Truthfulness and Research

For my literature review on strategies and reflections on engaging boys in literacy activities, I read a few articles by Debby Zambo. One of the articles I used was entitled, "Using Picture Books and Literacy Activities to Help Young Boys Develop Literacy Skills and Positive Traits". This article was helpful when I was crafting my literature review, but I did notice a few issues regarding truthfulness and credibility.

First and foremost, the writer was also the teacher in this article. She even states that based on her experience as a teacher of young boys she believes that boys flourish when reading books with positive male protagonists and use her three- step process. It's possible that because Zambo is using her methods and students there could be issues of bias and researcher influence.

Second, the premise of the study is that Zambo will select books with positive male role models, then read and delve into the character's traits through conversation and then finally transfer the traits by using literacy activities that encourage the boys to model the traits from the aforementioned book.

The article ends by including examples of what literacy activities the various boys practiced and how the character trait was modeled. For example, one student learned about responsibility and participated in Reader's Theater for which he was responsible for the script. Other students practiced traits such as honesty by not cheating during a vocabulary game and positive self-esteem by working with a reading buddy. However, one can argue that because there was no specific code for these behaviors and no other researchers involved who could participate in intercoder reliability or blind coding there is a lack of validity in this study. Also, it is not mentioned whether Zambo did a member check with the participants in the study.

Overall, although I did like the theory and structure presented in the article, this study definitely could be strengthen by studying a different teacher practice the methods, adding a level of coding and establishing intercoder reliability and by doing a member check or even an external audit (if the participant is young) to find out whether the traits are truly embodied by the participant through Zambo's three step process.

In response to Edolla's post...

I think it was extremely strategic of you to interview a student you no longer teach. I'm sure that your responses were more accurate than mine since I interviewed my current 10th grader. I'm convinced that her responses were tailored in hopes of pleasing me (her teacher). She continuously complimented me by talking about my "friendly" and "nice" personality which "invited" her to participate in my class regularly. Although this might be the case, I felt as if she thought that her responses, if negative, would have a negative impact on her academic record in my class.

If I were to interview someone else, I would have chosen a student which I never taught. I believe that that would portray the students' beliefs and attitudes regarding teachers and class participation more accurately. If I wanted to gain insight about this particular student, I probably would ask a colleague to ask the interview questions instead of me. Another idea I have would be to assure that student that her/his response would have absolutely no affect on my attitudes towards the interviewee. Nevertheless, this might work better for younger students. I don't think a 10th grader would be so convinced.

A simple interview is never really simple is it?

I interviewed J over the phone. This presented challenges because I wasn't able to observe his facial expressions nor body language. It was very difficult to rely simply on a phone conversation and I realized that all future interviews should be video recorded. I have done video interviews before and while transcribing them is tedious, it's good to have something tangible to review.

J failed the the fifth grade language arts assessment and was forced to repeat the fifth grade. Interestingly, I taught J the year before in fourth grade. He's a challenging student. He receives therapy once a week and takes medication to adjust his mood. However we have a good relationship and he was happy to answer my questions to help me with my schoolwork.

Similarly to Michelle's and Edolla's students, J initially gave one word answers. I had to follow up with questions such as, "Can you tell me more?" or "How so?"

I also considered the fact that having another teacher interview J might have yielded different responses. Since I'm his teacher, J might have felt compelled to answer in a certain manner. Overall the interview gave me more insight into more effective ways to interview and adapt questions in real time.

Interview Reflection

Going into the interview assignment, I assumed the task would be relatively simple and that the process would come naturally. I have served as a member of my school's recruitment team for years and usually enjoy conducting interviews and speaking with our interviewees.

This experience was the first time I used my students in a one-on-one interview setting and it proved to be a more challenging experience than I expected.

I went into the interview equipped with the following questions aimed to gather some feedback about classroom participation:

1. How many times did you raise your hand in today?
2. What period do you like to share in class?
3. Do you share more in one subject or the same in all subjects?
4. Do you like when a teacher calls on you in class?
5. Do you share more in a certain teacher’s class? Why or why not?

I honestly don't know how I missed some of the obvious problems I faced with such direct questions. I interviewed two students and both gave me short, one word answers. For example, 15, 1st and 6th, Yes etc... I think adding a few explanatory questions would have helped me develop more of the conversational experience I was hoping to have during the interview.

However, besides just the questions, I faced some problems with environment and my relationships with the participants. I held the interviews in the back of my classroom while the other students were participating in S.S.R. I often conference with students about their work or writing in this same setting, so I assumed the same calm and reflective setting would serve me well. However, both of my interviewees were a little nervous and anxious to get back to their seats during the interview. Even though I told both students they could take their time during each question, they rushed through the interview, constantly looking back at the rest of the class and after the last question asked me, "Am I done now?"

In addition to a little discomfort surrounding the setting of the interview, both students seemed uncharacteristically nervous around me during the interview. I have two theories regarding this occurrence, but I'm not sure what the true reason was for this discomfort. My first theory is that since I usually review student writing and classwork in this setting, the students were expecting to be evaluated. My second theory has to do with the questions themselves. Perhaps because I am one of the class's five subject teachers, the students felt nervous about honestly telling me which classes they participate more in and why. Both students I interviewed insisted that they share in some classes more than others because of the subject matter, not the teacher. Personally, I found this response to be surprising, because I know that my teacher's personality usually has some influence over my class participation (even in college), so I wondered if the students were telling me that because I was a part of the group (7th grade teachers) being discussed.

In the future, if I was going to consider continuing this research topic, I would ask my coach to conduct the interviews in her office away for the gazes of the class and the teacher. I'm curious to see of that process would result in more detailed responses. Perhaps I will try this out tomorrow!

Interview Questions

Hey Think Tank Girls!

I'm just posting the interview questions I used for our interview assignment. I had a lot of notes from our class meeting and edited the questions down for 7th graders. Here's what I came up with:

1. How many times did you raise your hand in today?

2. What period do you like to share in class?

3. Do you share more in one subject or the same in all subjects?

4. Do you like when a teacher calls on you in class?

5. Do you share more in a certain teacher’s class? Why or why not?

Please let me know what you think and whether I should change them! I interviewed one student, but will interview a second if we need to alter the questions!

Concept Narrative

White students often outperform Blacks and Latinos academically. Contributing factors include lack of resources, the school’s curriculum and the pervasive stereotype threat. Blacks and Latinos from urban areas often lack the resources available to affluent white students and, as a result, experience fewer learning opportunities. They often reside in poverty stricken neighborhoods and attend schools plagued by overcrowded classrooms, poor administration, and inexperienced teachers. This, in conjunction with lack of administrative support and the teacher training necessary to meet the special needs of this population, further widens the gap and reproduces a culture of missed opportunities.

My Purpose Statement-Needs WORK!

Firstly, I’m not sure if this will be an phenomenological or an ethnographic study. As you know from last Monday’s class, Rebecca and I are planning on examining the differences in achievement of boys of color who participating in the Independent Schools Preparatory Program at the Boys’ Club of New York in East Harlem. I’m thinking/leaning more toward ethnographic though. We’ve gotten consent from the Program Director, next we need to get consent from the parents. I’m hoping that we’ll get at least 10 boys from the Queens group that is predominantly Asian descent an at least 10 from the Manhattan group that is mostly African American or West Indian descent. So here’s what I came up with for the purpose statement.

The purpose of this phenomenological /ethnographic study is to describe the differences in achievement in mathematics and literacy for boys of color who attend the Independent Schools Preparatory Program at the Boys’ Club of New York City. At this stage in the research, the differences in achievement will be defined and measured by test scores an student perception as evidenced by surveys.