Home and School Effect on 1

Writing

Critical Inquiry Study

Home and School Effect on Writing Development of an English Language Learner

Rebecca Morgan

George Mason University

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Writing

Abstract: The purpose of this cultural study is to investigate the influences on an English

Language Learners ability to develop basic writing skills and become an effective writer. This

study centers on Marie, who is a 7-year old girl that struggles with writing complete sentences

that include correct capitalization, punctuation and grammar. My investigation focuses on

Marie’s influences outside of school, particularly her home culture as well as, my instructional

practices and how they impact her ability to learn to write basic sentences. By collecting data

through surveys, interviews and anecdotal notes, I was able to examine how I could make

changes to support Marie’s writing development. The findings of this study indicate that

incorporating access to the student’s first language, including peer interactions into writing

instruction and providing teacher feedback were all effective strategies for improving Marie’s

engagement and basic writing skills.

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Setting and Puzzlement

When I first met Marie at the open house at the beginning of the school year that she

attended with her mother, she was very shy with me but was interested in our classroom and the

welcome activity that I had set out for the students to work on. I attempted to engage her in

conversation, but her answers were very minimal, often just one or two words. She worked

quietly on the activity, sometimes engaging with her mother in Spanish. She completed the

activity but I noticed that her work included drawings only and no writing except for her name,

which I instructed her to write.

Throughout the year, I have made other observations about Marie. Despite being very

shy at our first meeting, Marie quickly warmed up in our classroom and is a friendly, talkative

student. She enjoys the attention of the teacher and the company of her classmates. She can

sometimes be too talkative when she is supposed to be working independently. She struggles to

complete work independently, as she seems very distracted and unengaged. Her interests include

Legos, gymnastics, dancing, singing and running. Another observation I have made is in regards

to her writing. Last month, the students were writing ‘All About Books’, which are non-fiction

texts about a topic that they know a lot about. Marie brought me her draft that she has been

working on at her desk. I immediately noticed that her writing was missing the basic

components such as capital letters and punctuation. She also had several grammatical errors. I

asked her to read her writing out loud to me. This is something I always do when I am meeting

for a writing conference with a student, as they will sometimes detect their own grammatical

errors when they hear it read aloud. She was able to detect one grammatical error, but she was

still unaware that she was missing capital letters and punctuation.
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I chose to do a critical inquiry study on Marie because she struggles to write a complete

sentence and this is preventing her from being successful in 2nd grade. This is a common

problem in my classroom. In the 6 years that I have worked with the ELL, low SES students in

my building, this has been something I have seen every year. We focus on writing complete

sentences from the first day of the school year but it is something that they are still struggling

with at the end of the year. I wonder if this is specific to the demographic of students in this

building. Do other 2nd grade students struggle with this as well? How do I support their writing

development? I hope, that through this study, I am able to answer these questions and increase

my ability to help Marie, and my other students succeed.

Setting

The school that Marie attends is located in a large city in Northern Virginia. This school

has 977 students enrolled in grades Pre-K through 6. The largest ethnic groups represented at the

school are Hispanic (79%) and Black (11%). This diverse population means that many of our

students do not speak English as their first language. Sixty-four percent are labeled English

Language Learners (ELL) and 90% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

There are eight 2nd grade classes, with approximately 19 students in each class. There are

18 students in my classroom, 11 girls and 7 boys. Of the 18 students, 15 are ESOL students.

Fifteen are Hispanic, 2 are Black and 1 is White. The students’ World-Class Instructional

Design and Assessment (WIDA) levels range from a level 1-4, with 7 students at the lowest end

of the language spectrum at levels 1 and 2. I have the Special Education (SPED) inclusion class

this year so 7 of the students have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Eighteen of the

students qualify for free or reduced lunch. There is a wide range of reading abilities in my
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classroom. Seven students are reading on grade level, at a Diagnostic Reading Assessment

(DRA) 24, while the remaining 12 students range from a DRA 18 to reading well below grade

level, at a DRA 6, which is an end of Kindergarten reading level.

The students with IEPs all have specific needs. Some students have learning needs and

several have emotional/social needs. This makes for a very challenging teaching scenario.

These 7 students with IEPs leave my classroom for pull-out services during the Language Arts

block, but they are included in all other classroom instruction. All of the students in my room,

struggle with accessing the 2nd grade content. Language is a challenge for some students and for

other students, their disabilities prevent them from being successful.

I have 8 years of teaching experience with 6 years in a high ELL, low SES demographic.

Our classroom environment is warm and open. I work hard to create a sense of trust and

acceptance so that students feel safe to take risks and make mistakes. The classroom is

organized to allow for whole group lessons on the carpet, small group lessons at my table and

independent computer work at a computer station. The student desks are arranged in pairs or

groups of 4 to allow for partner work. Marie’s desk is next to one other student, who is also an

ELL student. She works often in a whole group, small group or with a peer. She enjoys this, as

she does not seem to enjoy working independently. Marie does not work directly with the ESOL

teacher, however, as a teacher in a high ELL population, I provide many language supports for

the entire class.

