Blog # 10 Formulate a Research Plan

RESEARCH PLAN:
Focus- co-teaching and communication in the classroom (pre-kindergarten/early childhood specific)

 Statement of purpose: This study is about co-teaching in the classroom and how different feature of communication affect the classroom and the dynamic between co-teachers. I plan to uncover how successful and unsuccessful co-teaching evolves and what kinds of communication between 2 teachers affects that in a positive or negative way.  The research I am conducting looks at how the features of communication among co-teachers in a classroom affect the classroom environment and the classroom management. I am interested in hearing about all experiences that co-teachers have when working with another teacher and what different opinions they have on different aspects of teaching on it based on their experiences in the classroom.

Detailed statement research question:

1. What are the essential features that co-teachers need to communicate?
2. How does the planning process and communication among co-teachers affect the performance of each other and the students in the classroom?

Information needed (DATA):

-how the teachers together act a team/support each other to meet an overall goal for their class- question to ask: Also find out what their overall goal is?
- Find out what each teacher contributes to the lesson planning process and how each of them execute the lesson

-teacher experience in the classroom

-scenarios describing either positive or negative experiences in the classroom.

- situations in which co-teachers learn from each other

-how the styles, categorizations, and suggestions from"Communicating and Collaborating in Co-Taught Classrooms" by Greg Conderman, Sarah Johnston-Rodriguez, and Paula Hartman, compare to that of the data from my interviews and observations

A preliminary list of sources

1. "Communicating and Collaborating in Co-Taught Classrooms" by Greg Conderman, Sarah Johnston-Rodriguez, and Paula Hartman

2. interview data

3. observation data (including sample lesson plan

Plan for gathering information:

WHO: teachers in a pre-school setting both the head teacher and co-teacher simultaneously --- possible candidate: school director

WHERE: my information will be collected on site at the school through observations, interviews, and samples of lesson plans 

SUBJECTS: 2 with a possible third(school director as a possible candidate)  

METHODS: observations, interviews, sample lesson plans

-*note*  the sample lesson plans will be detailed and explain which teacher planned which part of the lesson and how that translates to the instruction and structure of the class 

Literature Review Notes: "Communicating and Collaborating in Co-Taught Classrooms" by Greg Conderman, Sarah Johnston-Rodriguez, and Paula Hartman
1. Co-teachers may need direction is maintaining and establishing a professional relationship.
2. co-teaching is a developmental process that involves open communication and interaction, mutual admiration, and compromise.
3. Strategic question to discuss before co-teaching: "Are you willing to try something new? How many students in our co-taught classroom have disabilities, are gifted, or are otherwise exceptional? Can we sit down and share our responses on our inventory assessment? How can we divide responsibilities so that will will both benefit?"
4. During co-teaching questions: "What are some actions that one of us can do while the other is leading an activity or giving a lecture? What nonverbal sign can we use to indicate that we need a quick break? Do any students needs re-teaching, pre-teaching, or enrichment? What can we do to create an environment that is accepting of all students?
5. After co-teaching questions: "Have we collected data to assess student performance and the effectiveness of co-teaching? Is what we are doing good for both of us? How do you prefer feedback, especially when one if us is not pleased? Would you do it all over again?"
6. Understanding and respecting each other's preferred modes of communication fosters mutual respect, reduces the likelihood of being misunderstood, and maximizes collaboration.
7. Admittedly, effective communication is essential for co-teachers. The challenge is to communicate in the co-teachers preferred manner, not your preferred manner. Golden Rule, and Platinum Rule.
8. Collaboration styles
9. Getting to know the collaboration style of your co-teacher; 5 steps:
       a. be honest in completing the assessments and sharing your preferences and needs with your co-teacher
      b. carefully and without judgment listen to your partner and share his or her preferences and needs
      c. compare and clarify information related to each other's preferences, needs, and priorities
      d. With the information that you have learned about your co-teacher, monitor your verbal and non-verbal behaviors during co-teaching efforts to see if they match your partner's requests and needs.
      e. frequently reflect with your co-teacher to assess whether either of you need to make changes in your communication or collaborative approach.
10. Effective communication skills
     a. make sure your verbal and non-verbal signs are congruent
     b. use the appropriate communication tool for the purpose
        "- the paraphrase and summarization methods are used to check understanding of factual     information"
     c. reflect on your motive for confronting
     d. consider when and how to confront caringly you partner'
        "- in a relationship built upon genuine trust and respect, partners can introduce concerns as merely another topic of conversation"
     e. allocate time to develop the relationship
11. examples of communication skills

