Almost there!

Wiebe, I. [Designer]. (n.d.). No profit: Start finishing. Retrieved on November 13, 2009 from http://wallblank.com/products/start-finishing.

This is something we all have come to understand, as the project has taken its own pace, and sometimes we feel we cannot keep up with it! However, optimism should always be with us and we might find the accomplishment of goals as rewarding adventures!

Just a quick note to jot down a few points:

• Due to the abrupt cancellation of the course at the university, I assigned the remaining tasks for students to work alone. Fortunately, the face-to-face sessions had already finished and the activities we had left were to be done over e-mail exchange. This, by no means, implies a happy, relaxing implementation; in fact, my students have just started a course which takes most of their available time, so only one of them has sent me the assignments.
• The absence of peer-review has affected this last stage, but I expect to be able to obtain the final documents and have them work collaboratively in these two final weeks of November, because as soon as December starts, they are going on vacation.

 What is next?
We have our final presentations of the semester tomorrow to share experiences with our tutors, peers and upcoming researchers, I will let you know how it goes soon! We hope everything goes fine!

Akmezero4. [Designer]. Optimismo. [Online Image]. Retrieved on november 13, 2009 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/akmesevende/3512945319/

 

Coming back to (academic research) life!

Stickman saying "long time no see". [Online Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://rlv.zcache.com/long_time_no_see_postcard-p239738589187726208qibm_400.jpg.

Honestly, neither the title nor the picture are shows of cynicism! I apologise to anyone who has visited the blog, looking for updates, but due to a series of (fairly) unfortunate events, I had not been able to publish anything related to the activities performed in my research project. However, I will try to describe the most important events in our classroom these days in this post and I make a firm promise not to let these events occur again!

What has happened in this (already gone!) month? 
After the visit from my tutors, we had to design a data collection instruments report and , while I was preparing it, something fantastic happened: I discovered the main construct framing my research project implementation: the 8LEM. It is a recently devised and comprehensive learning model which considers eight different events involving four different aspects in each one of them: roles, domain, learning places and theories. The advantage of this construct is the high demand it poses for a far more rigourous approach, which I find fitting my own research style. If you are interested in obtaining further information about the 8LEM, see Leclercq & Pounay (2005) below.

However fantastic this finding might have been, as I mentioned above, some events have hindered my degree of commitment to the writing side of the project, and there are lots of ideas going round my head which I need to put down soon; I hope these two coming weeks grant me some more chances to do it. I am meeting my research project director next week and I am looking forward to that meeting to fine-tune some of these ideas.

Some additional concerns about my students 
Due to the nature of the programme my students are taking, there were some changes last  week: the biggest change somewhat affects the last stage of the project: their English course was shortened and the last session was last Wednesday. It was an abrupt change and I had no time to prepare an alternative strategy. On the bright side, there are just a  few activities left to complete the implementation cycle and they willingly offered to work on their own -which is just right for this stage, to complete it. It was rewarding to see how, not being obliged to continue doing anything else to continue this course, they offered to keep on for a few weeks.

The main effect will be that I will not be able to do the impromptu essay writing I had designed for the last session, nor the interview to collect data on motivational issues.

What's next?: Hand ticking a box. [Online Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://destinationmali.org/images/What's-the-next-step2.png

What is next? 
These new conditions call for immediate and appropriate decisions. I have already sent an update chart to my students letting them know which activities they have performed and which stage they are in the writing process, so that we can confirm that where we are and what we need to carry out to finish the cycle. I hope to receive their reply by Tuesday 10 November the latest and design a very strict calendar to finish the activities left.

Then, I will need to design an online survey to replace the interview  I had initially planned and find  an alternative for the exit essay and the exit learner profile. 

I will update this blog next week and I will report decisions regarding the issues mentioned above. Until then, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I did writing this.

Sincerely,

Víctor Lugo 
 References 
Leclercq, D. & Poumay, M. (2005) The 8 Learning Events Model and its principles. Retrieved on October http://www.labset.net/media/prod/8LEM.pdf.

