Nikolay (Nick) Ryabinin- L1 Russian

Literacy and Language Strengths

Nick is able to structure his writing in a logical way, give detailed descriptions,
and use natural transitions. I believe that he is able to visualize his story before he
begins writing it- and he makes use of the graphic organizers I give students to map out
the structure of their writing. For instance, he wrote a great essay synthesizing a Jewish
fable and an article about fake news. His paragraphs flowed together naturally, starting
with a personal anecdote, then giving a summary of the fable, which led to an
explanation of the dangers of fake news and what we can do to stop it.

Literacy and Language Needs

I believe that Nick needs more time to orally communicate with native English
speakers so that he can correct small technical errors. For instance, in his latest writing
sample, Nick writes, Fake news spread really fast and you cant take your words back
during the past years countless bugs stories have spread on internet like wildfire. It
spreads fast because a lot of people sit on internet 24/7 and people read newspaper
almost every day.
There are a few errors that Nick makes here that could be improved with more
practice with native English speakers. Nick would learn that he needs an article before
internet and newspaper. The fact that he makes this same error twice in one
sentence leads me to believe that this is not a grammar rule in his native Russian
language.
Nick could also benefit from more explicit instructions for how to continuously edit
his writing. If he was in the habit of reading his writing out loud to check for errors, he
would catch that he has a run-on sentence and misspelled bogus.

Knows and Does

Nick is close with all of the children at school who also speak Ukrainian and
Russian at home. He relies on his friends heavily to understand class content. They
study together, work on homework together, and always want to be in the same group
during group assignments.

L1 Literacy
 Nick speaks Russian with his family at home and I know that his mother is not
fluent in English, so he acts as a translator for her when we have meetings.

Tim M- L1 Ukrainian

Literacy and Language Strengths

Tim volunteers to read out loud frequently in front of the whole class, and is able
to accurately determine the meaning of new words using roots and prefixes/suffixes
and context clues. He also understands what he reads and is able to summarize a
passage and answer questions requiring him to look back for text evidence or to make
an inference.

Literacy and Language Needs

Tim seems less confident when he is asked to use academic language or

encounters unfamiliar vocabulary when reading aloud. Recently he does appear to be
more comfortable speaking about the academic concepts we use in class almost daily
using academic language to talk about writing (thesis statement, evidence, reasoning,
etc) since we do a weekly writing cycle and talk about the same concepts frequently.

Knows and Does

Tim will often ask his friends to help him translate a Ukrainian word into English
when he wants to branch out his vocabulary. I have also seen him use Google translate
on his computer when he cant remember the English word for what he is trying to say.

Tim often speaks with his friends in Ukrainian, especially when they are joking
around. I hear Tim speaking more often in English than in Ukranian, since he has
friends who speak only English and he typically only speaks his L1 with close friends
when they are intentionally trying to hide what they are talking about (telling a joke,
planning something sneaky).

L1 Literacy

Tim and the other Ukrainian students go to Ukraine school (I do not know if this
is the official name of the program, but this is how every student describes it) on the
weekends to learn the language and practice writing, reading, and speaking. Tim and
the other students who participate in this cultural community have to memorize poems
in Ukrainian and present them in front of an audience.

Pre-assessment

Background knowledge: Tim wrote that he has learned about MLK in school before but
never about Malcolm X. He wrote that MLK wanted equality for all people and that he
believed in peace.

Shalim Guzman-Lopez- Grade 8- L1 Spanish

Literacy and Language Strengths

Shalim talks all the time and has friends who speak a variety of languages. He
can write with logically sequenced information, but does need quite a bit of support to
get going. He does well reading aloud in small groups. He is in my ELA intervention
group and is one of the stronger students in reading comprehension. He seems to eaily
get the gist of whatever article we are reading.

Literacy and Language Needs

Shalim seems to do better when he has one-on-one support during his writing.
Often, I will prompt him to begin writing the answer to a question, and he will respond to
me verbally. He knows the answer but sometimes just cant transfer the information
onto paper or the computer. He benefits from reciting his answer to another person,
then having them restate his own answer so he can write it down.

Knows and Does

Shalim loves to talk and interact with his classmates. I am constantly having to
ask him to refocus on his classwork tasks. Shalim raises his hand to answer every
question and gets very excited when he receives recognition for getting the right
answer. Shalim also loves to have side conversations and play with classmates when
he is not supposed to, so he gets in trouble frequently for not following directions or
being off-task.

He is becoming more confident about using academic language. He gets very

excited when he knows the correct answer in a review game or when I call on students
to answer questions. I also work with Shalim in a reading intervention group and he
loves to figure out the meaning of new words using context clues.

L1 Literacy

Until recently, I only heard Shalim saying curse words and inappropriate phrases
in Spanish (and telling other classmates to repeat the phrase, not telling them what they
are really saying). Just in the past few weeks, I have heard him speaking Spanish in
conversations with some of his classmates whose home language is Spanish.