WA#3 Sunday, Dec 6 2009

Research Proposal
The city of Commerce, Texas is a small city rich in history and traditions that date back hundreds of years. Over those years, many groups and cultures have begun to develop around this city and in its university. Many people do not take the time to study, watch, or even pay attention to these cultures (that they are not a part of) and they have no idea what they are missing. They are missing the wonderful opportunity to understand a different culture. Some of these cultures have different traditions and activities that would amaze you if you just took the time to understand them. Most importantly, these cultures have different ways of expressing literacy. The way they behave and act around each member of the group is unique to each and every culture. Their literacy is like a fingerprint, in that no two are alike in any way. These cultures work on and develop their literacy amongst themselves, and unless we take the time to really research that particular culture we will never understand it. With use of interviews, participant observation, fieldnotes, and many more techniques, we can come to a better understanding of what literacy they use and how it is developed.
I plan to use those tools in my own research of the Texas A&M University-Commerce basketball team. I will use whatever tools necessary to get the best information possible from my fieldsite and my participants. There are several things I hope to accomplish in doing this project. I want to be able to find the literacy involved with the basketball team and its individual players. There are a lot of things a player has to do on the court to be successful. Many of those things are dependent on his or her ability to “read” his or her surroundings. I want to understand how they “read” each other, their coaches, and many other game effecting aspects in a “non-verbal” way. I want to be able to show non-basketball audiences that there is much more to players and coaches than putting a ball into a basket. The game of basketball is so much more complex than that and I am attempting to prove that and help people understand how sharp a players mind must be. I also want to use my findings to educate players and coaches on how this phenomenon works. I want them to be able to understand how players “read” everything and in turn try to utilize it to make their team much better. I hope to accomplish this goal by proposing a couple central questions that when answered will be a major help in my research. I have gathered two questions that will be very pivotal to my research. What are the main objects players read and how? How is reading vital to the game? I have framed these central questions because I believe that everything I am trying to accomplish will be answered in those two questions. If the answer I am looking for is not found from these questions they will at the very least provide a route to help me find the answer elsewhere. This research is very important to me because it hits so close to home. I love the game of basketball and I have practically given my life to learning and developing its skills. By doing this research it provides me with another opportunity to learn yet another skill. A skill that if developed could be very beneficial to me as a player. Also it’s important to me because I want outsiders of the basketball community to understand an important aspect of the game itself.
My project will rely heavily on information from the participants in my study. There will be a lot of information from interviews and participant observation that I will be using. With this being the case, it is imperative that I have the permission of these participants and make sure they fully understand the extent of how these interviews and observations will be used. I will be very clear with my participants, that every interview I conduct or observation I do will be done with the upmost respect to the individual and team. I will assure them that everything going on will be done correctly and ethically. I want to get the permission to conduct all of this from the Head Coach Sam Walker. I think it will also be good to get the permission from both of the assistants as well, Stephen Pearce and Jason Burton. Beyond these three, permission slips will be given to players that are interviewed or whose information will be heavily used. I want to make sure that everyone is on the same page and they understand how their information will be used. I will obtain these signatures simply by presenting each person with a permission slip (attached). I will explain to them the goal of my project and what I hope to accomplish, and then I will ask if it is okay for me to use the information that I gather from them in my research and presentation. If the agree, then I will explain to them how the permission slip is arranged and respectably ask them to sign.
My research plan consists of several different sites for me to go and study. Within these sites, my plan requires a lot of participant observation. Participant observation is what my whole project revolves around. There will be a large amount of interviews with different people in different positions so I can get a wide range of views and ideas. Also with these interviews, will be my information from just observing them in action and taking notes on their behavior and reactions to certain situations. This observation will come from two places mainly, the gymnasium and the locker room. I will be in the gym the most watching during the games and practices and gathering incite on how players “read” each other and react together. The locker room observation will be a different kind of participant observation. The information that I gather from this fieldsite is something that I hope will help me understand what I am seeing happen in the gym. The locker room is where the guys spend time together and get to know one another. They act differently in this environment then they do in the gym. This means that the information I gather here will help me understand why they act the way they do. This is probably going to be the most important fieldsite, if analyzed correctly.
All of this information is going to be gathered via media tools. There will be a lot of pictures being taken during games and practices. Also there will be several videos of interviews as well as games and practices. The media aspect of this project is going to help me tremendously in reaching my final goals. I want to be able to show the non-basketball audience and even the basketball team what is happening rather than try and describe it to them. This will allow those who do not understand the game of basketball and even those who do, what is happening in real time. It will help me get my research across much better and will overall make a much better presentation that is captivating and intriguing to my audience.
This outsider audience is who I am trying to connect with. I want my research to be looked at outside of my class in the larger scholarly community. I believe this contributes a lot to others interested in research and literacy. When my project is completely finished I want them to be able to see how I found a literacy that was unique only to its culture. I also want my research to connect with that culture and help them develop it to a greater extent, and maybe use it to help them in the future. I want coaches and players to gain a better understanding of this literacy and how it is a good aspect and help to the game of basketball so they can use it to make their team much better. However, my ultimate goal is to show how literacy can thrive everywhere, even with a sports team. I want people to see that David Barton and Mary Hamilton were correct when they said, “Like all human activity, literacy is essentially social, and it is located in the interaction between people.”
In reaching out to the larger scholarly community, I am also trying to contribute to the Commerce Writes Research Project. This is a good ethnography for that research project. I am researching a culture (team) that is located in the city of commerce. This culture has a great history and tradition that many, many people have been a part of. With my research, we should be able to see how past members of this culture have affected current members and if we can ultimately consider them “sponsors.” I will be researching these older members as well as current members to gather the best range of information possible. There is going to be a great amount of information from this culture’s past and present available to me. With this information, I will be able to show what a large part of Commerce this culture is and how it has contributed to this great city for several years.
In conclusion, this project has the potential to be very beneficial to the basketball community as well as Commerce itself. I will consider my project a large success if I am able to do two things. First, I want to be able to help the basketball team understand how they “read” each other, and help them utilize that tool to make them a much better team. Secondly, I want to reach out to the outsider community and show them that there is more to the game of basketball then just actual talent. I want them to see that a players mind must be sharp and focused, and that what they do on the court is an art. If I can accomplish those two things my project will be a great success and I will have achieved my ultimate goals!

