Paper One: Language Development and Cognitive Development
Developmental Domain: Language Arts/English/EFL
Sequence of Events: Instructor began the lesson with an introductory activity, asking the students what they did the previous evening. Students were encouraged to answer questions about their daily activities. After this, students reviewed their homework assignment, which was a worksheet about the book that they’re reading. Students then read the next part of the book—Where the Wild Things Are—and did an in-class exercise with the new part of the text. Students were then asked to cut and color monsters for a play of the book.
Reflection.
Because this is an ESL classroom and the instructor was a native speaker of English—that is, the students and the teacher did not share a common mother tongue—the teacher was much more engaged (in a different way) with the students than other instructors might be. Ms. Lingam used her body and her voice to help her tell the story to the students, and she was very adept at using non-verbal cues to tell the story to students who may not have been understanding all the words in the text. She was particularly good when one child asked the meaning of “rumpus,” and Ms. Lingam was able to demonstrate through body language and synonymous terms what the author meant in this case.
The children could not take their eyes off the instructor in this case, as the whole class was centered around reading the next part of the text. The students were very engaged with the books, and were able to answer questions about the text and the story as they understand it so far, which indicates good understanding of the story. In addition, the children seemed very capable of expressing humor in English, which is not the primary language for any of the students in the classroom. Most of them shared a common mother tongue—Cantonese—although there were a number of students of Indian backgrounds whose mother tongue is not Cantonese or English. However, this did not seem to pose any particular problems to Ms. Lingam in her communication with the children, and at no point did she have to use Cantonese or any other language than English to communicate with them.
General Questions.
Research and observe to determine the size of the student body, the ratio of teacher and staff to students, and the ethnic comparison of staff compared to students.
There are less than 500 students in this primary school, and the school is primarily made up of Cantonese-speaking, Chinese-American children. However, there is a minority number of Indian pupils at the school as well. However, despite the fact that the school has 500 pupils, the school itself is predominately Chinese-American children. The children at the school are all American citizens, but these families often speak Chinese at home.The staff are all Chinese-American, with the exception of two English as a Foreign/Second language teachers—one British and one American—and a Japanese-American teacher, who is a native Japanese speaker. This means that the staff and the children predominately have the same ethnic group and identity. This can make it difficult for other students and staff to feel as though they fit in in this particular school environment, and it was easy to see that the Indian children felt somewhat isolated from others. Because this is a voluntary enrollment program—that is, parents pay to send their child to this primarily Cantonese-American school in a predominately immigrant community—the program is slightly different than the traditional school structure.
Discuss your major learning outcomes.
The primary goal for this observation was to determine the appropriate structures for developing an ESL curriculum, and to see an effective educator in action in an ESL/EFL classroom. Because teaching ESL or EFL is quite different from teaching native speakers, age-appropriate material can sometimes be far too difficult; teachers like Ms. Langam have to find age-appropriate material and use special teaching methods to engage children in the material and the language. One of the most important learning objectives for this observation was to see a teacher who is effective in reading and language arts teaching students who struggle with English fluency.
What were some issues or concerns you noted that you would like to explore? Any questions? Concerns? How would you resolve those concerns?
The isolation of minority children—both by language and culture—is something that should be addressed by the school if at all possible. The Indian children do not engage well with the Chinese children, as their Cantonese is somewhat rudimentary. As such, they become isolated from the staff and their peers, and this is very apparent in class, when they become shy and timid when called upon. I also saw one little girl victimized by a group of other students, who were making fun of her inability to speak fluent Cantonese. This is something that should certainly be addressed by the school as a whole.
Language and Cognitive Development
Describe any students with language difficulties, i.e., articulation, speech, comprehension?
There is one student in the class in particular who has trouble with articulation—he has a stutter. According to the teacher, he does not have a stutter when he speaks in Cantonese; however, when he speaks in English he seems to have some anxiety about using the language and thus has a stutter in his speech. He does not seem to have many problems with comprehension, however—certainly nothing outside the realm of the beginnings of EFL learning processes. There are two students in the class who had clear comprehension difficulties, however, and the teacher shared that these students have just arrived in the area from Hong Kong, and are thus just beginning to settle into their new lives and their new school system. The teacher felt confident that these children would evolve in their speech and comprehension very quickly.
How do children/students use written language? Compare & contrast your observation with age appropriate expectations.
The children struggle to use written language as well as their English-speaking peers, but all the students are able to write the alphabet. Most are also able to use simple phonics structures, as the EFL teacher has another class that works entirely on phonics. These students are able to spell simple words, and are able to write simple sentences in some cases—however, most of the students are still working on their early phonics.
