My action plan revolves around the question “will visual learning impact students’ understanding, memory, and knowledge in science”. I am reading the article “Imagery: An ‘I Get It’ Approach to Teaching English as a Second Language” by Janet Bosworth Dower. Dower researched on the use of imagery in the teaching of the ESL learners (Dower, 2001).

Dower begins by introducing the topic and describing the demographics about the students under study. The study was done by introducing imagery in learning using computer presentations. The provision of the images was through classroom activities, art class, teacher created posters, PowerPoint presentations, highly illustrated trade books, a Washington Post career mini-page and graphic organizers and worksheets (Dower, 2001). Students achievements were statistically presented together with the teachers observations and student writing excerpts.

Different components of the career project were presented in sections. The first section required the students to answer questions about their personality while the second section was about researching the career interests over the internet.

Dowers research proved that the use of imagery in learning increased students comprehension. However, Dower concentrated much on the learning of language as opposed to other subjects such as sciences.  I think it would have been more understandable to me had the author described exactly how the students interpreted the images. In addition, students are different; there are those who are good in imagery comprehension and those who are good in words. The study did not first determine what the interest of the study is. Using students poor in imagery comprehension could create bias in the study. I will be keen to consider such issues in my research.

References

Dower, J. B. (2001). Imagery: An ‘I Get It’ Approach to Teaching English as a Second Language. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from https://gse.gmu.edu/assets/docs/lmtip/vol1/J.Dower.pdf

Response to Amity Glenn-Chase

Great work Amity, your action plan revolves around a very important topic. ESL learners usually tend to struggle with the writing and reading of some of the vocabularies.  The authors of the article “Using Word Their Way with a Balanced Literacy Program to Improve the Reading and Writing of Second Grade Students” `have presented an easy to understand curriculum. The research is well presented with the description of the research process as well as the findings.

I think the data presentation is not very concrete. The data presented does not cover all the subgroups and it is not very elaborate. This makes it hard for one to fully understand the outcomes of the study in full. For example, only two students were termed as question mark students at the end of the study. The author did not elaborate on whether they did gain anything at all. However, the data presented is clear and understandable.

Response to Haley Horvath

Thoughtful analysis Haley, ESL learners are more confused by vocabularies with a similar meaning. The research process and findings are clearly presented and described. Copeland in her article sites the workshop given by Dr. David A. Sousa deducing that teaching two similar concepts together can be confusing to the students later. The major variable in the study was time but I feel that the teaching method should also be included as a variable. The author has not elaborated on how exactly the words were taught, which I think plays a major role in students comprehension.  There are students who read and understand and others prefer to hear it from someone else to understand. The author should have elaborated on the teaching technique used and why the specific technique was used. I believe this will give you an insight on how to handle your topic and what things to consider.

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