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Elizabeth Stevens

20 November 2014

TTE357-001

Benchmark Assignment Part I

MannyDescription of Child

Manny* is a six year old boy who is of Mexican descent. I learned from Meet Your

Teacher Night that he lives with his mother, older brother, and two older sisters (anecdotal notes

in ON on 8/1/14). The primary language spoken in his home is Spanish by his mother to her

children (child interview in Evernote on 10/3/14). The children, including Manny speak English

at school and to each other. In mid-October, a girl who is a monolingual Spanish speaker joined

our class and I have heard Manny speaking Spanish with her to clarify directions (anecdotal

notes in Evernote on 10/31/14). His mother is also from Mexico but I have yet to find out where

specifically (mentor teacher interview on iPad on 10/3/14). Manny enjoys playing soccer with a

few of his close friends in our class and they use another boys’ soccer ball (anecdotal notes in

Evernote on 9/8/14). When Manny scores a goal, he likes to reenact professional soccer players’

celebrations by running in a big circle with his arms spread out like wings and screaming

“Goal!!!!!!!!!” (anecdotal notes in Evernote on 11/10/14). He played on a community team on

the weekends but the season ended during the week before Thanksgiving (child interview on

iPad on 10/3/14). He rides the bus to and from school so I have only met his family once but

communicate with them through notes home (anecdotal notes on 8/1/14). Manny’s favorite foods

are ice cream and pizza and he loves going to Walmart with his mother (anecdotal notes in

Evernote on 11/3/14). He loves to help his friends during math time and enjoys writing in his

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journal and getting the cheer “Kiss your brain!” during instruction for his good work (anecdotal

notes 11/10/14).

Initial Analysis of Child’s Development

Physical Development

Manny has silver cavity fillings (anecdotal observation in ON 8/1/14). When school first

started, Manny’s arm was in a cast (anecdotal observation in ON 8/1/14) but was

removed (anecdotal note 8/20/14). During carpet time, Manny is able to sit criss cross for

about 4 minutes but extending to sit his bottom on his feet (anecdotal observation in ON

9/21/14).

Social and Emotional Development

During our classroom meeting, Manny was able to address his concerns with a classmate

of his (anecdotal observation in ON 9/24/14). This data indicates that Manny is capable

of expressing his feelings to others. During recess, Manny plays soccer with four other

male students (anecdotal observation in ON 8/6/14).

Language Development

Manny’s adult teeth placement has impeded his speech and pronunciation of certain

sounds like “s” and “t” (anecdotal observation in ON 9/17/14). Manny has “informal

sessions with the speech pathologist (teacher interview in ON on 9/15/17) and soon will

be regulated to formal sessions.

Reading and Language Arts skills

Manny was placed in to the 1-5 SFA reading level group (SFA Assessments) which is a

kindergarten level reading group. Manny has gotten 100% three consecutive weeks in a

row on the weekly spelling tests (spelling tests).

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Math skills

Manny can count to 100, write numbers up to 20, can recognize single digit and two digit

numbers up to 19, and can construct larger numbers using place value (Math assessment

checklist 9/10/14). Manny can count by tens (anecdotal observation in ON 8/11/14).

Social studies skills

Manny recites the Pledge of Allegiance every morning with his classmates every morning

(anecdotal observation in ON 9/22/14).

Science skillsManny sorted shapes into groups based on attributes (anecdotal observation in ON

9/22/14).

Description Assessment Tools

The different assessment tools that I used when working with Manny this semester are

varied. I have three main vessels that carried all of my assessment tools. The first vessel that I

used early on in the semester was my observation notebook (noted as ON in this written report).

It is a spiral notebook kept in my bag when not in use where I kept anecdotal notes on paper,

placed anecdotal notes on post-it notes, content checklists for math which assessed if he could

count to 100, his number recognition and his prior place value knowledge, copies of assessments

done for SFA, like fast track phonics which assessed Manny’s knowledge of sounds and red

words for the previous ten days, given to me by my mentor teacher, and interviews recording

anecdotally with Manny and my mentor teacher.

The second vessel was my iPad and its media recording devices such as video and photo

camera. My iPad that was issued to me by the University of Arizona is password protected and

kept in my bag when not in use and was not allowed to be used by a child without my

supervision. On the video, I recorded Manny reading and writing during SFA. On the photos, I

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took photographs of work samples like math review packets, SFA partner practice books, SFA

shared stories, SFA writing books, journal entries, penmanship book pages, and Manny in the

classroom exploring books and during writing time to examine his physical development of his

fine motor control.

