What is my plan for the second half of AI? Where could I use the help of the AI fellows?
My plan for this week is to continue to comb through the data that collected from students following the advice Cindy gave us on Thursday. Up to this point my focus has been on Dragon Boy and I know there were other useful/valuable/intriguing trends at work in the book clubs this spring, so I will be looking for those.
For this week I would also like to complete the "To Do" list that Cindy and I created last week.
Item #1: Trace our processFor this item I will look back over my plan books and at the e-mails I have save from Cindy to compile a list of how we have arrived at our current thinking about book clubs. this will also help us recall whatprocedures we have used in the past.
Item #2: Book SelectionsWe have decided to change out one novel (possibly two--we need to decide the final fate of Life of Pi) and we are in need of a new selection. Some of the titles we considered in the past could be useful and I am also open to suggestions from those in the group.
Item #3: OK...just like how I couldn't remember when my turn was to bring snacks, I also can't remember items 3 and 4 from the to do list. Wouldn't you know it that I also can't find the sticky note that has the list written on it?!?!?!? Oh well.The improvised items on my list (just like this prompt) are to come up with the plan for book clubs this fall. I am curious about the suggestion someone gave to try a test run of the book clubs to help students understand the procedure for this activity better. I'm not sure if this could work because of the logistics of putting together a collection of books for students to select from a this late date.
I am also determined to come up with a plan...I think one of the original list items has returned to me...for NCTE. We need to look at the NCTE proposal to see what our focus for our session will be in November.
We also (yeah the last original list item!) need to create a timeline for planning for the NCTE session.
Finally, we need to work on the permission slips so that we can tape record students next fall.
Showing posts with label AI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AI. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2007
How to Write a Research Article (Open Activity)
1) ? RQ
2) Primary Data (first pass)
* 3) Secondary Research (published)
4) Design experiment--what do I need to know/show?, order of operations (preliminary data?)
[Doesn't need to be followed in numerical order.]
Freewrite (in a not so free format):
Who is the audience who needs to know?
English teachers, primarily, or any teacher interested in using literature in her/his classroom to foster strong discussion skills and a climate that encourages civil discourse would benefit from reviewing my research.
? RQ
What happens when students discuss controversial issues in a book club setting?
Design Experiment
What do I need to know?
I would like to have better insight into the conversations students are having as they discuss their book club books. The field notes I’ve collected and discussion logs I’ve collected give me some insight into what they discuss and how those discussions have gone, but I still feel like I am missing a component of those dialogues. This is why I would like to have the ability to tape record the students during their book club discussions next year.
Order of operations
Before school starts I need to complete and submit the permission form to PSD and/or the human subjects committee to gain permission to record book clubs in the fall.
Primary Data
My first pass over my data seems to indicate that when given permission to discuss a challenging or difficult topic the students will accept that invitation—most of the time. Telling students that our purpose in book clubs is to learn to discuss difficult subjects seems to allow them to more freely (and maturely in some cases) discuss the novel under examination.
Secondary Research
I still need to collect secondary research. I imagine that Cindy’s book and The Book Club Connection could both be starting points to point readers to, but I imagine that I should probably find more information about civil discourse and/or how to teach students to participate in these discussions.
2) Primary Data (first pass)
* 3) Secondary Research (published)
4) Design experiment--what do I need to know/show?, order of operations (preliminary data?)
[Doesn't need to be followed in numerical order.]
Freewrite (in a not so free format):
Who is the audience who needs to know?
English teachers, primarily, or any teacher interested in using literature in her/his classroom to foster strong discussion skills and a climate that encourages civil discourse would benefit from reviewing my research.
? RQ
What happens when students discuss controversial issues in a book club setting?
Design Experiment
What do I need to know?
I would like to have better insight into the conversations students are having as they discuss their book club books. The field notes I’ve collected and discussion logs I’ve collected give me some insight into what they discuss and how those discussions have gone, but I still feel like I am missing a component of those dialogues. This is why I would like to have the ability to tape record the students during their book club discussions next year.
Order of operations
Before school starts I need to complete and submit the permission form to PSD and/or the human subjects committee to gain permission to record book clubs in the fall.
