My Field Placement

I was sitting in my new field placement at 7:30 am excited and ready to learn from my partnership teacher. I had been with this class only a day, so everything was new and enlightening. It was my second day there and I knew already that I loved my class and my partnership teacher seemed to be a great example to follow. As most classes do, my students started coming into the classroom one at a time and getting started on their morning work. Curious and excited to help I decided to walk around the classroom to see what the students were working on and if they needed my help. As I walked through the classroom, the students were chatting quietly but focused on their work.

I ventured my way toward the front of the classroom and I noticed one of my students who was sitting not doing their work. I went over to him asking him if he needed any help. He said yes and as I started to help him and then my partnership teacher came over and told the student not to bother me. I was stunned at what she had just told the student. He had not done anything wrong in my eyes. Of course, I did not know him well enough at the

time, but when a student needs help, it is important that you help them in any way you can. But that was not what really had me taken aback that day, I was even more surprised when I glanced back over at my partnership teacher and the student I had been trying to work with and she was marking his paper all over with a highlighter. As she finished I made my way back over to his desk to investigate and to my disbelief, my teacher had written all the correct answers on his paper with highlighter and he was tracing over the words with his pencil.
The Confusion
Why did my partnership teacher just give him all the answers instead of helping him like I was trying to do? I was so puzzled by what I had just witnessed I didn’t know what to think. Instead of just sitting there dazed, I decided to go and ask my teacher what she had just done.
I went over to her and asked, “Why did you use highlighter on this student’s work for him to copy”.
She responded saying, “If I don’t, he will not get his work done and he doesn’t really know how to answer the questions anyways.”
I was still dumbfounded and wanting to learn more. I responded by asking her how she was helping him by writing the answers down for him. She told me that she normally goes through the answers with him to see if he understands what the questions are asking. If he does not know the answer she will help him by giving the correct answer and explaining why it is correct. But, sometimes she just does not have the time to do this one-on-one work with him and so she will fill it out for him and he will just trace over the words.
As I sat there listening and thinking about her response I was thinking to myself that she is an incredible teacher, but I don’t think I could ever do this with one of my future students. How does one just give a child the answers, especially when they do not know how to read, do not know how to get the correct answer to begin with, and therefore will not learn from this experience. It was sad to see that a method that could possibly work and I have heard does work, to just go down the drain not helping the students in this particular class.
So Many Questions!
Since that day, I keep going back to these three questions, 1) Are we helping or hindering our students learning with the scaffolding and modeling we are using? 2) How do students learn when they need just enough support, but not too much? 3) How much responsibility should teachers give their students when it comes to their learning? In the following pages, I will explore these questions and compare them to research I have found. What is helping our students: the ways teachers use scaffolding and modeling, the amount of support students need when learning, the roles students should take in their education? The answer to these questions are ones that will be very helpful in my future classroom.
Is That Actually Helping These Students?
After witnessing the highlighter incident at the school, I decided to dig deeper into what really works and does not work when teaching students. I know that when my partnership teacher was writing the answers on the students paper, it was to help him, but was it really helping him? I got to spend more time in this classroom and got to know the students more, especially the students my partnership teacher would use this highlighter tactic and tactics similar to it.
As I came into the classroom day after day I noticed that the students who were receiving the tactics of getting their work done by the teacher, were the students who were struggling the most in the classroom. These students would either be pushed to the side because they “couldn’t understand” or “weren’t their yet”. The problem with seeing this was that these student’s performance level was getting worse and the problem was not being solved. I noticed at one point that these students were not getting the proper attention they need and did not have to be responsible for getting their work done. If they did not get their work done it did not matter because they were not capable of learning it in the first place, and they needed to be taken out of the class and learn what they should have been taught in kindergarten. One of these students by the end of my time at the school were finally receiving the outside help they needed, while the other student continued to just sit in the classroom and waste precious learning time that they truly needed.
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) has been defined as: "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p.

86).

Looking at Vygotsky’s study on the zone of proximal development, these students are not receiving the education needed to grow in their understanding of the lessons they are being taught. How can these students be independent problem solvers when their teacher is not providing them with the knowledge and energy they need to learn? These students are not learning and are in a classroom where, if they do not know what to do then they are not required to do the work. These students are not going to get very far in doing this.

We Can’t Send Them

Out
One day I sat down with my teacher to plan a lesson I was going to teach in three days. We discussed that my professor was coming in and how I was nervous about them coming. As we sat and talked she was excited about what I was planning for the class and could not wait to see how it went. After finalizing everything she stopped and said,
“Okay, I think it would be ideal for the whole class and you if Student A and Student B were taken out of the classroom for your lesson. They will just distract the class and it might look poorly to your Professor if they are not understanding what is going on. You think about it.”
I sat there dazed and confused as to why my partnership teacher would think this is a good idea. I responded with saying I would think about it and let her know. The day of the lesson my partnership teacher was sick and was not going to be able to make it to school and asked for my final decision about taking student A and B out of the classroom. I told her I still did not know if it was a good idea or not and she said she would decide for me and that they would be taken out. She said it would make life easier for everyone.
Flow…...
So, I am just supposed to send out these students who probably need my lesson more than anyone else in the class to make my life easier? This is not okay. I did what she told me to because I am a guest in that classroom, but I know that should not be the answer. When these students were sent out of the classroom one was given kindergarten work to complete in the classroom beside us, and the other one was sent to the computer like I have seen being done many times before. These students are not receiving the education they need. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi once said "The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." (1990, p. 3). Csikszentmihalyi discovered a state called flow. It is what his quote says, when someone is completely absorbed in an activity and challenged through it. These two students are not getting to this state called flow by doing kindergarten worksheets and playing on the computer when it gets too hard for the teacher to reach them.
This state of flow follows so many things in the world today and therefore, our teachers should be following this idea as well. When looking at this idea video games are the number one contributor to this state of mind. People who make video games use the concept of flow. When playing a video game one has to go through levels to continue, and the levels do not start out hard, they progress with each level you unlock. It makes no sense to start someone on the hardest level of a video game because they would ultimately fail and the person playing would probably give up in the first few times playing. This concept goes hand in hand with these two students in my classroom. My partnership teacher is right in saying that some of the work given to them is too hard, but why not modify it for them, but not too much. If we are modifying their work by writing all the answers down for them, then we are not helping them learn. If we start at the level everyone else is, they will not care to even try to understand what is in front of them. The level of scaffolding used to help these students need to be looked at intensely and someone needs to figure out where these students are at, and modify their learning accurately.
To End This Scaffolding Mess
For students who are struggling in the regular classroom it is vital for the teacher to be using scaffolding appropriately to help not hinder these student’s education. These students who are provided with scaffolding that are not in the flow state or using the zone of proximal development are not receiving the help they need. When providing scaffolding such as doing the work for students or not requiring them to do their work, this is actually causing problems and hindering their education and ability to learn. As a teacher, it is important to work with where our students are according to their learning abilities and figure out how to help them grow and catch up to the rest of the class. It is important that teachers are pushing their students to achieve a higher level of understanding instead of letting them slack off or giving them work that is too easy. We need to make sure our students are held accountable for the work they do and their education. The teacher and students need to be proactive about their learning and wanting to achieve a higher level of understanding inside of just sliding through each grade with the bare minimum. I believe that my partnership teacher was not intending to hinder these student’s education, but it is important to make sure that students are being pushed and are learning at their level of understanding. When I have my own classroom, I will provide my students with scaffolding that follows what both Csikszentmihalyi and Vygotsky’s understanding of student’s brain and learning abilities. I believe these methods when followed are what will help the future of our students.