Prompt:

The purpose of this assignment is to have you re-enter a day in the life of adolescents carrying with you the knowledge you have now about developmental needs, school organization philosophy, and curriculum demands. You need to create a framing question so that you enter the shadow study with “something to look for” in regard to answering a question you have about student development or how schools meet/or fail to meet student needs. As you spend time with your student, consider what you did for the YA Book Reflection as a “practice” run.   Identify the developmental characteristics of your student and address the following prompts:

• Using the developmental attributes domains, how would you describe this student?
• How does school life seem to fit into this student’s life?
• Based on your observation, how does this student’s engagement/disengagement manifest itself in the behaviors and actions of the student in different classes?
• What factors can you identify as contributing to the differences/commonalities in this student’s behavior over the course of the school day?
• This is a real student. In what ways are his/her needs being met or not?
• What have you learned from this experience?

Response:

It has been about two years since I had to think like a high school student and six years since I have thought like a middle school student. But through this shadow study, I was forced to remember just what it was like to be in the high school/ middle school environment.

On April 23, I entered Shortridge prepared to meet Beverly and begin my observation. Considering what ideas I wanted to frame this visit, I thought about what I have learned thus far in my education about education especially concerning development. I wanted to know learn more about how Shortridge meets the needs of the diverse student population.

My visit did not begin as planned, I could not find Beverly’s first class so I sat in on another class (where I thought she was supposed to be). This class had an interesting substitute, Mr. Blair, who lectured about the importance of being vegetarian, among other notable points. He really connected with a few of the students and even preformed some poetry for them. Mr. Blair shared some unique insight about what it’s like to build a connection with a classroom just for a day, he commented it was a very different relationship than the one a teacher builds over a year with their students.

In watching him, I was struck by how he came down to the student’s level. When they were suggesting ideas for him to form a poem around, he was very considerate of each idea and made each students feel special for contributing. From what I have learned about what students need through Vatterott and Wood in addition to the hierarchy of needs which we have discussed at length in ED 241, I would claim that Mr. Blair met the classes need for security by allowing each child to feel that they had a safe environment in which to contribute. But, as interesting as it was to watch Mr. Blair, I felt it was time to find Beverly, so heading out into the hall, I began to look around for her.

Finding her by locker, she said she was about to head to Orchestra class. So heading down stairs with her I began to ask her how her morning had been so far. She said that her first class was very boring because they watched a movie. When I asked her if she liked it, she said she did not and it she did not even really remember what it was about. Finally arriving at class, we sat down to find out she would be watching another movie. This time however, it seemed the lesson was significantly more structured and she would be watching UP to analyze the music. Her teacher explained some frustration over the student’s lack of understanding that music displays emotions, so using this movie and it’s soundtrack, they would be describing each of the emotions propagated by the orchestral music (INTASC 4,5,7).

While observing Beverly during this class, I was able to determine school is not a major component of her life. She contentedly sits in class not distracted, or interested, but more or less nonplussed about what is happening around her. Never raising her hand to contribute, she participates only when called upon, and more often than not responding with an “umm” followed by the correct answer. I would say this reflects strongly on her need to be accepted by her peers in addition to teachers and adults as reflected in the Vatterott text. By feigning disinterest, she does not stand out to her friends as a teachers pet. Yet by responding with the correct answer, she satisfies the teachers question about whether or not she is paying attention.

In general I was impressed by the overall classroom demeanor during orchestra. Not only was Beverly engaged, but the rest of the students were actively participating in watching the film and analyzing the classical music. The teacher had definitely thought out the lesson to be something that was interactive and fun, and developmentally appropriate for what those students needed on that day (INTASC 1, 2, 7). But unfortunately we could not stay in orchestra all day and soon it was time to move on to reading/ language.

On the way to reading, I asked Beverly if she liked her reading class and she said that she did, it was in fact on of her favorites. Upon arriving I could see why. The classroom was very comfortable and offered students a place to spread out at large desks and focus on what they needed to do. Beverly seemed more engaged in this class, and was not affected by some of the disruptive behavior of her fellow classmates when they got a little rowdy during silent reading time. I would conclude that her needs for stability and consistency were met because the overall class seemed very structured and orderly something that would be critical for a student undergoing many changes during these early adult years.

From completing this study, I would conclude that Shortridge does what it can to meet the needs of their diverse student population. Through watching Beverly, although school may not be her number one interest, I think she is learning and growing in the environment provided by Shortridge and it’s faculty. Just like any student, her day was not just filled with good moments of great teaching like the things I focused on above, but she was confronted with some adversity including a loud and unruly science class. I think the main thing I learned, or maybe even remembered is the school day is not a perfect experience everyday. Some classes will be harder than others and it takes a fair amount of patience to get through a typical day at a school as unique as Shortridge.

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