Draft Data Analysis

Dusty Neibauer

M.J. and Wild Bill

M.E.D. Program

21 February 2014

Data Analysis Draft

            At first glance, the respondents to the survey questions that I’ve asked them have largely backed up what I think to be the typically-perceived notion of feedback on writing, which I think I can sum up with this quotation: “Tell me what to fix so I can fix it.” While many students actively disregarded much of the specific feedback I gave them regarding grammatical issues, including more specific examples, and (most out of line with my intent) positive feedback, most seemed to appreciate what I was trying to do with the feedback. I am not quite done collecting the data, however – I plan on having two more classes take the survey next week, and that should wrap it up.

            The area of commentary students said was the most helpful to them as writers was “needs improvement” syntax-related feedback. This is not surprising, but slightly discouraging. I think it’s going to take some time in fleshing out my own instructional methods and establishment of the tone of the assignments to shift this over to students valuing positive syntax-related feedback. I want them to try and emulate the things they do better, as opposed to focusing on the things they do poorly. I’d also like them to realize that the feedback regarding their thesis statements should be valued the most, as it’s worth the most on their essays and is absolutely key to their success!

            When asked what sorts of feedback will help improve their next essays, 25% of students said that they’d like more negative syntax-related feedback, and that was the second-highest category (27% said they’d like more “quality of content”-related feedback). Again, this tells me that I have to help establish my tone, goals, and perceptions of the assignments so that students know that I want them to succeed, emulate their successes, and focus on the positive aspects of their writing. This will be helped by further developing our curriculum, which is currently in its first year of implementation and development. 

AGAPE

I'm not sure if I agree with that. Spirituality means too many things to too many people to be able to say that it's the missing piece in the puzzle of education. I'd rather elevate an idea entwined with morality and ethics to foster more high-minded discussions of purpose and mission. I think that those arenas foster more careful consideration and deep thought, as well as welcome debate and theorizing. Spirituality is a term that can be alienating to some, and easily dismissed by others; while it can mean many things, and doesn't deserve this sort of dismissal, it still has the potential to be an alienating term.

I entered the teaching profession because I love to work with literature. While I may someday move to the collegiate arena, it doesn't immediately entice me because I like working with the energy and potential of high school students. I also love coaching basketball, and that's a difficult thing to do on the collegiate level - oftentimes, one must make it his/her profession above all else, and I'm not willing to lead that sort of nomadic life. I was inspired by many teachers, as well as college professors, and even coaches in my past - namely a dude named Jason Allrich! He was a coach for my JV team, but he also played bball against me since I was a 7th grader and he was in college, and helped me become a player that is unwilling to step down from a challenge and plays hard all of the time - willing to outwork others (since I'm small and not that great of a jumper!). On the English side, I enjoyed working with my high school English teacher, Leah Burke, who I later was able to long-term substitute teach for while she took maternity leave. There are many others in these figures' wakes, but they were major players.

It's too hard to tell whether this is a golden age of education since we're living it, but there are many reasons to be enthused and discouraged about education, depending upon where one teaches. Some students have unparalleled access to information and technology and are complaining about it; some don't have access but yearn for it; some have myriad opportunities, and some are defined by their social stature. It's a frustrating, complex, potentially grandiose, crazy time to be a teacher of children. I think that opportunity is ultimately at an all-time high for students due to the large-scale adoption of technology and social programs, but we are nowhere near perfect as a society, educationally - to be great, we need social programs to be expanded (namely with regard to poverty), and such things, but most of all, we as a society need to VALUE EDUCATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF KNOWLEDGE / EDUCATION and not as a MEANS TO AN END; this shift in perception is not likely, and altruistic, but a needed shift to truly be living in a golden age of education.

With regard to spirituality, see the first paragraph for my thoughts. I'd like to elevate the concept of "A whole school for the whole child," but I don't currently wield that kind of power; thus, I'd like to elevate the concept of modeling behavior, as that's something I try to do and can also control.

One-Word Plan

1. Tolerance

a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.

Because humans are imperfect, and incapable of love, understanding, and even empathy over a broad spectrum beyond the immediately personal, “tolerance” is a good word for people to be able to adopt as a working motto or ethos to strive toward. If one tolerates another, one is still able to disagree, see the world differently, and even debate him/her; however, one is still coexisting with said individual, and will respect his or her right to an opinion, viewpoint, and worldview (as long as it isn’t actively malicious and/or harming others, that is). 

Entry 1:

I find that I am unaffected by my thinking of this word personally; I already try and make this concept one of the things that I teach; because of my position as an English teacher, when introducing literature and essays of various persuasion, I often speak of politics, society, religion, and how people of varying position and culture see the world they inhabit - this lends itself to the concept of tolerance of others- especially since we are in a country that originally made it its ethos (and, of course, has largely ineffectively conveyed to its populace...in fact, the populace seems to live this concept in spite of itself, at times). I even teach an essay called Tolerance by E.M. Forster! The students take to it with varying degrees of agreement and debate - more on this as I emphasize it specifically in my teaching. 