Student Background

Marie is a 7 year old, Hispanic female. She was born on May 23, 2010 in Alexandria,

VA. She does not have any major health concerns and she does not have an attendance issue this
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year, however, attendance has been an issue in previous years. She is average height for a

second grader and is always well dressed with her long brown hair often pulled back in a

ponytail or a braid. She is the middle child in her family. She has an older sister, who is 16 and

a little brother, who is 2 years old. Marie talks most often about her little brother. She shares

funny stories about him and also talks about how much she helps with him. Marie’s father is

from Honduras and her mother is from El Salvador. Marie, however, was born here in the

United States. Her father works in the construction business and her mother works at

McDonald’s. Marie lives with her parents and her two siblings in a single family home.

Marie’s parents primarily speak Spanish and according to her cumulative file, Spanish is

her first language. According to the parent interview, Marie speaks primarily Spanish when she

is interacting with her parents, however, her father will try to speak English with her when he is

helping her with her schoolwork. Marie’s mother speaks more English than her father, as she

uses English to communicate with customers at work. According to teacher observations, Marie

speaks Spanish fluently and will often translate in the classroom when necessary.

Upon examining her most recent WIDA scores (2016-2017), Marie scored: listening- 6.0,

speaking- 2.6, reading- 2.6, writing- 2.8, oral language- 3.7, literacy- 2.8, and comprehension-

3.8. Her overall composite WIDA level is 3.1. She receives 100 minutes of guided reading

instruction with me each week and an additional 40 minutes of guided reading instruction each

week with the reading specialist. Additionally, she receives 150 minutes of writing workshop

instruction each week. She does not, however, receive any pull out support from an ESOL

teacher. All of the students in my class use a computer language program called Imagine
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Learning that supports their English language development. Marie spends approximately 100

minutes each week using this program to improve her English.

From what I have observed, Maria prefers to work with a partner or with a group.

However, this often leads to getting off task and working not being completed. I feel that I have

to step in very frequently to keep her on task. She seems to struggle in working successfully in a

social setting for more than a few minutes. Overall, my class this year is much more immature

than the students I have taught in the past, so Maria is not alone in this. The immaturity has

greatly affected her ability to problem solve and manage working with her peers. Additionally,

Maria also struggles to complete work independently. This does not seem to be a result of the

work being too challenging. It may be due to a lack of interest and motivation because it seems

to occur when she is working on independent practice work at her seat.

When completing the All About Me organizer, Marie expressed an interest in many

activities outside of school. She loves to sing and dance to bachata music. She loves gymnastics

and running. In a discussion with her teacher, she expressed a desire to participate in the Girls

on the Run program when she is in 3rd grade. Marie is very close with her family and enjoys

spending time with them. She speaks often in class about seeing her aunt, uncle and cousins

also, as they live close by.

Puzzlement

Throughout the school year, I have noticed several things about Marie. She has many

strengths. Her oral language vocabulary is very strong. She speaks easily in complete sentences

and communicates without hesitation. She is outgoing in the classroom with her peers and often

raises her hand to share during instruction. Marie has a strong understanding of basic Math
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concepts and has easily grasped the concepts that are taught in 2nd grade. Marie, however, is

reading below grade level at a DRA level 16. This is equivalent to the end of first grade so

therefore, she is roughly ¾ of a year behind. This is greatly influenced by her lack of sight word

knowledge. At the beginning of the year, Marie could not read more than 5 of the 150 sight

words on the 2nd grade list. When reassessed in January, she was able to read 101 out of 150.

Marie struggles even more when writing; at the beginning of the year, she was not even able to

write a complete sentence. Specifically, she does not use capital letters at the beginning of

sentences or punctuation at the end of sentences. She often makes grammatical errors when

writing also.

Marie has been attending HMES since Kindergarten. I spoke to her former kindergarten

and first grade teachers and they stated that Maria has struggled each year with the basic literacy

skills. Fortunately, she is closing the gap that she had in kindergarten, however, it is not enough.

Her Kindergarten teacher said that Marie was only able to identify one letter in the alphabet at

the beginning of Kindergarten. She identified all other letters of the alphabet as either 12 or 13.

She was also unable to write her name or any letters. The teacher stated that this is fairly

common for some ELL students who do not speak any English at home. Marie, however,

progressed extremely slowly throughout Kindergarten. The teacher stated that attendance was an

issue. She felt that this prevented Marie from making more progress. Her first grade teacher

stated that Marie was very easily distracted by her socializing and did not seem very motivated to

work hard.

From a conference I held with Marie’s parents, I know that her parents have very high

expectations for Maria but that they did not attend school through graduation in their native
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countries. This could explain why Maria came to school without the basic literacy skills that

most middle class children come to school with. Maria has higher math skills than literacy skills,

possibly because math is more visual and math instruction can transcend language.

In a future parent survey given to Marie’s parents, I am going to ask if Marie writes at

home in any form. Does she use writing through text messaging, or when using YouTube or the

internet? Does she read or write in Spanish? If Marie is able to write in Spanish, do they notice

that it is difficult for her? Are there books at home for Marie to read? Do they read or write with

her? Are they able to ask her questions about her reading and/or writing? I also want to examine

and reflect on my writing instruction to see if my instructional approach is supporting Marie to

be the best writer that she can be.

