I'm observing a sophomore Global Studies II class in Greenville, SC. Per instruction of my Literacy professor, I am observing the reading and writing habits of these students. I want to examine what kind of texts these students are reading and how they are responding to them. Furthermore, I want to zone in on one student's responses to the material and how they perform.
A little bit of information about the school: to my knowledge, the school does not have the best reputation in the county. My CT does not think the school deserves its reputation. I can really relate to the school's situation because my high school had a similar reputation that I don't think it deserved. I feel like the students at my cooperating high school unfortunately find themselves victims of a self-fulfilling prophecy: everyone says that this is a school for thugs and drop outs, so that is how we will behave. I personally haven't seen anything terrible yet (nor do I honestly expect to), but as a former resident of Greenville County, I hear those rumors.
I believe that these prophecies definitely have negative impacts on how a student perceives his or her learning environment and I'm interested to see how that plays out in their ability to read and comprehend. While I have my eyes on a few students, I am particularly interested in a few latino students in the Second Block class where I observe. I am really drawn to the latino community for several reasons: I am proficient in the language, I am in love with the Mexican culture, and I know that the dropout rates for latino students are higher than any other race or ethnicity in the country. The most pertinent question for me is whether or not that is true at my Cooperating School (CS), which is around 33% Latino.
For my Initial Observations, however, I was asked to choose a variety of students and watch how they responded to written material. Because my Cooperating Teacher (CT) was absent the day before my first visit, she had distributed to the students a study guide/worksheet as an introduction to the topic of the Scientific Revolution. Most of the students most likely saw it as busy work, but CT said that she wanted the students to be able to look at the information through the text book, through lectures, and through activities. On my first day at the CS, all of the students were finishing up their work and I kept my eye on a few different adolescents.
The first young lady who caught my attention was S. S seems rather quiet, but her body language says that there is much more to her than meets the eye. I believe that she is quite smart, simply by judging her behavior, but I will see how she is challenged and whether or not she wants to rise to that challenge. S was one of the first people in the class to finish her assignment. When she finished, she turned her assignment in and read another book.
Next, I watched two young ladies who were sitting directly behind me. What caught my attention was the fact that they were doing absolutely nothing. Class had started ten minutes ago. Some students had turned in their bell ringers before these two even opened their book bags. (As a matter of fact, several students on this side of the room had yet to pull anything out...). I do not think that I will ultimately select either of these young ladies because my initial impression is that they do not wish to apply themselves in this class at all...maybe they lack the ability, I don't know yet; I would like someone who is middle of the road.
Finally, I watched two latino students in the middle of the class. D, female, and P, male, were two of the hardest working students in the entire class. D was the first to turn in her assignment and then helped some of the other students with their work. I am eager to see how these two and the other ELL students respond to the literature, lecture, and other activities in the class.
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