Community Inquiry Activity and Analysis

The Surrounding Community

Whittier Elementary is located in the neighborhood directly behind Salt Lake Community
College and is considered an inner city school. Having the community college so close to the
school is beneficial for both the teachers and students of Whittier Elementary because the
Community College has a library that the students and faculty of Whittier have access too. The
science department of this library also has telescopes that students can sign out and bring home
for a few nights. Many of the students live close to the school and bike or walk to school,
oftentimes without a parent. There is a lot of culture and racial diversity among the members of
this community, but not a whole lot of socioeconomic diversity among this population. Most
students come from single parent households or a family where only one parent provides the
family’s income.

The School Community

The hallways at Whittier can oftentimes be chaotic. The school does not have consistent
expectations as to what behavior should look like in the halls. In the lower grades the hallways
are mostly loud and unorganized during any transitional times. Students are not held to any
expectation of walking in a line quietly down the hall. It seems that many students interpret
transitional time as social time and are more inclined to chat with friends than to listen to
directions.
Whittier Elementary has a program called Play Works, where there is an adult who
comes and teaches the students games and ways to include everyone during times like recess or
any other physical education. This program helps get everyone involved and playing during
recess which helps the students make connections with each other and learn valuable skills like
how to include everyone who wants to join in on the activity.
There is a dress code at Whittier- every student will wear red, white, blue, black or khaki.
Most students follow the dress code-- about ⅔ of the school population. The other ⅓ of students
do not follow this dress code and there is no discipline for not following the dress code because
most faculty members do not enforce this dress corde. The dress code is so relaxed that I did not
notice there was a dress code until the end of my first week in this placement when I asked my
mentor teacher and she confirmed.
The faculty room at Whittier is mostly empty the entire day. A lot of the teachers meet in
one classroom to eat together but do not ever venture to the faculty to room to eat lunch. Many of
the conversations I heard while at Whittier were about the COVID-19 virus that was beginning
to make its way to the United States and a lot of the educators were feeling uneasy that we did
not have an action plan ready to go for when the virus hit Utah. There were also many
discussions amongst the lower grade teachers about the lack of substitutes and support for
teachers who needed to take medical leaves. There were many days that substitutes did not show
or they could not find a substitute and those classes were going to be without a teacher for the
day. Sometimes the class without their teacher would be split into two groups and go to two
different teachers for the day. Other times the entire class would travel together from one class to
the next, doing one subject with one class and then moving to the next classroom to work on the
next subject. This was really stressful for the teachers who were taking on extra students because
it would double their class size, making behavior management really tricky and it was extra hard
to differentiate for all the different levels of learners in the classroom. This became a big topic of
discussion for many teachers and faculty members.

The Classroom Community

The socioeconomic status in our classroom is a little more diverse than that of the rest of
the school. Over half of the students in our second grade classroom have at least one parent who
works at the University of Utah. About half of those parents have a lab and are scientists, the
others work as professors and teach various different classes.
The behavior in this classroom is very mild and easy to manage, especially compared to
other second grade classes in the school. I believe this is due to the fact that this classroom has
had their teacher in school everyday whereas the other second grade classrooms have had many
substitute teachers this year. The social groups are not so obvious while in their classroom as
they are in other environments like on the playground or in the cafeteria. Many of the groups are
organized based on sexual orientation; boys hang with boys and girls hang with girls. There is
one friendship that I have noticed in particular between a boy and girl but they are definitely part
of the minority in this classroom.
The entire class is made of students with exceptionalities because it is a gifted and
talented classroom. The interesting thing about that is that this class is exceptional compared to
the rest of their grade, but they are normal within the classroom. There are two students who
have accommodations made based on their behavior. One student is on a Behavior Contract due
to his struggle to understand and provide personal space between him and his classmates. This
student also struggles in partner or group settings to work effectively with other students when
there is a disagreement. As a result, when groups are made for academic tasks, the teacher
assigns the groups to ensure he is with a set of students that will provide the best learning
environment for the entire group. The other student who has behavior accommodations is a
student who struggles to stay focused during instruction and independent work time. The
distraction is caused more so by his imagination than by his proximity to others so his desk is
always placed closer to the front where the teacher can gain his attention easier and more
discreetly.
The majority of the students in this class are very independent and individualistic
learners. For some students, this comes in the form of always raising their hand and answering as
many of the questions as possible whole group instruction, and for others it means staying quiet
during instruction and tuning out a little because they feel like they already understand the topic
being discussed. Many, if not all, the students in the class feel a sense of competitiveness while
learning. This competitiveness is towards both themselves while pushing themselves to do better
on assignments as well as against others in the class. This can be good and bad as it creates an
environment where the students are pushing each other to do better and try harder but also can
create an environment with a lot of pressure where students don’t feel comfortable making
mistakes.
The overall classroom design is organized and creates a peaceful and artistic
environment. There are many posters, students' artwork, charts, and quotes hung on the walls,
but not too much that it feels crowded. One of the walls in the classroom is painted yellow which
makes the classroom feel bright and energetic. The desks are frequently moved depending on the
learning activity students are participating in. Moving the desks allows for greater accessibility
by creating tablespaces for students to work on.
Learning about the context of the student population I am instructing will help to inform
my decision when designing my unit because I know my audience better now. Knowing how to
group this population of students will allow for instruction to go smoother as I can arrange
students into groups I know can work together. I also know now that when I introduce
assignments such as the pre-test I will need to be extra careful that I assure students there is no
need to stress about this because it will not affect their grade but instead help me to provide
better instruction for them.