Writing Analysis

Alondra Reyes Ponce has a love for reading and writing both, not something most middle school students will admit to.  She prefers to read and write in Spanish because she feels that she can understand and express herself better in her first language.  Yet, Alondra’s writing in English seems to be more advanced than it is in Spanish.  This could be due to her having only sporadic bilingual instruction in reading and writing grades 3-5.  In 6^th grade Alondra transitioned into a support model here at Badger Ridge Middle School and continues to study hard under this model as a 7^th grader.  Alondra has had no formal reading or writing instruction in Spanish beyond the three years in elementary school.  When I asked her where she feels she learned most of her writing skills in Spanish she told me that it was during those years in elementary school, but that much more work was done in English than in Spanish during that time.  This would certainly account for her having stronger writing skills in her second language than in her first.        

The writing sample that Alondra shared with me in English is a story that she is writing on her own at home.  Her story is about growing up in Mexico.  She is very proud of how much she can remember before moving to the United States at the age of seven.  She tells a chronological story of how she grew and what she would do each day with her mother.  The discourse pattern clearly follows that of English writing as she takes the reader step by step, day by day, year by year on her journey.  She takes the reader from one event to the next using transition words like “One day,…After her mother left… After years (years later)” . Alondra’s writing does include a few run on sentences that might mirror Spanish discourse patterns such as “Her mom’s name was Valeria and her mom worked selling shoe’s laces and blenders pieces her mother would wake up really early to go to work,” but the number of simple sentences far outweighs the run-ons:  “She loved to eat them.  Her mom was busy talking to customers.  Alondra decided to poke a hole in the cup, etc.  In this case it seems more a simple misuse of punctuation than a Spanish based discourse pattern.   

Alondra’s developmental stage of writing in English is at the conventional stage.  Though Alondra makes a few mistakes in grammar / syntax (keep vs. kept, “Alondra keep growing”, and selled vs. sold “Lupita’s grandmother selled ice pops), she has a strong control of spelling patterns and sentence structure.  Alondra’s vocabulary usage is fairly simplistic, but her sentence structure and ideas are complex. Alondra wrote: “One day she got her tamal and a cup of atole but she could not open the cup.  Her mom was busy selling and talking to customers.  So Alondra decided to poke a hole in the cup.  After her mother and her mother’s friends came to see Alondra.  She was covered in Atole.”

Throughout four pages of hand-written text, there is no evidence of code-switching.  There are a few examples of language transfer such as “After years” vs. years later and “after” vs. later, but overall I believe Alondra’s writing gets stronger and stronger as she continues to write in and out of school.   Alondra’s ACCESS score in writing for 2009-2010 was a 3.6.  I am curious to see what her results will be for this year given that this is her lowest categorical score for the ACCESS test.  According to the WIDA can-do descriptors I would place Alondra at a level 4 expanding.  She is able to use details and examples to support her ideas and uses transitions words appropriately to lead the reader through her story. According to those same can-do descriptors however Alondra’s Spanish writing would be more appropriately placed at a level 3 developing.  She is able to state a main idea with some details, but lacks transitions and struggles with grammar/syntax.   

Alondra’s writing sample in Spanish is an affidavit that she is writing about herself.  The affidavit seems to start out with a traditional English discourse pattern, but then transitions into a discourse pattern with a much more additive relationship.  Alondra makes four simple statements about herself to start the affidavit, but continues by telling her story… “llegamos a los estados unidos en el 2006 y nuestras vidas cambiaron por completamente porque avia nieve por toda la ciudad y no sabiamos hablarar ingles.  Yo tenia miedo de ir ala escuela por que no sabia y conosia a nadie pero con el tiempo conosi a personas que podia confiar para hablar.  

Alondra’s writing in Spanish seems to mirror most closely the transitional stage of writing.  Though she uses no accent marks in her writing and has trouble confusing the “letras monstruas” such as in the words “educasion, halli (allí), asia(hacía) and llo(yo), I see that her writing moves beyond the phonetic stage in her sentence length and the complexity of her writing.  The sample shows no evidence of language transfer and only one example of code switching.  She states: “mi escuela es bilingual.”

