Blog Entry #7
This week I worked with Jake, a 6th grader (he picked his own pseudonym). Jake speaks Spanish at home and is in my homeroom class. He is fluent in conversational English and his a B/C student in my class. I also worked with Derek, an 8th grader. I chose Derek's pseudonym and he has spoken both English and German from birth. I work in a small charter school in Colorado and it was a challenge to locate a native speaker of a language other than Spanish.
I gave both students a passage from Anne of Avonlea, Derek had 2 slight errors. Jake had 6.
Neither student made miscues in syntax. Jake pronounced "Anne" as "Annie throughout." His other errors were minor, and would be found in readers of any reader, including native English speakers.
Some of the teaching points with this data: Both students are fluent readers in English I would not foresee reading instruction needed with either student. Jake was a reluctant participant in this exercise, but was willing to be "drafted." Derek was an eager participant.
Jake has had some issues with comprehension in Shakespeare and some minor vocab issues when working with text, but so have some of my native English speakers. I would account for this by attributing it to vocabulary heard at home/in his day to day environment. His academic English is good. However, some of his vocabulary that a Native Speaker may pick up at home seems to be lacking from time to time.
Derek, in my time with him and according to his teachers is fluent in both conversational and academic English and German. No remediation with him is necessary.
I gave both students a passage from Anne of Avonlea, Derek had 2 slight errors. Jake had 6.
Neither student made miscues in syntax. Jake pronounced "Anne" as "Annie throughout." His other errors were minor, and would be found in readers of any reader, including native English speakers.
Some of the teaching points with this data: Both students are fluent readers in English I would not foresee reading instruction needed with either student. Jake was a reluctant participant in this exercise, but was willing to be "drafted." Derek was an eager participant.
Jake has had some issues with comprehension in Shakespeare and some minor vocab issues when working with text, but so have some of my native English speakers. I would account for this by attributing it to vocabulary heard at home/in his day to day environment. His academic English is good. However, some of his vocabulary that a Native Speaker may pick up at home seems to be lacking from time to time.
Derek, in my time with him and according to his teachers is fluent in both conversational and academic English and German. No remediation with him is necessary.
Hey Jan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. My conclusions were very similar to yours. My two students whom I worked with had errors that could have been interchangeable with any native English speaker at their same reading level. As a kindergarten teacher I wasn't sure if this was because we are all just beginning readers. It is nice to see that you collected similar data from students at the middle school level!
Elizabeth