hot diggity blog #3

After reading and re-reading Dr. Redmond's suggestions and after carefully considering the labor- and time-intensive quantitative studies we've all been talking about in research class, I'm definitely inclined to focus on a qualitative study of reading in a high school Spanish classroom. I'm becoming increasingly anxious to sift through extraneous information and narrow my focus before I begin a formal literature search. I'm still interested in examining reading, and I'd like to tie it to the instruction of grammar. I'd also like to look at collaborative learning in tackling reading passages. I originally thought I'd be interviewing teachers about the kinds of reading they give to students, how often they give reading assignments, how they teach pre-reading strategies, how they assess amount/level of comprehension, and how much they expect the students to apply what they've read to a grammar activity such as a post-reading written assignment. Because I like the idea of connecting reading passages to grammar instruction, I thought I'd focus my study on Spanish 2-3. Those two years are extremely grammar-intensive. After Dr. Redmond read my ideas, she suggested I study levels 1 - AP because, logically, the building blocks that students are taught by their Spanish 1 teacher will (hopefully) guide them through more difficult literature passes as they progress to upper level Spanish courses. In the absence of a strong foundation, students in AP Spanish may be able to write beautifully constructed compositions but may not be able to determine the main idea of a Spanish poem. Unfortunately, I anticipate a lack of structured pre- and post-reading instruction in all levels because of time constraints and because of efforts to focus on vocabulary and grammar. In my own middle school classroom, I only assigned reading as enrichment for students as they finished writing or grammar activities. That approach, I expect, does not yield results of high student comprehension or retention of material. I intend to speak with high school teachers of all levels because it makes sense to determine if reading strategies are taught by teachers of all levels and to what extent the strategies are continuously reinforced as students move through upper levels. Regarding classroom reading instruction techniques, I'll examine collaborative learning versus independent studying of reading passages and whether or not teachers provide adequate preparation before assigning such passages. I hope this makes sense?? I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts....