking Spanish to each other, I do not know the language and in her

view it seems that is a barrier. I want to create an environment where she feels free to express

herself as she needs to and use her native language to support her English acquisition. I think

many of these suggestions are naturally built into my planning and interaction with the

students, but I want to be more purposeful in insuring it.

 Observation Report #2

Brandy Mathewson

September 23, 2018

Classroom and ELL Student Information

Mia
First Grade
English Proficiency Level 1.7
Ms. Crawford
Blue Ridge Primary
Wednesday September 19, 2018
There are 6 students in the classroom.
There are 6 ELL students in the classroom. 1, 1.7, 1.7, 1.9, 1.9, and 5.0

The Classroom Context

The lesson focus in this group is to verbally ask questions and give answers. The students are

asked to give examples of food that they could have for lunch at school. They are taking turns

listing the food items one at a time. Once they each gave a few examples, the teacher

reminded them of the book they have been working on. In this book they asked questions

interview style to a partner and wrote the answers down. Today they will be reading the books

out loud to share what they learned about their classmate, and finish by answering questions

the other students or teacher may have. This activity is focused on speaking, listening, reading

and writing. During the lesson, the students are also using comprehension strategies to name

food items in English as well as ask others questions and understand their responses in English.

In doing this they are working on their vocabulary and fluency skills as well. There are times

when the teacher stops and repeats a word or phrase in Spanish to help the students. They

have also written their classmates responses and are now reading them to the class.
COLT Observation Scheme Form

Teacher ELL Student

Errors III
Mia: Grace have two sister.
Mia: Grace favorite toy is pig.
Feedback on Errors III
S:Grace
T:Grace’s
Mia did not repeat, just went
on with the sentence.
Genuine Questions II I
Do you mean the drink in my
lunchbox?
Display Questions IIII
What things do we eat for
lunch?
Have we eaten any vegetales?
vegetables?
Negotiation for Meaning III III
One interaction went like this:
S: How do you say meil?
T: With honey?
S: Ya, honey!
T: Syrup, they have syrup on
them
Metalinguistic comments

Mia had the same opportunity as the others to listen and speak with the teacher and other

students. In this small group they took turns equally as they went around the circle giving

examples of the food they could have for lunch as well as reading their book and asking

questions. Some of the errors that I noticed Mia making was verb tense and plural endings.

One time I heard the teacher correct her (Grace to Grace’s), but Mia did not respond to the

correction. She went on with the sentence she was reading so, I’m not sure she heard the
correction. In this case it was not beneficial to her. During the negotiation for meaning about

the word syrup, Mia was actively listening and tried (in Spanish) to help understand what the

other student was trying to say. This was also a word she was not familiar enough with to

produce and was pleased when they were able to say syrup. Overall, there were few feedbacks

on the errors. I believe in this lesson it was beneficial for Mia, because she was able to verbally

give or read her answers. She tends to not say anything if she thinks it will be incorrect. This

was a good example of her ability and I could tell she felt safe enough to participate and make

those mistakes in this setting.

SOLOM-R- Oral Language of ELL Students

SOLOM-R Scores:
Comprehension __4___
Fluency __3___
Vocabulary __3___
Pronunciation __4___
Grammar __3___
Total SOLOM-R Score __17__ Proficiency Level: __2__

Overall Mia’s areas of strength are comprehension and pronunciation. She understood

everything I was asking her and was able to respond back to my questions during our

conversation. She expressed her thoughts clearly most of the time. However, when she did not

know a word in English she would pause and say “um”. Then shake her head no. Once

prompted she would continue with her answer. Some of the vocabulary words she could not

think of include how to name the bar that you hang from in monkey bars even though she knew

the name of the monkey bars, and she used “throw” to mean to let go of the monkey bar. She
would “throw” her hands down to the ground. She also left off the plural endings and

sometimes used the incorrect verb tense in her answers.

Activities for helping Mia develop her oral language include Think Pair Share, Inside Outside

Circle, small groups, and partner work where she has the chance to practice talking to others. I

would provide prompts or questions and listen for her responses then provide feedback as

needed according to her responses and errors.

Reflections and Connections to Reading

Mia is a students who just a little over a year ago could not speak any English. In my

observation of her in the classroom setting, I could see that she was not only interested and

participating, she was wanting to help her classmates understand what they were learning. In

chapter 5 of Lightbrown and Spada, 2017 they explain that “communicative, content-based,

and task-based instructional environments also involve learners whose goal is learning the

language itself, but the style of instruction places the emphasis on interaction, conversation,

and language use rather than on learning about the language.” (Page 124) I believe the

environment described is the one presented in this classroom and because the instruction is

based on interactions, conversations, and using language instead overcorrecting each error this

is why Mia has been so successful.

