For starters, let me sing a few words of praise for my writing family. So far, working with my group family has been fast-paced and efficient. I am very happy to belong to group that values punctuality and cohesion as much as they value autonomy. Given our strengths, I'm optimistic about our future efforts as we continue to collaborate on this project.
The goal of our project is to develop a program for native Spanish-speaking children who have been diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and who are aspiring to learn English. While getting a workable topic off the ground was somewhat rocky at first, things fell into place once we had pinned down a suitable subject to focus on. While each member of our group brings a novel and unique perspective to the table, the are notable parallels between us. For instance, Lionel and I both hail from the Department of Psychology, albeit from different divisions, while Marielisbet and Robin have been accepted into the Department of Education. The ability to reference another group member that shares similar research interests allows us to maximize our approach to grappling with our differences.
Thus far, we have taken a somewhat hands-off stance when it comes to the work of our individual members. We convene each week for about an hour or so to pool together what we have learned and come up with, and then go our separate ways to follow up on the decisions made at the meeting. By emphasizing the points of connection between group members, we have been able to draft a proposal that (we hope) follows logically from one perspective to the next.
This is a space where UIUC SPI participants in the Summer 2013 Research Methods and Writing Seminar engage each other as researchers, intellectuals and members of a cross disciplinary knowledge producing community.
Hey John:
ReplyDeleteThis is a very exciting topic. Do you ever feel an overlap of your interests? Sometimes I fear that my "library science" background will be too similar to my group member's "library science" focus. I'd personally hate to duplicate her ideas. I'm glad that you all are working together so well.
In being part of the same group as John, I share mutual interest and liking to the work we have produced as a group. In coming late into the group, I felt a little hesitant and felt as if I would be falling behind the other group members. In the end, things all worked out, my group updated me with assignments, and welcomed me right in. Thank you for that John, Lionel, and Robin.
ReplyDeleteThe topic is very interesting and I cannot wait to hear your groups views further.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that all of your group members are committed and have shown to successfully combine their own field to other fields. I look forward to your presentation!
Hello John,
ReplyDeleteYour topic is quite interesting and understudied and I feel all your group members are bringing interesting ideas to the table. I can't wait to hear more about it!
Maria P.
This appears to be a wonderful synthesis of your fields and specific areas. Your group approach seems to have been an inversion of my own, but equally successful in rallying around a subject that converges your interests. Great job on working through and pursuing this line of inquiry.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in a high school in Chicago and saw students with ADHD. They are a handful. Two students come to mind, now that I think about it. They are mostly non-compliant and will not do anything once they have decided they don't want to be in the classroom or follow instructions. Student A, for example, was given coffee, just out of the blue, by his math teacher. It calmed A down for a bit. That wore down, and they moved onto giving him fruit juices and he seemed to enjoy that more. How he worked in class afterwards, I couldn't tell you. However, he was in the lobby at the same time daily. Another student, B, just disliked Math and the class. He refused to do nothing and would rather place his head down on the desk. He loved any and every opportunity to get out of class for water and a bathroom break. He was difficult to convince and work with because he was easily distracted. He has a good sense of humor, behaves like an "old" man, and is very good with the keyboard and singing. I'm interested to see what information you come across.
ReplyDelete