collaborative inquiry: the quest to improve classroom instruction. - interactive smartboard activities

Collaborative research has made it possible for the two authors to create a classroom space that supports children's literacy learning.
This partnership between class researcher Nan and University researcher Sally started before the project.
As you read this, please note that we use the first person plural to refer to our jointefforts and third person to illustrate our respective roles.
Once, we were all teachers and researchers in the same primary school and worked together to study and improve our teaching practice. year-olds.
Our exploration continued as we read a large number of professional publications and participated in weekly discussions, which led to several surveys focusing on classroom life. Co-reflecting (Waff, 2009)
We create room for real dialogue, solve important classroom problems, or reflect together.
After Sally left the public school system to work in a university, we continued to stay in touch and continue to look at ways to improve classroom teaching.
Over the years, the population structure of the Nan classroom has changed.
Students of English as a new language are increasingly entering primary school and are placed in her classroom.
There is no formal training in teaching students in other languages and Nan would like to know how to support and learn from these English learners.
Because we have a similar interest, we worked together to design a 2nd-graders.
The first step in the process of guiding the problem is to develop a problem that can guide our year-long investigation (Brown, 2008).
We want to focus on how to improve teaching, especially for English learners.
We are all committed to fairness and "improving the learning experience and outcomes of those who traditionally have the least chance of having quality learning opportunities and are marginalized by the system "(Cochran-
Smith and lettle, Page 200953).
Therefore, our research is based on the following questions: how does the classroom curriculum structure support and/or limit the opportunity for English learners to try different literary identities and become successful readers and writers throughout the school day?
We define the curriculum structure as a program guidance procedure to guide students to learn throughout the school day.
The next step in data decision making involves making decisions about data collection methods that will provide the information needed to answer our questions.
We need to pay close attention to the way we use language in class.
It is important to capture the interaction between Nan's English learners and their Englishspeaking peers. As Wells (1986)
Through conversation learning, children are active builders of their own knowledge. p. 65).
It is through this conversation that we can have a deeper understanding of the learning process.
So we decided to record and record the video.
Record classroom activities related to literary development.
The way that research uses language in nan's classroom will enable us to observe and analyze the way children use language to negotiate identity and become successful readers and writers.
After identifying our issues and methods of data collection, we should get permission from all stakeholders.
In our study, this means obtaining the consent of the local school board of directors, the college institution Review Board, parents and children themselves.
This is a long but necessary process that clearly sets out the risks and benefits of the study, as well as the issue of secrecy.
Before checking the way Nan classrooms use language, Sally observed Nan's teaching and wrote descriptive field notes.
On-site notes include recording detailed classroom observations in an unbiased manner.
These help us to identify the existing curriculum structure in her classroom, such as morning information, morning meetings, voice/spelling, reader seminars, etc.
We strive to define and detail the importance of each structure.
Some structures (
Like voice/spelling)were district-
Like the morning message, everything else is planned by Nan.
For the purposes of this article, we focus on The Voice/Spelling section of the region --
Legal Comprehensive Literacy model (Moats, 1999).
Since nanc cannot eliminate the spelling/phonetic structure, we must imagine and negotiate the wiggle room in this structure.
Every week, Sally records a voice/spelling program with a special focus on two Latino English learners.
As Sally had more time to focus on the details and had access to resources from the university, she transcribed the video/audio tapes and brought the transcript back to the discussion.
In these week's calculations, we read and reread live notes and transcripts while writing descriptive code on the edge.
We then systematically label emerging topics and patterns.
As these patterns continue to repeat, we, as a team, determine their meaning from the impact of voice/spelling on the way children see themselves as readers and writers in the process of literacy. District-
During the daily voice/spelling Time, Nan led the students through the prescribed voice/spelling program
Group classes based on an artificial list of words provided by herschool district.
She followed this voice/spelling program on her own due to authorization.
In this structure, the students listen to the teacher say the word, sing the word, index each phoneme with their hands, take syllables, and write the word on their voice notebook.
Nan clearly taught the rules of phoneme and 47 spelling, plural, syllable, apostrophe, and capital.
She read the rules from the card of the book, and the students recited the rules in unison.
Since the initial research questions have focused on English language learners, we present data examples for two Latino English Language Learners (
Use a pseudonym).
