Nicole Schumacher 1

Nicole Schumacher C&I 210-9 April 30, 2012 Observation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Date 2/8 2/8 2/15 2/15 4/4 1/17 3/21 3/21 3/23 Time 12:30-1:10 1:45-2:20 9:35-10:30 10:35-11:10 19 minutes 48 minutes 23:48 minutes 50 minutes 50 minutes Grade Level 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 5th & 3rd Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade Sophomore Freshman Junior Teachers Name Tompson Tomley Wilder Gym Currence Neuman Smid Pole Conant

Nicole Schumacher 2 During my nine observation hours, I observed a range of classes: 3 rd grade library, 4th grade drama, 5th grade science, 5th and 3rd grade physical education, 7th grade language arts, 8th grade French, freshman world study, sophomore Algebra I and junior American literature. With that, it was 4 classes in Elementary School, 2 classes in Middle School, and 3 in High School. This analysis of the observations I observed will be broken down into three different parts. It is by elementary, middle school and high school. I will give examples of how the theories applied and were observed in the classrooms. At the end of my paper, I will combined all ages and compare and contrast them. Elementary During the observation, the third grade class was very excited to be there. The teacher was reading them books but while she was reading, the teacher asked the students questions and all the students raised their hands, quickly, to answer the questions. The raising of hands is due to being conditioned to doing so ever since they started school. This is Pavlovs theory. Also, while watching the third graders in the library, one of the books had the words shut up and stupid and all the students said that that was a bad word and that their parents do not let them say that word. Kohlberg has a stage-based model of moral development. Level one, stage one is Right is being obedient, not breaking laws, and not damaging others or property. The reason for doing right is to avoid punishment. (page 355) This connects with why all the students said that this was a bad word. They were taught by their parents that it was a bad word, so it would be wrong for the students to say it because if not, they were being disobedient to their parents.

Nicole Schumacher 3 Vygotsky believed that social communication is the primary force driving cognitive development (page 112). Throughout a lot of the observations I saw different grade levels and subjects using group work. One example is during the fourth grade drama class. They broke into groups and together, created a skit about fairytales or pirates. With being in groups, they created a collaboration skit and everyone had inputs. The only point Id have to go against this and what Vygotsky said was that when the other groups were not going, they were very antsy and were not paying attention to what the group was presenting. Like I said previously, during this class a boy would start acting up while others are presenting and then the boys friends would join in and start goofing off. Bandura did a study on ways a child interacted with a Bobo-doll. Since the child saw someone else punch the Bobo-doll, the child did it when presented the doll. This theory explains why the other boys joined in on misbehaving in the classroom. During the fifth grade science class, the students were in groups and creating their own astronaut and having to think back to what they learned that the astronaut would need, before putting on special fun objects on his suit. One group thought back and knew the astronaut needed oxygen and a mask. They represented the mask by creating a bowl shaped item out of plastic wrap and then gluing it to the astronauts face. Piagets theory states that students think back to previous knowledge to help tackle the new problem. This particular group thought back to the astronaut needed oxygen and a mask but they also thought back to what the mask looked like and represented it the best way they could. According to Eriksons fourth stage of psychosocial development, Industry vs. Inferiority, children want to know how to be good. The way for them to be

Nicole Schumacher 4 accepted would be to feel like their accomplishments mean something. During the science class, all of the students would run up to the teacher to show her what they did and to her to say it was great. Look at the cool gloves we made! Come look at our mask! But shh dont tell anyone because we dont want them selling our idea, were some of the comments I heard in the class. The teacher was very willing to go look and compliment their science projects. She never said anything negatively about one of their pieces. She always encouraged them and that will help them boost their self esteem. I had gone to observe a fifth grade gym class. Once I get there, the teacher announces that the third graders will be joining the fifth graders because their physical education time had been cut do to other events and the gym teacher wanted the third graders to still get their physical education. The basic level of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs is physiological needs such as nutrition, sleep and exercise. With the teacher allowing the third graders to be with the fifth graders, she helped meet the basic level of needs. Before the third graders came into the class the teacher had said that the fifth graders were to set a good example and to make sure the third graders were doing everything correct. Then once the third graders came, they broke into different groups to go to each station. At one station there was about two fifth graders and two third graders and both the same gender. With the students showing how the third graders are supposed to do that station it is demonstrating Banduras theory that I had already discussed. One example is that there was a station with two ropes course. The fifth grader had shown how to go from one side to the other, with explaining on how you give

