Day: March 1, 2017

Primary Research: Doing an Interview! Due March 8

Secondary research involves receiving information through a book, an encyclopaedia, the Internet, or another written source. Someone else found out the information, and then they published the information for you to read.

Primary research involves finding out the information yourself! You do a survey, make observations, conduct an experiment, do an interview, experience something, create a journal entry, travel somewhere, take photographs yourself, collect specimens to study, etc.

You will be doing an interview to practice gathering primary research. We did one in class together. Remember that in an interview, you need to:

  • Know what you want to find out before starting the interview
  • Create questions ahead of time
  • Think about who would be the BEST person to interview
  • Ask permission to interview the person and/or to record their responses
  • Practice active listening through appropriate posture, facing the person, not interrupting, acknowledging responses, and using eye contact.
  • Add questions during the interview as new information comes up
  • Use phrases like, “So, what I hear you saying is….” when you need to clarify what they have said
  • Document the answers thoroughly (recording device, taking notes)
  • Thank the person for the interview
  • Review your notes and make them neat for looking at in the future

Do an interview of a family friend, family member, or someone in the community. Find out from them their experiences coming into Canada and whether or not they had any experiences with discrimination. 

Here are the questions we came up with in class that you can use (choose at least ten that you think are best):

  • What country did you originally live in?
  • What was it like there and why did you choose to leave?
  • Why did you come to Canada?
  • Do you miss anything about your home country?
  • What was your experience like coming to Canada?
  • How did you feel when you arrived in Canada?
  • What was the process like to get permission to come to Canada?
  • Was there anything about the process you did not like?
  • Was it hard to adjust to coming to Canada?
  • What were your first thoughts about living in Canada?
  • When you arrived did you ever feel discriminated against? How specifically?
  • Why do you think you were discriminated against?
  • Did you experience any other difficulties in Canada? Work-related difficulties?
  • Are you glad you came to Canada? Why?
  • Would you ever return to your home country?
  • Do you feel Canadian or still a part of your home culture, or both?
  • How long have you been in Canada?
  • And any other questions you may want to use (limit yourself to 2 that are your own creations and keep them on topic.)

Learning Skills We Need for Independent Work

Hello Everyone,

Sometimes it is helpful to understand the “why” behind what we are doing, so I thought I would explain some of our current tasks in terms of the SKILLS we are learning that will help us be able to do INDEPENDENT PROJECT work.

Project Work: Today, our schedule said “Stuff” — meaning that all day was a work day. We had a list of things to do, and everyone made a priority checklist to get things done. Being able to manage your time is an important skill! So, everyone had to divide up the day into time periods to get things done; prioritize tasks according to due dates; and be aware of focus, changing up what they were working on if they felt their engagement was running low. TIME MANAGEMENT and AWARENESS!

Playground Project: This project means using the DESIGN PROCESS (Ask what the problem is, Consider limitations to the task, Imagine the possibilities, Plan what you will do, Identify materials, Create your design, Improve the design as needed during the process.) You also need COLLABORATION skills to work with your partners and to come to consensus about the playground design.

Art: You need to learn how to USE TOOLS APPROPRIATELY and SAFELY. Use paint without making a huge mess by planning your workspace. Use materials responsibly, only taking what you need. If you use hot glue or other tools that can harm you, be responsible and careful. Work in an appropriate space. Be aware of people around you. Clean up your workspace when done! And, develop FINE MOTOR SKILLS as you manipulate materials to create new things!

E-Portfolio: Learn to REFLECT on your work. Find a way to document your work process, so you can learn what you did well and what you would change for next time! If you only focus on the final product, then you won’t know exactly what part of the process could have been improved. DOCUMENT YOUR WORK!

Debate: Be an effective and persuasive COMMUNICATOR! Back up your opinions with evidence. Practice what you are going to say before presenting. Choose the right kind of words to express your ideas so people remember what you said to them. Communicate with others when you need things. When you feel things (such as frustration or confusion) use your words to tell people about it rather than allowing the emotions to take you over, which leads to bad decisions. 

Creativity: All of the tasks above required CREATIVITY. Remember, though, good ideas do not come out of magic. Be OPEN-MINDED to others’s ideas and look at things from all PERSPECTIVES. The best ideas occur when we build upon others’ ideas. Add to ideas, don’t take them down. Don’t feel like you need to be alone when coming up with ideas. Group think!

All of this will help us as we lead to our independent project. I look forward to seeing how you use these skills in term three!