Cultural Questions and Literature

I began to inquire about the influence of Marie’s home culture on her puzzlement. In

thinking about CIP 3.4.1 (Jacobs, 1999), I decided to first ask Marie’s parents some questions to

gain their insight and perspective about Marie. According to Gonzalez, et al. (1995), teachers

often overlook the social and intellectual assets that our EL students come to school with. This

can cause teachers to lower their expectations and use a deficit perspective when thinking about

their students (Gonzalez, et al., 1995). From Marie’s parents, I learned that Marie owns fewer

than 10 books that she is able to read at home. However, she does read 4-5 times per week after

school, usually the books from her guided reading group. According to Parlindungan (2017),

having access to printed texts and multiple kinds of literacy will help to promote the writing

development of EL students. Marie’s parents stated that they are not often able to listen to her

read and/or ask her questions about what she reads. This made me wonder if providing Marie
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and her parents with more texts in Spanish would promote more time reading together. In

addition, I wondered if sending home comprehension questions translated in Spanish would help

support her parents’ ability to engage in conversations with her about her reading. Based on the

research I conducted, growth in Marie’s L1 literacy skills will transfer to her L2 literacy skills as

well (Fife, 2011; Parlindungan, 2017).

Parlindungan (2017) also states the importance of students being exposed to literacy in

diverse settings to include school, home and community. Therefore, I feel it is important to look

at Marie’s exposure to literacy outside of school. Marie’s parents informed me that they go to

church twice a week and they have a Bible, written in Spanish that the family reads from on a

regular basis. These experiences provide Marie with reading that is not related to school in

addition to any digital literacies that they may use at church such as videos. Other than that, they

were unable to state any other reading activities that Marie participates in.

When asked about Marie’s writing habits at home, they stated that she does not engage

often in writing activities on her own, but she will help to write grocery lists of items that they

need from the store. She has also helped to create packing lists when they are preparing to go on

a trip. They also stated that Marie uses an app to text with her sister on a tablet. She is interested

in science so she will often look up science videos on YouTube. She, therefore types on her

tablet to find the information she is looking for. I also feel it is important to understand how my

students engage in literacy activities outside of school so that I might be able to provide similar

activities in school to engage students in activities that they are interested in, as this will motivate

them to learn. Knowing that Marie enjoys science and looks for additional science content

outside of school provides me with a means for engaging her in school.

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To further my ability to support Marie’s writing development, I chose to look at CIP

3.3.3 (Jacobs, 1999) to investigate whether or not there are mismatches between Marie’s

preferred learning style and my teaching style that could be contributing to her puzzlement.

According to Neito (1999), students should not be the only ones making accommodations in

order to learn at school. Teachers and schools, as institutions, also need to make

accommodations to help all students to be successful in school (Neito, 1999). As a result, I

chose to focus on my role in Marie’s writing development. My research will focus on peer

interactions during writing, interventions that are effective for EL students, as well as aligning

writing activities in school with students’ interests.

I wondered if Marie was given the opportunity to interact in authentic writing activities

with her peers, if it would help her be more engaged and interested in writing activities.

According to Neito (1999), student interactions with teachers and their peers during instruction

are more important than a specific technique of teaching. After conducting research, I realized

that I could make some changes to my writing instruction that would increase Marie’s writing

ability by including authentic writing experiences that would allow her to use her existing

background knowledge and strengths (Ghiso, 2009; Gonzalez, 1995; Fife, 2011). Fife (2011)

made me think about ensuring that the activities I planned during writing time were authentic

and not disjointed from the students’ lives. Additionally, Fife (2011) focuses on allowing

students to write to communicate with the teacher and with their peers. This is an activity that

promotes authentic communication through writing that will promote growth in writing skills

(Fife, 2011). In her study, Fife (2011) conducted a qualitative case study incorporating a first-

grade classroom with 23 students in an Urban city to identify how providing open invitations to

write would influence the writing development of students in the class, particularly the 9 EL
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students in the class. She found that students’ writing ability and engagement were heavily

influenced by their social interactions with their peers, their understanding of the writing prompt

and their perceptions of themselves as writers (Fife, 2011).

My research also brought to light that writing instruction should not focus solely on

technical instruction of the basic skills (Ghiso, 2009; Fife, 2011). Fife’s (2011) research

demonstrates that EL students’ writing development does not occur in a linear advancement.

Teachers often perceive their EL students through a deficit lens and this leads to lowered

expectations and a focus on drilling basic skills. However, focusing on these skills in isolated

lessons, makes writing instruction disjointed and not authentic (Fife, 2011). This caused me to

think about how I could provide intervention support for Marie in a way that would promote her

writing development.

In my research in regards to this topic, I found an article by Kilmova (2014) who

supports the use of a social constructivism approach to instruction that includes peer interactions

and collaborations, as well as feedback. In addition, providing students with real-life scenarios

to make writing authentic promotes writing development (Kilmova, 2014). Allowing students to

explore during writing time, provides them with the opportunity to use higher-order thinking to

problem solve and develop critical thinking skills (Kilmova, 2014). Finally, teachers should

provide support in the form of coaching during writing conferences to scaffold students’ learning

(Kilmova, 2014).

