As a student observer I am working at Booker T. Washington on Thursdays from nine o’clock until eleven-thirty in the morning. My first class of the morning is located in Ms. Ashton’s* room which is a fifth-grade bilingual classroom. All of the students are of Hispanic descent and speak fluent Spanish. However, their levels of English differ greatly. For instance, some students can speak English fluently while others look very confused when addressed by any language other than Spanish. The teacher addresses these different levels of language diversity in many ways. First, she switches between English and Spanish frequently when lecturing. She will also repeat instructions in both languages. Second, there are multiple posters throughout the room with English translations of Spanish nouns and verbs written on them. Another level of diversity found in this classroom is the special needs of certain students. Occasionally, a second teacher will enter the room in order to work with a few of the students in a particular subject such as math at a separate location within the classroom. This allows for one-one interactions between the teacher and students who are struggling with learning certain material.
For the most part the students interact well with one another. However, I have observed one student in particular who tends to instigate fights among his peers. Often he will pit male students against each other and egg them on to fight. Although none of these interactions have ended with anything more than laughter and hurt pride, it is still interesting to watch one student manipulate the others. For the most, the teacher seems oblivious to this dynamic. The classroom is divided between the sexes evenly. When recess is called, all the boys congregate at one end of the room while the girls assembled at the other side. The relationship between the teacher and the students seems very nurturing. The teacher often jokes with her students and praises them for their good work. She is not hesitant to establish her authority and reprimands them when she witnesses the students behaving inappropriately.
Perhaps the most interesting observation I’ve witnessed while in the classroom is the material covered. My first observation was during the ISAT testing. It seems while watching the teacher and listening to her lectures, the majority of the lesson plans on centered on standardized tests. A lot of the material taught is in preparation for this particular test. After speaking with the teacher about the ISAT, it seems she is particularly stressed about it since all of her students are required to pass the exam. The implications for my future career due to this are very important. Unless newer laws are passed, then I too will be required to teach and base my lessons on these very specific standards. I feel it is important that as educators we should have standards and goal to aspire to. Nonetheless, it disturbs me that the majority of the classroom’s time is concentrated on a test instead of the process and journey of learning. It also seems, after researching the ISAT, that the test is focused on mostly two subjects: math and reading. That takes decreases the attention paid to the sciences and social studies which in my opinion are just as important as the two found on the national exam.