ELL CASE STUDY 1

ELL Case Study: Grade 7 Student

Kelsey Turcotte

Table of Contents

Student Profile3

School Wide Support.5

Communication with Parents...5

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Accommodations6

Model of Classroom Support7

Assessment Strategies..10

Student Wellbeing11

References12

The following is a case study including a student profile for an English Language

Learning student who has just moved to Canada recently and has been integrated into a grade 7

classroom. Included are: student profile, methods towards school wide support for the student

and her family, how communication with her parents will be kept, accommodations that will be
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made for the student, a model of classroom support for the student, assessment strategies that

will be done, as well as steps towards monitoring the students wellbeing.

Student Profile

Charlotte is an enthusiastic, polite, eager to learn thirteen-year-old girl who has recently

moved to Canada from China. She has moved to Canada with her father, mother, grandmother,

and her younger brother and sister. Charlottes father was offered a position at a Canadian branch

of the company he works for, and so he accepted the position and the family moved to Canada in

February. Her father wants his children to have plenty of opportunities in their futures, and so

Charlotte was becoming introduced to English at the school she was attending in Dalian, China.

At home, Charlotte speaks English as well as a Dalian dialect of Mandarin. She speaks English

with her father and mother, and even teachers her younger siblings what she learns, and she

speaks Mandarin with her grandmother as her father does not want her to forget the language.

In China, Charlotte had been in the middle of grade 7. She has been placed in Ms.

Turcottes grade 7 class and through observation it has been noted that Charlotte demonstrates an

extreme eagerness to learn, and is a fast learner, but demonstrates perfectionist anxieties. It has

been noted that Charlotte is an excellent participant within the classroom, but she becomes more

shy and reserved when it comes to group work as she has not made many friends yet aside from

Amanda, who is another shy student within the class. The two girls are seated at the same table

in Ms. Turcottes grade 7 class, and Ms. Turcotte has noticed that this has been a great help as

Amanda helps Charlotte to fully grasp instructions before Ms. Turcotte has a chance to reach

their table to check in.

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Based upon the skills Charlotte currently holds, she has been placed at a level 3 on the

STEP continuum. Gradually throughout the remainder of the year, Ms. Turcotte would like to

help to get Charlotte to a STEP level 4 before she begins grade 8, or for her to be well on her

way to STEP level 4. These skills include: Charlotte can respond to a simplified oral text and

follow multi-step instructions- which she very rarely forgets steps, but she does ask for Amandas

help when she does, she excels with reading and writing, being able to generate ideas with her

peers, although her shyness does keep her back sometimes, she can sort information and keep it

organized using a familiar graphic organizer (her favourite is the Venn diagram as she can

organize her findings and find similarities and differences, and she can read and understand pre-

taught academic words, locate important information in a text without the use of visual support,

and she can demonstrate an understanding by responding to simple texts. The one area of

struggle Charlotte has is with editing. Level 3 of the STEP document states that the student

should be able to use teacher and peer feedback to edit writing. Charlotte does well self-editing,

but due to her perfectionist anxieties, she sometimes feels overwhelmed or that she has done a

horrible job on her work. After referring to the Supporting Minds document, Ms. Turcotte has

taken to ensuring that all of her students feel comfortable, and that all of her students know that

making mistakes is okay, that it is a part of the learning process and that the students will learn

from them. Another practice recommended by the document is to provide simple relaxation

exercises that involve the whole class (Supporting Minds 2015), and so, when tensions within

the classroom rise, Ms. Turcotte and the students take a relaxation break wherein the class will

breathe, stretch, or try laughter yoga.

School Wide Support

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Charlotte is receiving daily ESL support in and out of the classroom. Ms. Turcotte

ensures that Charlotte is provided with any visuals she may need, modelling the procedure of

how to do the work, providing written as well as verbal instruction, group work when applicable,

placing Charlotte in the same group as Amanda which provides Charlotte with another model if

necessary or needed until Ms. Turcotte can check in with their group. In addition, Charlotte gets

one on one tutoring a few times a week, and she also receives one on one instruction with an

ESL specialist within the school.

Members of staff such as Ms. Turcotte, Ms. Manning (Charlottes physical education

teacher), the principal and vice principal, as well as the ESL specialist, Charlottes tutor, and

Charlottes parents have all been working together and communicating with each other to ensure

that Charlotte is successful not only with her English development, but also her subject content

and remain in frequent contact in order to prevent any miscommunications. In order to ensure

Charlottes needs are met, accommodations and modifications will be made in order to ensure

that Charlotte is successful.

Ms. Turcotte has basic ESL/ELD instruction training, but to better help Charlotte, she

will also receive direct language instruction from the ESL specialist when she is taken out of

class for one on one instruction.

