Inital Thoughts on Inquiry Project

Part I: Exploration
1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your Inquiry Project.

I want to focus on Latino students and literacy. I want to know why they are not excelling in that subject and find if there are ways to improve the situation

2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?

I am a Latina student and when I was younger I was in ESL and found that we never spoke English in the class, only Spanish. I also have very important people in my life that do not read very well and they think that it is because they weren't taught the right way. They say that their experience in ESL class was not completely beneficial because it allowed them to hang on to Spanish and not achieve high standards in literacy.

3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?

I feel that their is a problem with how minorities are being taught to read when you can go into a low income school with a high Latino population and you find that many of them cannot write or read at their grade level.

4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic. What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?

I don't have a lot of knowledge on the topic. My basic information is that I have seen this happen first hand and I know people that are not at the level they should be at in reading because they were put in programs where it was fine to speak Spanish and only learn the basics of English. I want to find out what are the problems and see if there are any new strategies on how to teach Latinos literacy. I want to see what programs are in place to teach literacy to Latinos and try to understand why it is not working. Basically what are the problems.

6. How might composition theorists and researchers approach or study this topic? Does this approach differ from those of other related disciplines (such as communication studies)?

I think that a composition theorist and reacher's would try to do a study on Latino students in different situations and see if they excel or not. For example does a student that is in a low income school not as literate as a Latino student in a school that has no funding problems?

7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews and/or observations)?

I think that there are books out there that I can look at. Perhaps there are some articles on the subject.

Part II: Focusing
Write an initial claim, or an open-ended question, to guide your research on this topic. Make it specific but exploratory. Remember that a good claim opens up an area of inquiry about a topic; a claim should invite evidence, support, and debate.

I want to know why Latino students are not excelling in reading and what are some ways to improve the situation.