PART 3
Teaching the Student Responsively
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Case Study Student Writing Analysis
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Sample of Student Writing
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Student Work Analysis T-Chart
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Case Study Lesson Plan
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Case Study Lesson Video
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Supporting Materials & Resources
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Common Core State Standards
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All with Reflections
Case Study Student Writing Analysis
Over the course of the school year, I enjoyed extended opportunities to interact and work with my case study student. In addition to in class observation, I got to know the student beyond the classroom in the hall, other classes, and at lunch. We had conversations on various topics and often in the context of interaction with a group of students and other teachers. This interaction combined with my observation of the student in class as well as the work completed in class combines together to inform my analysis regarding the student's strengths and areas of opportunity.
Here, I am specifically looking at a short writing sample which is consistent with other writing from the student but the lens I am looking through accounts for greater complexity and nuance afforded by a broader perspective of the student as a whole person who spends 80% of their time outside of school. Moreover, it is an asset lens which focuses on what the student already knows and looks forward to instruction addressing what the student is ready to learn.
Based on what my case study student is able to do, I have decided to focus on elaboration as a skill demonstrated by revision strategies to expand and enrich writing through showing not telling, providing appropriate details, and clarifying the writers voice.
Reflection
As an educator, I sense that the more I can know about a student, the more informed I can be, the more likely it is that my teaching will be adequately responsive to the student's individual needs. Through the process of working with a case student for the field work experience, for me this sensibility is confirmed and etched in stone as a fixed point of departure.
Seeing the student interact with peers and other teachers allowed me to learn just as much if not more that what I was able to glean from formal observation or interviews. For example, I noted that the student was very expressive, opinionated and animated when speaking Spanish. It became clear that the student was capable of great observation and sparkling expression. This is very different than the behavior I observe in class when English is expected.
I think that it is exactly because the student had so much detail and passion to express that their first language was preferred to do so. That speaking English was less effective and less natural, therefore not the best tool to use for the intended purpose. It is important to get to know the whole person, not just the student of the subject you are teaching. Had I only witnessed the student in English Language Development class, I never could have known the true expressive capacity which the student possessed and enjoyed.
Sample of Student Writing
Reflection
This writing sample is from an in class writing assignment. The student had plenty of time and space to write more but was able to write enough to satisfy the prompt in few words and sentences. Since the student is high performing intellectually, I think the brevity allows for greater assurance that fewer mistakes or inaccuracies will happen in the writing. Rather than go out on a limb, using challenging vocabulary or words that the student may not know how to spell in English, the writing is overly simplified. That said, the student does attempt to cite specific text passages and make astute observations about the nature of the relationship between the two characters.
Student Writing Analysis T-Chart
Reflection
The T-Chart is a useful way to chart the analysis because it facilitates the use of an asset lens by visually lining up what the student already knows how to do with the instruction that the student is ready to engage. This is important in that teachers need to know what the students strengths are in order to know what prior knowledge the students have on board to support the acquisition of knowledge.
Understanding what the student is capable of doing on their own and with the support of a trusted teacher or more capable peer is essential to instructional design. To meet the student where they are, we can determine where the student's assets will allow for growth. Another way to look at students is through a deficit lens and this will only tell you what they cannot do and will not inform a path forward because you cannot build from there. A student will not achieve excellence if they are only taught what their weaknesses require. Excellence grows from capacity not deficits.
Case Study Lesson Plan
Reflection
Using the planning template supported an effective and concise script for the video lesson. Rigorous planning allowed for clarity in the lesson progression. When it came time to do the audio, the lesson plan served as the script. Where I needed to add commentary in the video, I could see I needed to add it to the lesson plan. Understanding the specific milestones such as the connection to previous work and ability, acknowledgement of what the student is capable of, what the student is ready for and then offering a teaching point to explicitly cite the learning objective of the lesson is effective for holding the integrity of the lesson together and producing cohesion.
I received feedback about elaboration being a skill and show not tell, adding appropriate details, and clarification of voice being strategies and this makes sense. I can see from here that I did throw them together and need to think about this moving forward. The lesson does reach from learning ready to more advanced student abilities by including adjectives and adverbials. So I can receive point taken that this might lose some students but at the same time it creates a range of learning to provide differentiation to students with varied degrees of prior ability and readiness to learn new skills, strategies, and ideas. Since I was looking at a progression for middle school and constructing a lesson for high school, my lesson may be overly broad.
The rationale for my lesson's objective is that my case study student as well as others in the class demonstrated an ability to think and speak in greater detail that they demonstrated in their writing. I decided that it was important for me to show the students that elaboration is an effective revision strategy in the process of writing and that adding descriptive information will expand and enrich the ideas that their writing communicates to the reader because the reader will use the details provide to construct their own understanding of the writer's point of view. In order for the individual voice to be heard that voice needs to be explored through the use of descriptive language. In other words, for the student's writing to express their experience effectively to the reader, the students needed to know how to describe their experience more fully.
There are definitely foreseeable challenges with this lesson because it calls upon the student to use language in a new way as well as use new vocabulary. Ideally, this lesson would follow some work with academic language and vocabulary building and provide an opportunity to activate that learning.
Writing Mini-Lesson Video
Reflection
This is the longest educational video I have created to date. The creative program I used is Adobe Spark and it is intended for shorter segments. I definitely maxed it out. I dropped in video and images captured while camping in the redwoods of northern California a few summers ago as well as instruction captured on Zoom. The picnic basket and cloth are props that I use for various environments for the instructional videos I create.
My conceptual underpinning is to expose students to the natural environment as much as possible and take advantage of the sense of calm nature provides. This is a useful strategy especially since I work in urban schools where students do not experience much expose to nature. To do this I have collected visual assets at the beach, by the river, in the woods, and apple orchard.
For me, especially historically as a middle and high school student, English class can be brain numbing and my approach may be a bit loud as a result. My intent is to introduce play to encourage expressiveness in the students. Through the ease of play, one's voice erupts in a way that once heard is hard to forget. Through this lesson, I hope to support the student as they explore their voice by finding new and more ways of expressing their experience of the world in writing.
Supporting Materials & Resources
Reflection
The student handout reads like a board game, inviting the students to move around the board following the numbered spaces to get to the middle of The Elaboration Game where the writer has closed the distance between the writer and reader through the process of writing using elaboration as a revision strategy. Again, the game suggests a playful mind set.
The website used as an instructional tool in the lesson is new to me. My son shared it with me during our Easter Zoom experience where we played Jackbox games for two hours. I was touched that he thought of me when he discovered the site and I enjoy sharing with students any new asset that I get exposed to. The timing was brilliant. I do like to teach English learners about the importance of complex sentences and using texture in their writing and speaking.
In the past, I have used Dumas' The Three Musketeers as the mentor text for these lessons in using adjectives and adverbials. The title explains they reasoning beyond the point that students enjoy the adventure genre and action. The telescopictext.org website was perfect for an internet based lesson, with a beginning, middle, and an end in less than fifteen minutes of instruction. I look forward to sharing this video-based lesson with middle and high school students to learn from their response.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.5
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.6
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent; noun, relative, adverbial) to convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or presentations.