+ Background Information

For the last five weeks of my student teaching

experience I was placed in Park Avenue Elementary of
the Freehold Borough School District. The
demographics of the school are largely Latino. Many
students and their families come from Mexico and other
countries in Central America. For my student growth
assessment I worked with a student named Marta. Marta
is in 5th grade and is a port-of-entry student. This means
that she recently came to the United States. More
specifically, she and her family came from Mexico last
year. When Marta arrived she spoke no English. In
Freehold Borough, their ESL program relies heavily on
reading and phonics instruction. That being said, when I
arrived at my placement, my cooperating teacher
suggested that I try to bring Marta up a reading level.
Marta just reached a Fountas and Pinnell Level E. With
the little time I had with her, I wanted her to progress
and her to feel like she made some type of growth whil
working with me as her teacher. I proposed the idea of
working with sight words to my cooperating teacher. My
idea behind working with sight words, is that Marta sees
these words every day when shes reading, knowing
them and being exposed to them in different contexts
will eventually help her to improve her reading and
writing.

+Pre-assessment

Dr. Edward B. Frys list of words, are known as the most

common words used in English. His lists are ranked in order
of frequency. For my pre assessment, I gave Marta lists of fry
words to read. She and I were looking at the same lists as she
read aloud. We began with the first 100 words. I used a
window card to reveal words one at a timethis method
screened the other words and allowed Marta to focus on one
word at a time. For each word that she read I either marked
my sheet with a check, D, or NR. I marked a check next to the
word if Marta correctly pronounced the word in less than one
second (informally timed). I marked a D for decoded, next to
words that she took more time to read and pronounce
accurately. I also marked a D next to words that she
mispronounced, but that she corrected using her knowledge
of phonics. I did not have to put NR (no response) next to any
of the words because she read each word from the list.
Marta read the first 100 Fry Words with ease. She recognized
words automatically without having to use strategies to
decode. We then moved on to the second 100 words. Among
those words, the only word she needed to decode was spell.
At first she read to word as spill; however I prompted her to
look at the word again and use her thumb buddy to help her
sound the word out. She was then able to self-correct her
pronunciation.

+ Pre-assessment

I decided to test her on the third 100 words since she was
doing so well. This list was clearly more challenging for her
as she decoded 18 of the 100 words. For the words that she
decoded and seemed unsure of, I decided to ask her if she
knew what they meant. Her answer was no. Thus, I briefly
explained each decoded word and modeled how to use them
in a sentence both in English and Spanish. I decided to
choose 8 of those 18 words to work with each time I met with
Marta. Most of these words were prepositions. By request of
my cooperating teacher I also added the words before and
after to Martas listbringing the list to a total of 10 words. My
cooperating teacher realized that in doing guided reading
with Marta, she was having a difficult time deciphering the
concept of these time order words.
While the Fry Words assessment was my main form of preassessment. I also had a Fountas and Pinnell running record
of Marta. She was tested at a Level E on her independent
level. She had a total of 4 miscuesnone of which she selfcorrected, and all of which were due to meaning. This brought
her to 93% accuracy in reading the text. In her final score,
Marta was unable to demonstrate understanding 3 of the 4
comprehension questions. Her F&P assessment demonstrated
her accuracy in fluency and showed comprehension as her
weakness.

+ Pre-assessment

+ Pre-assessment

+Pre-assessment

+Pre-assessment

+ Pre-assessment

+ Pre-assessment

+ Rationale

After completing my pre-assessment with Marta, I realized

that she was able to properly pronounce almost any word you
put in front of her. This is due to the program they use in Park
Avenue Elementary, called Jump Start. Jump Start is a phonicsbased program and because the majority of students in the
school are either classified as ESL or bilingual, teachers are
required to incorporate Jump Start into their daily schedules.
This means that they review the letters of the alphabet, their
sounds, and chunks/blends every day. The repetition of Jump
Start and the emphasis on phonics allows students to grasp
the pronunciation of words and how to read words in the texts
that they were exposed to. However, it is my belief that these
ESL students need more support than just phonics-based
instruction to help them progress in the English language. I
believe that there needs to be a focus on comprehension, and
I could clearly see that after pre-assessing Marta. Marta was
able to say that words, but unable to define them and explain
their meaning. My rationale for working with the 10 chosen
sight words, is that knowing these words would help her to
improve her fluency, which would then help her to improve
her comprehension. You cannot have one skill without the
other and expect to progress. Therefore, it was my goal with
Marta to teach her these words so that she could recognize
them and fully comprehend their meaningultimately this
will make her a better reader and more proficient in the
English language.

