Thesis on family literacy with LEP adults and reflective journal keeping

Question 1) Relative to the amount of Spanish spoken in their homes before and after this class, only one participant reported a change, from 30-40% before, to 10-20% afterwards. This was to be expected since the core objectives of the class did not include having students measurably improve in their abilities to speak English.

Question 2) I loved seeing the change in some students’ perspectives from before to after, relative to question number two. One student, who reported “before” that she had no children, and that she spent time with an 11 month-old cousin, reported “after” that she reads with her nephew who is 13 months old. “After,” she made no mention of the fact that she had no children. Another, who also wrote on her “before” survey that she had no children, wrote on her “after” survey that she reads with her niece who is 18 months old. And yet another student who reported “before” that she had no children, mentioned that fact in her “after” survey, but also mentioned that she sometimes reads with a little six-year-old boy. These three participants show a change in mindset that indicates to me success in establishing the importance of reading with children. They also are more aware of their role as potential readers in the lives of children around them, even if they are not parents.

Question 3) This question seemed to be misunderstood by a few participants as they answered with statements like, “Yes, I like to spend time with my child.” In reality the question was asking what kinds of activities the participants liked doing with their children, or with children of family and friends. Yet still, four of the eleven surveys submitted “before” mentioned reading with children. What I loved to see was the “after” surveys where nine out of the eleven participants mentioned reading and/or helping with schoolwork. Two participants who were not parents left that question blank on the “before” survey, and afterwards both responded. One mentioned liking to read with a niece, and the other mentioned enjoying reading stories, going on walks, and playing games. I think that after our class the idea of reading with children was much more of an option, and looked upon as something enjoyable and feasible, even if participants weren’t parents themselves.

Question 4) Nine out of the eleven “before” surveys mentioned studying English in some sort of class. Most of them were referring to the evening class offered at Wood’s End Elementary school that they were participating in simultaneously with our class. One mentioned her intentions to start studying in a class (one that began the next month). And another commented on how she just uses the dictionary and other books, and watches TV in English. This student never came back to our class.

Questions 5 and 6) As far as positive and negative experiences with the schools and/or teachers, most participants, in both the “before” and “after” surveys, either declined to answer because they had no children, commented that their children were too young for school still, or stated that all their interactions have been good ones. In the bad experiences portion (question 6) the only comments that reflected anything negative related to not being able to understand the teacher, having to have a child translate for them, and not being able to participate in general due to the language barrier. On question number five, three participants left the question blank “before” and four left it blank “after.” On question number six, four participants left it blank “before,” and the same four left it blank “after.”

Question 7) Eight out of the eleven “before” surveys showed that participants would like to help their children as much as possible with their homework. There were also ten out of eleven who chose that option in the “after” survey. Again, two who left it blank “before” because they have no children, chose response “a” afterwards, most likely thinking towards the future when they would have children. Only one participant chose response “b” both before and after.

Question 8) Of all those who filled out both “before” and “after” surveys, only one student chose a different response afterwards than before. One woman said in her “before” survey that she couldn’t communicate in English, and afterwards she said that she could speak well enough to survive. All of the rest maintained their before and after abilities to communicate in English, according to self reporting. Although improvement is ideal, these survey results were also what was expected, since this was not a class focusing on English conversational skills. Two participants left the “before” question blank.

Question 9) It was exciting to see that two of the participants changed their “after” survey self-evaluations of how well they read in Spanish. One stated “before” that she could read enough to survive, and “after,” that she could read well. Another participant stated “before” that she could read well, and “after,” that she could read at a college level. Perhaps she was not interpreting the question correctly, or perhaps she really felt she had progressed that much over this time period. However, this kind of progress would not be attributable to this parent-training class alone. The participant who didn’t fill out a “before” survey wrote in on the “after” survey that “now” she could read enough to survive. It is not certain what time period she was inferring existed before “now.” It would be too much of a generalization to say that this class alone made it so that she could read in Spanish. One participant left the “before” question blank.

Question 10) Two out of the eleven participants’ “before” surveys showed a change in their “after” responses. Both of these participants recorded “before” that they couldn’t read in English, and “after” they reported that now they could read English to survive. One participant left the “before” question blank.

Question 11) Relative to how much participants read to their children in Spanish on a daily basis, two participants left this blank on the “before” survey, only one left it blank on the “after.” Three participants maintained the same amount of time on both their “before” and “after” surveys. Four participants noted an increase in the amount of time they read in Spanish, from “before” to “after” (that includes one of the participants who left it blank on the “before” survey). And one wrote in “one hour” on the “before” survey, yet chose “d” on the “after” survey. This implies that she read less to her child in Spanish afterwards, compared to before (according to her own evaluation). She was the student who attended the most class sessions of any of the participants.

Question 12) Relative to how much time participants spent reading to their children in English on a daily basis, two participants left this blank on the “before” survey, only one left it blank on the “after.” Four participants maintained the same amount of time on both their “before” and “after” surveys. Four participants noted an increase in the amount of time they read in English, from “before” to “after” (that includes one of the participants who left it blank on the “before” survey). And one participant reported reading less time each day on the “after” survey than on the “before.”

