Teacher Interview Transcriptions

RESEARCH PROJECT TEACHER INTERVIEW

1.      What do you feel __Participant K’s________  strengths are in writing?

Uh participant K seems to have a good concept of her audience and who she’s writing to. Um, so it helps her to develop her writing when she uh focuses on her audience.

2.      What do you think Participant K’s needs to work on in writing?

Uh probably just grammatical and punctuation.

3.      In what ways is Participant K’s _________ progressing in writing?

Uh she’s developing her paragraphs to be stronger uh to uh portray her point more in depth with more text details.

4.      In what ways is Participant K’s not progressing in writing?

Uh just back to the grammatical and punctuation that she needs to work on, she’s still lacking in those areas.

5.      How has _Participant K’s writing changed in the classroom?

Uh she’s uh writing longer paragraphs with more details uh instead of short quick paragraphs.

RESEARCH PROJECT TEACHER INTERVIEW

1.      What do you feel __Participant J’s________  strengths are in writing?

Uh participant J is really good at determining what his outcome’s gonna be, uh what he wants to say and how he wants to tell it to people.

2.      What do you think Participant J’s needs to work on in writing?

Grammatical, and punctuation, capital letters, complete sentences, and getting a new paragraphs.

3.      In what ways is Participant J’s _________ progressing in writing?

Umm he’s been working with several people to uh help him with his writing so its uh stronger technical wise with his ideas and concepts.

4.      In what ways is Participant J’s not progressing in writing?

Uh he’s still a little sloppy with his grammat… uh grammar and punctuation stuff, that seems to be common

5.      How has _Participant J’s writing changed in the classroom?

He’s become more motivated to write stronger and better pieces.

RESEARCH PROJECT TEACHER INTERVIEW

1.      What do you feel __Participant C’s________  strengths are in writing?

He…he’s really good like with using transitions, I will say that umm like he’ll use words like “however” umm ummm somehow you know he’ll always connect paragraph to paragraph with transition words I’m really pleased with that, I think that’s awesome that he does that ; first or second, that’s a good thing for him. He’s really, he’s always good at sticking to the topic like whatever he’s writing about, he’ll take his time, he’ll think about it, he’ll erase and re-write  and   he’s real meticulous you know he wants it to be perfect.

2.      What do you think Participant C’s needs to work on in writing?

Uh I hate to say this again, but vocabulary with him too, especially cause you know  he’s ELL even though he’s an avid reader  different forms of writing I would like for him to use is a little harder for him, so working on vocabulary I think, and reading too like different forms of writing like I would love for them to get into poetry, different forms of poetry,  plays, like different forms of writing I think we need to work on that.

3.      In what ways is Participant C’s _________ progressing in writing?

Umm,…..he… he’s got pretty good mechanical skills and grammatical skills so all the things we learn in language he applies pretty well,  maybe idea development maybe expanding on his ideas a little bit and giving a little more detail I think.

4.      In what ways is Participant C’s not progressing in writing?

Umm well I’ve been encouraging them to use, cause part of our standards in 5^th grade is they have to use, recognize figurative language and understand it so we’ve been working with them to find metaphors, and similes and using personification, onomatopoeia, and all those things that are a little harder to use in writing to make their more alive and more vivid, they’re working on that.

5.      How has _Participant C’s writing changed in the classroom?

Umm you know I would say that he’s one of mine that umm he likes to write, he’s not one that’s hesitant he’ll just jump in, cause I think he understands, you know, the importance of writing cause across all, you know, subjects they have to be able to write, and so he’s he’s a  always give his opinion, umm but persuasive type things he really gets into, those are things he likes so, I guess just seeing him use different genres of writing, he wrote a speech…

RESEARCH PROJECT TEACHER INTERVIEW

1.      What do you feel __Participant A’s________  strengths are in writing?

Umm he’s my student that’s uh able to pull like evidence from the text to support his ideas that’s a really difficult skills for 5^th graders, uh he’s got that.  umm he’s really good at sticking to the theme or sticking to the main topic when he’s writing, umm and he’s really good to go back and look at it, his work, and re-read it and edit it if he needs to.

