Individualized Educational Plan

Tutor’s Name:
Tutee’s Name:
Tutee’s Birth date:
Age: 9 Gender: Male Grade level: 3rd
Date given:

Students primary language: Juan was born in this country and has attended his school since kindergarten. He is currently and has been since he began school in a bi-literacy classroom. When I asked his teacher for background information she said his primary language is both Spanish and English. He speaks Spanish at home, but the majority of the school day they speak English. The teacher teaches all the content areas in English and toward the end of the day speaks Spanish to provide additional clarification and to strengthen the students' understanding.

Assessments given in English:
Only had opportunity to assess student once due to scheduling conflicts at the school. When I meet with him for our second visit I will need to do more assessments, particularly in writing. This plan may need to be adjusted because assessment is an on going process and I will continue to guide my instruction based on the new information I learn with each visit.

ORAL:

Assessments given:
Informally I asked Juan questions from the student profile sheet. What is your name? He told me his first and last names. I asked if he had a middle name. He responded yes and told me what it was. He said it quietly and I asked him again. He knew that I had not heard him the first time and repeated so that I could understand him. I asked him to identify the numbers on page 276. He knew them all and told me them easily without hesitating. I asked him to identify the shapes on page 278. Again he was able to tell me each one immediately and without error. I asked him the color of the back of the book (he had been doing independent reading). Although my question was testing him on multiple topics he was able to respond “red” without even pausing to process what I had asked him. I continued to test his colors. I asked him what color his shirt was, this again what a more difficult since his shirt was two different colors. He pointed to his chest and said “yellow” then he pointed to his sleeve and said “green”. I asked him where his nose was. He looked at me a little puzzled, because me direction had not been direct enough. When I modeled by pointing to my own nose he understood what I was asking of him. I asked him where his mouth was and he pointed to his mouth. I asked him where his eyes where and he pointed to his eyes. I could tell that he was more advanced in his English development so instead of simply asking him the days of the week or months of the year I asked him what day of the week today was. He knew that it was October 8th 2003 and it was a Wednesday. I asked him what month his birthday was in. Again I am testing to see if he knows the concept of birthday, which he did, and if he knows not only the months, but which month his birthday is in. It took him a little longer than some of the earlier questions, but he responded correctly September. (I knew it was correct because I noticed later that the teacher had all the students’ birthdays listed on a poster on the wall.) I continued my oral assessment even though our conversation was one that I could have had with a third grade native English speaker, to check for holes in his knowledge. I asked Juan if he knew his phone number. He told me he did not. I asked if he knew his address, he paused he did not look confused but deep in thought. He responded after a little while “2030” he did not give a street name and the way he said it made me think that he was just giving me an answer. I did not probe him anymore instead I took out the park picture page 317 in the packet. I asked him to tell me what he saw in the picture. The first thing he said was “ducks”. He looked up at me, waiting for me to ask him another question. So I asked him what the people were doing. He responded that the man was fishing. What about the woman I said. He told me she is holding a little bag. I continued to ask him direct questions and he responded in the same fashion. What is the girl doing? Climbing a tree. What are the children doing, I pointed to the kite what is this I asked him. He told me it was a kite.

Evaluation/Observations:
When I gave Juan the paper with the numbers (pg 276) and the one with the shapes (pg 278) he knew exactly what I wanted him to do. He did not look up and wait for me to give him further instructions; he looked down at the paper and read from left to right starting at the top the numbers/shapes. He understood my directions I did not have to point or model what I expected him to do. Juan was also very confident when I asked him to identify colors, he responded immediately and in a clear loud voice. He looked at me when he answered and then waited for me give him another instruction. From my observations the confusion that Juan displayed when I asked him where his nose was, was not because Juan did not understand my question or because he did not know the answer. He was puzzled because it was not direct enough; I had not made it clear how I expected him to respond. When I talked with his teacher she told me later that he needs direct instruction. She made the statement and used an example from his writing. She told me that if you ask him to write he does not know what to do or where to begin, but if you tell me write about his mother, what is her name, what does she look like, what does she do, what do you like about her, etc. then he will do it. She told me this when we were talking before I left, but looking back I can see how this effects all skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When I asked him to tell me what he saw in the park picture he responded on a level I according to the assessment guide that accompanies the pictures in our packet on page 291. He told me he saw ducks this is labeling. However from my observations this is not because he was unable to describe the picture, he knew the vocabulary and had the ability to be at least a level IV “Connecting”, but he was not sure what was expected of him. I needed to be more direct in the questions I asked of him and this would determine the type of response he gave.