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WA#2 Sunday, Dec 6 2009

Literacy of a Community
Texas A&M University-Commerce—a place of higher learning, where young adults go to further their education and reach their dreams of creating a better life for themselves. However, there is so much more to this university than meets the eye. It is rich in a history and a culture that many of its students never take the time to learn or embrace. They go about their day in search of reaching their dreams, but never stop to understand what the univeristy really is, a large community. We think of this place as a school, maybe a place of buisness, or for some people it is where they are employed; but, without a doubt, this university is a community. It’s a community with hunderds of sub-cultures or sub-communities, if you will. From the sports teams to the fraternities and sorieties, to the band and the math clubs, there are several independent entities within this university that make it what it is. Each one of the separate pieces all bring something different to the university and contribute to its literacies. The different clubs and teams all have a different literacy or way they go about things which is what makes this university very unique. With all the different types of culture found deep within the university, it is an exciting opportunity to research one of these areas, to find out about its literacies, histories, and to see what makes it function. Researching this will help us to understand how these “sub-cultures” work and how they help to make Texas A&M Univeristy-Commerce the community that it is today.
Perhaps of the most interesting “sub-cultures” to research would be one of the many sports teams. Researching one of the university’s teams is going to provide a good look into how they have affected the univeristy in two ways. Not only does a sports team contribute to the univeristy as part of its community, but it also helps to get its name out throughout the nation by traveling, playing, and (most importantly) winning. Of the many sports teams on campus, the men’s basketball team is a great place to start the research. The team is rich with literacy and history that defines its place in the community. The best way to start the research is to try to step into this small community as an “outsider.” If we look at it from an “outsider” point of view it is going to greatly contribute to the research and give us a better opportunity to understand how everything takes place within this community.
Every community chooses to express their literacy in different ways, and literacy can manifest itself in ways other than just reading and writing. However, when it is examined in those forms, there are several ways we can catagorize it. Accourding to Lauren B. Resnick in her article Literacy in School and Out, the three most common kinds of (reading and writing) literacies are useful, informational, and pleasurable. Resnick says, “Here I consider three of these categories that are most frequently cited… the useful, the informational, and the pleasurable” (Resnick, 119). It is good to consider these when researching a particular community because it helps one to see what types of literacies is practiced the most. It may also reveal something about them. This is certainly what it did in my research of the basketball team.
In my research, I found that the two most used literacies involved with the basketball team are that of useful and informational. Resnick defines these two types of literacies very clearly in her article. She defines useful literacy as “A common type of literacy practice is the use of written texts to mediate action in the world.” (Resnick, 120). She also describes informational literacy, “The reader’s main task is to build a mental representaion of the situation presented in the text and to relate the new information to previously held knowledge” (Resnick, 123). These descriptions are completely parrallel to the way the basketball team uses them.
Located on the back of the locker room door is a chart full of numbers and statistics. Further study of this chart will reveal that it includes the information from the games of the past season. At first, I just disregarded this as useless information but soon realized that what Resnick was talking about was staring me right in the face. That chart is a perfect example of both helpful and informational literacy. It is a form of helpful literacy because the coaches and players are able to study their performance from the past games and learn what to improve on or to keep the same. That is a very helpful piece of information for a basketball team. Also, in the same way, it is a piece of informational literacy. While coaches are looking at it, they are informed of what they did as a player or coach and know their statistics for possible future reference. This information is just one example of the flourishing literacy going on within the basketball community, but it is very evident that Resnick was correct in her statements and definitions of literacy.
As I have mentioned before, literacy is not just limitied to something that one can read or write, but rather it is much more than that. A piece of literacy can be a picture that tells a storyor a banner that represents a community’s history. Whatever the case may be, each community is going to have several different types of literacy.
While researching the basketball team, I found numerous pictures of past players on one of the walls in their locker room. Each one of these pictures has a section of text that displays who that person is and what their contribution to the community was. These pictures tell a story, a story that may not be important to an “outsider,” but to the team it means everything.
These pictures are of people who gave their everything to the community. They sacrificed and dedicated themselves to improving the community that they love. They are forever remembered on the team wall because of the way they helped further their community and help make it what it is today. More specifically, there are two players whose names rise above the rest for their contributions to their community, Jermart Miller and Scooby Johnson. These young men are two of the best players ever to wear a Commerce Lions’ uniform. Their pictures on the team’s hallowed walls are larger than any other. This is symbolic of the way their influence to the team was greater than any before them. Throughout their tenures here at the university, they were able to merit many individual awards and were recognized as some of the elite players in the country. However, their influence on the team goes much deeper than their personal gain. They helped the team reach heights that it had never before reached. They helped produce many victories and eventually championships. These championships became pieces of literacy for not only the team to admire, but also the univesity.
Along with those many pictures of past players, the walls are lines with championship banners for all to see. These banners date back as far as the 1950’s, and each one of them represents a special moment in Texas A&M University-Commerce history. These banners are also a extemely important form of literacy for the university. They use banners to promote the university and get its name out there. This is one of the ways that a sport team makes a major contribution to its university. The more banners thata team acquires only increases the amount of literacy for the school to promote. This is a perfect example of the importance of those players whose pictures are hanging from the wall in the locker room. Without these players, the team would not have reached the heights that it has and would not be continuing to climb further up the mountain of success. The literacy of pictures and banners are a great example to show the histroy of the team and how it can help the university, but what are some forms of literacy that help the basketball team specifically?
In her article Writing in the 21st Century, Kathleen Yancy points out a very important fact. She says, “Today, in the 21st century, people write as never before—in print and online.” The key word in her quote is online. We have seen a major increase in online literacy over the past few years and there seems to be no signs of it slowing down. With the internet being such a vital tool in 21st century literacy, the basketball team has not hesitated in using this tool as well. They have created and furnished their own webpage with a cornucopia of information concerning not only the team but also the university. On this webpage, you will find stories of past and present players, statistics, schedules, biographies, and much more. One of the most intriguing assets to this page is the archives link. This link will take you back several years to the histories of basketball teams from the past and display their successes and shortcomings. It is because of this information that the webpage is a very vital tool in the advancing the literacy of the basketball team and even the university.
In conclusion, when one researches and examines deep into a community, he is very likely to find small, seemingly meaningless forms of literacy flourishing throughout. Upon continued research one will discover that that seemingly meaningless form of literacy is one of the extremely important pieces that contribute to the literacy of the large community itself. We were able to see how the baskeball team developed a form of helpful and informational literacy to be successful, and in their success, they were able to greatly benefit the literacy of the university. These benefits are only coming from one of the many pieces or “sub-cultures.” Imagine when all the pieces are placed together just right; that’s when Texas A&M University-Commerce’s literacy is flourishing!

