Classroom Observation Paper

1-October 10, 2006 at 10 o'clock in the morning, I observed a male student. The observation took place in a classroom, in P.S.249 third grade class, room 320 and the teacher's name is Mrs. Riggs. The child, Michael, was seating on the red square on the mat during reading time. The classroom has 7 desks with four or 3 chairs for the students. There are 2 big boards to write, one small board that can only be written on with an erasable marker, books on shelves around the room, two computer in the left side of the room, three big clothes closets to the right, the teacher's desk is located in the front of the class with papers pile on them and one reading projector in the back center of the class. The garbage cans are by the door as enter; there
are several posters with educational information, rules and regulations for the students to follow. There are approximately 9 boys and 11 girls on the mat looking at the teacher as she introduced the new spelling words for the week. 2- As the teacher instruct the class, that particular student seem to be sick; his hands were holding his head as if he had a headache, he did not open his note book to write the new words as the other student were doing, he was facing opposite direction of where the teacher was and he kept on squinting his eyes.
The other children engaged in the activity the teacher presented, Michael on the other hand was doing his own, nevertheless he did not interrupt the students seating next to him. He did not talk throughout the period I observed him. He played with his pencil, he closes his book and he stared out the
window. 3- Michael is not active; Erik Erikson would have described this child as passive.
"Erik Erikson's theory of identity development proposes that a child's personality and sense of identity are strongly influenced by his or her active efforts to master the psychological and social conflicts of everyday life" Pg 33. Here is this child not socializing in his class, he isn't contributing to the learning process as the other students, could he be having difficulties in his development? I think so, because he is the only child in the class that acts like that; although there are 1 or 2 students who are talking but they are following the lesson when the teacher asks for their attention. Since Michael is in third grade, my guess would be that he is eight or nine years old. Based on the Freud's psychosexual stages and development process; Michael is in latency stage where he would be playing with the same sex. He did not seem to care about that compare to the other students; they group themselves with their own sex. The boys were conversing with each other and the boys were playing fight. Michael should be on industry versus inferiority psychosocial stage which happens around the age six to twelve years old; that means he is on academic pressure to do good and he should be feeling good about himself. Michael does not seem to fit Piaget's cognitive stages and development processes. The cognitive stage he should be is concrete operational, where he can do problem solving. When the
teacher asked questions, not only did he not pay attention he did not look as if he understood the questions being asked. Because he never made any attempt that he did not understand nor did he have an answer. 4-Michael caught my intention because he looked sick and he was playing with his pencil to the point the teacher asked him to stop. He was distracting her. I kept an eye on him to see if he would continue his behavior, and he did. Meanwhile the teacher asked the students to open their notebooks and copy the new words they learned. Michael on the other hand did not; he held his head with one hand and rubbed his eye with the other. Every student was told to take their assigned seat on the mat before the lesson began. Michael sat in the far back from the teacher with his legs crossed in front of him, note book on his laps and pencil in hand.
-Michael was not acting his age according to learning behaviors. He was not as attentive as the other students and he failed to participate in the class activity. Meanwhile the other students were very chatty and active; Michael was in his own zone. -There was not other factors which may have had affect Michael's behavior. The class had various works done and submitted from the student, the teacher's lesson was fair and age appropriate. 5- I think the teacher should have encouraged Michael in the lesson, or have him seating next to her. While the other students were copying their words she should have asked him to open his notebook. If he seems less interested have him do another exercise related to the one she's instructing independently. I felt like he has learning disability and he is ignored. Later on I asked the teacher if he was sick because he was holding his head the entire time. The teacher informed me that he has been in the class twice, he used to cry the entire day, and his mother used to accompany him in the class. he had made progress on his behavior, he should be in fifth grade but he is a slow learner.