Reflection/Synthesis Across Domains
It has been a very educational process to observe and analyze Óscar's oral language, reading, and writing development in both Spanish and English throughout this course. As a sequential bilingual child, he is proficient in speaking Spanish since this was the language to which he was mainly exposed since birth. When speaking in Spanish, his responses are generally longer and somewhat complex. He can retell stories and events with detail. He also uses appropriate vocabulary for a child his age; he is still learning more technical/academic vocabulary like the rest of his kindergarten peers. Occasionally, Óscar makes grammatical errors in Spanish (ie: "Están moridos" instead of "Están muertos"), which is developmentally normal for a young child in his/her first language. These types of errors (which are rare) do not hinder the meaning of what he is trying to communicate. I characterize Óscar between a Level 4/5 (Expanding/Bridging) on the WIDA Speaking Rubric since he is still developing his vocabulary and grammar in Spanish (because he is still a young child).
Because of his interactions with peers in a bilingual preschool program as well as growing up in English-dominant surroundings outside of his home, Óscar also maintains high levels of speaking abilities in English. He has acquired a fair amount of informal vocabulary in English (ie: "I'm gonna paint it."). When speaking during the designated Spanish instructional time of the day, I have noticed that Óscar will occasionally code-switch by inserting, "I mean," into his sentences. For example, he has said, "Fui a la tienda-- I mean-- al cine con mi papá." According to Kathy Escamilla in her article, Bilingual Means Two: Assessment Issues, Early Literacy and Spanish-speaking Children, code-switching is a natural part of communication, especially among young children learning two languages. I also noticed that Óscar employs false cognates in his English speech (ie: "I'm gonna paint it" instead of "I'm gonna color it"). Overall, I believe Óscar is at a Level 3 (Developing) on the WIDA Speaking Rubric since his responses in English include both shorter and slightly more expanded sentences. His communication is understandable, and he continues to acquire more vocabulary in English.
Óscar's strong oral language abilities in both Spanish and English are certainly reflected in his writing skills. Óscar enjoys writing stories and often chooses personally relevant moments about which to write. In analyzing his writing in both languages, I would characterize him as at the "Phonetic stage" according to the stages presented in Rubin and Galván Carlan's article, Using Writing to Understand Bilingual Children's Literacy Development. Óscar knows all of the letter sounds in Spanish and usually writes all of the letters for the sounds he hears in his words. His stories span several pages and generally contain one long sentence with the word "y" ("and") connecting parts of the sentence. As his writing develops in Spanish through more exposure to speaking and reading Spanish books, he is well on his way to the "Conventional stage" of writing where he will correctly spell most of his words (including more challenging words in Spanish which contain sounds represented by multiple letters-- ie: "ella").
Since I do not usually have the opportunity to see my students' writing in English, I was impressed by Óscar's writing skills in his English writing sample! Again, he chose a topic which held personal meaning for him (a trip to the circus) and wrote a shorter sentence about it. He transferred his knowledge of Spanish letter sounds when writing in English, as evidenced when he wrote, "dey" for "day" and "ay" for "I." Óscar continues to work on including spaces between words when writing in both English and Spanish. According to Kathy Escamilla, this tends to be a common issue for Spanish-dominant students since they often divide words by syllables rather than the whole word. Ultimately, Óscar demonstrates advanced skills for a kindergartener in writing in both English and Spanish. With continued support and encouragement in writing about ideas that hold meaning for him, he is sure to flourish as a bilingual writer.
Similar to his writing skills, Óscar's strong oral language skills have a positive effect on his ability to read in both Spanish and English as well. Since he was a baby, his mother has exposed him to books in Spanish. This has certainly inspired him to feel excited and motivated to read-- his reading abilities are continuously improving at such a rapid rate! In mid-January, Óscar was reading at a Text Reading Level 2 in Spanish. Currently, he is reading at a TRL 11! When reading in Spanish, Óscar frequently self-corrects when the errors he makes do not make sense. Also, he often pauses to reflect and make personal connections with the texts he reads-- a strategy we have been working on as a whole class (which he independently applies to his own reading), as recommended by Freeman, Freeman, and Mercuri in Dual Language Essentials For Teachers and Administrators. As the texts get progressively more complex, Óscar pays closer attention to longer, unfamiliar words and his reading becomes less fluent; however, despite this lack of occasional fluency, he still fully comprehends what he has read.
