List three themes that you see in your data, and choose one theme to describe and analyze.
Description answers the question "what is going on here?"
Analysis offers some possibilities as to how and why the pattern may be occurring.
Both are based in data. You can use direct quotes from interviews/surveys as data exemplars, but you never let data just hang there without analysis. Here's an example:
Theme from my social justice teacher data: Professional Safety
Description:
After being chastised by his principal for bringing in texts that addressed gender and sexuality, Daniel said:
Analysis:
For Daniel, teaching for social justice was an important part of his teaching identity. However, he also knew that the school and community culture did not welcome discussion of these issues. As a result, he "toned down" his pedagogy, which in turn made him less interested in teaching. In order to feel professionally safe, he felt compromised in his teaching and his commitment to social justice.
Theme 1: Student discourses involving gender
ReplyDeleteDescription: When asked on a survey response whether or not the student would prefer mixed gender or single gendered classes Danika responds: "Only girls because classes with boys make me feel self-conscious about me and boys try too hard. White Boy Olympics are not my thing."
Analysis: In this instance Danika reveals that her PE performance could potentially be hindered by the presence of boys in the class. She goes on to indicate reasons why she would rather have single-sex classes including: boys make me self-conscious about (myself) and boys try too hard. Danika also makes a comment about “White Boy Olympics” which speaks to her identification as a non-majority (Asian-American) student in this particular PE class. This comment also adds to her perception of who PE class is designed for and as a result, the demographic of student that excels in PE class at this particular school.
Theme 2: "Try-hards" and "Show-offs"
Description: When asked to self-rate their effort on a scale of 1-100 on a given survey question despite a differentiation in numerical ratings, many students followed up by stating: "(Number)... not too much of a try hard." or "I'm not a super-try-hard" or "I don't want to show off."
Analysis: Interestingly students appear to be weary of giving what they consider a “full effort” in PE class because of potential social issues that would arise as a result of their effort. It appears as though students have this label of a “try-hard” that might be assigned to students that excel in PE class as a way to trivialize their active engagement in class. Students appear to want to avoid this label at all costs as it seems to be labeled a “Try-hard” is the equivalent of social suicide within the gym.
Theme 3: Male "peacocking"
Description: Juliana's (JM) GoPro Video Recording: Note from approximately 2:15: JM begins to do hammer curls with the dumbbells. Madison makes a comment under her breath along the lines of "... we can't screw around now because we're on that thing (GOPro)." Josh says some type of profanity and the girls are shocked. JM says, "OMG! That's going to be on there (the video)." Josh smiles and doesn't really seem to care. In a way, it's almost as if he's trying to impress the girls.
Analysis: Several times Josh uses profanity to impress the girls in his group. He appears to have a particular affinity for Madi, a girl that he follows around like a puppy dog from activity to activity. Josh often demonstrates exercises first when they arrive at various stations potentially in an effort to impress this girl. Josh also makes crude comments and uses inappropriate language to get a rise out of the girls who are audibly nervous about the fact that his behaviors are being recorded on the Go Pro. These reactions appear to drive Josh to continue with his inappropriate behavior. The more the girls respond, the more he continues to act out despite the potential consequences of his action.
Fascinating! Tonight we will work on turning your themes into claims, and seeing if you have other data that support them.
Delete
ReplyDeleteThree themes:
1. Students define themselves as a reader comparing themselves to high expectations (know every word and understand every part) 3 out of 4 students
2. Desire more support from the teacher but unsure how to ask for it and unsure of what they need
3. Limited genres and types of printed text
Theme #3 Limited genres and types of printed text
Description: What’s going on with myself
As I read through the research for my literature review about male adolescents I recognized a large gap in my understanding. Williams (2007) wrote about how some boys prefer violent, action-oriented texts that are not readily available on the shelves at school for a choice for independent reading. I have plenty of action books for boys but not many violent books. I’ve never once read one of them. When I join the kids in independent reading I tend to stick to realistic fiction. If the male students are viewing me reading any material that would be interesting to them then they know I have different ideas about reading. Moreover, I can’t discuss independent reading choices or offer suggestions when I’m limited in my own genre.
