Michael Mullen's Podcast

Introduction of student Carlos is 10 years old from Lima, Peru. He has moved from Peru to Florida about 2 years ago and is in the Emergent Fluency level of ESOL. He teacher had explained to me that he is a very smart young boy, one of her best math students, but struggles in reading. He understands English and can speak it well, she explained to me that he would translate things for his parents who are not as good with speaking English, but he is still having trouble with reading English. That being said, Carlos is very bright and enjoys school very much.

I = Interviewer S = Student

I - Good Morning S- Good Morning I- Alright, what is your name? S - My name is, uh, Carlos ( seemed to hesitate a little when asked name) I - Carlos? S - Carlos I - How old are you Carlos? S - I am 10 years old ( again, little hesitation from him) I - 10 years old, Where are you from? S- I, uh, I was born in Peru I - where in Peru? S- Lima I - Is it pretty there? S - YES , (he seemed really excited when I asked him about his home city) uh, there, uh, are lots of parks and trees, I grew lived in a neighbor hood that had a lot of parks which was really nice I - was it, What grade are you in Carlos S - I am in the uh, fifth grade, ( wasn't to sure which grade he was in) I- do you like school? S - I do like school, I do like school I - what do you like about school? S - I like uh math and uh social studies, like when we talk about social studies we talk about everything, it’s interesting I – is it, So what is you family like, any brothers and sisters? S – I have uh, I have my one, my mom my dad and my younger brother, he is uh in the first grade I – The first grade, you like to play with him a lot S- yes, but he is much younger so he doesn’t like the games I play, but I like to play with him somethimes I – What do you like to do in you free time? S – I like to play with my You-Gi-Oh cards… I – That still around? S – Yea we still play, its a lot of fun I – Where do your parents work S – My mother does cleaning work for a place and my dad does, how do you say, UPS driver I – Ups Driver, do you normally speak English at home or do you speak Spanish? S- I speak Spanish I – you speak Spanish S- Española Si I – Do your parents know English or.. S – Little, my mom can speak more than my dad but she speaks Spanish more than English I – You dad doesn’t speak much English S- no he is much older and don’t like to say it I - When did you move to Florida? S – we moved here 2 years ago I – do you know why? S – my parents wanted to move here for better work I – Do you like it hear? S- yes I do like it here, its uh, well the beach is close and I like the park Busch Gardens, we go there a lot if we are not doing anything on weekends I – Ok well I am done asking questions, wait do you like to read? S – I can read (thought it was interesting that he didn’t really state if he liked to read though) I – Have you read this book Polar bear, Polar Bear? S – No I – You haven’t read this yet, well can you read it for me out loud? S – Ok (seemed a little un eased by it) I – ok let’s get started S- Pol..polar bear polar bear what do you, what do you hear, I hear a lion rowing..roaring in my ear, lion lion what do you hear, I hear a hip…hippooopotamus snorting in my ear ( had trouble with this word had to help him out) Hippopotamus hippopotamus what do you hear, I hear a flamingo, Fl… I – Fluting S- fluting in my ear, flamingo flamingo what do you hear, I hear a, a sebra (had trouble with his “z” sound) br…braying in my ear, sebra sebra what do you hear, I hear a boa con, con, con, I – Constrictor S – Constrictor hissing in my ear, boa constrictor, boa constrictor what do you hear, I hear a Elephant tr.. I – Trumpeting S – Trumpeting in my ear, Elephant elephant what do you hear, I hear a lea..leopard snarling in my ear, leopard leopard what do you hear, I hear a pea(sounded out each letter) pea… I – Peacock S- Peacock? I – yes S – peacock yel…yel.. I – yelping S – yelping in my ear peacock peacock what do you hear I hear a wal, walrus bellowing in my ear (surprised he got bellowing right the first time he said it) walrus walrus what do you hear, I hear a soo keeper wh, whistling in my ear, soo keeper soo keeper what do you hear, I hear chil…children…growling like a poolar bear, rowing like a lion, snorting like a hippopotamus, fluting like a flamingo, braying like a sebra, hissing like a boa con…strictor, trumpeting like a elephant, snarling like a leopard, yelping like a pea…peacock, bellowing like a walrus. That is what I hear. I – did you like that story? S – yes I – Alright now can you write me a couple of sentences about your favorite part of the book, and if you want you can draw a picture (student then wrote one sentence about his favorite animal ,although like when he read, there was no punctuation at all, he spent more time on his drawing than he did his sentence) I – Alright what was your favorite part about the book? S – I liked the pictures I – The pictures, what did you like about the pictures? S – The colors… I – nice, was there any animal you liked in the story? S – I liked the lion I – can you roar for me like a lion S- …I’m shy I – ok, well thank you Carlos and have a nice day

Analysis Overall, I thought Carlos could speak English very well, although there were some hesitation when i asked him a couple of questions. I can tell that he is Emergent fluency by how he was able to understand me and respond immediately. I was at first confused why he wasn't further along in his ESOL program but then I asked his to read the story. I thought it was interesting when I asked him if he liked to read he just said that "I can read" telling me that his strong suit is not reading and writing. My student Carlos was very well behaved and showed a lot of enthusiasm about different topics. His teacher told me that he does well in math, science and social studies, but does have a hard time with reading. She went on to tell me that he is one of her top math students but in the lowest reading group of the class.

Reading Sample analysis: I had Carols read Eric Carls Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear? As he was reading, I noticed that he wasn't really putting any type of punctuation into his reading. It seemed as though he was just reading through something to get over it. I did notice when I asked him to read something he seemed at first like he didn't really want to participate, but he did go through with it. Words that he seemed to get tripped up on were words that had two vowels together, vowel diphthongs, particularly the "ea" diphthong. I also noticed that he had trouble with the "z" pronunciation, sounding it like an "s" sound. Another thing i noticed in his reading was that in some of the words he would sound out all the letters, like in the word "peacock," he would sound out the p-e-a-c-o-c-k. He is in his classes Tier 3 for reading and is only reading on a 3rd grade reading level at best. I think this could be because of two different scenarios. One is that he could just need more practice with reading English, I would suggest working on vowel diphthongs with him in flashcard form, or just doing some one on one reading with him. Another thing that could be the problem is he could be reading disabled. The only reason I think this could be a problem is because he does understand and speak English very well. It's easy for us to assume he is having trouble reading because he is an ELL, and not think anything else, but I think there should be just a quick check and see if it is not something more. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Writing analysis: After Carlos read the story, I had him do a little writing activity for me. I asked him to write some sentences for me about his favorite part of the story. He only seemed to write one sentence and spend most of his time drawing a picture of his favorite animal. His writing overall is very legible and i can tell what he is writing about. Like in his reading though, he didn't seem to have any kind of punctuation in hi sentence. there were also some spelling errors with not adding the silent "e" to some of his words. He didn't want to write very much so I didn't really force it on him. some simple suggestions I would give for him to better write would be for him to have a dialogue journal with the teacher just to get him to feel more comfortable with writing. The journals are a good way for teachers to monitor progress with students quietly and privately. Another thing I would do is have a word wall in the classroom somewhere that the teacher can add new words or difficult words. this is just something as a quick reference for students to see how the words are spelled.