Amanda Chance
Eng 101
Paper #3
Observation
based teaching is using what the child already knows and individually helping
them learn more when they are ready. It is given many different names in
different organizations that already use it. In the National Association for
the Education of Young Children or NAEYC, they call it creative curriculum and
it is REQUIRED for a school to have accreditation (NAEYC). In a classroom that
already uses this type of method; a group of 24 students in one room is given
an assignment. The teacher presents the
assignment and then uses the remaining time to help each student work through
it. This type of learning requires more than one teacher in the room at a time,
usually a primary teacher and an assistant teacher. At each step of learning in
the assignment, the teacher helps their students. When a child is struggling it
doesn’t take a bad test score at the end of the chapter to learn about it.
Instead the teacher is aware of the struggles of each student and helps them
overcome them. Using observation style teaching is also very parent involved.
Each week the teacher must make an observation about the student. In a younger
classroom it can be in language or social development. It can also be in math
and science because even young children learn science and math without knowing
it. An example observation is “Child A enjoys feeling different types of leaves
from outside.” Using observation style
also helps the teacher to create a curriculum that is centered on what the
child enjoys. Because Child A enjoys leaves, next week the teacher is going to
show child A the trees they come off of and present other things to feel. In an
older classroom an observation can be “Child B has mastered the quadratic
formula” and the curriculum for the next week is “Child B will continue
practice for the quadratic formula with introduced new step of negative numbers
in the quadratic formula.” These observations are positive and each parent has
access to them. Since the teacher is working with each of her 24 students, they
can use each individual session to help make observations.
Many professionals
inside and outside the teaching profession have noticed the problems with the
current method of teaching. Even Bill Gates in the documentary Waiting for Superman mentions that there
is a problem with finding qualified people for jobs in the United States, from
the United States. Big companies are forced to look to other countries just to
find people with the skills needed to perform at the expert level. Also in Waiting
for Superman, the narrator outlines that fifty years ago the model was 20%
of people go to college, 20% go straight into the work force and 60% go to
factories and farms. The problem with
schools now is they are still developed to produce those percentages. In the “real world” or career world today,
most everyone needs college to get a career. For example, fifty years ago, a
mechanic was someone who was good with cars and could fix any part without a
problem. Today a well-paid mechanic needs to be certified with several
different national organizations, has a back ground of working on cars in a
professional manner, has experience with computers and probably has an
associates or technical degree. Unless a person wants to make minimum wage they
need to go to college. Some people may say this isn’t true; a mechanic if they
are good can earn a decent living. The fact is that most large chain stores are
now requiring their mechanics to become certified and more and more they are
also only hiring those with either a college degree or technical schooling.
When a person is asked to succeed in life without college it is almost impossible
in today’s world.
In every class there are also some students
that get frustrated by the kids that are moving quickly through the material.
The usual solution is that the teachers use tracking and tests to determine
what math, science, and language class that student will be in for the next
year. With that method, the children that are labeled as under achievers all
get grouped together and are expected to do poorly. In Audre Lordes book, Zami; A New Spelling of My Name, Audre explains that there were two
groups in her class room. The groups were of children that did well and
children that did not do well, labeled as The Fairies and the Brownies. She writes, “The brownies were never called
up to the front of the room we had to read in the anonymity from our double seats,
where we scrunched over at the edges…” (4) Instead of this usual method, by
using the observation style, the students all get exposed to the same math and
stay in the college preparation classes. So by not using tracking each student
is exposed and expected to do well in the college preparation classes. By
segregating the students based on merit and test scores they are being coerced
into not believing that they are smart. By labeling them as “remedial” they are
being asked to fail! Some people might ask if the students that are behind will
slow down the advanced student. With hard work and dedication to the students,
each student can reach their full potential. One of the most important aspects
of the observation style of teaching is the amount of one on one attention each
student gets.
The Observation
style of teaching would force the teachers to spend time with each student. The
attention the students get would keep them from having wandering minds, or day
dreaming. It keeps the teacher engaged with their students and away from just
reading a newspaper in the front of the room. Every subject benefits from this.
A student doesn’t need to shy away from asking questions because of being
embarrassed. The student doesn’t need to feel stupid for not understanding. Or
get the stare down because the other students are ready to move on. Why does homeschooling work? Why do smaller
class sizes work? Why does tutoring work? Individual attention is the key to
teaching. The observation style of teaching puts the individual attention into
the classroom. A reason for a person to
doubt this style is because they would argue that a teacher doesn’t have enough
time to get around to each of the children. The teachers will make enough time
for each of their students but having smaller classes and more than one teacher
in the room will help. Others may say that the students won’t be forced to work
and will just rely on the teachers to get their work done. This is not true as the
student is still required to take tests to ensure they have the knowledge to
move on. In a normal school a child enters high school behind in math. They are put into a basic math skills class
with other kids of similar talents and if they get a bad grade they aren’t
allowed to participate in after school activities and probably are in trouble
at home. In this model, the student gets
the extra attention they need to catch up with the class. They also stay away
from the punishment at home and being kept from after school activities. This
model refuses to let children become remedial. In the article, The Banking Concept of Education, Paolo
Freire writes, “Their responses to the challenge evokes new challenges,
followed by new understandings; and gradually the student’s come to regard
themselves as committed,” (4) This is an example of how each child is known to
have the knowledge to do well in school. In the movie Waiting for Superman, Geoffrey Canada says that each child will, “…rise
to the level of your expectations...” He
created the working model for his schools that have completely bridge the
normal association between poverty and bad grades. His model incorporates many
things that go along with the individual attention each student needs like in
the observation model. In another example in
Waiting for Superman, a principle at a popular charter school refuses to use
tracking as well, 96% of his students graduate ready for college as opposed to
public schools 34%. These models for
success have worked well in these schools and should be incorporated into
public school.
When watching the
movie Chalk, you watch a few teachers
in a fake school go through their year. It is almost comical to see the
similarities between them and the real teachers in the real world. Most of the
similarities are bad ones that bring not so fond memories to mind. Everyone has
felt neglected by a bad teacher. In one scene the teacher literally says,
“Maybe not act so smart when I am teaching…” The changes that are needed in the
public school system are numerous, but the single most important change is the
Observation style needs to be put into practice. It allows for the students to
start achieving in strides. In another article written by John Taylor Gatto, he
writes, “If David Farragut could take command of a captured British warships as
a pre-teen, if Thomas Edison could publish a broadsheet at the age of twelve,
if Ben Franklin could apprentice himself to a printer at the same age…there’s
no telling what your own kids could do,” (3).
By giving into a new style of teaching in the classroom each child can
literally make their dreams come true, whether it be through becoming a doctor
an engineer or a mechanic. Children really
do rise to the level of your expectations. Let’s stop asking children to fail
and start showing them how to succeed.
Works Cited
Chalk: Real teaching Leaves
a Mark. Dir. Morgan Spurlock.
Dir Mike Akel. Perf. Troy Schremmer, Janelle
Schremmer, Shannon Haragan. SomedaySoon Productions.
2006. DVDFreire, Paolo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum
Books, 1993.Print.
Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School.”
Against School-John Taylor Gatto. Cornell.edu,
Sept. 2003. Web
Mar.
2013
Vantage, 2010. DVD
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