Observing Communication EDUC 6358: week 3

Observations:

Three Children, we will call them “A”(boy), “B”(girl), and “C”(boy), are painting at the table using the colors yellow and blue with one teacher,. The teacher is acknowledging what the children are doing. For instance, child “A” was done and she reassured with him if he was done by asking the question. Child “B” announces that she made a “crocodile too” and the teacher repeats what she says and asked child “C”, who is sitting next to her, what they will make and what two colors they mixed together. However, child “C” does not respond quickly and then tells the teacher “a fish” and the teacher continues on with her conversation “what is your fish going to do?”. This prompted the child to say, “swim like a mermaid”. The conversation goes back and forth between the teacher and the two children about mermaids and sharks. One child even points to a book in the classroom that has a shark on it.

 

Effective Communication Strategies in my Observations:

• Self-talk

The teacher explains what she is doing. For instance, she tells the child that she is just writing down what he saying on his painting.

• Restates what a child says and asks questions

After each conversation, the teacher reiterated out loud what one child said and continued the conversation with a follow up question. For instance, child “B” said “I made a crocodile too” and the teacher said “my friend “B” made a crocodile. What are you going to make? What two colors did you mix together”.

In another example the teacher asked child “A”, “do you want to tell me about your painting? What did you make?”. After which the child responded by saying a “shark” and the teacher continued to prompt by asking “A shark. So what is your shark doing?”.

• Giving Attention

The teacher also allowed herself to try and focus on the students she was working with. There were other children calling out her name and wanted her focus, however, the teacher said things like “give me one sec [child’s name]. I will be right there”. Helping the child understand that she is not ignoring them, rather she will complete was she needs to do and be right over when she is done.

 

Insights/Thoughts/What I learned/Connections:

This week’s learning resources helped me to understand the importance of “cognitive demands [which] include questions and statements that require children to think deeply and offer opportunities to develop higher-order mental processing skills” (Laureate Education, 2011, p.260). It is important to have a conversation with the child because it allows the children to explain their thought process and their understanding to us. Depending on their experiences and prior knowledge, they will make connections that relate to them and draw upon those to help those around them (ie adults and other children) understand why they may have built a particular structure, made a picture or painting involving certain objects etc.

I do however, sometimes find it difficult to continue the conversation if a child cannot explain what they made. For instance, last year I had one little girl who would go to the art area all the time and come to me to say she was done. I would say to her “That’s a nice picture, could you tell me about it?” and she would just stare at me and shrug her shoulders. I would then say, “Well what did you use to make this picture?” and she would just shrug her shoulders again and say, “Well I just made it”. I tried coming up with a follow up question like “What made you want to make this picture?” and she would just stare at me and say, “because I did”. I almost felt as though I was asking the wrong questions.

Ever since then, I do something similar to what I observed. I do ask the children if they would like to share with me what they created (whether in painting, blocks, art, writing center etc). I believe that is very welcoming to children because it shows to them that you care. For instance, last week in my classroom, two children where in the block area building. They got so excited that they screamed for me and the other teacher in the room to come over and look at their structure. I asked them to give me one second, however, they came running over to me and saying “LOOK!”. I stopped what I was doing (I was not with another child at the moment) and went over to examine it.

 

 

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Communicating with young children. Baltimore, MD: Author