 Observation Report #3
Brandy Mathewson
October 10, 2018
Classroom and ELL Student Information

Mia
First Grade
English Proficiency Level 1.7
Ms. Mathewson
Blue Ridge Primary
Tuesday October 9, 2018
There are 21 students in the classroom.
There are 6 ELL students in the classroom. 1, 1.7, 1.7, 1.9, 1.9, and 5.0

The Classroom Context

This lesson is a whole group read a loud and discussion on the main character in the text and

using adjectives to describe that character. During the reading I pause and pose questions that

will help guide their thinking about the main character, how he is interacting with the other

characters in the book, and why he reacts the way he does. Once the initial reading is done the

students have a chance to talk with a partner about how they would describe the character and

what clues they used to reach that decision. We then, as a class, make a list of adjectives that

would describe him. Each student gets a chance to add their description to the list and share

why they used that word using text evidence if they can. Once our list is complete, we read it

as a class. The students then write and draw a picture about their favorite part of the story and

why they like it. The language domains used in this activity include listening, speaking, and

writing. Once the students complete their writing, they also have the opportunity to read it out

loud to the class.

Classroom Reading and Writing
The book that was read was a fiction book, Spookley the Square Pumpkin. It was read out loud

by the teacher, but it was projected onto the screen so that the students could follow along. In

this lesson my ELL student was helping to stretch words out that her and her classmates were

writing on the list of adjectives. We worked as a team to hear the sounds in the words and

write them down. At the end of the lesson, she was also expected to write a few sentences on

what her favorite part of the book was and why she liked it. The context of the mini lesson on

describing the character using text evidence was whole group, while my ELL student was

working independently during the writing time. The purpose of the reading was to use

adjectives to describe a character, and the purpose of the writing was to share her opinion and

use the text to support it. Spookly the Square Pumpkin is a book written above my ELL students

reading level, however, she did well listening and responding to the text as a read aloud. In

reflection, within the context of this lesson, my ELL student had opportunity to read and write

on her English language proficiency level. She had support from her peers and teacher when it

was needed and asked questions to clarify what she didn’t understand. One change that I could

have made to give her a greater chance to write would be to have her write the adjectives on a

whiteboard as they are said out loud and listed on the chart paper.

Reading Assessment- Running Record Results and Analysis

Book Title: Shopping
Book Author: Sarah Andrews
Words read correctly 88/96 total words = 91%
# of self corrections: 0
Level of Difficulty: Instructional
Comprehension Questions and Answers
1. Tell some of the things the mom told the boy to get.

a. Milk, tomatoes, apples, bananas, tomatoes, cookies

2. What happened at the end?

a. Her mom gave cookies to him.

3. Why do you think his mom got the cookies?

a. The boy help the mom.

Mia was able to answer the comprehension questions with very little difficulty. She did repeat

tomatoes when she was listing items the boy got for his mom, but was able to recall most of

the items without prompting. She also said he got the cookies for his mom, when in fact it was

his mom that got the cookies for him. She did correct this with the second question about the

end of the story. When I asked why his mom got the cookies for him she did understand that it

was for a reward for his help.

Running Record Evaluation

This book is written in a repeated pattern, Mia does a good job of using short phrases when

reading the book. She also uses the pictures to help her decode some of the words she cannot

read right away. She only made two different errors when reading this book, however, those

errors were repeated and therefore lowered her overall score. When she read the word cart

she read it as car and cars. This error was repeated eight times throughout the reading. I

believe she did have the visual, but missed meaning and syntax for this error. This could be due

to a vocabulary misunderstanding in translation from Spanish to English. To correct this error, I

would use picture cards to identify both the cart and a car as well as look at the ending when
she is stretching the word out focusing on all of the sounds in the word. Note: there was one

time at the beginning of the reading where I marked her as saying cart. This may have been an

error on my part because she said it incorrect every other time. The other error she made was

with the word oranges. She said orange both times the word was presented. This time she has

the meaning and visual, but missed the syntax. One of the sentences would read, “I put some

orange in the cart.” Again, I believe this to be a language transfer. She often misses endings

and plurals seem to be hard for her. A mini lesson on singular and plural nouns using visuals

and verbal responses would help her.

