We began the day with a new idea!!! Researcher’s chair will be cut in half---30 minutes one day, 30 minutes the next day….so that we can mull over ideas and organizational issues from one day to the next and also so that it’s not an oh-so-overwhelming 60 minutes barrage of help all at once….When it’s our turn, we will post on the AI blog the day before we have RC any context, summaries, or concerns about our own topic … our first victim---I mean---researcher in RC yesterday, Rebecca, mentioned as feedback that she didn’t think she was “ready for what happened yesterday.” Well put! Good feedback for the developing RC so that we can tweak it to better meet our needs!!!
We then picked on someone (Stacey) for going to the public library. Her Morning Pages are from a book she checked out from there: 8 short questions!!!
Stretch your thinking:
1. If your topic were a _____, which one would it be and why? (Think Dating Game….I’ll hum the theme song while you write….do do do do dum dum do dooooo)….
2. If your research were a color, which would it be?
3. If your topic were a weather pattern, it’d be _____. FYI…We decided an earthquake is not technically a weather pattern and "tornadic" is not a word, but I’m not mentioning any names (Cindy).
Then we had to have a moment for a small, but noticeable SNL reference to Jeopardy! With Will Ferrell and contestants like Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds…..how many times did Stacey have to say, “OK…we’re just moving on….can anyone hear me to going to question #3….? Just write anything. Anything at all. We're moving on."
We then finished the Morning Page:
If your topic were food (meal or snack, etc.), an animal, a TV show/movie, a famous person, a country...
Results:
We learned that Renee has fleas (which is totally okay) and that she tries to give her students the fleas…no, no, no. If it were an animal, the TOPIC she is researching would be fleas---something that jumps from one to another, a happy flea/idea exchange!!!
Stacey’s research would be multi-colored and polka-dotted---something between which she needs to connect the dots….no definite beginning or end!
Natalie broke ALL the rules of this activity, and will get in trouble later. She chose her research to be an aspen tree….writing across the curriculum is as annoying as those little aspen sprouts in our yard to her husband, Bob…teachers need to think like a gardener…
Muddy Easter egg water is the color of Cindy’s research….kids might get clever enough to try one color at a time or learn to mix color, use crayons to make designs instead of plopping the egg into all the colors making it impossible to see each one on top of the other….eventually….different filters give different views…it's a two step Easter egg process….each sequence gives more questions….this Easter egg will never be finished…!
Rebecca is still shell-shocked from yesterday and is a safe, non-frilly, mechanically sound Volvo testing out her research….with a solid structure and foundation to withstand any research issue.
Jason C. went from a 1960s Aston Martin (think James Bond) to the Millenium Falcon and Han Solo…always working on his research/technology at his disposal, fixing it, trying to make it better.
THEN it was time for round 2 of Rebecca’s researcher’s chair!!! Good luck, sister! She "played around with her question" about her project overnight (translation: I had terrible nightmares about the badgering mob of people coming after me yesterday.) She narrowed down the ideas from yesterday, as did the rest of us….Next step: What would we like to know about her topic/research? What to do when a brilliant kid does the work but chooses to do everything but participate about it appropriately?
Next....Open Activity time! We had a good discussion and debate about qualitative/quantitative research regarding our subjects. We read pages 2-11 and worked on formulating and articulating our research questions---what to steer away from and what to add to our thinking.
We learned to start with our questions and rephrase them with: “What happens when…”, “How…”, “What is….”. We then webbed about what we anticipate and our hunches about our own questions. The last step was to articulate what we want/need from other people in the group (a “Dear AI, This is what I need from you…..”) which can always help with the RC!!!
Conclusions: as we wrote our web of questions on colored paper, we concluded that colored paper and really new and good smelly markers make everything much better. Some people who shall remain nameless (Natalie, Steph) may have gotten a little too excited about the smelly markers. That's all I'm saying.
Last, we had “status of the class” for the rule followers reading the schedule, who shall also remain nameless (Renee). We determined the status of the class was, in a word, “crazy” and then went to lunch!!!
After individual time, one of the inquiry groups met. I wasn't a part of that, but I overheard that someone stole Renee’s pen but no one knows who it was (Jason).
We watched a video after lunch about Capitelli’s ELD students and the strategies used with them and their unit on family (inquiry context, data, teacher reflection, student work). How do conversations in between students to support English language learning and how do other kinds of conversations impact that learning?
Data from the video included interviews, whole-class discussion/review, evals in writing like stars and wishes, videos.
AI Primary data brainstorming ideas included: surveys, interviews, blog postings, student work, student feedback, field notes, grades, achievement data, test scores, interviews with colleagues, blog reflections, journals….to be continued as we continue with our research.
Lastly, Jason C. took the Researcher's Chair (brave soul) and Steph decided to record the whole thing on her laptop, though it was NOT her turn to do so. However, she is totally prepared for a career as a courtroom transcriber. (Good to keep one's options open.)
Jason's RC took many directions, some of which involved critical thinking and what that might look like in his classroom. What is anonymity on a blog? Renee asked what the freshmen did, since the sophomores in Jason's research did a good job deciding what good, bad, and ugly blogs looked like. Jason mentioned that the freshmen did nothing. They just sat around and did absolutely nothing, zilch, nada. Bad, bad, bad. (Actually, they haven't had a chance to do anything relating to this….that's coming up later in his research….!) Topics such as assessment, revision, and career skills for the future were also discussed relating to Jason's work so far.
Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!
3 comments:
Okay - see, this is why Stacey talked Steph into doing AI! Although I can't say you've missed your calling (our kids NEED teachers with your sense of humor) you would make SOOOOO much more money as a stand-up comic!
I deleted my prior comment because it was turning into a post. Steph, your great detail in this post is what inspired it.
I'm with Natalie, though. There should be a "World according to Steph" column in every newspaper everywhere.
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