Sat 1/21 end of the meeting

Here's what I'm thinking now about my inquiry, I'm on the right path but just need to tweak some of the ways I present idioms. I want to see why students are/aren't succeeding on their idiom tests and am planning on doing this by looking more closely at their notebooks. Students have begun identifying idioms outside of the classroom and I want more students to be able to do that. I found a cartoon that has idioms in it and I want students to see that idioms are commonly found and aren't necessarily only in academic areas.

My next steps are to rework how I present the idiom of the day. I still plan on using the idiom notebooks, tests, drawings to continue solidifying what students know but I think I'm going to introduce the context first before introducing the idiom so that students have some kind of schema as to how this relates. This will also hopefully make their predictions more accurate and will help them make more sense of what the idiom means. I also want to look a bit more closely at students that are struggling with idioms and see if this new method helps students understand idioms more easily. I want to go to the library and check out the book on Spanish idioms that I found and also see if that might help struggling students. I would like to have an information session with parents in which I explain why I'm teaching idioms and see if they can give me any additional insight or feedback as to how their children might benefit from this or learn.

Saturday 1/21

Two things I notice when I look at the data I brought today are that I have a lot to sort through and analyze and that I am starting to see who is understanding the whole concepts of idioms and who's not. I have my test scores color coded so I can kind of see patterns emerging. I haven't looked through their idiom notebooks yet though and I'm thinking that looking through that will help me see why students are or aren't succeeding.

One thing that surprises me about these data is that despite only being halfway through my inquiry, I feel that I can still gather tons more and have more ideas as to where I want to go with my inquiry. I want to add a parent component to have some involvement and my inquiry is now taking a new direction as I try to get the idiom learning to be more student directed and brought from what students see and hear in their daily lives

What I'm thinking (before Saturday's meeting)

My current version of my question is How can the study of Idioms help my students navigate through language. Will knowing idioms benefit my students' reading comprehension? Will it expand their use and understanding of the English language/

Here is what data I have collected (or will collect) between the December and January meetings :

Idiom tests taken every few weeks that shows whether or not students have an understanding of the current idioms studied. I do a written form and a comic book form to see whether or not students are able to understand idioms easier when they are presented in a visual format.

Idiom notebooks that have the idiom of the day.

Student group work.

Interviews with focal students

What I am thinking (or wondering) now about my students’ learning is how can I push them more. I started awarding points for any idiom that students hear/find outside of class. They have to tell the class how they heard it and what it meant/the context. This has been a way for students to understand the idioms they already know but what about the ones they don't?