Stickman saying "long time no see". [Online Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://rlv.zcache.com/long_time_no_see_postcard-p239738589187726208qibm_400.jpg.

What's next?: Hand ticking a box. [Online Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://destinationmali.org/images/What's-the-next-step2.png 

An even better 4th week!

The week started with some concerns over the upcoming lesson observation on Wednesday, Sept, 30, in which my Professors would analyse the research project from their perspective. I cannot deny it was particularly scary to feel under the spotlight on this occasion since every aspect of this course is my responsibility.

So, I designed my lesson plan, to match and complement what my students had done with the self-access reading and grammar activity and the cause-effect essay work. I was satisfied with the result, but when I checked against the rubric supplied by my tutors, I had second thoughts about not having made appropriate decisions about the beginning of the lesson and I began to feel a bit more nervous. However, I had already sent the lesson plan and, reflecting on it and on my students' profile and previous work, I realised it had been appropriate. The next day arrived, we met and delivered the lesson...

I felt really satisfied, especially at my students' commitment, involvement and the high quality and interest of their presentations. They were informative, clear, insightful and argumented, what else could I have asked for? Another good aspect was that, though small classes can be seen as fantastic opportunities to carry out these projects, having a third-party in the lesson could easily affect the learners' performance, but these students were simply fantastic! I do thank them for their commitment, interest and I do hope all this process actually helps them realise the progress I have perceived!

An interesting point
The outcomes of the self-access activities this week yielded an interesting point to consider: they need to do specific-item grammar work. For instance, the indirect speech exercises I assigned them showed weak use of the "backward" movement of the reported tense and the same happened with pronouns and time expressions. Next lesson, I will spend some time doing exercises related to this issue because, as I pointed out in the notes included in the corrections, this might seem a sign of being "too picky", but it might lead to confusion and misunderstanding. This is especially important if we consider that one of the main issues in the project is to increase effective written communication in academic settings.

What is next?
We are working according to the schedule set and the self-access activities for the two subsequent sessions have been designed. Right now I have started to group the information I have collected in the previous three weeks to start the analysis process. This is a demanding -but necessary!, process and I am optimistic about having enough time for everything there is ahead in these two upcoming months.

A final note
My research project seminar professors have suggested making some changes to the initial question an I will strive to make the best use of the six-hour-long lessons coming as from tomorrow to make all the changes to lead a better-thought and designed research process.

Thanks for reading,

Víctor Lugo

References
The Situationist. (2009). Happiness. [Online Image]. Retrieved on October 2, 2009 from http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/happiness.jpg.

Toastmaster International. (2008). Fear factor teaser. [Online Image]. Retrieved on October 2, 2009 from http://www.toastmasters.org/MainMenuCategories/FreeResources/NeedHelpGivingaSpeech/FearFactor.aspx.

Third week: The (pleasant) outcomes of the 1st Self-access activity

On the day I wrote the previous post, I had already attended the lesson in which the learners had done their  self-access activity, but since I had had no time for analysis, the post had to be postponed.

The activities observed during this first self-access activity were highly rewarding:

• The learners sent the corresponding exercises on the self-access activity on time, a very significant indication of motivation and commitment.

• Though it had not even been suggested, they prepared a PowerPoint presentation for the 5-minute presentation they had been assigned as the extension task of the activity, and they were really interesting!

• Their engagement in the debate was lively and they acted their role in a very credible way, which indicates they took the activity seriously.

There were, however, some things to improve and reflect upon:

• The extension activities had been initially considered part of the self-access task, which was a mistake my tutors made me realise. The fact the writing task amounted to 50% of the task might have led to misunderstanding the seriousness of this stage.

• The results I had initially expected for the reading comprehension tasks, based on the learners' profiles, were much more optimistic. These were their scores: 7/9 and 11/18 for one student and 6/9 and 7/18 for the other. In ou next lesson, I will analyse each one of the tasks to identify reasons for misunderstanding which might have led to these results.

Next steps
On the other hand, they were asssigned the second self-access activity and we discussed the structure and purpose of the next kind of academic essay: cause-effect. On this occasion, they had to choose an environmental issue to present it in class, justifying its importance.