According to O’Malley, Juan would receive a six on the Oral Language Scoring Rubric. He is without a doubt able to communicate competently in the classroom setting. I was able to see a shared reading lesson and Juan raised his hand and participated in the class discussion. When the teacher announced it was time for handwriting Juan expressed his enthusiasm by clapping his hands and became the most excited I had seen him the whole day. When the teacher asked for volunteers to try writing a cursive “D, d” on the board Juan was the first person to raise his hand. Not only am I able to tell that Juan understands what is going on and has the ability to participate in class, but also he is confident and excited about learning. When I asked him questions he understood what I was asking him every time (what I need to clarify was how I expected him to respond). I did not feel as if their was a language barrier, I never had to gesture or guess what he was trying to say. He was able to follow all directions given by the teacher and me, he did not need them repeated or rephrased.

According to Solom Juan has advanced fluency. I was able to have conversations with him in which he told me about his family, he has two brothers one older and one younger and he lives with his mom and his dad. He speech was effortless there was not lapses in time. His use of vocabulary was appropriate and his grammatical structure was never awkward. He did not confuse tenses or use the incorrect pronoun. One observation I made that I do think affects his fluency is his personality. Juan was very excited and comfortable volunteering in class, but working one on one with me he appeared reserved. I think that he may be shy around new people and it may take him some time to get used to working with me before he is able to speak freely. He seemed very concerned with what I expected from him and did not open up to me. He waited for me to ask him direct questions. I will be paying special attention during our next meeting to see what effects his personality has on his academic performance. And how it is different when working one on one with me versus how he interacts during whole class instruction.

READING

Assessments given:
First I asked Juan to do the reading self-assessment page 353. I showed him the paper and read statement number one in the form of a question, “Do you like to read” I read him the choices and he told me sometimes. I put an X in the box under sometimes. Then I handed him the pen and he completed the rest of the self-assessment. Next, I assessed his concepts about print. He had a book in front of him that he had been reading, since I was assessing him during independent reading time. I asked him where is the cover of the book, he pointed to the cover. I asked him who is the author. He looked on the cover, but couldn’t find it because it was not there. We talked about how normally the author’s name is on the cover. He looked at the back of the book to see if it was there, but it wasn’t. (That was a bad question on my part, but I was too busy looking at the concepts about print checklist that it never occurred to me to check the book and make sure the author was listed on the cover.) I continued on with the assessment asking can you point to a question mark. He was able to complete the rest of the questions successfully with the exception of when I asked him to point to an exclamation point. He looked at me confused it was a different kind of look than he had shown at any other time and I knew he did not know what I was talking about. Instead of modeling or rephrasing I knew that he was not confused about what I wanted him to do, but he did not know what an exclamation point was. And sure enough when I asked him if he knew what an exclamation point was he said no. I pointed to one of the page and explained to him why they are used. Then I asked Juan to read me The Hungry Bear on page 410. I chose this passage because I wanted to see if he could read at grade level. And he could Juan read at a good pace he did not pause and he only had three errors. He said sleep instead of slept, he said sounds instead of sounded, and he added the word “on” to the beginning of a sentence. When he finished I asked him the questions about the story. He was able to answer all the questions correctly except for two. One that he missed was a vocabulary question, “What is an ‘attic’?” I read him the question and again he gave me the same blank look when I asked him to point to an exclamation point. I asked him if he knew what an attic was and he said no. I explained to him the definition. When I discovered he did not know what an attic was it was clear why he had missed the earlier question. The question asked, “Where were the bees making the honey?” The answer was in the attic of the cabin, but since Juan did not understand what an attic was he had been unable to make the connection in the story that would enable him to answer this question correctly. He lacked the background knowledge that an attic was a place. The last thing I did with Juan was ask him to finish reading to me the book he had begun during his independent reading time. It was a book of his choice that he was interested in and I wanted to observe his natural reading with material he felt comfortable with. Unlike the text I provided he was familiar with The Magic School Bus and I got the impression that it was a series he enjoyed.

