Eemma Iseman

03/06/2016
TE 843
Project 1
Project 1 Literacy Inquiry
Introduction
Kinawa School has a total of 596 students with a student/teacher ratio being 16.94

students to every teacher. There are 396 5th graders and 300 6th graders. The enrollment by race

and ethnicity is American Indian and Alaskan (3), Asian or Pacific Islander (127), Black students

(32), Hispanic (46), White (359), and two or more races (29). There are 93 students eligible for

free lunch eligible and 20 eligible for reduced-price lunch. The school just recently started a one

to one device initiative where all the students have access to and are responsible for a personal

Google Chrome Book.

The students being analyzed in my project are twelve 5th grade EAL (English as an

Additional Language) students. The languages represented in my EAL classroom are Urdu,

Telegu, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Tamil, and Korean. This class represents a wide-range

of abilities and English Language Proficiency levels as well as the amount of time they have

been in the United States. The circumstances and situations of the EAL population are not

completely reflective of the affluent population in this school district. Some backgrounds of the

ELL students are asylum seekers, refugees, and some are here temporarily while their parents

fulfill a post-doctorate placement.

The questions I had about my students literacy practices outside of school were: What

types of reading and writing are my students engaging in and how frequently? What tools are

they using to read or write outside of school? Are their cultures, languages, and experiences
 being represented in the texts they are

reading? Are the texts my students are

interacting with meaningful or do they

have a lasting effect on them? I created a

survey to inquire about my students

literacy practices outside of school on

survey monkey. I also created a textual lineage questionnaire that my students completed in an

effort to provide me with more knowledge on their literacy practices outside of school and the

textual experiences that they bring with them to the classroom.

Part 1

I have learned that ALL of my students are engaging in reading outside of school, with

36% of them are reading every day about texts that are unrelated to school. Many are actively

reading and writing outside of school. They are utilizing strategies when reading and writing

including: looking over what they are going to read before they read it, reading with expression,

looking up words they dont know in the dictionary, asking themselves questions when they are

reading, picturing what is happening when they are reading, rereading when they dont

understand, putting what they are reading in their own words, and thinking about possible

connections they can make while they are reading. Many of my students (56%) read texts in

another language outside of school. They are reading texts other than books at home as well

including: newspapers, short stories, novels, video game books, magazine, e-mails, poetry, comic

books, song lyrics, religious texts, web-pages.

When asked the question Why do you think people read? my students answered that people

read because it helps your understand English or pronounce something correctly or because

they want to get more knowledge. While reading can help students gain knowledge and improve

their English skills I want my students to make deeper connections with books that will be

impactful on their lives. I would like texts to create a bridge between school and their home

lives. In response to the question Do you read books in school or out of school about people

who have similar cultures, languages, or experiences as you? many students responded that they

did not read books that represent them (language, culture, experiences) in school and chose often

to read these books outside of school because that is where they feel comfortable doing so. One

student stated where they read these books at Out of school because I dont comfortable talking

about my culture in front of Americans. This response shows me that my EAL students are not

able to see themselves in the curriculum and this can leave the impression that their culture and

identity are not valued by their teachers and peers. Also, if students dont see themselves or share

similar experiences with texts than it becomes difficult for students to make the critical

connections they need to by active literacy learners. I am glad that my students are choosing to

make these connections out of school, but would like to bring these practices into the classroom,
where they should be already. Recognizing and validating multiple cultural identities in the

classroom community and developing positive studentteacher relationships strengthen

individuals sense of worth and, ultimately, their academic performance.

