For the purpose of this assignment, I observed my homeroom class during reading/language arts instruction. This is a ninety-minute period that lasts from 12:25 pm, when students return from lunch and recess, until 1:55 pm, when students are dismissed to go home. My observations took place on two separate days.
On my first day, September 13, 2010, I observed a lesson on text features found in non-fiction texts. Students were given a worksheet to complete independently. Students were constantly being told to quiet down by the teacher as they worked and after they finished. After they had been given time to work, the teacher went to the front of the room to call on students to provide answers to the questions. A few students were calling out in excitement to share their answers and they were consequently reprimanded. The only time students were permitted to speak was when the teacher called them on and their responses were limited to one or two word answers to the question on the worksheet. The teacher would then respond to say if the answer was correct or incorrect and then to point out the answer on the diagram on the worksheet.
At that point, the students were asked to discuss what they see in non-fiction texts with the people at their table. A timer was set giving students one minute to have their discussion. I was surprised to see that for the first thirty seconds, the students sat in silence as they tried to figure out what the question was asking or they read by themselves. As soon as they began to speak, the timer went off and they were asked to get quiet again. The students who did speak during discussion time supplied a few answers to the question (maps, pictures, bold text, etc.) but did not participate in any actual discussion with their peers. The teacher then asked a few students to share and then asked students to discuss what they thought those “things” were called. They were given thirty seconds, again timed, to talk with their table. Students were silent for the entire thirty seconds. Many of the students were writing down their ideas, but were not sharing them with the group. The teacher then called on one student to share their answer, “text features,” which she said was correct. From that time until dismissal, students work silently and independently on handouts concerning text features.
Student talk was only focused on the piece of writing on their handout. They were never given the opportunity to discuss books or their own experiences.
During the second observation, on Monday, September 20,2010, the situation was very similar. Students sat in silence as they completed worksheet after worksheet. Students were only permitted to speak when called on by the teacher to answer a question and their answers were restricted to only a few words. There was little discussion about why the answers were correct or only incorrect. Again, students were calling out answers without being called on and were disciplined each time.
The observations I made of the oral language in the reading classroom were very disappointing. Students are rarely ever given opportunities to talk with each other about anything. For the most part, the only times they are allowed to speak are when they are called on by the teacher to share an answer which is either deemed correct or incorrect. This is particularly frustrating to watch because most of the students in the class have been identified as Talented and Gifted (TAG) and, when given the chance to speak in other classes, they always stay on topic and make valuable contributions to the conversation. They are excited to share their thoughts with and learn from each other. Their opportunities to speak in reading/language arts are not particularly valuable to their learning. They are not learning any new communication skills by being called on to share a one or two word answer or sitting in silence for almost ninety minutes.
Academically, these students do not seem to really be suffering from the lack of oral communication they are experiencing in the reading/language arts classroom. These students are highly motivated on their own and are already several grades ahead of grade level. They are exceptional readers and writers and that has not changed yet this year. My concern is not that they will fall behind their peers, but that they are being held back from reaching their fullest potential. These students will continue to go above and beyond anything that is expected of them if given the chance. Unfortunately, they are largely being limited to silent work on handouts that provide neither an authentic or meaningful context for the information they are learning. Fortunately, although all but three of the students are African-American or African and many of them learned English as a second language, all students in the class are fluent in English and do seem to struggle with producing or understanding it.
Socially, on the other hand, several of the students are suffering. For many of them, their exceptional intelligence is accompanied by a deficiency in their social skills. Many are uncomfortable working with others and often isolate themselves from the group. Others are consumed by the need for perfection so they think for a long time before they say or write anything. They require more than thirty seconds to get their thoughts together so that they feel prepared to speak, but they are only given thirty seconds for discussion! For this reason, if not for any other, these students should be given more time to speak and work collaboratively with their peers. Their social skills are suffering and they need to be prepared for the “real world” where they are likely going to be required to work with others in a timely manner.
In my future classroom, I will provide many more oral language opportunities than I have observed in this classroom. Students benefit from working with their peers and learning how to participate in conversation. Giving students opportunities to discuss open-ended questions is a great way to do that. In the lesson I observed about non-fiction text features, students would have benefitted from having more time to discuss their ideas and even to create examples with their groups. It may also be beneficial to give students a short amount of time to think about their ideas and write them down, if necessary, before they share with their group like a think-pair-share type of scenario. This would have been beneficial for the perfectionist students in the class and it would also give ELL students time to think about the words they would like to use before they have to speak.
