TE930A/B
Methods for Teaching Reading/Language
Arts
Jill
Kerper Mora
San Diego State
University
BILINGUAL
STUDENT LANGUAGE
& LITERACY DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDY
The purpose of this case study assignment is to give
teacher candidates experience in administering and scoring a language assessment
instrument to compare the results with information gleaned from an analysis of a student's
reading and writing achievement. The administration of the Primary Acquisition of
Languages (PAL) to a student who is learning English as a second language will allow
teacher candidates to observe the interaction between oral language proficiency termed
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and the cognitive academic skills required
for proficiency in reading and writing. Analyses of this type inform teachers about
bilingual students' strengths and weaknesses in English in the four skills of language
arts: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
In addition, language assessment allows a teacher to
closely observe students' development of specific lexical, syntactic and grammatical usage
that can either facilitate or impede learning to read and write. This information is used
to plan appropriate instruction for bilingual readers and writers. The skills you will
acquire in completing this assignment address RICA content area 13: Structure of the
English language.
COMPONENTS OF THE CASE STUDY
In addition to the administration of the PAL test
results, teacher candidates will gather assessment data and information regarding
students' classroom language use and academic achievement. The following are the
components of the complete case study of the literacy skills in English of a bilingual
child.
- Scored PAL test booklet
- Scored writing rubric and writing sample
- Review of the student's cumulative folder
- Report on analysis of oral language (PAL) and literacy
skills
ADMINISTERING THE PAL
The teacher candidate will administer the PAL
language assessment instrument to a student who is designated limited English proficient.
The test materials can be purchased for under $10 at the Aztec Book Store. The testing
packet contains a booklet of visual prompts and two test booklets. It is recommended that
you work in pairs to administer and score the tests, although each teacher candidate will
test one student.
Your 930B instructors will facilitate access to a
student to be the subject of your case study. You should not choose a student from
a class in which you have done student teaching. Once the subject of your case study has
been identified, you will schedule a time for administering the PAL. Allow a half hour for
the test administration. If you work in pairs, one of you can ask the prompt questions
while the other acts as a recorder. Judge whether or not the child would be intimidated by
working with two adults. If this is the case, administer the test one-on-one with the
child. You will write down the child's full response verbatim. This is very
important, since the test's validity depends on an accurate and complete recording of each
response. We will go over the test and allow you to practice test administration during
class prior to arranging to test a student.
SCORING THE PAL
Several questions on the PAL are designed to elicit
a certain grammatical structure in the child's response. Scoring is based on grammatical
forms. The scoring also looks for words or parts of words that are omitted, or responses
that are in two languages. Complete scoring procedures are provided in the tester's
manual. We will also score the tests in class and discuss any questions that may arise
about the testing and scoring procedures. Your testing packet contains two response
booklets. You may want to use one for marking and scoring purposes and the other to
transfer the responses to hand in along with your case study report.
Click here to go to the PAL Administration and Scoring
Manual
WRITING SAMPLE
You will ask your PAL test subject's teacher to
allow you to collect a sample of the child's writing. Preferably, the child will write a
"story" about "Playing on the playground" about what they saw and
talked about in the pictures in the PAL test picture prompt booklet. Give the child some
time to write immediately following the testing. The child should return to the classroom
or to their desk to do the writing. Do not help the child or give him/her any prompts, so
you can get natural language and a true picture of the child's writing skills. If it is
not possible to get a story based on the PAL, a writing sample from a journal or class
writing activity will suffice. You will be provided a rubric to score the writing sample
in class.
CUMULATIVE FOLDER REVIEW
In order to complete a profile of your case study
subject, you will need to gather additional information about the child's academic
performance. With the teacher's permission and under his/her supervision, review the
cumulative folder of the child. Note any of the following information that is available after
you have done the PAL test administration.
- Child's Home Language Survey
- LEP placement and any biliteracy instruction
- Previous language assessment scores and dates
- Bilingual/ESL placement information
- Standardized achievement test scores
- Any Informal Reading Inventories, skills checklists or
Running Records
- Grades in reading/language arts
If possible, interview the teacher
regarding the cumulative folder information that you have questions about or where you
detect any discrepancies between your analysis of the child's abilities and academic
performance.
