The Literacy Teaching and Learning in a Classroom: A Case Study in an American Islamic School
[Thesis]
Parlindungan, Firman
Rodgers, Adrian
The Ohio State University
2019
240 p.
Ph.D.
The Ohio State University
2019
This study described how the English language arts (ELA) teacher mediates the literacy learning of the 6th grade students at Bright Star Islamic school whose language and cultural background is diverse. Three specific research questions guided this study, including (1) what approach does the teacher use to develop literacy skills of the students? (2) what texts are available for the students? and (3) what is the student response to the teacher-led discussion and teacher-created assignments? Drawing upon the ecological framework to literacy (Barton, 1994), this study shed lights on the Islamic school's literacy that is intertwined with religious values in addition to knowledge construction mediated through multiple use of languages and texts. Narrative case study was carried out to unpack and understand the classroom interaction. The participants included one teacher and 20 students in her ELA class. 30 literacy lessons were observed and audio-recorded which comprised of a total of 40 hours. In addition to that, field notes, semi-structure interviews of the teacher and the student, as well as documentation were used to enrich and confirm the data. The observation and interview data were transcribed verbatim. Grounded theory was employed for data analysis which consisted of analyzing data through coding them into categories for the purpose of comparison. The categories contained labels that resembled conceptualization of key findings of the data and represented the cases being studied. The analysis stopped when a core category emerged in which I can integrate the analysis and develop a `story' encapsulating the main themes of the study. Results from the analysis showed that regarding the research question #1, the teacher situated the classroom literacy events as social practices deriving from her interpretation of the State' learning standards, the school's ELA curriculum (i.e. Wit & Wisdom), conception of reading instruction, and teacher' roles in the classroom, as well as her effort to integrate Islamic knowledge and values. Findings on research question #2 indicated that the students' learning the new culture and the larger U.S. socio-historical context were mediated through both secular and sacred texts. Finally, answers to research question #3 showed that the student response to teacher-led discussion, particularly in discussing textual information was short and limited in which the pattern of interaction followed I-R-E routine. The student response was longer with better argumentation in discussing extratextual information, language features of literary texts, and Islamic knowledge and values in which the pattern of interaction was more dialogic. Pedagogically speaking, this study suggests that ELA teachers need carefully interpret the State learning standards, school curriculum, and school principle into specific learning objectives and classroom practices. Although explicit teaching on specific skills of literacy is crucial (e.g. vocabulary, comprehension, fluency), integrated teaching that orchestrates literacy skills together is more promising that is by conducting classroom discussion in which teachers have less control over the discourse to extend greater student participation.