I just took the time to put each reference on a card with
the main ideas and maybe a quote. This
forced me to distill everything from the article and felt worthwhile. Then, I put them into piles for possible
themes. This is what I learned:
1. In revisiting the
articles, I found that most of the articles I found initially are useless
because they are strategy-specific and small-scale, sometimes contained to just
one teacher who used them. I am hereby
throwing out 7 references. Ouch!
2. I also realized I
might need to throw out the three articles about students with learning
disabilities. While it is nice to know
that literacy integrating worked in a similar way to a special ed. classroom,
it feels tangential, and because I only have three, underdeveloped. So, I will either need to augment or scrap.
3. That leaves me
with 14 references I feel good about spread un-evenly between three
categories entitled: Inquiry vs.
Literacy, Teacher Attitudes, Tradebooks vs. Textbooks and Unprepared for the
Future. These will have to change.
4. In reviewing my
collected information, I have 9 more articles to skim and 25 more articles to
hunt down. This gives me the most
stress. I feel like I should begin
writing, not research more! However, I
know that right now, my information is insufficient.
5. Some of the
articles that I need to hunt down are proving hard to get a hold of. For example, the National Research Council
reports, PISA reports, American College Testing and NAEP, NCES, all seem to
have websites set up for me to buy the whole gigantic report which is sometimes
$40. I am tempted to just re-word what
the author in the article I do have says about these reports and then cite
them. Can I do that?
I feel like I am really down the rabbit hole now.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteWow. There is a lot of great thinking here!!! I think I'm going to address these questions in class because I'm sure a lot of you are feeling the same way.
First a simple answer and in class I'll address each question with a bit more care. But for now....don't worry, you have enough resources and are on a great path. The lit review is another one of those "good enough" documents. You actually have until the spring to have a full literature review, so if you can't find articles/reports right now, don't worry, you can paraphrase or second hand cite those. In the meantime, I'll get a list going of documents to help you chase down.