Winter Quarter 2025
Rubric Differentiation for MLL Students
MLL Differentiation
Jada Vasconcelos
TEED 5134
My focal students- My MLL students are mostly Level 5 language learners and I have focused this assignment on my grading rubric. The rubric will be used twice, once at the midpoint of the lesson by the students themselves to self-assess their progression to meeting the unit requirements and at the end by myself as the teacher for their final grade on the project. Because my students are mostly level 5, this means they are capable of full sentence reading and writing, will be grammatically varied, may need some additional scaffolds, but do not need the symbols or visible actions to help them comprehend the language they are being presented with in my lessons. They are close to exiting the WIDA process as a whole but still need some support along the way.
Original Rubric- Graphic Design Poster Project Rubric_jada vasconcelos_draft 1 - Google Docs
Modified Rubric- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SO-idu-GKHafUav_2reai8HQEm_ZsQp-t5bjYjIh_uk/edit?usp=sharing
My strategies- For my graphic design unit, I plan on using the linked above rubric that has been modified for level 5 language learners. I made sure to bold the key words, re-worded in first person language, provided the definitions for the design principles, and provided the definitions of some of the bigger words in the descriptions. I did not use symbols or pictures because a level 5 language learner does not necessarily need these as described in Fairbairn & Jones-Vo (2019). I also plan on live demos in class using the graphic design tools and sharing my own work of posters I have designed in the past, as well as examples from other students that show what is worthy of each score 1-3.
Additional planned instructional strategies- For my Arts Methods lesson that is due this weekend, I plan on creating table tents for my students with additional key points to help them during class instruction and design time. This will be used as a language scaffold for all levels of language learners. My table tents will be focused on defining the tools most commonly used in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, listing each symbol of the tool, and common situations/examples when you as a designer would want to use these tools. For example, the lasso tool in photoshop is a great asset for separating shapes, removing backgrounds, and developing the layers for vector designs. Not all cultural backgrounds will be familiar with the shape of a lasso, so having the symbol/icon for the tool on a table tent will be beneficial. I plan on crafting these table tents to be used immediately in the short term with my current mentor students with plans to laminate them for future use next year.
Building Community in the Classroom
Community connections activity
Student Interviews- Building Rapport
For my first student (DC), I specifically chose her for this assignment because I have not yet heard her speak since joining the classroom in October. She has always been very quiet and current labeled in her IEP as “functionally independent, non verbal, requires plainly stated directions, step by step guidance”. I have been working on growing a relationship with her because of her quiet nature and it took many weeks before she felt comfortable speaking with me in between projects/task work. She often needs written directions, frequent check ins, and paper handouts for assignments to keep her on task. These are examples of how my mentor teacher and I support her with additional scaffolding during projects which is in line with her IEP.
When I asked her if she would be interested in doing this interview assignment, she seemed really intrigued. I let her pick out which questions she wanted to answer from the template list in the assignment to give her some agency and confidence to answer, supported by student choice as discussed in Chapter 3 of Fairbairn & Jones-Vo. We ended up chatting for a while as we have similar interests in paranormal activity and she knew of some Appalachian folklore I grew up with, which is not commonly known in the PNW. My mentor teacher was shocked, she advised she had never heard this particular student engage in conversation for that long.
DC shared that she reads non-fiction in her spare time and cited Aristotle’s metaphysical philosophy as one of her current interests. This blew my mind as this conceptual study is well beyond my own educational background and I only know the foundations of philosophy as a whole. We talked about how difficult it is for our brains to decipher what’s real and what’s not, and how religion affects what we determine as reality. She grew up in a highly conservative Christian household which has led her to study how brains adopt religions as reality. This led me to drive our conversation on surrealist artistic expression that is centered on unrealistic scenarios using real-life elements, similar to how religious stories are told.
For my own future instruction for students with similar interests, backgrounds, and non-verbal labeling, I will continue to hold any judgement or assumptions based on IEPs and instead use my own in person interactions with them to gage how they best function in art practice. DC was assumed to struggle with basic concepts or content, but it was clear that DC is highly capable of much more complicated, in depth, and higher educational theories beyond what a public education could serve her. It felt as if she was mostly non-verbal because she’s bored with the day to day instruction in class. My interview with her encouraged me to allow my students in the future to drive their art through their own selected interests. I now know to use her interests in philosophy and the paranormal to keep her engaged and to build her working knowledge of the art world. I also will adjust my check ins with her to explore more complicated forms of art and art history that she might be capable of learning well above her peers.
For each student interview and reflection, I learned more about their interests, hobbies, and activities they are drawn to in their free time. I also learned more about their assets of their prior knowledge and interests that would serve particularly well for drawing inspiration for art. This activity showed me the value of data gathering of my students and the power of allowing them to express themselves in the formats they choose. I also got to explore alternative ways of adapting our unit structures (advanced Canvas access, utilizing their personal interests to heighten engagement, giving flexibility on due dates, making space for more complicated subject areas in assignments) to accommodate these students to alleviate stress and keep them engaged. Not every strategy worked, but it gave me confidence to trial new methods and seek guidance from the students themselves on what works best for them even when documentation, like an IEP, has conflicting information. This activity also showed me that perceptions can be wrong and that it’s best to use your own judgement on how to meet the needs of each student when possible.
Building Academic Language through Anthropomorphism
Examples of student work from Anthropomorphic Unit
Link to lesson plan:
Summary of language scaffolding in the lesson
