Kristin MichelenaTTE 319

10/25/2013

Instructional Design Assignment: Phase 1

Description of Child

Over the past few weeks I have had the joy of being able to meet a boy by the

name of Carlos. Carlos is a very intelligent 8 year old in a 1st grade classroom at Laguna

Elementary. He lives with his older brother (14) his younger sister (7) his mother and his

stepfather. Although Carlos is not an ELL and he passed the AZELLA he still comes

from culturally rich bilingual family. His mother, whom is from Cuba, is bilingual, and

his stepfather (he calls him his father), whom is from the Dominican Republic, speaks

very little English. Carlos and his siblings speak both Spanish and English, although I

have yet to determine their level of Spanish proficiency, whereas there English is

comparable to their respective peers.

Carlos’s personality shines through in his home life. He is energetic and is social

with his family. One of the more important observations of Carlos in his home life is his

willingness to smile, which is very rare in the classroom environment. While at home he

likes to play on his scooter, explore his backyard, play nerf guns with his sister. I quickly

came to learn though that his true passion is dancing. Carlos dances the dem bow, a sort

of break dancing from the Dominican Republic. What is fascinating about this is the fact

that he taught himself and continues to work on his dance moves by copying the moves

from a Disney Channel TV show. A great talent of Carlos, that I am not sure he catches

onto, his is drawing abilities. His drawings have a distinct consistent style to them and I

can always pick out which characters are who when looking at his work.

Many of his school assignments include drawing pictures and his pictures are very

detailed and realistic. Also in the school setting when working on a project or assignment

he won’t stop working on it as soon as the choice for free time comes like his peers. He

will continue to work hard on it until he has determined his work is finished and he is

satisfied with the result. This process usually correlates more to writing and drawing

rather than mathematics. Carlos shows ease when working with numbers and letters

although sometimes others do not always perceive his intelligence because of his quite

nature in the classroom. Initially Carlos was homeschooled for Kindergarten started

school in a first grade classroom. The first grade teacher was not the best match for

Carlos and believed he was not academically ready for school. Thankfully Carlos’s

mother advocated for him that it was not that he was delayed but that he was not socially

ready for the school environment. After a few months of 1st grade Carlos was placed in a

kindergarten classroom to help develop his social skills and gain an understanding of how

school works. At the end of the year he then moved his current 1st grade setting, which he

is more prepared for.

Carlos’s mother shared many great insights about Carlos that were quickly

observed. For instance, a large contributor to the fact of Carlos’s shyness in school and is

more introverted behavior can be derived from his perfectionist attitude. Carlos loves

doing new things but becomes very frustrated, discouraged, and upset when he is not

immediately the best at that skill, regardless of who he is comparing himself against.

Carlos is working on learning that his personal best is all he can do and that he will be

greatly disappointed in life if he always determines his success by being the best. Another

attribute is his desire to make sure everyone feels welcome and included. Carlos wishes

to make everyone happy, which in retrospect may also be attributed to his perfectionist

characteristics. And finally Carlos’s mother describes Carlos as being sensitive and he

takes it really hard when criticized or put down by others.

School Environment

Like any setting there are a few great aspects that contribute to Carlos’s success

and a few aspects that hinder him. Literacy is a huge part of the curriculum that was

adopted by the Flowing Wells School District. Most students are pulled out for a half

hour each day to go to reading lab. Carlos tested out of reading lab therefore when the

other students go he works on back work, book work, or goes to one of the literacy

stations. The literacy stations include, a computer center, an audio recording of a book

and an answer sheet about setting, characters, and details, a center with fill in the blanks

of stories and sight words, two spelling list practice centers with magnetic letters and

beads and string, and two prompted writing centers. Carlos spends a total of 1 hour a day

doing these stations, or bookwork and back work. A practice that also supports Carlos’s

literacy advancements is work at guided reading. A few times a week during his hour of

literacy stations he will be pulled for a half an hour to work at guided reading with his

teacher. Carlos is placed in a small group of students who are at a similar reading level.