CASE STUDY REPORT
The report of your analysis of the bilingual child's
will be between 3-5 pages in length. Begin with a description of your subject, including
their language proficiency level, their writing rubric score and any other descriptive
information that will provide a complete picture of the child for the analysis to follow.
Attach a copy of the child's PAL response booklet and the writing sample. The analysis
should address any of the following questions that are pertinent to your findings on the
language and literacy skills of your case study subject. These questions should serve as a
guide to your analysis.
- Did you observe a difference between the child's level of
oral language proficiency as measured by the PAL and his/her reading and writing skills?
- What have you learned from the language and literacy
assessment process that will improve your teaching of bilingual students who are learning
to read and write in English as a second language?
Guidelines for Case Study Report
This outline of the Primary Acquisition of Languages
(PAL) testing and analysis of the writing sample of a bilingual student will guide you to
focus on the types of information that are pertinent to describing your subject and your
experiences with this assignment. Do not feel obligated to follow this format exactly, nor
to include everything on this sheet. You may have additional insights and information that
are not described below. If you cover most of these points, your report is likely be
thorough and complete.
I. The PAL testing experience
In this section, describe the interaction with your
subject during the PAL testing. Was the child shy, talkative, brief in his/her answers?
Did he/she try to chat and engage you in conversation outside of the question and answer
procedures? These are indicators of fluency and ease with the language. Also, did the
child use discourse skills such as taking turns with you to speak, changing the direction
of the conversation, or just sticking to the matter at hand? Did he/she use any
"repair" strategies to try to make him/herself understood if you didn't catch
the meaning of what was said, or if he/she did not understand you? Strategies such as
rephrasing your question in his/her own words are indicators of devises used by L2
speakers to gain linguistic and cognitive information from their native speaker
interlocutors. Describe your impressions of the PAL interview based on these questions and
your reflection on the experience.
2. The PAL test results analysis
This analysis involves three aspects of the verbatim
responses you recorded on the PAL:
A. The specific grammatical errors the child made
B. The total number of words used in responses
C. The overall language level of the child
A. To report on this analysis, select examples of
specific grammatical errors the child made in responding. Report these by question # and
describe the error. Examples might be such errors as omitting the ending on third person
verb forms, not using the past tense or the conditional tense, etc. You might also look
for these forms on the LAS Linguistic Competence Matrix and identify the language level at
which they appear on this scale. This is a way of validating the measure of the child's
language level based on the PAL if you discover discrepancies. You may prepare a grid
using the LAS levels as a checklist to find use or non-use of various grammatical
structures.
B. Report how the subject you tested compared with
the average number of words. This includes a description of the length of responses in
general. Was the child "telegraphic" or did he/she use complete sentences and
elaboration in response to the questions.
C. Report what level on the 1-5 point scale your
subject scored in on the PAL. Does this level coincide with your perceptions of the
child's overall skill in using English? Why or why not. Remember that the PAL scores
appear to be inflated. At what level would you have placed the child before actually
scoring the test based on the interview alone? This is an indicator of possible
score inflation. Speculate if you so choose about what elements of the PAL could be the
cause of misinterpretation of levels. What would this mean to you if you were the child's
teacher and received an inaccurate language assessment score from an outside tester?
What does this tell you about the usefulness and reliability of language assessment data?
3. Analysis of the writing sample
Report on your analysis of the child's writing
sample. What total score did the child receive on the ESL Writing Rubric? Based on
the rubric and your observations, what are the child's strengths and weaknesses in writing
English? Did you find any of the grammatical errors made in the oral assessment also
present in the child's writing? Or did you find other errors? How might you
explain these errors? Are they possibly caused by a transfer of the child's linguistic
competence in Spanish into his/her English vocabulary and sentence structure?
Overall, how did the child's writing ability compare to their level of oral English?
Discuss any theory or theories about language and literacy development that might explain
your findings. If we are given access to the student's cumulative folder, other
information regarding academic performance and growth may be discussed in this section.
