Travis Dalsis--Response to Positioning Students as Readers and Writers through Talk in a High School English Classroom

Vetter’s article is intriguing to me because of the positioning theory that she employs in her collaborative research project.  Students and the teacher are invited to become active constructors of knowledge and understanding.  Vetter raises a few very insightful points about teacher research.  One, positioning students is ongoing through verbal and non-verbal interactions.  Students that are positioned as trouble makers do not become active learners, but rather follow that self-fulfilling prophecy and get into more trouble.  Likewise, when students are treated and positioned as capable learners, they react in those ways.  I’ve seen myself make many mistakes by targeted certain students out of frustration.  Those students, by my own ignorance and frustration, were positioned in a way that resulted in very little positive outcome.

            Another insightful component to Vetter’s work was her detailed explanation and prescription for conducting her research.  In my own research study on autonomy, I plan to use many of the methods employed in this study such as painting portraits from a positioning theoretical framework using a micro-ethnographic lens.  Additionally, her explanation of valuable data collection consisted of field notes and interviews.  I also plan on using surveys and work samples in my own personal research.  Lastly, Vetter described how she made sense of the work completed.  She discussed the triangulation of data between the students and teacher involved in the study and her own initial understanding of the data.  Overall, examining Vetter’s methods of teacher-research has given me a more solidified grasp of how I plan to conduct my research in the first mini-project.

            A final point raised in Vetter’s article was about how one characterizes the style of teaching during a teacher-research study.  Vetter uses several phrases to describe her work which made me think about how I would characterize mine.  Three ideas were raised in reading.  One, I would want my teaching to lead to student agency in the selection of texts.  Secondly, students would be given autonomy in deciding the method of demonstration of working through their texts, and lastly created a valued shared response through journals and class discussion.  Overall, Vetter’s positioning of students to become active readers and writers has been most inspirational and preparatory in my own teacher-research.