WA 5

Table of Contents:

• Artifacts
  • Texas A&M University-Commerce brochure
    • This is important to my research because it offers the basic information about the requirements to apply for the Honors College. It is also used as promotional material for the University as well as for the Honor’s College and is a source of information for people all around Texas, not just in the area. I chose to include this artifact in my portfolio because I feel like it allows the reader/viewer of my project to get a feel for just what kind of people make up the Honors College as well as what each student had to do to be awarded the scholarship. It is also similar to the material I received when I first heard about the Honors College.
  • Honor’s First Year Success Syllabus
    • Honors students are required to take a special kind of freshman success class – one that has been designed specifically for Honors students and allows the students to get together with Dr. Green and Dr. Gruver and learn the expectations they are required to follow as well as basic study skills (taking notes, reading, critical thinking, etc.) I found this item useful because some of the assignments involve getting outside of Prairie Crossing, being among other students, and enjoying the social life that the campus has to offer. I thought that the syllabus was a perfect example that the Honors students are here not just to make high grades, but also to get involved in the campus life and take advantage of what the university has to offer.
• Field notes
  • Notes from Brandt’s Essay
    • Brandt’s essay about sponsors of literacy really made me think back to what inspired me to do well in school and to pursue post-secondary education. Realizing that I was among my sponsors of literacy, I began to develop ideas about how I became a sponsor of literacy, which led me to the conclusion that other people’s negativity toward my “intelligence,” as it was called, discouraged me from making good grades and from applying myself in school. Though I overcame those poisoning thoughts, I wondered if maybe some other students had similar experiences that had shaped their literacy as well. I included this in my portfolio because this assignment was not only the beginning of the semester, but the beginning of this whole project. It was what I learned about myself, and about literacy, in this article that brought about the idea that the students who are labeled “smart” have felt discriminated against because of that label. In addition, I hope I show people that “smart” is not the correct thing to label these students.
  • Study Habits – Distractions
    • These are truly my first set of field notes. In these notes, I look at a student who is famous among the freshman for being a Super Nerd while he is “studying” during an Ultimate Fighter episode. I found this information helpful because it showed that even though the student was “smart,” he hardly got any of his work done because of the environment he chose to work in. I believe that this study shows that self-discipline outweighs intelligence, which basically led me to believe that more students could have been eligible for the Honors scholarship if they had just applied themselves a little more.
  • Classroom Behavior – Non-Honors Algebra
    • In this study, I attended my twice-a-week Algebra class, which is not an Honors course. I decided to take notes on the students’ behavior during this class because I wanted to see what made the Honors classes different from the other courses. In a brief summary, the only true difference between the Honors courses and the non-Honors courses is the behavior of the students. In this class, I noticed more talking, sleeping, poor attitudes, and lack of responsiveness. I do not want people to believe that ALL of the students in the class are this way, because there are quite a few respectful and successful students in the class. My whole point with this study is that those who paid attention and behaved themselves had higher grades than those who chose to goof off or sleep.
  • Study Habits – Social Gatherings
    • I decided to look at other ways environment can dictate the learning experience. In this instance, I took note of the behavior of three people, my roommate, my friend, and myself, as we all got together to try and study. In this case, the TV was off, so there weren’t many distractions. However, each of us was more inclined to talk to each other and take study breaks as a group than to actually study. Moreover, silence seemed to bother us more when we were together than when we decide to study alone. I found this knowledge helpful in that it showed, once again, that intelligence is not everything; you have to maintain a good bit of self-discipline and you have to choose a proper environment and proper study partners in order to be a successful student.
  • Classroom Behavior – Honor’s English
    • Because I studied the behavior of a non-Honors class, I thought it only fair to study an Honors class. The first thing I noticed is that the Honors class had some of the same problems the non-Honors course did; people were talking during the lecture and some decided to not pay attention during some parts. However, this behavior was not as prevalent as it was in the non-Honors class. Also, I noticed that the students who had a hard time paying attention sat furthest away from the teacher. More detail is included in the actual entry, but overall this observation showed me that a correlation between where you sit in the classroom and how you do in the class may exist.
