THE RON CLARK

STORY FILM
ANALYSIS

SUMMARY
“The Ron Clark Story” follows the inspiring tale of an energetic, creative and
idealistic young teacher who leaves his small North Carolina hometown to
teach in sixth grades students in a New York City public school that is not
only the lowest performing class in the district but also dealing with a range of
demographic backgrounds. Through his passionate use of special rules for his
classroom, highly innovative teaching techniques and an undying devotion
for his students and his ability to help them to cope with their problems, Mr.
Clark is able to make a remarkable difference in the lives of his students.
 CHARACTERS & CHARACTERISTICS

Smart, caring, Unruly, loud, Tough-minded,

unyielding, brave, spirited hard-spirited,
compassionate, leaders, mothering has spatial
innovative, nature intelligence,
creative and brave, artistic,
passionate in indifferent student
teaching

Mr. Ron Shameika Tayshawn

Clark Wallace Mitchell

CHARACTERS & CHARACTERISTICS

shy, quiet, smart, Class clown, bad in Selfish, tactless,

bookworm, lack of math and count,
confidence to troublemakers, like
strive in studies, to gamble and steal,
ambitious, the a skilled card player
only one who likes
Mr Clark.

Badriyah Julio Principal

Vasquez Turner
 ISSUES

Culturally Diverse Family Concerns High Expectations Community

School Shameika is the Showcase a principal Concerns
Mixture of different de-facto mother to her who only cares about School administrators
culture and ethnic younger siblings, as getting high test score was not concern about
(African American, her mother works to instead of considering the students’
American, Latino and job. While, Tayshawn, what students can background and did
Indian). Badriyah has a kid from foster care really do. not take any actions
been bullied since she get abused by his except criticize them
was new in that town, foster parent by the way they
thus make her lacks of behave
confidence

Vygotsky Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky (1978), stressed the importance of child’s cultural

background as an effort to the stages of development. Within ‘The Ron
Clark Story” Mr. Clark develops a professional teacher-student
relationship with his students through the usage of selecting and
applying appropriate teaching strategies and educational psychology
learning theories, that strategically develop and scaffold student learning
within their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) accordingly.
 He writes a rap song for his students which
incorporates historical information about past
American Presidents which is rap part of teenagers
culture during that era. He also learn to use ‘–izzle’
slang to nickname the students which is part of rap
culture in 1970. Within these sections of the story it
evidently show, how a teacher is required to scaffold
student learning within their ZPD. The song showed
his students that he cared about them and believes in
them, by taking the time to understand who they are,
what they were interested in, how they learnt best and
what they wanted to achieve.

Conducive Classroom
1. This scene shows that teaching is not only a face to face
communication between teacher and students. By using
technology as the medium of teaching and communication with
students could increase the quality of teaching learning.

2. Mr. Clark creates a conducive classroom environment by

renovates the classroom and put poster boards, crafts and
inspirational quotes around the room to make the classroom an
inviting place for promoting interaction and much welcomed
feeling of togetherness. He also set rules during the first day of his
teaching which is ‘We Are Family’ as to promote respect among
each others
Conducive classroom environment involves two way
interactions between students and teachers. This type of
classroom environment stimulates learning and makes both
the instructor and students feel satisfied, which eventually
leads to effective learning process. Ron Clark used different
techniques and strategies to gain the students interests. He
start over the grammar lessons so that they can learn better
in further learning of English subjects, by then, he chugging
a carton of chocolate milk every 15 seconds to make them
stay focused to his teaching.

Within this story, Ron Clark adapt to create conducive learning

environment by the physical surroundings of the classroom with photo
of the students and motivational phrases to help encourage the
students. He also observed the students’ behavior clear and consistent
and create special rules to shaping their behavior, thus create
conducive learning environment. He observed them, discovered their
strengths, and then offered encouraging comments. It didn’t seem to
make much of a difference at first, but these efforts slowly softened his
students to a point where they trusted him. It is essential for teachers
to recognize strengths of their students and acknowledge the theory of
different individuals. By doing so it can gives them confidence that
they can succeed in the future.
 Jean Piaget Constructivist Theory
Mr. Clark was able to make his class’s learning experiences
engaging and relevant, so that they could connect to the
content and concepts being taught for the State Exam, thus,
creating new schemas. As experiences happen and new
information is presented, new schemas are developed and old
schemas are changed or modified. Mr. Clark taught the
students in an easy form to make learning process is fun and
engaged with students’ interest. Aside from Presidents Rap, in
adapting and assimilation, Mr. Clark teach Math lessons to
Julio with cards since Julio’s interest in betting and gambling.