The Child in Context and Prior Experiences with Reading
This should be an approximately four page, well-organized paper. Begin the paper with an introduction and end with a conclusion.
If you are unable to answer a question, state why this is the case.
• Describe the community(Chinatown in NYC) in which the child lives-including a brief history of the community (e.g., who lives in this community? what are the primary languages spoken in this community? what does the community seem to value? what are the strengths and challenges of this community?)
• Describe the school (P.S. 42 Benjamin Altman School in NYC)that the child attends (e.g., what seems to be the philosophy of the school? how do faculty speak about children who struggle to learn? what is the relationship between faculty and parents?)
• Describe the classroom the child attends (e.g., grade, general or special education, student/teacher ratio, diversity of faculty, students, and administrators, what seems to be important/valued in this classroom and how do you know?)
Does this child engage (or has the child ever engaged) in any special services for reading? (e.g. Title 1, after-school tutoring, peer tutoring, special education) If so, describe. Does this child have an Individual Education Plan (IEP)? If so, what are the reading objectives and long-range goals?
• What do you know about this child's performance on standardized reading assessments prior to being a student in this class? (e.g. state assessment, group achievement tests, individual achievement tests for special education placement)
• Describe your relationship to the child (e.g., teacher, volunteer tutor, relative) Explain why you chose this particular child (e.g., what interested you about this child? why? what do you hope to learn from this child?)
• Include any other background information that you deem to be relevant (e.g., is the child's family new to this country? is English spoken in the home? are books, newspapers, magazines available in the home?) What do you know about this child's reading performance prior to being a student in this class? (e.g. report cards, teacher comments, parent feedback)
• What did you learn that will be and/or is helpful to you in planning instruction?