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Portfolio Report
Portfolio Report
REASON FOR REFERRAL exhausted
It is important to analyse the performance of Emma-Lee so that it could be possible to assist her accordingly. She will only get the right help if the teachers know what her problem is. It would thus be important to begin with the medical assessment before assessing other aspects around her education and academic performance.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The problem facing Emma Lee is hardly clear until the findings bring out a clear conclusion. Her mother claims to have faced similar difficulties during her studies. She had similar difficulties especially in math and writing. Emma-Lee has had difficulties in reading and math. This information is in accordance with her mother who can remember these problems. The student also is found to have problem with tutoring. Her mother is concerned that her child may have some kind of reading disability because she too had trouble learning in school, but up until now has no evidence or documentation to support this.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
The student has been known to have some strength is certain areas but weak in other areas. Her strong areas include expressive vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral comprehension, sentence comprehension, and listening comprehension. She is cheery and enthusiastic and loves horses and writing her own stories. She is organized and loves to draw as well as coloring. She has much interest in science. She has been found to have problems with decoding skills, oral reading, reading, writing, math, and numeracy operations. Her academic weaknesses happen despite that she hardly misses her classes.
CURRENT ASSESSMENT
Current assessment shows that she has problems in math, writing, reading, and science. She is however strong in some areas such as art, and some math topics like probability and statistics.
OBSERVATIONS DURING TESTING
She hardly concentrates effectively during test. She seems not to be very concerned about the exercise.
ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Emily is struggling with word decoding at a very low level and it is affecting her fluency speed and reading level. Word reading 10th percentile benchmark level I.
Learning Skill Remarks
Listening Comprehension Below average
Early Reading Skills Below average
Reading Comprehension Below average
Math Problem Solving Very poor
Alphabet Writing Fluency Fair
Sentence Composition Below average
Word Reading Below average
Essay Composition Below average
Pseudoword Decoding Very poor
Numeral Operations Below average
Oral Expression Below average
Oral Reading Fluency Below average
Spelling Very poor
Math Fluency-Addition Math Fluency-Subtraction Below average
Math Fluency
Multiplication Very poor
Assessment of Inclusive Educational Environment
The student is learning within a contusive educational environmental. The teachers are qualified and there are a number of bright students who are ready to assist her. Besides, all the necessary resources are provided.
Assessment of Language (Including Phonological Processing)
Her language is generally good but her writing and reading abilities are generally poor. She needs much effort to catch up with her wanting skills in this area.
General Academic Achievement
Her general academic achievement is not good. She is relatively poor in math, numeric problems, writing, reading, science, and art. She however seem to love some of these areas. Despite her love for some of the areas or subjects, she ends up performing poorly.
Assessment of Auditory, Visual, and Visual-Motor Processing Skills
Her skills in this case are wanting. She has much passion in the areas concerning these skills but she ends up showing poor results.
Assessment of Attention/Concentration/Disinhibition
Her attention is poor since she makes careless mistakes in school work all the time. She also is not able to stay focused on a task for periods of time that would be expected of peers, which happens all the time. She always avoids school work or homework when possible. She also has difficulty returning to a task when focus has been lost for a short period. Besides, her assignments are ever incomplete. In the case of her selective attention, she does not seem to listen when being spoken to, she is easily distracted by objects, people or noises around him, has difficulty staying on topic during a conversation, follows the conversations of others around them more than on his own work, and has divided attention. She also has difficulty organizing information.
Assessment of Memory
The student’s memory is basically poor. She has trouble remembering the spelling of familiar words with irregular spellings. The student also has trouble with reading comprehension. She again has problem remembering phone numbers.
Assessment of Metacognition
In terms of her declarative knowledge, Emma-Lee knows when understanding something and knows what the teacher expects her to learn. She also learns more when she is interested in something, and but she has problems knowing what information she has to learn. Her procedural knowledge is basically poor as well as her conditional learning abilities apart from the fact that she learn best when she understand something about a topic. She also has relatively poor planning skills, but her monitoring skills are generally poor. She prefers working as a group especially with friends, with an adult, and for short period. In general, she has relatively low metacognitive skills.