Evaluation/Observation:
From Juan’s self-assessment of reading activities, I know that he has a favorable attitude toward reading. He never placed an “X” under the “Not Very Often” column. He likes reading easy books the most, and he told me the kinds of books he enjoys are Harry Potter and Arthur books. When I assessed his concepts about print he knew everything the cover, the title, where to begin reading, etc. He knew the concept of author, although, he could not find the name of the author because it was not listed. When he began to search for the authors name I knew that he understood the question, and that instead of telling me he didn’t know because it wasn’t on the cover, he actively searched looking in other parts of the book to see if it was listed else where. By observing his search for the author his behavior told me either: one, he is trying to please me by giving me an answer or two he is a problem solver who is curious to find out where the author’s name is, since it is not listed on the cover. I think both may be true I will know more over the course of working with him, because for our first meeting he definitely displays the personality that he wants to please the teacher. Relating back to the earlier example when I asked him his phone number and he told me he didn’t know, then when I asked him his address he appeared embarrassed I sensed that he did not know, but did not want to tell me he did not know. Instead he told me “2030” which I think he made up so we could move on and he would not have to tell me that he did not know. The only concept about print that he did not know was what an exclamation point was. When I asked him to point to a exclamation point on the page he gave me a blank stare, I knew he understood the question because he had just pointed to a question mark on the page a few seconds ago. After allowing him time to think about it I could tell that he did not want to tell me he didn’t know, so I asked him if he knew what an exclamation point was. He did not hesitate to tell me he did not and I explained what it was to him. After checking for understanding that he knew what I had told him we moved on. I asked him to read me The Hungry Bear on pg 410, it is a third grade passage and I wanted to see if he could read at grade level.

According to O’Malley he is an Expanding reader. While he was reading me “The Hungry Bear” a third grade level passage he made only three mistakes. He used reading strategies to sound out words he did not know. He is at the Independent/Instructional level according to the word recognition scoring guide at the bottom of The Hungry Bear sheet because his total miscues were between 2-4. Also, he was able to answer inferential questions about the story placing him at the Intermediate level according to the ELD Standards- Grades 3-5 for Literary Response and Analysis. Again, this also placed him in the Independent/Instructional level under the Comprehension Scoring Guide on the bottom of the sheet because he missed 2 questions. He is able to read silently for a moderate amount of time, I feel that certain aspects of his reading are in the Bridging category under O’Malley and other skills are in the Expanding. However, since I have only met with him once and during this visit I did not have enough time to have him retell me a story I will be able to get a more accurate assessment of his reading abilities after further observation and evaluation. He read to me out of a book that he selected, The Magic School Bus, which was a second grade level. He was able to read this book without difficulty; he only encountered one word he struggled with, the rest he was able to read on sight (did not even have to sound out). In his reading self-assessment he marked that he enjoyed reading easy books. This is normal he is enjoys feeling successful and the book had lots of pictures and I observed that he spent time on each page to study the picture before he read the text. The pictures also had the characters talking with caption boxes that he enjoyed reading before reading the text printed on the bottom of the page. Next, time I meet with him I will try and challenge him, because maybe he can read chapter books of moderate difficulty, but chooses not to.

According to the ELD Standards-Grades 3-5 under Word Analysis he is at an intermediate level because he was able to pronounce most English phonemes correctly while reading aloud. Again this is a difficult skill to assess especially having only meet with him once. Since I think he is choosing books below his level I did not have the opportunity to observe how we responds when he comes to a word he does not know. I would like to observe him during guided reading time, when the teacher meets with groups and they discuss a book at the groups reading level. Then I will have the opportunity to see if he belongs in the Intermediate level maybe he is at Early Intermediate when faced with challenging text, or perhaps he is Early Advanced and he applies his knowledge of English morphemes to figure out the meaning of a word he doesn’t know. I also think I will have a better measure of his Comprehension level under the ELD Standards when I have had more time to work with him one on one and observe him in the classroom reading curriculum.

WRITING

Assessments given:
First I asked Juan how he felt about writing, we informally talked briefly. Then I handed him the Survey of Writing Interest and Awareness sheet on page 447. We read the directions together, to make sure he understood what to do. Then Juan completed the sheet on his own. Next, I used page 450 The Fox and The Boar. We talked about captions boxes, and how they are used to show people (or in this case animals) talking to each other. I asked him to come up with his own ideas about what a fox and boar might say to each other. For our next writing assessment I wanted to do an activity that was not the traditional write a paragraph about yourself or your family, so I had Juan do a "How-to" list I got the idea from page 456. I explained what he was going to do and then we talked about what he was interested in. He was not sure what to write about, so I suggested sports. This immediately got his interest and he said "football". He wrote down step by step what someone would need to know in order to play a game of football. He had good ideas, but I had to probe him or ask him direct questions, such as "How do you score points?" Then he would tell me you need to make a touchdown and then he would write that on his list. I also asked his teacher if I could photocopy a sample of his writing to learn more about the difficulties Juan was having. The class had just finished doing a writing assignment and illustration that the teacher hung on the wall. I was able to photocopy both of Juan's rough drafts and his final assignment.

