Initial Thoughts and Observations

WIDA Language Standard 3 – Developing:

• ·      General and some specific language of the content areas
• ·      Expanded sentences in oral interactions or written paragraphs
• ·      Oral or written language with phonological, syntactic or semantic errors that may impede the communication, but retain much of its meaning, when presented with oral or written, narrative or expository descriptions with sensory, graphic or interactive support

The student I have been working with, P.D, seems to be at WIDA Language Standard 3 - Developing because she is able to use and understand, with very few questions, specific academic language for her History and English classes. As she has been teaching me words in her native language, she has written them out as they would be said, or sound, in English in a way to help me better understand and learn the words. Her understanding of phonetic sounds in English is very impressive. She also has a good grasp on many words in English and is able to, in some instances, help me explain them to other students that do not understand. I have noticed that P.D. struggles with understanding academic language in her Mathematics and Science classes, which leads me to wonder why that appears to be a difficulty for her. I am curious to know if it is due to a lack of interest in those classes, whether she has had prior schooling in them before she came to the United States, or if it is a completely different problem that she is facing and I am very interested to see how she overcomes this difficulty over the course of the next few months.