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While doing research for my Literature Review, I came across a very interesting article that wasn’t applicable to my particular topic, but could possibly be a springboard for a future research topic.  Written by Eileen Honan (2008), the title of the article is Barriers to teachers using digital texts in literacy classrooms.  I found that it explored a few different topics that were relevant on how to infuse technology into today’s classrooms.  This research study took place in Australia and was hoping to not only see what the current digital literacy practices were in one particular school, but if the study results could help teachers improve their teaching practices concerning the use of technology.  What was found out was that many of the teachers were quite unaware of the experience that their students had with digital texts.  Instead of just periodically using the digital texts in place of the regular texts, when the digital text was used, there seemed to be more of a focus on the use of technology rather than the content of the digital text that was being studied.  Instead of students using technology (digital text) to write or engage in skill building, there was more concern with the technical aspect of technology, such as typing, cutting and pasting, etc.  (p. 39):

“The teachers’ lack of awareness of students’ knowledge of digital technologies also had an impact on classroom literacy practices.  When they described their existing classroom practices involving digital texts, a theme, noted by others, predominated:  a focus on teaching students the technical operational skills needed to use the technology, rather than the literacy resources needed to create or make meaning from the texts”  (Honan, 2008, p. 39).

Obviously, this is a huge concern.  The lesson objective needs to recognize technology as a tool or vehicle to attain certain literacy skills.  Technology itself should not be the objective.  I think that the problem is that teachers are not realizing that their teaching objectives need to stay focused on the skill building or knowledge that students need to learn, but that technology should be used in order for students to display application of that knowledge.  Of course, as stated in the study, the digital texts that students use at home are always changing and are far removed from those that they are using within the classroom.  It is very difficult to keep up with the constant evolution of technology anywhere, much less within the classroom.   Honan (2008) makes a point about this in her article as well:

“Of course, technological changes are rapid, and systems do find it difficult to keep up with the latest, but it is not necessarily the equipment that needs updating.  It is the thinking around pedagogical practices when using digital texts, so school-based encounters with new technologies are not restricted to the depressingly familiar activities of producing slide presentations, publishing of paper-based ‘stories’ using word processing software or repeated learning of basic technical skills” (p.  42).

Honan makes a few important points when she states how classrooms need to be able to have the type of accessibility that is necessary in order to infuse digital texts into the classroom on a regular basis.  Have computer labs within a school does not promote the daily use that she feels is necessary in order for teachers to make the best use of digital texts.  So, in order for teachers to successfully use digital texts within the classroom, it is necessary for them to reorganize their thinking as well as their teaching.  In order to be able to move forward in their teaching, changes need to be made.  Teachers can have the experience and motivation to do this, but without the tools that they need to implement changes, it will be very difficult for them to use digital texts to provide a successful learning experience for their students.

Honan, E. (2008). Barriers to teachers using digital texts in literacy classrooms. Literacy, 42(1), 36-43.

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After reading Mary Ann Zehr’s (2010) article, “Reading Aloud to Teens Gains Favor Among Teachers,” I decided that I wanted to research this topic a bit further and got my hands on a copy of Jim Trelease’s book, The Read~Aloud Handbook.  I have always been a supporter of reading aloud to kids of all ages (even my 8^th grade students when I was still teaching), and still read aloud to both of my children, ages 8 & 10.  Trelease’s book is one that really must be read not solely by teachers and librarians, but by parents.   It is a how-to book on reading aloud, and most importantly, stresses why it is so important for children of all ages to be read to, and documents and supports his claims with letters from teachers and parents.

I think that the other reason that I really enjoyed Trelease’s book is that he talks about one of the reasons that parents are reluctant to require their children to read, “The reason parents avoid forcing reading is fear that the child will grow to hate reading and eventually stop” (p. 90).  He equates the task of reading with other tasks such as the brushing of teeth and changing of underwear.  These are things that children must do.  So why the hesitancy in requiring reading? Trelease also compares learning to read with learning to ride a bike without training wheels.  He asks, if your child falls down once or twice and then wants to give up, do you let them?  No, you insist on practice, practice, practice!  It is the same with reading.  The more you practice, the better and more fluent you become.  Why should reading be treated any differently?  Trelease simplifies this cycle:  “The more you read, the better you get at it; the better you get at it, the more you like it; and the more you like it, the more you do it” (p. 3).

