A Cross-Case Comparison of Functional Grammar Instruction Using Informational Science Text

• In Event: How Research With English Learners, Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory, Can Support the Call for “Close Reading” of “Complex Texts”

Abstract

This paper presents comparative case studies (Merriam, 2001) of four classrooms where functional grammar instruction was enacted: three third-grades and one fourth-grade. Case study is appropriate for this design-based research; the findings of the close analyses of teaching and learning are being used in the iterative revision of the FG curriculum.

The questions pursued across the cases are: How, and with what outcomes, did teachers enact FGA instruction designed to focus on form-meaning connections and support English learners to engage in the close study of informational texts? The case study teachers, members of the Language and Meaning research project, participated in six hours of professional development tailored to the plans presented in Paper #1. They had already been introduced to FGA in the context of teaching with narrative text; however, this was their first foray into using functional grammar to support their students to interpret and learn from informational text. These teachers teach in schools in which over 90% of the children speak Arabic as their first language, a high proportion of the children are classified as English learners, and many live in poverty.

The data for the case studies were derived from: pre- and post-multiple choice assessments of children’s topic-specific knowledge, children’s writing in response to an open-ended question regarding the instructional topic, video and field notes from each day of instruction, and reflection logs that teachers completed at the end of the unit of study, in which they evaluated the unit and offered their suggestions for enhancing the unit.

The videos are being analyzed by identifying events when the teacher is using the functional grammar metalanguage to engage students in interpreting and learning with the text; specifically, we have focused on those instructional events when the teacher is introducing the students to the application of the functional grammar features; these are the moments when the teachers are the most explicit about the metalanguage.

The analyses of the student learning data, 50% of which have been scored, provide evidence that students do acquire content in the process of engaging in close reading, supported by functional grammar analysis. While the majority of children had little entering knowledge regarding the topic they were about to study, they exited the study with significantly more knowledge, but also with the possibility of learning more. Furthermore, analyses of the students’ writing reveals that a subset of students began to appropriate the functional grammar meta-language in their own written explanations of phenomena.

Most useful to our questions are the video and field notes that revealed the features of instruction associated with these gains. In addition, variations in the case study analyses have been useful to articulating what “fidelity of implementation” entails. Our discussion addresses the affordances of functional grammar as one of a repertoire of tools useful to interpreting text in the press for imposing coherence on a text revealed through our observations and analysis as well as the challenge of maintaining a dual focus on the text-base and situation model (Kintsch, 1998).

Authors

• Annemarie S. Palincsar, University of Michigan

• Carrie Symons, University of Michigan

• Jason Patrick Moore, University of Michigan

• Catherine L. O'Hallaron, University of Michigan