Data Collection, Analysis and Action Plan

In researching these topics, I have learned many things about EL writing development

and how to support it in the classroom. Therefore, I have come to realize that there are a few
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things that I can do to help support Marie’s writing development by incorporating changes to my

writing instruction as well as providing her family with additional literacy activities at home. I

collected the following data that aligns with the two CIP questions that I am investigating: 3.3.3

and 3.4.1.

Data Collection

I first began to collect data about CIP 3.4.1, to understand how Marie’s home and cultural

experiences influence her puzzlement. In order to do this, I conducted a parent survey, a reading

attitude survey, a multiple intelligence survey and a grit survey. To gain more information about

Marie’s activities at home, I sent home a parent survey (translated in Spanish) for her parents to

complete. The purpose of the survey was to find out how often Marie reads and writes at home,

how many literacy resources she has available to her and what interactions her family has that

may help to develop her literacy skills. Additionally, I asked Marie’s parents about her literacy

abilities in her native language. I chose to send home a parent survey because I wanted to know

about Marie’s literacy activities at home so that I could find a way to increase them in order to

get her family more involved in her reading and writing development.

The next data sources that I collected were a reading attitude survey and a multiple

intelligence survey for primary students. The purpose of these surveys were to see how Marie

feels about reading and writing, both at school and at home, and to understand her interests. The

data collected from them provided me with an understanding about whether or not Marie enjoys

reading and writing, if she prefers to read alone or with a buddy and activities that she enjoys

participating in. These responses are important as they help me to understand Marie’s interest
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and preferences when reading and writing. This information will help guide me in choosing

supports to improve her engagement with reading and writing, both at home and at school.

Finally, Marie and I completed grit surveys about her behaviors at school. The purpose

of these surveys were to determine whether Marie’s behaviors support her success in school or

prevent her from being successful in school. The information from these surveys helped

demonstrate her level of patience and perseverance when it comes to school tasks. It was

necessary for Marie and I to both complete the survey to see where there were discrepancies.

These results will help guide me in understanding the level of emotional strength that Marie

brings to school and could direct me to a possible means for supporting her learning.

The second CIP question that I chose to examine was 3.3.3. In order to understand how

my teaching influences Marie’s writing development I collected several pieces of data including

a writing sample, information from her 1st grade teacher, as well as anecdotal notes. The first

data source included a writing sample. I chose to collect an initial sample, prior to beginning any

intervention in order to establish a baseline for Marie’s current writing ability. The purpose of

collecting the writing sample was to help me understand her current strengths and areas of need

prior to providing her with supports. This allowed me to begin to collect data about how often

she uses proper grammar, capitalization and punctuation in her writing.

In speaking with her 1st grade teacher, I created a list of questions to help me understand

what supports and interventions were used to support Marie’s writing development last year.

The purpose of this interview is to help me determine what instructional practices have been

attempted and how successful they were. Additional questions were also included to gain insight

on other areas that may have impacted her progress. The interview was conducted at the end of
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March 2018 in a face-to-face setting. During the 15 minute interview, I read each question and

then recorded the teacher’s answers.

The final source of data collected was anecdotal notes. I have been collecting these notes

during our class writing time since the end of March 2018. These notes include observations

about Marie’s behaviors during instruction and independent writing time. I chose to collect these

notes because they will help me to see patterns in Marie’s behavior that will guide me in creating

supports for her progress. In analyzing these notes, I hope to determine whether or not Marie is

engaged during our writing lessons and independent time. This will support me in creating

changes to my writing instruction to improve Marie’s experience and be more in line with her

learning preferences and styles.

Data Analysis

While investigating CIP 3.4.1 (Jacob, 1999), I chose to send home a parent survey

(Appendix A). As previously stated, the parent survey gave me many insights into Marie’s home

literacy activities. One of the most important things that I learned from the survey was that

Marie does not engage in many literacy activities at home, particularly ones that involve her

family. From the survey, I also learned that Marie is able to read beginning level texts in

Spanish and can write short age appropriate messages in Spanish. However, they are continuing

to teach her more Spanish.

In the Reading Attitude Survey (Appendix B), Marie’s responses demonstrate that she

feels more comfortable reading at home than she does at school. She doesn’t mind reading by

herself or having someone read to her, but she does not like reading with a buddy at all. She

indicated that she loves writing but feels that she is just okay at writing. From the Multiple
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Intelligence Survey for Primary (Appendix C), she selected 7 things that require her to use her

imagination or creativity, such as making scrapbooks, daydreaming and pretending. One

important thing that I learned from the survey is that Marie really enjoys music. She selected

join a band as one of her answers and when I asked her about it, she said that she and her cousins

have a band and they write their own songs. Additionally, I learned that Marie enjoys working

with others in activities such as tutoring others, talking and role-playing.