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WA#1 Sunday, Dec 6 2009

Sponsors and their Influence on Lifelong Literacy
From the moment we are born, literacy and sponsors of literacy are all around us. In a sense, these two items are chasing us to educate and to change our lives. As we grow older, our “sponsors” (i.e. parents, teachers, etc.) are constantly bombarding us with many forms of literacy. Parents try to teach us and to see whether mommy or daddy will be our first word, while teachers are teaching us to read books such as Child’s First Bible and many others. These are only a few examples of how we are introduced to literacy at such a young age. These and many other memories lock themselves away in our thoughts because of the effect they have had on our lives. As different experiences and events arise in our lives, we automatically recall these moments and their effect on us; and we are able to see how they have influenced us and ultimately changed us forever.
These experiences vary for everyone and just as the experiences are different, literacy itself can be very different. “The analysis of scholarship forces us to consider not merely how one social group’s literacy practices may differ from another’s, but how everybody’s literacy practices are operating in differential degrees of power, and different scales of monetary worth to the practices in use” (Brandt, 70). Literacy is not just limited to speaking and reading as it may seem, but rather literacy can display itself in many forms. One very common form of literacy deals with computers and being computer literate. The most computer literate person in my household is my father. Dealing with computers is a major part of his everyday job, and he has been working with and repairing computers for as long as I can remember.
Because of his extensive knowledge of computers, he has been able to be a very successful, positive sponsor of literacy for me. We have always had a computer in my house and it has been a very integral part of my family’s lives. My earliest memory of computers and my father’s teaching go back to when I was four-to-five years old. He would teach me how to turn on and off the computer, and how to load my favorite video games. Soon I would be on the computer by myself, able to log on to play my favorite games such as Mario and Space Pinball. The experience that I got on my own allowed me to try to learn and to use new things on the computer other than games. I began to learn how to communicate with my friends over the computer and I thought that that was absolutely the coolest thing. I became very well rehearsed at using my favorite tool, instant messaging. I would get home from school and even though I had just spent all day with my friends I would still log on and chat with them for hours because of how much fun it was to be able to use the computer. As I continued to get older and more rehearsed in the things I was learning, I was also learning how to use the computer as a tool for many other things in life. My father was able to “sponsor” all of this learning by simply teaching me how to log on and play. What started as a place for a five-year old to enjoy some video games was now a device that I used for emailing and searching the web. Soon I figured out that the computer was a very vital tool in my schooling and education.
While I was still playing games and furthering my computer literacy, I was also developing my literacy in other areas such as reading and writing. I have been very fortunate in these areas as far as sponsors are concerned. My mother and aunt are both teachers who are very skilled in English and grammar and have been very influential but different sponsors to me. My mother teaches elementary, specifically first grade, and my aunt teaches an English class at the secondary level. They were both able to very positively sponsor me in my literacy, but they sponsored me at two different levels.
I can remember when I was much younger, my mother working with me at home and in school on developing my reading and writing skills. She taught me how to write, the specifics of how to form my letters, and how to develop my words and grammar. All of this was at an elementary level, but she was able to get me started and I was then able to learn and develop it from there.
My aunt has had a more recent sponsorship on my literacy. She was my sophomore and junior English class teacher, and she not only taught me in class but also helped me develop outside of the classroom as well. While my mother had taught me the basics of reading and writing, my aunt began to teach me grammar and the right way to use it. The lessons I learned from both of them have turned out to be a very valuable tool that has helped me throughout my life. These lessons instilled values and basics that I have been able to build upon and become stronger in as time goes on.
