October Observation I

 In Mr. Roberson’s class on October 19, I entered the class halfway through first period. The students were working at their tables. There was a bit of chatter, but not overwhelmingly so. Students were working on their costume designs for a play that they had read previously in the week. They could use any coloring utensil that they wanted. Shortly after, the bell rang, and second period came in. Mr. Roberson affectionately describes second period as his trouble class. After introducing the assignment to that class, he makes his way back to his desk. He often sits there and tells me the latest gossip while the students work. Most students got to work after given the assignment, but there are always those few that waste their class time. There is one student in particular who was having trouble sitting down to do his work the entire period. Thank goodness Mr. Roberson likes to gossip; he shared with me that this student moved from Mexico around the time he was entering the fifth grade. Even though he was put in a fifth-grade classroom because of age, he could barely comprehend beyond a first-grade level. To this day (in seventh grade) he remains barely literate in both Spanish and English. After knowing this, I immediately knew why he acted the way he did. Constantly wearing the mask of the class clown, he never got much work done, especially when given (practically) free range during class time. Near the end of my time that morning, I finally watched him in a moment of frustration, crumpling his worksheet that he hadn’t left a mark on, he gave it a shove across his desk and laid his head down. He had had enough of being ignored by Roberson and his classmates. After several weeks in that class, I had not seen this side of him come out before. He needed something to interest him. I’m sure several students were tired of Mr. Roberson’s boring worksheet assignments, he was not alone in his frustration. Even I get frustrated, his class is so boring! If I would have stepped in, I would have found a way to engage the student with a one-on-one conversation about the possibilities of creating his very own set of costumes. If giving a free range project, you need to find a way to work suggestions and tools to think about how to go about creating something.