Freddy
"I've got to be careful to say only what I see, all the way across the word."
“Freddy” is a third-grade, home language Spanish-speaker who likes Sing 2, Roblox, and “futbol de pie”. The oldest of three, Freddy seems to exhibit characteristics of an oldest sibling at least from my observation of playground tag with his peers. With friends, he seems to be participatory and respected, maybe because he can run fast and have his tongue out at the same time. Freddy prefers pepperoni pizza from La Concha (I’ve never tried it from there!). School staff told me Freddy is a newcomer, arrived to the U.S. in kindergarten, and is Spanish-dominant.
When I asked colleagues to share what they know about Freddy, all smile before responding. One described him as “educado”, but a student who can benefit from support in literacy and math. Another said he was outgoing in introducing himself to her, and seemed to exude confidence in who he is and his place in the school community. A review of Freddy’s literacy assessments from May of last year reveal a different sort of confidence. Teacher comments include “needs reminders when blending sounds in words in writing”, “frustrational due to hard time retelling and answering comprehension questions” and “needs to practice monitoring – makes error, sounds unsure, and keeps going instead of attempting again”. I engaged in collaboration with Freddy’s teacher, below, to review his recent reading behaviors and think about a learning plan.
In the lesson clip, M. Emily engages a Transliteracy lesson, displayed above. She begins by honoring that Freddy …. She attends to what showed up in Freddy’s first read by addressing the difference between “is not” and “isn’t”, building Freddy’s knowledge of English contractions in an authentic, contextualized way. She leaves room for Freddy to make discoveries – for example, in “rabbit” where he locates a similar word (rap) within the word. Finally, she frames reading for meaning, calling to “read to find out what happens with the two little girls” and a clear call to action, “let’s make sure we read the words carefully; when we want to, we stick our finger in there to do a slow check all the way across the word”.
Pause and ponder
For students who have decoding errors, what's really at play?
Take action
Use an example of a student's reading with decoding errors. Think: where in the word do errors present (beg/mid/end)? Does this pattern happen in both languages? How might the student's knowledge of language influence their decoding? How do decoding errors reflect comprehension?
Learn more
Ascenzi-Moreno, L., & Quiñones, R. (2020). Bringing Bilingualism to the Center of Guided Reading Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 74(2), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1922