Inquiry Blog Post - On Directions

I have not taught except for one day in the last 2 weeks because we were on a field trip, students have had testing for 4 days, and I have been sick for several days. So I haven’t been able to test my inquiry hypothesis. But nevertheless, here is the hypothesis and the system to test it that I designed.

My inquiry hypothesis is that complicated oral instructions are very difficult for ELLs, particularly those in my class to follow. This leads to them getting behind, getting confused and moving one step further down to the belief that school is not for them, or even worse that they are incapable in a school environment.

Putting the hypothesis in a testable form, it is: Students comprehend directions better when they are given oral and written (and if possible visual) instructions as opposed to just oral or just written instructions.

To test this I would give two assignments that share some similarities in terms of the overall difficulty. Perhaps I would ask students to put themselves in the shoes of a person in a historical setting, and write a letter describing a historical event. In the first letter I’d ask them to address a set of questions based on one historical class of person, say priests in India, and in the second one I’d ask them a different set of questions based on, say, the untouchable caste.

The testable difference between the two tasks is that the directions in the first case would be given orally and in a written form. In the second case they would be only given orally that is to say with minimal written instructions (though the prompts themselves would likely be included).

And after students received the directions, they would be asked to turn over their papers, and briefly write what they believe they are to do in the assignment.

From my personal experience, unless my ELL students are either:
1. Given ultra clear instructions and asked to repeat them back
2. Given instructions in a written and verbal form OR
3. Allowed to work at their table groups to help each other out
Then… students don’t know what to do, and they don’t usually produce work that is correct or they may not produce work at all.

I have seen this pattern take place several times. Most recently with a game which I was explaining in class, verbally, (and also showing them how to move their hands). I think the number of instructions made it really hard for my ELLs to understand the game until they saw it played.

An interview of my Case Study student

I interviewed Eduardo today. One thing that I learned was, despite Eduardo’s interest and excitement about some of the history work that we do. He felt a little uncomfortable being interviewed by me.

I had chosen him because he was one of the students who seemed to be the most academically motivated, yet still had a lot of challenges with English. He was someone who always worked hard and seemed excited about the work we do. But in a one on one setting he was sort of nervous, showing that perhaps he was not the best choice.

Nonetheless I learned some things about him. I learned that he gets As and Bs at school, that he finds Math and Art the easiest classes, and that he’s on the soccer team at school. He says he likes UFS because he likes his friends and teachers. He doesn’t like the food, however.

He was born close to Toluca, and came to the US when he was 8 and said he was excited to come to the United STates. He had finished through the 3rd grade in Mexico. His parents were educated through secundaria. He lives with his mother and father.

He lives in the outer fruitvale neighborhood, his mother stays home while his dad is a baker. He said he thinks he wants to go to college but he didn’t seem to sound sure. He attends one of the after school programs every day, which means he’s at school from 8am – 6pm every day – long day!

In probing his learning styles - he said he likes graphic (pictures), written, and listening modes for learning all equally. But I wonder if he really feels that they are all equally easy for him.

There is still much to learn about him.

"Eduardo" a Case Study in English Language Learners

When thinking about who I wanted to do my case study on their were two possibilities. One student who is quieter and works hard, and another student who is often in trouble, talks back, and is sort of a class clown. As it would happen, they are both very good friends and often together

When I mentioned these two students to my CT, she said that the loud kid, E., probably has an undiagnosed learning disability, which might make it more challenging to understand the language needs as opposed to the special needs of this student. So I chose the other student, a quiet student who I’ll call Eduardo.

Eduardo’s behavior in class is very low key. He rarely draws attention to himself, or volunteers to answer a question. He nonetheless generally stays engaged when the material is accessible. Usually, his work shows good effort and attention to detail. He excels in the drawing. His portfolio of work is full of colorful and life-like pictures - of Animals, Egyptian gods, etc. He is also enrolled in an architectural drawing class after school. His writing is, however, far below proficient. He regularly spells words phonetically and incorrectly, “Polar Beard” instead of “polar bear.” Or “por” instead of “poor.” Verb tenses are often incorrect. Nonetheless, his work shows improvement over the year.

Eduardo’s family is from the municipality of Toluca. He loves soccer, and wants to be a professional soccer player or a doctor.

Eduardo is academically motivated – he appears to want to do well. He wants to ake up work that he doesn’t do for example. In the letter he wrote my CT in the beginning of the year, he wrote that he wants to be a doctor. He also included his graduation day (from 5th grade), in his list of his life’s most important events, and he wrote that he was very proud. Thus I think he wants to do well. Nonetheless, he lags behind by most indicators.

He has below basic test scores on the CST in Math, Science, and English Language Arts.

His overall CELDT score is 3, with scores on the different sections of mostly 3, with the exception of a 1 in his writing.