Case Study Part 1 Kidwatching Description and Reflection PDF

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Required for ENG315WI Kristen Sovis...

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Pandola 1

Olivia Pandola Professor Sovis ENG315WI February 16th, 2019 Case Study Part 1: Kidwatching Description and Reflection

Understanding How Language & Literacy Develop (Focal Student)

The focal student of this assignment is Avery, who is a ten-year-old girl in Ms. Dusenberry’s classroom at Shepherd Elementary School. Thus far, it appears she is an intermediate writing student; Avery definitely has room for improvement, but she also has the determination to succeed and build upon her skills. It is also worth mentioning that Avery seems to be very thorough in her work. Overall, she appears to get along pretty well with everyone in the class. Avery actually seems to be close with one girl also in the same writing group-- Taylor. Generally, this focal student is very bubbly; she is a social girl in general. She has also mentioned that she has a younger sister, and is very close to her mother.

Avery has a profound passion for drawing, and an amazing artistic ability to show for it. She excels at paying attention to detail in her work. In her spare time, she also enjoys riding horses with her father. Generally, she is extremely interested in animals of all kinds, especially horses. There is not much known about her cultural background. It is only visible that she is Caucasian. Descent has never come up in our conversations, really. Regarding strengths Avery can work upon, she can focus on enhancing her speed that she works at. She is very thorough but also holds herself back in terms of time because she obsessively precise in her writing process. Avery can also learn to embrace the imperfection that comes with writing. .She strives for a final draft the first time she writes and does not want to acknowledge that there is a whole process to be had in terms of reaching a well written final copy.

Interacting with Children (Focal Student)

Pandola 2 When it comes to the types of interactions I typically am able to have with my focal student, she and I mainly focus on her writing piece for the day. Right off the bat, I will ask her what she needs me to help her with and she always comes prepared with a different answer. Sometimes she will shift the topic to something not related to writing, which we will briefly discuss, and then I will guide the conversation back to what we’re doing. Although she is quite entertaining, our time together is limited. Also with this, it is my job to check in on each student in my writing group, so I try to keep each interaction as concise but meaningful as possible.

Thus far, I have learned that Avery is a combined visual and auditory learner; both work together to provide her a solid comprehension. She needs her teacher to vocalize what is being addressed while also providing some sort of visual. I have found that showing her how to interact with her text by underlining and putting stars by key phrases to be very helpful in organizing her work in a visual learning sense. Likewise, we have gone over reading our work aloud to listen for grammatical errors or run-on senses to appeal to her auditory learning.

Regarding using probing questions to learn more about my focal student, there are two key ways that I can do this. For one, asking “why” based probing questions shows my personal value for what Avery already knows as a foundation of what the class is trying to comprehend. Another way this can be done is including “how” questions; these probe Avery’s thought process and thus generate my feedback through our collective interactions. Using these questions overall analyzes her answers, challenge her knowledge, and overall enriches the context of our conversations.

Observing or Documenting Children’s Knowledge (Focal Student)

To address what Avery seems to understand about language-- she overall has a tight lid on everything. Orally, she is fluent in speech, which indicates a strong comprehension of language

Pandola 3 proficiency. Her literary skills are also good; she does very well when introducing topic sentences and relating body sentences back to the main idea. Avery also excels in reading aloud and writing neatly. One example that promotes evidence of language development is Avery’s confusion with homophones. When I first met her, she confused her “their” and “which”. However, as time has progressed, she interacted more with these words more, and now-- these spelling errors have begun to diminish in her work. Without this sign of progression, there would be no way to conclude language development. This example right here promotes the idea that Avery’s knowledge of the literary language is definitely present and strong, but it simply needed some fine tuning to move forward. By interacting more with these words, it solidified her comprehension of homophones and remembering which spelling corresponds with the various meanings of a same-sounding word. Indefinitely, it can be concluded that she understands the basics of language, but she (and the rest of the class) is still learning the finer details that she will become familiarized with as she continues her time throughout school.

Regarding which settings Avery uses more or less oral language, she tends to incorporate more oral language in a one-on-one setting. Although she is not shy in a group setting, she seems more at ease speaking with someone directly rather than collectively speaking out. With this in mind, Avery appears most confident in individual settings-- such as sitting at her desk or working with a partner. However, this does not mean she seems tense when participating in whole-class activities. She will raise her hand and participate in group discussions, as well. Generally, my focal student tends to show preference of working alone when given a specific writing task, such as creating an outline or typing parts of her piece. She needs space to focus on her own. In contrast, she enjoys brainstorming and bouncing off ideas with her classmates and teacher, showing a preference for working in a group setting before taking action on the actual writing.

