• Genesis scored a 2 for both oral and written language for her SOLOM results. To help Genesis with her fluency I provided her with 2 different stories. One story focused on “th” sounds and the other focused on “sh” sounds. Genesis is only 5 years old and does not know how to read many words so I helped her with this activity. For both of the stories, I read out loud and Genesis had to find and circle the words that started with “th” and “sh.” After she circled all of the words in the story, we said out loud together each word that was circled.
• Accommodations that meet student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Accommodation #1-visual aid of the letters. 2. Accommodation #2-repeated reading. • Explanation of how each accommodation meets student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Explanation for Accommodation #1-Hispanic students sometimes have a hard time forming letters and sounds when it comes to words. During this activity, I had a card with the exact sound that we were looking for to circle. 2. Explanation for Accommodation #2-Hispanic students often need something repeated to them while learning. While reading the story, I often reread sentences to help Genesis find a th sound or an sh sound.
• I think that this activity was very successful. Genesis has trouble saying words that start with th and sh so this activity helped her repeatedly say each word with those sounds over and over. • To improve this activity I would try to find different videos online that showed examples of someone saying words that started with th and sh. That way Genesis would have something to hear so she can compare the correct way to say a word with how she says a word.
5. Vocabulary Activity • Genesis SOLOM vocabulary level is 3 for oral language and 3 for writing. For the vocabulary lesson activity, I printed out several different cards with pictures on them. Each card with a picture on it had a second matching card with the word and definition. Genesis had to match the card with the picture on it to the matching card with the word and definition. • Accommodations that meet student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Accommodation #1-Picture as a visual aid. 2. Accommodation #2-Text to connect 2 concepts.
• Explanation of how each accommodation meets student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Explanation for Accommodation #1-since Genesis home language is Spanish; she might not be able to connect an item in English and Spanish. For example a tree, at home she might call a tree an arbol, but at school she might call it a tree. Having a picture to look at while doing this lesson will help Genesis connect the two languages to help with her vocabulary skills. 2. Explanation for Accommodation #2- each card with a photo on it has a matching word and definition in English. Since Genesis speaks Spanish at home and her Grandmother speaks little English, she often gets help with words in Spanish. Having a picture and text to connect a picture with the vocabulary word can help Genesis connect the two.
• I think that this lesson was successful. She knew words like tree, sun, and rabbit. However when it came to harder words like jack-in-the-box and unicorn, she did not know the definition or what the text looked like, but she learned. • To make improvements to this lesson I would use vocabulary words to things that she uses in everyday life at home and at school. Things like pots and pans, bathroom, kitchen, car, etc.
6. Pronunciation Activity • Genesis scored a 2 for her SOLOM results for both oral language and writing. To help with her pronunciation we did a rhyming game with flash cards. I created several different levels to the game. The first level was all “at” words. One flashcard had the word “at” on it in red. Then there were other flash cards that had, m, r, b, h, c, s, f on it. the at stayed in the same place and then the first letter flash card changed. In order to move on, Genesis had to say the correct word. The second level was all words that rhymed with “ug” and then “ox.” The last level of the game was the hardest. All of the words Genesis had to say rhymed with “ail.” To she has to say mail, rail, pail, quail, and snail.
• Accommodations that meet student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Accommodation #1-different colored words to use as a visual aid. 2. Accommodation #2-broken down words to help sound out. • Explanation of how each accommodation meets student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Explanation for Accommodation #1-since Genesis home language is Spanish she often sees words written in Spanish. Having the different parts of the words in different colors helps her to see how one word may be “mat” and another may be “bat” but the “at” part remains the same. 2. Explanation for Accommodation #2- Having the words broken apart in different index cards helps break down the sounds and parts of speech. Students who are learning English who speak Spanish at home may have trouble sounding out the different words because they sound different in the different languages.
• I think that this was a successful activity. Genesis had a hard time sounding some of the words out and saying them, but that helped me pinpoint what she needs to work on. Even thought some words like “quail” were hard for her to pronounce, she still tried her best to pronounce the words. • To improve this activity, I would have more words that Genesis constantly mispronounces. For example, Genesis has a hard time with the “th” and “sh” sound. If I were to do this activity again I would have more words with those sounds.
7. Grammar Activity • Genesis SOLOM results for oral language is a 3 and her results for writing are a 2. To help her with grammar I decided to do a worksheet on pronouns. While speaking, Genesis often refers to a girl as her. For example, when asked a question about a girl in a book Genesis said, “her went to the house.” For the worksheet, Genesis had to connect the name on the left side of the paper to the matching pronoun on the right side of the paper.
• Accommodations that meet student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Accommodation #1-pictures of different people to connect the dots. 2. Accommodation #2-a chart that explains the pronouns. • Explanation of how each accommodation meets student’s cultural or linguistic need 1. Explanation for Accommodation #1-Since Genesis home language is Spanish she often hears her Grandmother say “her” instead of “she.” In the Spanish language, “her” and “she” are often used as the same word depending on how it is being used.
To help with this accommodation, I printed out pictures of different people to represent different pronouns. For representation of “she” there was a picture of a girl. For “they” it was a picture of friends, and so on. 2. Explanation for Accommodation #2- Sometimes it is easy for Spanish speaking people who are learning English to have a visual aid. The chart of the pronouns allowed Genesis to have a visual aid of what each pronoun looked like, how it is spelled, and what word is turned into what pronoun.
• I think that this lesson was very successful. Genesis caught on quick to what pronouns represent people and how to use them in a sentence. • To improve the activity I would use pictures of actual people that Genesis knows instead of pictures that I found online. I would also make this a repeated activity until Genesis stopped using the word “her” and started saying “she.”
