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.