FINAL CASE STUDY 1

Final Case Study on Jason Yang

Amanda Readel

December 15, 2016

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Part I: Interview

Interview Questions

1. What kind of experiences have you had with reading in school?

2. How do you feel about those experiences? Opinions?

3. Is there a lot of reading encouraged at home?

4. Do you ever try to do any reading in English at home?

5. Do you like trying to read in English? Why or why not?

6. What motivates you to learn English?

7. In what ways do you think you learn the best?

Interview Response

Jason is 13 years old and is a junior high school student in the public school system

in Taiwan. He started learning English when he was young in cram school. From

interviewing him, I learned that he comes from a stable family with a two-parent household

where education is valued and encouraged. His parents will urge him to pick up a book and

read if he is bored and has nothing to do instead of allowing him to be glued to his

cellphone or play video games.

When asking him about learning English in school he expressed that learning

English in school is interesting because he likes English and thinks its useful to learn in

case he encounters a foreigner, wants to try to read novels in English, or travels abroad and

will need to use English to communicate with others. He also expressed that it can be

boring as well because there are so many tests and the teacher will lecture most of the class

time. He likes my class in particular because we get to play games and likes that chance to

be able to speak with a foreigner and use his English in any way possible. When it comes to
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trying to read books in English, he stated that he is very interested in it and even told me

how he has tried to read Harry Potter in English. He found it to be too difficult for him, but

he hopes to one day be able to accomplish that task. The one question I predicted he

wouldnt have an answer for was how does he learn best. This is not something Taiwanese

students will think about or reflect on and as I predicted, he doesnt know what works best

for him though or which styles and activities he likes the best when it comes to his learning.

Part II: Error Analysis

Overall, the students English was very good. The only trouble was when he wanted

to express more, but his abilities limited him in expressing those more complex ideas. I

could see him getting wanting to say more, but got stuck in the how to say it. With his

speaking, the main errors I noticed were with connectors and past tense. The student has a

strong grasp of was/were, but not in using other verbs in the past when the past tense is

needed. He is aware of the past tense, how it works, and its function, so working on it will

be a matter of getting him to recognize when to use it. Because he knows what the past

tense is I would use more recast to deal with this specific error and not direct error

correction. The upcoming case study lessons will be a good opportunity to do that.

Part III: Oral Language Proficiency

The student I observed was during one of my classes. He always takes my class time

use an opportunity to express himself in English not only to me but his classmates as well.

During all activities in class he will use English in all circumstances such as your turn,

take a card, etc. During this lesson the students were working on demonstrative

pronouns. One thing the students struggle with on this topic is changing the noun to the

plural form when the demonstrative pronoun is these or those. If he saw a student
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making that mistake he would always use English first to explain the mistake and if they

didnt understand, he would say it in Chinese. He also took the opportunity to clear up any

questions he had about the topic. For example, he asked if that could be used with a

person or is it only for things. Because of his ability to identify and explain why something

is a mistake in English as well as clearing up any questions, I put his English level Speaking

Emergent according to the rubric on pages 10-16 in the text Making Sense. Both his teacher

and I also agreed on our evaluations of him using the SOLOM matrix. For comprehension

we said 4, fluency 3, vocabulary 3, pronunciation 4, and grammar 4.

They key thing I found in the videos and Elliss principles were repetition of input

and output is of great necessity for language acquisition. Repetition can come in forms of

reading the passage again and again silently or out loud or answering a question again and

again each time making the answer longer and more detailed. This repetition is something

to keep in mind when developing my case study students lesson because, even though he

can probably get the main idea after a once through, the repetition will benefit him much

more not only in remembering and comprehending what has been read, but taking in

sentence structures as well. This repetition is something I really want to implement with

him because I know its something that I currently do not do well.

Part IV: Writing Activity

My case study student did a journal writing activity where they needed to write

about one machine that he cannot live without and why. Before the student wrote his

paragraph, I had first had him figure out which machine that was. This was very interesting

because he immediately recognized that there are many machines in our lives that makes

things easier, but he chose the cellphone because, and I quote, it will be the easier to write
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more about. He very quickly realized that if he chose the washing machine, he would

eventually be limited in what he can say about it whereas the cellphone has much more

possibilities. After he chose the cellphone, I had him think about what the cellphone does

and what does he personally use it for. I had him do this to get help him get on the track of

putting ideas together. After that was finished he started writing his paragraph using the

prepared thoughts and adding details to them as he went.

