Blog 16

Halloween Interview

This interview was very good practice. It has helped me realize how to conduct a perfect type of interview. One main thing I learned was that I need to branch off of the questions I ask. Sometimes the person may answer with just one word so from there you need to be able to elaborate on the question you just asked. I now know how to be able to make my interview a lot longer.

Also, I learned that it is good to plan the interview because it will give you the framework of the interview. Without planning you may forget the purpose of the interview and specific things you may want to ask.

I realized that location of the interview needs to be quiet so the person being interviewed can be focused and so the technology works properly.

This was also good practice to try out the technology used for recording the interview. I had never used the recording device before so in doing this I was able to try it out and use it properly.

In doing this interview with Marc I was able to learn about how he has celebrated Halloween from when he was a baby until now. I started off asking questions about his first Halloween and what he remembered and liked about it. From their I began to ask about other aspects of Halloween that he experienced as a child. If I was to go back and redo this interview I would try to branch off of his questions a little more than I did to get more information and a longer interview.

Blog 15

Research Plan

*Statement of purpose: I hope to discover whether the use of ABA within a classroom improves the learning process and overall  schooling experience for students with special needs. I also hope to discover how it is used and why a teacher may find it an important strategy to use within  the classroom. Lastly, I want to discover what the students are getting out of using this learning strategy.

*Detailed Statement of Research Question: How do special needs students at the kindergarten to fourth grade level benefit from the use of the learning strategy Applied Behavioral Analysis within the classroom?

*Information that needs to be gathered: I need to gather information from the teacher I will be interviewing. For example, things like how she uses ABA in her classroom, is it something she likes to use, does it benefit the education of the students, is their anything negative about ABA..etc. Also I need to gather information from the article I have on ABA. This will help me understand how ABA is used by others as well and if it benefits other students.

*Preliminary list of Sources:
1. Individual being interviewed: Teacher
2. Research Article

*Who/What will you be studying: I will be studying how the teacher uses ABA within the classroom  through observation and the interview. I will also be studying the students in the classroom and how the use of ABA effects their learning process within the classroom.

*Where will you collect your information: I will collect my information in the classroom where the learning strategy is used.

*How many subjects will you be studying: One teacher and about three children in the classroom. 

*What methods will you use to conduct your study: I will us the interview method and possibly discourse analysis. 

Blog 14

-Still working on it-

Interview Draft

*What is your name?

*How old are you?

*Where did you attend school to receive your degree in Speech Pathology?

*How many years of schooling did you go through?

*Can you tell me what made you decide to earn a degree as a Speech Pathologist?

*What is your current employment?

*What is the name of the school you are employed at?

*How many children do you teach throughout the day and what grades are they in?

*What types of disabilities do some of your students have?

*Due to some children having disabilities what type of learning strategy do you use to ensure the education of the students?

*Where did you learn about and practice the learning strategy known as Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA?

*Could you give me your definition of ABA?

*Can you tell me why you choose to use this learning strategy in your classroom?

*Can you give me an example of a time a student benefited from ABA?

*Has there ever been a time ABA hasn’t worked for one of your students? Please explain.

*Do the positives effects of ABA outweigh the negatives, How?

*What type of ABA would you recommend to a parent to use in the home with their child?

Blog 13

Transcript: Adult Learner and New Literacies

Language Moves:

*M uses I guess a lot at the beginning of her answers.

*In excerpt 1 it seems as if the M is nervous even talking about her experience with computers at first.

*Ch seems persistent to get more information from M by elaborating on her questions.

*In excerpt 2 it seems as if M is answering questions with more relaxed responses. 

*The word “well” is also used a lot. Especially when M seems unsure of something.

Cultural Discourses

*Teacher Discourse

*Student Discourse

*Parent Discourse

*Technology Discourse

Research Question

*What makes this transcript a technology type discourse?

Examples: 

“Ch: that's very interesting.  OK that was your school experience beginning that fall. So then when you took the computer class, how did you feel, it was obviously different.

