Running Head:

FIELD EXPERIENCE WEEK THREE ASSIGNMENT

Field Experience

Week Three Assignment

Nermin H. Fialkowski

National University

AIL-620 Learner Literacy

Dr. Rebecca Hedricks

August 20th, 2018

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Southwest High School

Southwest High School in San Diego is a highly diverse school, just five miles north of

the U.S./Mexico International Border. Because of its close proximity to the border, 39% of the

school’s population has limited English proficiency, while 85% come from homes where English

is not spoken. Southwest High Schools is a Title I school, where 79% of the students are eligible

for free or reduced lunch. Southwest High School educates and empowers all students to

become productive members of society by embracing “The Raider Way.” Students are taught to

be actively engaged in their learning and personal growth by: having high expectations,

communicating effectively, appreciating diversity, becoming life-long learners, and confident

individuals (Southwest High SARC). The school also offers students different Career Pathways

options during their four years of high school: Eco-Engineering, Bio-Medical Studies, and Dual

Language.

This year I am teaching Discrete Mathematics and Pre-Calculus (two honors classes and

one regular). All my classes are comprised of junior and seniors. My two Discrete Mathematics

classes are solely seniors, while my Pre-Calculus courses are a mix of juniors and seniors. The

juniors in my Pre-Calculus classes are on an advanced track, having taken Integrated Math I

during middle school, while most students take it their freshmen year of high school. The

students in my Discrete classes are composed of two distinct student groups: students who have

satisfied the minimum high school graduation requirement for math (Integrated Math III), and

those who have not (passing Discrete will satisfy students’ Integrated Math III credit needed for

graduation). Because of these two distinct groups, students come to the class with a vast

variation of algebraic skills and understanding. One advantage, is that the purpose of this course

is to change students’ view of math. Discrete Mathematics is a contemporary form of

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mathematics with many real-world connections. The topics covered in this course focus on

deepening student thinking. This course gives students exposure to college-level mathematics

where math is as much about why things are true as it is about what is true (Discrete Math

Project Collaborative).

Focus Students

I will be focusing on four students for my Field Experience: Janelle S., Gustavo G., Juan

(Nick) Bravo, and Gabrielle C. Janelle is an advanced learner who is a junior in Pre-Calculus

Honors. Nick is also an advanced junior in Pre-Calculus Honors but receives special education

services. Gustavo is an English Language learner senior in my regular Pre-Calculus class. This

school year is his first in an American school. Lastly, Gabrielle is a struggling senior in my

Discrete class who is extremely behind in her credits.

Janelle

Janelle is one of my very top students out of my two Pre-Calculus Honors classes. Her

academic achievements currently place her as the third top student in her class, out of 450

students. Janelle is focused, polite and welcoming. Janelle’s warm personality makes her

approachable by her peers, in which they feel comfortable asking her for help. Most of the time

Janelle is quite and content, and keeps to herself. Janelle always does what she is told, she has

very high morals and always does what is right and excepted. Janelle can often be found

completing assignments quickly, with ease and accuracy. After completing a specific task in

class, Janelle can be found working/studying material from another class, or doodling various

animals and cartoon characters.

Of Janelle’s six classes this year, four of them are Advanced Placement courses (English

Language and Composition, U.S History, Psychology, and Chemistry). Considering Janelle’s
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great academic achievements and her strong work ethic, I have yet to see Janelle stressed. I

believe this level of cool and control is due to Janelle’s high cognitive processing skills. Janelle

will soon be turning sixteen years old, but her executive functions of problem-solving, decision-

making and sequencing (Michelon, 2006) are that of a successful adult. Janelle is also a part of

the school’s academic decathlon team. The academic decathlon team focuses on various topics,

including: science, literature, art, music, math, economics, and social science. In which they are

assessed through a variety of mean, including: written tests, essays, speeches and interviews.

This additional practice and stimulation provides Janelle a multisensory approach to learning, in

which she can have more than one way to relate new information, which makes is an ideal

learning environment (Doyle & Zakrajsek, 2013).

Differentiation

Janelle’s social-emotional well-being is high and balanced for the life a teenager.

Because of this, Janelle is usually my go-student to help struggling students. To be able to

stimulate Janelle mentally, she is seated around other academically strong students. When I see

that Janelle is done with an assignment earlier than others, I check-in with her and ask her

one/two extended questions on the subject, something that goes beyond the algebraic skills of the

content. Something that I do need to work on, is formally differentiating Janelle’s assessments

that require more Level Four (Extended Thinking) Depth of Knowledge questions (Depth of

Knowledge Overview Chart). Currently the differentiation only occurs informally, when we

orally communicate between extended questions.