They work on phonics and using contextual clues in a story (pictures, text, and story

sense) to make predictions and answer questions. Guided reading lasts about a half an

hour. An aspect that I really find to be exciting about Laguna Elementary is the whole

schools commitment to getting kids to read 20 minutes a day. There are many programs

and rewards for children who show that they are reading 20 minutes a day. The library

also contributes to a positive literacy environment because each 6 days when the classes

meet with the librarian they are all able to pick a book that they can keep until the next

visit. This is so important for the students who do not have access to books that interest

them either in the classroom or at their homes. In the afternoons a read aloud is scheduled

everyday but most likely occurs about two times a week. Reading opportunities are

scaffolded through shared reading times. The shared reading in the classrooms is done by

two students first choral reading then one student reading while the other follows, they

switch parts and then ask each other questions. They work on the stories of the week

when doing shared reading. Literacy is also addressed through many opportunities for

students to write throughout the day. There is a permanent 30-minute block scheduled

into the classrooms morning schedule to address a question or writing prompt of the day.

The writing is usually structured and the sentences are usually partially written out for the

students to fill in or finish. The students are then able to write a few sentences of the topic

or by finishing the sentences and when they are done they draw a picture associated with

what they wrote about.

There are still ways in which literacy are not being supported within the

classroom. I think the biggest deficit in the classroom is that literacy is not used in a

meaningful way. It is used in a very lesson oriented and superficial manner. The students

see individual words laid out throughout the class but for the most part they do not see

notes or quotes that carry a message. I think it would be helpful if the children are

directed to writing the teacher a note, independently and as best they can, when they are

desperate to tell the teacher something. I also think they are hindered by there writing

prompts because of the fact that they are already structured. I would like to see topic

writing happen in an unstructured manner. Although for the students who do need it they

can collaborate with each other and the teacher to create their own sentence structure to

help them.

Home Environment

Although my initial home visit did not last long within the home I was still able to

extract some of the ways their home environment supports literacy. It was easy to see that

the household supports literacy based on the enthusiasms that the mother had when

receiving the literacy book bag. She showed excitement for the fact that it was in two

different languages and that their stepfather could read to them. It is easy to tell this

family really enjoys being together and it is obvious that Carlos’s mother realizes reading

is a great way to spend time together. During the first home visit Carlos’s younger sister

came out and showed me a big book of princess that she said her mother was going to

read to her that night. This unprompted showcase of a bedtime ritual tells me that bedtime

reading is just that, a valued ritual in the home.

On our second home visit I was just about to walk out the door when Carlos

stopped me and I am so happy he did. He stopped me to show me a book that he had

written and illustrated. The book had a plot and the storyline made sense. I was blown

away and his illustrations were as usual amazing. This is when I found out that Carlos

also wants to be a comic book writer. His mother was saying that it was not just

something that he wanted to do when he grew up but that he wanted to start it now. She

also informed me that she was going to take the characters that Carlos draws and she was

going to paint them on canvas and put them on the wall in the living room. I think the

love and support of Carlos’s passion of writing and illustrating shows a great deal of

literacy support in the home.

As stated before Carlos is part of a bilingual household. Carlos is most

comfortable speaking English but must navigate both languages to be apart of the family.

I think an area that the family could improve on is making bilingual books a more

predominate part of the household. Carlos’s mother admitted to me during our parent

interview that they do not have any bilingual books but that she is finding it more and

more important for Carlos to be able to read, write and speak Spanish. I think small

expectation changes within the family could help on the path to becoming a completely

bilingual family. For instance, if you are spoken to in Spanish you respond in Spanish

and if you are spoken to in English then you respond in English. Right now the children

almost always reply in English the only time this changes is when their stepfather speaks

to them but he does not understand, only then do they try and communicate in Spanish.

The same can be said for leaving notes around the house to the children with some in

English and some in Spanish to help promote written literacy. Whatever the

improvements may be I know the family will continue to encourage their children to

draw, write and read and in turn creating a positive literacy environment in the home.

Home Engagement #1

Reflection

I was pleasantly surprised to leave my home visit feeling relaxed and satisfied

with the first meeting. The family made me feel welcomed and a part of their everyday

lives even though this was the firs time I had been able to interact with them. I was able

to learn a lot about Carlos’s family, and most importantly see their interactions in person.