Blog #9 My Interview Protocal

Statement of purpose: The research I am conducting looks at how the features of communication among co-teachers in a classroom affect the classroom environment and the classroom management. I am interested in hearing about your experience as a co-teacher or working with one and what different opinions you may have on it based on your experience in the classroom.

*The questions will be provided to the interviewee prior to the interview*

General Information:
1. Where did you attend college?
2. Did you recieve a degree in education or did you choose the alternate route option?
3. How long have you been teaching?
4. What grades besides pre-school are you experienced with?
5. What schools have you taught at before?
6. Have you always been co-teaching or have you been a single teacher before?
7. How long have you been at this establishment/school?

HEAD TEACHER:
1. Is this your first co-teacher?
2. Have you learned anything from working with a co-teacher?
3. Can you remember a time where you had a bad experience working with or collaborating with a co-teacher?
Lesson planning:
1. Are you the sole planner of the lessons for the students?
2. Do you consider your co-teacher in planning your lessons? If so, how or it what ways?
Classroom Management:
1. How do you consider the opinions of your co-teacher when it comes to classroom management?
2. Can you describe the type of support that should be present in a classroom with co-teachers?
Communication/Support:
1. How comfortable is your communication with your co-teacher?
2. How do you keep those lines of communications open?
3. Was there ever a time when communication was difficult?
4. How do you communicate when you have a different opinion or a concern that needs to be discussed?


ASSISTANT TEACHER:
1. Is this your first time being an assistant?
2. Do you like being in an assistant position or do you prefer to be in a different position in the classroom?
3. Can you remember a time where you had a bad experience working or collaborating with your head teacher?
Lesson planning:

1. How do you play into lesson planning? 

2. Have you ever had a difficult situation where you were excluded from plans? If so how was that handled, or how did the dynamic of the class change as a result?

Classroom Management:

1. Do you have an active role in the classroom? 
2. In what ways are you active in the classroom when it comes to discipline and structure?

Communication/Support:

1. How comfortable is your communication with your co-teacher?

2. How do you keep those lines of communications open?

3. Was there ever a time when communication was difficult?

4. How do you communicate when you have a different opinion or a concern that needs to be discussed?

Blog #8 Research Questions Data Set 5

GAMNING TRANSCRIPT
Research Question: How is the casual tone of the interviewee possibly affected by the interviewers prior relationship with the interviewee along with the interviewers use of academic language to evaluate what the interviewee is saying?

Evidence:
      In this interview, the interviewer(Ch) and the interviewee (B), went back and forth with what seemed like a struggle to get information. Not until the end did it seem like a comfortable conversation, but then the interview notes end, so our analysis ends not knowing how the rest of the conversation went. B, the interviewee seemed to be in a casual, very nonchalant, mood when he gave his answers. The interviewer, Ch, was constantly probing him for information which seemed to do one of two things. B became confused on the elaboration Ch was giving, or simple B was uninterested in how technical his comments were becoming or with the entire interview itself, and he remained casual and minimal throughout. It also shows a different dynamic that is not always seen interviews.

