English homework

The classroom that I observed was of fifth grade and the subject the students were learning was social science. It was a disciplined classroom and students were diligent and paying attention to the words of the teacher. I got to learn a lot of things just by observing their activities. The students were seated in groups of five around each table. The classroom was very colorful and I could see a lot of things tucked on the notice board. The students were notified for a graded test scheduled for the last day of the week. I visited the classroom on Monday and so the teacher was explaining the chapter about the continental drift.

There were around thirty students in groups of five. The students were provided with separate activity kits to test the level of innovation in them. Since the topic they were studying was that of the continental drift, so I can see a lot of constructed models in the side table of the classroom. There were some really brilliant ideas shown by the students. The classroom was also equipped with a small LCD screen, where the teacher can play various videos and movies as an aid for the better understanding of the students. Students were allowed to play around the activity area to develop some of their instinctive talents as some students are good at model making, others are good at articulating mechanical things. The classroom gives a good ambience to the students who are better at trying out new things just for exploration.

The students come in their classroom after the morning assembly, and stay for two hours which was the time devoted for each subject, after that other section moves in and the previous one goes to a different classroom this keeps on rotating as there are several sections in each grade. Although I thought that the school hours were a bit lengthy but when I saw the teaching pattern I realized that it was not at all stressful for the students to spend seven to eight hours there in the school. The teachers pay attention to every student and the mode of teaching was interactive. Students were very open to their teachers and they can play games and get themselves involved in many activities so they don’t get bored or overstressed after the whole day spent at school. There were two breaks as well, when the students can go to the cafeteria or have something to eat. There was sufficient time to play as well and importance was given to the sports and physical activities of the students as well.

I also performed a tour of the school and visited other classrooms as well; the seating pattern that I observed was of circular grouping in lower grades while for higher grades the students were made to sit in rows, mostly six rows of five each. Mostly all the students I saw their appear to be diligent as I did not noticed any of the students creating nuisance in the classroom or if even if there were some notorious children, I did not get to see any of them. There were mixed children mostly American but some of them were Latin and African Americans as well; this forms the major chunk of the total number of students. Besides Americans I also found at least two to three students of different ethnicity which was good as it is an indicative of multi-cultural interaction between students. Some were not very clearly distinguishable from the face but I got to know about their difference in nationality about the way they spoke. Multi-cultural interaction is good as I think students get to know about the diversity in cultures around the world at an early stage and it helps in their socio-cultural understanding as well.

The school was till high school so I got to observe students of all age group. There wasn’t much difference on the basis of gender as almost equal number of boys and girls were seen. The classroom I was observing particularly had a varied mix of students. There were almost fifteen students who were Americans while the rest were a mix of various ethnicities. I even got to see some of the students with special needs who were given special attention. I saw the teacher asking every time to two or three students whether they understood or not. I asked her about the special attention given to them. The teacher told me that those were the students who were suffering from some or the other types of learning disorders. They looked very normal, they just have difficulty in understanding certain aspects of the topics which the teacher was paying attention to. Since the topic going on was of the continental drift and factors which decide the formation of the different continents, it was first depicted by an animation movie which kept the interest of the students and the teacher asked to write down the and make an assumption of what would have happened according to the students. When they were done with their writing exercise, the teacher heard their answers and solved their queries. Some students were also asked to present their models before the whole class and get applauded for the same.

I observed that there was learning done by experimentation. It was not just classroom notes and bookish studies; it was stretched beyond to the level of observing, analyzing and then learning. It was a good method of learning as the mind tends to grasp more by doing rather than just listening. Students were involved in the activities related to their topics which keep their interest in the topic and also their level of involvement. None of the students were discouraged or demeaned irrespective of their separate levels of understanding so the students were also open towards their teachers. They were also made to play games based on the topic of study; I observed this in the social science class.

The teacher was able to successfully instigate the learning abilities in the students. Students always tend to learn more when they are interested in something and getting them involved is the first step of doing so. Asking questions was the most common way of doing that but making models and games around the topic of study was an innovative idea that will bring the students to learn more and achieving their learning goals easily.

The class was instructed to note down the special features or happenings in the videos to come up with possible ideas of what would have happened during the time of the making of the continents, the students were then asked to discuss all the possible consequences which made a whole pool of ideas and knowledge to be shared by the students. This would help them understand the topic more clearly. They were also asked to write some of their ideas on the sheet of paper and the best ideas were narrated to the class and were applauded.

The teacher also planned a test and a quiz based on the topic and the understanding of the students. The notice of the board was regarding that only and the students were expected to prepare accordingly as the test will be graded and is a means to assess the actual understanding of the students regarding the topic. The good way to assess students in the class only is to ask questions, the answers obtained from the students help the teacher to understand the grasping power of individual students. Teacher also makes sure that the whole class is involved in the activity as it is very important that every student is able to understand even if they have different potential. It becomes significant as there were students of special needs who require more attention that the regular students. The learning pattern was good and the students were diligent which makes the classroom studies much easier and enjoyable. I learnt a lot of things which I can make use of whenever I will be getting to teach some of the social science students.