Foreign language students share a unique experience in that they must all work to acquire proficiency by reading, writing, and speaking to some extent on a daily basis...or at least they should! My experience is that many teachers with whom I've been able to work tend to focus on writing and grammar constructs by drilling grammar. Others use reading assignments for which the students' sole responsibility is to provide a Spanish-English translation using a dictionary with no focus on reading strategies or depth of understanding. "Understanding" is a construct I'll need to work on defining as I intend to use it in my research. My sample will likely consist of clusters, and I will likely observe whether or not the teachers in the sample use some sort of performance assessment in which their students must demonstrate clear progress after the reading assignments are completed. I would hope that the teachers I'll study won't rely on simple memory recall techniques on their assessments but ask students to apply what they've read to a "broader picture" of what they're studying in the classroom.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Bloggity Blog 2
After further consideration and input from my advisor and Dr. Mac, I decided to edit my original thoughts, as we're all doing. I succeeded in jumbling several ideas together and attempting to make sense of them all on one page. Though I've worked with gifted students, I've decided not to specifically focus my study of reading on gifted students, but on how teachers use reading assignments as precursors to proficiency for ALL students in a secondary Spanish classroom. The study will not be an "experiment" because of time constraints, but rather a qualitative study in which I will observe and interview teachers who incorporate reading assignments into their daily instruction. I'm interested in whether or not high school Spanish teachers in WS/FCS incorporate reading into their classes, regardless of level, in some fashion every day. I am thinking of constructing some sort of survey (or interview?) instrument that would ask what kinds of reading strategies are taught, what kinds of reading materials are used, and for what proficiency goal (s) does (do) the assignment(s) reinforce? I'd also like to study the link between successful reading incorporation into daily lesson planning and the resulting increase in overall proficiency. I'll need to further narrow the topic as I read more.
Foreign language students share a unique experience in that they must all work to acquire proficiency by reading, writing, and speaking to some extent on a daily basis...or at least they should! My experience is that many teachers with whom I've been able to work tend to focus on writing and grammar constructs by drilling grammar. Others use reading assignments for which the students' sole responsibility is to provide a Spanish-English translation using a dictionary with no focus on reading strategies or depth of understanding. "Understanding" is a construct I'll need to work on defining as I intend to use it in my research. My sample will likely consist of clusters, and I will likely observe whether or not the teachers in the sample use some sort of performance assessment in which their students must demonstrate clear progress after the reading assignments are completed. I would hope that the teachers I'll study won't rely on simple memory recall techniques on their assessments but ask students to apply what they've read to a "broader picture" of what they're studying in the classroom.
Foreign language students share a unique experience in that they must all work to acquire proficiency by reading, writing, and speaking to some extent on a daily basis...or at least they should! My experience is that many teachers with whom I've been able to work tend to focus on writing and grammar constructs by drilling grammar. Others use reading assignments for which the students' sole responsibility is to provide a Spanish-English translation using a dictionary with no focus on reading strategies or depth of understanding. "Understanding" is a construct I'll need to work on defining as I intend to use it in my research. My sample will likely consist of clusters, and I will likely observe whether or not the teachers in the sample use some sort of performance assessment in which their students must demonstrate clear progress after the reading assignments are completed. I would hope that the teachers I'll study won't rely on simple memory recall techniques on their assessments but ask students to apply what they've read to a "broader picture" of what they're studying in the classroom.
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2 comments:
Kelsey, this topic is going in a good direction. I like how your ideas are beginning to fit into a practical methodology. I believe that reading is a key element in learning language, and this will be an interesting and useful study.
Hola chica. I was thinking when I read this that I wasn't sure if your topic was reading teaching strategies or grammar teaching strategies or a mix of the two. Either one is good, but perhaps you could choose one or the other to narrow your focus a bit. Everything else in terms of interviews and the example questions you listed sound like you're on the right track.
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