Observe a particular child who is learning English as an additional language in a school classroom and write a description paper
Format for your description of one child
1. Introduction and conclusion.
2. Describe the classroom.
3. Give a detailed description of that student, using all these five categories(Physical presence and gesture; Disposition and temperament; Connections with other people; Strong interest and preferences; Mode of thinking and learning) -making each one a heading for each section of the paper.
Be sure to observe the student in multiple settings over multiple days. Use a pseudonym, and indicate that you have done so. Include direct quotations when you can.
4. Length: eight pages.
Five Categories:
Thinking of a child's physical presence and gesture, visualize how the child moves, with attention to pace, characteristic rhythm and gestures, and how they may vary. For example, you might think about how the child tends to enter the classroom or the child's pace at home first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. You might think, too, of how much space a child occupies, where the child tends to position him or herself in a group, etc.
Locate the child in motion, physically engaged, both outdoors and indoors. For example, you might think of what the child likes to do outdoors (such as bike riding, exploring, sports, etc.) and notice to yourself the energy, pace, and gestures involved.
Do the same for active indoor play such as dress-up, block building, and other construction, etc. Then think of the child quietly occupied; for example, drawing, reading, observing, conversing, etc. What pace and gestures are characteristic in these occupations? Think about where the child seems most at ease and how you can tell that is so; then take it other side round and think of where the child seems least comfortable or most constrained.
Other slants you might take on the child's presence include the voice, its inflection, volume, and rhythm; characteristic phrases and ways of speaking; the expressiveness of the eyes, hands, and mouth; where the child's feelings can be read (and how easily); where and when energy flows most easily and smoothly; where energy seems to be concentrated; how tension shows itself; etc. Attending to expression makes a natural bridge to the child's disposition and temperament.
You might start by reflecting on how the child usually greets the world. Or to say that a little differently, you might think of how you would describe the child's most typical attitudes toward life.
Think, too, about what the child cares for deeply and what stirs deep feeling. Similarly, reflect on what goes against the child's honor or sense of rightness or justice and where the child has deep loyalties and strong personal commitments. Reflect, too, on how these deep feelings tend to be expressed.
Connections with other people are not easily separable from disposition and temperament. First, gather in your mind some examples of the child in the company of other children. In the classroom or at home, think about the location of the child in relation to the larger community of children. That is, reflect on where you usually see her or him; how s/he goes about making a place for her- or himself; how s/he tends to move into a new group or to respond to unfamiliar children.
Picture to yourself the range of the child's relationships with other children; for example, think about any children with whom the child has formed a close, enduring relationship, but also think of how the child falls in with more loosely connected groups that may form around games or other classroom or neighborhood activities.
Reflect on what the child's role is within friendships and small groups; with brothers and/or sisters or other close relatives; within larger groups. Give some attention to how the child responds if difficulties arise in a group or with a friend or if s/he, or another child, is in distress or left out, etc. Also think about when the child prefers to be alone or left to her or his own devices.
Now you might shift your attention to the child in relation to other adults. Think first of the child's characteristic responses and ways of connecting with adults and also the range of these.
Picture, for example, how the child greets familiar adults and the kind of contact the child establishes in the course of the day. For example, if there are adults who are sought out, reflect on what draws the child to them; if there are others who are ignored or avoided, think about what keeps the child at a distance.
Think, too, about the child's preferred ways of being with you or with other adults and what the child expects back from you. Another point of reflection might be the way the child negotiates the transition from one adult to another. Yet another might be your sense of what makes the child feel safe, trusted, respected, and secure with adults (or not).
Children, like adults, tend to have strong interests and preferences that are absorbing and long-lasting. such as particular foods (or eating in general!), colors,people, animals, places (indoors or outdoors), and a parallel list of what I know the child dislikes or finds repellent. ways of being hold the child's interest
The child's preferences, interests, and choices are windows to the child's modes of thinking and learning. Through these windows it is possible to glimpse how a child goes about making sense of the world and her (his) own experience. In a parallel way, attention to play - as a sort of thinking space of the child's own making - yields insights about the child as a maker of knowledge.
A good place to start is to think of things, ideas, or media for which a child has an inner sense or Feel. Another way to approach this is to reflect on what the child has always done or does with great ease. Looking in another direction, how the child gains a firm understanding or internalizes knowledge or is inclined to figure things out.
For example, there may be an inclination to map or sketch or draw or construct or graph. Or, equally, a child may rely a lot on a strong capacity for observing and remembering. Or, perhaps the child gets to know something by talking it through or dramatizing and enacting it.
There may be interest in taking things apart and putting them back together; or looking at things or ideas from many angles; or counting, ordering, and creating patterns; or discovering what makes something happen by trying different combinations; or looking things up in books; or studying pictures or photographs.