Next, I collected a teacher grit survey (Appendix D). This survey allowed me to analyze

Marie’s behavior regarding social and emotional skills in school. This survey used a 1-4 rating

scale with a 1 representing none of the time and a 4 representing all of the time. I rated Marie as

mostly 2 or 3’s, with the exception of one which refers to handling conflict with her peers

without aggression. Based on my ratings, some noticeable patterns are that Marie struggles with

attention and self-control. One other pattern that I noticed was that Marie works well with her

peers. However, Marie’s grit survey (Appendix E) scores indicate that she does not always

recognize that she struggles to persevere or be patient. This discrepancy is important because it

presents an opportunity for me to provide support for Marie in helping her learn to be more

patient, pay attention and persevere when things are challenging.

In order to investigate CIP 3.3.3 (Jacob, 1999), I collected an initial writing sample

(Appendix F) in mid-March, 2018. In analyzing this sample, I discovered that Marie had 3

capitalization errors, 5 punctuation errors and 5 grammatical errors. These are important

discoveries and will allow me to form a plan for providing Marie support.

Finally, I collected anecdotal notes during our classroom instructional time to determine

Marie’s level of engagement. From analyzing these notes, I saw a pattern in Marie’s behavior. I
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noticed that she is often distracted during whole group lessons that occur on the carpet. She was

also distracted during independent writing time, when given a specific prompt to write about.

When the writing activity was authentic, or she had choice about her writing, she was more

engaged.

Action Plan

After conducting my research and collecting the data, I realize that I need to incorporate

Marie’s existing strengths, her interests, and her family into her literacy experiences. I have also

come to see that I can promote her writing development during instructional time by

incorporating more peer interactions, providing her with choices, using authentic writing

opportunities and by using writing conferences to provide feedback. As a result, I will focus on

providing two interventions; providing more literacy activities for Marie to do with her family

and making changes to my writing instruction.

The first intervention focused on creating more literacy experiences for Marie outside of

school, as I believe that her experiences outside of school are influencing her puzzlement (Jacob,

1999). From the parent survey and a parent conference, I have learned that Marie’s parents want

her to be successful in school and learn as much as possible. I wonder if reading with her parents

in Spanish will improve her literacy skills. Will providing comprehension questions in Spanish

increase her parents’ participation and in turn, improve Marie’s literacy skills? I decided to send

home books in Spanish, as well as comprehension questions translated into Spanish. I initially

sent home 4 books and will send 4 new books home each week. I explained to Marie that I

would like her to read these books each night with one of her family members, either her mom,

her dad, or her older sister, as part of her 20 minutes of daily reading homework. I also
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explained that I would like her family member to ask her the comprehension questions at least

twice a week. I also sent a letter home, translated in Spanish, with the same directions for her

parents. Attached was a tracking sheet that I asked them to complete so that I was able to track

their participation. I will be looking for an increase in parent participation on a weekly basis.

Specifically, I will be looking for her parents to read 3-4 times a week with her and ask her the

comprehension questions after 2 reading sessions.

The second intervention focused on my writing instruction. I will make changes to my

writing instruction in order to ensure that the activities align with Marie’s preferred learning style

and feel more authentic. From Marie’s Interest Survey and Multiple Intelligence survey, I

learned that Marie enjoys working with other people. As a result, one specific change is to add

more peer interactions to include more of Marie’s preferences. I wondered if including peer

interactions in writing instruction would improve Marie’s writing engagement and, therefore,

ability through collaboration. I will incorporate more peer interactions into each of our

upcoming units. I will collect field notes and analyze Marie’s behavior during the peer

interactions as well as, analyze Marie’s writing sample to determine if there were any

improvements in her ability to use the basic grammar, spelling and or vocabulary while writing.

The second change to my instruction came from analyzing Marie’s initial writing

samples. I can see that she has made progress from the beginning of the year, however, she still

struggles to write in complete sentences without support from the teacher. According to Lin

(2015), EL students will demonstrate more basic grammatical, spelling and vocabulary errors in

their writing because they did not acquire those skills in the natural way, as native speakers did.

They are trying to learn it as they learn to speak the language. The author feels that they need
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direct instruction in these basic skills to improve (Lin, 2015). This made me realize that I need to

provide Marie with re-teaching in the correct usage of capital letters and punctuation, as well as

support for using correct grammar. Therefore, I will provide Marie with a one-on-one

intervention that consists of re-teaching the basic skills 3-4 times a week. Field notes will be

collected during the intervention and a post-intervention writing sample will be collected. The

field notes will be analyzed to determine whether or not Marie understands the instruction. The

writing sample will be analyzed to see if she was able to apply those skills to her own writing.

Finally, I will implement individual writing conferences with Marie. These conferences

will give me the opportunity to help her look through her current writing pieces and help her

identify whether or not she is using correct capitalization, punctuation and grammar in her

writing. Not only will the conference give her that support, but it will provide her with an

additional one-on-one interaction, which according to her first grade teacher, my observations

and Marie’s preferences, is an effective and preferred way for her to learn. I wondered if holding

individual writing conferences with Marie will help to improve her writing ability, specifically

her ability to write complete sentences. Field notes will be collected to determine how Marie is

progressing in her ability to write complete sentences. A rubric will be used to analyze the

writing sample. The field notes will be compared to the writing sample to see which skills

improved as a result of discussing them during the conferences.