Communication with Parents

The school staff, ESL specialist, Charlottes tutor and Charlottes parents are in constant

communication. Through this communication, it is guaranteed that all involved in Charlottes

learning process are up to date on her progress as well as where she may need extra help.

Charlottes parents (especially her father), are proficient in English and so in addition to
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occasional meetings at the school, frequent phone calls are made home for ongoing support and

monitoring. Charlottes parents want her to be as successful as she can be, which is extremely

important as it has been proven in studies that students who receive support from home as well

as with school are more successful in their studies (Supporting English Language Learners,

2008). It is important to remember that although Charlottes parents are proficient in English that

it is still important to make them as comfortable with Charlottes learning process as Charlotte is

and to ensure that they feel comfortable and welcome within the community. This can be done

through becoming aware of and familiar with their own cultural background, celebrated holidays,

and keeping a connection with them as well as offering any other known supports in the area.

Providing parents with all important information, such as the principals name, all important

contact information, school holidays and other important dates, and informing Charlottes

parents on essential procedures are all also key aspects to include in the welcoming process

(Many Roots, Many Voices, 2005).

Accommodations

Furthermore, in order to continue to help Charlotte excel in her studies, accommodations

and modifications will be made to lessons and assessments in order to meet all of Charlottes

needs. A variety of accommodations will be made to the reading, writing, and oral

communication strands within the grade 7 curriculum and will be adjusted with the ESL/ELD

curriculum as reference. Charlotte will continue reading texts that are suitable to her skill level,

and collaboration with her parents to find texts in her first language that Charlotte can respond to

will be done. This would be a strategic use of Charlottes first language to aid in her English

language development as she can further develop her literacy skills. Other accommodations may

include the use of some visual cues, however not as many as Charlotte may have needed when
ELL CASE STUDY 7

she was at a STEP level 2, the use of graphic organizers in order to keep information organized,

the allowance of extra time as needed, the use of both oral and written instructions, as well as the

simplification or repetition of instructions as needed (Growing Success, 2010).

Accommodations related to learning resources that could aid in Charlottes learning are

the use of visuals as needed, the use of adapted texts and bilingual dictionaries to further help

Charlotte, as well as the use of technology. Regarding accommodations related to assessment

strategies, this would include allowing Charlotte extra time to work on assignments or tests if she

needs it, using alternative assessment strategies which may include oral interviews as opposed to

written work to determine what knowledge she has retained and what she may need re-explained

or taught in a different way, learning logs, or even her own student portfolio to demonstrate her

growth in learning. The use of simplified language or instruction may also prove helpful for

Charlotte (Growing Success, 2010).

Model of Classroom Support

In addition, more steps will be taken in order to help Charlotte become more comfortable

and welcome within the classroom. Creating a sense of comfort is integral not only for Charlotte

and her wellbeing, but also the rest of Ms. Turcottes grade 7 class. It is important to do so

without singling out any students within the classroom as the goal is to be inclusive, not

exclusive. It is also important to inform the class that Charlotte is learning English and that it is

not her first language. Doing so will allow for the students to understand why Charlotte may

struggle with English occasionally (Cuehlo, 2004).

It is also important in creating comfort to make it clear not to enforce solely the English

language upon Charlotte, but to also embrace her first language. Not only will having an
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understanding of her first language aid in her learning of English, but it will create a sense of

comfort knowing that her learning English as a second language is not threatening her first

language. The school can ensure equal status of both languages while educating Charlotte

(Cuehlo, 2004).

In regards to classroom instruction, there are a few strategies that will prove to be integral

to helping Charlotte become proficient in the English language. Modeled talk is a great teaching

tool as it provides a scaffold for student learning. It entails modelling or demonstrating

instructions as well as concepts. This method lowers student anxiety as the student becomes

comfortable knowing what must be done and how to go about doing the task at hand. This

technique holds the goal of outlining goals as clearly as possible (Herrell & Jordan, 2015). Other

methods to used are visual as well as writing scaffolding. Herrell and Jordan said One of the

most challenging tasks for English language learners is acquiring English writing skills. In order

to support students in this daunting task, teachers must provide scaffolding, modeling,

monitoring and encouragement (Herrell & Jordan, 2015).