Trelease’s book covers so many questions and concerns beyond reading aloud.  Not only does he define stages of reading aloud, but he offers dos and don’ts, connects it to silent sustained reading, and answers questions about reading in general.  Trelease also shares the many letters he has received over the years from parents who attended his speaking engagements and how they really listened to him and followed his suggestions with their own children.  The success stories are too many to list.  The Read~Aloud Handbook also offers a “Treasury of Read-Alouds” that spans over 100 pages that includes information on each book as to its type, the designated age group, and a description.  This alone is an excellent resource.  I guess this post is turning out to be more of a book review than anything else, but I think that Trelease’s book is an important handbook that should be read by teachers, librarians, and parents.

Trelease, J. (2006). The Read~Aloud Handbook 6th edition. New York: Penguin.

Zehr, M. A. (2010).  Reading Aloud to Teens Gains Favor Among Teachers.  Education    Digest, 7
(1), p. 4-7.  Retrieved from EBSCO

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http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/epals-integrates-lms-provides-dell-connected-classroom-with-a-total-e-learning-platform/4543?tag=nl.e623

BrainHoney!



While doing some research for my other course, I came across BrainHoney~a site that can be used for teachers to design and implement lesson plans, both online and within the classroom. I  spent some time exploring the site, which is quite easy to use and can definitely be useful in aiding the creation and/or organization of lesson plans for teachers.  Lesson plans can be directly linked to State standards, depending what subject area you are teaching.  There is also a gradebook that helps to assess whether or not students have successfully reached the standards that your lesson is focused on.   BrainHoney refers to their site as a way to achieve "Blended Learning."  Allowing students to access course materials online from home in order to review and keep up with the class (also if they are absent), as well as a tool for giving students immediate feedback and recognizing individual student needs.

It's pretty interesting and you can organize your lessons in any way that you wish-there are a lot of options and tools to use to fit each individual teaching style.  Check it out!

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Update! 

I was able to track down the webinar by Michael Cart and listen to it since it was archived.  I found it at the following address:  http://infopeople.org/training/teen-literature-update-2011/webinar-0

Michael Cart starts his webinar by taking viewers on a tour through the decades of YA Literature, pointing out popular titles such as S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and other titles that have stood the test of time.  He discussed current trends, which include what he calls Speculative Fiction and include Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror.  He also sees that there are more Romance titles, more Series, and more Retail Titles.  Cart points out that current trends also include very long YA books-and he feels that books are way longer than they need to be.  He claims Harry Potter is the cause of this, along with Twilight.  He also calls these books “unedited.” ?  He also uses the term “product” when referring to books-saying that books are being written so that they can be turned into films. 

So far, this webinar seems to have a negative vibe as if Cart isn’t happy with current YA trends.  He also discusses what he calls “Genre Bending and Blending” with a sort of obvious disdain for the topic.  Cart describes finding an entire section in Barnes and Nobel that was called Paranormal Romance-blending zombies and romance, vampires and romance, werewolves and romance, etc.    I ask ~what’s wrong with that?  Cart also negatively discusses book awards & prizes, stating that there are too many, which causes publishers to publish more books in order to make money. 

On a more positive note, Cart discusses in length the various awards and what books can receive them.  He also explores many books that he promotes as YA realistic fiction.  It is worth listening to just for this section-Cart does a great job of reviewing these books and sparking interest.  I know that I would like to read some of the titles that he mentioned that I haven’t gotten to yet. 

Now at the end (within the last 8 minutes or so), Cart finally gets to the topic that piqued my interest at the start, which asks the question:  Is Reading Online Reading?  Reading, but a different form of reading is what some say.  Others say this type of reading could impact the development of the mind?  According to Cart, we will have to watch the evolution of this topic.

That is basically all that is said about reading.  Ok, big disappointment in that sense, but otherwise worth watching for the book reviews.  :)  Take a listen if you want to learn about some new YA titles.

