Alexandra Rice

12/8/14
CORE
Child Study
Character Sketch
Peleus is a 6-year old boy in a 1st grade classroom in Sunset Park,
Brooklyn. He speaks Spanish at home, as his mother does not speak
much English (she requested a translator for his parent teacher
conference). His parents are separated; he lives with his mom during
the week and sees his father on weekends. Peleuss family is
Dominican and he still has some family that lives there. He has been to
the Dominican Republic before and says that he is excited to go again
this summer.
This school, P.S. Mt. Olympus is an English immersion school,
which means that, unlike bilingual schools, it does not teach academic
subjects in the students native languages rather, it believes in full
English immersion so that students can be comfortable speaking and
writing in English. In this class, there are four different native
languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. English language
acquisition is a major focus of the curriculum.
Peleuss disposition is generally upbeat and he enjoys school
(Data Piece #3). He is easy-going and does not get upset by changes
in our routine. He seems to be excited about some class activities and
is an active participant many days. He usually walks into the
classroom with a smile and immediately calls a teacher over to tell her

about something that happened. For example, I remember vividly

when Peleus walked in with a smile during my first week of school,
dropped his backpack on the floor and skipped over to me. Ms. Rice!
Ms. Rice! he said with a wide grin. You you you know what I got? I got
a motorbike!.
Peleus is slightly overweight and is tall for his age. He has olive
skin and dark brown eyes and hair. He keeps his hair trimmed short,
and sometimes has a shape shaved into his hair (the last one was a
star). He has two dimples and a large smile. He has a loud voice and is
not especially shy. He usually wears navy blue sweat pants and a Tshirt. Peleus has a stutter, which makes him repeat the beginning of
his sentences 3 or 4 times before continuing. He also has a slight
speech difference that causes him to say his s as an f. I never
noticed it until I was asked to do a running record with him and he
pronounced is, if.
Peleus has many academic strengths. He is a strong
mathematician with both quick fact fluency (at least in written form)
and also some evidence of problem solving reasoning (Data Piece #6).
He struggles somewhat in phonics, especially when it comes to hearing
the differences in digraphs and identifying vowel sounds (Data Pieces
#2 and #10). Peleus also seems to enjoy non-fiction books and Piggy
and Gerald books (Data Piece #7). Eric has strong comprehension
skills during read alouds and can make astute inferences (Data Pieces

#4 and #10). Peleus is often reluctant to write and will end a writing
period with only pictures; he seems to struggle with sounding out
words (Data Pieces #1 and #10). However, Peleus has a strong sense
of what a story looks like and how to plan his writing.
Peleus has a close friend in class, Helios, who he spends a lot of
time with. They sometimes fight but they are also playful together
(Data Pieces #5 and #8). Peleus is not shy and is an active participant
in class. Sometimes, other students display signs of frustration with
him, usually after he uses his body in a way that accidentally hurts
them. I do not think Peleus means to be rough, but he is taller and
bigger than most of the students, and he may not know his own
strength.
Peleus was initially easily noticeable. He has a loud voice and
was the first student I really heard in the classroom. When he walks
into the classroom, he often shares something about breakfast, or his
homework, or his home life. Ms. Hera had asked me to work with him
many times in the first few weeks of school because she said that he
was not independent and required a lot of attention. She said that his
kindergarten teacher had told her he was difficult. I was interested by
the immediate characterization of his personality after only a couple of
days of school so I became intent on discovering if there were some
incorrect impressions that were given off that may have caused him to
be pigeonholed as a difficult student. As I began to work with him

more and started collecting data, I learned a lot about who he is as a

thinker and person. This helped me discover the rich complexities of
Peleus, realizing that some of him gets lost when he is characterized in
just one or two words.
Portrait as Learner
There are many facets to Peleuss learning and I try to reflect the
intricacies of his modes of thinking, interests, strengths, and struggles
below. Some of my guiding questions included: What are his interests?
How can I use his interests to help him succeed? What is he successful
at? Other questions evolved as I collected data, such as: Why does it
seem as though there exists a disparity between his oral math
accuracy and written math accuracy? These questions helped inform
the kinds of data collection I chose to use.
Writer:
As a writer, Peleus displays many strengths. He is able to create
a cohesive story with a clear beginning, middle and end. As shown in
Data Piece #1, Peleus can write a personal narrative that is about
something that really happened to him. Data Piece #1 also shows that
he knows how to use some transition words, since he used one day,
next, and last to designate order within his story. He also spelled
words that are on the class word wall (such as one, day, the, got, etc.)