Dots and Have Nots, as well as Bullying Prevention.

I continue to strive for connection for all students who pass through my classroom, although it is indeed a tough goal for which to strive, as we all know that some students / teachers / people are not meant to co-mingle / enjoy one another's company. I still strive to make sure that my learning environment is conducive to learning and conversation, however, and I feel as if I'm still getting better at establishing this through demonstration and practice every week. 

Relationship Reflective Practice:

While I couldn't find a (legal) version of it, this clip is from the new movie "Man of Steel." In this scene, a high-school-aged Clark Kent is bullied by other, bigger "athlete types" in letter jackets, but doesn't retaliate physically against them. After they leave, his father emphasizes that, even though even he wished that Clark would've hit those kids, that he made the right choice in the struggle of deciding who he wants to be, and that, because of who he is, the person that he becomes will change the world, and that his example matters more than anyone else's. This is a great scene to help illustrate that another of Man of Steele's theses is true and relevant - that every person has the power to be a force for good in the world. 

As far as bullying goes, our school, honestly, doesn't do a good job. We pay it a bit of lip service in the form of having a 9th grade "Respect Retreat" where we call in a guest speaker for an all-day inservice with Junior- and Senior-level mentors, but the mentors receive only an hour of training, don't have an avenue for follow-up or continuing to monitor the things for which they are working to prevent. That is not getting the job done, and is contributing to what I think is an apathetic environment for the high school when it comes to supporting one another, school spirit, etc. I personally try to eliminate the problem (which is futile, on a wider scale, I think) by being good to everyone, reminding students to be good and accepting to everyone, celebrating the things that make students unique, and hanging up a sign in my room that says "Be Nice or Leave." 

Stage 2 and 3 - both done!

Here is the document for stage 1-3, in its most updated form.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ZCkazrvXtgal8wMzZ3ekFzcDg/edit?usp=sharing

1. Action Research running blog entry

I'd say that, so far, my research is telling me that even though the theories say that students find helpful commentary on their writing more useful in the long run,  the "needs improvement" feedback is the one that they are saying is most helpful at this point. This tells me two things: 1. I'm still not giving enough positive feedback regarding their writing (due in part to context of material and the fact that we're re-doing the curriculum and it isn't as well-defined as it will be in its final form); 2. Students may lack the foresight and perspective necessary to see what benefits them in the long run vs. what benefits them in the short run. This isn't surprising to many high school teachers, I'd presume, but it still reveals to me that a blend of both styles of commentary is necessary for the teaching of writing. More analysis to come when more research is in, from 2 more classes on 2 more essays.

Stage 1,2, and 3 of the New Lesson - January 2014

So; I shall now post the document for this sucker, as of last update, right here (rather, it's a link to the document on googledrive, which should make it easier to view):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ZCkazrvXtgTUVLSENucXh3QzQ/edit?usp=sharing

The skill that I just taught at the beginning of the assignment cycle was about avoiding misplaced and dangling modifiers. This is one of the 2 specific grammatical focuses of this next writing assignment, and will be marked on their assignment sheets / essays.
The dangling modifier / misplaced modifier is one of my favorite grammatical quandaries, as it creates, in the words of one crafty student, "pictures based on literal interpretations of ridiculous sentences!!" It does indeed. It's slawesome.
The strategy employed was:
1. students draw 3 slips of paper out of the "Satch" (an old satchel that I use to distribute mysteriously grammatical things to students), on which are written sentences that have problems with misplaced / dangling modifiers.
2. Students type the sentence onto a document in their Notability app on their ipads, leaving myriad space between the sentences.
3. They figure out the problem with the sentence, and in the process discover the hilarity of the incorrectly-written sentence.
4. They depict, in visual form, the literal interpretation of the wacky sentence.
5. Underneath, they fix the sentence, so that it is correctly-written.
6. They post pictures of their artwork to a discussion board on Schoology to share with the entire grade!
7. Following the artwork, they then have to write their own sentences that have dangling / misplaced modifiers. My theory is that if they can create something themselves, they will have a more intimate understanding and competency with the concept. If they struggle with this, they can use sentence modeling techniques to insert their own concepts into the structure of a previously-written sentence-- either on the slips, or on the previously-done worksheets we did while initially learning the concept.

The results were, quite frankly, spectacular, for a couple of reasons: 1. Students love to see their work on a screen; 2. students love to see their work on the interwebs; 3. Students love to draw weird stuff on their ipads; 4. Students love to work with misplaced modifiers...partially because I say the sentences while laughingly playing air-guitar, committing to the moment in the most serious and epic of ways.
Here are a couple of examples of the students' work (permission granted!)

I would do this again (this isn't my first time doing the assignment - it's a classic), and plan to! Booyaa.