Case

Study Packet
AED 308-309

Fall 2015

Inquiry IV
Case Study Guidelines for Fieldwork:
Sample Case Study: Tully School District and Tully High School



In your participant-observation school setting, you will be responsible for
conducting and reporting on your school and one classroom in that school in a case
study format. The long-term goal of this case study is to be able to speak coherently
about the following. Based on your ethnographic observations across sites of inquiry in
this school and in one classroom in particular and based on your findings from your
other inquiry assignments, how do you think adolescents acquire language and what are
they doing with the language they acquire?

1. What are the language acquisition and literacy frameworks that inform the
practice of the teacher you are observing? Where do these frameworks come
from and how do they relate to the frameworks and policies found in the school,
community, state, or Department of Education in the federal government?

2. What are the implications of these frameworks for the adolescents?

a. What kinds of identities as writers, readers, researchers, learners, and
people are the adolescents in your setting and in our readings acquiring
and how?
b. What kinds of identities through writing, reading, and learning are the
adolescents in your setting acquiring and developing?
c. What are the adolescents in your setting learning about themselves,
texts, language, other people, and the world through the literacy
frameworks they are encountering in their reading, writing, and research
endeavors?
d. What kinds of agency do they have to determine what they learn?

3. What counts as learning in your setting?

4. To what extent are the literacy opportunities in the classroom aligned with the
literacies of the adolescents there?

For each week, you are responsible for taking fieldnotes in your setting and in the
classrooms in which you are observing. I recommend spending a morning or afternoon
of 2-3 hours each visit and going at least two times a week. In this time, I ask that you

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work towards understanding the language practices and identity development of the
adolescents in one of your classrooms in particular by observing and documenting
through descriptive fieldnotes as many aspects of the school and administrator goals
and policies and literacy frameworks and programs as you can as well as what broader
school, community, state and federal influences are shaping the literacy instruction and
student language acquisition and identity construction.
I ask that you not only observe in other classes of your host teacher but that you
talk with the school librarian, other teachers where possible, the school principal or
administrative staff to learn about the many facets of the cultural context in and around
this school that may be shaping and influencing student language learning and identity
construction. Furthermore, you can spend your time in the school researching the
categories below, which will be required for your final case study portfolio.
In this portfolio, I will ask you to include the information for these categories as
well as each of the fieldnotes you took in this setting as well as a written reflection
focused on evaluating and interconnecting student language learning and identity
construction with the classroom, school, school district, state, and federal literacy and
language acquisition frameworks and policies.
You will also be expected to turn in a log with each of your visits documented
and with a teacher signature for each visit. This MUST be completed each time you visit.
If there is any discrepancy between hours you have logged and the teacher as validated,
you risk not completing the state requirements for this course. Additionally, you will
receive a letter in an envelope, which you are to give to your host teacher and to include
in the sealed envelope with this case study portfolio at the end of the semester.

School District Demographics:

Location of district in relation to other districts

School district demographics provide by:
http://www.tullyschools.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=489
Eight schools in the Town of Tully:
Tully Valley, Tully Village, Tully Center, Tully Farms, Vesper, North St,
Bromley, Fuller
Nine schools from the Town of Otisco: Otisco, Octagon, Otisco, Dublin,
Case Settlement, Otisco Center, Dutch Hill, Hallinan (or Woodmancy),
Otisco Valley
Three from the Town of Preble:
Emmett Wells, Foley, Baltimore

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Two from the Town of Fabius:
Apulia Station, Markham Hollow

One School from each of the towns of LaFayette, Spafford, and Truxton:
Ackles (LaFayette); Masters (Spafford); Eugene Wells (Truxton)

Population statistics

Race, class, gender, ethnicity of population

Type of industry/employment available to population
Median income for district and for different demographics
Countries represented and languages spoken in district

Number of students supported by district

Percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch

History of School District Funding

Percentage of funding from community

Specify programs or populations or tests

Percentage of funding from state

Specify programs or populations or tests

Percentage of funding from federal government

Specify programs or populations or tests

History provided by:
http://www.tullyschools.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=489

Quote from the Tully Times of 8/19/1893
A good school is one of the grandest institutions a town can possess. It is the keystone
of enlightenment and advancement.

