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English Learner Case Study

Student Profiles Student A: According to the CELDT, this student is an advanced English learner. From day one I noticed that this individual had very little interest for what was happening inside of the classroom. My conversations with other teachers lead me to conclude that he has similar attitudes in every class. I have come to find that the best way to engage this student is to make him actively participate in various ways throughout the class, whether it be demonstrating an activity or purposefully designing class work that relates to his interests. Student A is usually cooperative when asked to participate in class, but his level of engagement immediately drops when asked to complete individual work in or out of class. His grade point average is quite low; from the conversations that I have had with Student A, I can conclude that his grade point average is not a reflection of his intellect or academic capacity as much as of his effort level. Outside of school, Student A is certainly a stand out amongst a popular crowd. He enjoys soccer and looks forward to his participation in soccer academy during school and practices after school. He has friends that boast about their romantic relationships, which has a clear effect on the consciousness with which he tries to attract attention in and out of class. Student A is quite academically capable and the best remedy to the detriments brought on by his social environment is an academic environment inside my classroom that specifically targets his interests and requires his participation. Student B: According to the CELDT, this student is an early advanced English learner. Student B makes a strong attempt at completing all of her work in a timely fashion without sacrificing quality. She is aware of how well her teachers prepare and adjusts her

work priorities according to the levels of preparation for each of her instructions. For instance, she does not shy away from sharing with me in which classes the instructor does not prepare enough material to engage her, which leads her to view a portion of the class as homework time for the rest of her classes. This keen awareness extends beyond the academic realm and into her social circles. Student B is part of a core social group of four females. She does not seem to be a social leader, nor would she desire to claim or work to attain that position. Instead, her incredibly observant nature allows her to mediate problematic situations between the members of her social group, be they academic or social. Student B certainly places her academic duties at the forefront of priorities, but without sacrificing or failing to navigate the social aspects of her life. Strategy: Concept Map The primary content demand of this assignment was the production of relationships between the main concepts involved in the unit on motion. The primary language demand was the appropriate use of academic language to create valid connections between the various concepts involved in this unit. This task was assigned as homework as part of the conclusion of the motion unit; students are given a list of terms and asked to circle these concepts on a separate piece of paper and connect the terms by providing written relationships over their connecting arrows. Student B clearly took the time to create an elaborate map that included all of the terms and at least one connection to each term (see attached). Furthermore, the connections satisfied both the content and language demands. Student B beautifully demonstrated mastery of the relationships between motion, speed, velocity, acceleration,

and the corresponding graphs that offer another way of displaying this information. In speaking to her, Student B told me that she has a good time creating concept maps because it helps her process and visualize the information in a less prescribed fashion compared to notes on a paper. Student As work illustrates problems that I have seen with multiple students since we began creating concept maps. The poor connecting phrases illustrate the difficulties that students face with creating relationships between concepts. For instance, Student A connected acceleration and velocity with the phrase increase of speed. While the connecting phrase accurately defines acceleration, it fails to create a connection between this concept and velocity. In talking with student A, I asked him to verbally tell me the relationships between the various concepts and he was able to successfully explain almost every connection. This shows me that his concept map is not a reflection of his actual knowledge, a fact that was further corroborated when Student A claimed that the reason for why his concept map was not complete was because he forgot and tried to do it on the bus. This activity taught me two important things. First, the diagnosis of English proficiency level paints, at best, a limited picture of a students academic capability. Second, while my concept map assignment is good for assessing both content and language objectives related to a particular unit, the completion or incompletion of the assignment is not associated with proficiency or lack of proficiency regarding the content. Despite not finishing the assignment, a conversation with Student A demonstrates that he has mastered the content as well, if not better, than Student B. Regarding English learners in general, the take home message of this assignment is the

following: paper, whether it be test scores or assignments, can only demonstrate so much of a students mind; a short conversation, on the other hand, can uncover the hidden potential and aptitudes of my students.

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