I what do you see in the vignette A What do you see happening 1 The students are being introduced to a book 2 They hear the first two chapters in a read aloud setting with Ms Smith 3 For the third chapter Ms Smith has the students split up into groups so she can have her students both read independently and get to meet with small groups at a time 4 In each of the groups they are going to be reading the 3rd chapter of the Magic Tree House series Afternoon In The Amazon 5 The chapter that they are going to be reading is titled Yikes B What details can be seen 1 What do we know about Elsa a Elsa is 7 years old and in second grade b She lives in a small city in New Jersey where she has been attending public school since kindergarten where she qualifies for services such as free lunch and ESL pull out services c Her parents came to the United States from Mexico before Elsa was born d She lives with her parents older brother and younger sister in a household where the primary language is Spanish Her parents speak read and write almost exclusively in Spanish at home e In school there are many other Hispanic children in school with Elsa so she is able to communicate in both English and Spanish while at school f Her teacher describes her as shy a good friend and always ready to learn g Some of the things that Elsa enjoys are playing on the computer and even though she doesn t watch television that much her favorite shows are Dora and Diego on Nickelodeon h When it comes time to separate the children into their reading groups for the activity that Ms Smith has planned there is one other ELL student in Elsa s group 2 What do we not know about Elsa a Do not know how much time Elsa spends practicing her literacy skills outside of school She has said that she likes computer games however are those games helping to improve her literacy or just for fun b Do not know if English is encouraged at home Elsa s primarily use Spanish for everything they do so how do they feel about English in their house To they encourage their children to speak in English in the house does Elsa feel as though she can only speak in Spanish when she is at home c Ms Smith described Elsa as being shy however it is not clear if she is shy in all different environments or if it is only at school How outgoing is she when she is at home or outside of school with her friends d Ms Smith had read the first two chapters of Afternoon in the Amazon to her class the day before she split them up into their groups However it is not clear how much of those first two chapters Elsa as an English Language Learner was able to comprehend e It is not clear how much Elsa comprehended about chapter 3 either It is not fully clear why Elsa though that the tree house landed in the sea f Once the children were in their groups and going through the third chapter Ms Smith asked Elsa why the chapter would have been titled Yikes to which Elsa shrugged It is not clear from this interaction if Elsa simply is being shy didn t understand the question or had never heard the word yikes used before C What is Elsa s level of English acquisition 1 Elsa seems very comfortable with social language however it seems that she struggles when addressed in academic language 2 she is able to answer questions even if she doesn t fully understand what is being asked However the answer that she gives will not always be the correct one She understood when Ms Smith was asking her a question about the where the tree house landed but in relation to what she had read in the book the language that she used had been incorrect 3 She gets mixed up with her pronouns A perfect example of this is when she read the sentence Jack open her eyes Since her native language is Spanish pronouns are not needed as much and she doesn t understand the concept of having to use interchangeable ones in sentences yet 4 She also seems to be struggling with the concept of dialogue When she read aloud the passage Jack opened his eyes The air was hot and steamy It looks like we landed in some bushes said Annie Instead read it as Jack open her eyes The air was hot and stormy It look like we land in some bushes she did not seem to understand the difference between the descriptive text of the story and the dialogue of the story D What do you see going on with Elsa s reading 1 Elsa as an ELL does not have too much trouble with the phonological aspect of her reading However that falls in line with most other ELL learners It is not the phonological awareness that gives them difficulty they are able to put sounds together and make words When it comes to putting meanings to those words that is when the difficulty arises Elsa like the other ELL learners can actually say the words on the page at least for the most part However she can not always decode what each word on the page actually means 2 Elsa has much difficulty recognizing her mistakes For example when she read made the mistake of saying jack open her eyes she not only used the incorrect pronoun but she also dropped the ending ed from the word open which should have read as opened a She also did not seem able to fully comprehend what was going on in chapter three which became clear once Ms Smith began asking her questions b Ms Smith asked her where the tree house landed and Elsa s response was in the sea II More about Elsa A What are the most important issues to consider in Elsa s case 1 Literacy development a Vocabulary instruction is vital to ELL students understanding literacy issues and being able to develop as learners For Elsa has not reached the point where she can successfully decode words without struggle which is a vital step in her literacy development In order for Elsa to understand what happened in chapter 3 at all she would need to be able to comprehend where the tree house landed If she thinks it landed in the sea than that changes the entire meaning of the story By having that vocabulary knowledge as they state in the Smiley and Salsberry article in their section on vocabulary instruction the child will then begin to be able to comprehend what they read after they are able to decode the vocabulary in front of them b In the Smiley and Salsberry article they also state how crucial it is for ELL students to develop background knowledge Many ELL students such as Elsa …