History of the Schools in the Village of Tully

1801: Miss Ruth Thorpe established the first school in Timothy Walkers barn.
1804: A log schoolhouse was erected in the village.
1809: A frame schoolhouse was built to replace the log schoolhouse. This structure
was destroyed by fire in 1823.
1823: The Little Red Schoolhouse(only 20x25 ft) was built on the same property as the
present elementary school but was much closer to the road.
1848: A better school was built in place of the red schoolhouse. It was a 2-story frame

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building with one-story north and south wings.
1880: The school built in 1848 was rebuilt and remodeled, becoming a large square
building with 2 rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs.
1894: The common grade school was made the Tully Union School.
1895: A training school for teachers was established.
1898: The Tully Union School received a charter to add a high school accredited by the
Board of Regents.
1901: An impressive 3-story red brick school building was built one of the finest in
central New York at that time.
1910: A course of study in Vocational Agriculture was added to the curriculum. It was
the first of its kind in New York State.
1929: The school building that was built in 1901 was destroyed by flames. All records
and equipment were lost. Little time was spent in mourning. Instead, the slogan became
Change calamity into opportunity.
1930: A new brick building was erected that served as both an elementary and a high
school until 1970 (now the elementary school).
It was also at this time that the school became centralized and had 4 buses and 2
private vehicles pick up students from school districts in outlying areas.
1936: Kindergarten was added to the school.
1959: The Tully Central School was enlarged.
1970: A new Tully Central Junior-Senior High School building was opened.

About School Centralization

Before centralization in 1930, a school districtwas a single rural schoolhouse and each
town numbered their schools/school districts.
Also before centralization, some students that lived in outlying areas traveled to the
village of Tully to attend school there, even though it was not their school district. These
students had to pay tuition. They would live with a local family for about 50 a week and
were called basket boardersbecause they would arrive at the beginning of each week
with a basket of provisions.

According to the Tully Independent of 11/8/1957, 25 school districts were eventually
incorporated into the Tully Central School District. It took about 12 years, however, for
all of these schools to join the centralization program.

The 25 schools that took part in the Tully School Centralization, along with their district
numbers and the towns in which they were located, are listed here.

Eight schools in the Town of Tully:

Tully Valley, Tully Village, Tully Center, Tully Farms, Vesper, North St, Bromley, Fuller

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Nine schools from the Town of Otisco:
Otisco, Octagon, Otisco, Dublin, Case Settlement, Otisco Center, Dutch Hill, Hallinan (or
Woodmancy), Otisco Valley

Three from the Town of Preble:
Emmett Wells, Foley, Baltimore

Two from the Town of Fabius:
Apulia Station, Markham Hollow

One School from each of the towns of LaFayette, Spafford, and Truxton:
Ackles (LaFayette); Masters (Spafford); Eugene Wells (Truxton)

School District Leadership/History of School Leadership

Members of school board

Political positions

Election policies

Roles

Mission statement

Educational goals
Role of New York State
Funding
Implemented policies
Implemented standards
Implemented student testing

Designers of tests
Teacher Assessments

School Demographics

Population statistics

Race, class, gender, ethnicity of population

Type of industry/employment available to population
Median income for district and for different demographics
Countries represented and languages spoken in district
Number of students supported by district
Percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch

School Leadership and Resources

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School Policies
Principal

Vice Principal

Literacy specialists

Special Education programs

Special Programs offered

Mission statement

Literacy Frameworks

Literacy Programs

Fall 2015

Teacher Literacy Frameworks and Programs

School district literacy frameworks

School literacy frameworks

Teacher literacy frameworks

Teacher pedagogical design

Classroom management strategies
Literacy events

o Participation Structures
o Writing instruction
Writing assignments
Writing processes
Writing assessments
o Choice of texts

o Choice of questions

o Arrangement of people and space

o Design of interaction with texts

o Sequences of talk

o Literacy practices

Reading strategies
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Fall 2015

Language learning opportunities
Language forms, functions, and discourses
Grammar and vocab instruction

o Identity work

Helpful resources:

New York Report Cards
Provide information regarding test scores and annual yearly progress and funding for
New York schools
https://reportcards.nysed.gov/

Census Data
http://www.census.gov/2010census/data/

Town Hall websites

Cortland Library Resources: New York Newspapers
http://cortland.libguides.com/content.php?pid=337444&sid=2898237#.UiEP2OICSTU.e
mail

