I have several people that I am planning on interviewing and using them as my Primary Sources. I am planning on interviewing my next door neighbor, and her two children. She is a teaching assistant for mentally handicapped students, and the questions that I was thinking of asking her are, "Do you and/or the teacher practice writing with the children?", "If yes, how exactly do you practice with them, are there certain activities that you do?"
An then her oldest child is in High School, and her middle child is in Middle School. I would like to interview both of them just to get a deeper understanding of how children are learning about writing now. I would try and interview both boys at separate times, but the questions that I would ask each of them are, "Do you enjoying writing?", and then ask them, if their answer is yes, why? And if it is no, then why? Another question I would ask them is, "In what manner does your teacher practice writing with you? Does he/she do any types of activities?" "Does your teacher help the children that seem to be having difficulties more? How does the teacher put extra time to help these students?"
Another person I would interview is my former Middle School teacher, I would as her, "When you taught writing to your students, how did you do it, where there any special techniques that you used?" "How did you help the students that seemed to be struggling with their writing?" "Did you find it difficult to teach students writing if not all the children where on the same academic levels?"
And finally, I am planning on interviewing a teacher in a local middle school near my house. I meet her recently, because I have to interview her and her teammates for another one of my classes this semester. I will ask her on Tuesday, if she is okay if I interview her for this class as well, and then set a day that I can interview her. The questions that I would like to ask her are similar to the questions that I would ask to my former teacher, "How do you teach writing to your students, do you use any special techniques?" "How do you help students that are struggling and that are on a different writing levels then others in the class?" but on top of asking her those similar question, I would also ask her, "How long have you been an English teacher and do you enjoy it?" I feel like this question could be an important question because it sometimes seems that when people like their jobs they try their hardest to be the best at it.
I am excited to interview all of my Primary Sources but I have to admit that I am most excited to interview, the teachers, I say this because I feel that I will learn the most about how to help and what techniques they feel should be used for children that are not on the same level as others. I would also like to find other people to interview, but for right now I think I will learn a lot from the Primary Sources that I have planned now.
Hi Ashely,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I love your background! It was one of my top choices when I was choosing mine. :) Also, I love the little details you have off to the right the two posters about writing. Lastly, I think your topic is extremely relevant especially with mostly mainstream classrooms right now and so much emphasis on differentiation in teaching. I also like how many different teachers you have from different experience levels and with different types of students, I think it will give you a great spectrum of answers. One thing I was wondering is if you would be asking any students? It might be interesting to find students at different levels and ask them directly what activities they like, this may give you more insight into what activities work for who. Great job!