I am presenting my research project to my PLC and principal this Wednesday. I have been working on a presentation to share what results I have at this point. I feel a little worried that I don't have enough information to feel like it was a successful project. Snow days have really put a damper on this whole thing. That being said, I feel like the qualitative data I collected with the interviews as well as the information gleaned from the ERQs will be helpful in identifying students strengths and areas of growth so they can be addressed. I am in what Holliday (2002) referred to as the "dark night of the soul" where "the process of analysis, sorting and organizing has the potential to take the argument in many directions." I believe I can make some good projections, but they will not be exactly what I was thinking I would find. I strongly feel that if I had more time I could make draw better conclusions about the effectiveness of the RAP method.
So, what am I thnking at this point? Based on the coding of the ERQs, I believe that teachers need to address the importance of underlining the questions, boxing key words, and circling important numbers so that students are aware of what the question is asking. I also think that when students learn to restate the question in their answer they will be much more aware of what the question is.
In adddition to the ERQ data, the interviews were very insightful as well. Test anxiety seems to be a big struggle for students and I believe we, as teachers, need to find some strategies to help students realize that testing is important, but not make it a fearful experience. I found it quite fascinating that students didn't really worry about tests with multiple choice questions. It was mainly the writing prompts that had them in a tizzy.
As far as the question, what are the affects of the RAP method on how novice students respond to extended-response questions, I don't really know. I only have about 3 samples or so for each student and do not feel they have had enough experience with the whole process to draw conclusions. Maybe I can get in another data point this week, but with yet another snow day and novels being read in every reading class, I am not hopeful.
Reference: Holliday, A. (2002). Doing and writing qualitative research. London:Sage.
I know you did a great job; hey don't sweat it, we all know that this has been a difficult semester with all of those horrible snow days. Take it all in stride and understand that research, is a process :)
ReplyDeleteI’m sure your presentation was wonderful! I think snow days have put a damper on everyone’s research. I guess we should look at the positive and it taught us how to work through the problems that we were having with never being in school. It still sounds like you were able to learn some things about the writing process from the participants. I love that you mention finding ways to help students realize that testing should not be a fearful experience. I even see test anxiety within my young students. This is something that needs to be addressed within all schools and classrooms.
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