Research Projects at Westmount

Westmount Charter School has been the site for many research studies, some of which are listed at the bottom of this page. Currently, Westmount is engaged in an ongoing project with English Language Learners (ELL, often referred to as English as a Second Language/ESL learners):

“Developing Vocabulary Profiles and Benchmarks for Student Writing K–12: A look at the Writing of ESL Students”
Hetty Roessingh, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

Vocabulary knowledge is increasingly recognized as the key variable in the academic success of students in the K–12 school system and beyond. As a consequence of recent developments in computational linguistics and technology applications, vocabulary profiling is attracting increased research attention. Initial findings from a handful of studies, including my own, are promising. They involve the ability to profile text level discourse—oral or written—for “lexical stretch” or “richness,” and set benchmarks for profiles of lexical output for various populations of students. This proposal will deal with disaggregated writing samples of ESL learners and compare them to the writing samples of native English speaking students (NS). It is anticipated that the lexical gap will be identified (i.e., how many and which kinds of words do ESL learners not use in their written output that their native English speaking counterparts commonly use in their academic writing?). Classroom level implications include providing teachers with tools for lexical profiling and tracking, thereby helping them target vocabulary instruction with much greater precision. At the jurisdiction level, school boards will have access to one more tool for assessing student writing—a tool that is based on empirical data.

Source of abstract: http://www.teachers.ab.ca/For%20Members/Professional%20Development/
Resources/Pages/AACES.aspx

Previous Research Projects include:

"Exploring Self Concept: Examining Valence in Gifted Students"; Dr's. Michael Pyryt and Sal Mendaglio, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary; April 2007. Presented at Annual meeting of the American Education Research Association.

"Little Fish-Bigger Pond: Understanding Social Comparison Processes in a Congregated Gifted Setting"; Dr's. Michael Pyryt and Sal Mendaglio, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary; April 2006. Presented at Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association.

"Implications for the Construction of Social, Physical and Cultural Environments that Encourage Learning", research on help-seeking and help-giving in science and environmental education; Dr. Bonnie Shapiro, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary.

20 June 2011