1. Carlos has just transferred into Mr. Dean’s second grade classroom. In order to plan appropriate instruction for him, Mr. Dean plans to do a quick informal assessment of his oral and written English language skills.
Using your knowledge of reading assessments, write a response in which you describe one type of test Mr. Dean should include in his assessment.
2. Here is a story written by a fourth grade student in response to the writing prompt:
You bought a lottery ticket. Surprise!! You won a million dollars! What will you do with the money? How will your life be different?
My life is going to be different at school and home because I am going to bay more coles and soehe. I am going to bay my mom a Lovey dras. and my dad a tuke setow. When I go to school I am going to ware new coles and new soehes. On Frd. I am going to a fans rarot whit my MoM, Dad, sisther.
Write a response in which you (1) describe the writer’s strengths and needs and (2) describe one instructional strategy you would suggest to improve the above student’s writing.
3. Sam is a beginning teacher in a combination third and fourth grade class with a large percentage of English learners. Sam wanted to ask his students to write a response to the following writing prompt:
"You bought a lottery ticket. Surprise!! You won a million dollars! What will you do with the money? How will your life be different. OK. Now write."
Write a response in which you (1) describe an instructional strategy or activity that Sam can use to help his students better organize their writing and (2) explain why the strategy or activity you describe would be effective.
4. Mrs. Carter, a second grade teacher, calls all of the children over to see their new class pet, a guinea pig. When the guinea pig is surrounded by children, the guinea pig goes into his house. Mrs. Carter asks, "Why do you think the guinea pig hid from us?" The children give a number of reasons. Mrs. Carter and the children discuss the guinea pig and how they will take care of her. Mrs. Carter asks the children to give their pet a name. Jon says that we should name her "Nothing" because she knows nothing about us. The children argue about whether this is a good name.
Later, Mrs. Carter suggests they write a class story about their new guinea pig. She asks individual students to contribute to the story. Mrs. Carter writes each child’s contribution on chart paper. This is their story...
Kelly said, "We have a new guinea pig."
Jon said, "Her name is Nothing."
Kim said, "She’s not much of anything at all."
Jose said, "She doesn’t even weigh a pound."
Carmen said, "She wants to hide from us. Maybe she’s scared.
Write a response in which you (1) identify this type of activity, (2) describe how this activity can help the students learn to write and (2) explain how this activity can be used to promote vocabulary development for English Language Learners.
5. Brenda is planning a unit on tide pools. Her goals are to increase student content specific vocabulary and extend students’ understanding of the relationship between ecology and their lives.
Write a response in which you describe two specific strategies Brenda can use to help the students independently unlock the meanings of new words they find in their readings.
6. In perusing the upcoming science lessons for the science unit on water, Nancy wants to be sure that she provides ample comprehensible input for the 5th grade English Language Learners who are at various levels of English language proficiency. The key concepts in the lessons are that (1) water molecules adhere to form surface tension and (2) the deeper the water, the greater the pressure.
Write a response in which you (1) describe a specific strategy or activity that Nancy can use to provide comprehensible input to support her English learners and (2) explain why the strategy or activity you describe would be effective.
7. Helen is reading a book with her class that includes a fair amount of pronouns. In the follow-up discussion to check for comprehension, she discovers that her students are showing confusion among the pronouns “its” and “their”, which is causing a decrease in comprehension.
Write a response in which you (1) describe an instructional strategy or activity that Helen can use to help her students gain an understanding of correct English pronoun usage and (2) explain why the strategy or activity you describe would be effective.
