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MARCH 2004

IF YOU ASK DR. McCUNE
About Learning From Your Students
by Lorraine Mccune, Ph.D.

In every course that I teach I ask my students to find a child to observe for 6--10 weekly visits during the semester. When they ask what to look for, I tell them to use their human radar, perhaps think about what we are studying (how children learn…their attachments to adults, etc.). Rather than an observation protocol, I believe that attending carefully and sensitively to a student and thinking about the child’s experience is an extraordinarily enriching process. I ask the students to write about each observation…not taking notes during, but rather after their time with the child. This helps them to focus on what they notice. At the semester’s end they write a brief (2--3 page) “Reflection Paper”. For this assignment I ask them to address a theme that has emerged from the observation process.

This fall I learned something new about this assignment from my students. Stacy Konar from the Edison, NJ school district emphasizes group and independent work in her first grade class, with centers devoted to writing, reading, drawing, math, etc. She forms groups of four students and teaches them to work together, keeping the classroom active. This semester she chose to observe one group carefully for the assignment in my class: Kyle and Dan, both of whom wanted to “be in charge”, Jane who was behind these boys academically and “lost in the shuffle” in the beginning, and Toni, who was an English language learner, and spoke very infrequently. Conflict between the boys almost led Stacy to re-group, but she kept the children together for the duration of the assignment. She wrote, “After I saw how much they had changed within a short time, I was glad I kept them together. They began to realize that other group members were necessary for success and began to treat each other differently.”

Her extra eyes on the group allowed her to foster blossoming trends, such as each of the boys taking Jane under their wing when the group broke into twos. The variety of centers led the children to rely on each other for help in specialized areas. They all knew that Toni was the better artist, so they learned from her. Jane and Toni became close, helping Jackie to blossom as a leader and develop her own opinions in the classroom. She saw initial help of “telling the answer” shift to helping the other child find the answer. By the end of the semester all had grown socially and academically. Group learning had increased self-reliance in some, developed the value of cooperation in others.

Gloria Melendez of New Brunswick visited a 4 and 1/2-year-old preschooler who had been her student at age 3. She saw the same behavior problems, lack of cooperation, and acting out that she had noted when he was her student. It was difficult not to focus on the negative. In beginning of the observation she decided to check out health records—they were fine—and then focus on the positive. What does he do well? What does he do when given opportunities to choose? She writes, “I became aware of D’s strength in recognition of the alphabet. He had no problem spelling his name. I discovered that D was interested in numbers and in counting…he was planning and building elaborate block structures.” His rebelliousness and unwillingness to clean up and to follow routines had made it hard to see the underlying strengths. Appreciation for his abilities increased his confidence, and tangible rewards helped him to voluntarily enter the classroom routines successfully.

I learned that for talented teachers, observation is a primary route to good teaching, but all of you teachers may have known that already!#

Dr. Lorraine McCune is a professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and serves as advisor to educational toy company, General Creation.

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