Writing Assessment- WIDA Writing Rubrics
Description of Students Writing

After we were done I asked Mia to write a couple of sentences telling me about the book. She

wrote one sentence that was a good summary of what happened. I then asked her to write

down some of the items they bought at the store. Again she was able to write one sentence

that included three of the items. Finally, I asked her to write about a time she has gone

shopping, she was able to produce one more sentence about her and her mother. Her

handwriting is very leadable especially for a first grader. When she was done writing, I asked

her if she would like to draw a picture to go with her sentences, she drew her and her mother

shopping at the store. They both have items in their hand, and a grocery cart to put the items

in.

Assessment and Evaluation of Students Writing

WIDA Rubric Used (1-12)

Linguistic Complexity Vocabulary Use Language Control

Level 3 2 1

1. Describe the strengths you see in the student’s writing in each of the three areas
(linguistic complexity, vocabulary usage, language control)

Linguistic Complexity: Mia has both simple and expanded sentences in her writing. She is

showing emerging complexity by joining two sentences with and as well as adding details to her

sentences. Example: “My mom and me with shopping and bers some baera and we baere

some milk.”
Vocabulary usage: Mia uses general language related to the book. (baer/buy, cremers/cookies,

milk, tomeas/tomatoes, baera/banana, shopping) Most of these words are spelled incorrect,

but she could read them back to me the correct way and understood what they mean.

Language Control: Sentence two and three are generally comprehensible and she uses come

correct punctuation throughout the text.

2. Describe the areas in need of improvement (linguistic complexity, vocabulary usage,

language control)
Linguistic Complexity: Mia’s sentences both simple and complex, convey what she understands

about the text. However, she could not expand on her thinking unless I prompted her two more

times.

Vocabulary Usage: Her vocabulary usage was appropriate for this book. She did make some

errors in word usage and endings. (help/helps, to/for)

Language Control: With Mia’s language control I debated back and forth over a one and two. I

gave her a one because the comprehensibility is significantly impeded, especially as you try to

read the first sentence. Some of the errors are grade level appropriate, (b/d) some may be

related to her phonics knowledge, (they/day) and some may be related to how she would speak

in her L1. (to/for)

3. Describe at least two specific issues, strategies, or skills you could focus on with this
student in a mini-lesson or on-on-one writing conference to help the student improve
his or her English writing ability.
Mia is good at retelling this story and expanding her ideas as I asked questions of her. Through

writing workshop I would conference with her on using sight words from the word wall to help

her with words like “they” which she used “day” for. I would also have her pronounce other
words that start with the /th/ sound to see if it is the way she pronounces it or if it is just that

word, then practice accordingly. I also want to work with her more on stretching words out to

hear the sounds. She made several errors in words where the letters she used don’t match the

sound in words. (hop/help, baer, buy, coemers/cookies, bug/buy, tomeas/tomatoes, baera,

banana, with/went) Before I plan this I would consult a Spanish speaker to see if any of these

mistakes could be from her L1 that I am not aware of.

Reflections and Connections to Readings
This observations was focused on student participation in reading and writing within the

classroom setting. I chose a lesson where Mia had the opportunity to participate in whole

group and independent work, so I could look at the extent to which she is involved in different

settings and how that relates to her language ability. Reflecting back to chapter six of Wrights

Book he explains that ALL teachers are language teachers and “share the responsibility for

helping your ELL’s develop their proficiency in English and their ability to use oral and written

English for academic purposes across content areas.” (Page 60) Before this course I understood

that I am a language teacher in the context of teaching students to read and write, but not so

much from the context of teaching my ELL students the English language. Through this

observation I was able to look at the lesson through Mia’s academic ability and see how the

presentation, student and teacher interactions, and student output in her verbal and written

responses support her learning of the English language. I also noticed Mia’s willingness to

participate with the class discussion. She wanted to share her ides with a partner when we

were describing the character, and willingly gave her response when we were making the list.

In addition, she wanted to help stretch words out, asked questions for help, and gave clues to

her peers when they needed assistance. I think this is an example of Vygotsky’s view in chapter

3 of Wrights book, “learning is a social activity, and knowledge is constructed through

interaction and collaboration with others. Children’s learning takes place when they interact

and collaborate with adults or more skillful peers.” (Page 57)

 ELL Case Study Final Report and Reflection
Brandy Mathewson
October 10, 2018
ELL Student Information:
ELL Student Name: Mia
Grade Level: first
English Proficiency Level: 1.7
Teacher Name: Ms. Mathewson (Mia is a student in my classroom)
School: Blue Ridge Primary
English Language Development of the ELL Student
Over the course of the three observations I have observed changes Mia’s oral language use

both in English and Spanish. At the time of the first observation she was hesitant to speak in

Spanish when I was listening. This was true in all academic situations, and in some social.

