Suthar 1 Dhaara Suthar C&I 210, Section 9 April 30 2012

Observation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Date 3/7/12 3/7/12 3/8/12 3/8/12 3/8/12 3/9/12 3/9/12 3/9/12 3/9/12

Time 8:50 -9:30 AM 2:25- 3:00 PM 12:00-12:55 PM 1:00-1:55 PM 2:00-2:55 PM 8:00-8:35 AM 11:15-11:45 AM 11:55- 12:25 PM 12:25- 1:05

Grade Level 7 4 11,12 9 11, 12 5,6 4 K 8

Subject Humanities Social Studies Human Anatomy Geometry American Literature Orchestra Physical Education Art Health

Suthar 2 I learned so much from observing students at Metcalf School and University High. I observed a variety of grade levels and it surprised me how different each grade level can be. In all of the classes that I observed, the students showed signs of development. I will be focusing on the following domains of child development: physical, cognitive, social, and emotional. This write-up will be organized into three parts: elementary, middle, and high school. I will be applying these concepts to my observations and examples from what I saw will be illustrated. I will also conclude with a comparison of the four domains across the grade levels. Elementary School In a Kindergarten classroom, the physical developments were obvious. The average height of the students was about 3 feet. Some were taller and some were shorter. The girls were very clothes that made it obvious that they were girls. Some of them were wearing dresses. Since it was an Art class, fine motor skills were easily observable. One of the students I saw was focuses on exactly what she was drawing. She was gripping the crayon very tightly and slowly drawing. I noted some students that were in the preoperational stage of Piagets Cognitive Developmental Theory. The theory states that in this stage, children ages 2-7 are not yet capably of thinking logically. The students in this class were making an alphabet book. They had to draw pictures of things that started with each letter of the alphabet. Some students went up to the teacher because they did not know a word that began with a certain letter. For example, one student was on the letter C and she went up to the teacher because she did not know what picture to draw. She was not yet capable of logically coming up an object that started with the letter C. This falls under the cognitive domain.

Suthar 3 In my observations of a 4th grade Social Studies class, developments were very different than those of a Kindergarten class. The students were on average 4 feet. They looked to be about 9 or 10 years old. I saw no signs of puberty in any of the students. All the students used fine motor skills. They were writing and using an iPad. I noticed the concept of memory. The students paired up and each pair got and iPad. They were assigned to do online quizzes called Brain Pops. They had to listen to some clips and read along to modules about historical events or people. At the end of the module they had to take a quiz. On page 142 of the textbook, memory in different ages are being discussed. It is said that for 6-12 years old get better at remembering details by connecting them to bigger events. They also have a greater long-term memory so doing things like Brain Pops is helpful because they will retain the information for a longer amount of time. This comes in handy when they take tests. This will fall under the cognitive domain. I observed the social development as soon as I got into the classroom. All the students were talking to each other and moving around in the classroom. When the teacher gave them instructions to go get their books from the back of the classroom they all immediately started talking while going to do the task. Another social interaction that I saw was the students singing and saying Happy Birthday to a student whose birthday it was. Emotional development was also seen because the students were smiling and laughing while eating the cupcakes that the Birthday Girl brought in. In my clinical experiences I observed a 4th grade physical education class. I mostly observed things that would fall in the physical and social domains. The teacher let them have a free class period. Students had the option of riding scooters, playing

Suthar 4 basketball, making a tower with cups, badminton, or jumping rope. The students were then free to do whatever they pleased. The kids used their gross motor skills the whole time they were in the gym. They were running, jumping, and skipping all over the gym. Some students were throwing the basketball back and forth. They were aware of their own bodies and did not run into each other while walking or running. What I observed in the gym goes along with what we had discussed in class about play. The book states that students who play cooperatively are liked by peers, which promotes liking of school and motivation in the classroom. (Page 452) Studies have shown that play helps focus attention. One of the girls that I was observing with had just been in an actual classroom with the same class right before she came to observe the P.E. class. She said that they werent really paying attention to the teacher. This falls under the social developmental domain because the students are interacting with each other. At one point of the class time, a group of students made a tower with cups. They were communicating with each other on where and how to put the next cup so the tower wont fall over. I also noticed one thing that would fall under the emotional domain. At the end of the class period, the tower was built. A student accidently knocked it over and the rest of the students got angry at the student for knocking it over. The student apologized for knocking the tower over. Middle School I observed Gardners multiple intelligence theory in a mixed 5th and 6th grade orchestra class. The intelligence that I observed is the musical one. There were only about five students in this class. They had to teachers who split the class time in half and each one taught half the class time. The students were playing the trumpet. The