1.  Prior conversation: 
     Ch- I wanted to talk a little, you  talk about yourself as a hardware expert, you said software novice, although I bullied you into being competent, what software do you know how to use?- example of interviewer probing ideas "I bullied" 

2.  use of "JUST" and short answers from B: 
     B - they are
     B - yeah, but it's just games (laughing) 
     B - Well, just in learning how to learn a program, I just see buttons, tool tips and ah I make a go at it, the scissors mean I can cut in here, and I can just cut and drag and drop - these a simple things everyone knows, I guess the only reason I can pick up learning a program is that I just have that knack, no other way to explain it.

3. academic language and probing for elaboration from Ch: 
     Ch -so what kind of crossover did you find between learning the games and learning the software everyone needs to know?  Obviously it wasn't real hard for you to learn, frontpage 
      Ch -what background? Asking B for elaboration/more information
      Ch        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 This may be where Ch loses B. All the wordiness and academic terms take the interview away from even probing for information, but also take B into a place where he may withdraw a little because the conversation is less technical. 



CHAT ROOMS:
Research question: Both pairs interrupt each other multiple times to either finish a thought or ask a question. How does that affect the responses and if it leads to a cohesive conversation?

Evidence:

1. Interruptions

A    That was scary. because

S    did you tell your mom   S interrupts
A    no I never told my mom or my dad
S    we'll be careful if we publish this (laughing) Here the conversation seems of track
A    I mean, I think I told them later on when I was in college, but it's dangerous, cause my parents weren't familiar with computers or web tv and I was a child exploring it -like - there was no restrictions, my parents didn't know how to put restrictions, they weren't too familiar with it.  It's only maybe three of four years ago that my mom learned how to use a computer so being a child, discovering it on your own could be really dangerous when there's chat rooms, and talking to people telling you that they're your age, but they're not
S    Exactly
A    That was scary experience
S    But you figured that out, you knew to hang up when you got the call  we don’t hear about what the experience did until way down here even though it was asked much earlier

S    oh that's really funny it backfired on both of you

A    it was kind of embarassing, we were like eeuuew, we go to church with him, he's old,
S    that's really funny, how old were you then interruption to find more detail
A    we were freshman in high school
S    ok so you were about 14
16
A    yeah, and he was bout 20, and he was like our older brother, too, and we were like, so now we know how you pick us girls, all these girls you met were from the chat room
S    that's really funny
A    that was a weird story
S    that's a funny story, and it's funny, it's like a reprise of the story when you were little, and you gave, but it's um
A    well this time it's someone I know and I think we lied about our age, too, so we said, every time we were 14 we'd at 3 or 4 extra years, we wanted to sound older (small laugh) and we would change our screen name so many times, cause we're like  'ahh, we want to have a new personality today' A interrupts this time which finishes the conversation
S    laughing
A    we're like "pinkgirlloves whatever" or there, like our new boyfriends name, like Angelalovewhateverhisnameis - we changed it every week.   What can you do?


ADULT LEARNERS:
Research Question: How do probing questions from the interviewer subconsciously persuade the interviewee to open up more as the interview progresses? Why does the second excerpt seem more comfortable? Does time help the relationship between the interviewer and interviewee?

Evidence:
1. casual language and repetition
M         Yeah, and even though I guess I wasn't you know comprehending that this was supposed to make my life easier, it made it more difficult

Ch        good, so this course was important, in getting you over your fear

M         yeah
Ch        What do you think it was that got you over it?
M         Ahm, I guess what could happen, you know? You know, what could happen, you put your work in you press a button, and you just - what's going to happen?
Ch        So you had some assurance that your work would be there.
M         Right

M         I guess so, how to research on how to use the computer for research

Ch        did it help you with exploring programs

M         Ask somebody very casual

Ch        You still wouldn't go through the menu bar and see what each of the tools did, and you know because you can hover over it, or you wouldn't open them up and just play with it
M         I might, but I would probably ask somebody
Ch        Would you read somethihg
M         I would read, yeah.  I would read the help things non specific language

 