2.      What do you think Participant A’s needs to work on in writing?

Vocabulary, like, adding and umm more like 5^th grade level words is something I feel he needs to work on I try to get him to do more reading, like independent reading, because I feel like if you do a lot of reading, then you’re automatically a better writer so I’m always onto him about read your novels, read more umm yea do more on your own because that will increase his vocabulary.

3.      In what ways is Participant A’s _________ progressing in writing?

Umm like I said he, he, he will take like the skills we learn in language and our reading language program is awesome  its really good to teach him punctuation and even the semi-colon, they can use that now. how to use adjectives and adverbs and he is one that can take that and apply it to his writing, like it’s not an isolated skill for him, he does well in language he always gets 100,  but I also want him to use that in his writing using those skills

4.      In what ways is Participant A’s not progressing in writing?

Like I said before, I just feel like...his vocabulary, his extended vocabulary he uses, and its not just him, a lot of kids I don’t feel they use the vocabulary I would like them to  so if we read more then you can write more

5.      How has _Participant A’s writing changed in the classroom?

Umm like I said, he’s  he’s not one like even when I give him journal time doesn’t hesitate to write like some kids are, like I said his grammar is better, his organization is better, you know he’s one of mine that will change paragraphs when he changes topics that’s a hard them for them, yea he’s improved.

RESEARCH PROJECT TEACHER INTERVIEW

1.      What do you feel __Participant L’s________  strengths are in writing?

Umm strengths with her probably main idea and details, like she keeps those cohesive way more than she used to, umm she’s starting to use transition words like paragraph to paragraph, umm she’s still not using a lot on vocabulary, organization I guess would be her strength.

(Me: So would you add vocabulary to one of the things she needs to work on?)

2.      What do you think Participant L’s needs to work on in writing?

Yes she’s another one I encourage to read more cause she’s… I don’t think she’s discovered how good books are yet and I would really like to see her do that, umm I think if she did she would apply that more to her writing

3.      In what ways is Participant L’s _________ progressing in writing?

Uh like I said say organization, her grammar, she’s another one that does awesome in our language program, uh she’s pretty good to apply you know new words, vocabulary from like social studies or math on like answers on like short answers, but I would like to see more of that like in short stories and just you know journal writing

4.      In what ways is Participant L’s not progressing in writing?

Umm spelling is still a little bit of an issue, umm cause I know that’s not that big of a deal anymore because of computers, spelling, main idea, detail like development, elaboration, I would like her to elaborate more, like paint a better picture with words.

5.      How has _Participant L’s writing changed in the classroom?

Umm since the beginning of the year she has improved a lot, she’s one of mine that actually changed levels in reading, she went from Apprentice to Proficient so that’s good. So I guess you can say she’s applying what she’s learned to her writing to her reading a little bit. Umm  she is really aware of like audience, I’ll say that for her,  she knows how like to address the audience and consider the person that’s going to be reading her paper  I heard her talking to her talking to someone at her table about that,  “Who do you think we’re writing this for? You can’t say that, we’re not writing to a friend,” haha she’s a funny one.

RESEARCH PROJECT TEACHER INTERVIEW

1.      What do you feel __Participant M’s________  strengths are in writing?

Her strengths…now I’ll say this for her, she reads and she remembers like vocabulary. Like any word that we use in social studies, umm and like really hard words like yesterday she used expedition you know that’s a good thing; so she’s real good at taking vocabulary that she learns and using it in her writing like in her daily short answers or extended responses

2.      What do you think Participant M’s needs to work on in writing?

She still needs to work on organization, umm and again having… she has such personality I would like to see her voice out in her writing, she’s got this big personality I would like to see her use that more in writing.

3.      In what ways is Participant M’s _________ progressing in writing?

Umm…again, I have to say again language, our program I do love it, so she has been applying skills that she’s learned in language I feel like to her writing, organization is better with her, definitely better.

4.      In what ways is Participant M’s not progressing in writing?

Uhh..detail, adding details, umm like especially like taking….her ideas…like finding details in the text to support an answer is hard for her umm and just expanding on an idea.

5.      How has _Participant M’s writing changed in the classroom?

Uhh she’s one of mine that’s’ very enthusiastic she you know like I said applies vocabulary that she’s learned and her voice is starting to come through more in her writing.