Fear. Failure. Stress. Literacy.
This study was one that came to me through personal experience of being a member of my research field. Upon arriving at the honors college I quickly noticed the differences between the honors students and the regular admission students. This study discusses the causes of stress in high performance students and shows how the students cope by using different forms of literary outlets.
Field notes
-Bailey, Rachel. “Field Notes #2.” print. These are notes taken during an Honors Colloquim course for the honors college students. These intricately describe a classroom setting that the honors college students attend weekly. It notes the interesting interactions between the students and the professor and how those interactions differ from a regular classroom.
Research Journals
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#1.” print. talks about literary sponsors and how they can mold the use of literacy in a particular person’s life. This relates to the study in that we study the causes of stress many of which could be in relevance to sponsors or influential figures in that particular person’s life.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#5.” print. talks about my personal use of literary outlets to relieve stress, thus this entry helps to explain how I happened upon the project and how I am connected to the field site. It also talks about my literary sponsors and how they contributed to my literary development.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#10.” print. helps to describe my field site and how I will begin to conduct research for the final ethnographic project. This entry talks about my demographic and my plans to get the project up and running.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#12.” print. begins to mold my project more in depth. It lays out the groundwork for interview questions and helps describe taking myself out of the field and beginning to view things in research perspective. This was a difficult concept for me at first but soon became second nature.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#13.” print. shows my first set of expanded field notes. This entry helps describe the importance of choosing a field site carefully. It also helps to lay out the definition for what literacy is and how it works.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#14.” print. uses the box activity to help give a vivid and in depth description that is pertinent in observations relevant to the study. Talks about what “surprised” me in the study thus far.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#18.” print. describes more in depth observations from being in study groups with the honors students. Discusses their perceptions on the “smart” label. Talks about how they use higher level vocabulary and speculates by what means they attempt to appear smart in order to fit their given label.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#19,” print. is the first entry that mentions artifacts. I collected artifacts from participants of the study and throughout the entry discuss those artifacts and how they are pertinent to the study.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#20.” print. is where I began the outline for my codebook. I established reoccurring themes that had begun to show throughout the project and highlighted speculations of why they were reoccurring. Also, I began to lay out the groundwork for the table of contents and organization of the project as a whole.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#22.” print. expands my code book and adds more depth to the project as a whole. These expanded codes help to expose the themes that are strong and those that had not been revealed until this latter point in the project.
-Bailey, Rachel. “RJ#24.” print. gives examples of the literary codes in effect and how they help add depth to the project. It also briefly discusses how the organization of research should not inhibit the research but rather be a means of communicating it when you have collected all your research.
Codebook -book of codes that explains reoccuring themes throughout the course of the project.
Artifacts
-post it note reminders are a key use of reminder literacy among the honors college students, they use this to cope with stress
-written plans for future goals show the different thought process of the honors students and how they plan for the future so that they fulfill their requirements under the “smart” label
-notecard for studying shows the extent to which honors students go to achieve what other expect of them -piece of student planner this is use of organizational literacy to cope with stress, helps the honors student feel more in control -photos from student participants show both organizational methods used by students through their personal calenders, journals, and planners.
-written response to failure are one word answers that students were asked to write in regards to what they think of when they think of “failure”.
Consent forms are forms used to obtain consent from participants to use their information in the study.
Interview script
-Ramos, Chris. Personal interview. 20 November 2009.
-Reece, Samantha. Personal interview. 2 December 2009.
-Tamayo, Laurencio. Personal interview. 18 November 2009.
WA1-WA2- These include the story of my literary sponsorship as well as present the idea for my project on fear of failure and literacy.
WA3-WA4- These include a rough draft of my research proposal as well as a preliminary version of my final mutlimedia project focusing in on one interview.
Notes from interviews- These are notes taken during the interview as well as things written by the interviewee in response to questions in the interview.
Plans for presentation- These include plans for the presentation on Commerce Writes Symposium as well as the Celebration of Student Writing.
Future research- This section includes possible further research that can be done on the subject as well as plans to carry out this research.