2. probing for more elaboration

Ch        yeah.[ pause] now go back again, so what was it, what was your resistance, if you can remember
M         With the computer?
Ch        Why didn't you want to learn it?  The teacher says we're going to do the course this way, and you rather than learning the program they gave you, that was supposed to make it easier, and that's the course where they were going to teach you and support you to use it, you you did it your own way, and that  isn't just you, that's fairly typical, so let's do some reflecting on, what were your motives, I understand the fear thing, but let's think about where the fear came from, what was it, the one you identified, about not thinking that it was going to represent what you really wanted, is a big one, that's big, but can you think of any of the other things, maybe about you, or your past experiences or probing for detail

M         Ask somebody very casual
3. delivery of elaboration

M         Yeah, and even though I guess I wasn't you know comprehending that this was supposed to make my life easier, it made it more difficult working through his or her thoughts

Ch        And also, I think I'm hearing, if I'm understanding you right, you felt that learning that program didn't really have anything to do with what you needed to learn for that course,
M         right
Ch        that you'd learn more, or better, or what you wanted, by doing it on your own
M         mmhmm M is opening up more becoming descriptive
Ch        So you didn't see the program as part of what it was important to learn

Ch        Powerpoint?

M         yeah powerpoint and ah,
Ch        frontpate?
M         no, I'm trying to think what else, but they were just projects that we had to turn in.  So ahm, some kids knew how to use the computer but they didn't know how to use it in the way she wanted it to be used, they would zip by all their work and not do it the correct way, and maybe I was in a better situation, because I knew nothing. about you know, computers, and this was my fear, entering the information and then you press a button, and I remember , you know, the laughed at me because you would press the button and everything on the screen would disappear and I'd be like "oh what happened" but there was a way to get it back, there was always a way to get it back, so it was a funny experience and it was ah, it was kind of taught me not to be afraid, to you know, to use the computer M is opening up more becoming descriptive

10/15/13 Class Notes Gaming Literacy Analysis

GAMING LITERACY INTERVIEW ANALYSIS                                        CLASS NOTES 10/15/13

Ch        I wanted to talk a little, you  talk about yourself as a hardware expert, you said software novice, although I bullied you into being competent, what software do you know how to use? Maybe not quite proper/ refering to an earlier conversation

B          you know, what everyone else knows how to use, word, frontpage, powerpoint, excell, spreadsheet thingsprograms

Ch        so it's interesting, games aren't really considered software are they? Ch guided the conversation

B          they are – Agrees- reluctantly

Ch        so you know lots of software points out B’s expertise

B          yeah, but it's just games (laughing) games are no big deal

Ch        so what kind of crossover did you find between learning the games and learning the software everyone needs to know?  Obviously it wasn't real hard for you to learn, frontpage

B          I think it's because I had ah, background exposure experience is how he learned programs

Ch        what background? Asking B for elaboration/more information

B          Well, just in learning how to learn a program, I just see buttons, tool tips and ah I make a go at it, the scissors mean I can cut in here, and I can just cut and drag and drop - these a simple things everyone knows, I guess the only reason I can pick up learning a program is that I just have that knack, no other way to explain it.   Everybody should know this…

More direct focus on literacy:

Ch        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

B          well like a lot of games, in the beginning, there's menus.  You don't just start playing.  There are menus, you get to customize your decal your spray, clothes, (laughing) 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. casual-just- minimizing/fooling around

Why does B want to minimize his accomplishment? Why doesn’t B want to connect his gaming expertise with literacy?

Ch        OK so all those things - same kinds of processes, same kinds of moves - so navigating menus is something you learned from games that can carry over - anything else?

B          I think that is the main thing, I can't connect a First person shooter with Microsoft word, that would be a real stretch= resistance (the hypothesis in this conversation is not a fit)

Ch        how about file systems and gaming spaces?

B          you know, you're right, (acknowledgement) because the game, the games are still software, and they're still files, so there are certain organization of a game that is different from regular files

 Ch  - so what's another thing - so playing those games when you were a little kid set you up to be able to disentangle that DOS system more easily than your stepfather, so what were you doing?