M: It was different, and ah, it was a fun experience because the teacher was very good, very willing to work with use, she asked us where we were all, part of the class it was you know, twice a week, once we would meet in the classroom, and the other time we would meet in the computer lab, so it was the history of computers, so we learned about the history of computers, and then it was the actual hands on, how we would use it, so and we had to do projects, each project, we had to do an excel project, we had to do a word project, we had to do what else, what other programs are there, we did excel we did word, we did (thinking) what's it? slides?

These two quotes from Ch and M are examples of how my research question can be answered. The two discuss the computer and the different programs M used in her class, therefor identifying that this is a technology discourse. 

Blog 12

-Interesting language features in the transcript?

*B says like, just, and well a lot

*Ch seems to be dominating the conversation

*B seems reluctant to answer certain questions about gaming

*There is laughing

-What types of discourses do Ch and B seem to belong to?

*Gaming discourse

*Teacher discourse

*Education discourse

*Literacy discourse

-What evidence do you have that says they belong to this discourse?

*The line that states:  “It's not all playing the game it's a lot of process to prepare for it, there's like box, scripts, you practice it, and you're not playing with other people, you're just like fooling around,” is an example showing they belong to a gaming discourse.

*The line that states: “I wanted to talk a little, you  talk about your self as a hardware expert, you said software novice, although I bullied you into being competent, what software do you know how to use?” Is an example of a teacher discourse because Ch is beginning the conversation and asking the question to begin the topic.

*The line that states: “ that's literacy - you have the basic tools, the right basic set of assumptions for how to read, understand, interpret a program.  And so what I'm looking for is the connection between all the gaming experience you have and your ability to do that with the applications - the academic applications,” is an example that proves these two belong to an education discourse and a literacy one. 

-What research questions might you ask about what is going on in this transcript?

*Do the demanding questions from Ch scare B from giving his exact opinion?

*Is Ch too overpowering during this interview?

*What makes a game into something that is considered software?

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Blog 11

-Purpose and what I am studying

-Participants: who will be in it and what you will want them to do

-How long it will take, what you will want them to do

-Who will see/read your project


Hello, My name is Courtney Parker and I am a student at Kean University, working towards a degree in Special Education. In my class, Research in Language and Literature I must conduct a study of my choice, and I would be honored to have you take part in it due to your knowledge regarding my topic. My study is based on the learning strategy Applied Behavioral Analysis, or ABA. I am going to be studying how special needs students at the Kindergarten to 4th grade level benefit from this learning strategy in the classroom.  I would like to ask you numerous questions regarding your classroom, the use of ABA within it, and how it affects your students. I would also like to observe one of your lessons so I can see how students respond to ABA. Your involvement in this study may only take about an hour of your time. The only person seeing this information will be myself and the faculty and staff at Kean University.

Blog 10

Data Set: 4-1

-Bubble Text: More direct, organized and tied to text, with suggestions, positive comments

-Global Comment: Very general, not as positive, straight forward

Data Set: 4-2

-Bubble Text: Very informative, helpful to the student, organized, asks good questions to get the student thinking about revisions, positive reinforcement

-Global Comment: Disorganized, may confuse and discourage student due to lack of positive feed back

Data Set: 4-3

-Bubble Text: This bubble text differs from the others. It has too much text which may confuse the student or overwhelm them. 

-Global Comment: Has great positive feed back to encourage student, but also has to the point and easy to follow revisions

Data Set: 4-4:

-Bubble Text: Direct and to the point revisions

-Global Comment: too much positive reinforcement, student may think he doesn’t have to make the revisions suggested.

Research Questions

-Due to the amount of information given in these data sets, does the bubble text work best because it is more direct so the student can make revisions without becoming overwhelmed?

-Would the large amount of positive reinforcement negatively effect the way in which the student revises his or her paper? Is it too much?

Analysis

      After analyzing my research questions among  the data sets I have found that every paper is different and every teacher gives feed back differently. Some teachers use bubble text in the margins to help the student revise and others use global comment which is revision information at the top or the bottom of the paper. I found that in Data sets 1, 2, and 4 the bubble text worked best for the revision process. The bubble text works best because it organizes the paper and is very direct. If the student was to use the global comment he or she may become very confused. On the contrary, in Data set 3 the global comment sounded better then the bubble text. There was too much information within the text that may scare a student which is why they would use the more direct and positive sounding global comment instead. 

