ASSIGNMENT 6 (Observing a student): Discretely observe one student in your assigned

classroom during an extended period of direct instruction.

Detail what was going on in the environment, and what you observed the student doing while
the lesson was being given. Make sure to document ALL behavior in relationship to what was
being presented by the classroom teacher. Please describe the setting, the lesson that was
given, if the student was on task and engaged in the lesson, and what you uncovered about
putting yourself in a lesson from the student’s point of view. >>>
The student I discretely observed during my observation was a boy named Colt. I choose Colt
because he was often being punished and scolded more then helped by the teacher. The
lesson I observed was a writing assignment. This assignment was given on a printed piece of
paper where the students had a place to draw then write about their prompt. The students were
told to follow the prompt "what's your opinion". On the board were a few options such as "dog or
cat" "pizza or cake". The problem had already started for Colt as the Teacher singled him out in
front of his classmates and told him that he would be doing last night's homework rather than
the assignment. This upset Colt and it looked to give him a sense of embarrassment. Colt
struggled during this assignment many times and was only told by the teacher “I know you can
do better than this, your second grade teacher won't accept this work at all” I could see Colt
getting frustrated but I was told not to pity him, that I don’t know him at all. Throughout this
entire assignment period I witnessed Colt engaged at first but slowly losing interest and giving
up entirely as the minutes passed. By putting myself in Colt’s shoes I fully understood his anger
and frustration. I hate being told that “I already know how to do that” as an adult let alone a first
grader whose first year or two of school was completely online. I saw a passion in Colt’s eyes,
he wanted to understand the assignment so badly and I could really tell he just needed that
extra help. At the end of the assignment, Colt did not complete the homework or the assignment
given to the rest of the class.