Assessment of Emotions
The student has problems in controlling her emotions. The student is also unable to agree with what is being said. Emma-Lee has tantrums at home and argues with her mom. At school Emma-Lee pouts and refuses to participate. Occasionally she will argue with peers when not around a teacher. In class Emma-Lee refuses to work, is easily distracted, complains or is generally not Emma-Lee is very kind and compassionate with her peers. She is also very good at taking care of the little kids at her grandma’s daycare. She pays attention to their feelings and makes sure they get their needs met. Emma-Lee cares about what her peers think of her and gets upset when they are angry at her.
Assessment of Reading
The student struggles with reading. Even though she likes to write her writing is at times not legible due to spelling errors that make her work difficult to read. Emma-Lee is not reading at grade level therefore requires help with reading grade level assignments from teachers or peers.
Assessment of Writing
She has problems in writing. Her writing offers few ideas and the ideas she does use do not flow into a story that has one main idea. It is illogical and hard to understand. Her sentences are poorly constructed. She however has motivation in writing since she highly trusts herself and has passion for writing. This means she can improve with time.
Assessment of Math
Generally, the student has problems in understanding math. She makes a lot of errors when solving math problems. Her area of weakness is found to be in number patterns and relations. She has basic understanding of numbers but had difficulties with place value of larger numbers, counting by 2’s, and trusting the count with larger numbers. Her strength in math is in probability and statistics. She has no interest in math thereby making it difficult for her to understand it.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Emma-Lee is a slow learner with some key abilities in certain areas. Some areas that could seem difficult, such as probability and statistics are easy for her. This happens despite that she does not like math. Her passion in other areas does not improve her performance in such areas either. This could even be more difficult without the application of a self-regulatory model. She seems not to plan her work adequately and hardly does she concentrate. Her performance would only get better when the teachers understand her clearly and structure good ways of dealing with her problems. Am ability-achievement model is also recommended if she will have to do well in her studies.
Instructional Implications and Recommendations
On the basis of the overall assessment findings, observations, as well as the educational and developmental information provided by ____, the following recommendations are made:
The student need much attention from the teachers
The teacher can make sure that she studies in the presence of her friends
At home, she should be assistant in her homework by her parents or any other responsible person
The teachers could also concentrate on her areas of weakness
She can as well be encouraged to love these areas
She should not get any form of discouragement from anybody whether the teachers or her fellow students. ________________________________________
XXXXXX
Special Education Teacher.
The English language proficiency test (ELPT) is the name given to a one-hour multiple
The English language proficiency test (ELPT) is the name given to a one-hour multiple choice test given to a student undertaking a language proficiency course. It is mainly given to those that are not native English speaking persons who prefer to take it instead of a test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) (Serafini, 2001). This is a requirement for some colleges depending on the type of school the student was applying to join in. ELPT assesses both the understanding f spoken and written standard American English and the student’s ability to function and relate well in a classroom where English is spoken.
In a school setting, the use of ELPT is common especially in schools that want to diversify their school curriculum. By introduction of English as a foreign language, the school invites all students that might have had a chance to have English as a native language or those that would like to learn it as a foreign language. They are administered to students in such a way that they are fairly distributed across the board. The paper is divided into three sections with 84 multiple choice questions. The first two sections involve listening sessions which total to 30 minutes. These listening sections identify the level of understanding that is exhibited by the student in the understanding of the English language (Serafini, 2001). This sections also test the level at which the student understands the type of pronunciation used in several similar words. If the student can differentiate between words with similar letters but different intonations, then they are advancing in their skill level. Questions evaluate the comprehension of conversation conducted in English language.