+ Rationale

The key components of fluency are accuracy, speed, and

prosody. These components are referred to as the surface
constructs. Reading accuracy is measured by listening to a
student read out loud. As the student reads aloud a teacher
will count the number of miscues per 100 wordsthis is
done with a running record. Running records should be
given regularly in order to assure that students are reading
at their just-right level. Speed is then measure by using
tests of sight word knowledge and timed reading. This idea
of a student being timed while reading can also be
measured by doing a running record. The last key
component is prosody. Prosody is measured using a
checklist of reading expression while listening to a student
read aloud (Herrera, 164). When dealing with culturally
linguistic and diverse (CLD) students however, assessments
regarding these surface constructs are not always accurate
representations of their fluency skills. For CLD students the
dimensions of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction
need to be carefully considered as well, as these
dimensions have a large influence on the students fluency.
Phonemic awareness and phonics instruction help students
with decoding and articulation of orthographic cues
(spelling, punctuation, spacing, fonts, etc.). It is important to
utilize these deeper constructs and assessments with ELLs,
because fluency is a main indicator of their ability to
comprehend texts.

+ Rationale

In fluency instruction, accuracy in decoding words on

the page is one of the first measures of reading
fluency (Herrera, 166). These decoding skills can be
supported through transfer of phonological awareness
skills from the native language to those in English.
However, this transfer will only be successful if the CLD
student is able to connect the word to his/her three
cueing systems. This involves connections to
graphophonics and semantic and syntactic cues.
Graphophonic cues aid students in making connections
to the sounds of the native language and recognize
similarities between these sounds and the larger units of
speech sounds (166). Semantic and syntactic cues help
students understand the meaning base of the English
words as they are found in the sentence (167). Teachers
can support the CLD students cueing system by
partaking in discussions of cross-language transfer
issues with those students who have learned to read and
write in their native language. Decoding is a larger
obstacle for students who are unable to make these
connections with their native language. Providing a
context via text also supports CLD students in making
meaningful connections. Decoding becomes easier
when the student is readily able to connect the text to
his/her background knowledge.

+ Instructional Activities
Sight Words: Acting it Out

The pencil is between my laptop and the piece of

paper.

+ Instructional Activities
Sight Words: Acting it Out

I then replaced the pencil with the marker and asked Marta what
the sentence would be now. She responded with,"The marker is
in between your laptop and the paper."

+ Instructional Activities
Sight Words: Before and After

+ Instructional Activities
Sight Words: Before and After

+ Instructional Activities
Sight Words: Before and After

+ Post Assessment

Matching quiz:
The first step to comprehending new vocabulary is
having ESL students make the connection from their
L2 (target language) to their L1 (native language). As
per my lesson plans, I introduced Martas list of sight
words with each words corresponding Spanish
translation. This allows her to make that connection
and add to her existing schema in her native
language. After a few days of reviewing the sight
words and their Spanish translations, I distributed a
quiz to Marta. The objective was for her to match the
sight word to the correct translation in Spanish. I was
pleased to see that she was able to match all of the
words up correctly! Because I know that she can
make the connection to her L1, we are able to focus
on dissecting and using each sight word extensively
in English.

+ Post Assessment

+ Post Assessment

Sentences:
After a few days of composing sentences in school
with the sight words. I gave Marta homework. I told
her to write her own sentences using five of her sight
words. I am aware that nobody at home speaks
English, so this was a true assessment of whether or
not she was retaining the information weve gone
over as we worked together and if she was actually
learning from it. Marta was able to use the words in a
sentence, even though the sentences were similar to
a few we composed at school. The syntax of her
sentences demonstrate that she is able to form clear,
legible sentences. They make sense with few
grammatical errors.

+Post Assessment

+Post Assessment

Sentences:
For homework, Marta wrote sentences for her
remaining five sight words. This time, I asked her to
draw a picture next to her sentences. The remaining
words were: often, above, below, before, and after. For
often she drew a picture of the mall because her
sentence involved her going to the mall often. I think
that the picture would have conveyed more
understanding had Marta drawn herself in the
picture. From her pictures I was also able to see that
she did not yet fully understand the words below and
after.

+ Post Assessment

+ Post Assessment

+ Post Assessment

Fill in the Blank:

I provided Marta with sentences and a word bank.
She was to write the correct sight word in each blank.
Her ability to do this showed me that she could make
sense of the word in the context of a sentence.

+ Post Assessment

+Post Assessment

Draw a Picture:
One of the last assessments I did with Marta was to
have her draw a picture. For this assessment, I read
her a short paragraph that included her sight words.
As I read, she was prompted to draw. This not only
allowed me to see whether or not she was
comprehending the words based on her illustration, it
also challenged her listening skills. I found this
assessment to be particularly accurate for an ESL
student because sometimes it is difficult for a second
language learner to convey their understanding of
context through words. Having Marta draw a picture
showed me how she was processing these words in
her mind.

+ Post Assessment

+ Post Assessment

+ Post Assessment

Circle the Sight Word:

I read each sight word aloud and Marta was to
circlethe correct spelling. She circledeach word
correctly. This shows me that she can now recognize
each word rapidly and effortlessly.