Primary Data
My first pass over my data seems to indicate that when given permission to discuss a challenging or difficult topic the students will accept that invitation—most of the time. Telling students that our purpose in book clubs is to learn to discuss difficult subjects seems to allow them to more freely (and maturely in some cases) discuss the novel under examination.
Secondary Research
I still need to collect secondary research. I imagine that Cindy’s book and The Book Club Connection could both be starting points to point readers to, but I imagine that I should probably find more information about civil discourse and/or how to teach students to participate in these discussions.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Day 3: Morning Pages
Think of a Volvo. Nothing flashy or glamorous. High end without being trendy or frivolous. Reliable and safe. Structurally sound with a roll bar to create a cocoon of protection for the passengers. Safe enough to survive a crash or minor collision and return to the road with a new fender or bumper. User friendly, mechanically sound, but can still create a thrill when racing down the highway.
Book clubs are much the same. They have been around forever (at least it can feel that way). Road tested by thousands and thousands in all sorts of circumstances and settings. No one views them as a flash in the pan or an expensive, untested venture. The structure or foundation is solid enough to withstand minor tweaking or the occasional Dragon Master.
Book clubs are much the same. They have been around forever (at least it can feel that way). Road tested by thousands and thousands in all sorts of circumstances and settings. No one views them as a flash in the pan or an expensive, untested venture. The structure or foundation is solid enough to withstand minor tweaking or the occasional Dragon Master.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Day 2: Morning Pages (again posted in the evening) :)
Question: What, if any, parameters do you put in place to help monitor the discussion of controversial subjects in your book circles? Interpretation of artworks such as this one [Julian Schnabel's "Christ's Last Day" at the right] would certainly be a hot topic in a public school setting--how do you handle the idea of censorship?
What a fantastic question, Natalie! (Plus, I like the inclusion of the artwork.) Actually, the personalized nature of book clubs helps deal with the issue of censorship, at least in part. As a result, I have yet to establish any strict parameters.
At the beginning of the process Cindy and I conduct “book talks” where we describe the plot, the setting, and a bit about the protagonist of each novel. We also pass out a packet with a synopsis of each novel for students to review. Finally, we answer any questions students have about the novels. This provides ample opportunity for me to “warn” students about books that deal with topics they may find too uncomfortable to discuss. For instance, I know that as soon as I mention that the novel Feed uses profanity many deeply religious students stop considering the book altogether. Similarly, once I mention that Postcards from No Man’s Land deals with bi-sexuality some students rule it out entirely. This means that when students list their top three choices I am (almost) guaranteed that they are agreeing to discuss the controversial subject in a mature (as mature as sophomores can) way.
Also, having parents sign a permission slip means that they are aware that their son or daughter may be tackling a difficult topic. The aspect of choice (I am not forcing anyone to read anything) seems to have alleviated any parental concerns as well.
This even has helped with dealing with my administrators. One assistant principal sat in my classroom as I gave the book talks this fall and she later commented on how glad she was that I gave students “the heads up” about profanity and other uncomfortable topics.
I realize that I have painted a fairly rosy picture here. Censorship is an issue I am concerned about with book clubs, but possibly not in the way this question (or my interpretation of the question) suggests. Students censor themselves. Indeed, this is the very reason that we are asking them to discuss difficult topics in their book clubs. Cindy began with the hunch that book clubs could be a way to help teach students to participate in civil discourse—a practice that seems sorely missing from our culture.
Much to my dismay, when we first attempted this process in the fall of 2006 most book clubs would avoid the difficult subject entirely. The proverbial elephant in the room was an issue in several groups; they would talk about everything, but the difficult subject. In other groups, they simply giggled uncomfortably about it, but refused to have any sort of meaningful discussion. Some of this behavior was surely the result of the secretive way Cindy and I went about presenting the project.
We had better results this spring when we were open with our purpose and told students that we wanted them to discuss the difficult subject. This seemed to be liberating for many groups, yet some groups still struggled. Interestingly, several groups said that they knew what the controversial subject was “supposed to be,” but just didn’t see the big deal with it. One group seemed to miss the point of the book entirely. Still other groups struggled to maintain a mature discussion of the controversial subject or the book itself for that matter.
In the end, censorship is a concern for me; just in a different form that we typically look at it. My puzzle is how do I help students to not censor their discussions and deal with those "elephants" presented on the pages of their novels in a productive manner.