Although it was discovered Carlos did not take the AZELLA and is not

necessarily labeled as an ELL with all of the services he still has a rich linguistic and

complicated background that he has to negotiate in his everyday life. I noticed that when

Tonya (Carlos’s mother) would speak with me she would always converse in English but

to the kids she spoke about ¾’s English ¼ Spanish and then when her husband came

home from his baseball game it switched and she spoke ¾ Spanish and ¼ English in the

household. When engaging with the ‘Let’s Play’ backpacks Tonya really appreciated the

fact that in some of the characters looked like her family rather than a traditional white

family. Another great comment that came out of our conversation was that she really

liked how a few of the books were in both English and Spanish. She was telling Carlos

and me how this meant their stepfather could read to them at night as well. It is easy to

still see the language barrier and complications of having a bilingual mother and

monolingual (Spanish) stepfather, partly due to the desire to keep everyone connected

and involved. When we discussed the camera Carlos seemed compliant to take the

pictures but not as enthused as his younger sister. She was thrilled with the camera and

started taking pictures right away. I reinforced to Carlos that he should take pictures too

so that we had things that were important to him. Because Carlos has this great

knowledge of both languages, and this competence seems to be great in both, I believe

it’s important that we begin to utilize both sets of knowledge. Perhaps, we could give him

more books with both languages in it, or culturally relevant characters. We can encourage

him to read his homework to his stepfather in Spanish even though it is written in

English, so that he can start connecting his two worlds: school and home.

I was surprised to learn that this was such a young family. I did not know Tonya

and her husband were 28 and I did not know Carlos had an older brother who was 14. For

the majority of the home visit his older brother kept to himself fin his room and during

our bowling time he still hung back quite a bit. At one point during the home visit

Carlos’s little sister said that Carlos wanted to be a break-dancer when he grew up. This

really was a shock to learn because of his reserved personality he never showed any

interest in much of anything while at school. When he demonstrated some dance moves

to me he showed great coordination and competence. I asked him how he learned all of

his dance moves and he said he watched a Disney channel show and learns them by

watching and practicing. This tells me that Carlos has the ability of being a self-learner. I

can take this knowledge into the classroom by perhaps giving him the freedom to explore

topics that interest him on his own, rather than feeling the need to explain everything to

him.

The way this multicultural Latino family interacts is similar to my past

experiences with families of this background. It is a very honest experience and many

things are not sugar coated in this culture. For instance there was a moment when

Carlos’s younger sister asked me if I would like some candy and I kept reply “I’m okay,

thank you though.” Over a 20-minute period or so she asked me this question 2 more

times and I responded the same way. Eventually she asked me “Why do you keep saying

you’re okay?” Although, in my family and through my cultural experiences I have

learned that this response is a perfectly acceptably way of saying you do not want what is

being offered. Now that I look at my response I can see it is a wildly indirect way of

saying ‘no’ which is why she could not understand my response. This information is

pertinent to communicating with Carlos in the classroom. It is important that I recognize

that our cultural differences affect his understanding and that I need to be clearer and less

passive when giving instructions.

I learned that Tonya, Carlos’s mother, is a great artist. The only way I cam to find

this out is because Carlos pointed out a painting on their living room wall and saying that

his mother has done it. In disbelief I ask her and she confirms. Turns out she never

thought she could paint but someone encouraged her saying if you can sketch you can

paint and that was how it started. She uses her talents for t-shirt design and jewelry

making. I have actually been able to see a bit of Tonya’s talent in Carlos. A lot of the

assignments in the classroom involve drawing a picture to go with a sentence. This is a

good technique to keep helping foster this funds of knowledge in his family. Whether

Carlos will choose to pursue this funds of knowledge on a more professional or extended

level will be purely up to him, but it is important that I keep letting him explore it so that

it is not an option that is thrown away.

Carlos amazed me by how friendly and communicative he could be when he was

comfortable. I was also able to see how quickly he could be put in a situation where he

loses his confidence (e.g. when he was unsuccessful in bowling). Tonya’s description of

his idea of having to do the best was spot on and it was clear she was working hard on

showing trying to get to him the message that what is important is his best. This is a

great point to expand on in the classroom because it is important to foster his self-esteem

and help him build confidence. A simple fix for this could be reinforcing this idea in the

classroom not just with him but also with others. Another idea could be working on

personal records (PR’s) in the class where the only competitor is himself, rather than

comparing him against multiple students.

