Running Head: TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Teacher Research Proposal

Megan Grable

Brandman University

ECED 401

The Early Childhood Educator as a Decision Maker

Dr. Julianne Zvalo-Martyn

April 10th, 2020

TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Introduction

The Marion Forsman Boushie Early Learning Center is located in Suquamish

Washington, a short boat ride away from Seattle. The center had five Early Head Start

classrooms, 2 Head Start classrooms, one private-funded preschool, one Washington State-

funded Preschool program (ECEAP), two infant rooms and two school-age before and after

school classrooms. The center primarily serves Suquamish Tribal Members, members of other

tribes, and children who are deemed “at-risk” due to developmental delays, being in the foster

care system, or being low income. I did my practicum in an Early Head Start classroom at the

Marion Forsman Boushie Early Learning Center. The classroom has eight children ages 18

months to two years old. Of the children in the class, there were six girls and two boys, with six

of the children being Suquamish tribal members or descendants of the Suquamish Tribe, all eight

children live on the Port Madison reservation of the Suquamish Tribe. The language of the

Suquamish Tribe is Lushootseed, a language that is spoken by multiple tribes on the Salish Sea

including, Tulalip, Puyallup, Muckleshoot, and Squaxin Island.

The Early Learning Center has a good foundation for language development of not only

the English language but the teaching of the fundamentals of Lushootseed to the children. Due to

the forced assimilation at boarding schools that all tribal children were forced to attend between

the years 1900-1920 (Suquamish Tribe), the language was nearly lost to the people. In the last 30

years, there has a resurgence of language revitalization for tribal members and the Lushootseed

language as well as other cultural teachings such as weaving and drum making is now taught at

the tribal secondary school. Teachers at the Early Learning Center work with a Cultural

Specialist to implement culturally relevant activities including the use of Lushootseed into the

daily activities in the classroom.

2
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Problem Statement

At the center, children are exposed to a variety of language developing activities with

interactive storytimes, songs, and fingerplays, and open-ended and engaging conversations as

well as a level of cultural activities such as drumming, song and dance, and Lushootseed words.

With the emerging health crisis, our school closed on March 13th and will open on April 13th at

the earliest. At this time the center is providing meals to families twice a week as well as activity

bags for each enrolled student with a variety of learning material suitable for the various age

groups. While we are away from our children I am concerned with the lack of education and

interaction the children may be receiving while at home.

While we are away from the center and all the families are needing to shelter in place, I

would like to continue to connect with both families and the children we serve. My focus is more

on the Early Head Start age, which is the age that I primarily work within my day to day job.

Children will need engaging and interactive activities to continue to develop their language skills

in both English and Lushootseed. While I am not a skill Lushootseed speaker, I am comfortable

enough with the language to share some familiar activities using interactive storytelling, songs,

and fingerplays using English and Lushootseed.

First Question

How can I engage the children in Lushootseed language learning while they are away

from the center during the quarantine?

Literature Review

In an article by Louise Lockard and Jennie De Groat from Northern Arizona University,

they looked into the impact of an immersion language program had on the Navajo Head Start

Program. They found that creating a culture of language use and the cultural context around the

3
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

language makes learning more meaningful for the children. I would like to use the examples of

this article in the activities I will be recording with using native animals to the area with their

Lushootseed names and songs that are both familiar and sacred to the culture of the Suquamish

Tribe. The use of deerskin drums for the songs, and cedar boughs for weaving opportunities as

well as using the Lushootseed names for colors and counting in Lushootseed.

In an article by the Language and Reading Research Consortium. Researchers studied

whether there is a connection between the language that children hear and their listening

comprehension of the concepts developed and what this means for later reading comprehension

for children. Through a variety of tests and assessments, they looked at children’s grammar,

vocabulary and listening comprehension. “Our results indicate that measures of oral language

and listening comprehension appear to assess the same underlying construct. …. the factors in

the … models (oral language and listening comprehension) were highly correlated.” (LARRC,

pp. 1279) There is a correlation between the language that children hear and their comprehension

of the concepts developed. It stands to reason then that there would be a level of comprehension

for children when spoken to through a digital platform such as a video of a teacher doing an

activity. This study shows that children would benefit from more language exposure. How I

would use this information is to

In an article by Collette Tayler, we see the importance of teachers and caregivers building

on the present relationships with children. This is will be key to what I would like to implement

as I am already a known entity to the children and they already have a relationship with me.

“Children’s social competence and expressive language are enhanced by adults who are sensitive

to joint-attention episodes from very early in life. Joint-attention — the shared focus of adult and

child on something — is fundamental to building human relationships.” (Tayler, 2015, pp. 165) I

4
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

would like to use an expansive vocabulary while in these videos, using novel words in a context

that will explain their meaning. Tayler explains that “Adults who provided a greater number of

high-quality word learning opportunities produced better vocabulary outcomes for their

children.” (Tayler, 2015, pp. 168) By building upon the relationships I already have with the

children and using a wider vocabulary and contextual clues I can help children enhance their

language development.

