How To Understand The Vocabulary Used In The Classroom

The action research that I do will make a positive impact on my students’ future. As an electrical instructor, I am preparing young men and women to be professional electricians, and for the students to be successful, it is important to know and understand the vocabulary used in the electrical industry. Over half, the students that make up my last class are ELL students, and many of the words they are seeing are brand new to them. How can I use different instructional strategies in my classroom to improve the ability of my students to know and understand the vocabulary used in the electrical industry? My action research will focus on that particular question. The critical factors that will lead my students to success are the planning, the collaboration

Some of the data collection tools that play a big part in my plan are documents/student work, critical friend groups, literature as data, and field notes. For example, one instructional strategy that I researched, and I plan to implement in my class is the read-aloud strategy. There is data that proves that read-alouds contribute to the vocabulary growth of older readers as well as non-readers as young as kindergarteners (Chung, 2012). When I use this strategy, I plan to read to my class articles from different electrical trade magazine and journals. Similarly, my kids can break into small groups and read together, and I can walk around the room observing each group. Student observation is critical in my research. I need to be open to trying different strategies in the classroom when it comes to learning vocabulary. Students enjoy playing games, so I plan to use a crossword puzzle worksheet that is made up of electrical terms that are utilized in the electrical business. Students can work together as a team or by themselves, and I can make a contest out of it so see which group finishes first. Visuals and graphic organizers will also play a significant role in the plan. For example, I will be using Venn diagrams in my research. I will also try the traditional way of matching definitions to the correct vocabulary word. How my ELL students do on the activity within each strategy will tell me what instructional strategy works

Some of the professional educators I will be collaborating with come from other career and technology programs such as carpentry, welding, and automotive technology. We share a passion for wanting our students to succeed and achieve, and we know the importance of learning the vocabulary in each of our trades we teach. Collaborating brings together different perspectives, ideas, experiences, and resources (Mertler, 2014). The ELL population is large in our school and our programs, and regardless of the different disciplines we teach, we can use the same instructional strategies. It is not enough for our ELL students to have the hands-on skills necessary to work in the different vocational trades, but the vocabulary is just essential. For example, without knowing and understanding the vocabulary, my ELL students will not be able to pass the state examinations that electricians take. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues and working on a plan that benefits my students. Collaborating once or twice a week with my colleagues is necessary for my ELL students to be successful. Similarly, collaborating with my students is just as important because my kids can tell me first-hand how they feel about each