I have noticed questions within the classroom such as, "What are we doing today?" I have also heard questions concerning topics and what they have to do with the subjective matter at hand. There is one student, let's call him Kyle, who always interrupts and doesn't know when to be quiet. He directs what the teacher has going on to how it relates to himself, having no relevance. This would also include overlapping, when he thinks it should be his turn to talk naturally, but is not. Other times, he makes great observances! This is a definite sign of communicative competence. Kyle takes things from his life he associates with, to connect them with classroom material. His comments seem to be that of discourse analysis, or from linguistics standpoint, pragmatics.
I do notice that the more quiet students work together, and the louder students work together. The quiet students that work together and I ask question to will generally give me shorter "minimal responses" to complete the sentence. There are the clicks, but overall it is difficult to distinguish between social and academic status with the autistic group of students. There are gestures and pauses when the students talk, along with more so gestures used when the teacher wants someone to respond directly. There is only one girl in the class, so even the gender status doesn't give me a good idea. But in a "regular" classroom, I would probably see the girls and boys being in groups. This class is just a different bunch!
There is also another student who is special ed I saw the other day. He speaks unclearly, but yet is able to understand what people say and tell him to do. I notice sometimes when the students have a problem, they will voice out before raising their hand to be called on, let alone know they are doing something wrong. Everyone is going to have different responses to everything we come in contact with, because of the sense of identity. Like the book was stating, we present ourselves through language in a certain way, just as others judge us on the way we communicate with the language we use.
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Hm..you seem to also have a problem with disrupting boys! Do you think this could be a part of gender identity? Almost all the boys in my class have interrupting moments while the girls are quiet and will either ask the teacher to come over to ask for her help, approach her themselves, or simply wait for her to approach them. What is your teacher's response to students' interruptions?
ReplyDeleteKyle sounds like an interesting character! It definitely sounds like he is engaged; what does the teacher do to bring him back on track? Do you think he realizes that the class material does not necessarily relate to him and him alone?
ReplyDeleteI think that its great that she opens the floor for discussion with her students about the day. I think that its so important to know how the day is going for students.
ReplyDeleteI find that in classrooms, regardless of the classroom, that it seems the boys are louder and more vocal than the girls. The girls in the classroom are quieter than the boys in my classroom.
How does your teacher re-direct them when this happens? - the teacher in my classroom just brings the topic back.
Well, Kyle I just realized...is in my group of students because he has an anger issue, aside talking about himself. My teacher will either ignore what the student is saying, but if he notices that it is bothering the class, he will single the individual out or ask for the whole class to be quiet and wait. It's an interesting way of doing things, but nothing we haven't experienced before at some point.
ReplyDeleteKyle never has a hard time getting back on track, but he likes to think the world evolves around himself. The teacher will also after a few times when a student does something, have them meet him at lunch to go over something he has noticed and determine then whether they need disciplinary action or not.
I agree with getting to see how things are going because you can get a better idea of where to jump into material at or want to get covered with class for the day. I would have to agree boys are louder than girls in the classroom, even when you look at how children interact. To get them back on track, he will keep discussing the topic, and since they are autistic, it takes them longer to process what he is asking them to do...such as what he wants on a paper.