What a fantastic question, Natalie! (Plus, I like the inclusion of the artwork.) Actually, the personalized nature of book clubs helps deal with the issue of censorship, at least in part. As a result, I have yet to establish any strict parameters.
At the beginning of the process Cindy and I conduct “book talks” where we describe the plot, the setting, and a bit about the protagonist of each novel. We also pass out a packet with a synopsis of each novel for students to review. Finally, we answer any questions students have about the novels. This provides ample opportunity for me to “warn” students about books that deal with topics they may find too uncomfortable to discuss. For instance, I know that as soon as I mention that the novel Feed uses profanity many deeply religious students stop considering the book altogether. Similarly, once I mention that Postcards from No Man’s Land deals with bi-sexuality some students rule it out entirely. This means that when students list their top three choices I am (almost) guaranteed that they are agreeing to discuss the controversial subject in a mature (as mature as sophomores can) way.
Also, having parents sign a permission slip means that they are aware that their son or daughter may be tackling a difficult topic. The aspect of choice (I am not forcing anyone to read anything) seems to have alleviated any parental concerns as well.
This even has helped with dealing with my administrators. One assistant principal sat in my classroom as I gave the book talks this fall and she later commented on how glad she was that I gave students “the heads up” about profanity and other uncomfortable topics.
I realize that I have painted a fairly rosy picture here. Censorship is an issue I am concerned about with book clubs, but possibly not in the way this question (or my interpretation of the question) suggests. Students censor themselves. Indeed, this is the very reason that we are asking them to discuss difficult topics in their book clubs. Cindy began with the hunch that book clubs could be a way to help teach students to participate in civil discourse—a practice that seems sorely missing from our culture.
Much to my dismay, when we first attempted this process in the fall of 2006 most book clubs would avoid the difficult subject entirely. The proverbial elephant in the room was an issue in several groups; they would talk about everything, but the difficult subject. In other groups, they simply giggled uncomfortably about it, but refused to have any sort of meaningful discussion. Some of this behavior was surely the result of the secretive way Cindy and I went about presenting the project.
We had better results this spring when we were open with our purpose and told students that we wanted them to discuss the difficult subject. This seemed to be liberating for many groups, yet some groups still struggled. Interestingly, several groups said that they knew what the controversial subject was “supposed to be,” but just didn’t see the big deal with it. One group seemed to miss the point of the book entirely. Still other groups struggled to maintain a mature discussion of the controversial subject or the book itself for that matter.
In the end, censorship is a concern for me; just in a different form that we typically look at it. My puzzle is how do I help students to not censor their discussions and deal with those "elephants" presented on the pages of their novels in a productive manner.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Day 1: Morning Pages Posted in the Evening
What is my plan? Good question.
The first step for me is to register back in with the AI and my research. I took a bit of a hiatus from it, but I have been assured that I don't need to feel guilty about that. ;)
I need to comb through all of the information that I collected this spring from students (after I pick it up from FCHS this afternoon :) ) and determine which information I will focus on during this two week period. This will be more of a challenge because of the shear volume of data I collected—teacher-researcher notes, discussion log records, mandalas, found poems, etc. And sticky notes...I almost forgot about the plethora of sticky notes I collected!
As of this moment I think that I will focus on looking over the t-r notes and discussion log records as this will give me more insight into the content of students' book club discussions and allow me to determine how well we met our (Cindy and me--although it sounds as though I am using the royal we) goal of helping students discuss challenging/difficult/controversial subjects productively.
The first step for me is to register back in with the AI and my research. I took a bit of a hiatus from it, but I have been assured that I don't need to feel guilty about that. ;)
I need to comb through all of the information that I collected this spring from students (after I pick it up from FCHS this afternoon :) ) and determine which information I will focus on during this two week period. This will be more of a challenge because of the shear volume of data I collected—teacher-researcher notes, discussion log records, mandalas, found poems, etc. And sticky notes...I almost forgot about the plethora of sticky notes I collected!
As of this moment I think that I will focus on looking over the t-r notes and discussion log records as this will give me more insight into the content of students' book club discussions and allow me to determine how well we met our (Cindy and me--although it sounds as though I am using the royal we) goal of helping students discuss challenging/difficult/controversial subjects productively.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)