Emma Bierwert

September 30, 2018

ITE 325

Child Study

The first child I decided to do my child study on was Cyrene C. She will be known as

Student 1. Student 1 is a female and is five years old. She will turn six at the end of November.

Some of her likes include dancing, singing, playing outside, and painting. Some of her dislikes

include germs, broken pencils, and dirt. In general, her strengths are that she speaks and

communicates well, has neat handwriting, and completes her work neatly. In math, her strengths

are that she has good number sense and can sort objects relatively well. In general, her challenge

is that she follows the rules very closely which blocks her creativity. She is also an MLL (multi

language learner) student and has difficulty with understanding some English language. In math,

her challenge is identifying teen numbers and knowing those number names. Student 1 has good

behavior and follows the rules; however, she is playful with others when they are on the carpet.

Student 1 has a stable home life and her mom is very involved in her life and school. My MT

has never met the dad. Student 1 is in the developing proficiency (DP) group. There are three

groupings in kindergarten: not yet (NY), developing proficiency (DP), and meets proficiency

(MP). This student was placed in the DP grouping based on her beginning of the year

assessment that kindergarteners take before the school year starts. In this assessment, the student

was shown number flashcards and was asked to say what the number was. She was shown

numbers one through twenty. Student 1 was able to identify numbers 0-12, and 14. She could

not identify numbers 13 and 15-20. She got a total of 14 numbers correct out of 21 numbers.

Although on the rubric at the top of the assessment it says that DP is 15-16 correct, my mentor
teacher stated that she was very close to getting 15 correct and her results were in the middle of

the class’ results, meaning that she is considered to be in the middle grouping, which is DP.

Student 1 evidence of grouping

Student 1

The second child I decided to do my child study on was Angeles P. She will be known as

Student 2. Student 2 is a female and is five years old. She will turn six at the end of October.

Some of her likes include unicorns, glitter, fairies, and drawing. Some of her dislikes include

milk, vegetables, and cockroaches. She is a very picky eater. In general, her strengths are that

she can speak and communicate well, she is outgoing and animated, she likes asking questions,

and she thinks outside of the box. In math, her strengths are that she has good number sense and

she can sort very well. In general, her challenges are that she is messy with her work and doesn’t

always complete her work with quality. In math, her challenges are recognizing and writing teen

numbers. Student 2 has good behavior and always follows the rules; however, she can be

stubborn at times. Her home life is stable, and her parents are very supportive and involved.

Student 2 is in the developing proficiency (DP) group. There are three groupings in
kindergarten: not yet (NY), developing proficiency (DP), and meets proficiency (MP). This

student was placed in the DP grouping based on her beginning of the year assessment that

kindergarteners take before the school year starts. In this assessment, the student was shown

number flashcards and was asked to say what the number was. She was shown numbers one

through twenty. Student 2 was able to identify numbers 0-7, and 10. She could not identify

numbers 8, 9, and 11-20. She got a total of 9 correct out of 21. Although on the rubric at the top

of the assessment it says that DP is 15-16 correct, my mentor teacher stated that her results were

also in the middle of the class’ results. My mentor teacher said that Student 2 was one of ten

students to get more than 8 correct which is why she is considered to be in the developing

proficiency group.

Student 2 evidence of grouping

Student 2

The two students I did my child study on are at the same level but have different needs.

In order to teach them the same concept, I would need to look at the concept and identify where

each student will be challenged. From there, I would need to think of strategies that I could
implement with each individual to help them understand the concept being taught. Student 1 is

an MLL student. For her, I would need to focus on the academic language of a concept first,

before moving on to the actual process of doing a problem. In order for this student to be able to

move forward, she needs to be taught the language of it in detail. For example, if I were teaching

a lesson on “more” and “less”, I would show this student a visual gesture of each vocabulary

term. I would have her start with her hands together and then open her arms wide to show

“more” and then have her slowly close her arms to show “less”. This would give her a strategy

to use when she encounters those vocabulary terms and doesn’t remember what they mean.

For Student 2, I would need to focus on number recognition. This student struggles with

recognizing and writing numbers greater than 10. I would review numbers greater than 10 with

flashcards before a lesson to help her gain fluency with recognizing those numbers. For the

example lesson about “more” and “less”, I would review teen numbers with flashcards as well as

using a number line with her. The flashcards would help her with her number recognition and

the number line would help her with number order since we are working with more and less.

This student needs repetition in order to gain knowledge and number sense of teen numbers.

These students need different strategies to help them learn the same concept because they have

different learning needs, strengths, and challenges.

