Phillip
This image is a perfect illustration of Phillip, an Asian American 11th grader, and his presence in the classroom as well as in this inquiry project. Note that he is hunched over with a hood up despite the fact that the hood is against school rules. He is in fact writing something, and indeed he nearly always turns in his written work. However, you can neither see his face nor hear his voice nor learn much of anything about him other than his style of dress. This truth extends beyond the photograph. Throughout the first two quarters of the school year, the only things I knew about Phillip were what I gathered from his papers and presentations. In all other scenarios he sat with his head down on his desk. His peers found him equally unknowable in that whenever they passed back papers for me they had to ask me who Phillip was because halfway through the school year they still did not know his name.
I was unable to record my first interview with Phillip, so what follows is my interpretation of what was said. Phillip rated his focus in class at a 6 out of 10, his interest in English class at a 7 out of 10, and his responsibility outside of class at a 9 out of 10. His grades for the first two quarters were a 73 and an 89. He described himself as a typical teenager who hangs out and wastes time. In his written survey, he stated that he is uncomfortable with criticizing teachers even if they ask him to, and in this verbal interview I asked him to elaborate upon this answer. He expressed a very all or nothing view of both teachers and students. Either the teacher does his job and he gets the information across, in which case Phillip would have no need to criticize, or the teacher is confusing and incompetent, in which case Phillip would have no desire to interact because he doesn't even know what it is he is supposed to be learning. Similarly his view of student effort is as follows: If you study, you do well. If you don't study, you fail. Sometimes he does not study. "I self-destruct myself," he said. His views could be summed up as individualistic. People are in control of themselves, and it's not anyone else's job to tell them what to do or not to do. Despite this view, he agreed to continue meeting with me to talk like this about his work. When I asked if there was anything he'd like me to help him with in the near future, he asked me specifically to help him work on the introduction to his current essay project.
I also remarked on some of the odd qualities I have noticed in Phillip's past work such as extreme misinterpretations of key story details or a freestyle delivery of project presentations. He did not have much of an answer for the misinterpretations, but about his freestyle verbal presentations he said that he doesn't want to simply read off a paper because anyone can do that; it doesn't mean they've learned something. He wants to demonstrate what he knows, and the only way he truly can is to pull what he's saying straight from his brain.
My in-class interactions with Phillip over the course of the project were often brief check-ins and redirections that followed the pattern of him putting his head down, me tapping him on the shoulder and attempting to start a conversation, and him nodding along. Despite this apparent level of disengagement, however, Phillip is the only one of my focus students that showed up on time every time for our interviews and conferences. Of the five, he also had the best initial rate of assignment completion, even if the assignments weren't always done correctly. These latter facts indicate that he is fairly responsible and organized, which suggests either extreme social discomfort or lack of motivation as the cause of his disengagement.
I was unable to record my first interview with Phillip, so what follows is my interpretation of what was said. Phillip rated his focus in class at a 6 out of 10, his interest in English class at a 7 out of 10, and his responsibility outside of class at a 9 out of 10. His grades for the first two quarters were a 73 and an 89. He described himself as a typical teenager who hangs out and wastes time. In his written survey, he stated that he is uncomfortable with criticizing teachers even if they ask him to, and in this verbal interview I asked him to elaborate upon this answer. He expressed a very all or nothing view of both teachers and students. Either the teacher does his job and he gets the information across, in which case Phillip would have no need to criticize, or the teacher is confusing and incompetent, in which case Phillip would have no desire to interact because he doesn't even know what it is he is supposed to be learning. Similarly his view of student effort is as follows: If you study, you do well. If you don't study, you fail. Sometimes he does not study. "I self-destruct myself," he said. His views could be summed up as individualistic. People are in control of themselves, and it's not anyone else's job to tell them what to do or not to do. Despite this view, he agreed to continue meeting with me to talk like this about his work. When I asked if there was anything he'd like me to help him with in the near future, he asked me specifically to help him work on the introduction to his current essay project.
