Memo #5: What do I know now? What surprises me? What frustrates me?

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To start off, I think my thoughts and judgements have changed a lot since the beginning of my I-search.  It has been a bumpy road like Professor Collins said it would be.

What do I know now?
The first interview I did was with Erica which her opinions made me feel like we needed to change the whole ELL writing curriculum because I felt like they were not accommodating ELL students as well as they needed to.  In my second interview with Adam I really felt like instead of changing the writing curriculum we should change the way our schools include culture in writing.

What surprises me?
One of my biggest surprises has been how well University of Rhode Island incorporates culture into their school.  I don't want to bring any colleges down -cough cough- but I do think that the incorporation of culture changes the way students learn writing.  Culture is important to foreign students because it is where we have come from and learned from.  It surprises me that culture was not as important in writing before as it is now.

What frustrates me?
One of the biggest frustrations that I have had through this I-search is the lack of longevity in ELL programs or change of curriculum.  Through reading my secondary sources I have seen many writing programs and curriculums put into practice but the problem is that they do not last long.  After the program ends it is up to the teacher to keep up with the practices and sometimes that is not the case.  How will we know if ELL programs are working if we don't implement them from the start of 9th grade until the end of 12th grade?

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What conclusions can I make?  What complexities do I have to live with for now?
Some of the conclusions that I have come to are:

• We should encourage and require students to appreciate culture in their writing.
• We should implement more writing programs and writing help groups to unite the student body.
• Curriculums should be restructured to include narrative and more writing with the "I" because that is what ELL students are most comfortable with.

Memo #4: Making meaning of the Interviews

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The second person I interviewed was my cousin who came to America about 4 years ago and he is now a sophomore at University of Rhode Island who majors in engineering.  For privacy purposes I will call him Adam.  I asked Adam the same set of questions I asked Erica.  There are a couple of ethnic differences between Erica and Adam.  For one Adam was born and lived in Guatemala for 17 years meanwhile Erica was born in The Dominican Republic.  Another difference is that Adam's parents were living here in America for a while preparing themselves so that they could receive their children with a nice home, cars and stable jobs.  Erica did not know she was going to migrate to America until they actually migrated so they had less preparation.  So, I think a big difference here is that Adam knew he had to learn English.  In Guatemala he attended a private school where they offered English classes all through out his life.  Unfortunately Erica did not have that opportunity - she had to start from Basic English once she got to America.

Adam only attended high school for two years and he said that he already knew how to read English and write at a middle school level in high school.  Adam said that his weaknesses in high school were his friends - they all spoke Spanish.  His friends encouraged him to only speak Spanish, during lunch and after school.  It was hard making English-speaking friends since they were all in different classes and the English Language Learners had their own classes and friends.  He said it was pretty segregated but not on purpose, I guess you could say there were many cliques within the school and nobody really made an effort to break them.

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Adam said that although high school writing was easy for him what really "kicked his butt" was college writing.  He said that classes at University of Rhode Island are big in number so getting the courage to ask for help from the Professor was a lot harder.  Although he said living on campus helped him a lot because URI had many English Language Learners on campus.  He and a girl named Luciana made an after class study group.  Luciana spoke and wrote in English better than Adam and she would proofread his papers for him.  Luciana was a big help for Adam because without her his papers would have many grammatical mistakes.  He said that at URI there is a big emphasis on culture, language and creating a diverse community. Adam said it is normal at URI for students to have an accent or to need help with English; there are a lot of foreign students.  Adam said that even the majors try to include language into them; he is in The International Engineering Program where he would receive a B.A. in Engineering and a B.A. in Spanish.  Adam thinks that is why he is successful in college because URI really pushes for diversity and has the resources to back it up.

Adam's parents always put an emphasis on a college education.  His parents worked hard for 16 years in America so that they could pay for his private school education in Guatemala, buy a new house and have stable jobs.  He said it was hard to grow up without his parents (even though they would visit every year) and that he understands that it was a big sacrifice that they committed to.  He is happy here in America because he sees the opportunities that are offered here, while in Guatemala the government is corrupt and there is always danger that you may wake up with your whole house ransacked.

Adam said that he keeps himself motivated by thinking about the sacrifices his parents have made and all of the opportunities that will open up for him once he graduates.  He thinks that is why his writing has been so successful, because although he has had bumps in the road he keeps on trying and finds ways to get help with his writing.  He said writing is central to anyone who wants an education and at University of Rhode Island he can get the help he needs because of the diversity and the school's staff.

So, What do I make out of my two interviews so far?

Adam and Erica both have very different language backgrounds and different migration stories.  I have learned many things about both people.  Although they both had different English-Language foundations.  They both stressed many of the same ideas.  Erica thought that her writing needed to be brought up to college level as well as Adam.  Erica took the initiative and found help with after school programs meanwhile Adam found a friend who helped him with his writing.  I think both interviewers found the help that they needed in order to hit college writing level.

