blog 9

Blog 9

Teacher Interview

Draft

As teachers you wear many hats. You are the teacher and mentor.  Middle School students present a unique set of issues. Physical ,emotional; and  social changes can affect a students focus. Sometimes teachers are presented with the challenge to motivate students that are struggling with these challenges. Researchers have noted that a positive classroom social environment may play a role in motivating students to improve. We are doing research to find out this environment can motivate middle school students.  We would like your input into this matter.

Name:

Occupation:

Nationality

Race

Let me get down some facts about you/ your family

Education

What grade do you teach?

Parents literacy history?

Parents education/profession

Did your parents use motivation techniques/strategies?

What were they?

Interview

Teaching subject

Number of students (mainstream)

Time of day

How many students:

 

Students with learning disabilities

How many?

Male?

Female?
 

What are some of the concerns that (physical, emotional, social,) that you encounter?

Do you find that gender plays a role in how you motivate students?

 Do you find that the social environment in the classroom plays a role in motivating a student to try harder?

 

Tell me a story about a time when you tried to motivate a struggling student

What was the result?

Did you use specific words?

 

 Did a teacher ever motivate you? If so, what did he or she say?

Researchers had noted that specific words that or phrases to help students to create a positive social environment

 

What are some specific language or actions that you use to create this enviroment?


What was the result?

 

 

 

 

Have you ever read a book on creating a positive social environment for motivating students?

Have you ever attended a workshop on this subject?

 

Would you like to add more to this that I haven’t asked?

Thank you for your time. If you would like to add more to this at another time feel free to contact me.

 

 

 

 

 

Blog 8

Blog 8 Gaming research questions

 

Should you have some background knowledge of the research before conducting the interview?

 

Ch uses language that is familiar to to B throughout the interview.  To start B comments that Ch” knows what everyone else knows how to use, frontpage, powerpoint, excel”. Ch  asked “ games aren’t really considered software..later she asks “so you know lots of software”. Towards the end of the interview Ch asks B “how about file systems and gaming spaces” and B responds “ …the games are still software.

 

Its important that an interviewer and the interviewee be in a discourse community together.  This makes the interview smooth and keeps the conversational.  Also having a common language discourse will also help the researcher to conduct a stronger interview because he or she is not stopping the interview to ask “what do that term mean?” Lastly, having a common discourse language will allow the interviewer to ask meaningful questions and gather meaning data.

Blog 1

Blog 1

What kind of research studies is I interested in doing?

Throughout my elementary and high school education learning came quite easily ( I struggled with math a little, but had I applied myself I would have excelled at it.. I think).  I always wondered about the students in my classes who struggled with the classes.  You know who they are, that sad or confused look on their faces.  Some of them dropped out before high school, or after the sophomore year. Teachers have to wear many hats, including mentor, friend, or motivater. As a teacher I look forward to wearing these hats, but I know that it is a huge responsibility. I want to inspire students to achieve their dreams and I know that sometimes the right word can help a student who is struggling. Words can inspire. What language do teachers use to motivate students? This is what I want to research.

 Here are just additional subtopics that I would like to explore.

·         What language do teachers use to motivate students when they are unresponsive?

·         What language do you teachers use to build the child’s self-esteem?

·         What language do teacher use to encourage students to improve their writing skills?

developing a research plan

Developing a research plan

1. Identify your focus.  This is a general statement of what you are interested in

2. Identify your research question:  What in particular do you want to find out?  State your question in as specific terms as you can: the age/identity of your subjects, the location of your study, the particular activities/features you will focus on. 

Your research question is really a group of related questions, stated in specific terms, where you narrow in on what in particular you want to learn about in your study.

3. Who has studied this question and what do they say.  For this prompt - mention any article that you have read where researchers have explored answers to your question.  If you can't find any articles - tell me something about what you searched for and what you found (even if it wasn't right).

4.What do I need to find out to answer this question?  This prompt is to help you clarify and deepen your research question.

5.  What do I need to do to gather information that will answer my question?
 This prompt is to help you think about how to design your study.  Who will you work with?  Where?  what will you do together?

Developing a research plan

1. Identify your focus.  This is a general statement of what you are interested in

My focus is using language to motivate students to do their best

2. Identify your research question:  What in particular do you want to find out?  State your question in as specific terms as you can: the age/identity of your subjects, the location of your study, the particular activities/features you will focus on. 

What language do teachers and researchers use to motivate middle school students? What language works to motivate and what language doesn’t work.. I may focus on students with learning disabilities.

Your research question is really a group of related questions, stated in specific terms, where you narrow in on what in particular you want to learn about in your study.

3. Who has studied this question and what do they say.  For this prompt - mention any article that you have read where researchers have explored answers to your question.  If you can't find any articles - tell me something about what you searched for and what you found (even if it wasn't right).

The Classroom Socail Environment and Changes in Adolesences Motivation and Engagement During Middle School by Allison M Ryan and Helen Patrick

4.What do I need to find out to answer this question?  This prompt is to help you clarify and deepen your research question.

I need to find out if they have specific training, books, or workshops on this matter. Is there specific language they use for motivation. Is there a different language for students with learning disabilities?

5.  What do I need to do to gather information that will answer my question?

 This prompt is to help you think about how to design your study.  Who will you work with?  Where?  what will you do together?

 

I will interview 2 special eduation teachers and  mainstream teacher afterschool for  minutes each.

Blog 6

Our Group: Bri, Danielle J., Danielle B.

Question #5: How does the amount of text selected for side comments affect students’ responses?

Features of the comments:

Length (amount of text in words and lines)

Lines with no text that make the comments seem longer than they are

We can classify the side comments into  three categories based on length.

Brief comments are 1 or 2 lines long  and are approximately 5 to 17 words long.

Average comments are 3 to 4 lines long. In word count, they are approximately 18 to 31 words long.

Extensive comments are 5 lines or more, using at least 32 words.

The extensive comment (Comment ML8) with the most words and lines is in Data 4-2  with 9 lines, 69 words.

Features of student responses:

While we do not have access to the data which would contain the students’ responses, we can infer from our own experiences that there would be different levels of accuracy of “how right the student gets it.” How much does the student change where there was previously a comment?

Does the student change nothing at all?

Does the student make minor changes, like add some sentences for clarification or omit a few phrases?

Does the student make major changes, like completely add or delete a paragraph?

Observations from personal experience:

Brief comments sometimes may not be very specific and may not elicit a response from the student simply because the student is not sure what the teacher’s suggestion means.

Extensive comments are typically very specific in telling the writer exactly what needs to be done, but just looking at the amount of text can make students feel overwhelmed.

There is not always a direct relationship between amount of text in the comment and extent of the change. A brief comment may elicit no change, a minor change, or a major change as a response. For example, consider the comment, “I’m not sure I see the logical connections between these ideas. Can you clarify?” (Data Set 4-4, Comment ML8). What kind of change is made will depend on whatever the student decides is best. In most cases, from our experiences, a brief comment will only elicit a minor change. In the case of a brief comment that is purely positive and written to motivate the student, the student may not change anything at all.