Assessment Case Study – Regular Education

Background

This is a regular education 2nd grade classroom. Students are near or on grade level in this regular education setting. Students range from 7-8 years old. The subject observed for this case study was Science. The Science instruction begins each day at 1:50pm and concludes at 2:20pm. This is a 30 minute time allotment provided Monday-Friday for the Science curriculum to be taught. In this classroom Science is taught in themed units and the unit observed was Weather. Within this four week time period in our Weather unit the following state standards were addressed: 1. Analyzing and interpreting data from observations and measurements to describe local weather conditions (including temperature, wind, and forms of precipitation). 2. Analyzing local weather data to predict daily and seasonal patterns over time. 3. Developing and using models to describe and compare the effects of wind (moving air) on objects. 4. Obtaining and communicating information about severe weather conditions to explain why certain safety precautions are necessary.

Summary of the Focus Student

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Michelle was the focus student for this case study. She is a happy, engaged, and eager to learn 2nd grader in my class. She loves learning about Science and especially this weather unit because it is applicable to her real life. Michelle’s strengths are that she is naturally curious about learning. When she does not comprehend the curriculum she will ask for help and is eager to learn new strategies that will help her excel. She works on decoding and relies heavily on context clues or making connections to assist her in figuring out unknown vocabulary or new concepts. Michelle’s literary weaknesses are that she is below grade level in reading and writing. Because she is consistently struggling to read 2nd grade text independently she is in need of a peer, or teacher partnering to ensure she is comprehending the material. Through the observations I saw Michelle consistently place herself close, in proximity, to a higher level peer.

She would often converse with this student in between my discussion asking questions or asking the peer to clarify what was just discussed for her. I believe the contributing factor for her literary weaknesses are based on her being an English Language Learner. She has been in this country for three years but has only had formal English instruction since kindergarten. I believe Michelle needs time to preview material and activate background knowledge prior to new units. I also think partnering her up with a bilingual, higher achieving peer will help her decode and make connections. I want to assess her based on what she knows about the curriculum content not how well she understands or communicates it in English. Her social English is more advanced but her academic language in English is weak. Maybe using google translate and offering her bilingual vocabulary cards to study would assist her with this gap.

Recommendations for Instructional Practices in Science

The following are the three literacy-related instructional practices I have chosen that will address Michelle’s literacy and learning needs:

Metacognitive Conversations: This invites Michelle into the dialogue about thinking in the content area of Science. Not only what she is thinking about the topic but how did she arrive to that conclusion. Metacognitive discussions are especially critical for those who are struggling with learning like Michelle. I think this would be helpful because knowing how Michelle thinks will help me see gaps in her learning or comprehension that otherwise may have fell through the cracks. Also connecting prior knowledge, both languages, and other curriculum areas will help make more sense and help her decode more of the new information. Many times Michelle sees other students getting it before she does and I do not want her to devalue herself as a learner. I believe metacognitive conversations will help her understand not only what I am teaching but the how and the why behind it and develop connections with learning and thinking.

Science Connection Overview: This is a frontloading strategy that guides students into making connections to their lives and experiences as they study topics in Science. I believe this will help Michelle because connection to prior knowledge and things she has already learned in her native will help bridge the gap in her achievement. Having Michelle preview text, allowing time to predict key vocabulary, and allowing time to develop questions independently will help prepare her for the new curriculum content coming. One aspect of this strategy that would greatly help Michelle is integrating memory clues throughout the Science curriculum. Whether that is hand movements for precipitation types of key words that trigger main ideas in our new learning I believe this would help make conceptual connections for Michelle.

Student-Friendly Vocabulary Explanations: This instructional practice helps construct word knowledge as networks of personal connections and useful associations. The key with this concept is integrating the word into their existing background knowledge. Through the observations I saw Michelle struggle specifically with the weather vocabulary. I believe through using images, making it bilingual, and allowing her to use her own examples of the word in action she will begin to develop a tool kit of academic English vocabulary.

Reflection on Literary Practices:

The role of reading and writing in Science is to serve as conceptual tools for helping students to analyze, interpret, and communicate scientific ideas. Reading and Writing are natural partners when learning how to communicate Science curriculum. They serve as a means to show and effectively communicate what students know. Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making. Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena. Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding about science and to engage in social conversation about their conclusions.

The purpose of science education is to enable individuals to use scientific process skills. This means students are able to: define the problems around them, to observe, to analyze, to hypothesize, to experiment, to conclude, to generalize, and to apply the information they have learned. Every student could use their scientific process skills in each step of his/her daily life by being scientifically literate and by comprehending the nature of science. Drawing from my observations of Michelle a huge take away was watching her struggle to connect science to other curriculum areas. By isolating Science and not connecting literary strategies like decoding, analyzing text, predicting, etc. that she has previously mastered in reading and/or writing she had no conceptual map to pull from when trying to decipher Science instruction. Making connections and developing an academic toolkit that can be used across our curriculum is key to ensuring Michelle’s success.

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