3.

5 – Oral Language
Inquiry

Pamela Balikis
 Inquiry Question:
How do I create an
environment where my
ELLs feel comfortable
taking risks?

Looking at what I already do and

what research I can incorporate
into practice
What I already do in my classroom

– Make myself vulnerable

– I share personal stories with my students during example
presentations
– Hang lights
– Decorate for festive occasions
– Asked students to bring in their own decorations for our winter door
and tree
– Accent my room with pop culture items that I relate to
– Bring in cultural knickknacks for my desk
– Statues of: Alexander the Great, Spartan helmet, Athena
Educational Psychology: Developing
Learners by J Ormrod, E. M. Anderman,
and & L. Anderman
– Quotes that I would like to explore further:
– “the activity and noise levels are poor indicators of how much students are learning”
(Ormrod et al., 2016, p. 478)
– “Research consistently indicates that the quality of teacher–student relationships is one of
the most important factors—perhaps the most important factor—affecting students’
emotional well-being, motivation, and learning” (p. 480)
– “Communicate high yet realistic expectations for performance, and provide the support
students need to meet those expectations” (p. 480)
– “Remember that caring and respect involve much more than just showing affection” (p.
480)
– “Give students some control over classroom activities” (p. 483)
– “Choose tasks at an appropriate difficulty level for students’ knowledge and skills” (p. 489)
Summary of Findings:
Educational Psychology: Developing
Learners
– An excellent resource that breaks down what is and is not
conducive to learning and looks at different case studies from
elementary to secondary. A lot of what this text says connects back
to our previous modules such as setting high expectations for our
ELLs. There is also an informative chart that talks about age-typical
developmental trends and strategies to help those students. I’m
still thinking about how this is going to impact my practice. There
are a lot of great ideas in this text that I am looking forward to
developing more. I would appreciate any guidance on how I can
narrow these quotes into something functional for my question.
Freedom to Fail: How Do I Foster Risk-
Taking and Innovation in My Classroom?
by A. K. Miller
– Quotes that I would like to explore further:
– “we frame failure through a growth mindset, we can mitigate students’ fears of it” (Miller,
2015, p. 2)
– “If students are never given the opportunity to fail, they’ll never know how much they can
improve” (p. 3)
– “By establishing classroom norms and routines that support a safe environment, we can
provide students with the scaffolding they need as they fail forward” (p. 5)
– “If students are going to be asked to take risks, feel safe, and learn from their failures, then
they absolutely must trust their teachers” (p. 5)
– “As students fail forward in their learning, knowing that they will have the opportunity to ask
further questions helps them feel safe” (p. 6)
– “When students are seated in rows, the arrangement communicates a message of rigidness
and lack of collaboration, which works against a culture of failing forward” (p. 10)
Summary of Findings:
Freedom to Fail: How Do I Foster Risk-Taking
and Innovation in My Classroom?
– This resource explicitly ties together what an environment must have
in order to help students feel safe to “fail forward” and have the
“freedom to fail.” I appreciated how the author went over these
strategies in detail and also how his research tied back to previous
modules in how we try to improve student confidence. A number of
the ideas he states (such as having students in pods, not rows) are
things that I already do. It’s good to see that some of the structural
elements I choose to incorporate into my classroom are backed by
research. In the final version of this inquiry I would appreciate other
points of view to help support some of the quotes I have picked out.
References

– Ormrod, J. E., Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L.

(2016). Educational psychology: Developing
learners (9th ed.). Pearson Education Limited.
– Miller, A. K. (2015). Freedom to fail: How do I
foster risk-taking and innovation in my
classroom? (ASCD Arias). ASCD.