The benefit of carrying out the ELPT is to evaluate the standards attained by student after learning for a period of time. After studying for a certain period of time, assessment is required to evaluate the aptitude of the student. Listening to the language being spoken enables the student to respond to everyday scenarios and make out the correct sentence structures to respond to a certain situation. This will be enhanced by the student having better writing skills as they enable the learner to get a feel of good sentence structure as well as comprehensive word choices that are precisely adequate for the situation at hand (Holloway, 2001). The other benefit accrued from using an ELPT is that the teacher can track the progress of the student by evaluating the different tests undertaken by the student and checking the general trend of the scores attained. This establishes whether the student is learning or whether the student has attained any outstanding skills from the time they began studying English.
The drawback of this form of assessment is that it does not really test the required use of English as a language but just as a stepping stone to the college entrance. Use of multiple choices denies the creativity of the student from being exposed. They are directed on what possible answers could be correct and all they have to do is deliberate on the best possible (Serafini, 2001). The best way would have been offering them with a question and get to evaluate their creativity and analytical skills. These skills need to be evaluated as well as they help create personality beyond the school entrance examination. They will be able to create their own point of view without depending on direction from anybody. The back wash effect, experienced by feedback acquired after teaching, could be harmful as it may lead to departure from the teaching of English language learning purposes (Holloway, 2001). If a candidate scores highly or lowly in the exams, it is mistaken that it is their measure of proficiency in the language. The whole learning process becomes geared towards learning which multiple choices to choose and how to make the correct analysis. Teachers may also tend to each more on examination skills leading to abandon the core purposes of learning English as a language.
An alternative form of assessment is therefore required is we are to ensue English language is taught in a manner likely to integrate the individual into the society holistically. Assessments need to be done in a way that will measure progress in a reliable and valid manner prior to inclusion in main stream academic scale assessment. This will create an assessment that is tailored specifically for ELL at varying developmental, academic and proficiency levels (Holloway, 2001). The assessments are supposed to further portray the best educational practices available in the country. The assessment should rely on data sources that are fairly distributed and varying in methods of procurement as well as use authentic instructional projects and tasks as basis for student performance. The assessments are supposed to account for individual academic growth on the student’s part.
Portfolios, anecdotal records, audio and visual recordings, checklists, and rubrics, and conferences are some f the alternatives suggested by Stiggins and Amps (2005) as being the best. Portfolio can be described as a collection of samples that a student uses to account fro progress in learning. It is a form of opportunity where the student can present documentation of learning activities, reflections or ideas. Students are tasked with taking into task their own education and learning processes they undergo through. They are taken to be knowledge producers rather than being receivers of knowledge. Students are assisted to construct their own knowledge and utilize it for their own benefit. They are thus not expected to react to teaching stimuli provided by the teacher. It is an authentic reflection of what has been learnt and whether the student has made any progress in terms of knowledge acquisition.
Anecdotal recordings refer to a collection of written observations of students related to their progress in learning (Stiggins, &, 2005). Key words are used to describe happenings in the learning environment and are noted by the student. If an ELL student uses this form of learning, they could utilize every moment in learning something new that could help them increase their knowledge through personal initiative. The teacher on the other hand, may be able to discern developing patterns in the student’s behavior and progress as well and look for alternatives of helping the student to learn. Audio and video recordings enhance the use of technology in learning. The teacher is able to watch the learning environment and create adjustments from which the student may benefit from (Serafini, 2001). They further assist them to watch student progress and also urge them to self-assess themselves using the recordings availed. These features help analytical ability of students. Checklists and rubrics offer a chance to measure different types of behavior and traits observed over a period of time. This helps the teacher note the missing traits o characteristics and look for ways of instilling them using the learning environment. Rubrics make the intention of the teacher clear. They assist the student in thought analysis of their work and their friend’s. They allow teachers to accommodate heterogeneous classes and provide an easy explanation of student’s evaluation to their parents. Conferences are meant to create a good rapport between the student and the teacher through communication. The student is expected to be more responsible in documenting their progress in their school work and other fields (Stiggins, &, 2005).