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Fall 2015

INQUIRY IV:
Final Reflection
APPROXIMATELY DUE DECEMBER 10, 2014

Final Reflection Guidelines

Part I: Overview of Fieldnotes

Please provide an in-depth analysis of the language and learning opportunities afforded
to the adolescents in your classroom. Please answer with specific examples from your
fieldnotes each of the four questions at the beginning of this packet. Drawing on the
criteria listed under Teacher Literacy Frameworks and Programs, please provide
specific examples from your fieldnotes of how the literacy frameworks at play in your
school district and school influenced your teachers literacy frameworks and practices
and the learning and identity opportunities of the students. Then, please provide
specific examples from your fieldnotes of specific types of literacy events that took
place, articulating the patterns to the kinds of texts, questions, literacy practices,
engagements with one another, etc. the teacher designed for students. Please speak to
each criteria in this list, providing specific examples of language learning and identity
development that took place within specific kinds of literacy events.

You will want to analyze how each criteria interrelates with the others within specific
kinds of literacy events. Here is an example of what this would entail.

When students were grouped in x arrangement and had the opportunity to dialogue
together about open-ended and dialogic questions such as y, the identities available to
them included the following. George exercised his strengths as a close reader. Nelly
contributed her knowledge of military tactics to explain the setting in the novel, and Jill
became the internet researcher of definitions for words they did not understand and of
historical dates about which they were curious. The language learning opportunities in
this set-up were many. As a close reader, George was able to help Nelly and Jill slow
down and re-examine words and their meanings within the specific context of a
sentence and paragraph. Jill in turn added more dimensions to these words by
researching them in an on-line dictionary. Nelly provided even more context for the
words with her military knowledge. In these kinds of literacy events, literacy was both a
critical and a social practice as well as a skill. The question at hand-- what is the writer
trying to show us about the influence of drones on Afghani childrenaligned with the
reading goals of each student. The text had already piqued their interest and their
compassion for the children. Thus, George naturally slowed down to read and define
more words, and Nelly and Jill jumped on board, trying to discern what the writer had

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intended. They began to interrogate the writers language choices and purposes, to
share their different interpretations, and to challenge one anothers assumptions.

Interestingly, in the other groups of students, a similar agency prevailed. I noticed that
in each group, students opted to invent unique roles as readers. The question and task
at hand were captivating for all of the students. The roles they pursued in response
included x, y, and z. The identities available to them were ____. As demonstrated in the
above example, the students not only gained knowledge of concepts such as x, y, and z
through their language learning, but they also became curious about the lives and
circumstances of Afghani children. They began to question the U.S. decision to
protect Americans by exercising drone strikes in Afghanistan. When the class came
back together, there was a new question at hand. Were the drone strikes really
protecting U.S. citizens? At what cost to them, to the Afghan people, and to the
relationship between the U.S. and the Middle East?

Notice how in my example, I have provided an in depth analysis that responds to
questions 2, 3, and 4. The more that you have provided this kind of analysis as you have
collected your fieldnotes, the easier this final reflection will be. In your final reflection, I
am asking you to summarize patterns in your fieldnotes with clear examples that show
how these patterns occurred.

Part II: Your Literacy and Language Acquisition Frameworks

Having articulated and analyzed a number of different patterns to the language,
learning, and identity opportunities of students, I ask that you revisit your own literacy,
language, and identity frameworks one last time.

Take time to reflect on how the literacy, language acquisition, and writing frameworks
and the unit plan you have designed could complement, enhance, contribute to, and/or
transform the kinds of relationships and learning you see students constructing with
their teachers, peers, texts, the world, and themselves.
Please draw on at least 10 of the readings from the semester to articulate your
literacy frameworks and language acquisition frameworks (literacy as critical
social practice) and your pedagogical goals that you think will connect
meaningfully and transformatively with adolescents in your site.
Drawing on these readings, please also include a description of how your unit
plan supports students as readers, writers, researchers, and language learners.
Please speak to how your unit plan design:
o facilitates dialogic, critical collaborative inquiry,
o how your unit plan scaffolds multilingual language learning for ELL and
first language speakers,
o how your unit positions students as language learners through close
critical reading,

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o how your unit provides authentic writing opportunities,
o how your unit provides multiple opportunities for students to learn
specific editing skills that catalyze their ability to assess their own and
one anothers writing.
o How your unit positions students as critical researchers who know how to
connect their writing to real and specific audiences.

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