In conclusion, I am happy with all of the information I learned about my family

but not satisfied. After the first home engagement getting the information they had to

share really made me more curious about developing more questions to explore.

Field Notes

On September 23rd 2013 I walk up to the house of my case study child that is a bilingual household. I ring the doorbell and hope I have found the right house because it seems no one is home. After about a minute I hear a noise inside and then an older boy opens that door. The boy retreats into the house and I follow and he says his mom will be with me soon. He disappears to another room. I can hear the shower running and Spanish music playing in the background. I sit down and about a minute later Carlos’s little sister, Tia, came into the living room. She looks at me and I can’t recall her name so I say hi and ask how she is doing. She is quite to reply but I eventually get her to respond and get her to tell me her name. Right then Carlos comes charging into the living room with a huge smile on his face and screeches to a stop. I say hi and he says hi back to me and says my whole last name which surprises me because I have never heard him says it before in the classroom. Tia tells me that she has made two spairs in bowling and Carlos tells me how they went to the pool yesterday. Carlos asks me if I want anything to drink or eat. The kids are running around in and out of rooms and they run outside. Tia and Carlos come back in and say they have found a butterfly wing. Sure enough Carlos has a small orange and black butterfly wing that has broken off of a butterfly. They pass it into my hand as we look at it. I pass it back and they run into their parent’s room where their mom has

just come out of the shower. She yells at Carlos to close the door in English as he is exclaiming that he found a butterfly wing. Carlos comes back into the room while Tia stays with her mom. I show Carlos the backpack that I brought (Let’s Play) I take out the digital camera and show him how to use it. He listens quietly while I show him the buttons. I then ask him if it would be okay if he took 20-30 pictures of things that are special to him for the next time I visit. He nods his head. I then tell him that when I visit again we can look at the pictures and he can pick 20 of them and we can put it into a book. He says that he can do this, but does not show much excitement. Tia comes back into the room and brings a stuffed animal she tells me his name and I ask if it is a build-a-bear, she replies that it is and she explains a little about how it is made after I ask if she put a heart into it. Carlos then asks if I want to see his duck. I ask if it is outside and he says that it is in his room and that it’s a stuffed one. He runs into his room and comes out with a small stuffed duck with a black shoelace tied around its head. Carlos introduces the duck as Baby Quackers and I ask if it is a ninja and he says it is. He starts to throw Baby Quackers in the air and tosses it around.

Tia asks if I want to see the room and Carlos aggress “Yes, come see our room.” They race into the room without looking back expecting me to follow. I follow them into the room to see a set of bunk beds a large, flat screen TV, a box of toys, a chair as well as other things. Carlos points to the top bunk and I ask if that is where he sleeps and he nods yes. He then uses his words to say that he sleeps on the top and that Tia sleeps on the bottom. They begin to show me their stuffed animals on their beds explaining to me the ones that they got for Easter and Tia showed me the one that was from the movie Despicable Me. I asked Carlos if they had watched both of the Despicable Me movies and he said they had. Carlos then jumps down from his top bunk and opened up a green container. He removes the lid to show a large collection of nerf guns. Tia is the first to take one out load it, cock the gun and shoot a nerf darf across the room. Carlos grabs his own nerf gun and goes through the same process as Tia he then flings one across the room. They ask me if I want to try and I say no thank you. Carlos and Tia begin to try and shoot their nerf darts further and further. They take the nerf guns into the living room. Tia spins around once and shoots the nerf gun and explains that it is harder to shoot where you want to. She also says that if you look at something that is not spinning when you are spinning that you don’t get dizzy. Carlos then does a ninja spin move and shoots his gun. He is surprised to see the nerf gun land on the refrigerator when he was aiming for a different wall.

