The Short Story about Writing a Master's Thesis

Greetings, fellow Steemians! I have neglected Steemit for many months, writing my thesis for a Master's Degree in Education. I am finally DONE!!! Although it may be quite boring, I feel obligated to write about my experience since I've been gone for so long, dear readers. I also hope to enlighten some on how to write one of these babies. It's so much work. There is a ton of research. And, oh, so much writing.

WAIT! I know, I know. The last thing you may feel like doing is reading about a thesis! But please, if you are at least remotely interested or curious as to the 9-month, 36-page process, I promise to be as entertaining as possible . . .

So let's begin with the boring facts. There are five chapters to a thesis required by my university: Introduction, Review of the Literature, Methodology, Findings and Conclusion.

Sleeping yet? Honestly, I'm hoping this can be helpful for someone...

The intro simply focuses on my research question: What strategies are currently being used in the early childhood classroom for children who speak another language besides English. Yes, here in America (as I'm sure you've heard), we speak English, we teach English, we love ourselves some English. Some even think it's our national language. That is not true, of course. It's called the First Amendment, people! Freedom of Speech forever! But please, teach our kids English. All of them. Pronto.

So let's move on to Chapter 2: The Review of the Literature. I swear, it took me about 2 weeks to understand what I was even supposed to do. "Review of the Literature" is apparently the phrase used for "let's read a bunch of reputable research about the topic and write stuff about it." This is grueling, tedious, and mind-numbing. You think reading THIS puts you to sleep? Try reading "What linguistically diverse parents know and how it can help early childhood Educators: A case study of a dual language preschool community." Yup. The body is as dull as the title. No offense to the author. It's a great study. I used it. But reading it, along with 20 other required resources, was harsh. The professors at my college recommend not really reading all the dozens of pages of the many articles of research. They said to just skim to find anything that pertains to your research question.

Which was .... what again? After “skimming” the fifth article, I had no idea.

Let's move quickly now, shall we? I can tell I’m losing you and I said I'd try to be entertaining as well as insightful ...

The Review of the Literature finds what the experts say are the best strategies to teach those young English language learners. That leads to Chapter 3 – Methodology. This explains how I will find out what strategies are actually being used by creating a survey to collect the data from teachers at local schools. This was easy with so many online sources to create a survey. What was difficult was getting teachers to respond. Out of 66 teachers, only 12 responded. So please, to all my fellow teachers, if you get a survey from a lowly student who is trying to get data for a paper, take time and answer it! It could have made my thesis SO much more interesting with MORE data!!! I sent three reminders. I begged. I even tried the pity route by letting them know only 10 out of the 66 responded (aww, poor student). That got me 2 more. Time was limited, so a dozen it shall be forevermore.

The results of the survey are included in Chapter 4 – Findings. The recommendation of my professor was to stick to the facts, report only on the facts, opinions and assumptions do not belong here. In this chapter were tables of the percentages of the many strategies reported. Popular strategies reported were whole group readings, engaging in social and academic language instruction, building on existing knowledge, scaffolding activities, and using visual cues. Yup. Tables and facts. Facts and tables …

Wake up! It’s time for Chapter 5 – The Conclusion! This was the chapter where I could get a little creative, but I had to watch myself. Again, no opinions here, but you can make assumptions from the data.

So do you want to know what I found out? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. The one thing the experts said was using the child’s native language was key to learning a second language (English). My data reported the 12 teachers barely using the native language in the classroom! It really surprised me. But under such small conditions (5 schools participated in the study), my assumption was the need for teaching English as quickly as possible due to high-stakes testing was evident. Here, in the suburbs of a large city in America, five schools need to meet the Common Core Standards by third grade. Period. So again, your kids better learn English. Pronto.

And that was it! Nine months of my life and 36-page thesis later, I’m finally finished with my Master’s Degree in Education. I’m looking forward to writing about my positive teaching experiences with preschoolers again soon.

Ooo...can I be referred to as a Master Jedi now?

tired
wakey