In my "HU"

Update:  I updated this on Tuesday night really early on Wednesday morning.  Last Thursday night after class when I originally wrote this...I was still totally lost and not at all liking my analysis.   So instead of writing my draft for the last two days, I ended up finding a better method and direction for my analysis.  So the good news is I actually feel like I have findings to write about.  The bad news is I have a lot of writing to do tomorrow night!  =)

So...I gave up on Atlas. There are multiple reasons--all of which you can read about in my other post. So my wanna-be-HU is in a folder in Dropbox. The most important things are not in subfolders.

• Video-- A VLC file, so if you attempt to play it on any other player it won't play properly. There are converted versions in a folder...but they're pretty terrible if you ask me. 
• Transcript--I added a "key" to it. It has the codes used most often, but there are a lot not in there. Partially because the BTS manual is a 30 page document so it can't really be condensed. But also because most of it wouldn't be understandable to people who don't know ASL. So I only included what I thought my group would need today. 
• Transcript with notes--Since I'm not using Atlas, I did all my comments and coding in track changes in word.  (Well really I did it in comments on Google Docs b/c that's much easier to read and work with for me...but it was easiest to share it this way.)  
• Document In Use--A document the class is using. 
• Coconstructed document--A photo of the document they are creating taken the day after the lesson. 
• Teaching Record--The teacher's reflection on the lesson. 

I've found that analyzing the transcript is tough because it's not really ASL.  I really like the transcript because it does a great job of capturing things.  But I can't analyze, because it's already changing the data way too much.  I realized that I just had to continue watching the video and pausing to make notes on the transcript.  At first I attempted to "code" in GoodReader.  I was using different colors of highlighting and comments to look at the different types of questions the teacher was asking and to comment on what those questions were "doing."  But it wasn't working because I found that I really needed to continue to revise the transcript as I was coding.  Because BTS has codes for discourse moves and actions, there were things that I really wanted to include in the transcript instead of coding in notes. But because GoodReader uses pdf's, I couldn't make changes.  Also, I really didn't like the focus of my analysis.  So after all that...I I abandoned that approach and started over this weekend using Google docs where I could edit the transcript and code with comments.  

It took me a long time to really be able to do analysis that I was happy with.  I felt like I was too close to the data to really do what I wanted with my analysis.  I spend a lot of time with these students looking for very different things and a ridiculous amount of time transcribing this video. After doing that it was really hard for me to switch gears...because my brain was in translation mode.  I had really hoped my group could help...but it was hard with limited time to get them to a point where they could understand what was even really happening in my video.  My students are extremely language delayed so the lesson is really hard to follow even if you are familiar with sign language.  But...after watching it again and again I finally started to be able to let go of the individual sign choices and focus more on my original questions.

At this point, the things I'm focusing on:

• I don't really know what to call this, b/c it's not exactly a communication repair.  But I'm looking at strategies used to assist in communication.  Basically what does the teacher (and also the students) does when she doesn't get a response (or doesn't get the response she wants) to a question.  (repeating the question, rephrasing the question, using a visual cue, roleplaying).  This will likely end up being what I write about for this project.  
• When students comments are not taken up.  This is something I'm looking at for another study I'm doing, because I'm doing a case study on the student whose responses are most often not taken up.  And I'd like to use this to look at why.
• When the participants repeat or rephrase each other's language.  Again something that I'll likely look at for my other study...but it will also be relevant to my first question.  

I don't really know how to give you specific questions about my analysis, other than do you have better ways to say whatever it is I'm trying to say above?  (Especially the first one.)   I don't really think that my video or transcript will make much sense without me to help you navigate them...but if it does make any sense and you have any thoughts I'd love to hear them.

My biggest question for you is about Jeffersonian--Any thoughts on how I should tackle that?  I'm a bit stuck.  There are some features in BTS that I didn't use that are much like Jeffersonian.  Should I add those in to the parts I'm using in the paper and also look to see if there are Jeffersonian things that are not included in BTS and use those from Jeffersonian?  So sort of combine the two and use what's applicable from each?  I guess I just don't have a vision for how to make it "accessible" to my audience.  Any suggestions?  Or thoughts on what you're expecting?