ELL Case Studies
Discuss these case scenarios with your mentor teacher. What instructional strategies can be implemented to support these specific students and why?
Case Scenario 1: Foundational Reading Skills
Student: Soe Win
Soe Win is a Burmese refugee who spent much of his life in a refugee camp in Thailand. He and his family recently arrived in the United States. Although he is literate in the Karen language, he had limited formal schooling and did not have much access to books and technology. While in the refugee camp, Soe Win received some English instruction in the months prior to coming to the U.S. He tested at an emergent reading level in English and needs support in the foundational reading skills of concepts of print, phonological awareness, phonics, and fluency. Due to his reading level, he is struggling to access grade level content.
Case Scenario 2: Vocabulary Development
Student: Haniya
Haniya came to the United States from Pakistan and has maintained her oral language skills in her native language, Urdu. Her family values bilingualism and strongly encourages her to use Urdu in the home and English at school. She is close to exiting the ELL program but according to assessment data and the teachers that have recently worked with her, she is reluctant to use content specific and general academic vocabulary in both oral and written language. Being on the shy side, she tends not to participate in whole class discussion but prefers small group or partner work. Haniya would benefit from increased opportunities to practice vocabulary across all content areas.
Case Scenario 3: Elements of Language
Student: Antonio
Antonio was born in Guatemala and attended school there from kindergarten to the middle of third grade when his town suffered a terrible earthquake that destroyed his school. The town was unable to reopen the school, so Antonio was not able to attend school until he moved to the United States with his parents earlier this year. He has been attending class consistently this year but has made little progress in his acquisition of English in reading or writing, particularly with aspects of grammar. He struggles with structuring his sentences in speaking and writing. He has difficulty using the –ing and –ed suffixes and continues to find subject/verb agreement confusing.
Case Scenario 4: RTI/MTSS
Student: Li Jie
Li Jie’s family moved to the United States when he was four years old. He did very well in kindergarten, learning his letter names and sounds. He learned to speak English very quickly. Li Jie’s parents speak Mandarin at home, and they depend on Li Jie to translate outside of the home. Li Jie is outgoing, social, and likes school. His literacy foundational skills developed rapidly, but he began having difficulty decoding multisyllabic words causing spelling and reading comprehension difficulties. Li Jie’s academic gap has been widening and he is falling behind in all his subjects because of his reading and writing abilities. Although he is able to articulate in English, his parents have expressed concern about his low grades in all subject areas. They feel ill-equipped to support him with reading in English. They believe that he is very bright and see that he does his homework every night. Due to their limited English, they are not able to check his work. They see him working hard but coming home with poor grades. They have asked what is typical and are wondering if Li Jie may be having difficulty due to English being his second language.
