Ever since starting my action research I have more carefully
studied the profiles of both ELL’s and SLL’s in the classroom. I have made it a
point to establish a good relationship with all parents to better understand
the home life of almost all my students. Visiting their homes and having
conferences has really helped me understand their home environment which in
fact greatly affects their school learning.
For my action research I have two goals: improve the
cooperative learning effectiveness in a dual language classroom and providing
information to families to help improve their children’s learning. So far I
have incorporated a second language acquisition strategy that has facilitated
the cooperative learning. The strategy is bilingual pairs. I have my students
in bilingual pairs for each content area. Having the bilingual pair’s supports
their interaction and help children connect what they each know about the world
around them and their experiences. This strategy has created a community of learner’s
environment in my classroom.
My second goal is being carried out by the Family Literacy
project which I am part of. Every week another teacher and myself meet with a
group of Spanish speaking parents. In our meeting we discuss how they can
support their children’s literacy at home. We have culturally rich text that we
read and discuss together. We talk about how they can use these books at home
to create moments in which they converse with their kids about different things.
The following week we leave the first half of the meeting to discuss the
results of last week’s book with their children.
The only thing I have yet to do is record our learning in
the classroom. I plan to do that later. I feel it won’t only help me but also
my students.
