Needs of High School Heritage Spanish Students Beth Hennes

Research Question What do heritage learners actually need from a Spanish language course (that can be used to drive instruction)?

Research Strategy A case study, using student questionnaires and behavior observation

The situation Rural high school of 1000 students, of which 7% are Latino and 3% are English Language Learner (with definite overlap) 16 students enrolled (initially 19) in Heritage- Speaker section of Spanish for the school year Co-teaching arrangement between AP/Level 3-5 Spanish teacher and ELL teacher (myself) Pilot year before official course approval with School Board: currently no “official” materials

Need for study Behavior problems! (off-task behavior, vulgar language, disrespect, extraneous talking) Lack of motivation, low assignment completion 50/50 success rate of planned activities (could go well, could flop—who knows?) Growing teacher frustration

Assumptions 1.Behavior problems are due to inappropriate materials/activity selection 2.If we know what students need/want and plan instruction around that, behavior will improve.

Collection of data Tools 1.Placement Test Results Conference and Goals Worksheet 2.Learning Expectations and Needs Survey 3.Nonnative-speakers Learning Expectations and Needs Survey (given to 5 students in AP/Level 5 Spanish, just for basic comparison purposes)

Summary of Data (Google Forms) Follow these links to see survey results for: Heritage Spanish Speakers Advanced Nonnative Spanish Speakers Advanced Nonnative Spanish Speakers

Findings Nonnative Speakers compared to Heritage Learners: Our high school nonnatives rated themselves higher in literacy domains (reading and writing) Heritage learners rated themselves higher in oral language (speaking and listening)

Findings Heritage Learners valued: the work they had done with writing (7 mentioned this) learning about accents (4 mentioned this) Heritage Learners were frustrated by: poor behaviors of other students, such as not working or too much talking (5 mentioned this)

Analysis of Findings Generalizations: Heritage learners want to improve writing and reading. They need help with accents and spelling. They were also frustrated by discipline problems.

My reaction to survey data Heritage Learner honesty and candidness was heart-warming! They seemed to want to learn and were frustrated by similar things as the teachers. Is this a confirmation of our assumption? (That if we give them what they want, behaviors will improve…)

Epilogue: We made changes For Unit 2: Changed from Level 4 World Language Spanish textbook-centered lessons to Project-Based Learning Included drop-in mini-lessons on accents and spelling

Result of changes? Some improvement in behaviors (definitely less discipline referrals during this unit) Still encountered some “I-can’t/I- won’t/I’m-too-lazy/This-is-dumb- because-I-already-know-everything” attitudes

Conclusion More talk than walk Perhaps we were asking the wrong question—maybe it wasn’t supposed to be “What do they need?”

Suggestions for future research Consider motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic) as a cause for instructional difficulties Look for and experiment with appropriate Heritage Spanish course materials/textbooks Use this study as a basis to REALLY compare Heritage and Nonnative Learners Consult more literature from the “experts”

Research Model: Big6 I chose the Big6 because I had heard of school librarians in several local districts using it too. I thought I should get some experience. I used Barbara Jensen’s “Research Project Organizer (7-12),” which I found here.here

Research Model: Big6 Step 1: Task Definition EASY! My information problem came from a real-life problem I was having. The information I needed seemed to be right in front of me (in the students)

Research Model: Big6 Step 2: Information Seeking Strategies Students, experts, literature For the scope of this research, I should have stuck to the kids. (I wasted some time on the “experts.”)

Research Model: Big6 Step 3: Location and Access Again, EASY! I saw the kids everyday from 1:25 to 2:10pm. Gave them surveys

Research Model: Big6 Step 4: Use of Information Used Google Forms to compile data. The summary graphs helped me analyze and see patterns quickly. Discussed with my co-teacher to confirm my thoughts

Research Model: Big6 Step 5: Synthesis The hard part for me: I tried to do too much and got really bogged down. My solution was to use this presentation to boil down my findings and re-write my paper.

Research Model: Big6 Step 6: Evaluation Big6 got me where I needed to be, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I spun my wheels, re-examining Steps 4-5. Probably just didn’t have my focus refined enough

Critique of the Big6 I didn’t even realize that I got lost in the model until I had reached my frustration point. I just assumed I was spending a lot of time on Step 5, but was actually stuck. No stop-gap for that: watch out!

Using the Big6? Sure! But I don’t think it’s much different from other models—I’m sure others do just fine. I liked that it helps learners make a plan, which novice researchers really need.

FIN ¡Gracias!