4. Instructional program factors & instructional
intervention
We had the opportunity to hear our subjects' teacher
outline his instructional procedures and the program the students follow. Report on how
you think the instructional program described might affect the child's learning of
English, remembering the timeline of development of literacy skills in the teacher's
program. What intervention would you recommend to improve the child's vocabulary, grammar
and writing skills in English? You may address this issue by describing instructional
strategies we have covered in class, such as Chain Writing and Sentence Manipulation
activities, or other strategies that you have learned. Give some specific examples.
5. What you have learned about language assessment
and literacy development
This section of the report is a reflection on what
you have learned from administering and scoring an oral language assessment and using
rubrics to score a second-language learner's writing. Discuss your knowledge and
perceptions about language assessment and second-language learners before and after
concluding this assignment. Focus on how you will use the knowledge and skills acquired
through this experience in your CLAD teaching with L2 learners of English. You may also
draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of various program models you have observed
in this course and in your student teaching for developing bilingual students' literacy
skills. You may also wish to discuss what more you believe you will need to learn in order
to become more effective in teaching L2 learners.
PRIMARY
ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGES (PAL)
ADMINISTRATOR'S MANUAL
PURPOSE OF THE PAL
The purpose of this instrument is to determine a child's
proficiency in English and Spanish for purposes of instruction. The Oral Language
Dominance Measure is structured to elicit a variety of responses from children in English
and in Spanish. The responses will contain a comprehensive range of syntactical items
(sentence patterns) normally found in the language repertoire of five and six year old
children rather than lexical items (words). It is important to remember that English and
Spanish are noun-focused languages. Consequently, the noun repertoire is a direct function
of past experience i.e., the greater the number and variety of experiences the more
extensive the list of nouns known by the individual.
The range of items includes inflections, function words, sentence
patterns, and idiomatic expressions. These items have been arranged in a hierarchy for
purposes of scoring. The hierarchies are different for each language to compensate for
differences inherent in the languages. The hierarchies also indicated a judgment as to
degree of difficulty, assigning less values to those syntactical and lexical items
children learn first and more value to those that are more complex and learned later.
PREPARATION
The following preparations should be completed previous to the
testing date:
1. Read
through the entire measure.
2. Review the procedures for testing.
3. Practice giving the complete measure at least once to a child or
an adult. Administer both in English and Spanish.
4. Organize the testing area. Secure a separate room
if it is available or a quiet area.
5. Arrange a test schedule-for yourself. Do not test
too many students per day, and avoid testing when you are fatigued.
6. Have the testing materials ready and two well sharpened pencils
and an eraser.
7. Complete the information regarding the child
found in the first page of the Scoring Booklet prior to testing.
ADMINISTERING THE MEASURE
It is essential to be unbiased in showing language preference during
the administration of this measure.
1. All children will be tested in English and in Spanish. It is
essential to only test one language at a time. Test all the children in English and then
go back and test them in Spanish or vice versa.
2. Establish rapport with the child. Children respond best when the
atmosphere is warm and informal. Whatever you can say or do to create this type of
atmosphere and to relax the child before you begin the testing will be of great help.
3. It is easiest if you and the child sit side-by-side at a table or
at two desks moved close together. If you are right-handed, have the child sit to your
left; if you are left-handed, have the child sit to your right.
4. Before beginning the actual testing, have a brief conversation
with the child. You may make use of the pictures for conversing, but do not ask any of the
test questions. For example, showing the first picture, you may ask, "Do you like to
play baseball?" When you feel the child is at ease, start with the preliminary
activity, which is to have the child point to various items in the picture. Then continue
smoothly with the test questions. However, if the child cannot point to what is asked,
show it to him before continuing with the test questions.
5. Ask the child the test questions exactly as they are written, and
point precisely as the instructions indicated in the Scoring Booklet.
6. If a child does not answer a question, wait a few seconds, then
repeat the question. If there is still no response, smile and continue with the next
question. In such cases, in order to keep the child feeling at ease, you may tell him
"the answer" in a brief, friendly sentence before going on. In some questions
you will find two forms of the question asked. One question use a contraction and one is
without the contraction. For example, WHAT'S SHE DOING?/WHAT IS SHE DOING? Ask the child
the first form of the question. If the child does not seem to understand, ask the question
a second time using the second form. If there is still no response, you may indicate an
appropriate response, smile, and go on to the next question.