correctly, suggesting that he either knows how to use the word wall as
a resource, or knows how to spell these words already.
There is also evidence of sounding out words and hearing many
of the sounds, especially the consonants. For example, he spelled
picked pikt and motorbike motrbik. Perhaps hes not yet
comfortable with inflected endings, such as the ed in picked, or with
r controlled vowels, as in the or sound in motor. He also may not be
familiar with silent es. However, it may also be that Peleus was
focused more on writing his thoughts down than spelling. Based on
the way he spelled last (lst) and hospital (hspth) and also from Data
Piece #10 (discussed below), I think that Peleus knows his consonants
pretty well but struggles with some of his vowel sounds. From the
other pieces of writing in Data Piece #1, one can see that Peleus tends
to draw pictures before writing words, as five of the sheets of paper
have pictures without words. At first I thought this was because he
enjoys drawing or finds it easier to plan his story by drawing first, but I
wasnt sure and knew I wanted more information. This student work
(in combination with Data Piece #4, where Peleus had to be prompted
to begin writing 4 times), made me want to interview him about his
writing to see what else I could learn.
In Data Piece #10, I conferred with Peleus about his writing. I
asked him what he was working and hoped to gain insight into what he
likes and doesnt like about writing, since I had been noticing that his

writing folder was still filled with drawings but very few words. When I
first went over, Peleus asked me to help him write words. He also said
he didnt know how to write the words. After I suggested that he did
actually know how to sound out words, he responded that he didnt
how to spell them. This exchange made me wonder if part of why he
may not write as many words as pictures is because perhaps he feels
frustrated when words arent spelled correctly. Im wondering if he
knows when a word doesnt look right but doesnt know how to fix it, so
thats why hes telling me that he doesnt know how to spell. When we
sounded out the word like together, he first said lk and then lak.
This is further evidence that his letter-sound correspondence is strong
for consonants but that he struggles a bit with vowels.
Overall, Peleus has a strong grasp on the broader picture of
writing. This can be seen in Data Piece #1 where he understands that
stories have a structure and that pictures on a page can represent the
words. Also, in Data Piece #10, in my conference, I ask him to tell me
what his reasons are for liking the book he is reviewing (this
conference was done during a book review unit). He lists the three
reasons and has pictures for each. He says the book is funny, that
there is a picture of Piggy and Gerald in the book, and that he likes the
last page. It really seems like he knows how to start the brainstorming
and planning process. However, I think he struggles with getting his
writing down on paper, likely because sounding out words is a difficult

task for him (since he told me he doesnt know how to write the word
during our conference, and also because he often opts to only draw
during writing).
Reader:
In Data Piece #2, I observed Peleus during a reading strategy
mini-lesson. In this lesson, Ms. Hera showed the class the digraph sh.
Peleus called out that sh makes the same sound as the words in chin
and ship and added, they are the same thing. He repeated the two
beginning digraphs aloud and they sounded the same when he said
them. This observation made me think that his ability to distinguish
digraphs is not always accurate. It seems as though he may have
some trouble hearing the difference in the sounds ch and sh.
Perhaps it is also connected to his speech impediment; however, I
acknowledge that it may have nothing to do with it and it may actually
just mean that he needs more practice with those particular words.
As shown in Data Piece #4, Peleus tends to receive prompting to
begin working mostly in writing in reading. For example, on the first
day of tally collection, Peleus was prompted to get started on his
writing 4 times and on independent reading 4 times, but did not need
prompting in math or read aloud. On day 2 of my tally collection,
Peleus needed prompting to get started on writing 4 times, reading 3
times, math 2 times, and read aloud 0 times. This could be caused by

