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Alexandria Mott
EDUC 555
Pre-Case Study
April 13, 2014

Background
Student F experienced several moves throughout this semester. It was discovered that she
was physically abusing her mentally disabled mother and had to move permanently with her
uncle. However, because of Student Fs extreme needs, that living situation did not work out
well either. She then moved to a different uncles house. This new house was already filled to the
brim with four or five of her cousins and her aunt and uncle. Just a few days ago, Student F told
me that she was going to move again. It is clear from her lack of stability at home that she is not
spending any extra time outside of the classroom to work on enhancing her language abilities or
mastering the skills she is being taught in school.
The accommodations provided to Student F have changed considerably from the
beginning of the semester. The paperwork regarding her previous schooling was finally brought
to the school, so she is in the process of being identified as a student with special needs. One of
the requirements that must be fulfilled during the process of identification is that she be provided
instruction both in English and in Spanish. Student F is also staying after school every day for
approximately two hours and working with a bi-lingual para on letter recognition, sound
production, and other basic skills. With this additional practice, Student F is making great strides
and can successfully identify six letters of the alphabet and can count to 13 consistently.

I am very happy that the proper steps are being taken to identify Student F and give her
the accommodations that she needs. I am also extremely pleased that she is getting so much more
individual help and extra hours of studying. The only thing that strikes me as a little bit off is that
it took so long for the process to begin. It seems almost like this entire year has been wasted, as
Student F has made little to no gains until very recently, when the interventions were
implemented. I know that the problems and legalities involved with her previous lack of
documentation slowed things down, but I wish there could have been a way to make things
happen more quickly.
State of Language Acquisition
Student F is currently at Level One, or pre-production, of language acquisition. She has minimal
comprehension of English and responds in Spanish. She tries to make sense out of messages, but
can really only identify common vocabulary words. She has gained familiarity with the sounds
of English. For example, if I tell her that a c makes the kah sound, she can tell me that the
words comb and cat make that sound while brush and dog do not. However, her ability
to identify tendencies of the English language ends with sounds. She cannot identify rhythm or
patterns of English. She cannot read, so she does not attend shared readings. If something is read
to her, it has to be repeated in Spanish to ensure understanding. Despite consistent work with
letters and letter sounds, I made very little progress with Student F throughout my time working
with her. Hopefully she will have more success with her additional practices and individualized
attention.
Stage of Acculturation

Stage 2 Shallow comprehension and culture shock, seems to be the best fit for Student F.
Although she is not outwardly showing any signs of culture shock, she seems to be adapting well
to her new environment and culture, which leads me to believe she must have some
understanding of how things work. I do not think that Student F tries to understand her
surroundings, especially since her home-life is constantly changing. There is nothing motivating
her to create a routine or better understand what is happening around her because it could change
at a moments notice. She does not understand social norms and does not take social cues from
her peers. She seems to be content living in her own little world and gets agitated if you try to
help her catch on to what everybody else is doing. Again, there is no improvement in Student Fs
stage of acculturation from the beginning of the semester. My hope is that once she is identified
and placed in classes that are more appropriate for her developmental level that she will be able
to learn more about the culture in which she has been immersed and begin to understand its
norms and tendencies.
Goals
Unfortunately, Student F did not achieve any of the goals that I set for her. Goal number one was
that Student F will be able to recognize all letters of the alphabet, both upper and lower cases.
Part of the identification process is that Student F be timed for one minute once a week and
identify as many letters as she can. She consistently scores around 3/16 letters correct. Goal
number two was that she be able to count to 20. Although she did make strides towards this goal,
Student F can only count to 13 consistently. The third and final goal for Student F is that she be
able to write numbers one through twenty. She is still currently unable to identify numbers, but
can write some numbers when specifically asked to do so. This was the most difficult goal to
accomplish, especially considering she does not know the order of numbers 1-20.

Student F still does not know basic information such as her last name, her birthday, her
address, her phone number, or what day of the week it is. She has begun to say the day of the
week based off of clues (example: If yesterday was Tuesday, what is today?) As is evident from
working with Student F, she is in need of more specialized education opportunities. I think that
once she is placed in a classroom that is better suited for her developmental level she will be able
to begin mastering basic life skills as well as continuing to improve with her letters and numbers.