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Esther Quezada

Dr. Iliana Reyes

TLS 312

9 May 2017

Benchmark Written Report

Part A: Oral Language Development Assessment

My case study child, Miguel is five years old. When Miguel was born, he weighed 9

pounds and 12 ounces; he was 21 inches long. Miguel is currently an only child and an only

grandchild; however, Susy and Manuel do want to have more kids soon. Even though he doesnt

have any siblings to interact with, they told me that Miguel is a people person and he loves

talking to other children and adults. Miguels greatest strength is that he is a very kind child.

Whenever he sees a kid, he will go up to them and invite them to play with him. Hes very

friendly to his classmates and respectful to his teachers. Miguel is a very fun and interesting

child. Like many children his age, he loves Paw Patrol. He has many Paw Patrol toys and he

likes to watch the show as well. Something that I find especially interesting about my case study

child is that he likes to watch toy reviews on YouTube for fun.

To support their childs education, Susy and Manuel (his parents) read to Miguel, they

talk about shapes, colors, the ABCs, and they especially concentrate on his language and

pronunciation of words. One of the reasons that they do this is because Miguel has a speech

delay, so they want to help him out with this. Miguel was two and a half years old when his

parents started getting concerned about his language development. His parents began noticing

that he would mumble stuff and he would try to say words, but he was having trouble

communicating. His abilities didnt compare to his peers. At this point, Susy and Manuel decided
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that they wanted to get Miguel some additional help. In addition to this, the pediatrician had told

them that at his age, he should have around fifty words in his vocabulary, and Miguel did not.

His parents struggled talking to him in English and Spanish. Susy and Manuel began to worry

that it was their bilingualism that was affecting Michaels language development. However, all

the speech pathologists that they talked to said that it didnt matter that they were bilingual, he

should have picked up on fifty words in either language. They tried to get services for Miguel

through the state but he was only mildly delayed, and at the age of two he had to be severely

delayed to get services. After this, they started taking Miguel to a private therapist. Their

insurance was supposed to cover it, so they went ahead with it. However, they did not see Miguel

improving that much throughout his time with them. His therapist tried to do a lot of sign

language with him, but it was not helping Miguel out. She said that Miguel didnt care for it and

that he really struggled with it.

From there her friend recommended that she go to the preschool and have Miguel

evaluated there, since she had gone through the same experience with her own son. She did this

and got Miguel enrolled at The Early Childhood Center at the age of three. She says that by

putting him in the preschool, Miguel has grown so much in the two years that he has been there.

She says that he is a whole different kid. In the beginning, they would have no clue what Miguel

was saying. This was a tough situation for them and for Miguel. He would get frustrated because

he had to constantly repeat what he was saying and still his parents would not understand him.

She said that if anyone outside of the family would talk to him, they would not understand him.

It used to be that to understand Miguel, you had to know the context. Miguels language

development has been slow. He learns very quickly from other kids and that is why preschool

has been very helpful for him. His growth these past few years has been a miracle.
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Throughout the years, Susy and Manuel have tried several things to encourage Miguels

language development. At first, they would read him books; however, he did not like them. It

was not until he entered preschool that he began to like books. Since that was not working for

him, they simply started talking to him in English and Spanish. His mother says that she thinks

that she did not talk a lot to him as a young child and that this could be why he struggled with his

speech. His mother said that she felt uncomfortable talking to him as a young child, so she

didnt, and this might have been what affected him.

For the final home engagement, I really wanted to concentrate on Miguels language and

listen closely to his speech. I noticed that he talks the most when hes excited and hes having

fun. So, to me it was obvious that I was going to observe him while he was playing and interact

with him as well. As I got there, Manuel opened the front door. With him was Miguel who

greeted me with a big. I talked to Manuel and told him about what this home engagement was

about. I explained to him that I would be asking questions about his development, but that my

main focus would be concentrating on Miguels speech and his language development, so this

meant that I would be playing with him.

When I got there, Susy was not there. I told Miguel that I would be playing with him and

he got super excited and went to the closet under the stairs, where he keeps all his downstairs

toys. He started pulling out containers full of toys. Out of all the toys in the containers, he started

pulling out the train tracks and the trains, which were from the show Thomas and friends. As he

was putting the train tracks together, the garage door started to open. He heard it, got excited, and

started saying, Mommys home! He got up from his toys and started running around the house.

When she walked into the house, both Manuel and Miguel greeted Susy. Once she got

settled in, Miguel came back to the train tracks and continued putting it together. I continued to
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play with Miguel for a while. He talked to me about all the different train characters and he could

name all the stations. Since it was my first time playing with these toys, I had to rely on Miguel

to help me out and guide me. At one point I was putting some train tracks together and he told

me, No Ms. Esther! I was assembling it the wrong way. So, Miguel was the expert in this and

he was leading me in this play.