Nicole Schumacher 5 the rope back to the person behind you. Then you walk from the end of the rope course to the end of the line and go again. Middle School While observing the seventh grade classroom I had noticed some of the ways of teaching from earlier grades. During this class, the students were doing in groups creating skits from scenes from the book they were reading, The Watsons Go To Birmingham. This was a very interactive class that got the students up and moving around. The students knew that when the teacher shook the tambourine, it meant to put their heads down and when she hit it and stopped it meant they could put their heads up. Once the students lifted their heads, there was a skit frozen. All the other students gathered around and guessed what scene it was. Then one student at a time would go tap one of the characters then the character would speak a part and the rest of the class would have to guess which character that was. This helped with memorization because memorization can be promoted by rehearsal, organization, and elaboration. (page 141). This project helped rehearsal because they had to find the skit and practice it; then it helped with elaboration because each scene was drawn out for the students to physically see. For the next middle school observation, I observed an eighth grade French class. While viewing this classroom, I had thought of how Sternbergs intelligence was being used. First, the students were to build what a building a French town would look like. They made them as life like as possible (beside the size). The students had to research and put effort into details such as what types of medicines would be in a pharmacy window in France. That is the creative aspect of Sternbergs intelligence. The students

Nicole Schumacher 6 were given rubrics so they were graded on specific things. That is the analytic part. Then once the town was built, the students had to pretend they were tour guides and guide their classmates around the French town. The students used their vocabulary they had previously learned to speak only in French. While pretending they were in the town was a practical way. High School During the first High School observation, I observed a Freshman World Studies class. This was more of a discussion based class. However, while being discussion based the students raised their hands. Pavlovs theory is the conditioning of a thing and this example is raising of hands. I had stated earlier that a third grade class was raising their hands. It shows how far operant behavior can be practiced because third grade until high school is a long time. To start the discussion, the teacher would ask a question or put up a chart on the board. Then she would further and ask the students what they thought or what they would do in a certain situation about the Middle East. While the students are thinking and coming up with the information to answer the teachers questions, they are using the logical/mathematical intelligence from Howard Gardner. With having in-depth questions it helps their brain turn on to being able to understand underlying principles of cause-and-effect and logic. At the end of class the teacher and the student have some jokes told back and forth. The teacher was handing out homework and the students said she was killing trees. The teacher had made a comment about how she wasnt nice and they needed homework. Freud had discussed humor; he said that hostility can come out in humor. I think that this is mild form of that. The students didnt want homework so they made a joke about it.

Nicole Schumacher 7 The next class is sophomore algebra I. The students worked in groups to do their problems. The teacher had gone up to one of the groups and asked them who got gotten the answer. The entire group responded that it was the entire group that helped. This is an example of level II; stage three of Kohlbergs moral development. That stage is about that you should support your friends and I believe by them working together and giving credit to each other, they supported each other. The final class is a junior American literature class. Throughout this class, a lot of students were very talkative or sleeping on their desk. Both of those are not benefiting the student in any way. Also, the talking can disrupt other students, too. Maslow has a hierarchy of needs. He says that if the most basic level is not met the students can act up. I believe this is what I was observing in the classroom. To get the students up and moving the class did a game. The teacher also gave a special job to a student who was acting up. Throughout this entire class, the teacher was teaching about the same topic. First the students did a free write about it, then they played the game, and finally they did a Venn diagram in groups. All the repetition and elaboration helps with memorizing. In all three of the classes I had noticed that not a lot, if any, posters or decorations were up in the classroom. I think it is important to have visuals on your walls instead of them being just white. White walls are boring and can damper your mood, while posters and decorations give you something to look at. Comparing and Contrasting Throughout all grades I saw themes on how the teachers taught and how the students responded. A lot of the classes had their desks in groups or at some point in

Nicole Schumacher 8 the class, went into groups to work. Also, the students-for the most part- raised their hands while answering questions. One of the biggest differences between grades was physical differences. The younger students were about three or four feet tall, while the high schoolers were five feet to six and a half feet tall. Also, within the grades, with the classes in elementary school, the girls were mostly taller than the boys. Then in middle school, they started to level off a little bit and in high school, the boys became taller than the girls. However, there were few incidences that this wasnt true because everyone is different. While observing, I thought that elementary and high school students had the highest self esteem because they would be proud of what they did; while middle school students just went with everyone else. A thing that caught me off guard was that in all grades, the groups were both boys and girls beside one class: fourth grade drama. I would have thought that the groups would have been more gender biased but they werent. Throughout my observations, it connected with the material we had learned and a lot of the theorist of child development. My paper started with elementary then middle school, then high school. At the end I had compared and contrasted the different grade levels. I found that it was more alike than I would have thought.

Nicole Schumacher 9 References

Bergin, C. A., & Bergin, D. A. (2012). Child and adolescent development in your classroom. Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.