Emerging Findings and Action Plan Monitoring

In order to determine the effectiveness of my action plan, I monitored Marie’s progress.

My first puzzlement was (CIP 3.4.1) to see if sending home books that are written in Spanish, as

well as comprehension questions translated in Spanish, would help support Marie’s reading
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effort at home and encourage her parents to be more involved in Marie’s learning experiences.

While monitoring the actions I implemented, I have found that providing books in Spanish was

very helpful in providing a way for her parents to engage with her in reading. Her parents have

participated in reading 4 nights a week with Marie and asked the comprehension questions 2

nights a week. Marie has been very excited every time I present her with new books and she has

indicated that she enjoys spending this one-on-one time with one of her parents. She said that

her parents are able to read with her, understand what she was reading and then discuss what

happened in the book with her. I have also observed that Marie has begun to use Spanish more

often in class. She will tell me how to say something in Spanish that we are discussing in

English or she will speak to her peers in Spanish when she never did this prior to starting this

intervention. I wonder if she now feels more culturally accepted, so therefore feels comfortable

speaking more in Spanish or if the opportunity to engage in literacy in Spanish has increased her

vocabulary and awareness of the language.

Currently, I am sending home books and comprehension questions in Spanish. The next

step will be to send home a writing response prompt, also in Spanish that Marie can use to

respond to the story that she is reading. I am hopeful that her parents will participate in this

literacy activity as well to continue to encourage parental support of her literacy development. I

am also hopeful that this will continue to increase Marie’s Spanish literacy development, which

will have a positive impact on her English literacy skills.

My second cultural puzzlement (CIP 3.3.3) was to examine my writing instruction to see

if I could make changes to support Marie’s writing development. After analyzing the results of

Marie’s Multiple Intelligence Survey, I realized that I needed to incorporate more peer
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interactions in order to make my instruction more in line with Marie’s learning style. As a result,

I planned to use more peer interactions in each writing unit I taught. An example of this change

occurred in our Persuasive Writing unit. After modeling how to brainstorm ideas about things

that I might want to do, have or change, the students worked to brainstorm their own lists. Then,

they were given the opportunity to share their lists with a peer who could borrow any ideas they

heard from their partner for their own list. Next, I modeled how to choose a specific want and

use it to write a persuasive letter. During the independent writing process, the students were

given the opportunity to work with a peer partner a couple of times. First, they read their letter

to a peer to help them come up with additional reasons to support their argument. Second, they

read their letter to a peer for the purpose of peer editing after their rough draft was completed.

The teacher observations conducted during this process indicated that Marie was very engaged

during each peer interaction and that she stayed on task with her partner. In addition, I also

observed that she was more engaged during her independent writing time during this project.

She did not stop to daydream or play with random items in her desk. She was actively writing or

thinking the whole writing time. In the future, I will continue to incorporate peer interactions

into each writing unit as it seems to be effective in increasing Marie’s engagement.

My action plan also involved a one-on-one intervention of basic writing skills 3-4 times a

week. The first lesson was used to re-teach when to use capital letters. After reviewing the

appropriate use of capital letters, I provided Marie with guided practice and then asked her to

complete an independent activity that consisted of 6 sentences with errors that she had to

identify. She was successfully able to identify 8/9 errors. Marie was given a miniature anchor

chart to keep on her desk with the rules for using capital letters. I reminded her to use it when

she is writing to help her remember when she needs to use a capital letter. In the second lesson, I
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reviewed when to use capital letters and conducted guided practice. I then asked her to write a

sentence about her weekend to see if she would use the capital letters correctly. Her sentence

had 1/1 correct capitalization. In the next two intervention lessons, I reviewed the use of

punctuation and sentence structure. During the independent practice, she was able to choose the

correct punctuation 9/10 times. However, she struggled to create complete sentences with a

subject and a verb. As a result of these findings, I will continue to re-teach these basic writing

skills to try to increase the consistency, however I will try to incorporate the instruction in more

authentic writing situations, instead of isolated lessons, as this seems to be more effective.

Finally, I monitored whether or not individual writing conferences supported Marie’s

writing development. During the writing conferences, I asked Marie to show me something that

she was currently working on independently. Since our one-on-one intervention incorporated

punctuation and capitalization, I decided to focus the writing conferences on this as well. During

the first writing conference, the piece she selected had 4 ‘sentences’. Her sentences were

missing all punctuation and had 3 random capital letters throughout. We discussed where she

needed to use capital letters and punctuation and I reminded her to think about that when she is

writing her next piece. During our second writing conference, she shared a different piece. This

writing sample had 3 ‘sentences’ and she used correct capitalization 3 out of 4 times. However,

she only used correct punctuation one out of 3 times. In our third writing conference, Marie

selected the persuasive letter that she wrote to her friend in our class. This piece had 4

‘sentences’. She only had 1 capitalization error and two punctuation errors. This is an

improvement from her previous writing samples. I feel that the writing conferences have been

very helpful for Marie because they provide a more authentic experience to discuss the basic

structure of sentences. I will continue to use writing conferences with Marie because it seems to
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be very helpful and she enjoys the one-on-one time with me. I have noticed that she puts forth

more effort in her writing because she knows that she will be sharing it with me.