Gustavo

Gustavo is a kind and warm-hearted senior student in my regular Pre-Calculus class.

Gustavo is an English Language learner, more specially, Short-Term English Leaner (STEL).
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This school year is his first in an American school. Although this is his first year in an American

school, Gustavo does know some English. Most of his spoken English is conversational, but he

is able to understand English fairly well. His auditory English skills surpass his oral skills.

Gustavo learned most of his English skills during his elementary school days. When he was

young, Gustavo attended English classes in Tijuana, Mexico, in addition to his traditional

schooling. He continued to attend English classes throughout middle school, but mentions he did

not learn much during that time. Most of the English Gustavo knows is from his former school

days. Currently, Gustavo is having much success in my class. Although his English proficiency

is not categorized as mastery, he has shown great mastery in the content of my class. In addition

to his hard work and dedication, Gustavo is coming into my class with strong algebraic skills and

plenty of background knowledge on trigonometric functions, and “parent” functions.

Gustavo has been able to make friends since starting school at Southwest, which is a

great feat for being in a new school, in a different country. Gustavo’s home town of Tijuana,

Mexico is only a few minutes away from our school, and already knows a few students who had

prior schooling in Tijuana. Gustavo’s cultural background is one that many students at

Southwest also share. Dealing with his social-emotional well-being, Gustavo is doing well in a

new school environment, but his biggest fear is not being able to graduate on time. Gustavo

transferred into my class two/three weeks after school had started because counselors were

waiting for his transcripts to arrive, so he was initially placed in Integrated Math III. This is

Gustavo’s senior year, so the expectation is graduation, but he is worried that his credits from

Mexico will not be transferrable.

Differentiation
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Currently, I haven’t been able to formally assess Gustavo’s English writing skills, so I

can only describe his cognitive abilities that pertain to math. Gustavo’s cognitive abilities in

math are high, he comes with a vast prior knowledge repertoire, and has great execution skills.

Additionally, he has shown mastery in attention, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making

(Michelon, 2006). My assessments are in English, and Gustavo has only needed clarification on

a few questions, as to what the question was asking him. I would label this type of clarification

with the same frequency as a non-English learner would have on a specific assessment question.

Because I am bilingual, Gustavo will ask me individual clarifying questions in Spanish. I

usually respond in English, then translate to Spanish only if he is still confused. I do admire

Gustavo’s effort in speaking English in front of the whole class when he is called on. Lastly,

Gustavo is seated with other Bilingual students so that he is able to communicate and participate

in small groups.

Nick

Nick’s first name is Juan, but prefers to be called by his middle name. Nick is generally a

shy but hardworking student. Nick is very aware of his strengths and weakness, and is proactive

about his learning. Nick has a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) in which he exhibits

deficiencies in auditory short term memory and long term retrieval, in addition to speech and

language delays. During the first week of school Nick approached me after class and informed

that he often struggles with math. He requested for me to frequently check-in with him to make

sure that he’s on the right track. Nick’s mom works right next door to Southwest High School at

Nestor Language Academy Charter School, the neighborhood’s local elementary school where

she works as a Special Education teacher.

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Despite Nick’s SLD, he is an academically strong student, having taken Advanced

Placement and accelerated classes. I believe much of Nick’s success can be attributed to his hard

work and dedication. Nick is constantly asking clarifying questions, and staying after class to

get additional help. As an individual, culturally, Nick is your average teenage boy. In his free-

time he likes to play video games and soccer. He is currently disappointed that will not be able

to play soccer for the school’s team this year, due to lack of transportation. During class, Nick is

generally reserved and keeps to himself most of the time. Although he is proactive in seeking

help for my class and asks me many clarifying questions, he hardly seeks help from his peers.

He is not trusting of his peers’ knowledge, and rather go straight to the source (the teacher).

Differentiation

During class time of individual work, Nick is usually the first student I check in with.

This type of attention was requested by Nick early in the year. He wants to make sure that he

understands the task at hand first, before wasting time on something that would be incorrect.

Nick also gets additional one-on-one time in preparation for assessments. Nick comes to see me

on his own time during nutrition break and lunch to get additional practice before an assessment.

During this time, I provide Nick with additional practice problems of what can be seen in the

upcoming assessment. Because of Nick’s neurological delays in auditory short term memory

and long term retrieval, he is provided additional time on assessments. On his upcoming

assessment, Nick will be allowed to use one index card of notes. He will have the freedom to fill

out his index card to his liking, with formulas and examples.

