Building Vocabulary by Pauline Thaler [email protected] English Learners at Melrose School In my first inquiry, I learned of the many ways in which Melrose School attempts to meet the needs of its largely Spanish-speaking student body. The school has a strong bilingual program and a sheltered English program. Eager to Learn, An English Learner Inquiry In evaluating the abilities of the English Learner I selected, I determined that she was at the Intermediate Level for both Oral and Written English. I noted that this particular child is very eager to learn English, enjoys school, and is quick to participate in classroom activities.

Context Melrose Elementary is located in a predominantly Latino neighborhood. The school demographics reflect this population; over 80% of the students at the school are Latino. The school tries hard to meet the needs of its population. Students are placed into bilingual or "sheltered" English programs. The classroom in which I teach is a sheltered first grade classroom. Most of the children have been in the sheltered program at Melrose for the whole period of their brief academic careers. They know each other well and appear to be comfortable with each other. In my classroom, eighteen of the twenty students are English Learners. Seventeen students come from homes in which Spanish is the native language. One student speaks Cantonese at home. A vast majority of the children speak and understand a good deal of English, although they struggle with many vocabulary words. As first graders, their oral language skills tend to be stronger than their written skills. Most of them are really just beginning to read and write. They are learning the sounds that the letters make, they are learning phonics, and how to blend sounds to make words. They are, slowly, beginning to write. They appear hesitant when writing, typically asking me how to spell something rather than using their own invented spelling. I've noticed that many of the English Learners in the classroom are really struggling with the "th" and "sh" sounds. They have a difficult time hearing the difference. This is complicated by their lack of vocabulary in English. Every day I make a point of reviewing the meaning of the words they are learning to read. I ask questions to reveal what they already know about the words in the lesson. I describe the meanings of the words they don't know. Often, I draw pictures on the board to help make the meanings of words clear. These struggles with vocabulary and with certain sounds motivated me to plan a lesson to work on both issues. Goals My short term goals for the children were to help them become more comfortable with the new sounds and to be exposed to new vocabulary. This is in keeping with the Intermediate level of ELD standards for Oral Language: "talk about school-related activities by using expanded vocabulary"…for Written Language: "Recognize English phonemes that do not correspond to sounds students hear and produce" and "Recognize sound/symbol relationships and basic word-formation rules." This activity also corresponds to the California State Standards for First Grade 1.4 Phonemic Awareness. My long term goals include helping the children to be able to participate more readily in their reading and writing assignments. Procedures I plan to call a group of five students over to a side table. I will explain that we will be working with the "th" and "sh" sounds. I will show them the cards with these letters on them. I will explain how a picture sort works—I will divide the sound cards on the table, and then will pick up one of the picture cards and model the decision-making process. I will look at the card; ask myself what it is a picture of. I will name the picture out loud, slowly, and repeat the word a couple of times. Then I will tell the children that I am looking at the letters and thinking about those two sounds. I will repeat the name of the picture and try to fit it under one of the sound cards. I will ask them for help. The second picture, we will "sort" together. Then I will go over all of the pictures with them. I will ask them to tell me the names of the pictures they know. As a group, we will try to name all of the pictures. Once all of the pictures have been named, I will ask them to sort the pictures on their own. When they have finished, we will talk about this activity and go over the sorted columns. I will be sure to repeat the names of the pictures several times. I will ask the children to help me with this. At the end, I will either ask them to glue their word sorts onto a piece of paper, or I will take photographs of the final products. Rationale I decided to do a picture sorting lesson utilizing the sounds "th" and "sh." I felt that this would help clarify the sounds for the children, as well as helping them build their vocabulary. I chose to work with a small group so that I would have the opportunity to observe the children closely. I selected a group of English Learners, made up of children who are struggling a bit more than the rest of the class. I wanted them to have a chance to work at their own pace—rather than racing to keep up with the rest of the class the way they have to during typical lessons. I found the materials needed for this project in Words Their Way by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston. A RECORD OF YOUR TEACHING (I.E., SO, WHAT DID YOU END UP TEACHING?) Write a brief narrative describing how things went. (Resist evaluating yourself; you'll assess your teaching next.) Upload samples of student work that illustrates the range of their performance. AN ASSESSMENT OF YOUR STUDENTS' LEARNING AND OF YOUR OWN TEACHING What evidence do you have to assess your students' learning? (Remember to look back at your goals and objectives.) How would you assess your own teaching? What went well? What was problematic? REFLECTING ON YOUR TEACHING, OR WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT INCLUDING ACADEMIC LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN YOUR TEACHING Based on how things went, what would/will you teach next to these students, particularly in terms of academic language? If you were to teach this same lesson to the same students again, what might you do differently? Why? What did you learn about planning curriculun and teaching with acadmic language development in mind?