Throughout this school year with Miguel, I have learned so much about his home

language and literacy environment. Before I ever went to Miguels house I didnt know anything

about him or his family. By going to his home, I realized that they are a bilingual family,

speaking both English and Spanish, which I would not have guessed at all. I also learned a lot

about his struggles with speech, which made me realize how far hes come. I learned that he tried

therapy, but preschool seemed to help him the most because he learns best from other kids. I also

learned that he didnt like to read before school and he didnt like to be read to either; however,

this changed when he started going to preschool. His mom says that he is now read to every day

before he goes to sleep, so this has become a part of his life.

Analysis of transcription:

For this portion of the assignment, I decided to transcribe an episode in which I went to

my case studys house and I played and interacted with Miguel for about an hour. During this

hour, I also interacted with the parents, as they were present and I asked them questions about

Miguels development in several domains. As soon as I got to the house, I explained that for this

home engagement I would be focusing on interacting with Miguel and playing; I told them I

would be focusing on his speech.

The dad opened the door when I got there, and Miguel was there as well. He gave me a

hug and greeted me. I told him that I was there to play with him. He immediately lit up and he
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ran to the closet under the staircase, where his toys are stored. He then started taking out his train

tracks and started putting them together. I sat on the floor with him and started putting the train

tracks together with him.

One thing that I have noticed about Miguels speech, not just in this interaction, but

throughout the whole school year that I have been working with him, is that he has trouble

sounding out words and it is at times hard to understand what he says. So, throughout this

interaction I would often repeat what he was saying because I wanted to make sure that I

understood it for this transcription.

I also noticed that he doesnt really talk while he is playing unless someone asks him

something. So, throughout this interaction I was trying to ask him questions because I wanted to

get him to talk, so that I could analyze his language development. One thing that I noticed is that

when he is really focused and he is asked a question he will say, Uhuh, or hell say yeah.

Hell do this instead of saying yes or no.

Even though Miguel likes to keep silent during the play, he did not hesitate to interact

with me when I asked him questions. Something that stood out to me was that even though he

does have a speech delay, when he does say something it is grammatically correct. As I was

analyzing and transcribing this interaction, I noticed that he had few grammatical errors. For

example, his mother told him to say, this is a street. He didnt repeat her exactly, he was able to

manipulate that sentence and still say something that was grammatically sound. He said, that

ones a street. He understands that there is more than one way to say something.

Another thing that stood out to me was when he was naming the trains. I would ask him

what the name of the trains were, and he would give me an answer without hesitating. However,

I later realized that he was giving me the wrong names; the trains had the names on the bottom of
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them. For example, during the transcription he told me that the trains name was brown, but I

looked at the bottom of the train and it said Max. If Miguel would have looked at the bottom of

the train, he would have known that brown does not start with M, therefore his name could not

be brown. This didnt just happen with this train, but with other ones as well. So, by analyzing

Miguels habits and his speech, I noticed that he needs to work on letter recognition as well as

the sounds that those letters make, and he needs to work on recognizing that words and letters

carry a message.

To me, this is valuable information and data that I would have not been able to collect if I

had not gone on home engagements. I dont see this type of dialogue at school; as

aforementioned he keeps to himself. Weve also built a relationship over the past year, so hes

comfortable talking to me since I have gotten to know him throughout the school year and I have

visited him in his home; theres a sense of trust between us. So, these home engagements have

been an integral part in getting valuable data and learning more about my case studys language

and literacy development.

Part B: Socio-Cultural Knowledge and Family Interaction

From the interview that I held with my case study family, I learned that my case study

child talks a lot about police officers and firefighters. This is influenced by his love for Paw

Patrol. He also loves talking about airplanes and jets because two of his uncles are flight

attendants. So, he has extensive knowledge and vocabulary about this.

Miguel feels more comfortable at home and with his family members when speaking. He

has an immense respect for his teachers, so hes always a quieter kid when hes at school; his

environment also affects him and the way that he acts. But when hes at home, he really comes
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out of his shell. Through these home visits I have discovered another side of Miguel, one that I

had not seen at home. He can be silly, and very energetic and I loved seeing a new side of him.

Through these home visits and these interviews, I also learned that my case study family

is bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish. Mom and Dad speak both languages at home

and they speak Spanish to each other. Dads primary language is Spanish. He didnt start

speaking English until he moved to the United States back in 2010. They would speak Spanish to

Miguel, but when they realized he was having trouble speaking in general, they decided it would

be best to just start speaking in English to him. Because of this, Manuels English had improved

as well.

