As far as secondary sources go, I have the scholarly journal articles referenced in Memo #2. I think they will help me develop a thesis once I have a completely clear view of where my project will end up. As things are right now, I am still exploring and trying to wade through the many questions I have and plan on asking. This leads me to my Primary sources. I have 3 Elementary students, 2 Middle School students, 3(+) High School students, and 2 college level students who I have asked for interviews and received confirmation (all of whom I know on a personal level). I also have 2 of my former English teachers who have said that they are willing to give a teacher's point of view. One of the teachers, Mrs. Y, who was a student of Tom Newkirk and Don Murray at UNH, has also offered to pass my questionnaire out to her students. The list I have acquired is very encouraging to me. I feel as if the range of students will greatly help me develop a better understanding of the subject matter.
Here are some preliminary questions I plan on asking. However, this list only constitutes the questions I have formulated up to this point.
1.) Do you like to write? Why/ why not? (Academic or
recreational)
2.) Do you feel as if your work is valued by your teachers?
Why?
3.) Do teachers’ opinions of your work influence your views
on writing assignments?
4.) Specific types of writing you enjoy/ dislike—poetry,
short stories, book reports, research papers.
5.) If you do not like writing, can you pinpoint your
negative feelings to a specific instance?
6.) Do you feel as if your opinion of writing is greatly
affected by your feelings for a specific teacher?
7.) What could teachers do to make your writing feel more
valued? Would this help you to
enjoy writing more?
8.) Do the pressures of standardized testing affect your
views of writing?
I like how you have such a supportive group who plans on helping you with your I-search. You are very lucky. In my opinion my journey with writing definitely had its twists and turns in the road. In high school I HATED IT. It was something I dreaded! but when I came home I would open my personal blog and type away about anything and everything. Thankfully, I had the resources like a computer, internet and lots of books to be able to indulge in writing. Many students do not have that "luxury" in lower income neighborhoods. So the underprivileged students only have the experience of writing in high school. You did not mention what kind of communities you would be reaching out to? It would be interesting if you evaluated both a higher income and lower income school and then compared the answers. I look forward to your data!
ReplyDeleteHi Denise,
ReplyDeleteNice job with the research! Just from the titles, I think that they would all contain some kind of useful information for your topic. There will always be students who love to write and students who hate to write. I wonder what the teacher’s responses would be to your questions. I wonder how teachers are helping the students who don’t have good feelings about writing, learn to love the craft of writing or at least have an appreciation. I know that I didn’t always have the best relationship with writing because I was being told to write about things that didn’t interest me at all. I wonder how teachers are creating options for the students to find their niche in what they like to write about and explore. I look forward to reading more, and what the students responses are to the questionnaire!
Denise, our I-Search topics seem to be very similar. You listed a lot of secondary sources that I think will be very helpful. Also I have a few secondary sources that may help as well. We should discuss the secodary sources we found because I think every article can help! I look foward to hearing about your trips to each school and seeing what responses you received about writing.
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