Conclusions and Implications

As a result of conducting this cultural inquiry study, I feel that I have learned many

things. First, it provided me with an opportunity to use a cultural perspective in order to examine

the writing development of my student. I was puzzled by her lack of progress, especially in the

basic skills such as capitalization, punctuation and grammar. I wondered if her home culture

might be impacting her progress. I also wondered if I could make changes to my writing

instruction in order to support her learning. By conducting this action research project, I was

able to identify that there was a mismatch in Marie’s learning style preferences, her home culture

and my instructional techniques.

In looking deeper at the CIP questions 3.4.1 and 3.3.3, I came to realize that I could

incorporate literacy activities for Marie to do at home to engage her parents in her development

and that I could make changes to my writing instruction that would make Marie feel engaged and

would match her learning style. These are important conclusions for me as a teacher, as I work

with mostly EL students. Often times, teachers who do not share the same culture as their

students struggle to understand how to support their students in the classroom. This study has

helped me to develop the ability to view my students through a culturally responsive lens and

begin to identify how I can incorporate their home cultures and their learning styles into my

instruction.

One of the most significant implications regarding my research and actions towards CIP

3.4.1 that resulted from this study was that, not only were Marie’s parents more involved in her
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literacy activities as a result of sending home books in Spanish for her to read with them, but she

felt more culturally accepted by this activity. This realization is very important for me as a

teacher of EL students. It helped me to realize that I need to be more aware of my students’

differences and preferences. I realized that my actions made Marie feel significant and she felt

proud. She was delighted to show other students in our class the Spanish books, she spoke more

Spanish with her peers and she started sharing Spanish phrases and words with me. These were

new behaviors for her and I think they were a direct result of her culture being recognized as a

relevant and important part of her life. As a result, she was excited to read the books and engage

in the questions about the books, which contributed to her literacy progress.

This implication is additionally important because according to Proctor, August, Carlo

and Snow (2006), if Marie develops solid foundational skills in her first language, those skills

will transfer to her second language and it may even improve her reading comprehension skills

in her second language. Specifically, the authors suggest teachers focus on the second language

development but also provide the student with access to resources that will help them to develop

literacy skills in their first language (Proctor, August, Carlo & Snow, 2006). This research has

strong implications for teachers of EL students around the country to help them realize the value

in providing students with the means to develop their first language literacy skills and not just

focus on English literacy skills.

In researching and implementing actions regarding CIP question 3.3.3, it allowed me the

opportunity to really think about my teaching practices and whether or not they supported my

students’ learning. Kilmova (2014) and Fife (2011) both stress the importance of including peer

interactions in writing instruction. This can come in the form of working together on a project or
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through peer editing. According to Kilmova (2014) feedback is another important instructional

piece that helps support EL writers who are struggling to develop their writing skills. This made

me think about whether or not, incorporating peer interactions and writing conferences would

improve Marie’s writing development. As a result of implementing both peer interactions and

writing conferences, I saw an improvement in Marie’s writing abilities. I now realize that these

were effective supports for her and I will continue to use them for her and more struggling

students in my classroom.

The second implication that resulted from my research is that I now understand how

important it is for me to get to know my students to find out what their learning preferences are

so that I can incorporate them into my instruction. Learning about Marie’s preferences allowed

me to incorporate learning techniques that would align with her preferences. As a result, Marie

became much more engaged when I incorporated peer interactions into our writing lessons. She

also benefited significantly from the writing conferences that I conducted with her. The

individualized attention motivated her to write so that she would have something new to share

with me. It also provided me with a more authentic platform for discussing her use of

capitalization, punctuation and grammar. Kilmova (2014) suggests that using peer interactions,

feedback and scaffolding are effective ways of supporting our EL students during writing

instruction.

These are significant conclusions for all teachers that work with EL students. Teaching

EL students can feel overwhelming at times because you don’t always know what is best and you

feel like you have to search for the best way to instruct them and engage them. The implications

that teachers can support their EL students by incorporating access to their native language to
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promote literacy skills in their first language and that teachers should reflect on their own

teaching to analyze whether or not they are aligning their teaching with their students’

preferences while also incorporating peer interactions and feedback are critical implications for

all teachers of EL students. These techniques can be implemented in any classroom to support

the writing development by increasing engagement.

Reflection

In conducting this cultural study, I have had the opportunity to deepen my understanding

of what culture is and how it plays a role in my perceptions as a teacher and how it effects my

student’s abilities to access the curriculum in school. This is critical to my effectiveness as a

teacher of EL students. Prior to taking this class, I understood culture to be something that

develops as a result of family and societal traditions and norms. I didn’t really understand how

this influenced those that live in a country when their culture is not the culture of power. This

cultural study helped me to see more clearly how culture can impact student learning and how I

can support learning for EL’s in my classroom.