Overall, I would say Avery is very attentive during discussions when other children participate, and especially when Ms. Dusenberry is speaking. She even sometimes goes so far as to jot little notes in her writer’s notebook as inspiration strikes throughout class discussions. In regards to activities that this

Pandola 4 focal student chooses, she prefers to go with activities that give her the freedom to imagine. For example, she enjoys free-writing stories from various standpoints and genres. It also appears that Avery likes being part of activities that allow her to speak; she thoroughly enjoys reading aloud in their classroom corner to some of the other students.

To address the ways in which the focal student adjusts language to new surroundings-- this can be expressed mainly in the level of formality found in her tone. When she is speaking to Ms. Dusenberry, Avery will take on a very polite and professional-like tone. This same style can also be applied to her writing; all signs of casualty are gone. However, she shifts to a more personal, laid back tone when talking to her friends and fellow classmates. In general, Avery is very successful in getting tasks done when she has space to work on her own, and quietness in the background. If given these conditions, she is able to deeply focus and go into her work without an issue. On the other hand, Avery tends to get sidetracked and confused when there is a lot of side chatter going on during writing time. If other students are no taking their work seriously (which rarely happens), then Avery tends to adapt to this behavior and becomes distracted and off-task herself. From an educational standpoint, Avery is confused when too many instructions are thrown at her simultaneously. For best results, it is important to break down steps in the writing process for her to help her accomplish smaller objectives before moving onto the next big objective.

Engaging in Self Evaluation (You)

Regarding how my interactions facilitate children’s learning, I would say that overall I try to focus on the process (rather than the goal) during writing time. I usually will ask Avery and the other students exploratory questions that help extend their purpose as they write. For example, I always try to question the purpose of a student’s piece to remind them of what they really need to focus on when they

Pandola 5 become distracted by the finer details. I have noticed this to be a common issue among the students in Ms. Dusenberry’s class. However, this tactic has seemed to be fairly helpful in keeping each student organized and focused on the content of the piece rather than the minor aspects.

In general, I am finding that this method is working very well in helping keep my group of students on track with their work. Another tactic that I’ve found to be very successful in having my students read their pieces aloud to me in order to listen for run-on sentences and other grammar issues that may be hidden in their work. Each time they discover something new, I remind them of how easy it is check for errors simply by taking the time to go through their work out loud. Although there is nothing specific that is not really “going well”, I continue to find that I am learning from my own mistakes in the way I phrase certain things. I have to remind myself that although these children are a little older, some of the terms I’ve used-- they may not be aware of yet. With that in mind, it is a constant battle with myself to include words they are familiar with while conferring with them so they can truly benefit from our interactions.

Regarding how my beliefs about language and literacy influence the opportunities I provide, I feel as though my general outlook on everything is very optimistic-- there is always room to grow. With that in mind, the opportunities I give my students are based on my own desires to push them to their fullest potential because I know they can do it. Although this may seem difficult for them at times, it gives them the chance to motivate themselves to work harder and expand on their learning to really grow as writers. In hindsight, I am not sure that I can actually say that I am allowing for exploration of multiple literacies with my focal student. During our short time together, the kids are already usually provided materials and forms of literacy in which they are to only use for their assignment. With that being said, it is not really my place to allow for this exploration; regardless if I support multiple literacies, Avery has already been given a handful of literary work she is to interact with-- leaving me with little room to implement this on my own.

Pandola 6 By taking on a kid watching perspective into the classroom, it is influencing the way I work with my focal student by helping me serve her better due to my deeper-level observations from this perspective. Through following the thorough method for observing Avery, I am better able to see what she is struggling with, what she excels in, and what makes her unique. From this knowledge, I can use all of it to create a cohesive plan for how I think I can best help her with all of her literary issues. The next step in instruction for my focal student really depends on what she struggles with the most. Since the children have just started their “Memoir Unit”, it is hard to say what she will need the most help with because they have just begun and every concept is new. However, if I had to designate a step of instruction for her, I would make it my mission to gather a baseline for what she already knows in order to improve from there....