Blog # 8 Research Plan

Blog # 8   

Research Plan

Topic: How teachers use observation skills in order to solve problems in a class room. What do they look for and how they verbally communicate with the students to solve the problem.

1. Who/What you will be studying?

• Either a kindergarten or first grade teacher.
• How they have their observational skills to solve any issues in their classrooms, what worked what didn't.

2. Where will you collect your information?

• Interview a grade school teacher.
• A book that professor Chandler will lend me.

3. How many subjects will you study?

• What to look for while observing, for example what skills need to be applied here
• How to use communication in order to effectively fix a problem
• How a teacher's past experience on this subject matter has actually worked.

4. What methods will you use to conduct your study?

• One or more interviews
• A book on teaching that professor Chandler will lend to me. (More information will be given once I know what the book implies).
• Possibly any other data I can find on this subject

Blog # 7

Blog # 7

Listen to the recording of your oral history interview. Write up some observations about what you have learned about interviewing.


For this assignment I conducted the interview a little differently. Since I was not in class on Tuesday I interviewed someone sitting next to me in the library, and I did not record our conversation because we had to speak to each other quietly. Before I started this assignment I read a few classmates blogs to see how their interviews went. Most people said that they wish that they had time to prepare for the interview which made me feel much better because I did have time to prepare questions. This was helpful for me because I set up two sets of questions. 1 set included questions I would ask if he told me that he did have a valentine and the other set was questions I was going to ask if he told me he did not have a valentine.


Once the interviewing process was over I still felt as though I was still unprepared. The interview was about two minutes long because I did not know what else to talk to him about. I did have some improve questions for him which I felt made the conversation flow easy, but it was quick and to the point . I think that my interview was different from everyone else's because for me there was no teacher there to instruct us on a time frame. One thing I have to say about interviewing is that I don't think one can truly  be 100% prepared for an interview because you will never know what information the other person will give you. Its like you have to just go with the flow and stop worrying about how awkward it is talking to someone that you don't know.


For my next interview , I hope to have a conversation with the person about what my topic is and then  start with questions. This way the participant will feel comfortable with you.

Blog # 5

On Thursdays class Professor Chandler had us participate on an ethnographic exercise and asked us to take notes on what was going on as we talked to people whom we did not know. Below I will share with you my notes!

Jottings

-Melissa
-Iphone note taking
-some people talking in groups
- Holly
-talked about how awkward it was
-Some people were laughing
-Professor Observed
-some people were quiet
-Some convo's were "how we have so so and so class together"
- Awkward laughter
- group formed and the conversations flow was at ease
-some people did not make an effort to meet everyone in the class
- Some stayed close to their friends
-Professor asked us to mingle and move around
-Professor's tone was friendly
- Got really quiet at some


Headnotes

• Have to go talk to someone we don't know
• Walked directly to someone I did not know
• Spoke to Melissa first then spoke to Holly
• Most people had their cell phones out to take notes, I had paper
• People seemed to be uncomfortable
• Some stayed close to their friends and people they knew, where they were comfortable
• Professor asked us to keep moving around the room and talk to others
• Spoke to Melissa about not really knowing what to do/write down
• Felt Awkward and did not know what to talk to people about
• The class got really quiet but there was 1 group still talking 
• Then they stopped because everyone else stopped talking
•  We were instructed by Professor Chandler to go back to our seats

Things I remembered Later that day

• Professor Chandler asked the class to talk to someone else, probably because she saw that no one was really moving around.
• There wasn't much eye contact, this did not feel natural rather it felt like an assignment for me
• It was very hard to start a conversation
• Groups formed
• The body language in some people were very relaxed , chatting
• Others body language seemed tense
• I heard some conversations , one group was talking about how they had another class together
• Some people connected easily with each other , some didn't.
• There wasn't much movement in the room

Field Notes


Professor Chandler asked us to get up and meet one another and take notes on our observations. At first everyone was looking around in confusion and didn't know who they were going to talk to first. Since this assignment was meant to meet and talk to someone you did not know in the class I walked over to a girl who was standing alone looking for someone. Her name was Melissa! After we exchanged names we were writing it down , I then asked her " do you know what we are supposed to do?" I was still confused about what we had to write down, I was nervous and treated this experiment as a chore. After not knowing what to say to each other we went on meeting others. I then met Holly, we chatted for a bit and I noticed that we both felt a little awkward and didn't really make much eye contact. I looked around the room to see if anyone else was feeling as awkward as I did, and sure enough I noticed that some people were having trouble just like I was. I also noticed that not everyone was making the same attempt as I was to talking to people we did not know in the room. There were people who sat together in this class  stayed next to each other, then there were some people who talked to each other because they knew them from another class. This I knew because I could hear conversations around me. Some people even formed a group and held conversations, while some held back a little and observed. Professor Chandler observed us while in the process and I guess she noticed that people stayed where they were comfortable, so she asked us in a laid back tone to move around and talk to someone else. Some people did and others didn't. I think she didn't press on that too too much, which was good because the situation she put us in was awkward enough! (Thanks professor!)  After a while the room fell to a silence and all we could hear was two girls having a conversation, then they stopped after realizing how quiet it got. At that point I thought Professor Chandler would tell us that the activity was over, but she didn't , so we continued talking. People still stayed in their groups talking seeming to get more comfortable as they got to know each other, while others still seemed to be tense. Then Professor Chandler asked us to say good bye and take a seat. I know for me it was a relief that this activity was over!



My thoughts on this exercise!

I think that Ethnographic research is a challenge because it is hard to observe while your interacting . Making jottings and head notes on things that I need to remember is something I learned in our class discussion . These are good tools to use while observing, I usually write details which is not good while doing Ethnographic research because I will miss a good chunk of observation time. Another thing that I thought was a good idea was to ask your self what I remember after some time has passed because I found that I remembered some things I did not mention right after the exercise.

Blog #4

Is Professor Chandlers class a Discourse Community?

Looking at the qualities of a discourse community, I think that this class functions as a discourse community in many ways. A discourse community is a group of specific "identities" that all share the same goals.  Our identity is STUDENTS, wanting to learn, and the professor is our "leader". 

1. Set of same goals- We all have the same goal as students , which is to pass this course! We also share the same subject interest which is English.

2. Mechanisms of intercommunication - in this class we communicate with one another by blogs, group work, and we all communicate with the professor via emails. Our community the professor has her own role unlike the rest of us. She speaks to her students and we listen, she asks us questions and we answer. In this community the professor is the leader. 

3. A discourse community utilizes one or more genres- we are all going to be choosing and focusing on a research topic which interest us.

 
4. A discourse community has acquired some specific lexis- in this class we use specific language some specific language we use in our class are , which we recently learned. Communities, Ethnography, Discourse, Rhetoric, Rhetorical situation, Analysis and Rhetorical analysis.


5.  A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise-  In this class we are all going to write a research paper, work together to grasp a better understanding of topics.

Blog # 3

Swales - The concept of a discourse community.

In this article Swales introduces the term Lexis which is just a fancy way of saying language. Lexis is used to determine the terminology used within a group.

Analysis - is when you look at something and pick it apart in order to make a conclusion about the community. When you analyze a discourse community you are picking it apart by looking at all of its parts , which sometimes can be looking at the LEXIS within the group in order to make a conclusion of the groups functions.