Everyone is different in the way they are sponsored and by whom they are sponsored; however, they tend not to see how a sponsor can affect them in more than one area. We notice when somebody sponsors us in a specific area, but many times we only recognize their sponsorship in that particular area and not in others. I know that I have fallen victim to that very thing. I have failed to notice that my mother, father, and aunt, while they all sponsored me in different ways, their efforts all tie together in one large attempt to develop my literacy. By my father “sponsoring” me on how to use the computer, I was able to take that knowledge and apply it to my schooling. I had learned to use the computer thanks to him and his efforts, and many of my school projects required a computer to complete. I knew how to handle and to operate the computer in order to finish required projects and papers; and inadvertently, my literacy in school was developing over the use of the computer.
This same “sponsoring” was happening with my school work but in complete opposite. My aunt would assign a paper or an English project, and it would have to be done by computer. I would then go home and begin to work on the computer to get my project done, and concurrently, I would be developing my computer literacy while working on my English assignment. I was not able to see it at first but I soon figured out that my dad was also a sponsor for me in my English literacy, while my aunt was also a sponsor in my computer literacy.
In conclusion, Deborah Brandt described sponsors best in her article “Sponsors of Literacy.” She describes sponsors as “figures who turned up most typically in people’s memories of literacy learning: older relatives, teachers, priests, supervisors, military officers, editors, influential authors.” We all have sponsors who affect us either negatively or positively. Whatever the case, we should take time to remember these people and our experiences with them because they have helped develop and mold our literacy to where it is today.

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WA#5 Sunday, Dec 6 2009

Here is the link to our WA5 (Table of Contents):
http://asresearchportfolio.wordpress.com/

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Research Journal #26 Sunday, Dec 6 2009

The work we have been doing on WA5 has been going really well. We are both very excited to start this process as it is the beginning of the end. We have spent so much time getting information through research and other formats that we have really lost track of all we had. We started to lay out all of our resources that we had gathered and are going to use to produce the final ethnography. When we did this, we realized how much information we actually had. We had forgotten about some of this stuff and this process of organization was good for us because it re-introduced us to our information. Now that we have all of the information laid out in front of us we just need to make a list (table of contents) and add the annotations. This process will be teadious because as I said we are a little unfamiliar with some of the information. We must now go back and review the research items that we are unfamiliar with to make sure that we get the correct annotation down. We are both very excited about this friday. We are happy that we get the opportunity to share our information with other people. All of our hardwork is finally going to pay off. We do have one question concerning this presentation. How should we present our information? We were thinking since it is a media project we would do a little trailer video to get people interested. Is this a good method? As far as the Commerce writes is concerned I am just wondering what all is involved with this? What do we need to do for the CWS? Other than those questions Samantha and I are set and ready to finish this project. We are excited about the things that will come from our work!

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Research Journal #25 Tuesday, Dec 1 2009

Our research portfolio is absolutely packed to the max with information. We have several sets of fieldnotes that we have extended, analyzed, and coded. We have conducted two solid interviews that provide two different viewpoints (coach and player). We also have a good amount of archives including game photos and the team media guide. This project is coming together wonderfully and we are ecstatic to see all of the information come together. We have done the best we can to organize and sort the information that we have to this point. I think that if someone were to look at the stuff that we have they would go crazy and not know where to begin; however, we know exactly what we want to do. We have learned an incredible amount about our topic since the first day of research. We have seen the literacy of reading develop right before our eyes, and that was something we never expected to happen. Our information means a lot to us. We have two very extensive interviews that show us examples of how players and coaches understand how reading is used in the game. They understand that it does exist and it is importance to their success. Our fieldnotes have also showed us some great ideas. We are able to see in these notes, that the players use reading everyday in several situations. They may not even recognize that they are doing it, but we are now able to prove that it exists. This project has been a blast to be a part of. It has been fun researching our question and trying to prove it. Now that we have accomplished that goal it is time to put all our information together to create the big picture. I believe that our project is going to turn out fantastic. We have learned so much and are very excited to share our research with our class and beyond!

