Effects of concept-based instruction on an English language learner in a rural school: A descriptive case study

Bilingual Research Journal, Summer 2003 by Twyman, Todd, Ketterlin-Geller, Leanne R, McCoy, Jan D, Tindal, Gerald

Measurement of Outcomes

Map activity

The map activity was used primarily as an advance organizer (Ausebel, 1968) for the extended-response essay. The goal of this activity was to have students develop their ideas relative to the concept of civilization prior to writing the essay. The students were rated on the degree to which the map's land features were consistent with the attributes of civilization, which they were expected to explicitly list in the legend. Since there are state standards and benchmarks for social studies in this state, but no standardized test, this activity was deliberately aligned to the "Historical Skills" component of the state standards for the subsequent (eighth) grade, which requires students to "interpret and reconstruct chronological relationships" using timelines, narratives, and so forth (Oregon Department of Education, 2002b).

Extended-response essay

The major advantage of using an extended-response essay is its emphasis on a student's ability to integrate and apply his or her thinking in unique problem-solving scenarios. Also, an extended-response essay measures the complexity of student achievement more sensitively than objective test items (Linn & Gronlund, 1995). The essay was also specifically aligned to one of the state's benchmarks for world history for the subsequent (eighth) grade that requires students to "understand the major characteristics and historical influence of the early civilizations of . . . the Americas" (Oregon Department of Education, 2002b). Using a 1-5 rating scale, with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest, the essay was evaluated by two master of education students on the explicit presence of attributes and their connectedness to each other. Twenty-four (76%) of the essay scores exactly matched, and eight (24%) were 1 point apart.

Results

Although no statistical differences were apparent in the maps created by students in the experimental versus the control group, statistically significant differences were found (t[31] = -2.685, p = .012) between the two groups in their writing. The similarity in the scoring of the maps was deemed inconsequential, as it served primarily as a pre-writing activity for the essay. As the data indicate, the experimental group outperformed the control group on the extended-response essay. Individually, RM's results are particularly interesting, because although RM scored only a 2 on the map, he scored a 5 on the essay. (See Figures 4a & 4b for the final assessment prompt, along with an image of RM's map.)

Below is the transcript of RM's writing assessment, with errors reproduced verbatim:

I found my island in the Pacific Oceon. People all ready lived there. They heard that I have read about the early civilization of amicasomecs, Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas. They think I know about four important feature of civilization. Peoples belief was that the temples were religion. People lived together by building a small villige so they can support themselves. By the water the put a farmed land farmers go fishing a lot that's also a nother thing they support them selfs they had trails to go from one city to the other. People communicated with writing language that is colled hieyoglyphics that how they know how to get from one villige to the other by putting signs with hieyroglyphics.