Primary Source Update
I’m hitting a wall.
At the onset of this project, I imagined my primary sources to be students who are using writing as community engagement in after school groups in Providence. But, I haven’t heard back from folks I’ve reached out to…
Theories:
1) Spam?
2) I’m an adult trying to co-op student space for my own means, and folks are not interested in speaking with me.
Possible Solutions:
1) Pick up a phone (What’s a phone?).
2) Reach out one more time and express that while I may not be doing it perfectly, I’m trying to incorporate student voice into my research and future practices. Happy to follow their lead on how this exchange of time and information will go.
3) Reach out to classroom teachers who might be doing this kind of writing in their classrooms (Who are these teachers?).
Secondary Source Update
This semester I’ve learned two tricks. Maybe they are ones y’all already know, but here they are:
1) Find a useful source. Mine it’s bibliography for more useful sources.
2) Look at the shelves surrounding that useful source, you’ll find relevant books that didn’t come up on the Adams website. I hear researchers in the stone age used to do this. Still works!
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| Hey look, it's Daniels and Zemelman from our 407 text, I hope this other book they worked on will be just as good! |
Doing this, I’ve been able to find some useful sources that look at on writing as a tool for community engagement in high school classrooms. If you remember from last week, I was only finding articles on after school groups, so this new batch of sources is really helpful.
Thanks all for now, folks! Stay tuned for more I-Search updates!
Colleen, I'm so sorry that you've hit a wall; that's the worst! When you talk about community engagement, I'm wondering if things like student mock legislature would be of any interest to your research? I know Bay View does this and likely lots of other schools as well! Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts/S.A.D.D/Leos (youngin' Lions) all require heavy community engagement as well, sometimes in the form of P.S.As, letter writing to soldiers, government bodies, etc. occur from time to time. I hope you find some good information as you continue your search!
ReplyDeleteUsing a bibliography is a great idea. I’ve been focusing on studies found online, but I think I need to move towards finding other sources. I’m sorry to hear about your issues finding primary sources. I’m sure you’re familiar with Inspiring Minds, a program that seeks volunteers for schools in Providence. That’s how I was able to get into the classroom. I do know they offer after school placements for volunteers, which includes after school reading programs. While you may not volunteer, it could be another option in terms of finding contacts.
ReplyDeleteI had never really thought about high school writing in connection to community engagement, or service learning before reading your blog posts. I too wonder why the service learning writing projects are seen mostly in after school programs instead of the classrooms. Maybe there is more freedom to write in the context of service learning in after school programs, when class time needs to be devoted to curriculum and fulfilling those pesky Common Core standards.
ReplyDeleteI also just learned that new trick of looking around the book for other useful books on the topic. Just a simple concept that opened my eyes to lots more books to read into for research!