a many factors, including not being interested in writing and reading,

finding them difficult, not knowing what to do, or getting distracted.
After noticing that Peleus often needs a lot of prompting in
reading, I wanted to find out more about his interests in reading so I
decided to observe him during readers workshop (Data Piece #7). In
this data piece, Peleus seems to enjoy certain books. For example, he
asked if he could take the Mo Willems books back to his seat to read. I
wondered if he prefers those books to the ones in his book bag. Also,
when I asked him which books in his book bag he likes, he pointed to
two: one about underground animals and the other about the solar
system. I think that Peleus has an interest in non-fiction books. In
particular, I think that he is interested in animals because during that
same reading period, he got up to go check on the class mealworms
(Data Piece #7). In addition, he checked on the mealworms during
Data Piece #4 (the October 28th tally) at the beginning of reading and
writing.
Although Peleus is a low reader according to Ms. Hera, I wasnt
sure if this was specific to decoding or if it involved comprehension as
well. Therefore, I decided to observe Peleus during a read aloud and
pay attention to whether he was following along based on turn-andtalks and comments (Data Piece #9). In this data piece, Peleus was
the only student in the class who answered the inference question
correctly (although only 3 students were called on). This suggests, at

the very least, that Peleus has strong inferring skills and also that he
seems to pay attention to read alouds. During this read aloud, Peleus
participated during the turn-and-talk by making a comparison between
the two characters (Ms. Nelson is like a nice teacher and Ms. Swamp is
mean), and also by answering an inference question at the end of the
story.
One can also see evidence of his comprehension skills in Data
Piece #4 where I tallied his participation. On October 28th, he
participated four times during the read aloud, offering comments such
as, Wait, shes in the Laundromat!, and Why did she say that? in
response to Ms. Hera reading Trixies baby talk speech bubble. He also
said, shes going to school! when Ms. Hera asked the class where
they think Trixie is going at the beginning of the story. In his last
comment, he called out shes sad after Ms. Hera asked what Trixie
was feeling. These comments show various levels of comprehension
from literal (where is Trixie going?) to prediction to inferring a
characters feelings.
Overall as reader, Peleus has strong comprehension skills. He
seems to pay attention during read alouds and share his thoughts with
the class (both by calling out and by raising his hand). He also appears
to have an interest in non-fiction, and maybe animals in particular, as
the books he said he likes are about the solar system and underground
animals, and he is also often found looking at the mealworms. He

often needs to be prompted to start reading (Data Pieces #4 and #7),

but this may be because he does not enjoy the books in his book bag.
He has some difficulty hearing subtle distinctions in sounds, such as
sh and ch, which may make reading feel laborious.
Mathematician:
Peleus seems to have both strong conceptual understanding and
strong fact fluency in math. He received an 18/18 on the math fact
challenge where he had five minutes to complete 18 addition problems
(Data Piece #6). This suggests that he has strong fact fluency because
he could answer all of the problems in less than the allotted time. In
my interview with Peleus (Data Piece #3), he also said that math was
his favorite subject. At the time, I was surprised because I really
hadnt looked much into Peleuss math work. In retrospect, it may be
because he works more independently in math, so I hadnt paid as
much attention.
Immediately after Peleus told me that math was his favorite
subject, he asked me to give him a math problem, I asked him what
2+3 and he answered it incorrectly twice before getting the right
answer, with the help of my fingers to demonstrate. Also, in Data
Piece #4, when I tallied the frequency of calling out, I noted that he
called out the answer 4 in response to 3+3 during a math lesson.
Interestingly, these two moments of incorrect math work are not
reflected in his math fluency sheet. These two other data pieces where

he incorrectly answered math questions accompanied by his statement

that math is his favorite subject in Data Piece #3, made me want to
analyze his math work more in depth. Thats why I decided to look at
his written work, rather than rely only on answers he had given me to
path problems in passing. Im wondering if he is better at showing his
math knowledge in written form than orally. Perhaps he gets nervous
answering questions on the spot out loud and performs better in math
when working quietly in written form.
In Data Piece #6, I also looked at Peleuss problem solving work.
In these problems, he was given a scenario where he needed to come
up with all of the ways to add up to 10, for the first problem, and to 8
for the second problem. He was able to interpret both word problems
and come up with multiple ways to add up to 10 and then 8. The first
problem was: Ms. Hild has 10 balloons for her party. Some are orange
and some are purple. What are the different ways she could arrange
orange and purple balloons? The second problem was: I have a candy
bag with 8 candies. Some are tootsie rolls and some are lollipops. What
are the different combinations of candies I could have in the bag? For
the first problem, he drew out four combinations that added to 10 and
for the second, four combinations that added to 8. This showed me
that he was able to visually represent various ways to decompose
these two numbers. It seems like he has some understanding of the
decomposition of numbers and is also capable of interpreting word