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I just stumbled upon a webinar that I would definitely have been interested in attending, had it not already happened on April 12th.  I was reading through some of the publib postings and found that this webinar looked quite interesting and planned on addressing some questions that I have actually been researching and thinking about.  The webinar was conducted by a well known YA author, Michael Cart, and it was called Teen Literature Update 2011.  I thought that the questions mentioned in the promotion of the webinar were quite interesting-they were as follows:

• What the latest thing in YA literature is?
• Who are the emerging authors, and the ones falling out of favor?
• What are the best resources for evaluating books for YA?
• If graphic novels are just comic books in disguise?
• If reading online is really reading?

I would really be interested in the discussion surrounding the last two questions and would add some questions of my own, such as - even if graphic novels are comic books in disguise-are they not considered reading?  And why not?  I guess with all of the current technology trends, these issues are going to be debated again and again.  I think that it all comes back to the same thoughts that I explored in my literature review, which recognize that we have to redefine what reading is along with our definitions of literacy.  Evolving and adapting is necessary!

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/01/uk-publishing-ebooks-idUSLNE73004820110401

To App or not to App??  This article explores the ideas of NY publisher Nicholas Callaway and the changes that have impacted publishing over the last 30-40 years and even more recently with the explosion of technology.

Yes, we are being introduced to new forms of storytelling, but does that necessarily mean the death of the book must occur?

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Reading Aloud is for all ages, not just elementary school kids!

While doing research for my Literature Review, I came across this article that didn’t really fit into my particular topic, but it’s something that I think is very important.  In Education Digest, Mary Ann Zehr (2010) published an article, “Reading Aloud to Teens Gains Favor Among Teachers.”  In this article, Zehr explores the positive feedback received from teen students when their teachers read aloud to them.  The particular quote that caught my attention was something that was said by Jim Trelease, author of the Read-Aloud Handbook, "If the only thing a teacher shares is from a textbook, how are you going to get students excited about reading?" he said (p. 1).  Trelease really hits the nail on the head with this statement.  We want students to be excited about reading, but then why do so many teachers assigned Acts and Scenes from a play for students to read on their own?  These writings are meant to be read aloud with drama and feeling!  When I was teaching middle school English, I regularly read aloud to my students.  I would read poetry to them, various picture books, and we also would take turns reading novels together-I would allow the students to take over, read a bit, and then pick someone else to continue.  I have personally found that picture books can sometimes be the link to getting students interested in reading more about history.  When working with the other teachers on my team on a unit on the Holocaust, for example, there were plenty of picture books that we read aloud together to introduce students to the topic.  It’s a good starting point, and Zehr discusses some examples that teachers have shared with her regarding their uses of picture books with older students.

Part of the problem is that teachers seem to shy away from reading aloud once students hit an age where sitting on a colorful rug in a reading corner doesn’t always seem appropriate.  Just because students aren’t eager to gather on the floor at your feet while you read doesn’t mean that they don’t like to listen to someone else read.  The other part, according to Zehr, is that reading aloud hasn’t really been sufficiently studied beyond the elementary level.  Zehr refers to a study that was done by a Lettie K. Albright, a professor at Texas Women’s University, “In that article, she summarized research showing that the practice builds middle school students' knowledge in content areas, helps them have positive attitudes toward reading, and helps increase their reading fluency” (p. 2).  I think that reading aloud to students is a good way to get them started on whatever unit or theme the class is planning to study.  If it is introduced this way, it helps to prepare students for whatever type of reading they will be doing independently-whether it’s a textbook or a novel.

Zehr, Mary Ann.  (2010).  Reading Aloud to Teens Gains Favor Among Teachers.  Education Digest, 76 (1), p. 4-7.  Retrieved from EBSCO

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Teaching for Social Responsibility or just plain teaching for thinking?