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Research Journal #24 Tuesday, Nov 24 2009

Fieldwriting: Chapter 8:
Reading this chapter was a great benefit to me. I learned so many things about producing a good paper but more importantly about how to produce a proper draft. This chapter is going to be a major resource as time goes on. With the due date coming at an absurd pace, the more good resources you have the better. We are going to start developing our first drafts soon enough and with that experience closing in on us I paid very close attention to the section entitled Drafting Drafts.

This section was very interesting but was much more helpful than anything. It helped me understand where to start. Often times in the past, I would sit down to conduct drafts and would be completely blank. My mind would lock up and I could not think of anything to say or write. This section is written to help you with that. It tells us to just lay out all of our information and let that information speak to you. That is such a great idea. Samantha and I have seven sets of fieldnotes, four writing assignments, several archives, and two interviews. If we just lay out everything we have and analyze it in depth, we should have plenty of ideas to begin with. The information that we have obtained is extensive and laying it out in front of us to analyze will do more for us than give us ideas. It will help us to understand what is missing, where holes in our information are, what else we need, etc. It is just a good practice to engage in. Once all of the information is laid out in front of you, the next step is to figure out what information you want to you and what order it will be in. The book gives several examples of how you could go about organizing your information. Some place all of it on files on a computer, lay out your sheet on the floor and move them around, or have color coated file folder. However you choose to organize your data is up to you and what you feel most comfortable with. After you have organized your information, you then must start piecing information together and eliminating irrelevant information. This is going to be a nightmare unless you have everything laid out and organized. “Selecting appropriate data is perhaps the most complicated part of creating a first draft” (Fieldwriting, 422). The most important thing you can do while writing your first draft is take it “bird by bird.” In other words, you need to take your writing step by step or story by story and just take your time on each section before you move on to the next. Grasping this concept will help you write a successful first draft, and you can make corrections and additions in future drafts. However, for now just take it “’bird by bird,’ one section, one draft, at a time.”

Another extremely important aspect of producing a successful draft is analyzing your “finished” product. We have had to analyze our fieldnotes several times throughout this year. We had to ask ourselves: What surprised us? What intrigued us? What disturbed us? We should be very well rehearsed in how to ask these questions and what we need to say in order to answer them correctly. Now that we have a “finished” draft we have something to look at. We need to ask ourselves these questions and analyze what we have to see what we could possibly do to make our draft better. Once we have done a thorough analysis we will be able to understand what else we need to add to make our draft the best it can possibly be.

This chapter was full of great information that we can use to make a wonderful draft. It has taught me a lot about the process of conducting a good draft and the steps that one must take. Most importantly, I learned not to stress over this process. We have put in the hard work to gather all of the information we need, now it is just time to analyze that information and organize it as best we can. This chapter will probably be the most important to me from the book fieldworking; however, I have greatly enjoyed reading this book. It has provided me with several resources to use as it comes time to produce our final work. It has made me feel more prepared than I ever thought I would be. I know now that if I have any questions I will be able to find the answer in Fieldworking. I plan to use this book in every way possible as we begin to develop our final ethnography. I know that with these instructions by my side I will certainly do great!

Table of Contents:
*New additions to the Table of Contents are bolded:

Fieldnotes:

1. Fieldnotes #1:
It is a list of information on all of the different forms of communication and reading in the game of basketball. This is what my initial code book is based off of.
2. Fieldnotes #2:
This is a set of fieldnotes I conducted over a scrimmage, that I observed the basketball players participating in. There is a lot of good “in game” information involved.
3. Fieldnotes #3
It is a set of fieldnotes that I and Samantha conducted together over a particular practice. This is probably our most extensive set of fieldnotes. This provides us with “in practice” information.
4. Fieldnotes #4
This is a set of fieldnotes that Samantha and I conducted on Monday during the Texas A&M-Commerce basketball game against DBU. Shows game time situations and reading and gives us good insight into an actual game performance.
5. Fieldnotes #5
This is a set of fieldnotes taken over another men’s basketball practice. Samantha and I have noticed that as time has progressed, the players are becoming more rehearsed in the talent of reading.
6. Fieldnotes #6
This is a set of fieldnotes conducted over a practice that the team had recently. We are continuing to learn more about how players react in different situations. Watching practice has been good for us. We have been able to see how the Commerce men’s basketball team operates. We will probably conduct one or two more set of fieldnotes over practice and possibly one or two from a game.
7. Fieldnotes #7
This is yet another set of fieldnotes conducted over practice. It has begun to seem repetitive that we visit practice so much; however, we learn so much each time. Every time we have gone we have learned something new and written something new into our notes that will benefit us for our final project. We have an abundance of great information.

