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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.
Hi Karen, I'm glad you found some good resources in the library and have started your primary source interviews. Go you!!
ReplyDeleteI hear you when you talk about changing curriculum affecting research findings. Thanks for sharing about your own experiences, especially because so many of us are spending time at your alma mater! I think a lot of times in education we do not get to see long term effects because new strategies get implemented every couple of years. How can we tell if a program for K-3 students really does predict success in high school if we only run the program for two years and never follow up with that 6 year old when they are 16?
I've never thought about that concept in the context of ESOL before. After reading your post, I bet that unfortunately it is one more obstacle ELLs have to face. I like the idea of identifying some successful big ideas or overarching strategies ELL students might encounter throughout their education to bring into my classroom to provide some consistency in their learning. For example, the concept of "quality over quantity" sounds really reasonable and something important to keep in mind.