Description: What’s going on with students
Boys responses to the question: What are your reading interests?
“war, action, biography”
“mystery books, action, comedy”
Sports and short books
-One student showed awareness of text messages
The students can name a few genres but do not elaborate on any of their interests. Only one student wrote “text messages.” I still have to give the students to the closed questionnaire that will offer many different choices, but it is still very informative that when asked openly they only name a few basic genres with explaining specifics or offering any examples of specific books or authors. One important differences to note is that one of the students appears to love reading basketball articles on espn.com but he didn’t mention this in his reading interests.
Analysis of Self
I have am demonstrating a limited awareness of types of texts and available texts to my students. When I stop and reflect I have a deeper awareness but I’m not expressing it, practicing it, or sharing it with students. This not helping them to discover their reading interests which is an important part of their reading identities. I grab some free magazines outside of the grocery stores and qualify it as having magazines in the room. Yeah, free magazines that are for people ages 40 and up who live on Aquidneck Island! This doesn’t consider my students reading identities.
Analysis of Student Responses
Students have a limited understanding of what reading materials. I have not provided them enough opportunities. It is likely that their school experiences have not provides them enough opportunities to explore different texts. Interestingly, even when I have provided an opportunity during independent reading time to reading online, such as espn.com then students then later on doesn’t recognize that as reading. Does the student not count it as real reading? Does the student think that I don’t consider it real reading and so the student didn’t write it down? Of course I am tempted to blame that fact that I have no funding to buy books or magazines and only two computers. Yes this is a fact, I could be doing a much better job of helping students to explore new texts and name different texts as reading to construct their reading identities.
Interesting! So this tells you something about your assumptions, and that you may have to stretch your own wings in order to relate to your students. We will work on turning your themes into claims tonight.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThree themes:
1. Female students seek more attention from adults in the classroom.
2. Students enjoy working in groups and gender does not matter to most.
3. Female students control experiments in the classroom.
Theme #1: Female students seek more attention from adults in the classroom.
Description: What is going on here?
The female students are constantly seeking my attention or the attention of my volunteer in the classroom. Rules are being broken and students are constantly being reminded of proper behavior. Two students in particular are being written up due to this behavior continuing outside of the classroom as well.
Analysis: How and why the pattern is occurring?
These female students are acting out with boisterous behavior. They know the rules and are deliberately breaking them. These behaviors include simple disrespect, failing to follow through with simple instructions, and generally being off-task. At times, these behaviors interfere with classroom instruction. I noticed from the data obtained that these students are my struggling students. There seems to be a connection between my attention-striving students and their academic struggles.
I have always considered males the dominant gender. The experiences I had growing up confirmed that males were the aggressors and females were more passive. However, this year has opened my eyes to see that this is not always the case. What is happening in my classroom is the opposite of my experiences and what my research has revealed. From what I am experiencing, females can also be the dominant sex in the classroom. They have a tendency to speak out of turn and often have unruly behavior. I have to wonder why they have the need to seek my attention? Could this be their way of coping with the frustrations they have because they are struggling or is it just simply because they need to be the center of attention? I find this to be quite interesting. My male students, on the other hand, are the ones being more passive. They need to be more engaged.
I try to provide a nurturing environment that engages all students. Obviously what I am doing is just not working. I feel like it is September all over again or is it spring fever? During my research I found a strategy to implement in my classroom. It is a bookmark with visual cues. Students can monitor their own behavior and stay on task with these visual cues. This reinforces the expectations and provides ELL’s with visuals they need in the classroom. Positive social behavior promotes better peer and teacher relationships.
Brenda, this is interesting and I'm glad you are addressing your assumptions (as well as those in the literature) about males being more dominant in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteMost of the stuff you have in the analysis section is still description--you are just going a little bit deeper. When you talk about possible reasons why, that's getting toward analysis. Your data should help you answer that "why" question, or, more importantly, what to do about it so that you can spend your time teaching instead of disciplining :)