In one of the class periods of my practicum, it's ONLY talking. There is so much chatter sometimes that I can barely hear myself think and I know Ms. E cannot either because she actually voices this. However, with what exactly the students are talking about, I cannot tell you. The majority of the students in my second period are Dominican and therefore are constantly speaking "Spanglish". I do not understand much Spanish and neither does my practicum teacher so it is hard for both of us to keep the students a) focused on their assignment(s) and b) to address what they need to do for those assignments. Today in fact, she was so fed up with them speaking their native tongue that she simply instructed them not to speak it during the class period. It was English or nothing.
Another problem I have with almost all of my students is that they speak at an inaudible level when asking me a question. For some students in particular, I have to ask them to repeat the question up to three times on occasion. When students ask Ms. E questions, it is usually a question involving her repeating instructions that she had just stated regarding an assignment she would like done. I notice when she is attempting to assign them some type of work, no one is writing down the instructions; this makes me wonder why although I have not asked her yet. You can almost bet immediately after she says something, a student is going to ask her either what she meant by it or to repeat it in its entirety. This from what I have seen, has sort of "jaded" Ms. E from answering her students. She has spoke with me about this in short comments here and there, and I have basically gathered that after she tells them something she writes it down on the board so when they ask her a question about it , she can simply tell them to go find the information where she wrote it. Also, she said that a lot of the students need to be "babysat" and that they are capable of finding the answer to their question themselves so that is what she tells them--go find it on your own. If they really can't find the answer, she has taken to directing them to me or if I am not there or do not have the tools to help them, she will finally step in.
So far I have not seen a pattern of speech in relation to ethnicity although the Spanish-speaking boys seem to be a lot more outspoken (outgoing) than the girls. The two Samoan twins I have in both classes seem to be about the same and these are two students with whom I have a hard time hearing. One other student they sit with in my first period is Hmong and also speaks quietly if at all, to me while the two Hmong boys I have in my first period have no problem engaging in conversation when we are going over homework etc. The Spanish-speaking boys also have a problem overlapping each other and not respecting others' turns when speaking; this happens most frequently when someone is trying present. In their Alaska Studies class, they are working on a timeline of Alaska's history and each student must present a piece of the timeline with around four dates including pictures and information for each one. Today was their actual presentation and the boys were so rowdy that Ms. E had to separate them! She has mentioned that they get this way but so far I have not actually witnessed it until today and even at one point one of the boys said a rude comment to me. Ms. E's classroom has an overall "easy-going" atmosphere, so maybe this plays a role with the way some of the students lack respect for authoritative figures?
On a positive note, I got to review and make adjustments to James' research paper! He did an excellent job providing evidence for both the pros and cons of social networking ( he narrowed his topic) and even used quotes from his research of the topic in the appropriate spots which was somewhat surprising to me because I have seen English students who cannot manage this correctly. He still has trouble with his inflectional endings but we went over this again and I think he is starting to catch on because there were not as many to note in his paper as there was when he was writing the article response two weeks ago...
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I think it is fairly rude of the students to be speaking so much Spanish in class. However, I also think we have been in classes where the students have overwhelmed the teacher to where not much gets accomplished. I noticed in relevancy with you being asked in an “inaudible” level, students will also ask me questions so quiet I cannot understand and must ask them as well to repeat themselves. That is really good to hear about James with his research paper on social networking. Sounds like the inflectional endings are going away at last! Dealing with the turn taking in your classroom, are the pauses from the teacher large to be answered or small? My students seem to have a normal pause. I think the utterances of spoken discourse can be difficult to understand when students are unsure of a task. I also find that interruptions, overlaps, and turn-taking violations are normal in high school, because the students are in a sense still kids maturing.
ReplyDeleteThe pauses tend to be larger in my class more so because it is easy to see the students were not paying attention; however, it tends to be more random--sometimes she will wait for someone to answer, sometimes she will ask if they heard her, and other times she will just walk over and write the instructions down after verbalizing them and go back to whatever task she was doing. The students tend to ask her what she is talking about before she is even finished stating the instructions in some periods and other times they go about their business completing the task. It is hard to judge what is normal and what is not in this practicum because it is never the same!
ReplyDeleteYour students asking what the teacher meant before she finished the question reminds me of one kid in my practicum who went through some comprehension testing a couple of weeks ago. He had to decide whether two sentences meant the same thing; it got to the point where he was answering before the sentence was complete - he seemed to think that there was some sort of pattern going on. Two very different reasons for not listening to the teacher, but they both seem to accomplish the same goal: allowing the kids to go about their business without really listening to the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI think the cross talk and undertonal talking that students do while the teacher is talking is interesting. Though, I think that its not unusual for students to shout out before raising a hand to ask a question.
ReplyDeleteI think that sometimes, that kids will ask a question before someone finishes, because they are afraid that they will forget the question before they get called on.
But I think it depends on the student as to how they communicate.
That's interesting in its self though Katie--that the student seemed to catch on to some sort of pattern albeit the wrong one (or at least using it incorrectly). And I agree Linda, it is definitely not unusual ( I was a student like this myself once!) although it is very distracting not only for my teacher but for the other students that are trying to do their work. They have to stop and watch as my teacher points out the student(s) making ruckus and although this would embarrass some/most kids, it doesn't seem to phase these boys!
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