Some additional (mathematical!) issues

 

Apart from having made me realised the mistaken inclusion of the writig task as a core component of the self-access activity, my tutors also helped me realise the importance of including mathematical rigour to our project. We read two chapters of the book by Norton (2009) to find a sensible connection between the data we are collecting and a statistical way to approach it as the basis for the forecoming conclusions. This is a prticularly sensitive item since I have not been involved in this level of mathematical reflection in years, so I need to catch up as soon as possible with it.

There is no more to say for now. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Víctor Lugo

References

Jadranka. (Photographer). (2008). Sometimes I think that I don't know that much - But math sucks!. [Online Image]. Retrieved on September 28, 2009 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonkinja/2914788579/sizes/o/.

Norton, L. S., (2009). Action research in teaching and learning: A practical guide to conducting pedagogical research in universities. Oxon, England: Routledge.

Optick. (Photographer). (2006). Interference with a rainbow. [Online Image]. Retrieved on September 28, 2009 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/optick/116793142/sizes/l/.

Second week

Second week and still lots of work ahead...

Now we have already jumped in the water!

I post this late because some health problems made me prioritise other tasks and I could not come back before. On September 16, 2009 we held a session in which learners were presented with the details of the research project: they showed interest and motivation and asked lots of questions related to schedules, objectives, kind of tasks and ways of delivering the entire process. They submitted the basic information of both learner profiles, though the initial survey has not been filled out by them. I will send a reminder later this week, and hope to be able to include the information collected there in the core analysis of the paper.

In the same session they were allowed thirty minutes to write the argumentative essay which will be used as a data collection instrument: it will be compared to the essay they will write on the last session of the research project to identify possible changes.

The first self-access activity was assigned in the same lesson, I described its outline and answered their questions. They were a bit puzzled about the topic -political correctness, since they had never heard of it. The results of the controlled practice activities will be described in our next record here. I received both completed guides on Monday and Tuesday, the learner who sent it the latest complained of having to do too much! I will analyse the amount and the complexity of the tasks assigned so that they do not feel it as a burden.

Finally, there are lots of information I have collected during these days and I need to find the most appropriate way to start the analysis as soon as possible because I am eager to see results. By the way, I did some theoretical work on kinds of data -quantitative and qualitative, and I need to fine-tune my selection of data collection tools to avoid mismatches between the information collected and the ways to measure them, so that no effort is wasted and the most appropriate choices are made and the information collected is effectively used and reliably analysed.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Víctor Lugo

Reeferences
Moonjazz. (2008). (Photographer) Wall of water. [Online Image]. Retrieved on September 23, 2009 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonjazz/2221423093/.

First week of my project

What a week! (and still lots of challenges ahead)
This week was really rewarding for my research project.
First of all, I got immediate acceptance from my students to take active part in the project: it sets a high -and challenging, point of departure and makes me feel I might have been going in the right direction with the activities I have implemented since last February, even though they have not been dealing with writing skills development very much.

Additionally, I was highly surprised when I saw their enthusiasm while we did the PowerPoint presentation for the listening and speaking activity we had done last week in our LASAM course. They especially enjoyed the use of the oddcast photoface© avatars.
I was also given carte blanche by the director of the specialty, an issue which reinforces the positive perception they have of the work I have been doing over these months.

The fact we only have lessons every Wednesday might delay the first stage of piloting the data collection instruments I have chosen, but since they had not signed the consent letters, sending the link for the survey earlier seemed a bit abusive. I will do it next week. In the meantime, I have already sent them the learner profile document for them to start collecting external data (e.g. the learning style test and the personality factors)and getting acquainted with the information contained therein.

In general, a great week, but there is only one concern: I still need to fine-tune the research project since the one I had originally designed could not be put into practice. I hope to finish by Saturday and when I am ready, I will come back for more reflections.

Bye for now.

Reference
Pencil with the words writing. (n.d.). [Online Image]. Retrieved on September 11, 2009 from http://sp.englishbaby.com/lessons/2936/member_submitted/writing_skills_success_in_20_minutes_a_day!