As I look at Solin’s language development, I find many distinct and clear facts about Solin’s language development.
Due to the fact that Solin’s parents are both bilingual individuals, their choice to try to speak in Spanish ( non-dominant language in the society they lived in) has facilitated Solin’s great progress in developing his Spanish language skills. Even though these measures were taken, the recent events in Solin’s life (such as his parent’s recent divorce and new daily interaction’s with his mother’s parents) have increased his English language proficiency. Therefore I would say that that under Urow’s category of bilingual learners Solin would be considered a simultaneous bilingual student. He has some characteristics Code Switching in his Speech which he tries to avoid since there is a daily stated rule in class to try to speak as much Spanish as possible in class. For the most part he avoids code switching as much as possible, and avoids speaking all together is he cannot come up with the full sentence he wants to say in Spanish.
His Spanish reading and writing proficiency make him one of the strongest readers and writers in my Kindergarten class. Solin has been able to learn his vowel and consonant sounds, and has effortlessly been able to blend them together to make syllable sounds, and now has moved on to reading full sentences. In the Spanish language DRA I administered for him, he scored a level 3 instructional level.
His English reading and writing proficiency provided mixed results. I originally predicted that he would not score as high in his English DRA since he has only received formal reading and writing instruction in school in Spanish at Park Spanish Immersion. I was blown away to find out that his reading level in English matched that of his reading level in Spanish (level 3 instructional). I attribute this success to the fact that he does dominate English orally better than Spanish, and therefore has a higher vocabulary base in this language than in Spanish. I also give his mom credit for continuously reading with Solin at home in English.
What did not surprise me at all was the fact that for his writing sample, he showed signs of using Spanish spellings and applied it to the English words. Like the Writing Miscue Analysis outline stated, “using code from one language to record sounds in another.” After further analysis of his English writing sample, I was able to realize another significant observation. In the Beeman and Urow article they stated, “In English, consonants emerge before vowels. Thus the teaching of consonant letters and sounds is done before teaching vowels.” It is amazing to me to see Solin’s English writing sample, and see that he has already made this connection.
When looking back and trying to analyze my student’s language development I find that even though he is a simultaneous bilingual, I worry about his future development of English. In school he is going to have a lot of great native Spanish speaking educators, but not much time to develop his English proficiency. What he has going for him that many other simultaneous bilingual students have is that he has a strong English speaking support system at home. After concluding my research for this project, I have started to reflect on the fact that language development is far more complex than we have imagined. Each individual varies so much. And to serve our growing and diverse bilingual population, I don’t think that our educational system is designed to serve their needs. I think that at the very least we need to push to have district wide assessments which would allow us to look at the language development of oral proficiency and writing for students. I am very happy to see that there are Spanish DRA’s available, but we need more assessment tools to help guide us and see where our students are in their language development (specially our simultaneous bilingual students who make up such a large proportion of our native Spanish speakers whom we teach).
Lastly, what I would like to point out is that Solin’s situation is not a common one for most simultaneous bilingual students. The fact is that he is able to have a lot of support both in English and Spanish at home due to his family make up (half Peruvian, half American) and educational level of family at home. (Mom is pursuing her Masters). High academic achievement is something that is expected in the household and is being modeled by family members. Therefore I feel Solin has innate motivation to excel in school, and understands that it is very important for him to develop his linguistic abilities in both Spanish and English. In the end, I think that because Solin has such a strong support system at home (mother and grandparents), he will excel in school, and will be able to continue developing both of his languages long after he leaves Park Spanish Immersion.
I have therefore come up with the following instructional plan catering to Solin’s needs. This instructional plan includes instructional tactics and tools that I have already executed in my classroom, and instructional methods I plan on implementing for the remainder of the year.
Plan
Instructional Plan
I think that the program that would serve Solin’s needs best would be to be in a Dual Language Program. In this program he would be exposed to 50% of his general class make up of native English Speakers, and 50% of his class being native Spanish speakers. I think that following this model it would help Solin develop his Spanish speaking proficiency since he would be exposed to other Spanish speaking students, who could bring a wider array of vocabulary to the spectrum.
The reality is that I work in a One-Way Spanish immersion school. So based on that fact, I will be making the following recommendations based on the environment which he has available for him in his current setting.
Supporting Language Development
In order to support all my students, I have set up this schedule which breaks down my focus during the time they are here at PSI. As you can see, I have at least one 30 minute literacy block in which I focus on reading or writing. By the end of the day, we usually have 60 minutes focused on literacy, since our morning meeting includes time to review what we have learned thus far in class.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Morning Meeting | Morning Meeting | Súper María | Morning Meeting | Morning Meeting |
Math | Music (English) | Morning Meeting | Math | Math |
Writing | Library (English) | Music (English) | Gym | Art Project |
Work Centers | Reading | Math | Reading | Writing |
Dismissal | Dismissal | Dismissal | Dismissal | Dismissal |
Reading and Writing: Strategies recommended
I think it is necessary to state the fact that this was the first year Park Spanish Immersion had four Kindergarten groups, two of which were full day Kindergarten groups, and two of which were half day Kindergarten groups. Traditionally, parents have only had the option to enroll students in half day Kindergarten. I was hired to take teach the two half day Kindergarten groups at PSI. Like any new classroom, I have found that I have had a lack of resources. Though even with the lack of resources, the following strategies have been used to help support language development in the classroom.