It is therefore important to create an environment that accommodates more than the usual classroom setting. The learner is supposed to grow and utilize skills learnt to the maximum. Students should be responsible for their learning as well as increase their rate of passing not only in academics but also excel in life. Teaching English should therefore include more than aptitude tests.
References:
Holloway J.H., (2001) “The Use and Misuse: Standardized Tests,” Educational Leadership, 59 77-78
Serafini, F. (2001) “ Measurment, Procedure, and Inquiry: Three Paradigms of Assessment,” The Reading Teacher, 54 384-93
Stiggins, R., & Chappius, J. (2005, Winter). Using student-involved assessment in the classroom to close achievement gaps. Theory Into Practice, 44(1), 11-18.
The enduring tale of good versus evil
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The enduring tale of good versus evil
“Hansel and Gretel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, is a classic story detailing the enduring struggle between good and evil. The story actually details how the struggle between good and evil is a continuous battle that in the end usually ends in favor of good. Throughout the story, the trials Hansel and his sister Gretel go through, denote the battles of good versus evil. Overall, it is fair to say that the overriding theme in Hansel and Gretel is the fact that good always triumphs over evil.
The very first highlight of the good versus evil battle comes at the very beginning of the story, when the woodcutter’s wife succeeds in convincing Hansel and Gretel’s father, that they should put their selfish needs before those of his own children and leave them in the woods. Indeed, even though her plot to get rid of the children once and for all does not succeed, the fact that she is able to convince the wood cutter to abandon his own children in the woods, can be taken to represent a victory for evil. The fact that the children are able to find their way back home after being abandoned in the woods, due to Hansel’s quick thinking, represents a victory for good.
The step mother gets her way a second time, as she convinces the woodcutter to once again abandon his only two children in the woods; one of the most significant twists in this enduring tale of good versus evil, made even more significant by the fact that the children are this time around unable to find their way back home. As a result of trying to do so, they even get more lost in the woods. In the battle of good versus evil, this represents a major victory.
Another significant scene in the story is when the two children stumble upon a house that actually turns out to be the house of a witch. The difficulties experienced by chief protagonists in the story, become even more complicated when Hansel is tricked and captured by the witch, while Gretel is essentially turned into a slave, representing another significant victory for evil. , the tale does take the expected turn when Gretel successfully eliminates the evil represented by the witch, by pushing her into the oven, right before she can eat the two of them. Further, to top it all off, the two children are not only able to find their way back home with pearls and precious stones, but they also get back home to find that one of the chief antagonists in the story; their step mother is long dead, which means they can enjoy a happy life together with their father. These final occurrences, mark with finality the triumph of good versus evil, as both antagonists die towards the end of the story, leaving the protagonists to live happily ever after.
Similarly, the enduring tale of good versus evil can also be seen in Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood”, although unlike in “Hansel and Gretel” the ending is not in favor of good. The first victory for good is seen when the wolf is unable to eat the little girl while on her way to grandmother’s house due to the woodcutters who were working in the forest. , the treachery that typically accompanies evil, as already seen in “Hansel and Gretel”, can also be seen when the wolf succeeds in obtaining information as to the little girl’s destination.
The wolf then proceeds to the grandmother’s house, before deceiving her into letting it in. Once inside, the wolf actually devours the little girls grandmother, taking her place to wait for little red riding hood. This represents a significant victory for evil, made even more sickening by the fact that the wolf is able to repeat the fete, devouring little red riding hood at the end of the story, after pretending to be her grandmother.
In a way, these two stories provide contrasting endings to the battle between good and evil, whereas in the first story, good triumphs over evil, in the second story, the converse is true, as the protagonist in the story is actually eaten up by the antagonist. , the enduring struggle between good and evil similar to a number of other themes is evident within both stories. Whereas good is portrayed as innocent and trusting in the characters of little red riding hood, as well as the siblings Hansel and Gretel, evil is portrayed as treacherous and greedy in the characters of the wolf, the witch and the step mother. In both stories despite their differing ends, the enduring struggle between good and evil is unmistakable. The characters and the roles they play are representative of this struggle.