For having such limited access to formal instruction in her native language over the last 11 years, it seems to me that Alondra is well on her way to becoming a great writer in both languages.  She just needs the opportunity to learn, explore and hone her writing skills in both languages.

Oral Language Assessment

Alondra Reyes Ponce learned her languages sequentially.  She is a native Spanish speaker who started learning English at the age of seven when she came to the U.S.  However, her predominant language at school is English.  In fact until yesterday Alondra had never spoken to me in Spanish.  This is part of the reason I chose to work with her.  I know that Alondra’s family places much value on both education and being bilingual because her mother has told me so.  I am wondering how she will fare without direct Spanish language learning in place at school.  Orally she seems to being doing quite well.

Alondra’s dominant language is Spanish.  However, at school Alondra predominanatly speaks English.  It is rare to hear her speak to anyone except her friends in Spanish and even then she tends to speak more English than Spanish.   During our meeting Alondra shared that she prefers to discuss personal problems with her friends in Spanish because it offers her more privacy.  Speaking in Spanish makes it more difficult for others to understand otherwise she prefers to practice her English while she is at school.  When I asked Alondra which language she prefers to speak at home she responded very quickly with "Spanish".  She said that at home she speaks at least 90 percent of the time in Spanish.  According to Alondra she and her little brother sometimes practice English with mom, but otherwise they speak in Spanish.   She told me that when they practice they speak in Spanish and then fill in words to practice in English …deliberate code-switching?  I asked Alondra to elaborate in Spanish about where else she might use English outside of home and at school.  Her response was...“hay cosas como un check up que tienes que hablar en inglés.     

Alondra and I also spoke in English about her favorite pastimes and what she likes to do at home.  She told me about how much she loves poetry.  I asked her if she noticed any differences between poetry written here in the U.S. and poetry written in Mexico.  She had some very interesting insights.  One of them included some very clear code switching, “A veces in English they write them in cursive”.   There was also some transfer as she referred to Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends as The End of the Sidewalk.     

 In analizing Alondra’s Oral English development I would place her at a level 4 expanding according to the WIDA standards.  Alondra not only told me several stories about her family, and her likes and dislikes, but expanded on her opinions by explaining to me why she liked poems in English and in Spanish.  She also was able to discuss how it would benefit her to have a class for Spanish speakers instead of an exploratory class in the middle school (creating solutions to problems).  She explained that it would help her write well in Spanish and learn the things she can’t do at home.   Alondra’s oral proficiency score (ACCESS test for 2009-2010) of 3.9 supports this analysis. 

In Spanish I would place Alondra at a level 6.  She is able to freely discuss, debate and defend her ideas and thoughts in Spanish.  Alondra is a very articulate young lady.  She was able to clearly express her opinions on why being bilingual is important, giving several examples and sharing her personal plans to improve both of her languages.  

What I found most interesting about Alondra’s oral language is the richness she is exposed to at home in Spanish.  Her mother and father highly encourage Alondra to practice both languages at home and strongly support her reading and writing in Spanish.  Further, her mother is from Puebla and her father is from Veracruz.  Alondra told me that they often use different words for the same items and have to describe to one another what they are referring to using circumlocution.  Of further interest is that Alondra is also exposed to her mother’s native Nahuatl (a native Mexican language) when mom speaks on the telephone with her aunts.  I asked Alondra whether or not she has learned any Nahuatl, but she said though she understands a few words and childrens’ songs that her mother sang to her as a baby she hasn’t had the chance to practice it yet.    

Alondra Reyes Ponce es una estudiante muy entusiástica y positiva.  Tiene 12 años y es estudiante del séptimo grado en Badger Ridge Middle School.  A Alondra le importa mucho su familia y su educación.  Ella tiene dos hermanos y vive con sus padres y su hermanito menor.  Sus pasatiempos favoritos son pasar tiempo con sus amigas y tocar el piano.  A ella también le gusta leer y escribir en los dos idiomas que sabe, inglés y español. 

Aunque todas las clases de Alondra se presentan en inglés y no se ofrecen clases para aumentar su español, Alondra practica leyendo y escribiendo en casa.  Ella me dijo que prefiere leer en español porque lo entiende mejor y prefiere escribir en español porque es más fácil expresarse.  Me siento emocionada tener la oportunidad de trabajar con ella.