Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Week 3 Assignment, Part 3

Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Title – Bilingual Children and the Interventions That Really Benefit Them by Maria Benavidez

Needs Assessment – In this research, we will be working with 12 first grade bilingual students from Tuloso Midway Primary. This school is located in a rural part of South Texas. For the most part, these bilingual students are classified as at risk low economically disadvantaged.

I have been teaching first grade for 4 years. One of the most important things in first grade is getting the kids to read. Because our school uses a transitional bilingual program, monolingual students are introduced to phonics and reading instructions focused on English letters and sounds. We do offer bilingual support, but again, the focus is to transition the students to English. The problem that I see is that students have to make the switch to learning abstract concepts to them since they do not yet understand the language. Because of this, we have students that receive failing grades as their English Language grades where the focus is to show their mastery of reading skills in English.

Objectives and Vision of the action research project. (ELCC 1.1) – My goal is to identify strategies and interventions to make the transitional bilingual model more effective  for students in their language acquisition and in their reading progress. We want to help these children by providing them with as much intervention before taking the final step of special education referral.

Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy – Apply Best Practice to Student Learning (ELCC 2.3)  - I decided on how to best implement my research based on my questions and needs that I see in my classroom every year. I also used our 3rd grades' standardized AEIS results to identify the subgroups needs, weaknesses, and strengths. There is a wealth of information on bilingual education concerning the various models used to provide services to English Language Learners. The resources that I have used most frequently have been resources found on the internet.

Some resources that have been extremely helpful:

 Pacific Policy Research Center. 2010. Successful Bilingual and Immersion Education Models/Programs. Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools, Research & Evaluation Division. Retrieved on November 9,2012, from http://www.ksbe.edu/spi/PDFS/Bilingual%20Immersion%20full.pdf

 August, D.;& Hakuta, K. (1997). Improving schooling for language-minority children: A research agena. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

Calderon, M. (2001). Curricula and methodologies used to to teach Spanish-speaking limited English proficient students to read English. In R.E. Slavin & M. Calderon (Eds.), Effective programs for Latino students. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

 

Articulate the Vision (ELCC 1.2) – Our bilingual teachers meet frequently to discuss issues and concerns that affect our students. We seek ideas and answers from each other. There is always a need for support and I felt that this research, once conducted, would be a valuable resource tool for all of us.

Manage the organization (ELCC 3.1) – I conducted this research on my own using my own bilingual students. I did use other bilingual teachers as informal resources for ideas and strategies.

Manage Operations (ELCC 3.2) – I have gathered some of the data, but I am still more than halfway from being completed. I am using the DRA, Developmental Reading Assessemnt to help level my student's reading level. I have conducted our first round of TPRI benchmark at the beginning of the year. Iwill soon conduct our midway checkpoint in January and there I will be able to use that also to document progress.

Respond to Community Interest and Needs (ELCC 4.2) – The bilingual students that enter this bilingual model will benefit from our look into effective interventions because they will be provided with the language support needed to be successful in the classroom. Any bilingual teacher can also benefit from this research topic since I feel that as teachers, we are always looking for ways in which to better help our students succeed.