Visual scaffolding is the use of visual aids in order to make verbal instruction more

understandable, and using this method along with teacher gestures (modeled talk) can be

extremely helpful. The goal of visual scaffolding is to support content with the use of visuals and

can be connected no matter what the subject area is (Herrell & Jordan, 2015). The steps of visual

scaffolding include the identification of vocabulary, the collection of visuals, reproducing and

organizing the visuals, engaging the students with the vocabulary which can be done by creating

a classroom dictionary, and finally, building the file for student use both inside and outside the

classroom (Herrell & Jordan, 2015). An example activity that the class (and Charlotte) will do is
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creating a list of vocabulary from a given text or lesson, finding visuals in small groups to

represent these words, and compiling a classroom dictionary that all students can use.

Scaffolding English writing has multiple steps that can build upon each other when the

teacher feels that the students are ready to proceed. The beginning sequence is modeled writing.

Modeled writing is a great tool as it provides Charlotte with a demonstration as to how English

sounds are represented by different symbols. This is done by slowly writing the words as they are

read aloud. It is important that the teacher begins in simple stages and does not overwhelm the

student with too much too quickly (Herrell & Jordan, 2015).

Beginning writing journals is the next step in the scaffold. Each student is provided with

a writing journal, the teacher demonstrates the process to the students as to how they should start

their writing journal which can be done by drawing a picture and writing about the picture. Next,

the students would draw and write in their own journals and the teacher would model writing

based on students pictures and writing. Using a large sticky note, the teacher will respond to

students pictures while they observe. While your student watches you write, read your words

aloud and place the note on their writing, which provides a written model and resource for their

next entry. This process needs to be repeated frequently in order to create familiarity (Herrell &

Jordan, 2015).

The next step and activity is to conduct an interactive writing lesson. To do this, the

teacher chooses a topic based upon student experiences, allow talk time for students to discuss

the topic and write down a beginning sentence to start the story. The sentence will be reread

slowly, and the process will repeat, each sentence building upon the last in order to complete the

story. This activity can be done as a class or in groups (Herrell & Jordan, 2015).
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Assessment Strategies

The following expectations are taken from the ESL/ELD curriculum document and will

be used to monitor and assess Charlottes progress in Language Arts (English as a Second

Language and English Literacy Development, 2001).

Oral Communications: Listening (Stage 3)- participates in sustained oral discussions

and presentations in small groups, responds to new vocabulary, statements, questions and

directions in class.

Reading: (Stage 3)- use English and bilingual dictionaries, skim and scan for key

information in reading materials with familiar vocabulary and context.

Writing: (Stage 3)- organize and sequence ideas effectively, begin to use variety in

vocabulary and sentence structure.

There will be a variety of assessment methods used in order to collect a range of

information in regards to Charlottes development in Language Arts. Oral interviews and

diagnostic testing with new units will be done to determine the prior knowledge Charlotte

already has, then formative assessments will be done throughout units in order to keep track of

and monitor Charlottes progress. Summative assessments will be done with rubrics and

interviewing and a file of all assessments will be kept in order to share with staff and Charlottes

parents.

Student Wellbeing

It is always important to be aware of students mental wellbeing. When an English

Language Learner has been integrated into your classroom, be aware that they may undergo any
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of the stages of culture shock as well as other anxieties that arise with being a new student in a

new place. Cuehlo states the period of adjustment and acculturation to a new land and a new

school system is painful (Cuehlo, 2004).

The four stages of adjustment are: Stage 1- Arrival and First Impressions: this stage

includes feelings of adventure and optimism upon first arrival. Stage 2- Culture Shock: in this

stage, being elsewhere becomes intimidating or strange and may become anxious and frustrated.

Stage 3- Recovery and Optimism: in this stage, a recovery from the culture shock stage brings

renewed optimism, and finally, Stage 4- Acculturation, wherein this newfound culture may

become integrated to ones life and culture, values being held from both cultures (Cuehlo, 2004).

Conclusion

In conclusion, through Charlottes teachers, other members of staff, and Charlottes

parents maintaining frequent contact, there will be less miscommunications and all involved will

be able to monitor and track her progress. Through this frequent contact it will also be easier to

communicate and report any behavioural changes Charlotte may have or any noticed behaviours

that may be connected to Charlottes perfectionist anxieties or if she is experiencing any of the

stages of adjustment.
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References

Coelho, E. (2004). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multicultural classrooms. Toronto:

Pippin.

Herrell, A.L. & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 strategies for teaching English language learners. (Fifth

ed.). Boston: Pearson.

(2001). English as a second language and English literacy development. The Ontario

Curriculum, grades 1-8.

(2005). Many roots, many voices: Supporting English language learners in every classroom: A

practical guide for Ontario educators. Toronto: Ontario Education.

(2008). Supporting English language learners: A practical guide for Ontario Educators, grades

1-8. Queens Printer for Ontario.

(2013) Supporting Minds: an educators guide to promoting students mental health and well-

being. Queens Printer for Ontario.