Writing Assignments:

1. WA1:
This assignment is written using Deborah Brandt’s article as a guideline. It is heavy on the idea of sponsorship and literacy. Those two ideas are very important for our project and this WA will prove to be invaluable.
2. WA2:
This assignment surrounds the idea of finding literacy in a community of Commerce. I chose the basketball team and found a lot of good information that will help us to define literacy in the basketball community.
3. WA3:
This assignment is an overview of what all I hope to accomplish with this project. It is my research proposal and in my eyes will be used as a checklist to make sure that everything I want this project to be, will match up to my proposal.
4. WA4:
It has been completed. This is a 6 minute video over the developing basketball literacy of a player here in Commerce (Andrew Davis). This video is very well conducted and will be a major source on our final ethnography. It turned out great.

Interviews:

1. Coaches:
Coach Sam Walker:
We conducted an interview with Sam Walker earlier in the week. This turned out to be a great interview. Lucky for Samantha and I, Coach Walker loves to talk. We got some great information from him and this interview will play a key role in future aspects of our project.
2. Players:
Andrew Davis:
Samantha conducted an interview with me about the different types of reading in a game and also about my history of literacy in the sport. The interview starts out discussing my younger experiences and finishes discussing more about the present.

Archives:

1. Pictures:
I have collected an assortment of various pictures from my fieldsite. The majorities of these pictures were used in my WA2 and will be available in that assignment. Most of the pictures show the opportunity for different kinds of literacy coming out in this community. They will be very important.
We have gathered even more photos of players. With all the time that we spend at practice there is plenty of opportunities to gather some great photos. Samantha and I stayed one day after practice and got some photos of me in action and stationary to help with our WA4 and whatever else calls for them.Game Photos:
Now that the basketball team is playing games there is a new opportunity for us to gather photos of game time situations. We have attended some of these recently played games and gathered some good game time situational reading.
2. Media Guide:
It is just another archive that I have gathered. It is a book that has the history of the program as well as what is going on in the present. It is very important that we analyze this for literacy and use it to possibly find sponsors.
3. Videos:
Along with game time photos, we have a variety of videos (or excerpts) of game play and plan on using this in our WA4 as well as our final ethnography.
Our WA4 is a major contributor in this area as it is finished and ready to go. It will contribute to our project in numerous ways. We are very pleased with how it turned out.

There are several important themes that continue to reoccur to us. The most important is the basic ability to read by player and how they do so. This is the most important part of our project and grasping an understanding of this will allow us to answer our research question. We have attended several men’s basketball practice and continue to learn new information with every visit. We are able to watch some of the player’s reading ability develop right before our eyes. We have been watching all of these guys since the practices started and have been able to notice how their reading skills have advanced since they have become more comfortable with the team. This is an import set of information for us to have. To have been able to witness the player’s reading abilities get better has helped us understand the aspect of reading a little bit better. We did our WA4 video over the development of a player’s basketball literacy over his lifetime, and to be able to see it actually happen a little bit in practice was pretty cool. We are starting to understand how literacy can function outside of the classroom and not just be limited to books and reading. Literacy can be something that one can express physically such as in the game of basketball. Our research question deals with how literacy functions this way and I believe that we have enough information to accurately answer that question. Our project is coming along great and we are pleased every day with the advances that we continue to make. We are almost done collecting information for our final ethnography but there still is a few remaining variables. We need to collect just a couple more sets of fieldnotes. We have an abundance of these and the information from them is great but I think that we need one more set of notes over game time situations. Also we need to conduct one more interview at the least. I think with the time remaining one interview will be all that we can do, but that is all we really need. This interview will need to be with another player. We have not decided which player that we will interview but based off our notes from practices we will make the best decision possible. We will choose the player that we think will give us the most useful answers. Once all of these remaining variables are taken care of we will have all we need to start producing our final ethnography. We are excited about where we are and we truly believe that our ethnography is going to be great and very educational to any outsiders!

Code Book:
*We have added the 1 & 2 code to each of the categories. 1 = If the player who was doing that type of reading was on the same page as the player he was reading. 2 = If the player who was doing that type of reading miss-communicated with his teammate and there was a problem resulting. 2a = If the player missed his teammates clues altogether. Also we have added the N/A code. N/A = There was no reading done at all in that certain situation.
* NEW ADDITIONS ARE BOLDED
Reading players actions: Code: (PA) (PA1) (PA2) (PA2a)
Ex. Shuffling of feet, Body language, Head nods, Hand gestures, etc.
2. Reading players eyes: Code: (RPE) (RPE1) (RPE1) (RPE2a)
Ex. Certain looks, where they are looking on the floor, etc.
3. Verbal Communication: Code: (VC) (VC1) (VC2) (VC2a)
Ex. Play calls, Coach’s instruction, one word descriptions, anything verbal, etc.
4. Reading physical actions: Code: (RPA) (RPA1) (RPA2) (RPA2a)
Ex. Changes in directions, changes in speed, where the ball moves, etc
5. Reading Surroundings: Code: (RS) (RS1) (RS2) (RS2a)
Ex. The scoreboard, the crowd, the coach, the refs, etc.
6. No reading took place at all: Code: (N/A)
Ex. A player may score on his own or do something out of pure instinct rather than by reading players on the floor.
7. Scores as a result of reading: (SWR)
Ex. If a player scores from reading then we will place (SWR) next to the type of reading that the player engaged in.
8. Misses the shot but was able to create a scoring opportunity as a result of reading: (MWR)
Ex. If a player is able to create a shot opportunity as a result of reading; however misses the attempted shot then we will place (MWR) next to the type of reading he engaged in.
9. Coach makes call based on reading: (CR)
Ex. A coach calls a play because he reads something in the defense or because of time on the clock.
10. Coach’s play call works: (CR1)
Ex. The play that the coach called is successful as results in a score.
11. Coach’s play call fails: (CR2)
Ex. The play that the coach called is unsuccessful and results in a missed shot.

