Jennifer MacDonald
Research in Literature and Language
Dr. Chandler
Research Draft
12/08/2011
As I proceed through my latter years of college, I have begun to question my aspirations in the teaching field. I remember Elementary and Secondary schooling and specifically considered the teachers that have positively and negatively impacted my life and through that, I have developed a way of thinking; in every great teacher, there are great intentions and is a specific goal in mind. That being said, I question what kind of teacher am I going to be. What will be my teaching style? How will I make my classroom work? My major consists of Elementary and Secondary Education (K-5 5-8) with a focus in English (writing option) which gains my interest particularly in middle school Language Arts. In a middle school Language Arts class there are the kids who actually love English, and the kids who need to pass it to move forward. I want to make sure as their teacher that their experience in my class was beneficial and worthwhile. I am specifically interested in the retention in reading materials. After contemplating my teaching structure, I find myself running back to the same question; Do students reading a specific work of literature (book or short story) as a class/group retain more knowledge than they would do silent individual reading by themselves?
According to a study done by Shlomo Sharan, Zalman Ackerman and Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz, a three week experiment was conducted involving kids in grades 2 through 6. The study asked the academic achievement of Elementary School children in small group versus whole class instruction. This specific experiment involved psychologists and educators and they questioned the children’s cognitive functioning. Contrary to their experiment, my study would particularly look at the actual teacher’s analysis of the class, reading in a class as a group versus individual, silent reading. There was also research done by DeWayne Mason and Thomas Good showing the diversity of the students that influence the group work. Once again, my research would be more focused. I intend to stick to strictly interviewing a teacher and a student.
As far as my detailed research is conducted, the abstract of my project will be to interview two teachers and two students based on the end of the year analysis. I will begin my investigation in September of a particular year by telling my participants at the end of the school year, I will be interviewing them based on that in school year- (for confusion purposes, I will meet in September of 2012 with the participants and tell them at the end of that school year, June 2013, I will interview them based on that 2012-2013 Language Arts class, reading time, full year). I will interview one teacher who performs their in class reading as a whole group/class discussion/reading aloud and another teacher who conducts their reading time by instructing individuals to silently read. The two students will be chosen randomly from each teacher’s classroom and will also be interviewed with a different set of questions. Throughout each interview I will ask identical questions to each teacher and a separate set of identical questions for each student and record their answers to identify their interpretation of the different teaching/learning methods. A list of questions is as follows for both teachers:
- How many students are in your classroom?
- What are you mainly focusing on in your classroom?
- What is your goal as a teacher?
- What books/articles are you focusing on this marking period?
- How much homework is assigned?
- What is the general dynamic of the classroom?
- What time of day do the students enjoy the most?
- What part of class seems to be the most effective?
- Where do you feel the students strive?
- Where do they lack?
After asking basic, general classroom questions, I will then break into the depth of my research:
- What makes you decide on group versus individual reading time?
- Do you typically do a group/class discussion daily?
- Is silent reading time a punishment or an everyday part of class?
- Do you see an improvement in student’s academics when they group or individualize?
At the end of our interview, I will ask the teacher to sum up the year, particularly speaking about the reading time:
- How would you summarize the year as a whole during reading time?
- What would you change for next year?
This set of questions will be asked by me to each of the students who attended each teacher’s classroom:
- What is your favorite subject in school?
- How do you feel about Language Arts class?
- What was your favorite part of your Language Arts class?
-What books did you read?
- When was reading the most effective? Morning, noon, late in the day?
-Do you like partaking in a group reading or individual reading?
- Which method do you think your teacher used?
- Do you think it was effective?
- If I asked you to summarize this year’s focused reading, would you be able to explain the story to me?
- If your teacher asked you what you thought was best, during reading time, what would you suggest?
- Do you like when you are told to read silently?
- Do you feel less focused when you’re in a group, reading aloud or individual?
To sum up the conversation, I will ask the students almost the same question I asked the teachers at the end of our interview:
- How would you summarize the year as a whole during reading time?
- What would you tell the teacher to change for next year to make the reading aspect more understandable or comprehendible?
After asking my personal questions, since this is beneficial to me as a future teacher who hasn’t found her style yet, I would ask the teachers if they had any advice on what they’ve grown to learn about the dynamics of a classroom and the effectiveness and retention of students during reading discussion.
After a successful interview I would transcribe our conversation into a textual transcript. Using discourse analysis, I would, probably over the course of a few weeks and even a couple months, pick through the entire transcript and analyze the interview. Using discourse analysis, I will get an honest and deeper connection to group reading versus individual silent reading.
I have thought long and hard about this specific research experiment and feel every part of my research theory is feasible. I would be able to easily access extra history research or even just textual research describing other researchers’ analyses of the same experiment. I am doing my field experience next semester which would be a surefire way to watch over a classroom and get a first hand experience; I might even be able to interview the teacher I am assigned to do my field experience with. All aspects of my research are within close reach making this project realistic. The most feasible part of my research would be my personal desire to conduct this explicit research because of my passionate interest in conducting a beneficial, almost perfect classroom where the students’ retention levels and comprehend every aspect of our language arts reading classroom.
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