Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Case Study - fascinating ELL with strong writing, weak reading and oral language
I have chosen as the subject for my case study a 2nd grade boy named Matthew, with very low reading skills and comprehension, and even lower apparent oral language skills. The very interesting thing is that he has above average writing skills. I'll go into much more detail later. Matthew is 8 years old and comes from a home where Cantonese is the primary language spoken. I don't believe there is anyone at home with whom he can practice his English. He came to the US with his parents a few years ago - I need to find out how long, as well as more details about his home life. I know his mother is at home, but I don't know about other family members yet. He is very difficult to understand when speaking, and he has trouble understanding both oral and written directions. My inexpert opinion is that his oral language is at about a pre-k to kindergarten level. He gets added support from an ESL teacher for 40 minutes a day in a pull-out environment. It is possible that the bulk of his issues come from difficulty with the English language, but I strongly suspect that there is a serious problem with his aural processing. I hope to find out much more through the course of my case study. In many ways he is a typical 8 year old boy - he likes sports, video games, animals, etc... In other ways he is quite unusual - he acts out in class, asks extremely silly questions, and has a very hard time focusing. One great plus for my research is that he is engaged and willing to please, and likes to interact with me one-on-one. I don't believe he has ADD or ADHD, but it is possible. One reason I chose Matthew as my subject is his aforementioned skill with writing. His ideas and sequencing are well developed, he can write large volumes, and explain his writing, and his handwriting and written vocabulary are at the top of the class. There is a serious disconnect somewhere which I intend to discover.
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Great overview of Matthew!
ReplyDeleteI am very excited to hear more about your case study student. He seems very interesting and I feel as though you will learn a lot from him. The only experience I have with such a child is there is a girl in my 5th grade class who just moved here in July from Korea. She did not speak a word of english when she arrived. She is very dedicated and I have seen a huge progress in her speaking since. She also gets pulled out for 40 minutes a day. She exceeds in math and struggles with everything else. This girl is starting to read and even write. She has taken a spelling test and received 100. A big difference between this girl and your case study student is that her mother can speak english. I think this helps a lot and plays a huge factor in why she is learning so quickly. I am very interested to hear more Matthew and his home life...
ReplyDeleteDavid-As I was reading your blog, I began to have so many questions about your case study student. Was this child able to get a perfect score on the spelling tests because the teachers back in China preferred the memorization method over making sure that they understood the concepts? How did his background education impact the areas such as handwriting style, writing large volumes of work, and acquring such technique to memorize vocabulary? Were you able to detect what kind of education he received and valued? How do you think it differs from ours? Do you think he might be going through a family struggle that keeps interfering his learning?
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, I was able to see how much students were influenced and interfered by their family situation. Most of my students have parents that speak only Spanish; therefore, my teacher couldn’t ask them to read aloud to them at night or to help them with their homework at home. Although, these things may seem trivial, I feel like this is a crucial stage for children to fully understand and learn literacy. For my case study student, I wanted to investigate further about their cultural values and differences. I would love to hear about your student's as well!