However, she would readily talk to her friends if she was not aware that I knew. She was also

hesitant to ask questions in English during whole group and small group instruction. Although

she would participate if she was confident in her answer. Through continued encouragement

she will now ask clarification questions in both English and Spanish when working in academic

settings. Her confidence in her language use is also evident in her reading and writing.

Although she continues to make mistakes, she is willing to make them or ask for help in the

process. Where she would say “um..” or shake her head no, she will now attempt a word as

she reads or writes. Many of the interactions that have helped Mia have been done in

authentic learning environments as we go through the day. In looking at the different

proposals for second language learning in the classroom, I think this is in line with the thinking

of Get it right in the end that was discussed in chapter 6 of Lightbrown and Spada’s book. In this
proposal, they concluded that “many language features- form pronunciation to vocabulary and

grammar- will be acquired naturally if learners have adequate exposure to the language and

motivation to learn.” (Page 182) Mia is learning the English language through social interaction,

her motivation to learn, and through form focused instruction.

Plan for Future Instruction of the ELL student

Based on my observations of Mia, I want to continue to facilitate her language acquisition by

incorporating cooperative learning into our daily routine. By participating in activities such as

Think-Pair-Share, role playing, acting out stories, and Hand-up, Stand-up, Pair-up, Mia has the

opportunity to talk and listen to her peers through activities that will help her use the language

as well as learn from her peers while working on content knowledge. She will also work in small

groups in reading workshop and conference with me during writing workshop for explicit

instruction on topics as needed. Based on observation three, examples of immediate mini-

lessons for Mia include using the word wall to help with the correct spelling of sight words,

practice with words that begin with both sounds for /th/ to understand her thinking then

practice accordingly, and stretching words out to write the sounds we here in them. I will also

use books, songs, and poems for shared reading to help with phonics instruction.

The Nature and Role of Culture in the Education of ELL’s

Early on in this course we learned how diverse our ELL population can be and how many factors

play into the development and language acquisition of our students. Factors such as “ethnicity,

home language, level of schooling, socioeconomic status, parent’s level of education, parent’s

proficiency in English, proficiency and literacy in their home language and proficiency in

English.” (Wright, Page 2) When students enter into our classrooms and are placed in programs
such as ESL and bilingual education, all of these factors must be considered in order to build on

the students’ background knowledge and strengths. In addition, Wright further explains that “It

has now become very clear, however, that all teachers share in the responsibility of meeting

the language and academic needs of ELLs.”(Page 2) Just placing a student in an ESL or bilingual

program does not come close to meeting the academic, social, and language needs of English

language learners. ALL involved with the students at school are language teachers for them.

Within our K-2 school the first language of our ELL population is Spanish. Because of this

correspondence home is translated in Spanish to help with communication. Students are also

encouraged to speak to and help each other in Spanish regularly. We also provide interpreters

at parent conferences if the parents would like. Although as a school we try to embrace the

culture of our students, it seems through the readings, there are several ways deculturalization

is still taking place indirectly.

Within the classroom Mia is one of several students that speak Spanish as a first language. She

is encouraged to use it as often as she wants to speak with her peers. They often try to teach

others new words in Spanish including myself and we all usually end up laughing, although I do

try. I think we do a better job with including language in the classroom then her culture.

Because she is now feeling more at ease using her native language in an academic setting I have

seen her take more risks when it comes to learning new words in English as well as asking

questions.

Course Reflection
I’m not sure where to begin on this reflection. From the history of deculturalization in America,

to the current lack of programs in place to meet the needs of our ELL students, I have learned a
great deal. I have taught in schools where policies have changed over the years and not for the

better for our ELL students, and have felt the frustration from a teacher’s perspective for the

students who need support when there isn’t trained staff to help. Looking back, I think even as

a classroom teacher I could have had a voice for these students beyond our building level to the

district at the time. Within my circle of influence now, I think the biggest impact on my thinking

and teaching is that I am also a language teacher and need to intentionally have activities and

lessons in place to promote that within my classroom. I also need to further my education so I

can understand how to make that happen.