Sunday, March 29, 2009

Community Inquiry Project Details

Community Inquiry Project Question:

How does the English-Spanish language barrier affect student-teacher relationships, particularly with Spanish-speaking students who do not speak English as their first language? What are the implications for classroom learning?

Subsequent Questions:

  • How do language barriers inhibit classroom learning?
    o How does parental involvement (or lack thereof) affect reading, literacy and English language acquisition?
    o What sort of strains do these language barriers place on teachers? (Interviews with ESL and English/History teachers) Within the constraints of NCLB? School-directed objectives?
    o How do these outside factors impact NCLB restrictions?
    o What sort of issues do language barriers place on these students when they are not in their ESL classes and in the general student population?
    Ø Information from Annotated Bibliography
    Ø Interviews with Teachers:

English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher(s) Interview Questions

  • Where do the majority of your students come from?
    o What are the basic student demographics?
  • What is the student-to-teacher ratio?
  • What is their level of English prior to coming to Memorial High School?
    o What is their reading/writing ability in English and Spanish?
  • What is their level of English after attending ESL classes?
  • What sorts of difficulties do your students have in their classes within the general student population?
    o Do they have difficulties in their classes that are taught entirely in English?
    o In which subjects do they have the most difficulty?
    o In what way does the ESL program here supplement those classes?
  • How many of your students are enrolled in the Bilingual program here at Memorial?
    o Can you tell me more about the program?
    o How many students are enrolled in this program?
  • Can you tell me about other ESL/language acquisition programs here at Memorial?
  • How much involvement do you see from the parents of students in the ESL programs?
  • How much involvement do you have with the parents of students in the ESL programs?
    o Are they responsive to the program?
  • Has the ESL program at Memorial been successful?
  • How long does it take a student to pass through the ESL program completely?
    o Do students who have passed through still receive supplemental ESL education?
  • In the last NCLB results, Memorial High School was recognized as one that has not made Adequate Yearly Progress. It has also been classified as “in need of improvement.”
    o To what do you attribute these results?
    o Does the fact that many of the students have Spanish as a prominent language in their lives have anything to do with this?
  • Has Memorial High School faced any NCLB sanctions?
    o Do you think they are due in part to the language barrier?

English Teacher(s) Interview Questions

  • Where do the majority of your students come from?
    o What are the basic student demographics?
  • What is the student-to-teacher ratio?
  • How many of your students are Spanish-speaking?
  • How many of your students speak Spanish at home?
  • Do you think that these students (who speak Spanish at home) have more difficulty learning in English than students who only speak English?
    o If yes, how so?
  • How is their reading/writing ability?
    o Do you feel they encounter any difficulties due to a language barrier?
  • How have these difficulties/language barriers made it more difficult to teach?
  • Have they prompted you to change/alter your curriculum in any way?
    o How so?
  • What do these language barriers do to state-mandated testing results?
  • How has the school performed?
    o To what do you attribute these results?
  • In the last NCLB results, Memorial High School was recognized as one that has not made Adequate Yearly Progress. It has also been classified as “in need of improvement.”
    o To what do you attribute these results?
  • Does the fact that many of the students have Spanish as a prominent language in their lives have anything to do with this?
  • Has Memorial High School faced any NCLB sanctions?
    o Do you think they are due in part to the language barrier?
  • Do any students ever have trouble expressing themselves (verbally or in writing) in English?
    o Do you feel this is due to their language limitations?
  • How involved are the parents of your students in the schoolwork of their children?
  • How many students of Hispanic descent plan to graduate and go on to college?
    o What are the main goals of these students?
  • What do the majority of Memorial students do after high school?
    o Do many of them drop out?
    o Do the goals of these students effect how they perform in class? (Are they apathetic/enthusiastic?)

Student Interview Questions

  • How long have you been a student at Memorial High School?
  • What is your ethnicity?
  • In which subjects do you excel? Why?
  • In which subjects do you perform poorly? Why?

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