One-pager for Teacher research paper

I. Research Question

· My research question is whether or not parent involvement plays a positive or negative role in the students academic life, and if it is positive, then how can you get more parents involved? Also I would like to know what the effects are on the students when the level of parent involvement is too low, too high or just right. Is there a happy medium for the amount of involvement parents should have in their students lives in order for them to be successful in school?

II. Primary Sources

· The primary sources that I used for my teacher research paper come from my eight and ninth graders that I work with for my ED350 practicum. I also spoke with the teacher that I am working with about the different attitudes and behaviors of the students. During the time that I was with the students, I took field notes, made mental observations, compiled their attendance and tardy records, conducted interviews with the students and gave them two separate surveys to fill out.

III. Major Findings

· In my research I found that the students that have the least amount of parent involvement in their lives are the most reserved and the least likely to participate in class. I also found that the majority of the students in my class fall into the category that their parents are highly involved in their lives. Having a high level of parent involvement did not have a direct correlation with the grades that the students had. The correlation was with the amount of participation that came from the students.

IV. Future Questions

· If I was given more time and resources to use I would like to ask the parents of the students how they felt that their involvement was. I would also like to observe some of the families to really see the level of interaction and involvement that is involved.

V. Secondary Sources

· I read quite a few articles about the level of parent involvement and what teachers in the field think is the right amount of involvement that parents should have. The only author that I ended up using in my paper was Arlene Clausell. She wrote the article, “Positive Parent Involvement.” Arlene’s main idea was summarized by this line, “Consider the parent to be your partner in developing a wonderful, talented, and happy human being, their child.”

what did i learn from my data today?

After talking about my data today I learned that I think that I am on the right track; although it would have been useful to have more time to conduct research. I also learned that I need to add in secondary sources to what I think about the 'conversation' going on about parent involvement. I also learned today that the data is not cut and dry and there may be many external sources influencing behavior and results.

My data collection plan

I am still trying to do my teacher research paper on the coorelation between parent involvement and student achievement both academically and socially. Today I gave my class a survey that they filled out for me. I found that I recieved a lot of "yes" and "no's" as answers which doesn't really give me too much to work with, but I will try. I am also going to talk to my practicum teacher about what she thinks and the different students that we have in class. When I go home for Thanksgiving I am going to talk to my parents, and my friends' parents to see what they think. I may go to my old high school and see if I can do another survey, but we will see what time allows me to do. But I am stuck, where else should I try collecting data?? Any ideas?

Parent involment research question- just getting started

As stated in a previous blog, I am wanting to research the effects of parent involvment in the classroom and whether or not it is a positive or negative thing. After searching for information on my question I have realized that it is very hard to find information of parent involvement being a negative thing. As a matter of a fact, I didn't find any (except one article that Tiffany reccomended that I still need to look at). Due to the lack of articles and information on negative parent involvement i am concidering taking a new approach to my question and possibly asking why parent involvement is a positive attribution in the classroom and what future and current teachers can do to encourage more parent involment in their classroom. Almost all of the articles that i read address the idea of keeping communication with the parents positive and open from the very beginning. They say that if you start off on a good note with the parents then they will be more receptive to you if you need to address a behavior issue. Suzette Youngs wrote the article, "Parents as Reflective Partners," and talked about how the parents in her classroom are there on a daily basis. She also talked about how she looks forward to their help and knowledge and see's it as a bonus to have them in the classroom. I think that the gap in the information that I have found is with the negative side of parent involvement. i know that when i was growing up there was a kid that i went to school with and his family was too involved, and this caused him to be too uptight and timid and a perfectionist about everything.

Response to article

Critical Inquires into Language in an Urban Classroom. By, Bob Fecho. Research in the Teaching of English. Vol 34. Feb 2000.

I believe that discussing the strength and power of language is very important to talk about, but sometimes it can be taken too far, and that is what I believe that the author of this article does. I don't know if it was just that I didn't agree with Mr. Fecho's point of view or if I just didn't read it the way that he wanted it to be read, but either way I felt it very difficult to get through the article. I think that it was a great how many other sources that he sited and how he really knew what he was talking about but I think that there were ideas that he overlooked. At the very beginning he talked about putting up a facade and how these students were doing this. I personally believe that putting up a facade in front of certain people is just something that we all do! This is almost a defense mechanism to defend ourselves from being judged, we always want to try to fit in. I think that this article was an ok read, It wasn't something that I would recommend.

Paper Topic Thoughts

For my next paper in this writing class I am considering doing something about the correlation between the amount of parent involvement in their child's both academic and social lives and how that affects how they react in school. I want to know if the parents involvement in the students life will positively effect how they perform in school. When I was growing up I had a mom that was always involved in everything and I think that it helped me keep on track, but I wonder if this is accurate for all students. What is the negative effects if the parents aren't involved? But I am not exactly sure how to start, or where to go from my question.

Response to 2 more articles

Teaching English in the World. By, Rebecca Wheeler, English Journal vol 94. No 5, May 2005.

Overall I believe that this was one of the most beneficial articles that I have read that will prepare me for my occupation as a future teacher. I know that I have made the same, common mistake that was performed by the teacher, Deborah. So often when reading my peers' papers or even when I am grading for my practicum teacher, I will correct simple spelling errors or other common English writing mistakes. But normally I don't take the time to write-out why the mistake needs to be made. Flipping myself around and now becoming the student, I realize looking back that rarely did I ever get told why something needed to be changed, all that I knew what that I needed to fix it. So often I will get marks on my paper that are foreign to me, but they mean something to teachers. I think that if we, as future educators spent more time focusing on the "positive" part of "correcting" work instead of circling errors, it would be more effective. If my teachers had taken the time to explain to me why I needed to make the corrections that I made, I would be more likely not to make those mistakes in future writings.


English in the City. By, Ruthie Stern. English Journal. Vol 93. No 4. March 2004.

I enjoyed this journal because i have background knowledge in the topic of Signification vs. signification. One thing that i really did not like was how the author, Stern, kept on referring to the dialect that the African American cultures use as "their" language. This just proves that they are the oppressed and I don't like that. When she was talking about how the students that she had learned that they have to and can turn off and on their native language, I felt that this was very important. The way that someone speaks and uses their language is part of their identity. By forcing them to turn off their language and use our language is just keeping their identities and their language in the hands of their oppressor (white culture). This saddens me, because their is such an art and reason to everything, i wish that we could cherrish differences instead of squash them.