In my opinion students know that in order to hit proficiency they need to work harder and improve their writing.  That is where Adam and Erica come in they both sought help meanwhile what happens to the students who simply do not know how to find a friend or register themselves for an after school class?  That is a weakness that I think schools should work on.  Offering a bilingual or trilingual worker (other than a home to school liaison) that specifically works with offering English Language workers tutoring, after school programs or even a friend.  Adam's biggest english weakness was in conversation and he said that if his high school would have tried to integrate and remove the language barriers more he would have found the english-speaking or bilingual friend he needed.

I think English as a Second Language teachers know of resources to offer their students but they do not know all of the resources.

All of these thoughts keep circulating through my head, most English Language learners want help but they do not know (literally) how to ask for it.

I am interviewing one of the ESL teachers this week so I hope to come to more concrete conclusions by the end of this week.  See you in my next post!

Memo #3: Who are my primary sources & what questions will I ask them?

This week I went to lunch with Erica and decided to ask her the questions that I wrote about in a blog post previously.  Some of the answers that I received were interesting.  She mentioned that during high school there were many students in her class sometimes 30+ at a time.  Although this is normal in regular high school classes she mentioned that in an ESL class it really should not be that way.  It was easy for her to get distracted in her high school classes and it is especially hard to pay attention to every students needs if there are a bunch of confused students in one class.  I was astounded when she said that although high school helped her with basic parts of writing she felt as if there was not an emphasis on getting students to college level or “real world” writing.  She said that in high school “nothing was easy” many times she would stay up late trying to piece together homework and it was very hard to comprehend reading material.

She understood that something had to be done and she decided to join Upward bound along with two afterschool English classes at Providence Academy of International Studies (PAIS for short).  Erica felt relieved after starting these extra curricular activities because she said she now had help and more work that was tailored to her needs.  In these programs she really figured out how to express her ideas in writing, how to not be repetitive and expand her vocabulary.  Erica said if it was not for those programs she thinks she would not be able to speak English or write as well as she does today.

My two other resources which will be a second ESL friend and 2 teachers from my ex-highschool Central Falls.  I have not had a chance to see them yet but once I do I am going to ask the same questions.  My aim is to see whether there is any type of connection between all 4 people and their answers.

I was already surprised at my friend Erica who seemed to know what was hindering her learning.  I thought she would be giving me more "cloudy" answers where I would have to decipher what was hurting her writing.  Interestingly enough she knew exactly what was going wrong.  She also stressed the fact that since she did not know the language it was very hard to have a voice in her learning.

Memo #2: What did I find in the library databases?

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Let me start off this memo by first saying that I found so much useful material when I searched on HELIN.  I was very skeptical when I started to search because I thought I would find very little.  That preconception was probably because I had done an ESL project in the past in my FNED class a few years back.  I remember I had to scrape up a presentation (although I did great) because there was simply just not enough information on ESL students.  This time around which is about 2-3 years later I found a good amount of articles.  Although I have not been able to read through each and every one of them. I have a good idea of what they are researching.  A couple of the articles talk about projects in which they try to help ESL students write better through narrative, journal writing, story telling and encouraging bilingual lessons.  A couple of the projects last a couple of years but then I realized that after 2 years they stop researching/analyzing which most likely means they stopped the program.  That sort of irked me because coming from Central Falls Highschool where they constantly changed the curriculum, rules and procedures.  I have seen first hand that it is hard for students to keep up and hard for analyzers to see any sort of pattern.  While attending Central Falls Highschool I was always yearning for a long term curriculum - change is hard on some people.  Although I have not gotten through to reading all of the articles I found it definitely got my mind going.

I found a lot of positive themes around the articles that I am going to use.  Like one paper stressed "Quality over quantity" in ESL student writing which I agree with.  Another said that narrative was the key into getting ESL students to better comprehend writing.  Many cultures are taught growing up that telling stories is the key to getting to know someone, an idea or even learning.

I will update on any findings throughout my readings as I have a full plate.  I also have interviewed my first primary source and plan to interview a second one this week.

Memo #1: How Did I Arrive at my Burning Topic/Question?

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My I-Search question and topic is:  Are English as a Second Language High school students prepared enough for College Writing classes?  I came to this question because I have a couple of friends who I lived with on campus here at Rhode Island College who were English as a Second Language high school students.  My best friend who I will call Erica (changed her name for privacy purposes) attended many programs to help with her English as well as becoming more prepared for College.  She attended programs like Upward Bound, The Preparatory Enrollment Program and tutoring help after classes.  Erica ended up failing out of Rhode Island College because of her low grades.  Seeing her fail out of Rhode Island College is what really motivated me to find out what the issue at hand is.  She worked twice as hard as any student I know and I even had to hold her while she cried from frustration because she could not figure out why she was not succeeding.  After much tears and sadness she ended up having to leave Rhode Island College.  The school was not giving her enough money to stay and basically kicked her out.  This question is vital to me because I met her family and I know that they value a college education.  They not only supported her but they made it a requirement for her to strive for a diploma.  This is also where I have always been concerned, if she had the encouragement, determination and the support to get a college diploma where was she failing?  Why aren’t the “ends” meeting?

