ELL Inquiry Projects and Choice
The Importance of Giving English Language Learners Freedom of Topics
Giving English Language Learners the freedom to choose research topics helps access schema and brings cultural relevance to their learning.
All too often research projects are assigned as a genre and children are asked to put them into a specific format, answering specific questions about a specific topic that teachers have chosen. Kids are often asked to do the "standard" animal research project with typical questions such as, “What does your animal eat? Where does it live? What does it look like?” These kinds of questions are important to answer, but what if students were ledt to do their own exploration of informational texts? Instead of forcing a topic down the students’ throats, what if they were allowed to choose?
Choice Values Experiences
If students are allowed to choose their own inquiry topics, they are being given the opportunity to think and explore what matters to them, which in turn helps them stay motivated. Choice allows the students to be the drivers of their own education, while at the same time still allows the teacher to work with the child to guide his or her learning.
This is particularly helpful with English Language Learners for various reasons. The first is that many students from other cultures and countries have background knowledge about different subject areas than do American children and valuing this knowledge by encouraging them to bring it into the classroom helps them to become integrated into the class community. Secondly, this schema is a base for them to start with and makes the inquiry process more interesting for them because they are working with something they already know a little or a lot about.
Choice Helps Motivation
Motivation can at times be a big factor for all students, yet when a child is researching something that he/she has chosen for whatever reason, the level of motivation goes up. The ideas that come from their minds when they want to satiate their curiosities are amazing. This motivation creates momentum for the child and pushes her to seek out new information or areas of thinking she may have not considered before.
Choice Can Come from Content
To say that a child won’t choose something that comes from a content area is to be naïve. Content, in fact, is a great springboard for students to generate inquiry projects, and often times for primary grade students, is a main source for ideas. By integrating their content studies into their own independent inquiry projects the students are making connections throughout their day, which will also help their English language development. If teachers can help make these connections, students will eventually become more independent and greater risk takers when it comes to choosing their topics.
