Classroom Interaction Inventory
This is an inventory focusing on one student -- known here as K.C.
A. Student Work in Second Language Acquisition
1. Taking risks in using language: K.C. is willing to speak up and try to use new words and phrases. However, he is less willing to write, but with encouragement will.
2. Showing confidence in using language: He is pretty confident with spoken language, but less so with written.
3. Showing motivation in acquiring language: He spends time learning vocabulary words. In 5th grade he was given a pocket thesaurus. He thought it was fun to go through it, marking synonyms, and finding more ways to say things. For instance, while I was interviewing him, he properly used the words discrete and stance.
After we read The Giver, K.C. asked if he could borrow Gathering Blue, and was excited when he came back to class having read it.
4. Setting personal learning goals for acquiring language: K.C. looks for chances to learn.
5. Using informal opportunities to acquire language: K.C. associates with both Spanish-speaking and English-Speaking friends.
6. Developing a range of communication strategies:
7. Moving from big ideas to details in comprehension: He is getting 100% scores on the READ180 software for finding main ideas and details.
8. Assessing impact of native culture on acquiring language: K.C.’s culture is Hispanic-American. He was born in the U.S. and has lived here his whole life. However, his parents speak Spanish, and have a difficult time understanding English.
9. Understanding of American culture: He has grown up in the U.S. so he seems to know what is expected.
B. Nonverbal Participation: See #10. Also, Kenneth participates when the class is asked to raise their hands or to stand up to indicate agreement or disagreement with a statement. He is generally attentive when the teacher is reading to the students or playing a tape or CD of a book.
10. Attending to action: gaze other nonverbal:
K.C. was resting his head on his arm and drawing while the student teacher was teaching about the verb lie and lay. His eyes on his notebook. He continues to draw and rest his head when the teacher asks students to start calling out nouns. Then he starts writing down nouns, and calls out “hippopotamus.” While the students are calling out words, and working together to create sentences with them, his head is up, he’s looking forward. After a few minutes, he is writing and drawing, but goes back and forth between looking up, and looking down to write.
He is not paying attention to other students when they are giving explanations for grammar rules.
11. Responding to directives:
He continues to draw and rest his head when the teacher asks students to start calling out nouns. Then he starts writing down nouns, and calls out “hippopotamus.”
12. Responding to indirectives: (What is an indirective?) I’m assuming this means non-verbal directives. He will respond to a look or a gesture. He is generally cooperative. Occasionally interacting with friends trumps responding to the teacher.
13. Taking turns: talking at appropriate points:
During observation: He calls out “hippopotamus” when the teacher asks for students to call out nouns (they don’t have to raise their hands. – appropriate.
C. Language Function
14. Greeting acknowledging others' presence: Proficient.
15. Commenting: volunteering a remark: Yes, he can do this well.
16. Providing feedback: "uh huh": Yes.
17. Directing: telling someone to do something: He is able to do this.
18. Denying: contradicting: Yes.
19. Protesting: objecting to an offense: Yes.
20. Apologizing: acknowledging an offense: Yes.
Maintaining topic/changing topic
21. Producing relevant talk: Yes.
22. Introducing a topic change: Yes.
23. Replying when nominated: Yes.
24. Refusing: declining to act: Yes.
25. Complimenting: expressing approval: Yes.
26. Narrating: producing a story: Yes.
Giving reports
27. Presenting readily-available information: Yes. In READ180 he and the other students were asked to find and read an short article (about child labor) online. They were to take notes, to summarize, and present the information. K.C. was able to complete the task. One problem area for him was writing his summary legibly since they had a limited amount of time to complete the assignment. Another was looking up at the audience (his classmates and teacher) as he presented. (Is this usually harder for Hispanic students?)
28. Presenting personally-constructed information: Yes, he can do it, but he often hasn’t handed in or presented assignments.
D. Verbal Participation in Joint Productivity
29. Collaborating with the teacher: He is able to talk with and ask questions of the teacher. Usually interactions need to be initiated by the teacher.
30. Collaborating in pairs of students: He does work with other students in pairs. He is able to communicate.
31. Collaborating in small groups: He suggests the word “pen” as a noun in a group that is creating sentences. He is quiet in this assigned group, as are the other three students. After a few minutes, he has become the leader of the group, leading them through creating the sentences. A few minutes later he’s looking confused and frustrated about not understanding lie/lay. The teacher explains to the group, and K.C. helps to clarify.