This 2nd-
The first language of the students is Spanish.
The results showed that the responses of the two students were very different.
Martin was not sure about the relationship between letters and pronunciation, and the terms confused him.
Sally often sits with Martin to help him understand the homework he is asking.
In the process of voice/spelling, Martin whispered questions to Sally about concepts such as strategy, vowel, etc.
Consonants and double letters.
Once Martin said, "Hey, what is strategy anyway?
I don't understand.
"As Martin did not have a deep understanding of academic English, he was repeatedly unable to absorb most of the phonetic/spelling lessons.
However, when Martin became part of the group, he seemed successful because he always followed the teacher with his eyes and imitated the teacher's behavior.
According to Nan, tin seems to have understood the phonics/spelling course in March.
When she taught, she observed that he was involved and copied the words correctly to his notebook.
However, after careful analysis of the video data, Martin apparently did not know much about most of the content.
Martin's difficulty in this research project exposed the void of his use of this structure.
On the other hand, Anna casually took part in the chorus section of The Voice/spelling class and sometimes only copied the correct spelling of the words to her notebook.
As Anasat sat on a table behind the classroom, her concentration was not noticed.
The video recorded Ana's frequent involvement in conversations or reading books.
Anna positioned herself as a student who was not interested.
According to Anna, "I already know how to spell words anyway.
"Anna's spelling ability has been strengthened through many writing samples.
For Anna, this curriculum structure does not contribute to her literacy status and does not improve her knowledge of pronunciation or spelling.
This collaborative research project reveals the invalidation of the region.
Voice/spelling procedures specified for two English learners.
Without this research program, neither student's experience may have been noticed.
This example clearly shows the benefits of recording what is happening in your own classroom ---
You have the "third eye" and can watch the student's performance during and during the class.
As a result of this study, Nantransformed changed her pronunciation/spelling items over the next year.
In the summer teaching changes, Nan studies word lists in the region by looking for patterns and relationships.
She grouped the words by phoneme and/or spelling and rearranged the order of the words.
This new order gives students the opportunity to connect while comparing and comparing the new spelling patterns with similar ones previously taught.
Nan created a weekly interactive smart board course to replace the light yellow word cards created and distributed in the region.
Interactive classes include sorting activities, voice and spelling games, word chains and ladders, songs and video clips.
Now, Nan placeda puts more emphasis on word families and high
There are few rules for frequency words and speech.
She purchased plastic letters and voice patterns and developed a new curriculum structure called "guide the word.
"So while Nan is not free to change the status quo together, she improvise in the system and finds ways to reach out to children.
Students build words with tiles and then read and write words in the required voice mode.
In groups or with partners, students sort words according to spelling patterns, create word chains, and build larger words with suffixes.
The group worked with the letter tilesallowed to allow students to build the language and participate in the production of shared meanings, while Nan promoted differentiated teaching according to the needs of the students.
For example, when children interact with letter tiles, Nan changes the words that each group teaches individually.
In general, students are more interested in these materials and have more opportunities for dialogue and cooperation.
Students work together to solve the common goal of word problems.
Every child can become an expert and learner.
The collaborative action research project provides the information we need to determine the way the project is authorized (or wasnot)
Effective for students in Nan's classroom.
It also provides Nan with the motivation to change her authorized teaching program to better meet the needs of students, especially her English language learners.
We found that cooperative action research is a good way to challenge the empowerment of courses and improve classroom teaching.
Brown, S. (2008).
Critical Discourse Analysis of literary practice and identity: Latino English learners at home and in primary school classrooms.
Germany: Published by VDM. Cochran-Smith, M. , & Lytle, S. (2009).
Take inquiry as the position: Practitioner research for the next generation.
New York: Teacher Press. Moats, L. (1999).
Reading teaching is a rocket science: What reading experts should know and be able to do.
On August 29, it was retrieved from www. aft. org/pubs-
Report/download/teacher/rocketsci. pdf. Waff, D. (2009).
Core Learning and core reflection: teachers explore the power of the community. InD. Goswami, C. Lewis, M. Rutherford,& D. Waft (Eds. )
Teacher Survey: methods of language and literacy research (pp. 69-89).
New York: Teachers College Press. Wells, G. (1986).
Meaning creator: children who learn and use language to learn.
Portsmouth: Heinman.
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