The most significant thing I learned by conducting this cultural study was that I need to

be, as Villegas and Lucas (2007) stated, ‘approaching a student’s education in… culturally and

linguistically responsive ways’. I now realize that as a teacher, I need to get to know my

students and the strengths that they bring to school with them. This will change my perspective

of my students who are struggling because of a lack of English language skills. According to

Neito (1999), teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about their students can have a great impact on their

students’ learning. While conducting this study, I had the opportunity to collect data and gather
Home and School Effect on 27
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information about Marie. This data and information helped me to see Marie through a cultural

lens and learn her strengths and her preferences. My perspective and beliefs about her changed

from a deficit perspective to a funds of knowledge perspective (Gonzalez, 1995).

I also had the opportunity to reflect on my teaching practices by conducting this inquiry

study. I realized that my teaching practices did not align with Marie’s preferences and that I was

not utilizing her strengths. According to Gonzalez (1995), using a ‘Funds of Knowledge’

approach helps me to think about the strengths that EL students have instead of thinking of them

as having deficits and in need of remedial instruction. It helps me to look at these students

through a different lens and focus on their strengths so that I do not lower my expectations.

Participating in this study helped me to learn more about Marie and see her strengths. This is

something that I often lose sight of because I look at my student through the lens of being

‘disadvantaged’ (Gonzalez, 1995). They have many resources that I frequently overlook. This

study helped me to look for the strengths and background knowledge that Marie has so that I can

draw off of that and adjust the school experience to accommodate for her culture, language,

experiences and strengths.

As a result of this experience, my attitudes and beliefs have changed which has critically

impacted my teaching. I now understand that my teaching practices need to align with my

students’ interests and preferences. This will make my students more engaged, which will in

turn, help them to grow and learn. Throughout this study, I implemented peer interactions and

provided feedback in the form of writing conferences with my student. These actions were very

successful in creating a more engaging environment for Marie to learn and grow. I also provided

Marie with the opportunity to develop her literacy skills in her native language. Two important
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results occurred from this opportunity. First, Marie was able to improve her literacy skills in her

native language which will transfer to her second language acquisition (Proctor, August, Carlo &

Snow, 2006). Second, she felt proud of her native language and the fact that I would

acknowledge it as important, which made her more willing to learn.

In the future, I will continue to use what I have learned through this course and this study

to provide my EL students with a more culturally responsive educational experience. This will

help to support the learning of all of my students and provide them with the opportunity to feel

accepted and supported. Not only will I benefit from these changes in my understanding, as it

will improve my teaching abilities, but my students will benefit also. In addition, I can have a

positive effect on my team members in encouraging them and modeling for them how to be a

more culturally responsive teacher. This is another opportunity for me to act as a teacher leader

in my building.
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References

Fife, M. (2011). English language learners' writing in a first grade classroom (Order No.

3455396). Available from ProQuest Central; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

(868179316). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-

com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/868179316?accountid=14541

Ghiso, M. P. (2009). Writing that matters: Collaborative inquiry and authoring practices in a

first grade class (Order No. 3374198). Available from ProQuest Central; ProQuest

Dissertations & Theses Global. (304979981). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-

com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/304979981?accountid=14541

Gonzalez, N. (1995). Funds of Knowledge for Teaching in Latino Households. Urban education

(Beverly Hills, Calif.). 29 (4), p. 443 – 470.

Jacob, E. (1999). The cultural inquiry process. Retrieved from

http://cehdclass.gmu.edu/cip/.

Kilmova, B. (2014). Teacher Intervention in the Process of L2 Writing Acquisition. Procedia,

social and behavioral sciences. (143) p. 238 - 242.

Lin, S.M. (2015). A study of ELL students’ writing difficulties: A call for culturally,

linguistically and psychologically responsive teaching. College Student Journal, 49(2), p.

237-250.

Nieto, S. (1999). Who does the accommodating? The Light in Their Eyes. (72-102). Teachers

College Press. New York, NY.

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Parlindungan, F. (2017). Exploring literacy practices in a second language. TEFLIN

Journal, 28(1), 115-132.

http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.15639/teflinjournal.v28i1/115-132

Proctor, C.P., August, D, Carlo, M & Snow, C. (2006). The intriguing role of Spanish language

vocabulary knowledge in predicting English reading comprehension. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 98(1), p. 159-169.

Villegas, A.M. & Lucas, T. (2007). The culturally responsive teacher. Educational Leadership,

64(6), p. 28-33.
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Appendix A: Parent Survey

Parent Survey Questions

1. How often does Marie read at home?

She reads 4-5 days a week for 15 or 20 minutes each day.

2. How many books does she have available to read at home?

She has fewer than 10 books at home to read.

3. Are you able to read with her and ask her questions about her reading?

We try to listen to her read, but we are not always able to do that. We
often read our Bible together.

4. Does Marie write at home? Does she use social media, YouTube, or texting
to communicate?

She will write at home when we need to make a list for shopping or for
things to take on a trip. She uses an app to text with her sister on a tablet,
she looks up Science stuff on YouTube, but she is not allowed to use social
media.

5. Does Marie read or write in Spanish?

She is able to read basic Spanish texts and she can write a little in Spanish,
but we are teaching her more.
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Appendix B
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Appendix C: Multiple Intelligence Survey for Primary

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Appendix D: Teacher Grit Survey

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Appendix E: Student Grit Survey

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Appendix F: Student Writing Sample