Behrman-Week 6 Noticing Blog

           Today during lunch the other second grade intern and I were reflecting on what we have observed/noticed in our classrooms over the past two months. It was interesting that although our classrooms are different in ability levels (since mine is the transitional bilingual classroom), the same behavior patterns are evident in both classrooms. Our students often give up before even attempting to complete a task, or read a passage independently. If they don't know how to write a word, they automatically raise their hand and seek assistance from the teacher, so that they can write it properly. If they are directed to read a passage, many students raise their hand without having even attempted to read it. When they see a word they don't know automatically, they raise their hand without trying to sound it out, or think about how they could decode it using their set of word skills. I will talk to students who claim to need help and crouch down beside their desk, encourage them to try reading it, only to have them read the whole passage or words they "couldn't read" perfectly without any aid from me. This impacts my student's own work ethic, as well as takes away my time and attention from students who really are in need of assistance.
        This type of "learned helplessness" behavior is incredibly intriguing. In my reflection time, I have come up with two possible causes for this behavior. One, their previous teachers did a lot of "hand-holding" and did not scaffold students to complete work independently, or use their toolbox of skills and strategies. When you have ten kids raising their hands for assistance, it is much either to simply re-read the directions for them, or tell them how to spell or sound out a word, then move on to the next student's desk. However, this teaching shortcut is so detrimental to students' attitudes towards learning. It's not about "getting it right" all the time; it's about exercising your brain! A second possible cause is that students lack the self-confidence to try and need constant validation. They fear that they might not be able to read the passage, so they want the teacher next to them just in case they need help with a word. Part of this low self-efficacy could be due to their language proficiency skills, or the constant testing/progress monitoring that these children undergo. In their reality, everything is a test and there is a right answer/way to do it and a wrong one. Although this pattern of behavior will be incredibly hard to unlearn, every day I try to push my kids a little bit when it comes to working independently and encourage them to do their best and try first before giving up and raising their hands!