I also remarked on some of the odd qualities I have noticed in Phillip's past work such as extreme misinterpretations of key story details or a freestyle delivery of project presentations. He did not have much of an answer for the misinterpretations, but about his freestyle verbal presentations he said that he doesn't want to simply read off a paper because anyone can do that; it doesn't mean they've learned something. He wants to demonstrate what he knows, and the only way he truly can is to pull what he's saying straight from his brain.
My in-class interactions with Phillip over the course of the project were often brief check-ins and redirections that followed the pattern of him putting his head down, me tapping him on the shoulder and attempting to start a conversation, and him nodding along. Despite this apparent level of disengagement, however, Phillip is the only one of my focus students that showed up on time every time for our interviews and conferences. Of the five, he also had the best initial rate of assignment completion, even if the assignments weren't always done correctly. These latter facts indicate that he is fairly responsible and organized, which suggests either extreme social discomfort or lack of motivation as the cause of his disengagement.
Phillip Final Interview | |
File Size: | 4399 kb |
File Type: | wma |
In Phillip's final interview his self-ratings of focus and interest in English class both rose to 8 while his rating of responsibility outside of class dropped to 6. These changes are supported by his feedback on the literature circle unit. He stated that the discussions were effective for him because he was able to listen to his group members discuss the novel, and he was able to know what was happening in the book without having to read it. He elaborated to say that he had read the beginning, but he stopped around chapter four when he realized that he could simply read a summary online. He decided to focus only on the main points and not the "additional information that [he] most likely won't be tested on-- won't be asked on." So in a sense he made the decision to take less responsibility for doing the reading, and as a result he focused more on what his group mates said about the reading so that he could learn from them.
We spent a good portion of the interview talking about what subjects in school Phillip found valuable. He indicated indirectly that he does not see much value in English. He sees it as an opportunity to develop better vocabulary, but that is about it. In discussing the most recent novel we read, he expressed the common student viewpoint that if you don't like something, then it doesn't have value and isn't worth discussing. I countered with the notion that you can still learn from an unpleasant experience. He went on to say that he prefers the subject of physics because he understands the exact real-world purpose of the calculations he's doing, which is not the case with algebraic functions or literary analysis.
I continued to push Phillip to think about the real-world uses of studying reading and writing. After a pause, he came up with the concept of taking life lessons away from stories. He refers to Myrtle's death in The Great Gatsby as a lesson to look both ways before crossing the street. He then showed an interest in asking me why and how writers go about creating novels. "Do they do it just to do it?" he asked. "I never really understand." I proceeded to list some different methods I know of for creating stories as well as different motivations that writers might have. Phillip continued to ask questions about this topic, showing me some of the passion I've got glimpses of during his past presentations, but unfortunately our conversation is cut short by the bell. It was exciting to see Phillip get enthusiastic. I can tell that he is a curious and thoughtful student, but his frequent abstinence from participation and social interaction seems to have created some voids in understanding.
We spent a good portion of the interview talking about what subjects in school Phillip found valuable. He indicated indirectly that he does not see much value in English. He sees it as an opportunity to develop better vocabulary, but that is about it. In discussing the most recent novel we read, he expressed the common student viewpoint that if you don't like something, then it doesn't have value and isn't worth discussing. I countered with the notion that you can still learn from an unpleasant experience. He went on to say that he prefers the subject of physics because he understands the exact real-world purpose of the calculations he's doing, which is not the case with algebraic functions or literary analysis.
I continued to push Phillip to think about the real-world uses of studying reading and writing. After a pause, he came up with the concept of taking life lessons away from stories. He refers to Myrtle's death in The Great Gatsby as a lesson to look both ways before crossing the street. He then showed an interest in asking me why and how writers go about creating novels. "Do they do it just to do it?" he asked. "I never really understand." I proceeded to list some different methods I know of for creating stories as well as different motivations that writers might have. Phillip continued to ask questions about this topic, showing me some of the passion I've got glimpses of during his past presentations, but unfortunately our conversation is cut short by the bell. It was exciting to see Phillip get enthusiastic. I can tell that he is a curious and thoughtful student, but his frequent abstinence from participation and social interaction seems to have created some voids in understanding.
or