From the other room I hear Carlos called into his mother’s room, he goes in and makes sure Carlos asks me if I need anything to drink. He returns form the room and dutifully asks me if I want something to drink, I decline and they go back to playing with their nerf guns. Carlos’s mother, Tonya, comes out and says she is so sorry to keep me waiting. She explains that as soon as I rang the doorbell she had just jumped into the shower. I say its okay and the kids were just showing me their toys. She asked if I wanted anything to drink or eat as she walked into the kitchen. I say again “No, thank you. I’m fine.” She comes back from the kitchen that is completely visible from the living room and only a few feet away and I show her the forms that need to be filled out for consent for recording. I begin recording.

I show Tonya the backpack and we go sit down next to the kitchen counter. She repeats the name of one of the books to Carlos while browsing, What Can You Do With a

Paleta? She then says more directed towards me “And you know what? I like the fact that they’re brown like us.” She makes a joke that the characters in the book are probably Cuban and Dominican like them. Then more seriously says it kind of looks like where she grew up. I show her Roxaboxen and tell her it is one of my favorites and describe the story to her. She continues to stay animated and excited about the books while Carlos looks on. Tonya says how they are going to be able to read these new books tonight. She then picks up another book titled El Juego De La Lotería. Tonya tells Carlos he doesn’t know anything about it yet but when he gets older he is going to play it. She directs towards him “Okay, you don’t know what the lottery is but you’re going to learn so one day you can win for me.” Tia begins to talk with me about something that is indistinguishable on the recorder. I then go into how they can engage with the backpacks and that they do not have to read about it necessarily but that they can talk about the things in it. Tonya goes back to the paleta (popsicle) book and says how sometimes they make paletas with juice. She looks to Carlos to see if he remembers making the popsicles with the molds and he nods his head. I then share a story about my experience with making popsicles with ice trays and toothpicks. Tia then asks me if I want a cookie that she extracted from the pantry when I was talking with Tonya. Flipping through the book she comments that she likes that the books are in both English and Spanish so that their father (step-father) can read to the kids. I then ask what they like to read best in. She replies “Spanish for him [their step-father] but for me, I’m bilingual.” She said the kids know Spanish and English but are most comfortable reading in English because of school and because of growing up in the United States. Carlos interrupts saying that his “song is on.” Tonya tells me that she speaks to the kids in English because they are comfortable with that and that her husband is at the point where he want them speaking Spanish to him, which she says is good for her but she did not elaborate on that point. Tia brings over a big book of princess and Tonya says that they are going to read one of the new books tonight. I ask what one is her favorite and she points to one and says “that one.” I ask them if they know Princess Tiana and the princess from Brave. We cannot remember what the Brave princess’s name is but Tonya says they have watched it before. Tonya says that she loves Disney movies and that she does not watch TV anymore.

With music still playing in the background Tia rolls into the house on a pink scooter that she extracted from the garage she rolls from one wall to the next. I tell her how I always wanted to ride a Razor when I was younger but never had one. They show me how they can jump up using their scooters. Tia also says how good she as at bowling. I tell Tonya how I stink at bowling and she says she is not very good either. She directs her next statement towards Carlos “Let me call your Papi and see how far he is.” Then she says to me “That’s what I hate about Sunday’s is he plays baseball.” I ask more about what he plays. Tonya says that he used to be a professional baseball player but then he got in a car accident and his knee gave out. He had to get surgery on it and the reason they ended up coming to Tucson was so that he could play with the Padres but that did not work out for some reason. She says it is hard to see because he is young and it is his dream, so right now he is playing with a little league that has some games around here for fun. His work is training so he is a baseball coach now for a little league team. Because it did not workout with the Padres she thinks they will not stay in Tucson much longer. She thinks they will not stay there for more than a year, and she is trying to get the family to

move back to Miami, where the kids are originally from. I ask if her husband likes Miami and she says he hates it, but he seems to like Tucson.