Even though he has not had any formal instruction in reading books in English, Óscar is still reading at a TRL 4 in English. Since some of the words and sentence structures were unfamiliar to him, his reading was less fluent. He did not make as many self-corrections in English-- this is probably because he did not realize he made mistakes since English is his second language. He was still able to comprehend the texts he read in English, providing shorter responses to the comprehension questions than his responses to the Spanish texts.
Instructional Plan
After analyzing Óscar's biliteracy development and observing his strengths as well as areas of growth, I have created an instructional plan that will hopefully benefit him (and his peers) with regards to their oral language, writing, and reading development. In terms of continuing to develop his speaking abilities in both Spanish and English, I intend to be more intentional about explicitly teaching and defining academic vocabulary using visuals, as recommended by Tara Fortune's Immersion Teaching Strategies Observation Checklist. Also, as I learn more about Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) strategies for teaching Spanish vocabulary using visuals and Total Physical Response methods, I will begin to incorporate these strategies into my teaching. Furthermore, I plan to incorporate more cognates into my own speech and teaching to assist in the process of cross-linguistic transfer. As mentioned earlier, I noticed that Óscar said (in English), "I'm gonna paint it" instead of "I'm gonna color it." Many of his Spanish-dominant peers use the verb "pintar" interchangeably with "colorear." I wonder if I use the word "colorear" more frequently if Óscar might make the connection that "colorear" and "color" mean the same thing. This works with many other words between both languages, which can reduce the occurrence of false cognates.
In addition to my own modeling of Spanish vocabulary usage, I also want to include more opportunities for cooperative learning. If Óscar is encouraged to work with English-dominant peers, he will continue to be exposed to the language and develop his English speaking abilities. Likewise, he will serve as a positive Spanish language model for his English-dominant peers.
In terms of further developing Óscar's writing abilities, I will continue to keep the focus for him on creating meaningful stories, as recommended by Freeman, Freeman, and Mercuri. He has become very skilled at writing personal narrative stories. I want to teach Óscar and the rest of the class how to write in other types of genres (ie: fiction, informational writing, persuasive writing, etc.). In Mary Levant's article titled Meeting the Challenges of Second Language Writing Development in the Immersion Classroom, Levant states that teachers need to provide opportunities for students to write throughout the day, every day. Using this recommendation, I will incorporate writing into the daily curriculum for Óscar and his classmates through our morning message, word study, the writing block, literacy centers, guided reading groups, the language workshop, math, social studies, science, and even rest time! (Óscar is one of a few students who never seems to want to rest during rest time-- this will be a good time to present a journal for him in which he can free-write.) Finally, since I noticed that Óscar sometimes makes spelling errors when writing words that contain sounds which are represented by multiple letters, I want to explicitly teach frequently-used words that contain these letters. Specifically, as recommended by Kathy Escamilla, I plan to create a word wall that compares words with similar sounds (ie: "ll" vs. "y" words; "b" vs. "v" words; etc.). In making this explicit for Óscar and his peers, he will hopefully remember which words contain the correct letters and thus make fewer spelling errors.
In addition to a plan for developing Óscar's speaking and writing abilities, I also intend to work with him in furthering his reading skills. Since Óscar has shown such an interest in getting his hands on new books in the classroom, I want to keep his book box full of new books which he can read independently. Most students' book boxes contain the books that we have read as a small guided reading group. The book goes in their book box when they have "mastered" that text. However, I think Óscar (and some of his peers) are ready and eager for the challenge of tackling a new book independently. Additionally, I noticed that Óscar was incorporating some of the reading comprehension strategies that I have explicitly taught to students as he read aloud. I plan to continue teaching these strategies (ie: creating mental images while reading books, asking questions, inferring, synthesizing, etc.) and providing opportunities for Óscar to apply them to his own reading. Finally, I observed that Óscar made occasional errors in his reading by inserting words or mistaking some words for others (visual miscues). I want to encourage him to slow down when reading to make sure he is catching everything he reads. I want him to point to the words he reads. When I see that he has made an error, I will ask him to go back and re-read that part of the text.
I am grateful to have Óscar in my classroom this year. His excitement and motivation towards learning inspires me to further his biliteracy development in all three domains. I look forward to working with Óscar throughout the rest of this school year and into the future as he continues to thrive as a bilingual learner.