Question 13) Relative to how much time participants spent reading to their children in Spanish on a weekly basis, two participants left this blank on the “before” survey, only one left it blank on the “after.” Four participants maintained the same amount of time on both their “before” and “after” surveys. Five participants noted an increase in the amount of time they read in Spanish, from “before” to “after” (that includes one of the participants who left it blank on the “before” survey).

Question 14) Relative to how much time participants spent reading to their children in English on a weekly basis, one participant left this blank on the “before” survey, and a different one left it blank on the “after” survey. Two participants maintained the same amount of time on both their “before” and “after” surveys. Five participants noted an increase in the amount of time they read in English, from “before” to “after” (that includes the participant who left it blank on the “before” survey). And one participant reported reading less time each day on the “after” survey than on the “before.”

Question 15) This question dealt with participants’ enjoyment of reading in English with their children. Two participants left this question blank on the “before” survey, and one of those two left it blank on the “after” survey. Four participants reported maintaining the same level of enjoyment on both their “before” and “after” surveys. Three participants reported feeling an increased level of enjoyment concerning reading in English (that includes the one who left the question blank on the “before” survey). Two participants actually reported a decreased level of enjoyment from the “before” to “after” surveys, each with a written statement following their response. One said, “I feel bad because I feel like I don’t pronounce things well; she speaks English better than I do.” And another wrote in, “Because he doesn’t like it when people speak in English.”

Questions 16 and 17) These two questions were not interpreted by all of the participants as I had intended. Most of the participants reported reading in Spanish because they can understand it best, because they find enjoyment in it, and/or because they like to learn. These answers were very similar in both the “before” and “after” surveys. Most reported that they read English in order to learn it, in order to be able to communicate with others, and/or because their child asks them to. These answers were similar on both the “before” and “after” surveys. Some also mentioned on both surveys the need to be able to do their homework from English classes.

Question 18) Most of the answers to this question stayed the same on both surveys. One participant reported “before” that her husband sometimes read with her daughter, but “after” she said that she was the only one who did that. Another person said “before” that her 11-year-old daughter sometimes read with her younger children, and afterwards she said that she (the participant) was the only one who read with the children at home. Another left it blank “before,” and wrote in “after” that sometimes an older sister read with the children at home (this older sister was the mother to those children; this participant was their aunt). I liked to see this, because it showed that this participant was thinking “outside of the box” more. Now this participant could look at nieces, nephews, and other children around, and consider reading with them as a possible activity.

Question 19) These responses, only recorded on the “after” survey represent a large portion of the richest data collected. Each answer needs to be read and considered individually.

19. What are your overall impressions of this class? What about it would you like to see happen again? What about it would you not include as part of the class? (Cuáles son sus impresiones generales de esta clase? Qué parte de la clase le gustaría ver repetida cada vez que está ensenada? Qué parte(s) NO incluiría otra vez, si Ud. fuera el maestro?) NOTE: This question only appeared on the AFTER survey. Answers translated from Spanish to English.

Participant A. “Well, my impressions are that I believe that this class has been very good because it’s helped us to learn more. It has helped us learn how to read more and to know how to share time with our children, and other children we spend time with. Also, I would like to see this class continue in order to read together and share about different topics and also to act things out. I believe that this was very good because it also made the reading more fun and it grabs your attention. I think it was all good, and hopefully more people will become interested because it’s all about parents reading together with their children and there will be better communication between them.”

Participant B. “I liked it all and I would like to have more classes with you, Michelle. Please tell me if you are going to continue teaching this class. I am trying to learn; we’ll see if I get it.”

Participant C. “This is a very good class, or program. It teaches us, as parents, different ways to get closer to our children. Above all, it is something that helps, and will help them, to have better development. Specifically about the class, I liked it all and I hope that this kind of class can continue.”

Participant D. “I liked how this class taught us to be able to read to our children. I liked how she taught us (told us) the words in English and Spanish, and also how she helped us to pronounce them correctly.”

Participant E. “Everything was very special. These are things that help us, the Latino parents, since we don’t know how to explain or read well in English.”

Participant F. Never came after the 1^st class

Participant G. left it blank (I think she didn’t turn the paper over to see this last question.)

Participant H. “It all seemed very good to me because I could learn techniques to use while sharing a book with a child, ones that would make him feel good, and desirous to read with pleasure. I would like to learn more about reading with expression, changing your tone of voice, and extra activities to do so that kids would increase their desires to read.”

Participant I. “I liked the classes a lot. I would add one hour to each class period because we were left without being able to go over everything the teacher wanted to.”

Participant J. “The class was very comfortable, dynamic, and fun. It is good to learn this way—playing, repeating, etc. This class had everything and I have no negative points about it…except I would make each class two hours long, or offer it more days of the week.”

Participant K. “I liked this class a lot since it increased my knowledge with new words, new experiences, and above all, with new exciting things related to reading. I believe that every part of this class complemented the other parts, so if I did it again I would include everything.”

Participant L. “In this reading class I learned many words, but especially I learned how to read to my children, and how to express myself with more emphasis, therefore calling the attention of my child. I learned other very good ideas, like making a special food that goes along with the book you are reading.”

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