The mother and father are both fluent in the Spanish language. Dad can read a write in

Spanish, and he understands and speaks some English. Mom is completely fluent in English and

speaks and writes in that language as well; however, she does not read and write in Spanish as

well. Finally, I think its important to mention that my case study child is very fluent in

technology. His favorite device is the IPad. He knows how to open it himself, find the YouTube

app, and find the toy reviews that he wants to watch himself, which I think is impressive.

Through these questions, I learned a lot about the language acquisition of this family. It

was interesting how Susy learned to speak Spanish so that she could talk to Manuel and that

Manuel learned to speak English so that he could communicate with Susy and his son. For my

case study, I learned that he used to not like to be read to. This was very surprising to me,

considering hes always very attentive during circle time and he loves to be read to at school.

Some activities within his home and his community that are helping him develop

language and literacy are the read alouds that his mother and father participate in every night,

which he now enjoys because of school. He also goes to church a lot; every Wednesday and
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Sunday. There he learns about a whole new literacy. When at church, he is exposed to new

vocabulary. Also, while here he plays with other children, who for the most part are older than

him. So, he picks up on new vocabulary when he plays and interacts with them.

Part C: Child Literacy Kidwatching Assessment

Throughout the school year that I have been working with Miguel, his speech has

improved drastically. Not only has this improved, but his language and emergent literacy skills

have improved as well. At this point in the year, Miguel is now able to write and recognize his

own name. At the beginning of the school year, we would sing Guess Who Came to School

Today and we would have their name tags with a cartoon character next to their name, and

children would recognize their name by their character. We noticed that this was happening, so

we made new name tags without the cartoon character. By doing this, my kids are now able to

recognize their names.

This has not been the only thing that has helped Miguel. We also have writing folders

where they can practice writing their name. We also encourage them to write their name on

everything that they do. If they dont remember how to write their name, we encourage them to

get their name tag, so they can use that as a reference. This has allowed them to practice writing

their name and to recognize it as well. Throughout this semester and because of activities such as

these I have seen Miguels literacy skills improve throughout the year.

At school and at home he is exposed to read alouds, which have also contributed to his

literacy skills improving. However, there is always room for improvement. For Miguel, I would

like to work on his book handling skills and directionality. There are some concepts that he has

down from observing his teachers and his parents, but there are some things that he still needs to

work on. Some community language and literacy practices that Miguel is exposed to are read
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alouds at the safari park and at his local library. He goes to one about every two weeks, but he

enjoys the safari park read alouds the most because they are held outside.

He doesnt quite know the different kinds of books there are and the different functions

that they serve. He is however aware of the routines of book sharing. Miguel has a very good

idea of the oral discourses surrounding books. He participates well in book discussions, and for

the most part he knows when he should be listening and when he can talk. There are times when

Im reading and hell get so excited that hell stand up and point out something in the book. I

love his excitement, but he also needs to learn when the appropriate time is to say something. He

does this more with me because he is comfortable with me and he knows me on a more personal

level, but he wont do this with my mentor teacher.

For my first activity, I have chosen the profile of writing activity. When Miguel first came

to my classroom in the beginning of the school year, he could not recognize his name, nor could

he write it. He has grown drastically this school year. However, since he only goes to school four

days a week for three hours, his growth is not as visible as his classmates. He is now able to

recognize his name and he can write it (for the most part). As you can see in my documentation,

he wrote his name when he was asked to. All his letters are not there, but he makes a great

attempt to write his name. He starts off with an M from there you can see an I and something

that looks like an O. My theory is that he confuses the a, e, and c. Which are all in his name,

they all have a similar shape (they are all round letters) and it could be that he confused them. I

have also observed him write his name before, and it has been much clearer than this, with each

letter visible, but these were instances that I did not document.

Another thing that Miguel needs to work on are his book handling skills. So, for one of

my activities I chose the book handling activity. He knows how to hold a book in an upright
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position, he knows the parts of a book such as, the front, back, spine, title, and author/illustrator.

He did not know these at the beginning of the school year. This is knowledge that he had gained

throughout the school year. He still needs to grow in this area. He does not understand that print

proceeds from left to right and top to bottom. At times, he will write his name from right to left

and the letters will go across the paper. He does however show excitement when he is given the

chance to choose a book and he shows excitement when books are going to be read. He has some

things down, but he needs to refine his book handling knowledge.

Throughout my time this semester I have learned that when children look at a book, they

rely heavily on the illustrations. If you were to give a child a picture book and ask them what is

happening in the book, they will look at the pictures to tell you the story. The way the text is

written also gives them an idea of what is happening. If the words are big and bold, they know

that someone is using a loud voice. If its in a voice bubble they know that means that someone is

saying that. If the words are small they know that that is said in a low voice. So, I have learned

that children use visual cues to inform themselves about what they are reading. These are some

conclusions that I have made about what children believe about reading and the support that

different texts give to them.

As an educator, I have learned that it is so important to expose children to literacy at a

young age. Miguel was really struggling with his speech before he was enrolled in preschool.