Tia tells how Carlos wants to be a dancer. I ask what kind of dance and his mom says a name that I am unfamiliar with. The name she is saying sounds like “danbol” but I have not found a dance like this during research. She says it is like break-dancing and that is can be seen in the Dominican Republic. We ask Carlos to show us some of his dancing but he quickly becomes shy and refuses to show us. I ask if the music is like regaton music and she says it is pretty similar. Tia then comes back in from another room and puts a container of money on the counter. She says she found all the money. Tonya explains shakes her head and says “Ay” then explains that they each earned 20 dollars but that they will find money around the house if Tonya leaves some on accident and she will take it and put it in the container for her and Carlos. She says “Oh mami, sometimes she has more money in her pocket than I do.” She further explains, “Everything she gets she gives to him. Because she’s the baby, she wants to be his little best friend.” In the background you can hear Tia counting the dollars and change. Talking about Carlos Tonya says, “He’s the dancer, and he has a funny personality.” Just then Carlos calls from across the living room, “Mom, he’s here.” She replies Ay, ay, ay dios mios.” The kid’s race to the door to great Ricki (Carlo’s stepfather) Tonya stays in her seat and greats Ricki in Spanish. Ricki is picking up the kids and giving them great big hellos. Tonya stays on topic saying that Carlos is very sensitive and that she worries about him. She further explains that in his first year of school he started in a 1st grade classroom, he started school when he was six. Both Carlos and his older brother did not start in a Kindergarten. This means Tonya’s oldest son is ahead a grade in school and always has been. They started their schooling in Miami. The oldest is in gifted programs in school. She explains how it was like GATE (maybe called GYM or GEM) and that she was in GATE when she was in school. She says they are similar because school was/is easy for both of them. But with Carlos she describes him as very intelligent but very insecure and very sensitive. If anyone does anything better, or faster then him or if they are bigger than him it is hard for him. She says, “he is not comfortable socially or emotionally.” Going back to when he started school in the first grade a year ago, Tonya had to switch his teacher because “his teacher just was not feasible for him.” “He is very reserved and he needs extra attention and that’s just something that he requires and she was just not that hands on.” When they switched teachers it was a lot better and then they moved to the elementary school they are at now. I give her a bit of a description of him in class, that he is doing well and is making some friends in the class. Tonya describes Tia in the classroom as very smart as well and that she had recently taken a math test and it was the highest scores Tonya had seen. “With her she is chatty.” She says that Tia is doing better this year. The problem, Tonya describes, is that since she is very intelligent she will get her work done really fast and then be bored and she will get into everyone’s business trying to help them showing her classmates how to do things. I return the conversation to Carlos’s schooling situation because I am still confused. Tonya explains that Carlos did 1st grade for 2-3 months and the problem was that he was not applying himself. He was very shy and the teachers did not know if he knew the information. Although academically Tonya knew he was fine. A bit into school he did not want to go anymore and Tonya attributes it to the fact that he was “not socially ready or emotionally ready.” At this point Tia stands on the back of my chair and Tonya puts her hand over her face

drops her head a little and says “Why are you standing on her chair. That is so rude, you are so disrespectful. She is not a toy nana. Apologize mama.” Tia gets off the chair and apologizes. Tonya continues, “by 6 years old the average child, not him I home schooled, she (Tia) is only one I didn’t” She makes a quick note that she also homeschooled her oldest because they were her babies and she was being selfish. “So the average six year old has already been to preschool and now kinder so they have been in this atmosphere 2-3 years and this is his first year so he didn’t feel comfortable he didn’t have any friends, and on top of that he is already reserved. It’s his personality; it’s just the way he is. She begins to speak Spanish to Tia and Carlos for a minute. She returns to our conversation, she says that it was scary for him and he was worried that the kids would think that he did not know how to do school. The teachers wanted to test him and they did the DIBELS test and he did fine and then they suggested therapy and Tonya says that he doesn’t need therapy he is just quiet, that is just the way he is. She repeats “the teacher wasn’t feasible for him, so he needs to be with younger kids” who were experiencing something new as well. Tonya then made the decision to put Carlos in Kindergarten. She clarifies this point for me that Carlos started in 1st grade then Tonya put him in kinder because he wasn’t applying himself so the teachers thought he was not academically ready but when they tested him he did fine. Then the teachers thought something must be wrong with him and Tonya says no, that’s not it. She has a few reservations about putting Carlos in Kinder though. She thought he was too old but the Kinder teacher reassured her that he would be about the 6th six year old in the class and that if they do it and it doesn’t work out then they can always but him back in 1st grade. When Tonya put him in the class “he thrived.” Now he is ready for it.