In an article about interactive storytelling, researchers looked at the use of the interactive

story reading method with preschool-aged children by looking at their vocabulary based on

receptive and expressive language. (Okyay & Kandir) While this study is looking at the impact

of interactive storytelling in a classroom setting, I would be pacing the situation on video with

hope for similar outcomes. The study found that an interactive reading model can positively

impact children’s expressive and receptive language, more so than the typical read-aloud model

with no level of interaction.

In an article by doctoral candidate Jessica Smith, we see the use of digital storytelling can

be used as a tool for children at home. In the research done, they found that children who were

introduced to the tools had a higher motivation in their learning that the researchers attributed to

the tools provided. (Smith) In light of the crisis, we will have little choice but to turn to more

technological resources to have learning conducted. With the use of the right kind of interactive

and engaging materials and tools the research suggests that use of these will aid in augmenting

literacy and language development as well as enhance “auditory and visual development.”

(Smith, 2018, pp. 29)

Teacher Research Question & Strategy

5
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

What happens when I record videos featuring cultural and Lushootseed language

activities?

With the children away from the center and the opportunities for them to engage in, I am

planning on doing a series of videos that support language development in Lushootseed and

English. I will be using as much Lushootseed as I can speak, incorporating songs, drumming,

and the language in the videos to make them engaging for the children. I plan on recording at

least two videos as examples of this. The first video will feature me singing a variety of songs in

Lushootseed and a mixture of Lushootseed and English. I will also read the book, Counting with

Bears by Gryn White, which features animals, colors and counting which I will translate into

Lushootseed.

While doing reading aloud, I would like to use a more interactive approach to my videos

where I will be pausing from children to respond and reflect on the questions I will be posing to

them. This form of interaction is more effective with children than simply reading aloud to

children. In the webinar "Working Virtually with Young Families," one of the suggestions was to

have the reading out loud be similar to the way that the show, "Dora the Explorer" asks

questions, pauses and allows for children to respond.

I would like to use familiar materials such as drums, drum sticks, puppets, and rattles, as

well as familiar songs such as “yu’yu’bec” and “We are Suquamish” which were sang often in

the classroom. I will be singing a variation of a song they love, 5 Little Freckled Frogs

translating the numbers and animal names into Lushootseed. In addition to using familiar

materials and songs, by having myself on camera in addition to other teaching staff, the children

will be more inclined to want to watch something with a familiar face on it. As the children have

6
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

relationships with their teachers and the staff at the ELC, they will have a higher level of

engagement with us.

Data Collection

Due to the limited interaction, I can have with the children when compared to the typical

classroom time, the data collected will need to change in nature along with the way the activities

are implemented. All the videos will be posted on our Facebook and we have a large number of

parent interactions on our Facebook page from parents. We have been posting videos of other

teachers on the page and they get around 300-700 views and an average of 10 comments from

parents. I would like the first kind of data collected to be parents posting responses their children

have to the videoes including comments and their videos of their children singing the songs or

speaking using Lushootseed. The second data collection I would like is to have the parents

complete a survey around what activities their child does at home and what kind of supports we

can provide for the students to have them continue this type of learning. I will use this data to

create more customized and engaging videos for the children that can enhance their learning

from home.

Summary

This project has pushed me to think outside my typical framework in the way I could not

have predicted. While distance learning is something that used for higher education now, the

adaptions that can be made to it for the younger ages are not something to have previously

considered. Through the research I have done, I feel I have created a plan for learning that will

engage and teach the children while we are away from the center. I was able to find the

information to back up my claims that dual language exposure, the use of culturally relevant

7
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

materials, and having a relationship with the ones who are presented with the videoes will make

the experience more meaningful for the children.

8
TEACHER RESEARCH PROPOSAL

References

Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC): Oral Language and Listening

Comprehension: Same or Different Constructs? (2017). Journal of Speech,

Language, and Hearing Research, 60(5), 1273–1284.

History & Culture Of the Suquamish Tribe. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2020, from

https://suquamish.nsn.us/home/about-us/history-culture/#tab-id-4

Lockard, L., & De Groat, J. (2010). “He Said It All in Navajo!”: Indigenous Language

Immersion in Early Childhood Classrooms. International Journal of

Multicultural Education, 12(2).

Okyay, O., & Kandir, A. (2017). Impact of the Interactive Story Reading Method on

Receptive and Expressive Language Vocabulary of Children. European Journal

of Educational Research, 6(3), 395–406.

Smith, J. (2018). An Action Research Investigation into an Early Childhood Digital,

Storytelling-Based Solution [ProQuest LLC]. In ProQuest LLC.

Tayler, C. (2015). Learning in Early Childhood: Experiences, Relationships and

“Learning to Be.” European Journal of Education, 50(2), 160–174.

White, G. (2012) Counting With Wild Bears of the Native Northwest Coast. Native

Northwest Publishing. Vancouver, Canada