Through read alouds, being exposed to print, and doing literacy activities in school, his literacy

and speech development have grown drastically. Its also through read alouds that children learn

about book handling skills; this is how Miguel learned what he knows about books. It has been

through the home engagements and communication that I have been able to build a relationship

with my case study family. If I had not built a relationship with this family, I would not have
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been able to learn everything that I did about them. They even invited me to his birthday party.

The mother was adamant that I had to be invited, because of the relationship that I have built

with this family. I attended his birthday party, met his whole family, and had great conversations

with them. This made me feel even closer to the family. It was through these home engagements

that I have built a close relationship with this family and my case study child.

Part D: Using Literacy Observation and Data to Inform Instruction

Rationale:

Through my analysis of my case study childs strengths and weaknesses, I have been able

to identify what activity would best help him continue developing his literacy skills. I think that a

bookmaking activity would be a great way to reinforce what he already knows about books, and

it can also introduce new knowledge to him as well. Throughout the semester, we have been

learning about literacy development in young children in one of my other classes, and one of the

activities that has been really encouraged is book making. With this, children can tell stories

through their pictures, which reinforces their oral language; something that Miguel needs to work

on, so this would help him. They will be dictating what is happening in their pictures to an adult

so that the story can be documented, this is the oral language aspect of this activity. As he

continues to advance he can begin attempting to write the words that go in his book, with the

help of an adult. So, this can be modified for all developmental levels.

Plan:

For this I would set up an authors desk where children are encouraged to go to and write

a book. We will be needing paper and writing utensils so that the books can be made. This

activity can be done at center time; it will be set up as a center. During this time children can
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choose which center they want to go to. I would encourage Miguel to explore this center. If he

does not go to the desk right away, or if that does not interest him, we can have him play at the

block area, which is always the center that he chooses to play at. Here I would observe him play

and play alongside him as well. When he plays here, he always comes up with great stories of

what is happening with his toys, so I would encourage him to draw what is happening and then

make these drawings into a book.

Goals of the Activity:

One of the goals that I have for this activity if for Miguel to put sentences together and to

pronounce his words correctly. I would like to see him work on his pronunciation of words.

Focusing and bettering his speech is one of my goals. Another goal that I have is for him to work

on his letter recognition and to focus on the shapes of letters, so that he can form them himself.

Resources and Materials:

For this activity, we will be needing paper, and writing utensils, which can include

pencils, colored pencils, markers, crayons, etc. The paper should be paper of different sizes and

colors, so the childs book can truly be their own creation. We will also need some form to put

the book together. This can be done with staples, it can be glued, or it can be laced together with

string. If it is laced together, the child can help and this will support their fine motor skills. A

laminator will also be needed so the pages of the book can be laminated.

Structures:

For this activity, I would need a center set up so that my students could go to and write. I

would need a desk/table and a chair. The table would have to be big enough so that all the

materials could fit on it and so that the children would have a lot of space to make their books.

This should also be set up in an area where there arent distractions for the children. So, its best
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not to put it next to the dramatic play area or the block center. A good placement for this would

be next to the reading area, where they can also get inspiration from books.

Plan to implement:

I would introduce this activity during circle time and have the space open for anyone who

wants to make their own books. Before this, you should have practiced storytelling in the

classroom and you should have children share their own stories, so by the time they come around

to this activity they are already experienced in storytelling and they feel comfortable doing this.

As aforementioned, this will be done during center time so that the children have plenty of time

to make their books. This can be a project that spans across many days, so there should also be a

place where children can save their work in progress.

Children should have the help of an adult when they are doing this. They should go

through the process that authors go through, so they themselves can be authors. They should

brainstorm, plan, and write. If children are lacking inspiration they can look at other books and

get ideas (this is part of the reason why I want this next to the reading center), or you can talk to

them about what they did over the weekend, their favorite TV show, or what they were just

playing with if they were at a different center; this could give them inspiration to write a book.

Once they know what they are going to write about (in this case Miguel), I would have

him either draw his pictures or start with the story; whatever he is comfortable with. If Miguel

gets inspiration from what he was playing with at a previous center or a book, he can bring it

along to the writing center and whatever he brings along can serve as his artifact. Once his book

is done, with the illustrations being completed and the words written down, it will need to be

laminated (so that it lasts longer) and it will need to be put together, either stapled or with yarn,

whichever pleases the child most. If he wishes to share this book with his classmates, he can read
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it during story time. Its also important that the book has all the aspects that published books

have, like the title page, the author, and the illustrator. It should also be read the way that you

read a published book. Finally, if he wishes, the book can be put on the bookshelf with the other

published books. This will give him confidence in his writing and through all of this he will have

practiced and reinforced his speech, and literacy skills.