Tonya makes a statement “Naturally, in my opinion, intelligence is innate.” She

starts to talk about the kid’s natural father and then stops for a minute and explains it is obvious that Ricki is not their natural father and laughs at the thought of someone looking in and that they must be thinking something is wrong here they don’t look anything alike. Mainly on the point that they are more light skinned then their stepfather. She returns to the point that their natural father is intelligent and that she is. She says that she went through a lot of stuff that she is “Latin and she started young.” [having a family] She does not elaborate on this but gets back to the part that she got through school. Back onto the topic of Carlos “He is very intelligent but I worry about him emotionally.” Talking about Tia “The little one I don’t worry about her, she is so secure in herself she doesn’t give a damn about anything, if you’re doing that fine have fun…” Carlos asks about something and Tonya responds in Spanish and he answers in English and she responds in Spanish again and code switches to English.

Tonya restates her feelings about Carlos, that she is worried about him emotionally but not Tia. She says, “In the classroom he has to be friends with everyone in the classroom. He makes it a point to drag in the two people that are in the corner.” This also makes her worry because she says, “you can’t live like that.” [people pleaser] She says how she tells Carlos “You do your best and do the best that you have.” “He thinks he has to be the best.”

She says that she is going to get her shoes and she instructs the kids in English to do the same. She then says it again to Tia in Spanish. She asks to see if I have socks and I tell her I do, she says I never wear socks I always wear sandals because she is from Miami. I tell her that I never do because I am from New York. She goes around the house

gathering a few things then she makes a comment to Carlos that she thinks she is taller than me. Apparently Carlos thought that I might be taller then her. She asks how tall I am and I tell her and she says oh yea and tells me her height that is a few inches taller than me. The people slowly gather there things as Ricki eats a quick plate of food that Tonya heated up for him. Tia tries to put on a pair of pink converse and her mom says that she should put on a different kind of shoe because the pink converse don’t go with the shirt she is wearing. A few seconds later she goes “Oh, you want to wear converse because Kristin is wearing converse, Ay, ay, ay dios mio.” She lets Tia pick her shoes. I sit on the coach as I wait for the family to get everything together. We eventually are ready to leave and I get in my car and follow them to the bowling ally right down the road. When we get to the bowling ally Tonya and Ricki pay for all of us and as I try to pay them back she laughs saying of course I would not pay when I was asked to go with them. We get bumpers shoes and go to our lane. The kids point out that one of the machines is filled with candy and Tonya says “Oh they refilled it” she poses that they would be able to play it afterwards. Before we begin to bowl we sit down and eat some nachos and cheese and they got a pitcher of soda. Carlos and Tia begin eating the jalapeños that it comes with and none of the adults challenge them in their quest to eat as many as possible, stating that they are not hot at all. While we are bowling Carlos is getting more and more frustrated that he is not doing as well as the others. Tonya points this out to me, and it is plainly clear that he is losing interest in the game due to his frustrations. Ricki fools around saying he is the best and sarcastically jokes with the kids, all in good fun and they joke back with him. Over a few more rounds I can see that after Tonya bowls she gets the same discouraged look on her face as Carlos, regardless of how well she does. Throughout the two games Tonya cheers for all the players and she high fives me and her kids and husband and they all get excited when Tia, gets two strikes in the game. When Ricki gets his strikes Tonya jokes “I will never hear the end of this.” She also confides in me that she does not get to go out anymore and throughout the whole 2 hours she dances to the music playing over the speakers. Towards the end of our bowling Tia asks me if I want candy and I reply “I’m okay, thank you.” Casual conversation resumes and then a few minutes later Tia asks me the same question again and I give the same response “I’m okay, thank you.” After another minute or two we repeat the same question and answer. Finally, Tia asks me “Why do you keep saying you’re okay?” Apparently, my response meaning that I did not want any candy was not a common script for Tia and she kept asking the question about candy because my response was not sufficient to her. When it is finally time to say goodbye I thank them for being so welcoming and we promise to see each other very soon.