Another finding I discovered within the data sets were the amount of positive feed back given by the teachers. Although positive feedback may be very helpful for the student it may also be too much reinforcement. The student may look at the reinforcement given, decide his or her paper is good enough, and look past the revisions the teacher made. Positive feed back is good but a teacher should never overdue it.  

As you can see, from this analysis it seems like bubble text is the better choice of revision for these data sets. The bubble text seems to make it easier for the student to understand the revision, which encourages them to use the revision that is suggested. Global comment seems to be too in depth and not as direct as the bubble text. This results in the student giving up on their paper and losing interest in revising it. Although these data sets were very rich in positive reinforcement this could be a negative thing. Too much reinforcement may convince the student that his or her paper is good enough when it still could use some revisions. 

Blog 9

1. Identify your focus.  This is a general statement of what you are interested in
*My focus is mainly special education and the way teachers teach and reinforce their students as well as parents parenting within the home using reinforcement.

 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. 
*Research Question: How do special needs students, at the kindergarten to 1st grade level benefit from the use of the learning strategy, Applied Behavior Analysis in the classroom and at home?

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).
*I have not found an article yet. Currently in the process. Here are two possibilities

http://library.kean.edu:2055/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=f147d81b-5210-4926-a32b-b284fbffc9be%40sessionmgr114&hid=123

http://library.kean.edu:2055/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=5265eb82-aaa6-486e-bed0-56cfd133bbd4%40sessionmgr115&hid=123

 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 the specifics of ABA. Who came up with these strategies? How do you initiate these strategies in the classroom and in the home? Do they work and or benefit the students education and life?

 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 need to do research online using articles and data bases.
*I will work with my sister who is a elementary school teacher
*I will work with my aunt who has a special needs son
*I will interview both of them regarding the use of ABA

6. What I may need to get started on my project
*I will need to formulate a stronger thesis
*I will need to find an article about my topic

7. What may I need from my professor?
*I may need your help finding an article on my topic, i listed two that may work.
*I may also need feedback on whether or not my topic is a good one.

Blog 8

After reviewing this data it is clear that the program accomplished many of its objectives. The knowledge of the students definite improved as they became graduate students. Although their was improvement, there was also some lacking as well. 

2. The students were still unsure of what what wanted to do after receiving their degrees. The graduating students on the other hand are more clear and sure of what they want do after graduating.

3.Both of these answers for the graduating students and the new students remained somewhat the same. This is because as a  new student you are given information before beginning your classes so you are aware of the ones you must take. As a graduate student you know what classes were most useful because you took them.

4.The new students were very unsure of other courses they wanted to take. On the other hand, the graduate students were very sure of some courses they were interested in. 

5.In the survey you can see that the new students are not as confident in the writing, compared to the graduate students who are very comfortable with their writing. The new students feel as if they have some ideas for how to write in teaching and learning, and the graduate students feel the same except for one person who disagreed. From the two examples in this survey you can see the new students were confident that they could do anything and everything when starting the program. As graduates they realized that was not the case and became more realistic about the program.

6.You can see that the new students new very little about theorists and it seems as if they guess on knowing a few. As for the graduates they knew a little more then the new students but they should probably know more. For example none of the new students knew Linda Flower and then about 80 % of the graduate students knew her.

7.The new students did not really go into detail because they didn’t know what to say, while the graduate students gave specific answers. For example, under social constuctivist and pragmatic there were detailed answers. 

8.The new students were not very informative when describing this answer. On the other hand the graduate students were very informative, stating things like survey, case study, focus groups, etc.

9.The new students didn’t even give answere. The graduate students gave very descriptive well thought out answers. 

What can be improved?

1.This program needs to improve the teaching of specific writing theorists. Even after completing specific courses the graduate students still did not know many of the theorists listed on the survey. Students went from knowing Peter Elbow 100% to 33%. 

2. Writing networks with colleagues should be improved. Due to the survey showing that 4 out of 5 graduate students do not have strong writing networks with their colleagues.