I wanted to reflect upon some of the responses that I received when I used a particular article for my abstract.  I read and created an abstract for an article in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy by Steven Wolk (2009) called “Reading for a Better World:  Teaching for Social Responsibility with Young Adult Literature.”  I felt that his article was entirely appropriate, and the basic premise of his idea is that through the use of literature, teachers need to make students more socially sensitive and aware of what is happening in the world around them.  The responses that I got from my group, however, varied quite a bit from what I expected.  I noticed that quite a few comments had to do with the opinion that it is primarily the parents’ responsibility to teach for social responsibility, and the conversation also lead to discussions of teen behavior.  I guess my concern is that you really need to read the article in order to get a clear understanding of what Wolk is suggesting.  He’s not preaching, but discussing how important it is to make teens aware of what is going on in the world~and what better way to do this but through the use of literature? Doesn’t interest in reading occur when readers make a connection with the characters, thoughts, or feelings expressed within a book?  Why not use literature that portrays social issues in order to help to encourage these connections?  Exploring social responsibility through literature is also a way to spark conversations among teens-with each other and with the teacher.  It’s especially significant if the issue is dealing with topics that are directly relevant to students’ lives. 

As I said in my notes on this abstract, I feel strongly that teaching for responsibility is partly a teacher’s duty, and that students will better understand as well as question and think about what they see within society if they are exposed to issues within the classroom.  As I have said before, when students can read about issue that they may be dealing with in their own lives, it helps them to understand their situation as well as to know that they aren’t alone in this world.  I think that literature is a great way for teens to find out who they are and where they stand within their lives.

Wolk, Steven.  (2009).  Reading for a Better World:  Teaching for Social Responsibility with Young Adult Literature.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52 (8), 664-673.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost

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In Chapter 7 of Representing Youth (2007), Alyssa Richman explores the practice of “lurking” as a way of gathering research on youth.  The idea of going online and visiting sites to watch the online conversations without actually interacting with the members on that site raises some ethical issues.  One part of her article raised some questions for me, “However, the position of the lurker implies a particular element of power that comes from the observation of others without their knowledge, but unlike structural and institutional power imbalances that shape the relationships between adults and youth, anyone can choose to lurk in an online space” (p. 196).

Richman further explores the issue of informed consent and that it is violated in the case of lurking since people who are involved in contributing to the online message boards are unaware that what they write is being used in research (p. 196).  Richman further states, “However, this violation was mitigated by several factors: first, the public nature of the research spaces and, second, the publication aspects of bulletin-board postings” (p. 196).  This brings to mind my question:  When teens engage online in order to post on blogs, message boards or chat rooms, are they forfeiting their rights to informed consent because they are present in these public spaces?   And, if yes, are they aware that they are?

Richman’s references refer to a document authored by Charles Ess and the Association of Internet Researchers (2002) called “Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee.”  I decide to read and explore about this topic more since it struck me in Richman’s article.  I didn’t see any acknowledgement on the part of Richman that there were certain statements made on the sites that she visited that would make it ok for her to lurk, as specified by the Association of Internet Researchers.  In Part II of this document, which is titled “Questions to ask when undertaking Internet research,” one of the questions that would pertain to Richman’s research is listed:  “Is there a posted site policy that establishes specific expectations - e.g., a statement notifying users that the site is public, the possible technical limits to privacy in specific areas or domains, etc.” (p. 5).

Another statement made in this document is, “One broad consideration:  the greater the acknowledged publicity of the venue, the less obligation there may be to protect individual privacy, confidentiality, right to informed consent, etc.” (p. 5).

So to answer my own question, according to this document teens are forfeiting their rights to informed consent.  I guess my point is that I would have like to see Richman include and discuss whether or not these disclosures were present on the sites where she was a lurker.  I would like to know more about this part of her research since it directly impacts the teens she was using as research.  Were they aware that the information they post is fair game for researchers?  Do they truly know and understand that there is no obligation to protect their privacy?  As adults, we are quite aware of the possible lack of privacy while using the internet, but I am not so sure that teens are clear on this.

Best, Amy L.  (2007).  Representing Youth:  Methodological Issues in Critical Youth Studies, (Ed.).  New York, NY:  New York University Press.

Ess, Charles, and the Association of Internet Researchers.  (2007).  Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research:  Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee.  Retrieved February 25, 2004, from www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf.

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I wanted to think further about the article by Linda Teran Strommen and Barbara Fowles Mates (2004), “Learning to love reading:  Interviews with older children and teens.”  There was only so much that I could explore within the abstract, and the study was really interesting and insightful.