  • Commerce Week on Writing – Life of 4 PhD Students
    • I included this event for one reason – Wade Thompson. Wade Thompson is a highly intellectual individual and made some great points during his presentation. He used his personal experiences with his peers to illustrate that intelligence is nice, but it is nothing without a social life. Thompson explained that it is the balance of the social and educational aspects that create a successful individual, which I thought was directly relevant to my study. I loved hearing Wade Thompson speak because, to me, he gave a great lecture on how success comes from more than good grades. His points helped me to better understand which direction I wanted to take my project and, hopefully, my use of his points will help people to see that the Honors students truly are more than their scholarship.
• Survey/Interview Scripts and Responses
  • Original Survey (sent out via e-mail)
    • I sent this survey out via e-mail mostly because I thought it would prove most convenient for the students. Everyone in the Honors College is in different majors and has classes at different times so I thought that if I sent out an e-mail, the students would be able to respond to it at a time that best suited them. I included this because a) it was necessary for my portfolio and because b) I would like for those who look at the portfolio to see what the original survey looked like. Because the survey was done in an e-mail, not all of the responses were done in the same format, so I thought being able to see the original would prove useful.
  • Original Interview Script (for Dr. Green)
    • This is exactly how it sounds: the original Interview Script for Dr. Green. During the interview, of course, I deviated slightly from the script because I felt like some of his answers produced more questions for me. I felt like this draft would serve me well in the interview and would give me a good bit of useful information, which it did. I also thought that my questions would get Dr. Green talking in detail, rather than simple yes or no questions. I thought Dr. Green would be a great person to interview because he is the Dean of the Honors College and he is a part of everything that goes on within the Honors College, including the selection process. Because of his insider view, he was able to present me with a great amount of information that helped to mold my final project.
  • Original Interview Script (for Honors Students)
    • This was just a rough draft of what I wanted to touch on when the time came to interview people. I got a great response from the survey, but I felt like it would serve my readers/viewers better to actually get to know some of the students inside the Honors College and to hear what they have to say about their experiences. What I really wanted people to get out of this survey was an understanding of what kind of people make up the Honors College instead of assuming that everyone fits under the stereotype of the glasses-wearing, pocket-protector-using, textbook-hugging nerds that society seems to associate successful students with. Moreover, I wanted people to see that there is more to these students than their report card.
  • Survey Responses (17 total)
    • The surveys were extremely helpful. I got responses from 17 students, including myself, and each one offered some kind of contribution to the overall project. I decided to group them together as one entry because the patterns that I saw when I analyzed them as a group provided a great deal of the information for the project and I did not believe that splitting them up would give everyone the full picture of what the results were saying. The surveys helped me to see just how “normal” the students are as well as how they feel when people assume that they are super geniuses. A lot of the students stated that they do not feel like all of the Honors College students are smart, which I believe a lot of people will be surprised to find out.
  • Responses from Interview (with Dr. Green)
    • Dr. Green really helped me out with this project. He offered insight in to the selection process, which even the Honors students were surprise to hear. Green explained how leadership and community involvement are more important qualities than intelligence. He also noted that the grade requirements listed in the brochure aren’t actual requirements; they would like to see those scores, but if you do not reach them, you can still be in the Honors College. In fact, Green said that standardized test scores and GPA aren’t usually consulted unless they are trying to choose between two individuals.
• Research Journals
  • Research Journals 2-7
    • These research journals are important because they are involved in the development of my research question. These research journals required me to read and respond to articles as well as analyze my field site, which allowed me to figure out what I wanted to know, who I wanted to ask, and what I expected to get out of the research. Though I do not believe I will directly use any of the information in my final project, I do believe that they helped me to gain a better understanding of what the project required me to do and what was expected of me for my final project.
  • Research Journal 8
    • This research journal focuses on taking notes in the field site and interpreting the emotions, sights, and sounds into useful information. The journal also discusses WA 2, which influenced my looking at discrimination on a college campus. My initial research question just looked at people who felt embarrassed by their academic success whereas this journal really helped me to develop my question further into looking at how fellow students and teacher influenced their experiences in school as well as their perceptions of themselves. I found that doing this research journal really benefitted me in the long run.
  • Research Journal 9
    • This research journal served as my reality check. The assigned chapter delved into the whole ethnographic research process and explained the importance of gaining permission from the participants so that you only use the information that they want you to use. I was lucky enough to be interviewing people with which I have a previous relationship, so getting permission really was not difficult, but this research journal just kind of opened my eyes to what all is involved with this project as well as what all needed to be done before I would be ready to present my idea or start to piece together my final project.