When I talked with him afterwards, he said that it’s harder to get a group started when the teacher picks the group. When you pick your own group, you know you can work together. When the teacher picks, it takes awhile to decide you can work together.
32. Collaborating in whole class activities: K.C. is collaborating with other class members to create posters against child labor. We have been studying this international problem. He is artistic, so is asked by other students to help with their artwork.
Classroom Rules or Routines that Affect the Student
K.C. thrives when he has plenty of time to talk with other students, and some time to talk with the teacher. My student teacher and I are planning to incorporate more of activities such as think/pair-share or think/write/pair-share.
We've decided that neither of us are consistently allowing enough wait time after asking a question. K.C. has reminded me of the value of that wait-time.
When forming small groups in English class, we use various methods including teacher-assigned groups (based on several different criteria), count offs or picking a color or candy and finding "matching" students, and student choice groups. K.C. feels that he needs to get to know people before he works with them, so for him, student-choice groups are best because he can choose people he already knows and would like to work with.
Joint Productive Activity/Instructional Conversation
K.C. and I talked about how to know when to double the consonant when adding an inflectional ending onto a word. This is an error that has been repeatedly showing up in his writing. Objective: K.C. will be able to correctly spell many words when he changes them by adding an inflectional ending. Joint product: After the "lesson," K.C. was able to successfully spell several words we hadn't already used. He could use the general rules to tell when to and when not to double the end consonant before adding the ending.
What Teacher Work will Benefit this Second Language Learner
(with Inclusive Pedagogy Guiding Principles Goal Questions)
Communication:
I can help K.C. develop more background knowledge. Already in READ180, he's watching brief videos to develop background for various high-interest subjects. Also we are as a class studying various subjects that build background knowledge in content areas such as literature, social studies, and science. I can bring in more pictures and video clips, and basic information about topics we study. For instance, in English class, K.C. needs more background knowledge dealing with how we put together sentences, including an understanding of what verbs are, what tense means, and how verbs show tense. (See number ten under the Classroom Interaction Inventory.)
I think I should work more closely with his social studies teacher. I can provide him with reading materials he can use to fulfill assignment for reading class, and English class, and that will build background knowledge for social studies. Also, K.C. tends to have a good handle on what he needs as a learner. I need to listen more to him. (Recognizing Multiple Perspectives)
I can continue to use the "to/with/by" method of teaching.
I can continue to provide him with texts at his own reading level, and plan to use strategies such as think/pair-share.
I can teach him fix-up strategies for when learning breaks down in reading. (It's about time to review those in READ180, and perhaps in English, too.)
I will continue to teach him writing skills.
I just realized that I don't know just how literate his parents are. He watches the news (in Spanish) with them. I could encourage them to the newspaper (Spanish edition) together.
Pattern:
I do provide a rich literacy environment in both classrooms, but I could enrich it more, by posting more materials (pictures, brief articles, poems, cartoons, etc. about the topic we're studying at the time.
I do monitor (especially with the READ180 software, K.C.'s fluency, comprehension, and word recognition. In fact, it's time to move him up a level on the READ180 software, since he's getting 100%'s almost exclusively.
He has another writing assignment coming up at the end of the week, so I will (as I usually do) respond to his writing first for overall meaning, then attend to errors in form, grammar, or conventions. He will have multiple opportunities to revise, aiming at a score of "4" or above on the GoMYAccess rubric for writing.
Variability:
I'm teaching him academic language and skills, as we learn content area vocabulary in READ180. We're also learning academic language in Engish class as students about parts of speech, and as we talk about reading and writing strategies, and the words expert reading and writers use to name them.
Expectations: I do have high expectations for K.C. He can meet the requirements on class assignment rubrics -- sometimes with a little extra help and time. I'm noticing that when I give him materials that are on his comprehension level, he can excel.
Current Knowledge about Second Language Learning and Teaching:
I'm gaining insights as I study the BEEDE materials. For instance, I have known that peer interaction is important to students (especially at the junior high level), but now I realize that there is added importance for bi-lingual learners like K.C.
Accountability: Since it often takes K.C. longer to "get-it," I ask him to be willing to ask questions, and to use Cave Time to come in for extra help. I make a point of checking with him, too.
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