problems. However, in both problems, he repeated one of his ways

twice, so he actually found only 3 unique ways. I wonder if Peleus does
not double-check his work because he might have caught his
repetitions if he had gone back and recounted. The second word
problem was given to students after Ms. Hera had facilitated a math
congress where students presented their own strategies for solving the
first problem. Some students showed compensation, a technique that
has students begin with 1 object, then 2, and going up consecutively to
avoid missing combinations. Peleus did not seem to use this strategy
in his second problem. Perhaps he did not understand the strategy
when it was presented or just felt more comfortable using his own
method.
Portrait as Community Member
As a community member, my guiding questions were: What are
Peleuss social interactions like? Why do some students seem to get
upset with him? How can I help Peleus strengthen his friendships?
What are his ways of participating in class? Because my questions
were broad, I wanted to use a variety of data collection techniques,
including observations during structured times (lessons) and also
during unstructured times (lining up), interviews, and anecdotal
recollections.
Peleus has various ways of interacting with his students and with
Ms. Hera. As a class participant, Peleus is very active. He participates

in class many times per day (Data Piece #4) and sometimes calls out
responses to Ms. Heras questions. More specifically, in Data Piece #4,
on October 23rd, he participated 10 times throughout the day with
relevant comments, which is many more times than some of the more
reserved students in the class. I think this hints at Peleuss talkative
nature.
His interactions with other students seem to vary. For example,
he told me that Helios is his closest friend in Data Piece #3 when I
interviewed him. I did notice many interactions with Helios throughout
the semester. For example, Peleus had a side conversation during
morning meeting with Helios about Pokemon cards on October 23rd
(Data Piece #4). Helios also stuck his tongue out at him during this
observation, suggesting a playful nature in their relationship. Also, in
Data Piece #5, during our class field trip, he ran ahead of me to walk
with Helios multiple times. He also sat with Helios on the bus on our
way back from the trip. Lastly, Peleus tried to cut the line to stand
next to Helios in Data Piece #8.
However, he has also had some more negative interactions with
Helios, which made me curious about their friendship. For example, In
Data Piece #8, Helios and Peleus seemed to get into an argument:
Peleus initially accused Helios of stealing his ball, which led to further
accusations. Apparently, Helios then called Peleus a bitch, and Helios
responded by saying that Peleus had called Helios a puta. Although

Im not sure about whether Helios did take Peleuss ball or whether
they did in fact swear at each other (because they were whispering in
each others ears), I think this gives a glimpse into their complicated
relationship. They seem to enjoy spending time together, looking back
at the number of times theyve interacted, but they also get upset at
each other. I think this seems like typical 1st grade friendships because
they are still experimenting with what it means to be a good friend.
Another aspect of Peleus as a community member that I noticed
is that sometimes, students seem to get annoyed with him. For
example, in Data Piece #7, he hit Hestia after sliding across the floor.
Hestia responded by yelling in a high-pitched voice, Peleus! Stop it!
You pushed me!. Then in Data Piece #8, Peleus pushed Artemis in
line in order to stand next to Helios, and then fell backwards on
Athena. Artemis responded by saying, Ow! Dont cut meeee! Athena
responded by crying. Also, in Data Piece #10, Peleus accidentally
kicked Demeter on the rug when he was stretching out his legs. She
responded by saying in a high-pitched voice, Get off my spot,
Peleus!. These interactions signal that sometimes, students react to
him with annoyance or react loudly and tell him not to do something
(Stop it, Dont cut me, Get off my spot). A trend Ive noticed in
the examples I mentioned above is that these usually have to do with
his body hitting another students body. Its not about him saying
unkind words to other students, or upsetting them during classwork,