Suthar 5 students in the class could differentiate between notes. The teacher would say to play a certain note and the students would play that note. Sometimes the teacher would play a note and then ask the student to repeat it. The students also had to read music from a music sheet. This shows that the students have the capacity to hear, and recognize aural patterns, which is exactly what Gardner said that the musical intelligence is. This falls under the cognitive domain. I also noticed some things that fall under the physical developmental domain. The students have fine motors skills because they had to press the valves, which are the buttons on top of the trumpet. I also noticed that the students looked fairly young. They had not gone through puberty yet. Two of the girls that were in the class did have dresses on and the boys had jeans and t-shirts on. In my observations of a 7th grade humanities class I noticed Gardners multiple intelligence theory come into play. The students in the class were in teams and each team had to write a story. Each student had to write a part of the story and pass it to the next person. The next person had to build on that story and continue the plot. The students used the Linguistic intelligence to express themselves. I noticed that since the students are in groups they would be learning from each other. They work together to get the work done. This is exactly what Vygotsky is talking about in his social constructivism theory. This falls under the cognitive domain. Another domain that I observed is the physical domain. The boys and girls are still short and have not gone through puberty. Although I could tell that some of the girls cared about their appearance and dressed in brand named clothing. I also noticed that some girls had makeup on. They boys on the other hand were dressed pretty casually, t-shirts and jeans or basketball shorts. This goes along with Eriksons psychosocial development.

Suthar 6 One of the stages is identity v. role confusion. The students are trying to figure out who they are and what they are comfortable with. Therefore they experiment with different types of cloths and the girls experiment with makeup. I also observed social interaction between the students. While the students were working independently in their groups they were talking about their lives, pop culture events, movies they have seen recently and music they listen to. The last middle school class that I observed was an 8th grade Health class. I noticed that the teacher in the class was using constructivist teaching. Constructivist instruction is when the teacher builds upon knowledge that the students already know. The students are actively engaging in the learning process. The teacher was talking but had each student take turns answering questions. The students were also engaging in class discussions. Piaget talks about constructivist instruction in his cognitive developmental theory. He states that when children act on their own they form permanent mental models. (Page 110) There were physical developments that I observed. I noticed that most of the students were just beginning to go through puberty. I noticed that a few boys had deeper voices than the rest. Their fine motor skills were being utilized because they were writing. They were taking notes in their notebooks. I observed a lot things that can categorized in the social and emotional domains. I noticed that there wasnt a lot of interaction between genders. The class was segregated by gender. The boys were sitting on the right and the girls were sitting on the left. The whole class seemed to be embarrassed by the subject matter. They were hesitant to say some words and answer questions. Some of the boys in the class were laughing.

Suthar 7 High School Two main concepts were noticeable when I observed three classrooms at the high school level, morality and motivation. Lawrence Kohlberg extensively studied morality. He has six stages in the development of moral judgment. Kohlberg also talked about academic dishonesty, which is becoming more prevalent. In an 11 th and 12th grade Human Anatomy class, the students were taking an exam that day. One student did not know that the exam was being given that day. During the exam he repeatedly tries to look at his neighbors paper for the answers. I observed a 9th grade Geometry class. The students in there were also talking a quiz. One student that sat in the back of the classroom had something in his hand or lap. He kept on looking down and then writing on his quiz. He also periodically looked to see if his teacher was looking at him. Kohlberg says that with high school aged people, most of them may reach stage 3. Stage 3 states that you are suppose to simply live up to what is expected of you. The students who were cheating most likely did so because they was expected to get good grades and there was no other way they could have gotten good grades because they did not study. This falls under the social developmental domain. The concept of motivation can be seen in my observation of a 11th and 12th grade American Literature class. In this class, the students played a question and answer game to review their understanding of the book that they were supposed to be reading in class. Motivation is shown when the teacher is going around the class asking questions about the book. One student just tells the teacher that they do not know the answer because they did not read. They student did not have any extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when you do an activity in order for some kind of reward or grade.

Suthar 8 Another student in the classroom was not even paying attention until his turn came. He was on his laptop on social networking sites. Neither student was motivated enough to stay on track and learn what was to be learned. Comparisons Across Grade Levels It was interesting to see the differences in all the domains across the different grade levels. The physical things were the most noticeable. For example most Kindergarteners were about 3 feet tall, the 8th graders were about 5 feet tall and the kids high school were as tall as 6 feet. The way that the kids utilized their fine motor skills was also noticeable. The children in kindergarten had a tight grip on their pencils and were writing very carefully. This can be compared to the 8th grade class. They were also writing but the grip on their pens was lighter and they wrote the quickly. Cognitively, the grade levels were very different. As the students grow older, their cognitive ability grows as well. The kindergartners had to ask the teacher for an object that began with a certain letter. In the 7th grade Humanities, student were able to write whole stories without the teachers help. I noticed that children become more social as they grow older. In the 4th grade Social Studies class, the students were not really talking to each other. This can be compared to the 7th grade Humanities class where they were talking about their lives and pop culture events. Emotions also increase as children get older. As children grow older they internalize their emotions. For example in the 4th grade P.E. class when the child was upset that someone knocked down the tower of cups she screamed and told the teacher. In high school American Literature class, a student was being disruptive so the teacher scolded her. The student did not say anything at the time but when the teacher looked away she rolled her eyes and scoffed. Not everything

Suthar 9 I saw helped the theory I discussed. For example when I talked about Kohlbergs Morality Theory, what I observed in the high school negated the theory because the students were cheating and did not do the right thing. All four domains can be observed at any grade level.

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References
Bergin, C. C., & Bergin, D. A. (2012). Child and Adolescent Development in Your Classroom. Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.