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Designing, implementing, and evaluating a staff development project to improve student performance using a whole language cooperative learning approach
Abstract
This dissertation describes the design, implementation and assessment of a staff development project to develop a cooperative whole language approach. The foundation for this staff development project for elementary school was the recognition that language development is crucial to a child's ability to succeed in the school environment. The educational objectives of this project were to motivate and encourage students of low income, African American families to write imaginatively and productively, and to teach writing to those same students to help them develop their own stylistic competence. These objectives necessitated the organization of three components. First, a staff development program focused on a whole language approach so teachers could share cooperative learning strategies for improving selected aspects of writing instruction. Second, a language experience approach in which the language, experience, and feelings of minority students could be used to advance motivation, accuracy, and pride. Third, the creation of a positive school climate to help students overcome difficulties in communicating in standard English by developing a "school way of communicating" without forcing the student to conclude that the way the family converses at home is wrong. Cooperative learning staff development sessions, predicated on a whole language approach, combined five underlying principles: (a) Distributed Leadership; (b) Heterogeneous Grouping; (c) Positive Interdependence; (d) Social Skills Acquisition; and (e) Group Autonomy. These prompted the preparation of writing activities for the African American students in all aspects of the curriculum. Ongoing monitoring of students' progress and completed tasks were compiled in both a group and individual portfolios. Basic to the success of this project was overcoming six beliefs: (a) a single set of subcultural customs shape the behavior of African American members of our society; (b) language programs should involve only instruction in using standard English; (c) all African American children are apathetic and their classes are seldom exciting; (d) discipline is a unique problem in the African American classroom; (e) African American learners cannot become involved in inductive, inquiry centered learning; and, (f) staff development sessions are not required for teaching English to the African American child. The proposed goal of this effective staff development project was not to change, but, to add a new dialect to an existing one by using a child centered, whole language, cooperative learning approach. By mixing the students' own experiences and the presentation of new experiences, a new dimension was introduced. The students were meeting established norms of success and were eager to accept additional challenges. Class improvement was clearly visible in a low income, urban elementary school.
Subject Area
Elementary education|Language arts|Teacher education
Recommended Citation
Fallon-Warmuth, Carol Marie A, "Designing, implementing, and evaluating a staff development project to improve student performance using a whole language cooperative learning approach" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9207468.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9207468