Week 6 Collecting Data

Week #6 Reflection

Resources etc. I shared/participated in:

• Hosting Twitter was fun, educational and highly focused - I barely had time to get coffee during it, but my level of involvement in both sharing, facilitating, and learning was greatly increased!  I highly recommend everyone trying it.
• I shared Emerging Technology Tools for Qualitative Data Jeffrey who is using technology which includes recording lessons.
• I shared an excellent comprehensive article/resource from the Learning Store about analyzing qualitative data.    It has all the steps, processes, methods and creativity to accomplish an effective data analysis.
• I shared APA Do's and Don'ts on both Twitter and my blog.  This article helped me answer some of my specific questions.  A great quick resource to review before beginning narrative of analysis.
• I shared an amazing website which unpacks all the Common Core Standards and breaks it down into specific teaching topics that our site used today in an in-service.  North Carolina is in its 2nd year of practicing the Common Core Standards and has a head-start on what all of us need to understand.  In fact, NC has done most of the unpacking work for us.
• Many of the questions I asked during Twitter sessions resonated with other students enabling us to all understand how to proceed.
• I gave an example of how I am using Wordle to find themes in my research.  

How did I intend these new resources to impact other' learning?  What impact did it actually make?

• I shared the Learning Store article about analyzing qualitative data as a resource that I am currently using in hopes that other students will also use it as a resource as they begin to analyze and organize data.  After our Twitter sessions, I recognized that others were also struggling to analyze and found this an excellent and helpful site.
• The PPT about APA Do's and Don't is a quick and effective method to help students know tricks of the trade.  I intend it to be a resource for a quick review before my peers begin the narrative analysis.
• I shared the NC CCSS in hopes that my peers will connect and remember that our research should be directly related to improving our teaching in view of the new CCSS.
• The questions I proposed at Twitter (both as host and not as host) helped other students who had similar questions gain clarification.  Several of my questions were addressed by peers by comments on Twitter such as "I was wondering that too", and "Thanks for asking, I didn't understand that either." 
• I also posted on peer blogs, some to encourage  and some to support through evidence and personal examples.  
• The Wordle samples were intended to help peers see how I am using it to enable them to use it as a analysis tool also.
• Comment from my peer:  
  Thank you, thank you, thank you for the resources you shared. I especially like the one that breaks down the common core standards, as this is something new to me that I am implementing in my classroom.
• I suggested to a peer an idea about a reminder to complete survey's.  Here is his response: I have used your advice and we will see if the "LAST CHANCE TO HELP ME" plea works.

What will I do differently next week?

• Since I am going to be traveling to San Diego from Wed. - through the following Tuesday (my daughter turns 16 Saturday the 26th and we are celebrating with her older sister at PLNU where she is in college) I will take my laptop to Tweet in Twitter sessions.  I have saved many of the resources to my USB flashdrive so I can travel without all my paper printouts. 
• I am moving into into the analysis process as all my data has been collected.
• I need to re-learn how to make graphs on Excel as my first attempts failed.

What resources did others share to increase my learning?

• Dr. Jones gave several specific tips that helped immensely.  She reviewed the steps:  Results (data), Analysis (what data tells me) and Discussion (what data means).
• Michelle introduced us to Blog Clouds - which I am experimenting with.
• Jaime shared her Sharpie Context map which gave me ideas of how to look for themes.
• My peers shared Worldle and Bubbl.us which I am in the process of applying.
• Jeffrey shared on his blog about Ref Works and 'Write and Cite" through the program - I LOVE this!  I am using it for my references for my paper.  It is so nice and puts it into perfect form.
• I learned from my instructors how to use 1st person or 3rd person in writing research, how to do the analysis and then write a narrative of analysis (which will be creative), to include explaining graphs and to give a  few samples in appendix to show data analysis.

Resources:

Kimbler, J.; Moore, D. ; Maitland, M.; Sowers, B.; & Snyder, M. Emerging Technology Tools for Qualitative Data. Nova Southeastern University, Jan. 18, 2013.  Retrieved from: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/TQR2013/Kimbler_etal.pdf

Powell, T.; Renner, M.  Analyzing Qualitative Data.  University of Wisconsin, 2003.  Retrieved from:  

http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf

PowerPoint from Emporia State University.  Retrieved from: http://www.suu.edu/faculty/white_l/MMPI/powerpoints/apa_writing_style.pdf

North Carolina's Unpacking of the new Common Core State Standards website: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common-core-tools/

Ref Works tool:  http://www.refworks.com/

Week #6 What am I finding as I collect data?

What an exciting week of data collection and Twitter.  If you have not hosted Twitter yet...go for it.  It's fun! The highlight of the week for me was interviewing my school librarian, and organizing my student data. 

Below is a Wordle that shows what my 2nd graders said about reading.  Most of the words appear to apply to fiction reading, but some apply to informational text.  I love the words:  wonder, magical and information. They are a nice contrast of fiction and informational text.  

My family has been eating at the bar the past week since the kitchen table and hutch are overflowing with data that needs to be organized and ordered.  I received 2/3rd s of my parent surveys back this week.  I have looked them over quickly but will organize them over the weekend (End of the quarter grades were due today!).    I am finding that my class swings from fiction to informational text in direct relationship to the quality of the books being read aloud.  

The highlight of the week was interviewing my librarian.  She printed a computer generated list of every book my 2nd graders have checked out since they started kindergarten in chronological order.  This data will be interesting to analyze.  Mrs. B. (librarian) found that none of the 2nd grade "Battle of the Books" texts were non-fiction this year.  In 6th grade, two of the ten were non-fiction.  Mrs. B. has found it difficult to find age appropriate quality non-fictional texts, even though she uses the following sources:  Award winners, Usborne, Scholastic top picks, Amazon best picks, Barnes and Noble best picks, book publishers best picks and other professional reviews.   She discovered that books with fictitious characters but true informational text were especially interesting to young students - books like The Magic School Bus with Ms. Frizzle.  

Mrs. B. is wondering how the Common Core State Standards can be supported with informational text if there is a small selection of quality informational texts available.  Perhaps it is time to start writing quality non-fiction books!

Next week:  Start sorting, organizing and looking for themes, the beginning stages of analysis.

For your information:  

APA Do's and Dont's:  http://www.suu.edu/faculty/white_l/MMPI/powerpoints/apa_writing_style.pdf

Our site has been using the North Carolina District Common Core Unpacking to evaluate our Alaska Standards.  The website is very helpful to compare to our Alaska State Standards.  Since our research is tied to the standards, I wanted to share this site with you to evaluate your research with the current unpacked Common Core State State Standards.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common-core-tools/

Another website that I found very helpful in analyzing Qualitative data and which helps shed light on 'how':
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf

Resources:

Interview with Alexandra Barsargin, 10/18/2013, McNeil Canyon School Librarian

http://www.wordle.net/create

http://www.clipartsfree.net/svg/460-job-interview-vector.html