Case Study Part 2 Reflection Oscar has extremely low literacy in both English and Spanish, and his parents do as well. It important to increase his literacy in both languages. An increase in his Spanish ability will help him increase his English ability as he will be more knowledgeable about language. Research has shown that reading in the native language aids the acquisition of and reading ability in a second language (Rivera). An effort needs to be made to work with his parents on increasing their literacy as well. Upon investigation it may be found they do not speak English in the workplace, so we need to work on their Spanish literacy. As I work with Oscar on his literacy, I can send home Spanish literacy lessons for him to do at home with his parents. While he is working on Spanish with his parents, a minor majority, say 60% - 70% of his literacy work in the classroom will be working on English, with the other time spent on Spanish. Learning Goals The start needs to be an intensive effort to bring him up to speed with his vocabulary. Instituting flash cards of common English words and upgrading them as he learns the vocabulary. He has trouble with reading in both languages, he does not like it, but if he does not know the words, why would he like it. A reward system needs to be set up for him to help him achieve his/my goals for him. Note cards need to be send home in Spanish which he can work on with his family to increase their literacy in their native language. While we are doing this, we need to work with Oscar on a collaborative approach to English. We need to work with him on being able to exchange information and ideas by talking with his classmates. He needs to work on formulating his own ideas and being able to express them in English. We need to take his love of video games and use this platform to get him to communicate with his classmates. Start with a topic he loves doing and use that to teach him how to formulate thoughts in English and communicate those thoughts. As he develops in being able to form ideas in English while speaking, we need to take this to the next level and get him to interact with others through the written word. Get him a pen pal/email pal who does not go to the same school. Teach him how to write down his thoughts in an email and send them to someone new. Then to begin to interact with that person will help him grow his grasp of English. We could use the same tactic and get him a friend in a Spanish speaking country and have him share the same ideas but in Spanish, so his literacy in both languages is addressed. The key is raising his literacy level, helping him to expand his vocabulary in both languages so he can communicate better both orally and through written word. We need him to practice listening to his classmates as they share and then restate or write down what they have said to make sure he is understanding what is being communicated. Have them talk about a video game he does not have, then ask him to give a recap of the game so we can analyze how he did in his listening. Classroom Grouping and Scaffolding Classroom grouping is a particularly important element in helping Oscar to improve his literacy in both languages. In a large group, he can hide and not have to interact very much or at all. The students need to be put in groups of different levels of knowledge of the material. If the purpose of the group learning activity is to help struggling students, the research shows that heterogeneous groups may help most (Johnson ). Oscar needs to be challenged to be a part of the group and participate. I can imagine giving each member of the group a one 1 Case Study Part 2 page story to read, and the other students have an information sheet on the story and they need to fill in the appropriate answers as the student read. It will be important to make sure there is Spanish speaking student to help if Oscar needs it. Having Oscar listens to short stories or news articles with blanks to fill in will help him with his understanding of English. Short ones can also be sent home to work on with his parents in Spanish. We must not forget we need to work on his literacy in both languages. Occasionally in class we make have him do this assignment in Spanish as a group if enough Spanish speaking students are available or one on one if that is all we can do. We would be working on reading and comprehension. Being able to hear a story or a news article and pull out the information which is most important. They would get pre-printed papers for them to fill in the important details of the story. A scaffold is a temporary support provided to students to help them achieve a learning goal. Scaffolds are distinct from accommodations or modifications (El Education). Conclusion I would break the students down into groups of 4. I would tailor a reading assignment for the students. Something short, maybe ½ page to ¾ of a page. It would be of a historical event, each group getting a different event from the same period of history. I would have them each read a paragraph out loud. They will need to work on their pronunciation and show an understanding of sentence structure. When everyone has finished reading. I would have then work on a sheet graphically organized to have blanks for the key points of information. They will take turns coming up with the answers for each question orally. Then the group would discuss if the answer fulfills all the requirements of the question and they will fill it in. Then share it with the class. This way the class learns about an event from their fellow students. They will be able to ask questions about the groups event and the group will work together to answer the question. Then as a whole class we will go over a summation of the events we have discussed. References EL Education, retrieved from: https://eleducation.org/resources/helping-all-learners-scaffolding Johnson, Ben, 2011, Student Learning Groups: Homogeneous or Heterogeneous? Edutopia, retrieved form: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-grouping-homogeneous-heterogeneousben-johnson Rivera, Klaudia, 1999, Native Language Literacy and Adult ESL Learners, Center for Adult English Language Acquisition, retrieved from: https://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/natlit2.html 2