When looking at his finished writing, there really arent any spelling mistakes, which

according to page 213 from the textbook would put him at level 9 where spelling is

conventional. In the writing the student introduced the topic, supported it, and concluded

it. Although there were mistakes present, I did not struggle to understand his meaning

throughout it. The biggest errors in the writing are punctuation and overuse of the. There

are really not many periods in his paragraph, just commas that is transference from

Chinese. Sentences in Chinese can go on and on without periods. He also uses the when it

is not needed. For example, the YouTube, the Facebook. This particular mistake is an easy

fix with an explanation, but punctuation will be a bigger challenge. I think I would first find

examples similar to his punctuation mistakes and work on finding those mistakes and how

to correct them. While doing that, include some lessons on words that can included in

writing that can help break up those sentences as well. After instruction on this, go back to

his writing and apply what weve worked on.

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Part V: Reading Comprehension Focused Lesson

Lesson Plan

Subject: Language Arts Reading Comprehension

Topic: Christmas (The Polar Express)

*Using an adapted version of the text

ESL Level: Speech emergent

Grade Level: Expanding

Materials Needed: The Polar Express, pencil, worksheet, PPT

WIDA Standards:

ELP Standards 1: Social and Instructional Language, Formative Framework. Writing.

Respond to teachers (e.g., feedback from journals) or complete assignments using formal

register.

ELP: Standard 2: The Language of Language Arts, Summative Framework. Reading.

Summarize plots of adventures using visual support

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the

development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what

the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.2: Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information

presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Content Objectives:

Student will be able to retell a story about the story in written form.
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Student will be able to sequence the events of the story.

Language Objectives:

Student will be able to use transitions and conjunctions to retell a story.

Student will be able to orally paraphrase sections of the text.

Vocabulary: sound, bell, sleigh, conductor

Background Building:

Discuss Santa Claus and whether or not the student believed in Santa or not. Also,

discuss the beliefs about Santa now.

Plan:

1. On the TV I will project two separate pictures. For each picture I will use the Visual

Thinking Strategy to introduce The Polar Express. The first picture is in the

beginning where the boy is in front of the conductor about to get on the train. The

second is at the end when Santa gives him the first gift of Christmas. I will ask the

student what is happening in each photo and what does he see that supports what

he thinks is happening. (This will not only introduce what the student is about to

read, but also help bring about new vocabulary that the student will see in the text

and I will write the words on the blackboard.)

2. I will give the student the Polar Express worksheets and have him copy down the

new vocabulary that has been written on the board. Next to each word, he will need

to write a brief definition it.

3. The student will read the text out loud and I will follow along with him stopping at

designated points to ask him, What does that mean? What just happened? I will
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do this in order to encourage him to use his own words to paraphrase what he is

reading and to pay attention to the events as they unfold.

4. After the student has finished reading, I will give him strips of paper that contain

key happenings throughout the story. He will glue them on the provided space on

his worksheet in order.

5. Upon completion of that he will retell the story with his own words using the

sequencing strips he just put together as a reference. Before having him start, we

will go over conjunctions and transition words that can help in summarizing.

6. If there is still class time left, the student will answer the two extension

comprehension questions. If not, these questions are assigned as homework.

Review Assessment:

The retelling of the story will serve as assessment to how well he comprehended

The Polar Express. The questions at the end will also allow me to assess his comprehension

of the main ideas of the book.

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Lesson Reflection

This lesson was conducted on one student whose language proficiency is at speech

emergent. The strategies I chose to teach the lesson were Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS)

and what is happening. and sequencing of events. I chose VTS to introduce the story

because there was some key vocabulary that needed to be introduced and I knew a visual

representation of that vocabulary would be much better for the student. As the new

vocabulary would come up, I would write it on the board. I also used VTS to get my student

started on the idea that he would be reading a Christmas story of some sort and that it

involved a train going somewhere.