+ Post Assessment

+ Reflection
Being a language teacher, it is absolutely imperative to know
each of your students backgrounds in literacy. This knowledge is
the first step in determining how your ELLs will succeed in reading
and writing. Many times, there is a vast difference between
children who have well-developed literacy skills in their home
languages and those who have little to no literacy skills. There are
several ways in how a students native language can impact their
progress in reading and writing. For one, if they have some
background in literacy they are most likely already aware that
print carries meaning. In addition, if a students L1 is alphabetic,
then they have already learned that phonemes represent
graphemes; and thus when combined, create words and meaning.
There is also a larger chance that these students are aware of how
they learn and process new knowledgethey can transfer
cognitive and meta-cognitive skills from their L1 to English. On the
other hand, students with little to no literacy skills in their L1 are
more likely to find reading and writing difficult (especially
because they are learning in their second language as oppose to
their first). The students that do fall behind are often
inappropriately referred to special education programs. In order to
avoid misclassification, teachers should first exhaust all teaching
strategies. This includes longer exposure to scaffolded instruction,
more direct, small-group instruction, and individual instruction. I
truly wish that I had more time with Marta, to work with her and to
gather more resources. Freehold Borough does not test their
students in their L1, which made it hard to decipher the literacy
skills that Marta may have already had in Spanish. If I worked in
this district, I do think that I would suggest testing port-of-entry
students in their L1 because it tells you concepts that they already
know in a different language. If they know a certain strategy or skill
in Spanish, it becomes easier to transfer those skills to English.
That is why I chose to use Spanish when working with Marta 1:1.
Not only did it make her more comfortable around me, it also
helped her make a connection to what she already knew in
Spanish. Her knowledge of these sight words in Spanish allowed
her to learn the words in English more quickly than say another
student who has not been exposed to these words in Spanish.

+ Reflection
Something else that I have thought about extensively are the
books that Marta has been exposed to. In the ESL program they are
very adamant about using Reading A-Z. While these books comes
with lesson plans, prepared worksheets and comprehension tests
that the students can take, I think that they do these students a
disservice. First of all, these books were not printed in colorand I
fully realized that printing these booklets in color for this district
was a matter of costbut the text that an ELL interacts with should
include vivid pictures. Using the pictures is one of the major
strategies that ELLs rely on when they are emerging and
developing readers; as the pictures help that to make sense of the
text, especially if they come across vocabulary they do not know.
Marta also is at a reading level E. For a 5th grader, this reading
level does not peek much interest to her. If I were to continue
working with her I would have tried to provide her with richer text
experiences. Perhaps provide her with intensive scaffolding as we
work through a text that is a couple reading levels above her just
right level, or find a nonfiction book. Marta was motivated in the
little time that I spent with her, I can not imagine how much more
motivated and inspire she would have been if we engaged in
books that held higher interest.
All in all, Marta reached the goal I set for her. Ten of the sight
words that she needed to decoded during her pre-assessment, she
is now able to recognize rapidly and effortlessly. Not only that, but
she now has grasped a solid understanding of what each word
means. This shows me that as an ESL teacher is simply not enough
to just expose ELL students to phonics instruction. They need
deeper interactions with the language. I happy that I was able to
provide that for Marta. If I had more time with her I would continue
to go through new sight words, as well as begin focusing on
academic vocabulary. She is a quick learner and her motivation
pushes her through her language barrier.

+ Reflection
In retrospect, and thinking of myself as a second
language learner, learning Spanish was always so much fun to
me, I was always eager to learn more. I strongly believe that
such a positive outlook on learning a new language was due to
the teachers I had. They were very supportive, willing to help,
and motivating. I valued that. Knowing that I had teachers who
were truly invested in my education as an individual student
really helped me to succeed. Knowing myself as a learner, I am
aware that I am able to adjust to different learning styles while
(most of the time) still being able to comprehend the content. I
am however, more of a visual learner. It was extremely helpful
when there were pictures that were incorporated into the
lesson. For example there might be pictures to go along with a
new set of vocabulary words, or there might be a few
illustrations alongside the short stories I was required to read.
Picturesbeing able to see the content next to the language
had a huge impact on how I processed any information. It
allowed for a more holistic understanding. I also remember
that speaking and using the target language in class was an
essential part of practice. We were to only use our native
language if we needed to ask a question that we didnt know
how to correctly phrase in Spanish. When one of the other
students in my class or I would do this, the teacher would
gently scaffold how we spoke, politely correcting us. We were
always encouraged to try to structure what we needed to say in
Spanish first, before resorting to English. I think building that
trust and foundation with Marta was the key to her sucess and
her ability to feel comfortable around me.When I have my own
class, my goal will be to motivate my students just as my
former teachers motivated me. I will provide them with as
much background knowledge and scaffolding necessary to
help them successfully acquire the English language. It is
important for me to be their role model and mentor because
that is who my teachers were to me.