Part 2

When looking at the national and state standards for ELL/EAL students I became very frustrated

to see that all of the standards and goals were mainly foundational English language skills, the

literacies necessary to be successful in schools such as: decoding and reading compression of

print-based texts; written composition of academic texts; and the oral fluency of Standard

English grammar and vocabulary. While these foundation literacies are necessary for students to

be successfully academically none of these standards for EAL students represent the social

practice of literacy and how students cultures, contexts, and histories are embedded within their

literacy learning. Some of the out of school literacies that my students included were: students

out of school literacies include texting friends,

reading newspapers, religious texts,

magazines, comics, video game tutorial, reading and writing music and emails. In Using
Discourse Study as Instructional Practice with Adolescents to Develop 21st- Century Literacies

of Critically Conscious Citizens (2014) Hagood refers to these different literacies as discourses

which can be defined as a structure that frames a social or cultural groups habits of

interpretations and their related literacies. So essentially my EAL students are bringing with

them their primary discourse to school where they are then exposed to their secondary discourse.

I would like my students to adopt a metacognitive awareness of these two different discourses so

that they can be aware of their power to shape and change them. My literacy goals reflect this

idea of discourses in that I want my students to be able to see a bridge between their home and

school life with opportunities to practice English at home, but also to share and bring their

identity and culture to school.

An essential question that I want my students to ask is: What is my story? How can I

share my story and knowledge with the world? Our life stories can be tools for making us

whole; they gather up the parts of us and put them together in a way that gives our lives greater

meaning than they had before we told our story. Sharing out stories illustrate our connectedness

with others. In the life story of each person is a reflection of anothers life story.

Another essential question that I want my students to ask is What is my place in the

world? My students represent a wide-variety of experiences, religions, cultures, languages, and

circumstances. Many of my EAL students have had been forced to leave their home countries

unexpectedly and in unidealistic situations. Traumatic experiences such as these with the weight

of being exposed so abruptly to a new culture can often cause anxiety, fear, and feelings of

misplacement. EAL students are often confronted with the question of where their place in the
world is much more suddenly than others their age. This essential question allows us to explore

texts together about how characters found their place in the world, country, state, home, family,

or school.

Part 3
Six of my students expressed that they disagreed or strongly disagreed that a text had

changed their identity and four that disagreed or strongly disagreed that it had changed the way

they think today. I want to create more opportunities for students to see themselves in the texts

that they are reading so that they are able to make more connections. A practice I could

implement in the classroom would be that of close reading with thoughtfully chosen books

where we can study characters that have had similar experiences as my students and analyzing

how they react to conflict and evolve their identity.

Before this project I was not aware of my students interests in writing and reading song

lyrics. I would like to create a literacy unit that would create opportunities to study and analyze

musical lyrics from around the world. I would approach this unit through the practice of

sheltered instruction and the gradual release of responsibility. After analyzing music together as

a class I would like students to bring in their music lyrics of choice to study and close read. We

would discuss what the artist is sharing with us and how do they accomplish it. After studying

the elements that go into a song, students would create their own song answering the essential

question of how can I share my story with the world.

A literacy practice that I would like to incorporate into my EAL classroom is the use of

digital storytelling which will utilize my students 21st century literacies. Having my students
tell and create their stories lets them reflect in the English Language and also develop their oral

skills to speak the language. The storytelling process helps children learn to express their

presentations to an audience, a tool they can use throughout their lives. In order to develop a

story, the child first must understand who she or he is creating the story for, developing the

ability to empathize with others. By using multimedia, these stories can be developed and

shared more broadly, helping children learn that the school is part of a broader community and

that everyone has a story to tell. They learn to connect their own stories from life to school.

School can be seen as a place where they can talk about their experiences and discuss their

experiences in a safe environment. Students can also connect to their community through digital

storytelling bringing them close to the community, community resources and community

involvement. My students can also share their digital stories online and participate in broader

digital, global, communities that might include adolescents with similar backgrounds and

experiences.

I have gained insight into my students literacy practices and lives that I havent been

able to through other means. The uses of textual lineages and surveys that prompt answers about

my students literacy practices outside of schools give me a much more in-depth understanding

of my students motivation, interests, and identity. This inquiry project has allowed me to not

only learn about my students literacy practices out of school, but has created the opportunity to

reflect on my practice and the essential questions that would most benefit my students

holistically as dynamic and diverse literacy learners.

 Works Cited

Hinchman, K.A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H.K. (Eds.). (2014). Best practices in adolescent

literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.