The third vessel is a vessel within a vessel but I consider it its own entity as I share it

across multiple devices like my iPad, iPhone, and computer and that is Evernote. Evernote is an

electronic application that I first downloaded to my iPad, then later the other devices, and it

organizes my anecdotal notes and checklists into different “notebooks” for different content and

developmental areas like SFA, cognitive, physical, language, social/emotional, social studies,

science, and child input for the presentation that will accompany this written report.

An additional vessel that wasn’t as widely used was my iPhone. My iPhone is password

protected that was kept in my bag when not in use and was never given to a child to use. I used

the audio recording device on my iPhone to conduct an interview with the school’s speech

pathologist and to assess Manny on how high he can count and what sounds he knew.

Analysis in Child’s Growth

Physical Development

Manny currently writes his letters during writing time by following the description given

by myself and my mentor teacher of the lines on writing paper that the top line is the sky,

the dotted line is the gate, and the bottom line is the grass and his letters aren’t floating as

much (photo on iPad on 10/29/14).

Social and Emotional Development

Manny displayed friendly behavior during reading group time when he pulls up a chair

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for a girl who seats in a chair rather than sitting on the rug with Manny and the rest of the

class (anecdotal notes in Evernote on 11/3/14).

Language Development

Having been regulated to one 15-minute session with the speech pathologist every

Monday (audio recording on iPhone on 10/20/14), Manny’s production of the “t” is less

like “tch” due to the pinky technique given by the speech pathologist where Manny

places the tip of his pinky between his front teeth without biting and placing the tip of his

tongue on the tip of the pinky to help remind Manny of tongue placement (video

recording on iPad on 10/22/14).

Reading and Language Art Skills

Mastered the long vowel sounds “a_e”, “i_e”, and “o_e” (video recording on iPad on

11/10/14) and moved from levels 5-10 to 11-20 in SFA (interview recording in Evernote

on 12/4/14).

Math Skills

Mastered counting to 120 by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s (anecdotal notes in Evernote on

11/10/14). Manny is able to compose numbers to 99 using base ten blocks (anecdotal

notes 11/3/14). Mastered number recognition up to 99 (anecdotal notes in Evernote on

11/10/14). Mastered telling time to the hour and half hour (anecdotal notes in Evernote

on 11/3/14).

Social Studies Skills

Wrote an informative paragraph of inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Benjamin

Franklin and reported both inventors’ accomplishments and life histories in great detail

(anecdotal notes in Evernote on 11/5/14).

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Science Skills

Identifies multiple technologies invented by Alexander Graham Bell and Benjamin

Franklin in an informative paragraph (anecdotal notes in Evernote on 11/5/14).

Child’s Strengths and Areas Future Growth

Physical Development

Manny possess many physical strengths due to his athleticism gained from playing

soccer, making his gross motor control well developed (anecdotal notes in Evernote on

11/10/14). An area for future growth would be his fine motor control when writing to

really focus on the lines of the paper and use those guides of the sky, grass, and fence

(photograph on iPad on 11/12/14). I suggest that a penmanship activity book be created

for Manny to practice at home, with things like tracing activities and coloring pages,

perhaps integrating the activities with his interest of soccer.

Language Development

A strength that Manny possess is his command over his bilingualism. Despite being in an

ELD classroom, Manny tries to find the word to express him in English rather than

reverting back to Spanish (anecdotal notes in Evernote on 12/8/14). An area for future

growth would be his production of the sound “s”. While his “t” did grow, his “s” still

sounds like “sh” (video recording on iPad on 10/22/14). I suggest that a copy of the

speaking exercise be given to both his general education teacher and his family so that all

know what he is working on during speech sessions so that the practice is continuous.

Reading and Language Art Skills

A strength that Manny possesses is his command over learning and retaining most sounds

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taught to him (video recording on iPad on 10/22/14). An area for future growth would be

to focus on certain blending sounds such as “sp” and “ng” (video recording on iPad on

10/22/14). I suggest that a guided reading lesson be designed to target these sounds.

Math Skills

A strength that Manny possess is his command of most strategies to help him problem

solve. In my placement, my mentor teacher creates anchor charts for every mathematical

concept and places them in the classroom as a resource for the students to use during

instruction. Some students forget to go right to the anchor chart when they are figuring

out a problem, but Manny always goes straight to the anchor charts to remind himself of

a strategy that he can use (anecdotal notes in Evernote on 11/10/14). An area for future

growth would be to focus on is explaining his answer (anecdotal notes about a math

benchmark in Evernote on 12/8/14). The Arizona College and Career Ready Standards in

Mathematics focus on a student being able to explain how they got an answer. Since

Manny is in an ELD classroom, my mentor teacher allows him to orally explain his

answer and we want him to give it in a complete sentence. I suggest creating a list of

sentence stems for him to access and use during instruction.

*Names have been changed to protect those involved.