Tucker Signing Method
To help students start making the the connection with Spanish alphabet letters and sounds, PSI uses the Tucker Signing Method. This method “provides a mental model that students need in order to decode words easily, accurately-- and fast. It uses a system of 44 hand signs that prompt associations between letters or word chucks and their sounds.” This has been a strategy that has been used to teach the alphabet since the beginning of the year to all the students, and has facilitated the progress which the students have made while transitioning into reading.
Súper María
That’s right. We have our own school super hero, and her name is Súper María. At PSI our Reading Intervention Specialist has a super hero persona whose super power is to read. She comes in once a week for 30 minutes to work with the class and incorporate large motor skills tactics to get the students to understand vowel sounds, and syllable blends. During the first half of the school year, she came in and worked with all the the class, but for the second half of the year she has focused her attention on small group interventions for the lowest readers.
Weekly Theme/Unit Books
Each week we provide new books which the class creates together. For example, when we learn about Manzanas, we got a chance to read Las Manzanas book. In it we got to read each page, use context clues to figure out which color we had to use to color in the apple, and have the students focus on consonant/vowel blends. It also introduced students to sentence structure in Spanish (Yo tengo una manzana verde/roja/amarilla). While we make each book during the week, we also use techniques such as in the “Using Writing to Make Cross Language Connections” article. We “prioritize explicit and direct teaching and formal opportunities for children to make cross language transfer.” This has allowed for the students to confidently make the connections between the languages, have a strong foundation in their L2, and continue to learn Spanish.
Read Alouds
Like the “Literacy Essentials” article outlines, there are good points towards using both recognition and sociopsycholinguistic models. After further analyzing my teaching methods, I find that we use both models in the classroom in order to cater to our student’s diverse needs. I have found that for Solin, he has benefited more from the sociopsycholinguistic model since he already holds a language base in Spanish, he seems to “interpret and reinterpret what we read in part based on our social interactions as we clarify or deepen concepts presented in the text.” After each Read Aloud we talk as a class about the book we have read and look at the sequence of the story, and take time to make points of clarification in order to help the students attain more vocabulary in Spanish.
Adaptations to Classroom Literacy Instruction
This school year I had a small bookshelf of books in my classroom, so for the beginning of the school year, I have focused my attention in creating materials, math, and writing. Now that I have collected a growing amount of materials to teach my reading block, I feel that I can definitely help Solin continue to grow academically.
Book in a Box
We have recently incorporated the Book in a Box method in the classroom. The students were able to choose their own books and are using them while we practice the Daily Five. As Kindergarteners, their focus is to learn how to 1) Sit in one spot, 2) Read the Whole Book, 3)If you can’t read the text, look for context clues in the pictures, 4) When you finish reading your book, re-read the book, or read another book, 5) Do not distract others.
I think that the Book in a Box will allow for Solin to improve his Spanish reading fluency, as well as allow for him to become a more independent reader. He is at a stage where he can read on his own and needs the opportunity to read on his own.
Reading Centers
Going back to the Literacy Essential’s article, I find that my new interventions go along with the Word recognition model outlined by the article. As the article states, “Readers can recognize words by using various skills – phonics, sight words, structural analysis, and context clues.” The centers cater to the reading skills listed by the model description. During the reading centers time, students are sent to reading level appropriate centers to work in partners. The lowest proficiency level students sit with me and work on reviewing the Tucker Signing Method. The next group works with my assistant using the scaffolding Nacho Book which builds on syllable combinations (ma, me, mi, mo, mu, pa, pe, pi, po, pu, etc). Then there are additional centers where the students can play either syllable match games, or sight words match games. The last center we have is one level 1 books which the kids can independently read.
Word Walls
I would like to include a display in my classroom like Cornejo’s Spanish Word Frequency List. I feel that my students could use having such a tool readily available for them to continue to grow as readers and writers.
Reading Portfolio’s
Based on the “Reading With Purpose” article, I would like to somehow incorporate reading porfolio’s with the students. I think that I would have them choose a book which they would like to read, create a book report in which they reflect on the reading as well as practice writing. I would provide students with sentence starters for them to use while writing. This would allow for students with varying reading levels to read and comprehend the text at a higher order thinking level.
Conclusion
Overall I have full confidence that Solin will be a successful student. During a very hard time in his life (his parents’ divorce) he has flawlessly mastered how to read at a Kindergarten level, and is continuously making strides to improve his Spanish language proficiency. I feel that Solin would be able to make greater gains if he was in a Dual Language Immersion Program, in which he would get to be able to use lessons such as “The Bridge” and “The Dictado.” It is lessons like these that make language acquisition and differentiation that much more meaningful. I feel that the best way I can support Solin and other bilingual students such as Solin is to continue talking to the PSI community at large about the benefits of having a DLI program instead of a One-Way Immersion school.
References
Daily Five http://www.thedailycafe.com/
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