Developing a Case Study for this Project

Because I am a full time eighth grade teacher while I am pursing my doctorate in English education, I am planning on doing a case study for part of my dissertation.

The first step is consideration of the context. I plan to observe just one classroom closely with perhaps five focal children or regularly observed children. Because much of my work is anchored in the public and democratic principles of living, the peer culture in the case will be important. I am interested in studying how children individually and collectively respond to the identified texts, and, thus, I will detail the communicative practices of this classroom. I wonder how reading for aesthetic and rhetorical features of literary texts, specifically texts that represent effects of globalization, help students to reimagine the purpose of reading in English Language Arts class. What are the implications of such reading practices in children's social and symbolic actions -- speaking, reading, and writing about understanding human agency and social forces that shape society?  I ask what are expected child responses to such literature? How to children and teachers talk about these texts? What roles to adults and children play in articulating meaning of these texts and of the purpose of education? A question that might guide the study at the start would be what are the children's understanding of the global issues and the purpose of reading in English Language Arts. What are the teachers' understanding of the role of global issues in an English Language Arts class. The angle includes the children, the teacher, the student teacher, the teacher assistants, and other adults who have professional or visitor roles in the classroom. They key players in the complicated story of how children began to reimagine what the English classroom can do and what they are reading for. This is on the case of one teacher's curriculum that attempts to integrate aesthetics and rhetorics in literary readings with implications for a citizens of a global public.

My classroom is located in a school that is under pressure to make AYP or Annual Yearly Progress, as it failed to meet in the 2011-12 school year. The focus on the classroom rather than a teacher or child because the content provides many opportunities for discussion among these participants, and the attention is on the social impact of a collective understanding.

The first step is to map out the site.Located in a Chicago suburb, about 15 miles north west, this school is situated in a "middle class" neighborhood, yet ___percent of the students reside in a ___mile stretch of apartments ___ miles away from the school.  The school has two large parking lots and a new track used for track and cross country (in addition to neighborhood walkers) with two baseball fields.  The school has an elementary wing with a separate principal but a shared library and cafeteria. The junior high wing is two-stories with the 7th grade primarily on the second floor, with an assistant principal office on that floor, and the 8th grade primarily on the first floor. There is a junior high office, which was moved from a shared administrative office in the elementary wing, located on the first floor of the junior high in the most northernly corner of the building. After increasing disciplinary issues over the years and recognition that this junior high had needs the other three did not, the district added a separate junior high entrance and office, along with the addition of a third administrator.

The school runs on 40 minute periods with a ten minute homeroom to start the day with announcements on a closed-circuit TV done by students and attendance and 3 minute passing periods. There are 9 periods a day; most students have one PE class and two enrichment classes -- music, art, computers, foreign language, and ____________. However, ELL students have a resource or a reading intervention class in place of enrichment classes. ___percent of the students are identified and in the ELL program. Students have their own lockers, and the procedure is for students to go to their lockers before homeroom, before and after lunch, and at the end of the day to minimize hallway traffic. The school follows a PBIS behavior system that acknowledges 80 percent of the population will do what is expected, 10 to 15 percent need interventions, and about 5 percent need intensive interventions for behavior issues. The focus is on rewarding expected behavior with a school monetary system and periodic celebrations.  The art room is located by the elementary classrooms. There is one computer lab in the library; two computer labs for shared use, but one is for the computer class. There are 4 laptop carts with 15 computers in each, but the charge and dependability are questionable. This year, each department received a set or two of 30 iPad carts from grants that teachers wrote.

 The classroom is located on the first floor of a two-story building  in a wing added on a number of years ago. The classroom located in the furthest classroom from the junior high office but across from the restrooms, a drinking fountain, and a few steps to the cafeteria -- so it hears the 7th grade lunch, 8th grade lunch, and elementary lunch. Classroom supplies -- hole puncher, markers, crayons, staples, construction paper, ruler, and glue sticks on on a long work counter on the side of the room. The wall decor is student created