Action Research

Thoughts about Action Research

I believe that action research is a highly beneficial tool for educators to utilize to improve learning.  The world of academia relies on the collaborative efforts of educators.  Action research lends itself to this collaborative effort in that classroom teachers can select problems or issues within their own classrooms for research, and their findings can improve practice in other classrooms.

Ideas Resulting from my Action Research

My action research was based on the following two questions:

1)      How does grouping a highly verbal ELL (L1) with a less verbal ELL (L2) of the same ability level impact student success in learning?

2)      What happens when L2 is pulled out to receive individual ESL instruction?

My findings included the following:

v     ESL class groupings consisting of the same proficiency level, but differing levels of confidence and talkativeness, result in L2 being severely overshadowed by L1.

v     When a choral response was requested, L2 waited for L1 to answer before she provided one.

v     L2 rarely volunteered in class and looked at L1 for guidance when participating in total physical response activities even though she knew the answer. 

v     This situation caused the teacher to be unaware of the progress that L2 was making and perpetuated L2’s lack of confidence.

v     When L2 was pulled out to receive individualized instruction, she answered questions without prompting and offered additional information in the form of expanding answers.

v     The teacher was able to gauge her level of comprehension more effectively.

v     Left to this form of grouping, L2’s confidence would flourish.

As a result of my research I discovered that factors other than proficiency level and grade/age level should be taken into consideration when grouping ELLs.

Suggestions Based on my Findings

As a result of my action research, I would suggest to other ESL teachers that they take multiple factors into consideration when grouping students whenever possible.  In grades Kindergarten through 12^th, grouping often occurs based on grade level and possibly (but not always) proficiency level.  Students are grouped in this way due to scheduling difficulties.  (It is easier to send all the students of the same grade level to ESL class at the same time.)   Even though teachers and administrators may face scheduling dilemmas, the effort should be made to ensure the best learning environment for every student.  To make sure this happens, every attempt should be made to make sure the best grouping possible is achieved- with confidence and talkativeness levels taken into consideration.

Fieldwork Observation Entry 2

General Information- This observation took place on September 15, 2011 in a developmental kindergarten class with two students present.

Teaching Issues
The lesson topic for this class was "The Human Body."  The teacher began the lesson with an initial engaging activity of singing the song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," which the students really enjoyed and participated in after hearing the words once or twice.  The teacher utilized many different forms of instruction which engaged different learning styles.  See examples below:

Visual Learners-

• flashcards                       
• interactive game on the board via a projector connected to the Internet
• content-specific images shown on the board via a projector connected to the Internet
• activity involving drawing an outline of a body

Kinesthetic Learners-

• interactive game on the board via a projector connected to the Internet
• activity involving drawing an outline of a body

Linguistic Learners-

• entire lesson consisted of instruction geared for verbal/linguistic learners

The students participated in all of the activities, and the teacher later told me that she was pleased with how the lesson progressed even though it was rushed and the accomplishments of the students.

I saw two issues in regards to this lesson.  The first issue is related to time.  There simply was not enough time for the lesson to be carried out in a satisfactory way in the length of time the students are allowed in ESL class. While taking with the teacher after class, she expressed her concern with the amount of time students are in ESL class daily.  With pressure on the ESL teacher to not only teach BICS, but to teach CALP as well, more time must be devoted to ESL classes.

The other issue I saw is related to grouping.  The class period I observed is allotted for developmental kindergarten.  There are only two students who fall into this age/grade level.  The problem is that one of the students is much more vocal and less shy than the other.  Student A (the vocal student) is quick to yell out answers to verbal questions and to volunteer to perform certain tasks within the classroom.  While Student B may very well know the content and proves this when given the chance, she is often overshadowed by Student A.  The teacher and I discussed this issue after class, and she related to me that she is concerned about this and tries to employ tactics to ensure that Student B has the opportunity to participate in class is she desires.

Second Language Acquisition
I observed many different ways that second language acquisition was promoted within this lesson.  The teacher utilized learning strategies such as activating prior knowledge, personalizing the content, and using images among others.  The students were asked questions that required verbal answers as well as physical answers (pointing to body parts and going to the board during the interactive game).  The materials used during the lesson consisted of a white board which showed projected images from the Internet (not a SMARTBoard or Promethean Board) which was used for playing a game and reviewing body parts, flashcards,  music, and paper and markers used to create a body outline.

Ethnographic Perspectives
It is necessary to know the cultural backgrounds and linguistic capabilities of these students to know how to provide the best language instruction.  As stated above, it is also beneficial to know the different personalities so all students are equally represented in class.  The teacher took into account the students' cultural backgrounds by integrating some of the vocabulary words in their L1.  I found this to be a beneficial tactic in my adult ESL classes as well.