Advice for a group of novice ethnographers

I am also enrolled this quarter in Reed Steven's Cognition in Context class. Although the class is not explicitly about methodology or methods, issues of method/methodology often emerge as much of the contemporary work we have read employs qualitative / ethnographic techniques to study cognitive processes [e.g. learning, meaning-making, and classification] in real-world contexts [i.e. not in a lab].

Dr. Stevens has suggested that we do a whole-group fieldwork project next week [Thursday]. We've chosen to focus broadly on "The Ave" . Now we're grappling with questions of: what are we looking for? if what we're looking for is a nebulous theme [e.g. affect], how do we operationalize it in terms of visible behaviors or interactions? how could we use our dozen bodies/perspectives/vantage points most productively to collect data? should we observe or be participant observers? if we do only the latter, how do we sift through observations of behavior to get at meaning? is this possible [I'm thinking back to Kitchen Stories]? How should we collect data; the following have been suggested: walk down the street with an audio recorder; spend time in one spot taking notes; interview people and take notes; talk to people without taking notes and then later write up notes; and walk down the street observing only and then write up field notes elsewhere.

We've been immersed in these issues for 7 weeks. What advice do you have for us dozen ethnographers before Thursday?

thanks!
sarah

ps. I'll let you all know how this project turns out...