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Research Journal #23 Wednesday, Nov 18 2009

It is crunch time now! With the deadlines drawing closer for our WA4 and even the final ethnography, it is time to buckle down and make sure that everything is taken care of. After reviewing the notes on the website about where we should be, Samantha and I realized we had a few more things to do before we could just call it quits on the research. We realized that we needed one or two more sets of fieldnotes and that we needed to get one more interview. Since this project has begun we have both been all over the place with ideas and plans to try and make this project the best it can be. Now that time is no longer on our side we finally have a final plan and final research question set. We are both excited at the potential this project has, and where we are going with it. Over the next few days we will be finalizing our research and beginning to code everything and pick it apart piece by piece. Until that time comes, Samantha and I our going to take some more fieldnotes during basketball practices this week and also capture a few photos of myself and other players in action. Then after all of that is taken care of we will conduct our final interview with Coach Sam Walker. These few things are the only remaining puzzle pieces in our ever progressing project. At the end of this week we should have all the information necessary to begin the tedious process of turning our research into an answer, story, media project, and most importantly a great ethnography!

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Research Journal #22 Wednesday, Nov 11 2009

The research and writing process is going very well for Samantha and I. We discuss our research daily and are constantly searching for ways to improve upon what we have. We continually visit our research site searching for new bits of information that could add to our project in any way possible. The amount of new information we are consantly gathering is very extensive, and though some of it will not be used, we have put ourselves in a great position to choose what we think benefits the project the most. As far as where we are with the process of research and writing, we have a good amount of information off of research and are continuing to gather more daily; however, the “writing” process is different for us. The “writing” process for us is by making and editing our videos. We are working on our WA4 and trying to produce a very good video over our first interview. This is sort of a test for us because we will be able to learn from this first video about our mistakes and how we can make better videos in the future (including our final ethnography). So our “writing” process is going well as we are still learning and trying to create the best video possible. Overall, I have to say that we are right where we need to be. We have a good amount of research information (which continues to grow), and we are working on our videos or “writing” constantly. My questions to Dr. Carter are.. Does this sound good? Are we doing what we need to be doing? Are we where we need to be?

Table of Contents:

*New additions to the Table of Contents are bolded:

Fieldnotes:
1. Fieldnotes #1:
It is a list of information on all of the different forms of communication and reading in the game of basketball. This is what my initial code book is based off of.
2. Fieldnotes #2:
This is a set of fieldnotes I conducted over a scrimmage, that I observed the basketball players participating in. There is a lot of good “in game” information involved.
3. Fieldnotes #3
It is a set of fieldnotes that I and Samantha conducted together over a particular practice. This is probably our most extensive set of fieldnotes. This provides us with “in practice” information.
4. Fieldnotes #4
This is a set of fieldnotes that Samantha and I conducted on Monday during the Texas A&M-Commerce basketball game against DBU. Shows game time situations and reading and gives us good insight into an actual game performance.

Writing Assignments:
1. WA1:
This assignment is written using Deborah Brandt’s article as a guideline. It is heavy on the idea of sponsorship and literacy. Those two ideas are very important for our project and this WA will prove to be invaluable.
2. WA2:
This assignment surrounds the idea of finding literacy in a community of Commerce. I chose the basketball team and found a lot of good information that will help us to define literacy in the basketball community.
3. WA3:
This assignment is an overview of what all I hope to accomplish with this project. It is my research proposal and in my eyes will be used as a checklist to make sure that everything I want this project to be, will match up to my proposal.
4. WA4:
It is in the process of being made and edited. It is a video over our first interview. (Player: Andrew Davis)

Interviews:
1. Coaches:
There have not been any interviews conducted yet but by Thursday we should have some information to post concerning our newly conducted interviews.
2. Players:
Andrew Davis:
Samantha conducted an interview with me about the different types of reading in a game and also about my history of literacy in the sport. The interview starts out discussing my younger experiences and finishes discussing more about the present.

Archives:
1. Pictures:
I have collected an assortment of various pictures from my fieldsite. The majorities of these pictures were used in my WA2 and will be available in that assignment. Most of the pictures show the opportunity for different kinds of literacy coming out in this community. They will be very important.

Game Photos:
Now that the basketball team is playing games there is a new opportunity for us to gather photos of game time situations. We have attended some of these recently played games and gathered some good game time situational reading.