  • Research Journal 10
    • This research journal involved a ground working activity from one of the many chapters I have read this semester. This activity had me connect everything I had done thus far, including the articles I read at the beginning of the semester, and making use of the information presented. This journal also gave me an idea of what research I had done well and what research I had yet to do. This journal also helped me to think about how I would go about getting information from people and how I could word my questions to make the participants more comfortable.
  • Research Journal 11
    • I learned so much from this journal. Mostly, I learned the importance of making myself a familiar stranger to my research participants. I also learned how assumptions can taint a research project. I had always heard that you should always assume nothing when conducting research, but his research journal really put it into perspective for me. It also taught me that I needed to do research before I started researching, simply because you have to have an idea of what to look for before you start looking for it.
  • Research Journal 12
    • The ground working activity in this research journal proved most helpful. The activity helped me to put what I had collected up to that point together and to start looking at it from a researcher’s perspective. It also helped me to start thinking of what kind of questions I might want to ask my participants when the time came to send out the survey. I made use of some of these questions and added a few more later on. I also liked how the activity got me to start thinking about the behavioral differences between Honors and non-Honors students, since the behavioral differences are a part of my arsenal of information.
  • Research Journals 13-15
    • Journals 13-15 mostly utilize field notes and analyses of those field notes. Of course, all of the field notes are important in that they offer information about my site and the people within the site. These notes really helped me develop my project and to notice patterns in the behavior of Honors college and non-Honors college students. I really feel like each set of these notes assisted the whole theme of the project in that it gave me information that will help people to better understand where I am going with my project.
  • Research Journal 16
    • There are two extremely important parts to this research journal: first is the analysis of the assigned chapter and then there is the field notes over the Commerce Week on Writing event involving the Life of 4 PhD students. The chapter that I read for the journal pretty much tied together everything that the previous chapters had said. It also talked about how to make the best use out of every survey and every interview that I conduct, which really helped since I got all of my information from surveys and interviews. The Week on Writing event was helpful because it involved 4 higher learning individuals speaking about their experiences both in and out of school, which really helped me to gain a perspective on how everyone learns differently and how different people can do different things and yield the same results.
  • Research Journals 17-26
    • These final research journals sum up all of what I have found out about my subject and help me to make sense of everything I learned and, more importantly, help me to decide how to present my project in a way that makes sense to what I am trying to say with it. A few of the research journals are kind of random, but hey all really helped me to tie everything together and to figure out what all should be included in my final project and how it should be worded so that people can follow what is going on.
• WA’s
  • WA 1
    • This assignment had me look at my personal history with literacy, which in turn helped me to think about my experiences in and out of school with how my peers treated me. I always felt like my grades labeled me, which I was never ok with, and this assignment really got me thinking about how that label shaped my literacy as well as my relationships with my classmates. This assignment also got me wondering if maybe other people had similar experiences, which, of course, influenced the purpose of this project.
  • WA 2
    • I explored how colleges use text to discriminate against those who do not “belong” to that particular social group. I looked at groups such as sororities, fraternities, the Honors College, and other organizations that promote fundraiser and the reputation of the organizations. This assignment was important because it helped to add the discrimination aspect to my final project and helped me to develop my final research topic. It also helped me to get started on gathering information regarding my final project as well as where I wanted to go with it.
  • WA 3
    • WA 3 was basically my Research Proposal. This assignment required me to include certain details about my project that I, honestly, had not thought about until this time came around. Doing this writing assignment helped me to see the weak points of my projects as well as how I can make my project stronger and more scholarly. I believe it also helped me to start looking at my research from all kinds of venues just so that I could make the most out of what I had collected up to that point.
  • WA 4
    • This writing assignment truly was the beginning of the end for me. This assignment made up over half of my final project and helped me to see what I needed to add and what needed to change in order to make a successful final project. I feel like this assignment really helped me to see how I am supposed to bring everything together and to figure out how I should organize the information tastefully and in a way the viewer/reader is interested in what is going on. For my final project, I am just adding on to my WA 4 and shuffling around some slides to make it make more sense.

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