B          like I was navigating through menus

Ch        you got used to trial and error

B          I wasn't being graded - there's no - all right man, let's pass this class you've got to

Ch        so you're completely comfortable with messing it up and starting over.

B          Oh yeah

Ch        I think the print generation has a lot of hangups with that - what's something else

B          there's a song by Natasha Ben ? I hear it on the radio - it goes like, she says in her song, that we're taught not to make mistakes, we really can't live that way

            In this interview, the interviewer(Ch) and the interviewee (B), went back and forth with what seemed like a struggle to get information. Not until the end did it seem like a comfortable conversation, but then the interview notes end, so our analysis ends not knowing how the rest of the conversation went. B, the interviewee seemed to be in a casual, very nonchalant, mood when he gave his answers. The interviewer, Ch, was constantly probing him for information which seemed to do one of two things. B became confused on the elaboration Ch was giving, or simple B was uninterested in how technical his comments were becoming or with the entire interview itself, and he remained casual and minimal throughout. It also shows a different dynamic that is not always seen interviews. I think this is a good example of a case where the interviewer may have to think on their feet and really find questions to get information from their subject where as some interviews turn into successful conversations that flow between both people. There were also a lot of areas that gave away thoughts of B. He repeated certain words and phrases that tells the interviewer something.

Class notes:

-          Repetitions

-          Use of certain words

-          “just” minimizes

-          Like, and, um, ah

-          Who holds the floor

-          Who spoke more

-          Who controls the conversation

-          How do the questions/statements possibly influence the interviewee to say certain things- be careful not to do this!

-          Interview discourse

o   Being sure to stay with the right discourse/appropriate discourse for the conversation

o   Should we move in and out of discourses

o   Should the interviewer try to get the interviewee to see or say something by changing their discourse?

o   Do prior relationships affect the interview?

§  Interviewee will hold back based on authority & different discourses will be used, and same goes for interviewer: different discourses/different tones will be used, there will be different features of communication based on authority/prior relationship between the two persons

o   Game/techie discourse (B-student)

o   Teacher discourse (Ch-authority/instructor)

Instructor is finding the connection

Blog #7 Introduction to use Human Subjects in Research

Hello, my name is Sarina Rizzo. I am a student at Kean University Majoring in education and English. I am currently doing research in my research on language and literature study class. Thus study is about co-teaching in the classroom and how different feature of communication affect the classroom and the dynamic between co-teachers. I plan to uncover how successful and unsuccessful co-teaching evolves and what kinds of communication between 2 teachers affects that in a positive or negative way.
 I have chosen you to be a part of this study because you are a co-teacher in a classroom and you fit the subject of this study due to your current profession and experience. This study will consist of one interview and one full day observation of your teaching along with your co-teacher. I also would like to discussing lesson planning with you and see some sample documents if possible. We will set up a day to do the interview and observation at your discretion, and I thank you in advance for participating. I have a consent form to go over with you explaining your participation and confidentiality of this study.

Blog # 6 Group Research Questions 10/8/13

Blog #6

Sarina Rizzo, Julissa Lopez, and Rachel Palmer

Group Research Question: How do questions within instructor comments aid in student revisions? What do they tell the student about their writing?

Categories for analysis: (features to determine effectiveness)

1. tone of questions

2. questions asking for elaboration

3. questions describing readerly feedback

4. questions regarding structure

5. questions on reorganization

6. questions on generalizations of comments made in the paper

7. questions on importance of situations in the paper

8. questions on the readers understanding of the paper

9. questions on necessary information to include in paper

Effectiveness:

In order to determine the effectiveness of how the comments given to students aid in their revisions there are a few ways to determine this. The first would be to compare the essays that received comments to the final draft to see if the comments were applied. If there was a significant change in the essay, or it seems that the comments/question were addressed/answered, then how did that help the fluency of the paper. I think it would also be interesting to interview the writer and get his or her opinions on the questions that they received.

