Teacher Action Research

Teacher Action Research in the Adult ESL Classroom:
Learning Through Your Students

Last September I began teaching adult learners in an Even Start Family Literacy program. Though I had attended conferences and studied theories of learning and teaching, I felt unsure of how to successfully implement that knowledge in my classroom. Luckily for my students and me, I was able to participate in Project IDEA.

Project IDEA assists new and experienced teachers with exploring how their teaching practices effect their students and identifying which practices are or are not effective in the classroom environment. This type of teacher action research is accomplished through the process of a student-generated project. What follows is a brief overview of my multilevel ESL class' project and a few of the learning opportunities that arose from the process.

The students decided that they wanted to find a way to encourage their children to develop bilingual literacy skills. The students created individual books about their family history. Using newly developed computer skills, the students wrote and edited their stories, scanned photographs, created covers, and bound their work. The books were presented to their children during the Días de los Niños (Day of the Children) celebration held in class.

Data was needed to document and analyze our progress as part of my teacher action research. I kept a daily personal log of my thoughts and observations regarding the project. Additionally, I assigned daily student roles of class photographer and class reporter.

The photographer took pictures of whatever he/she felt was important and representative of the day's class. The reporter wrote an informal report regarding how the students felt about the class activities: what was working, what was not working, and what could be improved. This provided valuable insight into our project, gave the students a feeling of importance for the day, and helped to identify potential problems and issues.

During the editing process, a few students noted concern regarding student and teacher roles in the classroom. While reviewing students' work during the primary writing stage, I only corrected mistakes that impeded the story's message. Then, as part of the editing process, I asked students to choose their own partner, read each other's work, and offer general suggestions for improvement.

In most cases, this went well. However, in one case, an advanced level student was paired with a very basic level student and the results were not as positive. The advanced level student took her role as editor very seriously and found many errors in the other student's work. She proceeded to make numerous suggestions and corrections, virtually rewriting the entire book. This greatly distressed the basic level student. She was embarrassed that there were so many errors and was confused that a fellow student found more errors than the teacher did. This created an argument between the two students that was heard by all students in the class.

I explained that the purpose of this activity was to promote general, positive feedback. I then added that my rationale for minimal error correction was based on research from experts in second language acquisition. The students responded with a few blank stares, a few loyal head nods, but basically, "that sounds very nice teacher, but could you please correct everything so that we don't sound stupid when our children read these books?" Therefore, we decided to continue with the general comments from peers and a more thorough final edit by the teacher.

Another issue was how to ensure that class direction and execution of class activities was truly student-centered. This was especially difficult when we were falling behind in our production schedule. The laminating and binding were done at a location outside the classroom and some of the students were not able to spend time outside of class on their project. Initially, I began to collect the books to laminate and bind by myself "just to get it done," but then I realized that this was robbing the students of their responsibilities and potential learning opportunities. Instead, I gathered a group of student volunteers and we completed the books together.

This project enabled students to develop computer skills, English literacy skills, responsibility, and encouraged positive self-esteem while simultaneously creating a treasured keepsake. On the local program level, the project has been used as a model of a creative approach to developing literacy skills in a multilevel classroom environment. As a teacher, the project heightened my awareness of how important it is for learner-generated projects to be learner-executed projects for the success of both the students and the project.

Jennifer Gilardi Swoyer teaches ESL and GED with the Even Start program and Northside Independent School District in San Antonio. She is also a Region 20 ABEPDC Trainer and participated in the 1998-99 Project IDEA program. She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, a Master's degree in Bilingual/Multicultural Studies, and is pursuing teacher certification in Spanish and ESL. Jennifier moved to San Antonio from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, last May. You may contact her at jswoyer@hotmail.com