My burning question has not completely formed yet, but the thought process has begun. I conferenced with Jeanine and Janelle trying to get a clearer picture of the direction I needed to head for research. My blood boils with the heavy burden of mandates on second-language learners. We don't ask children to walk before they crawl, run before they walk, or feed themselves before they have control over their arms; yet, the state expects ALL children to pass a test that is written with vocabulary two grade levels advanced within three years of entering the United States. I feel helpless and so do my students. At this point I only have control over what happens in the four walls of my classroom. So, my burning questions begins with that thought, "How can I make a difference in my classroom?" From that, I plan to look at Best Practices for language acquisition in the literature. The sub-questions are:
What instructional practices should I be using in my classroom to meet the needs of second language learners?
How long does it take for one to become literate in English?
What practices are academically and developmentally appropriate?
Is standardized assessment appropriate?
Are standardized assessments culturally bias?
The action from my research will be to share this information from the bottom up. I already have an October date to present ESL data to my faculty. The lit. review information will be included.
Along with my lit. review, I will begin collecting personal narratives from students, parents, and colleagues of their own experiences to strengthen my resolve.
From there I hope to share it with those who make decisions like: policy makers, professional organizations, etc.
The NCLB Act is leaving many children behind!
Maybe it is time to let the people's voices be heard in a different format.
What kinds of things to you do in your classroom to increase participation/motivation in writing? Do you teach bilingual students, as well, or just ESL/ELL? What are you going to look up when researching? (What are your keywords?) What is the background of your students (how long have they been in the US, how long have they spoken English, etc.)? I know this will be different for each student, and maybe that's something you will want to look at when you give them a survey, write a case study, analyze your data, or draw your conclusions.
Just some questions to get you started... I know you'll formulate your burning question by the time you finish researching. You're off to a fantastic start!