Author: Darline

Hey there and welcome back to another week. Let’s talk about what’s been going on in my side of town lately. I have been thinking of how to make my broad ideas smaller much more personal. This past week I have been researching and learning about autoethnography. Autoethonogpray is a theoretical method that uses both qualitative and cultural analysis to present the experiences of one individual (I will use myself for this case study). In essence, autoethnography is a type of research that puts the self at the center of cultural analysis. This method requires the individual to be descriptive of their past experiences and present a complete truthful narration of self in order to understand the personal background driving the study.

After researching this theoretical method I believe it is the best approach that will make my research thesis compelling while also expressing learner diversity in elementary classes.

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How to Do Ethnography Research

Well, of course, there is a youtube tutorial on almost anything out there. So before I engaged in any intellectual research/ reading I first watched a few videos on what is autoethnography. Here is a short and edifying video about the topic.

After some visual learning, I then read about how one would exactly go about doing this type of research. The image below presents a detailed outline of what’s included in each step of autoethnography research. In the background section is where I will discuss my personal experience as a former ESL student and my passion for doing this research. In the next two sections is where I will conduct most of the academic work. This is where I will need to create and to present a comprehensive review of literature that I find most relevant and suitable to study. I do not yet have a list of articles/books (and historical essays) to research but will soon create one. Lastly, the way I plan to gather and analyze data is by conducting interviews and doing observations. I believe these are the best two ways to get adequate personal details necessary for this research. I want to interview a former ESL teacher and also a current ESL student. The reason that I want to include those two case studies is to not only discuss my own experience but to have others that I can reference as well. ( Also, it will help this research thesis to not be all about me). I plan to observe an ESL classroom to experience once again how it feels to be an ESL student.

ESL In The Classroom

I read an article this week about the experience of bilingual writers. In the article THROUGH STUDENTS’ EYES: THE EXPERIENCES OF THREE ESL WRITERS university professor Vivian Zamel conducts a close study that analyzes the personal experience of three ESL student writers. The three students Carlos, Mohammed, and Nham experience a great deal of difficulty as an ESL writer but what they found most rewarding was the supportive and effective instruction of their teachers.

In an interview, Mohammed states that,

The teacher wants to know about the ideas in your mind. She takes ideas serious. This makes me feel good. The teacher wants to talk to you, wants to know what’s on your mind and you feel courage to revise … All these books won’t help, you won’t use your brain. You never develop your ideas.

pg.88

It wasn’t just the students who found writing in an ESL classroom difficult, but so did the teachers. The teachers argued that the instructional models and the expectations we make about our students are whats hindering the creativity and flexibility of ESL writers (Emphasis mine) (The terms language acquisition and writing development are further discussed). As a result, they suggest that ESL students should not be graded on words they do not know rather they should have the freedom to create meaning and ideas that stimulate stories even if they don’t have the exact words for it. By doing this, ESL writers will learn the English language more easily.

This article provided an informative insight into the experience of what it is like to be a foreign writer in the classroom. While the research data was analytic and extensive it presented a selective way of gathering data. In my autoethnography, I want to focus more on the student experience in the classroom as an ESL learner in all subject fields.

Hi, welcome back to another week. It seems like the year is going by so fast, I don’t believe the weekend even happened. Seriously, 2020 please slow down so I can get my thoughts together. Speaking of thoughts, I’ve been thinking about what I am passionate about when it comes to education and my experience as a learner. I figure this will help me narrow down my very broad ideas.

Last week my two proposal options discussed the importance of students getting the most advantageous opportunities in the classroom with reading choices and ESL classes. After thinking about these two previous ideas I am considering dropping the first topic and discuss more ESL.

Ethnography:

I am still interested in researching how ESL classes benefit immigrant students however, this time I plan to move forward with a different approach. In this approach, I plan to use my own learning experience to express learner diversity in elementary classes. I am considering this approach because I believe that it will push me to get out of the traditional way of thinking about thesis topics. An ethnographically based research will help me delve more into my own experiences and discover more of what constructs me as a bilingual learner.

Educating preschoolers with learning disabilities

Lastly, another area that I am passionate about is my career. I currently work in a special needs school with students who have learning disabilities. My typical day at work is different from other preschools. I interact daily with students whose learning styles require speific and strategic methods. I would like to study why their disabilities require individualized learning plans.

After the last class, it seems as if everyone has got the ball rolling already! That’s great, this is what senior work is all about! As for me, I am excited to meet again later today to discuss some of the ideas that I have been thinking about in the past week. There are certain ideas I have about how a proper research thesis should be completed. I have a traditional belief that a thesis work should be pages of research and study, however hearing the ideas and learning about different styles of work I now realize that I need to broaden my approach to this project. I am interested to see how I can be more creative in this approach.. 

My main idea is to study teaching approaches in school. Specifically cannons of literature. This is something I am interested in because throughout my life there have been many books that I was interested in reading and learning about, however, I had to do most of this (fun reading) outside of the classroom curriculum. Inside the classroom teachers are teaching the same repetitive books that are thought over and over again to different generations of students. Teachers teach common authors like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and other old century poets. In today’s day and time school administrators and curriculum boards should move more towards pleasing students in the classroom as far as reading choices instead of always expecting the common books and authors. Reading options should become more diverse and effective relating more to life in the 20th century.

Although my debate to change the choices in the reading curriculum is insightful I suppose this is a difficult topic to discuss, primarily for the counter debates that teachers will also present.

For example: 

• Some teachers will argue that canonical authors are essential for reading and writing skills. 
• Students should learn how to reach different styles of text 
• The canonical authors present the best forms of writing 
• British literature is the foundation for the English language
• & other possible debates

While these arguments are valid and understandable they can always be debated and this is what I plan to do in my research thesis. I intend to present the lack of reading choices in the school curriculum and offer diverse and more fun reading options.

Option 2

Another idea that I would like to delve more into is the idea that ESL classes are an advantage for foreign/ immigrant students. I am sure other teachers and scholars have also agreed with that idea. ESL classes are essential for school districts especially in communities with a large immigrant population. As an immigrant student myself, I found that ESL classes played a major role in my success in grade school and further academic studies. My ESL classes were the transition point connecting me from my native language Haitian-Creole to English. Luckily my school district offered ESL classes at every grade level. If this type of class was not offered I would have a more difficult time transitioning to both the American lifestyle and learning. This is the idea I have now. I will think more on this during the week. See you all soon : )

Driving back to campus feels like coming back to unfamiliar familiar territory. Even though the parking lot looks the same, the builds are still there where they have been and everyone is swiftly walking about campus as if they are wire to speed walk everywhere. So it is the same for me. Class is starting soon and as I park my car, walk to the CAS building take the elevator upstairs and open my classroom door, it’s all coming back to me now, THIS IS COLLEGE! Welcome to the spring semester of 2020! 

Internally, I am filled with excitement! After this short break, I am ready to work on something else, something fresh, something new. This time it’s the start of my thesis project! Oh boy, so it has come to this! I knew I would get here eventually because this is the fire that I must jump over to officially become a graduate of the master’s program. So I walked in class with my laptop and planner ready to talk about the spring semester. 

I don’t know if my colleagues are as excited as me but it sure seems like it! The class is small which is perfect because that way we can focus on helping each other. It was insightful to hear about Christina’s project and the work that she has been doing. It sounds like she has done a great amount of careful work especially with the personal interviews which significantly stood out to me. I am excited to see the completion of her project. As for me, I am excited to begin my project. Now I am not yet sure what exactly my senior thesis will represent, however, there are certain topics that I want to discuss in the academic field. I’m hoping to get more in depth with this idea moving forward.