2. Media Guide:
It is just another archive that I have gathered. It is a book that has the history of the program as well as what is going on in the present. It is very important that we analyze this for literacy and use it to possibly find sponsors.

3. Videos:
Along with game time photos, we have a variety of videos (or excerpts) of game play and plan on using this in our WA4 as well as our final ethnography.

This revised table of contents has some new, great additions to it that have proved to be very beneficial to our project. The first thing that is noted above is the new set of fieldnotes (fieldnotes #4). This is a set of fieldnotes that Samantha conducted during our game against Dallas Baptist University on Monday, November 9th. She took note of a lot of game time information and sited a good amount of player reading and coach reading throughout the game. After the game was over I sat down with Samantha and reviewed the notes. I also added some things that I had noted during the game to give the fieldnotes an insider perspective. Overall, the new set of fieldnotes turned out some good information. I believe that fieldnotes #3 and #4 are most beneficial to us at this point. The next addition is the new WA4 that we have coming. This is going to help us in numerous ways. First, it will provide us with some video experience and we will be able to learn from mistakes or gain insight form our peers on how to make it better. Secondly, It will give us a good video over one of our interviews that we may be able to use (most likely will use) in our final ethnography. The next addition is probably the most important addition to the table of contents. It is our interview that is conducted by Samantha with me as the participant. It is a good interview with insight into the life of a basketball player and how that player develops over the course of his career. There are many questions about my past experience as a basketball player and how I developed as I got older. Not only is it talking about developing as a player, but also the development of my literacy and reading in the game. You can see a change from the beginning of my career to where I am at now, and I think we laid out the interview very well to the point that you should be able to note this happening in the video. Lastly, there are two new additions to the archives category. We have game photos as well as game video. These have both proved to be of great value, as we plan to use a number of these in our WA4. Most of these were gathered at the game against DBU also. You can see a ton of “reading” taking place in the videos and photos we took, and this is good because we now have “evidence” to add to our research. We have added some great new information to each category of our table of contents, which shows that our project is running smoothly and we know where we want to go with it. You can already see that all of this new information has played a huge role in our project, and we are excited to continue to gather more and learn more about this fantastic topic!

Code Book:
*We have added the 1 & 2 code to each of the categories. 1 = If the player who was doing that type of reading was on the same page as the player he was reading. 2 = If the player who was doing that type of reading mis-communicated with his teammate and there was a problem resulting. 2a = If the player missed his teammates clues altogether. Also we have added the N/A code. N/A = There was no reading done at all in that certain situation.

1. Reading players actions: Code: (PA) (PA1) (PA2) (PA2a)
Ex. Shuffling of feet, Body language, Head nods, Hand gestures, etc.
2. Reading players eyes: Code: (RPE) (RPE1) (RPE1) (RPE2a)
Ex. Certain looks, where they are looking on the floor, etc.
3. Verbal Communication: Code: (VC) (VC1) (VC2) (VC2a)
Ex. Play calls, Coach’s instruction, one word descriptions, anything verbal, etc.
4. Reading physical actions: Code: (RPA) (RPA1) (RPA2) (RPA2a)
Ex. Changes in directions, changes in speed, where the ball moves, etc
5. Reading Surroundings: Code: (RS) (RS1) (RS2) (RS2a)
Ex. The scoreboard, the crowd, the coach, the refs, etc.
6. No reading took place at all: Code: (N/A)
Ex. A player may score on his own or do something out of pure instinct rather than by reading players on the floor.

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Research Journal #21 Tuesday, Nov 10 2009

For our WA4, Samantha and I have decided to do a media project consisting of videos, pictures, and our initial interview. The interview that we are going to use is the one of Samantha interviewing me. This interview is centered on my literary history and how it developed over the course of my career as a basketball player. She first started by asking me questions in reference to my early years as a much younger basketball player, and as the interview proceeded she began to ask more questions about the present. This is a good first interview and a great interview to use for our WA4 because it is talking about the development of literacy in basketball. I believe that if we can see how literacy develops we will be able to spot it out more regularly. The way the WA4 will be set up is while there are pictures scrolling across the screen you will hear me and Samantha in the background conducting the interview. Also, at some points rather than hearing Samantha speak, the question will just be written out on the screen and you will hear my answers. This will be the audio for the entire video. Along with the interview going on and pictures being shown, there will be little excerpts of video scattered throughout as well. There is a possibility we will talk about these videos and show examples of how players are reading in the video clip. This is all a preliminary or a rough draft of ideas we have for taking this WA4. This set up could change completely; however, at this point we think taking it this direction will produce the best WA4 possible!

We are still using the same codes that we had originally posted in the previous research journals. It was intended to be a preliminary list; however, they worked better than expected. Those codes covered a huge chunk of the different types of reading that happens during a contest and in our fieldnotes we were able to put these little codes by them and we knew exactly what type of reading was going on. We are searching for other things that we can use code to help us understand, but at this time the codes we have are covering everything we need.

Unfortunately I missed the class where we reviewed the East Caney interviews so I do not have a set of fieldnotes for them. However, I reviewed the pictures Dr. Carter posted on the website and I enjoyed watching the short video and learned some great things from it!

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