Home Engagement #2 Reflection

The second home engagement had a few goals to it. I needed to share my photo

book with my family and begin the book making process with Carlos. I was lucky in the

first home engagement to see the kids very excited about the camera and taking pictures.

However, when I arrived at the home they informed me that they had around 100 pictures

but that the younger sister had deleted them a few days ago when she was showing her

friends. They were able to take about 5 pictures by the time I arrived. This was helpful

because I was able to start the book making process and document some of his

comments.

It felt very awkward sharing my photo book because it was opening up about my

life. I shared the story in front of Carlos and his mother and she was very animated as I

was going through my story and modeling how to make connections between my photo

story and their family history. For instance, the Santana family is from Miami and has

only been in Tucson for roughly a year. I was showing pictures from where I was from

and how the buildings look different and how the seasons are different and Carlos’s

mother immediately connected it to Miami and began asking Carlos what he remembered

from about the different houses and seasons in Miami. After we go through the story the

mother says “I didn’t know we could use pictures we have.” She also comments that she

has tons of pictures from Miami and of things that Carlos likes. This made me worried

because I did not want the photo book to turn into the funds of knowledge of the mother I

really wanted it to remain as pictures of things that are important to Carlos. My solution

to this made me have to alter my plan but I think it will play off in the end. I told Carlos

that he could keep the camera for a few more days and that we would go through the

pictures when he brought the camera back to school.

A week and a half later Carlos comes charging into class to tell me he brought the

camera with him. Later that day we sit down and look through the 11 or so pictures on

the camera. I continue the process I had started in the home and he describes the pictures

to me. He is still shy around me so I was only getting a few descriptive words from him

so I had to ask him prompting questions. There were a few pictures on the camera of

older pictures from when he lived in Miami, which slightly diverged form the initial plan.

As I started to build the actual book I wanted to stay true to his word choices and value

what he was saying. I made a choice to word it as if Carlos were telling the story about

his own life, just as he had spoken with me about it. I made sure to match the pictures

with the words so he can look for picture clues when reading it. I was conscious of the

size of the font so that Carlos would have room to follow along with his finger. I made a

mix of robust vocabulary, some words they had already assessed on in the class and other

sight words that were taught in Kindergarten. I challenged his knowledge using

contraction words. When making the story I found it difficult to take the disconnected

pictures and make a coherent story out of them. On top of that I was challenged with

finding a way to make a fluid story and bridging the Tucson pictures and the Miami

pictures. I am very excited to share this story with him and I am very curious as to what

percentage of the words he knows. At school I have not seen him challenged with the

books he reads so I am having to do a bit of guess work as to his actual reading ability.

Home Engagement #3 Reflection

Unfortunately I was not able to complete my third engagement in the home due to

scheduling constraints. However, I was able to have some time to sit down with Carlos

and go through the story. Instead I made arrangements to go over the story with Carlos in

class. During his literacy station time I pulled him aside and showed him the book for the

first time.

At times it is very hard to read Carlos and understand his thoughts. He is very shy

and does not say much although I can tell when we are at his home is more open to

sharing his thoughts. When I had him the book and explain to him that it is what I made

out of his pictures he just looks at it. I prompt him so we can read it together. As we

begin reading the title page I become worried when he does not know how to read the

word “Adventures, ” this made me worry that the percentage of words he would be know

would be way below 90%. Thankfully when I calculated it up at the end I was happy to

know that he read at 89% accuracy. While reading with him I realized a few patterns in

his miscues. For instance he commonly miscued the /pi/ and replaced it with a /pl/. Also,

Carlos had a great pace with his reading but ignored punctuation and the inflection that

goes along with that. I was surprised to see that even though Carlos had explained the

pictures to me previously and I used his wording he was not making connections between

the print and the text. I prompted Carlos when he was stuck on a word to look for context

clues in the pictures. He would glance over for a second or two but would not make much

progress on the words. I believe Carlos is pulling more clues from previous readings he

has done. For instance, the class has just read an informational text on plants, this could

definitely attribute to his miscue of the /pi/ and /pl/ sounds. Once again through this

engagement I have come to the decision that the curriculum books that he is ‘required’ to

read are not appropriate for his level, the story we were reading shows he needs to be

challenged a bit more.