Óscar's Reading Analysis

It was truly fascinating for me to observe Óscar's reading abilities and behaviors in both English and Spanish this week. I had always known that Óscar was advanced in Spanish and that he already possessed bilingual capabilities in terms of his speaking and writing; I was stunned to discover that he can also read and comprehend at high levels in both languages!

I worked one-on-one with Óscar as he read several books from the Spanish Primary Language Arts Assessment (SPLAA). While he read, I evaluated his reading and comprehension through the use of Running Records. Last month, Óscar was reading at a Text Reading Level (TRL) 2 in Spanish. When I worked with him this week, he progressed to beyond a TRL 5! (We didn't have time to go beyond a level 5, but I plan to do so sometime next week.) By the end of kindergarten, students are expected to be reading somewhere between TRL Levels 3-7. At this rate, I am confident that Óscar will go well beyond this expectation.

In terms of Óscar's comprehension of the texts he read, he demonstrated that he truly understood them and also added his own thoughts/connections to the books. As he read, he sometimes stopped to reflect on what he read and to make predictions about what would happen next. (Often, his predictions were accurate!) As a class, we have been focusing on making text-to-self and text-to-text connections with the books we read. I noticed that Óscar independently applied these comprehension strategies as he read aloud to me. For example, in one of the books, a little boy searches for his teddy bear before bedtime. One of the comprehension questions asks, "¿Qué hubiera pasado si no encontraban a Osito?" Óscar responded by saying, "Él no se podía ir a dormir porque a veces mi hermanita no se puede dormir porque tiene miedo. A veces ella viene a mi cuarto para dormir conmigo." He made a clear connection between his little sister and the boy in the story because both of them feel scared at night without having something (or someone) to sleep next to.

In addition to fully comprehending the books he read aloud, I also noticed that Óscar utilized many more problem-solving and self-correcting strategies than I have ever seen him use before. When he made a mistake, he often recognized his error right away and re-read in order to fix it. Many of his errors were visual; he also used structural and meaning cues to self-correct. For example, in one story-- which is told in the past tense-- Óscar read, "Osito Marcos dice..." He quickly realized that it didn't make sense structurally because the rest of the story was in the past tense, so he re-read, "Osito Marcos dijo..." (This could also be an example of using visual cues.) In looking back at his first Running Record from the beginning of the school year, I notice that he did not make any self-corrections. I am so proud of the progress Óscar has made in reading since then!

In order to conduct the reading analysis with Óscar in English, I requested the help of my school's Instructional Resource Teacher (IRT) since the DLI program model does not allow me to speak with Óscar in English. She asked Óscar to read several books from the PLAA (the English version of the SPLAA) and conducted Running Records while he read. I was quite surprised by how advanced Óscar's decoding skills proved to be in English as well! In English, he appears to be at an instructional TRL Level 4.

Óscar comprehended the books he read in English; however, he needed more prompting from the IRT to provide more in-depth responses to the questions she asked at the end of each story. While he read, he seemed to focus more on the specific words in the text in order to read them correctly. Thus, he did not make time to stop and add his own opinions about the stories as he did with the books in Spanish. His responses to the IRT's questions were somewhat limited, and he did not independently make any personal connections to the stories. After reading the stories in English, Óscar commented, "I think I can read better in Spanish. Reading in English is a little bit hard for me." Nevertheless, he appears to have already transferred many reading strategies from what he has learned in Spanish in order to read in English.

It was equally interesting to observe the difference between Óscar's use of problem-solving strategies while reading in Spanish and English. While he often re-read and self-corrected in Spanish, he did not do this as much in English. As I looked over the Running Records in English (as well as the IRT's observational notes), I noticed that Óscar often made errors without looking at certain words. He often said an incorrect word in English without noticing that it didn't sound right or make sense. I would imagine many ELLs would make errors while reading in English without much self-correction because they might not recognize they made an error in the first place. For Óscar, it was much easier to self-correct in Spanish because he immediately knew when a certain word/sentence structure didn't make sense or sound right. As his language abilities in English continue to develop, I predict that his ability to discern errors in reading in English will also improve.