What activities/questions does the teacher provide to encourage independent learning?
The teacher constantly asks the children questions about the book that they are reading. She never stops trying to engage the students in English about their feelings and experiences. This is, perhaps, one of the most important things for fluency, she says; students have to be able and willing to be creative with language and use what they know to be able to communicate effectively. If these students cannot communicate effectively, then no about of grammar practice will be able to help them in the future. She also provides worksheets and interactive coloring and crafting projects to encourage kids to engage with the book and the topic.
Paper One: Social and Emotional Development
Developmental Domain: Biology/Life Sciences
Sequence of Events: Instructor began the class by collecting homework and distributing a pop quiz. The quiz was on the different parts of the plant, the leaf, and the plant cell. Students have been working on a lab about erosion prevention. Today, students began working on the practical part of the lab, which required that the students work with their lab partners to do a specific set of instructions regarding planting some grass seeds. Students were given the bulk of the lesson to work on their lab assignments, and Mrs. Cordelae moved around the classroom helping them. At the end of the class, with approximately 10 minutes to spare, the teacher went over the homework—four pages in their workbook—and had them clean up their work stations appropriately.
Reflection.
Although the observation did not include much specific instruction from Mrs. Cordelae, there were a lot of teacher-student interactions that were very interesting. The instructor moved around the classroom with very distinct purpose, and it was almost as though she was a lifeguard—she could see students about to do the wrong thing with their experimental procedure from across the classroom, and was there very quickly to help students whose projects were not going right. Due to her engagement with her class, not a single student had to re-do the instructions that were given for the experimental set-up and procedure.
Because the class has dedicated lab notebooks, the first part of the procedure required that students write clearly in their books the materials and procedure for the lab. Some students wanted to skip right to the lab part of the process, but the lab-partners seemed well-chosen: they all seemed to get along, and their ability to work well together made it much easier for the instructor to deal with problems in real time.
General Questions.
Research and observe to determine the size of the student body, the ratio of teacher and staff to students, and the ethnic comparison of staff compared to students.
The school is approximately 875 students, which are predominately white. The largest minority population in the school is students of East Asian descent; Indian and Hispanic students are third most populous, with Black and Pacific Islander/South Asian students in third place. The instructors are also predominately white and East Asian, although there are also five Indian instructors. The ratio of students to teachers is approximately 25:1, although the school does its best to keep classes under 20 students.
Discuss your major learning outcomes.
The primary goal for this observation was to see a science class in particular. As this discussion is focused on social and emotional development, it seemed important to choose a class in which the students would be forced to work with each other. This allowed the observer to see the ways in which these students dealt with interpersonal problems, and the type of conflict that is likely to arise in this type of setting. In addition, it was important to see how instructors run classes where they are not the center of attention; guided learning is important, but it is equally important for instructors to remain in the wings at some junctures so that students can learn independently as well.
What were some issues or concerns you noted that you would like to explore? Any questions? Concerns? How would you resolve those concerns?
There were some lab partnerships that seemed to be less effective than others. Perhaps this is to be expected, but it seems as though there were some lab partnerships in which one student was doing much more in terms of work than the other. It would be interesting to see how the instructor chooses to deal with these kinds of problems, or whether the instructor allows the students to deal with these types of problems instead.
Social-Emotional Development
In what ways are the students encouraged to be social in the classroom? Describe the ways they exhibit appropriate behaviors?
Because the students were working on a science experiment, they were openly encouraged to chat and be social as long as they were working appropriately. The students were allowed to interact quietly, without a lot of movement; it was probably helpful that the instructor had the children working on a project at the same time, so it was difficult to get too distracted. These students were slightly older, and in an advanced class, so it seems that they had their own intrinsic motivations to do well. In fact, all the students in the classroom seemed to know each other quite well. This might have been due to the fact that as advanced-placement students, they all had similar interests and skill levels in the classroom.
Observe children interacting with their peers. Describe it & compare & contrast your observation with age appropriate expectations.
How do children influence each other? In what ways do children avoid the influence of others?
The students in the classroom all seem to positively influence each other, as they were able to get down to work very quickly after being given instructions. It seems that they know quite well what their jobs are when they are doing lab work, and they know their lab partners very well, so it was very easy for them to work. There was only one group that seemed to be distracting each other and those around them; however, these children were clearly very bright, as they finished first and then went on to be a distraction to the other students in the classroom after they were finished.