In this study, kids were put into two groups:  the Readers and the Not-readers.  The kids who participated in the study had some very different backgrounds in terms of reading.  The Readers’ characteristics were as follows:

·         They remember loving certain books that their parents read to them over and over

·         They mention frequent visits to bookstores and libraries

·         Conversations and discussions about reading frequently taking place with other readers

·         Friends, parents and/or other family members are also avid readers who share books

·         They had a bedtime ritual of reading that never ended

·         They read every day

Another important statement that was made about the Readers is, “The Readers we interviewed said they love to read because reading stimulates their imagination; takes them to new places; and introduces them to new ideas, events, and elements of human emotion” (p. 196).

The Not-readers characterized reading as boring, and said that they didn’t really understand what the authors were trying to say.  Reading was also looked at as a purpose and not a pleasure (p. 198).

The research notes that there seems to be a change in the reader once they were between the ages of 9 and 11.  They remember reading frequently before that age, but then recalled a time period where they simply stopped and lost interest in reading.  This is a time period where most kids really develop strong independent reading skills.  Once these children acquired the skills necessary to read independently, they seemed to have lost interest in reading.  Is this because their parents no longer felt it necessary to read to their child or encourage continued reading?  Did they think that once they acquired the skill, the learning ended? They felt now that their children could read that they no longer needed to work on that skill by continuing to read? 

It is interesting that even one of the Not-readers had parents who were readers, and although they modeled reading by engaging in it, they didn’t verbally encourage their daughter to read.  The girl, a ninth grader, stated “It’s just not something I have motivation to do.  My parents never really thought it was that important, basically” (p. 195).  It seems that modeling is not the only significant action, but in order to create readers, kids must be encouraged to read by siblings or parents that can also discuss books with them as well.  There needs to be interaction with books, and although the actual reading itself is usually solitary, kids need an outlet to discuss or tell someone about what they are reading. I also found it interesting that many of the Not-readers mentioned parents who encouraged them to read in order to become smarter or do better in school.  It is significant that some individuals seem to see reading as a means to an end instead of as a leisurely activity, a way to use our imaginations, an activity that makes us think, or simply a process of learning.  

This study clearly displays that reading has to be a social activity for kids, and that is why the Not-readers stopped reading.  They had no encouragement to read, no discussion or book recommendations from others (outside of teachers), and because of this they lost interest.  There is no sharing or interaction going on so they don’t see reading as an exciting and pleasurable activity.  And let’s face it, when we read something that we have really enjoyed, don’t we recommend it to others?  Don’t we ask other readers what they thought of it?  Discussing our thoughts and feelings on something we have read makes it real for us and in some ways, don’t we crave that validation in our reading?  It’s clear that the social aspect of reading and being readers has a significant impact on the activity of reading itself.  Although this study only represents a small group of students, it is obvious that the students who enjoy reading and can’t imagine not spending time doing it are living in environments where they are encouraged and supported to read by other readers.  Modeling is everything, but the Not-readers have demonstrated that even that is simply not enough to get them to read.

Strommen, Linda Teran.  (2004).  Learning to Love Reading:  Interviews with Older Children and Teens.  Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(3), 188-200.  Retrieved from EBSCO.

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I am thinking about research having to do with the “non-traditional” reading that teens do and how they do so much reading that involves technology-we discussed parts of this in our posts-How reading is defined-who defines it and how that impacts upon teens and their motivations to read/not read.

As I put this idea out to my group, they helped with responses to direct me toward a narrower inquiry. One of my group members commented “I like the idea of combining how reading is defined with how society views the reading rate in teens.  Like, are we saying teens aren’t reading simply because we only consider reading to be books?”

After careful consideration, and taking the comments from the group as well as Prof. Harlan, I am researching and answering the following question:  How does the current definition of reading (as print on paper) impact the reading motivation of teens?

Part of this involves accepting the presence and need for literacy in areas other than just print books.  Students are reading blogs, websites, message boards, e-books and many other things while surfing the internet, not to mention magazines, texts, graphic novels, manga, etc.

Another part is understanding that teens need to be socially connected in all that they do, so how does this impact their reading?  And what about those who claim that they don’t read?

These are all challenges for teachers and the way that reading is currently recognized within the classroom.

