So far, I have had the opportunity to observe 4-5 periods of High School Spanish classes, including three different levels of Spanish. That means that I am surrounded by over 100 different students grades 9-12. Throughout the first week, one big concept relating to behavior that I have observed is that some students need to be pushed by the teacher a little bit for a few different reasons. One reason is that they might not know how to move forward due to not having the comfort or confidence in the content. From this situation, I have mainly seen two different things happen; the students don’t really try to push forward on their own or ask for help, so they sit at the table and either do other work or talk about something else. This is the more common of the two options that I have seen happen. However, I have seen it a couple times where the students will raise their hand to ask the teacher how to move forward or for help with whatever they are stuck with. This behavior that I have observed shows levels of development in the sense that those students who are at a more mature and higher level of development will take the initiative to ask for help or to at least attempt to move forward on their own. It has also been interesting for me to see how a specific grade or age level is not necessarily a predictor of these behaviors or not, because some of the older students have not always shown the levels of more mature behavior in this case, and vice versa with the younger students. Another thing I’ve noticed that can get in the students’ way of being productive while working with or around a group is simply the fact that they can be distractions to one another. It is pretty easy to tell when a group of close friends are sitting around one another, because they aren’t getting as much done as they should be since they’re usually off topic talking about other things. What this means is that some students have more advanced development in the sense that some of them can work either independently or with a small group and push through challenging or difficult activities without getting off task, while other students are still trying to develop that skill yet.
On top of the students’ willingness (or lack thereof) to either push forward through things they may not be entirely sure of and ask for help if necessary, I have noticed that there are different levels of mannerisms both towards me and the teacher. What I mean by this is that some kids are using words and phrases that are a little bit more proper or polite than others. For example, I’ve helped the teacher hand out materials at various times so far throughout the first week. When I give the students what they need, some students (typically the boys if this is the case) will go as far as to say “Thank you sir”. While I do not necessarily expect this high of a level of respect, it certainly shows great manners from the students. However, some students will not say anything and have this glum look on their face. A very similar thing can be said for the students’ attitudes towards the teacher. Some will smile at her and say thank you, while others won’t say anything and will just stare blankly. And, while it can be understood that maybe a one time or one day sample of something like this isn’t an accurate representation, maybe depending on what was going on in their lives at that given time, I have observed a relatively consistent trend with the students’ manners over my first week thus far. What this means in terms of development is that some students haven’t fully developed their ability to use proper mannerisms all the time whereas others are at a stage where they can use them consistently no matter what the situation is. Once again, I wouldn’t necessarily say that age is a factor in determining where the students are at developmentally with these skills and abilities. It is different across the board amongst all ages.
In short, these are two concepts of development that have really stood out to me so far among the students I have been working with. They are basic fundamental concepts in representing how well the students have developed both in their independent abilities as well as their abilities to converse and interact with others. It has been interesting to see how it differs from student to student and perhaps most interesting of all is that so far I haven’t really seen a certain trend with their developmental levels correlating to their age and grade level.