As for the use of VTS, I found it very useful because it got the student speaking and

started the realization that the story would be a Christmas one. Because his English level is

at speech emergent, I could have easily just told him that we would be reading a Christmas

story and here are the vocabulary words you will need to know to help you understand the

it. I also know that he would have accepted that strategy completely. But, VTS was the

better route and I found it to be very interesting because there was no way I could predict

what he would say. An example of that is when he said that he thought the conductor on the

train was actually the boys father.

Following the introduction was reading the story. I did not use the original version

of The Polar Express because that would have much too difficult for the student. I adapted

the original version but shortening it, taking out elements such as figurative language and

any adjectives or descriptions that were not needed for the comprehension of the main

idea of the story, and changed grammar structures that the student is familiar with. While

the student reading I sat down across from and followed along with him and this is where I
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used my second strategy of what is happening? I chose to do this because this story is

longer than what the student is used to as well as wanting him to stop and think about

what he just read and put it into his own words. Putting the happenings into his own words

was important because it would later help with writing his retelling of the story.

While interacting with the student using this strategy I quickly learned that I was

glad that I did it. Throughout the reading, on more than one occasion, he misinterpreted

what he had read, so stopping and asking what has happened helped me catch those

misinterpretations and help fix them. For fixing them, I didnt tell him what happened.

Instead, we went back, slowed down, and took another look. I had him read key sentences

again and tell me what those sentences were saying. He quickly got the idea of those key

sentences he easily corrected his previous statements about the events.

Upon finishing the reading, I gave him cut up strips of paper with the main events on

them. I used this strategy to not only reinforce what the main events were, but also as a

transition into retelling the story in writing. I knew that if I had him start writing right

away after reading, he would have to continually look back at the text to remember the

events and that would distract him from using his own words in the retelling. Another

thing I also did with the sequencing was made sure it was placed right above where the

student would do his writing so as to be easily accessible as a guide while he writes.

For the sequencing, he was able to put together the events very quickly with only

one mistake. I didnt point out his mistake directly because I wanted to check his

comprehension of the story events. To do this I read each sequence in the order that he

placed them and the moment I got to the one that was out of order; he immediately noticed

it and made the correction. This immediate correction told me that had a strong
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understanding of what happened in the story. He then moved those strips to his worksheet

gluing them in order. When that was finished, he started retelling the story in writing.

His writing proved that he had a clear understanding of the events and was able to

provide details that surrounded the events. The one thing I noticed as far as errors were

again with the use of the past tense. There was an improvement from my last evaluation of

him in that there was more usage of the past tense, but he would change back and forth

between the two. This is a mistake on my part. Firstly by not pointing out that the story was

written in the past tense and secondly, not reminding him before he started writing that

the retelling of the story should also be in the past tense like the story. It was one of those

details that I overlooked, but I will learn from it.

Part IV: My Conclusions

Throughout this course I had the chance to implement new ideas and strategies into

my teachings and enjoyed putting them together. The one I enjoyed the most was the

reading comprehension activity I did with my case study student. Ive had students in the

past write summaries of what they have read, but never retell the story using their own

words. All three strategies that I used were new to my teaching and me so I was very

nervous before the lesson started because I had no idea how it would work out. But, as

things were going along, all the pieces came together smoothly and the end goal was

reached.

Putting together the reading comprehension activity, I really had to use my learning

from this course to make a solid lesson. I found myself thinking about each step more

carefully than I have before because each step has a purpose, function, and is necessary for

student success. When I look at back my activity, each strategy had its purpose and was
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necessary. Im glad that I had the chance to do this because I now realize the importance of

this careful and thoughtful planning and if it is executed effectively, students will grow and

learn.

My particular student not only did a great job with the activities I made for him, but

he had a very good learning attitude about it the whole way through. He was always open

for the challenge and had a try my best attitude. Also, the activities that I made for him

would have been too difficult for most other students in his grade and I think that this has

to do with his family life. His family at home encourages literacy development as well as the

importance of education and learning opportunities that come with it. This particular home

life is not the case for the majority of my students. For many of them, education is not a

priority and there is much less motivation among the students compared to most other

parts of the country. I have seen this be a direct effect on their literacy abilities not just in

English, but when I discuss this issue with their Chinese teachers, those same abilities are

lacking in their native language as well. An active home life that encourages and fosters

literacy development is why I believe my case study student has been able to achieve a

higher level than his peers.