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You should be keeping track of databases you used, keywords and subject searches, the process you used for finding and gathering articles. You should also make notes of the questions that arise from your readings, concerns you have about methods, ideas you have for further research, etc.
Second journal check will be 3/25

I spent all of my research time in EBSCO database.  I started out using the keywords “youth and reading” and searched all of the databases within EBSCO.  The results came back with a lot of articles about incarcerated youth and how to prevent incarceration by helping youth with reading skills.  I didn’t narrow it down to a full text search or peer reviewed at first.  When I didn’t see what I was looking for, I did another search in EBSCO, utilizing the Boolean operator-“youth” in subject terms and “reading” in subject terms.  I did do a full text search and peer reviewed articles only this time.  This gave me limited results with many of the articles having topics such as guides for teen reading, new titles, teen reading interests, etc.  Since my group is Youth and Reading, I wanted resources that focused more generally on the actual reading habits of teens.  I decided to change my search terms to “teens” and “reading” using the Boolean operator, but did not assign subject or title, etc. to the terms.  I did search all databases for full text articles only.  This is where I was successful in finding a variety of articles on my topic.  I read through many of them online to see which I thought would be the most interesting to read and discuss and picked six, which I then narrowed down to five. 

I was really looking for articles that researched ways to motivate students to read, how to incorporate technology tools, and students’ attitudes towards reading-why do they read?  Exploring this question is difficult since it is such a general topic, but here are a few of the questions that I asked when thinking about why students read- Do students read to validate their lives? To justify/understand their own life experiences? To escape reality?

I found there to be quite a few articles about incorporating tools of technology into the teaching of reading, most significantly, the impact of both author and personal blogs upon teens and reading.  The articles about the blogs are what intrigued me the most.  I could see a strong connection between teens reading and accessing blogs of popular authors.  I agree that this is a way to feed into a reading interest that a teen might have, but it also brought more questions, such as: 

How to use and apply these same resources (of blogs) in the school and public library setting?  How can librarians stay involved in the current trends regarding these types of resources and utilizing this knowledge to serve their teen patrons?

All of these are questions that I hope to explore further at a later time.

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Why have a research journal?  Why write reflectively about research?

When I first looked at this assignment, I thought about how tough it would be to have a research journal.  I mean, what would there be to write?  I decided that I needed to think a bit about the importance of a journal and ask myself what purpose a journal will serve.  In order to really dig a little deeper into the idea, I decide to do some research on reflective thinking and reflective thinking about research.  I found some ideas that weren't so different from my own, but I thought that my ideas were obvious and mundane so why would they be important to write about?  As a teacher, I asked my students to keep a writing journal-what was the purpose of that assignment?  Is it the same as this assignment?  Yes, after careful thought and consideration, I think that it is. 

According to Hume (2009) in her article "Promoting Higher Levels of Reflective Writing in Student Journals," reflective writing and journals are important in order for students to have  “…an awareness of their own learning  through reflection and a means by which they can monitor and further their own learning” (p. 2).

Creating metacognition or awareness of one's thinking is always a learning experience within itself.  Recognizing and analyzing our own thought processes will make us better researchers, and push us to ask questions about our research.  Asking questions will help to lead us to seek information , which is part of the research process.   This process helps us to find ourselves as researchers, which is what du Preez (2008) wants us to do (p.58). 

In her article, “Locating the researcher in the research: personal narrative in reflective practice,” du Preez (2008) quotes Bandura concerning reflective writing:

If there is any characteristic that is distinctively human, it is the capability for reflective self-consciousness.  This enables people to analyze their experiences and to think about their own thought processes.  By reflecting on their varied experiences and on what they know, they can derive generic knowledge about themselves and the world around them.  People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking by this means. In verifying thought through self-reflective means, they monitor their ideas, act on them or predict occurrences from them, judge from the results the adequacy of their thoughts, and change them accordingly. (Bandura, 1989, p. 58)

We need to connect the dots and create this self-reflection.  As Bandura has recognized, it is important to know that thinking about our thinking helps us to better understand what we are studying and examine the reasons for our thinking.  Examining what we have learned or what we are attempting to learn is a large part of the process.  Additionally, thinking about the process is just as significant.  We must ask ourselves many questions, a few of which are-Where am I going with this research?  Why do I think this?  What is the goal of this research?  What am I looking to understand and/or find? and How will I apply what I have learned?