7. If you did not hear or understand the response, lean closer to
the child and say, "I didn't hear you." Pause, then repeat the question if
necessary. If there is no response, go on to the next question.
8. If the child points instead of speaking, ask him to
"tell" you about the object he has pointed to. If he does not respond, go on to
the next question.
9. Questions asking WHY also have a second form. For example, WHAT
DOES THE DOG WANT? WHY?/WHY DOES THE DOG WANT THAT? Sometimes while you are writing the
response to the first question, the child looses his train of thought to answer the
question that follows it. In these cases, the second form of the question is provided to
help the child recall the previous question. Use it if necessary.
10. If a child is not responding, discontinue testing after Question
3 and give the reason in the blank provided. Let the child look at the other pictures
before you dismiss him or her so that the experience will have been a pleasant one for the
child.
11. Each set of questions refers to one or more pictures in the
Picture Booklet. The beginning of each set of questions indicates the pictures to which
the questions on the page refer. In order not to distract the child, show only the
picture(s) relevant to the questions to be asked. Questions 10 through 19 refer to the
first picture. Questions 10 through 19 refer to the second picture. Question-20 refers to
the second and third picture. Questions 21 through 23 refer to the third picture.
12. Maintain a natural flow of conversation throughout the
administration of the measure.
RECORDING THE CHILD'S RESPONSES
1. Only the responses to the test questions should be recorded.
2. Record responses on the line to the right of the questions.
3. Record exactly what the child says, not what you think he said or
what you know he can say.
4. If a child points or gestures to help answer the question,
indicate it in parenthesis. For example, a child's response may be recorded like this:
"He (pointing to the boy with the baseball glove)." This helps you to remember
if the answer makes sense to the question that was asked.
5. Sometimes a child will answer a question in a language other than
that being tested, or he may mix both languages in his response. If this happens, ask the
child to try answering-in the language being tested by saying, "¿Y en
español?" or "And in English?"
You will record the child's second response whether it is a repeat
of the first or if it is changed to the language being tested. If the child makes no
response, acknowledge it by saying "yes" or "sí" and go on to the next
question.
If a child corrects himself, record that response in lieu of all
others.
6. Sometimes a child may not answer a question at all. In that case
simply write "NR" (no response) in the space designated for that response.
7. Sometimes children will offer comments that do not refer to a
test question. For example, "There's a seesaw," or "I like hotdogs."
Respond to such comments to maintain the natural flow of conversation, but do not record
these comments.
8. If a child uses three or four clauses to respond to a question,
you need only record one or two clauses or phrases.
SCORING PROCEDURES FOR THE PAL
The PAL is scored on the basis of number of errors and a total word
count. In this manner, a child who produces more language but with fewer errors will fall
on a grid that indicates a higher level of fluency. A child who gives short answers and
does not elaborate, but has infrequent errors will also fall in a higher level of fluency,
but will not receive as many points as his/her peer who uses more words and produces
longer sentences.
Certain questions are designed to elicite particular grammatical
forms. Specific tense required--The questions listed below require that a specific tense
be used in the response. Deduct one point for incorrect usage of tense. The questions that
require a specific tense are marked with an asterisk (*) in the Scoring Booklet.
Specific Grammar Items
ENGLISH |
SPANISH |
| Question #4--Present Progressive |
Question #4--Present Progressive |
| Question #6--Future |
Question #7--Idiomatic Future |
| Question #11--Future |
Question #11--Idiomatic Future |
| Question #14--Past |
Question #14--Past |
| Question #26--Present Progressive |
Question # 26--Past |
| Question # 28--Conditional |
Question # 28--Conditional |
INTERPRETING
THE SCORES
Language Levels based on FSI Proficiency Scale*
Language Level |
Test Score |
Level 5 |
85-100 |
Level 4 |
73-84 |
Level 3 |
47-72 |
Level 2 |
25-46 |
Level 1 |
0-24 |
*Check the handout on Language
Proficiency for a descriptor of each level
Level 5--Child can communicate and understand the language.
Level 4--Child can communicate and understand the language but needs
further development.
Level 3--Child has limited communication and understanding in the
language.
Level 2--Child has very limited communication and comprehension in
the language.
Level 1--Child has virtually no communication in the language.
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page was last updated on 11/05/00