Evaluation/Observation:
From Juan's self assessment, I am able to tell that he has a positive attitude about writing. He enjoys writing stories about him self and about soccer. He also checked the box "A Lot" for the statement "Writing helps me in school". I think this is a very good sign because it means he feels writing is valuable and hopefully he knows that teachers are here to help him become a better writer. The two areas that I noticed Juan is weak are his self-confidence he does not think that he is a good writer, and he does not write at home. While, taking the time to write at home would help improve Juan's writing I do not think many children his age spend time in addition to their homework on writing at home. What I would like to help him improve is his self-confidence.

According to O'Malley I think Juan is a three. He is at the developing level due to his limited use of capitalization, punctuation, and numerous spelling errors, all of which often interfere with meaning. Although the assessments I gave him definitely gave me an idea of his abilities, the photocopies I made of his writing told me a lot more. In the caption boxes for The Fox and the Boar I noticed that Juan selected simple sentences, mostly using words he could spell. He started with a capital letter in some of his sentences, but not all and he did not use any punctuation. I noticed the same errors in his list of how to play football. However, both of these activities are out of the context of paragraph writing. In the caption page the sentences are in boxes and for the "How-to" it is in a list format. I studied his writing I photocopied and noticed that he did use punctuation, however he only added periods to the very end of paragraphs. The same is true for capital letters; he only capitalized the first word in the beginning of each paragraph. He does organize his sentences around an idea, only a couple of times have his writing lacked cohesion. Most of the time I am able to guess what he has writing it is the punctuation and spelling that interfere with meaning.

According to the ELD Standard Writing: Strategies and Application for Grades 3-5 Juan is Early Intermediate. The story I photocopied was a short narrative story that included both elements of character and setting. He writes about his friends giving their names, he describes were they are, and what they are doing. He is able to produce independent writing that is understood when read, but may include inconsistent use of standard grammatical forms. According to the ELD Standard Writing: Conventions Juan is not even at the Beginning level. He does use a capital letter when he writes his own name, but not at the beginning of sentences. Nor does he use a period at the end of a sentence.

Particular Needs:

Written language:
Comments: As I noticed and was told by his teacher he needs help organizing his ideas. Also learning the structure of a basic simple sentence.

GOALS:

Short Range:
To teach Juan to begin sentences with a capital letter and use simple punctuation.

Strategy for implementation of goals: To begin with I need to use simple sentences that are already written and have him correct them. Ask him if he knows how to change a sentence to make it correct (begins sentence with capital letter and end sentence with a period). I need to be very direct and only focus on one task at a time. Before I thought that I needed to use his own writing, and this would be better to make the corrections here. But, I tried this briefly and his sentences are run-ons and his organization is unclear, so it makes it difficult to add punctuation and capitalize.

Long Range:
For Juan to correct his own writing and organize his ideas so they are coherent.

Strategy for implementation of goals: I do think it is most important that Juan learns to correct his own work and know what a complete sentence is. That is why first I need to use simple teaching techniques so he knows the structure of a sentence and internalizes the form. However, it is not valuable unless he writes for a purpose, such as to tell a story. I want to encourage Juan to keep writing by giving him lots of opportunities and lots of praise to help build his self-esteem. Writing is a process and I think it is a valuable skill for Juan to learn how to self correct. If in his first draft he is so concerned with meaning and expressing his ideas that he does not write grammatically correct that is okay. My goal for Juan is for him to have the skills to go back and look at his own writing and ask himself where do I need to add a period, or what should be capitalized. I will work on modeling this and we will do it together at first, then I will ask Juan questions to get him in the habit of thinking about making these corrections (periods, capital letters). My other long-range goal is to help Juan organize his ideas. One way I will do this is by using graphic organizers before he writes. I will also help him think about the order of his writing, the beginning, middle and end.