The National Study of Writing Instruction - University at Albany

5 Interview 1 teacher Interview 1 teacher
6 Interview 1 teacher Interview 1 teacher
After School Meet with other departments, to answer questions about the
study and encourage completion of surveys.
Complete Classroom Observation Reports
Consult with Co-Field Researcher to complete Interpretive
Memo
THIRD DAY
Home Room Check in with on-site
coordinator
1 Interview Math department
chair
27
Check in with on-site
coordinator
Observe 1 class
2 Observe 1 class Observe 1 class
3 Observe 1 class Observe 1 class
4 Available for rescheduling Available for rescheduling
Lunch Debriefing with on-site coordinator. Pick up paper copies of
teacher surveys (if electronic versions not used).
Afternoon Courtesy visit to principal and English department chair.
Complete Summary of School Visit.
The field researcher teams also worked with the on-site coordinator and the English chair or
team leader to select focal students. This often required a separate school visit, and a follow up
informational meeting after parental consent and student assent had been obtained. The
informational meetings were designed to help students understand how important it was for
researchers to have copies of all of the written work in English, math, science, and social
science/ history.
Written work completed by focal students in their core subjects areas was collected throughout
the semester. This included worksheets, short- answer responses, mathematical problem
solving, and class notes as well as more extended writing. For student notebooks or journals,
approximately 10% of the work was photocopied, chosen to represent the variety of writing in
the notebook. For sampled work, researchers kept a page count of total number of pages of
writing, number of pages of various types of writing, and number of pages photocopied.