The things I would ask the writer would be:

What did the comments tell you about the paper?

Did they help you add or delete written material?

How were some of the comments encouraging, or discouraging? If either describe the effect it had on whether or not you revised your writing?

Did some of the questions confuse you or make you question your writing? If so, how or in what way?

What did the questions tell you about how your paper was interpreted by your reader? Did this knowledge tell you if you were successful or unsuccessful in your delivery of your work?

Do you overall find questions helpful in revising your paper? If so how, and what kinds questions are most helpful/important to you when you are writing?

Do you feel as if the professor’s comments were a little to personal ?(ex. gut  feeling,   feels out of place)

Overall did all the professor’s comments help you with your revisions on your paper?

Do you read all of the professors comments before you revise?

These questions to the writer would explain the effectiveness/ineffectiveness that the questions within the comments present to the writer. Also as an interviewer I would learn about what the student feels about the comments and that would show how the writer used/disregarded the questions is revising his or her essay.

Also I think interviewing the instructor asking the big question of What are the intentions of the questions given, and how do you think they are going to help the writer? The answer to this question will then be compared to the answers from the student writer and that would show whether or not the questions are effective. If the student response proves the instructor response then the questions were effective in revision. If not then in turn, the questions would be ineffective. .  These questions determine whether   or not the professor or the student needs to change their behavior to get the writer to revise. For example if the teacher is asking the  wrong questions for this individual students that don’t persuade the student to want to revise but at the same time if the student just isn’t revising no matter  what the professor states  then its the student who is making him or hers writing ineffective by not reading and comprehending the professors comments.

10/01/13 Class Notes extended to Blog #5 Developing a Research Plan

Beginning to Develop a Research Plan

Focus- co-teaching and communication in the classroom (pre-kindergarten/early childhood specific)

Research Questions:
1. What are the essential features that co-teachers need to communicate?
2. How does the planning process and communication among co-teachers affect the performance of each other and the students in the classroom?

Who has studied this and what do they say:
I am still in the process of searching for an article, but there seem to be a few articles on co-teaching but nothing specific on communication and co-teaching in the classroom. 10/1/13

10/4/13
I found an article that was very interesting. "Communicating and Collaborating in Co-Taught Classrooms" by Greg Conderman, Sarah Johnston-Rodriguez, and Paula Hartman.
- This article discusses how co-teaching is affected due to communication, and its offers advice as to how co-teachers should communicate between one another in order to run a successful classroom.
-I did not find anything on observing co-teachers in the classroom, so it seems that my study may or may not be the first of this kind. I think that this article is helpful to use because as I conduct my own research I think I would be able to compare what I see to the suggestions and descriptions that this article offers. It could be used as a sort of backbone for my research, and who knows, maybe there will be some things in this article that may not be true after my observations.

What do I need to find out to answer the question:
(this leads to the methods)
-how the teachers together act a team/support each other to meet an overall goal for their class- question to ask: Also find out what their overall goal is?
- Find out what each teacher contributes to the lesson planning process and how each of them execute the lesson

What should I do to gather that information:
-observe/interview teachers on how they work together/support each other
-see their plans and instructional materials and find out who planned what and who plans on executing which parts of the lesson: ask questions
-notice each teacher's role in the classroom and how they each command the classroom simultaneously/individually

TO BEGIN MY RESEARCH: 
-I will contact a school that I am familiar with and set up a few days where I can come in and observe the pre-kindergarten classroom.
-I will also interview both the head teacher and assistant teacher.
- I will also want to try to get a copy of their lesson plans, and also have them break down who does what in the classroom and why
-A possibility would be talking to the director on co-teaching and how she has seen different dynamics in the classroom. I think it would be also helpful to get her opinion on co-teaching and find out what advice or rules she has for her co-teachers and how she encourages them to work together.