In this classroom, they don’t do their workbook pages after every lesson. They do more

hands-on activities as a class and in groups rather than doing their workbook. The three work

samples that I got were the only workbook pages they completed so far. They also are not given

grades for their homework and workbook pages. My mentor teacher doesn’t believe in giving

grades to kindergarteners on their workbook pages and homework because she believes that it

doesn’t truly show what they are capable of because they probably didn’t complete it all on their
own. Instead, she observes them as they work and tries to watch their process while they are

working on their workbook pages. My mentor teacher has good knowledge of each students’

abilities, so she just uses their work as a reference when she is giving them their report card

grades.

For the initial level work sample, the students had to paste the matching number of

fingerprint faces to the number written on the left. I was in field for this workbook page. For

Student 1, her initial level work showed that she ended with the correct answers, but you can see

that she struggled during the process. On the work sample, there are some tears of paper where

she took off the picture to move it to a different answer. For example, for letter c, she was

supposed to paste three fingerprint pictures but she had to take off two fingerprint pictures and

move them to letter d since she pasted five instead of three. While Student 1 was completing this

workbook page, I observed that she could recognize the number she needed to paste, but she had

a harder time matching the number of pictures to it. I observed that she would paste a picture

and then count ‘one’, then she would paste another picture and count ‘one, two’. She repeated

that process until she counted the number she needed. When she got to letter c where she had to

paste three pictures, she mistakenly pasted five because she did not use the process she used for

the other ones. She just pasted pictures until the box was full. I asked her how many pictures it

says to paste and she told me three, so I told her to count the pictures again. She counted out five

and realized that it wasn’t correct, which is when she tore off the pictures and moved them.

My mentor teacher told me that Student 1 showed developing proficiency work because

of the process she had in completing the workbook page, which I explained above. The end

result (a star on the top of the page) does not show the actual level of the student.
Student 1: Initial level

Student 1
 For the midway through the process work sample, the students had to color balls to match

the numeral on the left. It was a similar workbook page to the first sample. For this sample,

Student 1 showed that she was able to complete the entire workbook page correctly. I was in

field when they completed this workbook page as well and as I was observing her, she said the

numeral out loud and then used her finger to point and counted that many balls. She left her

finger on that ball and then colored up to it. For example, for letter a, the number was four, so

she used her finger and counted four balls and then she left her finger on the fourth ball. She

kept her finger there and colored the balls up to her finger (including the one she was pointing

at). She used this strategy throughout the workbook page and she was able to complete it

without assistance and do it all correctly. The students did not receive a grade for this, but

Student 1 showed that she improved in this skill and would have received a meets proficiency

grade if this were graded since she was able to complete the page by herself and all correctly.
Student 1: Midway through the process

Student 1
 For the end of the process work sample, the students had to color the fruit to match the

numeral on the left. In this sample, Student 1 showed that she was able to complete almost all of

it correctly. She colored the correct amount of fruit to match the numeral for part a through d,

but for part e she did not color any fruit. Part e was supposed to have eight fruit colored, but she

had zero colored. I was in field during this time and Student 1 thought that the numeral was

zero, not eight. She repeatedly told me that it was zero so that’s why she didn’t color any fruit.

In this sample, she showed that she was able to recognize the number to picture relationship for

all but one of the problems. She just got confused with what the numeral was for the last

problem. This was not graded but she would have received a meets proficiency for this

workbook page since she got four out of five problems correct. This sample shows that she was

making improvements in her understanding of number to object correspondence by the end of

the process. She is still in the developing proficiency group because she still has difficulty with

recognizing certain numbers or miscounting objects.

Student 1: End of the process

Student 1
 Student 1 showed progress and improvement throughout the process. She was able to

find her own strategy that helped her make sure that she counted the correct number of objects to

color. She completed her work all correctly or close to all correctly and without assistance. This

showed growth in the concept as well as in her own personal work habits because she didn’t

need to ask for help. She still needs to work on confirming her number sense and counting

correctly. Those two skills come with repetition and practice.

One recommendation I have for Student 1 is to practice counting while pointing at the

objects. She has improved in this skill; however, she still needs to master it. One strategy that

would help her with this is the one she came up with on her own. She could point and count the

number of objects that she needs to color and then leave her finger on the last object. Then she

could color to the object that her finger was left on. This strategy seemed to help her in the

midway work sample, but she didn’t continue to use it for the end of the process work sample.

Another recommendation that I have for Student 1 is to use her number line on her desk

to confirm her number sense. She has good number sense, but in some of the work samples, she

wasn’t sure about what some numbers were. She could use the number line to count to the

number that is shown and that will help her determine what the number is if she is unsure.

In the future, Student 1 will encounter challenges identifying and writing teen numbers

since that is one of her challenges that she has. When those lessons come up, I would suggest

that Student 1 uses her number line which goes up to 20, to help her identify teen numbers and

know how to write them. We can also do flashcards that have teen numbers on them with her to

help her gain fluency in teen numbers.