The goal of any type of reflective writing is the same-it is to make us think about the how and the why of the the learning that we are engaging in, which will give it meaning. 

Bandura, A.  (1989).  Social cognitive theory.  In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development, 6, 1-60.  Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

du Preez, Jan.  (2008). Locating the researcher in the research: personal narrative in reflective practice.  Reflective Practice, 9(4), 509-519.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Hume, Anne.  (2009). Promoting Higher Levels of Reflective Writing in Student Journals.  Higher Education Research & Development, 28(3), 247-260.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

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Research Journal Entry #1

After reading through the research models, including the ACRL standards, and viewing the research language presentation reflect on your practice of research to this point in your career as a student.  How do you research?  What strategies do you use that are successful?  What difficulties do you encounter?  Have you engaged in primary research?  Or is it primarily secondary research?  What strategies and methods do you hope to learn this semester?

I feel in a lot of ways that I have had an advantage when it comes to research since throughout my career as a student, ways of doing research have changed dramatically.  While attending college as an undergraduate in the late eighties/early nineties, I did most of my research by searching and reading through actual journals, not to mention microfilm.  It was a hands on experience of browsing through many, many journals and looking at reels and reels of film.  I found the journals that were relevant to the topic that I was pursuing and simply went from there.  The process then took a lot more time, lending itself to more reflection on ideas whether that was the intention or not. I view this as a different kind of thinking that was going on since the only reason to use the computer was to look within the card catalog.  The catalog brought researchers to key words or terms that existed in these resources.  Sometimes I would start out by looking for one particular topic, and seeing the keywords listed on the card in the card catalog would sometimes lead me to other places.  At times they were dead ends, but at other times, quite rewarding since other related topics would pop up, causing me to rethink my ideas and the direction in which I was headed. 

This kind of browsing and thinking enabled more of a wandering and browsing of the mind.  For me this would, at times, create an epiphany that could lead me in a better direction.  Of course at the time, databases were the extent of “online” research (for me anyway), and not all journals were yet available online.  My strategy hasn’t changed much since it is the same then that it is now—read, think, read, think, read, think!  I guess the way that I feel the thinking has changed for me is that utilizing online resources brings researchers very quickly to precise results. Unless a person is motivated to dig deeper, the lack of physical “browsing” will leave those other doors closed, and can also make it less likely that a researcher will happen upon another idea.  Am I making sense?

I am definitely a start in the middle type of person.  I don’t like to box myself in with a precise topic at the start of a research project.  I would rather begin with a more general idea of what I am looking to gain knowledge about, and then as I research, a more specific idea/topic will form and because I have already done some reading and thinking, it is easier more me to decide if my idea is feasible.  While reading through all of the different research models, I immediately can see that as a student, “Defining the information problem” (Big 6 1.1) is always the hardest part of beginning for me.  As Eisenberg states (2011), “It’s not necessary to complete these stages in a linear order, and a given stage doesn’t have to take a lot of time” (p. 2).  I understand and know this to be true, but many times I still will look at as assignment and get stumped before I decide to think about this part later and just dive into the research.   I have to fight the urge to begin at the beginning!

I have done some graduate work in the area of American Literature.  In my courses, I engaged in Primary Research when researching, exploring, and thinking about topics within literature.  In a previous research course that I took, we did not engage in any thinking about how we best do our research.  We simply just did the research.  Most of the course focused on properly citing works, and there was no critical thinking about the research process at all.  I feel that I did a lot more critical thinking about my research questions within my literature classes than I did in the research class itself. 

As a former teacher of English, I don’t know if literature lends itself more easily to original ideas, or if I just view it that way since that is my first love and it is an area that I enjoy exploring.  It is definitely an area that is one of my strengths, since I find it easier to recognize gaps in information about literature than in other areas. That is probably due to the fact that I can read and reread books and never tire of them, since I am able to still find something new in them each time.  I would like to improve my application of primary research in areas other than literature, and I think that this course will help me to accomplish that.

Eisenberg, Mike.  (2011).  What is the Big6?  Retrieved from http://www.big6.com/what-is-the-big6/