Exploring Fifth Grade Bilingual Students’ Understanding of Character
Date
2004-01
Authors
Czop Assaf, Lori
Journal Title
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Abstract
Initially the aim of this qualitative study was to examine how one reading specialist taught character development using series books with ten bilingual students. However, some very surprising issues evolved during this project. First, I discovered that the teacher used very few series books in her reading instruction than previously self-reported. Instead, she mainly relied on testing materials to help her students pass the state mandated test. This shift was caused by a change in the schools' mid-year test scores, lowing the school's rank from a top level of achievement to the lowest level of achievement. Because of this change, this study was expanded to look at how one teacher responded to the testing pressures so deeply engrained in Texas schools. As a participant
observer, I spent over 192 hours over 4 months conducting ethnographic research in the teacher's school, collecting field notes and artifacts (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995), as well as conducting informal and formal interviews with the teacher, her colleagues, and her students. The teacher was purposefully selected (Patton, 1990/2001) because she was experienced (taught for more than 30 years) considered exemplary by their peers and administrators, and described using series books and teacher-led discussion groups with her students as her main reading
instruction. Using grounded theory methodology (Erlandson, Harris,
Skipper, & Allen, 1993), I examined the teacher’s talk and the
students’ discussions during their reading instruction. I found
that the teacher in this study responded to testing pressures by
surviving, struggling, and resisting the effects of high-stakes
testing and that her responses had much to do with contextual
factors of teaching in a low-income urban school. She survived by
finding ways to help her students get through the tests without
losing their enthusiasm for reading. She struggled with ways to
integrate skills-based instruction while reading quality
literature. She resisted by creating opportunities to give students
free books, have authentic book discussions, and encourage students
to become “real readers” instead of “test takers. Implications for
this study are that high-stakes testing pressures forced this
teacher to change her reading instruction. Instead of focusing on
the individual literacy needs of her Bilingual students, she scaled
down her instruction to basic skills and testing strategies in
order to pass the test and raise the school's rank causing her to
question her knowledge and experience as an expert reading
teacher.
Description
Research Enhancement Program Final Report
Keywords
bilingual students, character development, Texas schools, testing pressures
Citation
Czop Assaf, L. (2004). <i>Exploring fifth grade bilingual students’ understanding of character</i>. Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.