Student 1 will also encounter challenges with understanding concepts since she is an

MLL student. She will need individualized instruction with my mentor teacher or myself so that
we can go into more detail about what the concept is and how to learn it. We will need to take

time after explaining it to the whole class to explain it in different ways so that she understands

the concept better and can try to do the work on her own.

The next student is Student 2. For the initial level work sample, the students had to paste

the matching number of fingerprint faces to the number written on the left. I was in field for this

workbook page. For Student 2, her sample shows that she was able to complete the workbook

page correctly. I was observing her while she was working and she completed it really quickly.

She used a strategy where she sorted all of her cut out pictures next to her book to make sure she

put the correct number of pictures before she glued it. For example, she placed four pictures on

the side of the workbook, in line with part a. Then she placed two pictures on the side, in line

with part b. She did that for all of the parts and then she glued them on the workbook page. The

workbook page was not graded; however, she would have received a meets proficiency for this

page because she used a strategy that helped her confirm her thinking as well as completed it all

correctly.
Student 2: Initial level
Student 2
 For the midway through the process work sample, the students had to color balls to match

the numeral on the left. It was a similar workbook page to the first sample. For this sample,

Student 2 received a star on the top of the page, which meant that she completed it. I was

observing her as she was working on it and I observed that she only colored in three balls instead

of four for part a and was sent back to her desk by my mentor teacher to fix it. That’s why one

of the balls is a different color. The other parts on the workbook page are different colors

because Student 2 decided to use different colors. Looking at the work sample, you can see that

she was not doing quality work and was rushing because her coloring was scribbly. That is

probably why she miscounted for part a. She needs to focus on producing quality work and not

rushing so doesn’t make careless mistakes. This was not graded, but she would have received a

meets proficiency because she got four of five problems correct. She demonstrated that she

could recognize the numeral and count and color the correct number of objects.
Student 2: Midway through the process

Student 2
 For the end of the process work sample, the students had to color the fruit to match the

numeral on the left. In this sample, Student 2 showed that she was able to complete almost all of

it correctly. She completed parts b through e correctly, but she got part a wrong. She colored

nine apples instead of 7. Student 2 was rushing to complete her work and miscounted seven

apples. I asked her why she did her workbook page so quickly and she told me that she wanted

to be the first one to finish. This is a challenge for Student 2 because she makes mistakes that

could have been prevented if she worked slower. This was not graded but she would have

received a meets proficiency on this page because she got four out of five correct. However, my

mentor teacher said that she would still be considered developing proficiency because she still

needs to improve her number sense. If her number sense was really good, she would have been

able to recognize that for part a, it was number 7 and wouldn’t have made the mistake of

coloring nine instead.

Student 2: End of the process

Student 2
 Student 2 showed growth in her understanding of number and object correlation. She

was able to use a strategy to help her make sure that she counted and pasted the correct number

of pictures for each numeral. She completed her work all correctly or close to all correctly and

without assistance. This showed growth in the concept as well as in her own personal work

habits because she didn’t need to ask for help for the work samples. She still needs to work on

her number sense and not rushing. She needs to practice and focus when she is working.

One recommendation I have for Student 2 is to review flashcards at home or with my

mentor teacher or myself to help her master her number sense. She has good number sense, but

she needs to continuously work on it so she can recognize numbers even when she is rushing

through her work. Mastering her numbers will give Student 2 a good tool to use throughout all

of her math schooling.

Another recommendation I have for Student 2 is to work on pacing. She rushes a lot

which contributes to her making mistakes and holding herself back academically. I would

recommend that she doesn’t finish her workbook page before 8 minutes are up. This would

allow her to realize that she doesn’t need to rush and to take her time. She could also go back

and review her answers before she gets it check within this time frame. This teaches her a skill

that will also be useful when she continues her math journey in the future.

In the future, Student 2 will encounter challenges identifying and writing teen numbers.

When the lessons with those concepts come up, I would suggest that Student 2 uses a number

line to help her recognize teen numbers. I would also suggest that she continues to review

flashcards at home to help her identify those numbers as well know how to write them.

In the future, she might also encounter challenges with her stubbornness when she comes

across a problem she does not know how to solve. She might give up or refuse to try solving it
because she is being stubborn. In those cases, I would suggest that either my mentor teacher or I

inform her that she is capable of solving the problem and that she needs to try before we help

her. This will teach Student 2 that when math gets difficult, she needs to at least try and then she

can ask for help.

In contrast to Student 1 and 2, there are students who are in a group below developing

proficiency, which is the “not yet” or NY grouping in this class. Here is an initial level work

sample from a student who is in the NY group.

Not Yet grouping: Initial level

Not Yet
 This student was not able to identify the numeral and paste the correct number of pictures

next to it. She just pasted any number of pictures that she wanted without even trying to identify

the number or count the pictures. This student has no number sense and cries when she can’t

figure something out. In this sample, she had to sit with my mentor teacher and look at the

number she wrote and draw that many circles. This student even struggled with that. She

couldn’t draw five circles.

