Behrman: Student Work- Week 9

            Today, since it was a festive holiday, we integrated Halloween into our math and literacy activities (which the kids obviously adored). Since our kids have been working with the 100s chart quite a bit and working with double-digits, we decided to do a listening activity centered around this chart. I instructed students on what color to use (green, gray, or black) and which number to color. In the end, if students followed directions, they ended up with a Frankenstein 100s chart. Since they were using crayons or colored pencils, it was obvious who either struggled to identify the numbers solely based on listening (no visual assistance was supplied), or who struggled with following directions. This activity was especially beneficial for my student population since the overwhelming majority of them are ELLs. It is important for them to be able to quickly identify numbers provided in both written and spoken form.
          I walked around and monitored students as I was calling out numbers and observed students at work. One of our lowest students who we are vigilantly progress monitoring (in red for both math and literacy), had several errors. When I directed students to color the number 23 green, he colored the number 43 green instead. This occurred while several other numbers during this activity. Since there wasn't a long pause or request for repeating the directions, this reveals to me that his errors weren't due to struggling to follow directions. Instead, this seems to point towards a lack of understanding of number names and their corresponding written representation. For this particular student, it could be a lack of English language proficiency (his parents don't speak any English), or a lack of prior academic experience working with numbers.
          In order to determine the underlying issue for this student's struggle, I would assess the student by having him repeat a similar activity of pointing to/coloring in numbers on a 100s chart that I say aloud, but give him the choice of whether I give directions in Spanish or English. Giving him the opportunity to perform this task using his L1  would provide me with information as to whether their is a linguistic gap or an academic gap. If he excels with identifying numbers when spoken in Spanish, I would then be able to work with him using various TESOL strategies so that he is able to communicate his intellectual understanding in English, as well. If he struggles with identifying numbers when spoken in Spanish, then I would be able to work with him on his numbers and point out patterns between the names of one and two-digit numbers (for example, two-->twenty, three-->thirty), and using numbers in word form, digits, or spoken.