You'll work on documents 1, 2 and 3 with the team that you travelled with to the two
sites. For the fourth question, you'll work with your counterparts on each of the
other teams. That is, the class will be divided into four teams, one for each question.
What follows are some suggested structures for each type of document.
The first line in each document should be a title in centered, 18 point, bold, Helvetica.
The second line, in centered, plain, 12 point Helvetica, should contain the names
of the authors of the document. Then skip a line before the body of the text.
Public Place Description
. Try to paint a detailed, concrete picture of the place you visited. Even though
your description will be accompanied by one of the pictures you took, try to paint
a picture in words that will make the reader see what you saw. Begin by setting the
scene by telling where this place is located and what kind of place it is. Then go into more
details about the place. What kinds of people did you see? What were they doing?
What languages did you see and hear? Were there any special sounds or smells? All
this should take a paragraph or two. Then, if you interviewed anyone at this site, describe
who they were, what they said, and how they responded to you. Summarize what they
said in response to each question rather than quoting it directly unless they had
a particularly colorful way of responding. When you save this file, name it according to
the map key symbol given to the place you visited (e.g. AP, EP, etc.).
Residential Area Description.
Again, try to paint a detailed, concrete picture of the neighborhood you visited.
Pay attention to the little things that stood out in your mind. Cars, toys, yards,
windows... anything that helps communicate your impressions. Be objective and non-judgmental. If you interviewed anyone in the neighborhoods, summarize the interview here as
above. When you save this file, name it according to the map key symbol given to
the place you visited (e.g. AR, ER, etc.).
Student Descriptions
. Summarize your observations of the O'Farrell students in summer school. What do
they look like? How did they behave in class and during recess? In the paragraphs
that follow, try to come up with summary statements to capture what you learned from
your informal interviews with O'Farrell kids. What are they interested in? What are they
good at? How do they describe themselves? When you save this file, name it according
to the letter of your group, followed by "-student" (e.g. A-Student, E-Student, etc.)
Guiding Question Responses
. Each of these will have a slightly different structure, depending on which question
you're tackling. Before you move to the group to work on these questions, you need
to talk to your expedition teammates and get from them the answers to your question
that they got in their interview.
Guiding Question 1: How O'Farrell/Morse students perceived in the community?
You asked your informants to come up with 5 words to describe the students at each
school. Tally up the words that they used. Is there any pattern to it? Do some descriptions
come up repeatedly? Chunk together the most common responses and elaborate on them in a paragraph or two. In the final paragraph, synthesize all this and come up
with a summary statement that communicates your take on all this. Is the community's
impression positive or negative? Is it different for the two schools? Should teachers
here be proud or worried?
Guiding Question 2: How are O'Farrell and Morse Schools perceived by the community?
Summarize and evaluate responses as described for question 1.
Guiding Question 3: How do residents of this community feel about where they live?
Start with a paragraph that summarizes the good features of the community that people
mentioned. Then summarize any problems that were mentioned. Then go on to a paragraph
that describes the places people mentioned as being important to them and their children for shopping, eating and so on. Finish by synthesizing your overall take on
how people feel about the area.
Guiding Question 4
: What advice do people have for beginning teachers? Group the various responses you
received into categories and describe each one. You may want to illustrate each category
by quoting one of your informants. Finish with a summary statement that expresses
your collective reaction to this advice.
When you save each of the question files, give them the name Question1, Question2,
etc.