Post meeting 1/21/12

Here's what I'm thinking now about my inquiry ...
I have more data than I thought, I just need to sit down and organize it and let it congeal in my head (see what it tells me).

My next steps are ...
1. Schedule a regular time (once a week should be fine) to discuss what's on the word wall and record this!!!!!!

2. Think about interviewing Leslee as a data source.  She's teaching Latin and Greek roots to the highest spellers and I am thinking that this instruction will (hopefully) carry over on to the word wall in my homeroom.

3. Finish reading the articles I've downloaded and see if they help me to look at my data in ways I haven't considered.

4. Hit Best Buy and get some kind of recording device!!!!!!!

Saturday, 1/21/12

“Two things I notice when I look at the data I brought today are…”

So, I forgot to take a photograph of my word wall yesterday, but here are some thoughts related to what's happening with it:

1. Students are FINALLY getting really interested in adding to it after a couple of weeks.  Also, what started as an interest in finding words only when I'm reading out loud has turned into an interest in adding words they find in other places.

2. Students seem to be mostly adding words that they don't know the meanings of - thus curiosity = "what's this mean?".  This is kind of cool, actually, and I'm hoping this will push students into using the dictionary to look up the words and discover more about them.

3. Yesterday, the word "fascist" appeared on the word wall.  I asked the student where he had heard the word (or read it) and he replied that he was reading a book about world history.  I then asked him if he knew what the word meant and he said he didn't.  So I told him that it's a political philosophy (this was a full-class discussion) and suddenly, the word "philosophy" appeared on the board!

“One thing that surprises me about these data is …”

Nothing really.  I love the range of words the students are posting - engagement, impeccable, Fascist,  seismic, epicenter...

January update

So....before I head off for the long weekend, I figured I better get something down in writing.
Question is related to how students' word consciousness help them learn vocabulary (or better yet, help me help them learn).
I still have to watch 2 videos filmed of my 3 focal students and transcribe in some form the conversations.  It's been several weeks since filming and a 1st review and I'm sure I'll learn something new.
After reading another Graves article, this time about specific strategies that can be done in the classroom, I've started an "informal" word wall on the white board in the back of the class.  Students can write words on it that they come across in the course of their day - words that seem interesting to them or that make them curious or whatever.  Then, they, or other students can add synonyms, antonyms, or other related words in a web format.  As the board fills up, I'll photograph it and then erase it so we can start again.  This is a play on one of the strategies discussed in the Graves article and hopefully another way to collect data for a project that is beginning to seem too esoteric!