but rather it seems that he tends to push or kick students. I dont

think that he necessarily means to hurt them because he seems to be
doing these actions for his own pleasure, not for anyone elses
annoyance. For example, I think he was sliding on the floor because it
looked fun, not because he wanted to run into someone. And I also
think he pushed Artemis because he was trying to cut the line to stand
next to Helios and thats the only way to squeeze between two people
when there isnt actually any room.
Peleus is not shy. He seems to feel comfortable sharing
information with me (Data Piece #3) and also feels comfortable
participating in class (Data Pieces #5 and #9). For example, in our
interview, he shared information with me about his friends, his
thoughts on school, and his father not topics that all children feel
comfortable sharing with their teachers. He told me that his father
goes to the gym and that he is also fat. He also told me that being at
home is boring. In Data Piece #5, one can see that he participated 10
times on October 23rd and 4 times on October 28th. In Data Piece #9,
he also raised his hand to share his thoughts during a read aloud.

Instructional Implications
Data Piece #10 makes me think that Peleus would benefit from a
personal word wall to help his writing. He asked me three times for
help writing and his writing sheets are often left without words (Data

Piece #1). I think that a word wall in his folder could be a helpful
resource for him so he wouldnt feel pressured to sound out each word.
Rather, he would have many words written already, and he could also
add some as he goes, especially words that are specific to his interests
(motorbike). He would also benefit from continued phonics practice.
As seen in Data Piece #2, he cannot always distinguish subtle sounds
and as seen in Data Piece #10, he does not know all of his vowel
sounds. He was able to sound out the l and the k in the word, like,
but suggested a for the vowel. Also, in Data Piece #1, he did not
include any vowels in the word last or hospital. I think he would
feel more confident as an independent writer if he had a stronger grasp
on his vowel sounds. Rhyming poems could also help with vowel
sounds.
In terms of math, Peleus exhibits a lot of strength. He says he
likes it (Data Piece #3) and tends to perform well on assessments. He
has a strong interpretation of word problems, so as a teacher, I would
want to capitalize on that and push him to explain his thinking. His
problem solving sheets also suggest that he might be ready to use
number sentences in his work to help him think of more ways to add to
8. Since he seems to be very comfortable with answering number
sentences, as seen from his fact fluency test, I wonder if he could be
pushed to write some of his own. I could use his strength in fact
fluency to further his problem solving and decomposition skills.

In reading, something I would want to try would be to get more

non-fiction books on Perseuss level. Perseus expressed interest in nonfiction so I think it would be to his benefit for me to provide him with
many non-fiction options because he may feel more motivated to read
if he finds the books engaging.
Looking back on some the ways in which his peers react to
Peleus, I wonder if he would benefit movement breaks. He tends to
bump into students, perhaps because he has a lot of energy. He also
pretended to fall back on a student in Data Piece #8 and ended up
pushing her backwards. I wonder if taking a walk or two during the
day, or doing some stretches as a class might be valuable since much
of school involves sitting down. This may help improve some of his
interactions with students because as in Data Piece #7, other students
seem to get annoyed when he accidentally hits them. I wonder if he is
not entirely aware of the strength of his own body. Perhaps suggesting
to his parents that they sign him up for karate (if its financially
feasible) would be useful because karate may help him understand his
body.
However, I dont want to simply suggest movement breaks. I
think I can go deeper and actually take a more holistic approach,
incorporating his physical and academic needs. For example, I think
he could benefit from movement during learning not necessarily a
movement break, but rather a way to integrate his natural state of

being into productive learning. For example, perhaps he would take

well to working with manipulatives in order to find more ways to add to
10. Also, we could incorporate gestures or dance into phonics
instruction, or even hold class skits. Given his that his voice projects
naturally and that he does not seem shy, acting or participating in
some kind of performing arts might be a venue in which he could
thrive. This semester did not provide performing opportunities, but Im
hoping that he will have a chance next semester, during the readers
theater unit.
Like all students, Peleus is a child in motion he is constantly
changing, doing, learning, thinking and I had hoped to capture him in
action. Reflecting on the instructional implications is something I will
strive to continue in my future classrooms because in order to best
support my multidimensional students, I must take into account their
strengths, challenges, interests, temperaments, and more.