BLOG 4- Analysis of Ethnographic Event (Silvia, Tania, Tanaera)

Tanaera Green, Silvia Shenouda, Tania Flores

Question 6

6.a Which organization structures supported strong note taking? 

6.a Everyone takes notes differently. Our group believes that a mixture is needed in order to master note taking. However, jotting allows you to be quick and get the information that you need down on paper. They are notes that trigger memories, in a language that you can understand. You can recall these memories on hand and then give information in greater detail at a later time. For example, group 1 in the jottings analysis was bullet points with single words (or a few) whereas in the headnotes, this same person was able to expand and write a full paragraph in greater detail. Six out of the ten participants used the bullet point tactic.

6.b Which strategies worked in the different kinds of notes?

In jotting, the bullet point strategy seemed to work best because it was important keywords that incorporated full ideas and gave allowance to expansion in the later organization structures (for example, #9 in the jotting analysis).

In headnotes, the paragraph strategy seemed to work best because it allowed for more detail and a higher level of organization. This level of higher organization can be seen through the chronological order of the paragraphs as can be seen in example #7 of the headnotes analysis. In this example, we are able to see the higher level of detail.

In observations, the strategies that worked best were shorter style paragraphs in narrative form. This form of organization allowed for notes and observations about everybody else which included their feelings. For example, example #2 in the observation analysis stated how (s)he felt cramped in the classroom which did not lead to successful interaction between the participants. Another example is #6 of the observation analysis which stated that everyone in the classroom was nervous including the note taker. These types of notes were not present in the previous strategies.

6.c When did note takers tend to look close in – and when far back? 

Note takers tend to take a closer look in the observation strategy because they expanded on the keywords by including larger forms of writing. In these paragraphs and narratives, the note takers not only included basic information about what happened, but they included their feelings and the feelings (at least from their perspective) of everybody else.

The jotting note taking seemed to take a look from a far back perspective because it was not filled with specific information. It was taken from a generalized perspective. They used keywords such as names, items, colors and places. This was a method used to write down what you would forget (example #7 of jotting) but it did not convey full ideas to anyone else reading these notes.

 

6.d How did the note taker ‘perspective shape his/her notes (the details s/he wrote)?

We found that in the observation analysis, note takers used the perspective to shape their notes. For example, in examples #1 and #4 of the observations analysis, they each wrote about the people in the classroom feeling uncomfortable. Taking a closer look at each of the observation examples, we found that nine out of the ten examples included some type of perspective which shaped in large the outcome of those notes.