In contrast, Student 1 who is in the developing proficiency grouping, was able to

correctly paste the matching number of pictures to the numeral with a little difficulty for one of

the problems. She mistakenly pasted five pictures instead of three, but after I asked her to count

them again, she was able to fix it.

Student 2 who is also in the developing proficiency grouping, was able to correctly paste

the matching number of pictures to the numeral. The student whose NY sample is above could

not do that and had to spend extra time with my mentor teacher to basically try the workbook

page again. Student 2 is not at the not yet level because she could actually complete the

workbook page correctly.

Another example of how Student 1 and 2 contrasts to the same student in the not yet

(NY) grouping is below. It is a work sample from midway through the process. The NY student

was able to answer part b and c correctly on her own. She was not able to answer part a, d, and e

correctly. She got two out of five correct which shows why she is in the NY grouping. Again,

she had to sit with my mentor teacher to get individual help to answer the questions correctly.

With the help she received, she was able to fix part d and e since my mentor walked her through

the process.
Not Yet grouping: Midway through the process

Not Yet

In contrast, Student 1 was able to correctly complete the whole workbook page. She was

able to complete the workbook page on her own to get five out of five correct. She also came up

with a strategy that worked for her to complete it. She showed her independence while

completing this worksheet and showed that she understood the concept without assistance from

the teacher.

Student 2 was also able to complete the workbook page almost all correct. She got four

out of the five problems correct. She rushed through her work which is why she miscounted for
part a, but she could fix it after my mentor teacher told to try it again. The contrasting work from

the student in the level below confirms the placement of Student 2 being in the level above.

Another example of how Student 1 and 2 contrasts to the same student in the not yet

(NY) grouping is below. It is a work sample from the end of the process. The NY student

colored every single fruit. She did not count or attempt to relate the numeral to the number of

objects that she was coloring.

Not Yet grouping: End of the process

Not Yet

In contrast, Student 1 was able to recognize the numeral and object relationship. She got

four out of five of the problems correct. She just wasn’t able to recognize the number eight. She

showed her understanding of the concept of creating groups to match numerals.

 Student 2 was also able to recognize the number to object relationship. She got four out

of five correct as well. She rushed through her work and got the first problem wrong. She was

able to identify the number and color the same number of objects, unlike the NY student who

just colored every single fruit.

In contrast to Student 1 and 2, there are students who are in a group above developing

proficiency, which is the “meets proficiency” or MP grouping in this class. Here is an initial

level work sample from a student who is in the MP group.

Meets Proficiency grouping: Initial level

Meets Proficiency

This MP student was able to correctly paste the number of pictures for each numeral

without assistance or having to go back to their desk to redo a problem. This student completed

their work quickly and with quality. This student always understands new concepts with ease

and when she finishes, she offers to help other students.

 In contrast, Student 1 was able to also complete the workbook page, but mixed up one

problem. Student 1 needs to master her number sense and fluency in order to move up to being

in the same level as the MP student.

Student 2 was also able to complete her workbook page without assistance. She rushed

through it and got every problem correct. Her work was not done with quality, but she got five

out of five problems correct.

Another example of how Student 1 and 2 contrasts to the same student in the meets

proficiency (MP) grouping is below. It is a work sample from midway through the process. The

MP student got five out of five problems correct. She was able to complete the workbook page

without assistance and also helped other students when she was done.

Meets Proficiency grouping: Midway through the process

Meets Proficiency
 In contrast, Student 1 was able to complete it correctly, but had to use a counting strategy

to do so. The MP student was able to count in her head and color as she was counting because

she has really good number sense. Student 1 got five out of five problems correct because she

used a strategy in which she pointed to the balls as she counted and left her finger on the last ball

she would color.

Student 2 got four out of five of the problems correct on this workbook page. She rushed

through her work and miscounted the number of balls for part a. She had to go back to her seat

to fix her answer for part a. Student 1 wasn’t able to complete this workbook page with as much

ease as the MP student.

Another example of how Student 1 and 2 contrasts to the same student in the meets

proficiency (MP) grouping is below. It is a work sample from the end of the process. The MP

student got all five problems correct and did not make any mistakes that they had to go back to

fix. They were able to help other students when they finished their workbook page.
Meets Proficiency grouping: End of the process

Meets Proficiency

In contrast, Student 1 only got four out of five of the problems correct. She confused the

numeral eight for being a zero and did not color any fruit for the last problem. Her number sense

is not as good as the MP student’s. Her work confirms her grouping is accurate.

Student 2 also only got four out of five of the problems correct. She was rushing and

colored nine apples for part a instead of seven. She was not as focused as the MP student and

didn’t realize that she was coloring the wrong number of apples which confirms her grouping is

accurate.