Gabrielle

Gabrielle is an energetic, fun loving senior in my Discrete class. She is a part of the

school’s varsity soccer team, and enjoys cheering on our school’s baseball team. Gabrielle loves
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the game of soccer and leaves her heart out on the field every time she plays. Playing soccer

highly motivates Gabrielle to do well in school because she knows that she needs to maintain a

2.0 G.P.A. in order to be eligible to play. Gabrielle can be found at almost every home baseball

game cheering on her fellow Raiders. Even though Gabrielle plays soccer, baseball plays a big

role in her life. She grew up in family of big baseball fans, and often goes to Toros de Tijuana

baseball games in Tijuana, Mexico. Gabrielle is extremely social and can always been found

talking to someone. Although Gabrielle has many friends and is a great athlete, she struggles

deeply academically.

This is Gabrielle’s fourth year in high school, making her a senior, but academically,

Gabrielle does not have enough credits that qualifier her as such. Since the start of high school

Gabrielle has been unable to pass a math class. The high school graduation requirement is a

minimum of three years of math, so now as a senior, Gabrielle is taking all three math classes

(Integrated Math I, Integrated Math II, and Discrete) in one year. I had Gabrielle last year for

Integrated Math II, her poor attendance and knowledge gaps placed her at a great disadvantage.

This has been a trend in her other subjects as well. Gabrielle struggles to make it to school on

time. Which makes it extremely difficult to learn a subject, if she is not physically present in the

classroom, or constantly missing the first 40 minutes of instruction. When attendance is not an

issue, Gabrielle is often distracted in class, fails to turn in assignments and performs low on

assessments.

In addition to being very social, Gabrielle always seems to be in a good mood and upbeat.

Unfortunately, I haven’t really seen her be affected by her lack of credits, and is optimistic that

she will pass all of her classes this year, so that she can graduate. Cognitively, I am worried

about Gabrielle not fully grasping the severity of her situation. Being unit deficient produces
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many knowledge gaps in Gabrielle’s learning, which delays her cogitative abilities.

Linguistically, Gabrielle is a Long-Term English Learner (LTEL) which identifies her as not

progressing towards English Proficiency, since she struggles academically due to her limited

English Skills (Long-Term English Learners, 2015). This has been displayed in her academic

records by failing second semester of English 9 and 10. Although I do not get much exposure to

analyzing Gabrielle’s writing in my math class, she is able to write and communicate in English,

but often fails to elaborate her thinking. She will communicate in short and concise sentences. I

believe the reason for these short and concise sentences is that Gabrielle does not practice

speaking English enough. She can be heard constantly speaking Spanish to her friends and will

often communicate with me in Spanish because she knows that I am bilingual.

Differentiation

Due do Gabrielle’s various knowledge gaps, she is seated by academically strong

students and peers she is comfortable working with. The academically strong students are to

help fill in her knowledge gaps by helping her understand a topic that most students are

comfortable with and have already learned in the past. Working with peers that Gabrielle knows

and is comfortable with, helps keep her motivated to do the work. To maintain Gabrielle’s

motivation in my class, she is able to ask me individual questions in Spanish. This allows for

open communication between us, as I do not want her to be discouraged and shut down.

Additionally, because Gabrielle is often absent, I allow her turn in missing assignments without

being penalized. I want her to know that her hard work is valued and appreciated. The points in

these assignments help bring support to her grade in my class, since she often has low

assessment scores.
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I want nothing more than for Gabrielle to be successful, but I believe that she needs to be

transferred out of the traditional school system that she is currently in. Placing Gabrielle in the

Learning Center at Southwest High School, can cater to her individual needs of credit recovery.

She can work at her pace and manage knowledge gaps by taking one class at a time, instead of

simultaneously.

References

Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Overview Chart [PDF document]. Retrieved from Northern

Indiana Educational Services Center. Website: http://www.niesc.k12.in.us/index.cfm/

staff-development/public-consulting-group-co-teaching-session/depthofknowledgechart-

pdf/

Discrete Math Project Collaborative. Retrieved from: https://dmpc.sdsu.edu/about/

Doyle, T., & Zakrajsek, T. (2013). The New Science of Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus

Publishing, LLC.

Honey, P., & Mumforad, A. (2006). Brainbase, Keeping the Brain in Mind. Kolb’s Learning

Styles. Retrieved from: http://www.ycarhe.eu/uploads/Document/learning-styles-kolb-

questionnaire.pdf

Michelon, P. (2006, December 18). Sharp Brains. What are Cognitive Abilities and Skills, and

How to Boost Them? Retrieved from: https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/12/18/what-are-

cognitive-abilities/

“Southwest Senior High School Accountability Report Card Reported 2016-17”. (2017). [PDF

file]. Retrieved from: http://sarconline.org/SarcPdfs/9/37684113730124.pdf

The Glossary of Education Reform. (2006, March 3). Long-Term English Learner. Retrieved

from: https://www.edglossary.org/long-term-english-learner