Questions I am asking my former ESL highschool friend who is now attending college:

1. What methods helped you the most in preparing you for college writing?

        a. What methods did not help you feel prepared for college writing?

2. Were your highschool teachers bilingual?

3. Did you take any extra classes or participate in any programs which helped you learn English? (What were they?)

        a. How about to improve your writing?

        b. How about to prepare for college?

4. What were your difficulties in college?

        a. What is easy for you in college?

        b. What were your difficulties in highschool?

        c. What was easy for you in highschool?

5. What areas do you need more help with now that you are in college?

        a.  How about when you were in highschool?

6. Did your parents encourage/help you go to college? How?

7. If you were to switch places with your highschool teachers what aspect of their teaching would you change?

8. How comfortable did you feel taking NECAP?

9. Are your professors and/or highschool teachers easy to approach for help?

10. What are your resources in college to help you with your writing and/or language comprehension?

11. Did you feel as if your highschool teachers were culturally rounded?

12. At what age/grade did you come to America?

13.  What were your reasons in migrating here?

These are just some questions to get the conversation flowing. If more questions pop up in my head I will ask them.  I just did not want to draw a blank at the interview and make sure I was prepared.

RIWP Spring Conference

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Walking into the conference I arrived around 8:30am.  Immediately I sat with our class and waited for the speakers to commence.  The first two speakers spoke about how Thomas Newkirk impacted their lives.  One of the women said, “question the status quo rather than be complacent.”  That really grasped my attention because after reading “1984” and taking a class with Professor Feldstein I really have started questioning EVERYTHING.  She also spoke about how Newkirk did not exactly criticize her paper but instead he explained, “What he had learned.”  That was amazing and so fresh it made me really go “Wow.”

Finally Thomas Newkirk started speaking and he kept my attention throughout his whole speech.  Something that really stuck with me was how he did not stand on the podium he wanted to be with us, his audience.  He also stuttered at a couple words while reading his PowerPoint.  I really paid attention to these things because of what Professor Collins said that we must show our students that we are human too and I think Newkirk did this subtly as well.  Yes, he is successful and an amazing man but he is one of us, he is a teacher.  One of his main points was that narrative is the prominent and central way of how we see the world.  So his question was why the common core standards put more of an emphasis on narrative?  I agree with him about how narrative is the central way of life.  Back in high school I learned more about watching a civil war movie or reading a soldier’s memories about the civil war than reading any boring textbook.  He also touched upon thesis and how it should leave the reader with an “itch” to keep reading.  I think that is a piece of advice I will try to carry with me now throughout my whole life.

In my first workshop I attended the “Overcoming #NoviceTeacherFails” option.  We were walked through (not literally) a series of questions at the end of maybe 10-15 questions we were to write a manifesto (which is a written public declaration which uses many adjectives to motivate yourself or people).  Instead of explaining my process I would much rather show the product so here is what I came up with:

I absolutely loved this workshop! I am printing out the manifesto and framing it on my wall as a reminder to always be the best I can be (probably will make one for my classroom too once I am a teacher).  I left that classroom very inspired and I am reminded as to why I am here at RIC and why I am becoming a teacher.

In my second workshop I chose to go to the “Highlighting the Positive: A Way of Reflecting, Revising & Evaluating.”  The teacher there was Keith Sanzen who is an 8^th grade English teacher.  He explained his beliefs in grading and how he would much rather track progress in writing much rather than stamp an “A” or a “D” on a paper.  He would check off things like the student had a “clear theme and purpose” or “used capitalization correctly.”  At the end of his unit if the student had accomplished all of their goals he would give them an “A” and if they did not he would work with the student and make sure that they got that “A” or “B.”  I like his thought process on grading because he is making SURE his students are accomplishing everything a good writer does.  He also expressed how students who receive “A’s” feel like they are accomplished and throw their papers away meanwhile students who receive “D’s” feel like failures and stop trying.  His method works because both the “A” and “D” student will always be working toward a goal whether it be to improve their spelling, using strong word variations and working on having effective imagery/language use.  I left that classroom with a good tool for when I have to start grading papers and a new way to look at grading.

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All in all I am very happy that Professor Collins required us to go to this Conference - I probably would not have attended if it were not required. (What student wants to give up a Saturday morning?)  But it is an experience I will never forget and now I feel like I remember why I am majoring in education and most importantly writing.  I will hopefully continue attending these conferences because I have realized that it is a very important tool for teachers.  I learned a lot and grew as a writer in those couple of hours, a very well spent $25.  Thank you Professor Collins!