PART TWO
ANALYSIS OF THE FILM
A Combined Prefirst/Second
Grade in Kwethluk
Kwethluk
is a large village with a new
and, ideally,
well-staffed school.
As
is common
in village schools,
the principal was
expected to teach
as well as
administer. In the
normal course of
events for
the region the
staff
had
been depleted
by illness
and
resignations. Accompanying
readjustments
in classes
and duties of the
remaining staff had to be made.
The mix of second
grade
and prefirst described
here was a result
of these adjustments.
It was taught
by Mr. Principal,
a credentialed teacher
in his first
year of teaching
in Kwethluk. In his
role as principal
he was
under particular
stress because
of staff
shortages. The combined
class was not exceptionally
large,
with twenty-six
students in
a
large room. Mr. Principal
had the assistance
(not always utilized)
of a local teacher
aide (Collier,
1973, private
communication).
The
film starts with
most of the students
seated
in three
rough
rows of chairs
in front of the
room for
an ESL
(English as a
Second Language)
lesson.
A
small number of
students, under the supervision
of the aide,
are working
with workbooks
at desks in the
back of the room. Mr.
Principal has an
ESL dialogue,
concerning
a lost
child and a policeman,
written
on the board.
The language of
the dialogue, written
for Puerto
Rican children
in New York City, is
somewhat
awkward.
Mr. Principal reads
the dialogue, explains
it,
and then has the
group repeat it.
His movements and
gestures are fast,
angular and
harsh, meaning
that they
are linear
in direction
and carried
out at high
speed which
is marked by
abrupt
stops and starts
(Illus. 33-40b).
A
comparison of
his pace to that
of the
two Eskimo
women
who taught
the
Head
Start class
indicates
that he moves
three times
as fast
as they
did. Student
response throughout
this ESL lesson
is marked
by a lack
of flow and
uncoordinated
pace. There is
a great
deal
of fidgeting,
twisting,
and turning.
These movements are generally
uncoordinated
actions of individual students.
One boy
claps
his hands, puts
them on
his knees, raises
his hands again
and claps
them in a rhythmic
movement.
But
this whole
sequence of
action
is
totally ignored
by the
surrounding children
(Illus. 41-46).
At
various times
the group as
a whole is
oriented toward
the teacher
but
these moments
are brief
and soon replaced
by less
unified behavior,
including
a fair
amount of looking
at the
camera (Illus.
47-48).
47 |
48 |
It is
this inconsistency of group-wide orientation and coordination of movements
which leads me to describe this session as having a discordant
note
and little flow.
As the lesson progresses the teacher selects individual
children to come forward and act out the dialogue. An older boy plays the
part of policeman.
Several
students come forward one after another to play the part of a lost child.
These sequences present an opportunity to observe teacher-to-student
interactions with two different students, a boy and a girl. The teacher
smoothly ushers
the small boy to the front of the room and positions him facing “Mr.
Policeman.” In this sequence the teacher slows his pace and he
and the boy move together (Illus. 49-51).
However, as the teacher moves
back the boy takes a frozen stance
just as the teacher left him: feet together, elbows in, hands held tightly
in front and
motionless. After a period of waiting, the teacher moves in to encourage
him. But now Mr. Principal has returned to his quick angular style of
movement. He gestures vigorously, points to the board, leans over the small
boy.
The boy remains frozen in position. The boy is replaced with a girl. She,
too, takes the same frozen position and holds it (Illus. 52-55).
The remainder
of the class continues in its chaotic state with pace and
movements utterly uncoordinated. They are a group of isolated individuals,
all moving
in the same manner and at a similar pace, but not together. The teacher
was able briefly to adjust pace and actions to mesh with the students.
He was,
however, unable to sustain these adjustments once the process of the
dialogue was started and so could not help the students relax to a point
where they
could comfortably act out the dialogue. The frozen state of the students
when they were singled out to perform in front of the group was repeated
in several
other classes with other teachers. The lack of flow in their movements
in front of the class conveyed their extreme discomfort. Throughout
the ESL
lesson,
Mr. Principal’s fast pace, and abrupt, angular movements appear
to have made it quite difficult for the students to be drawn into the
lesson
as he
presented it. The uncoordinated behavior of the children reflected
the degree to which they were uninvolved with the lesson, as well as
to the
degree to
which Mr. Principal’s actions and manner disrupted group unity.
After
a brief period of reorganization, the ESL lesson is followed by a
session of Mother Goose rhymes. Pictures of characters in the rhymes
are projected
on a screen while the teacher leads the group in chanting the words
together. He starts out at a more moderate pace than in the ESL lesson;
but, after
a time, he returns to the hectic pace and gestures that typified
the earlier session (Illus. 56-58).
This period of group activity saw the most
unified behavior on the part of the students and the longest periods of
attention for the
group as
a whole.
Behavior was less chaotic, and the increased consistency of attention
was revealed by more unified body positions and facial orientation
toward the
teacher.
There was some synchronization of pace within segments of the
group, if not group-wide. An example of this was a period of time in which
two students
rocked back and forth together (Illus. 59-62).
It may be that
the pace or rhythm of the rhymes momentarily provided Mr. Principal with
a pacing more congenial to that of the children,
thus drawing
them in.
This beat was not picked up by other children, however, and
unity of attention seen in the orientation of faces was soon replaced
by twisting
and turning,
and by wandering glances. Mr. Principal was able to get their
attention and involvement for a period of time but was unable
to hold it.
The situation suggests, as in the ESL lesson, that the pace
and style
of his presentation
were too
distinctly different from that of the children for any flow
to develop. Consequently,
he was unable to provide real direction to the class.
The
next sequence of scenes shows the class scattered around the room: the younger
children coloring dittos of Mother
Goose rhymes,
some of
the older
children working at a table with worksheets, and the teacher
and seven students gathered around a table for reading.
Despite the
small size
of the reading
group and their proximity to each other, there is no sense
of group unity, no thread which holds them together. They
move, as so often
in this class,
at the same pace but not at the same time. While bodies
turn, eyes wander all over the place. Each student moves alone
without relationship
of
a consistent nature to neighboring movements. Some of them
place
their books
on edge,
making
walls behind which they sit isolated, slumped down in their
chairs. This isolation is indicative of the lack of communication
among
the children
and with the
teacher. The teacher sits hunched over at one end of the
table (the table is too low for him) and vigorously pursues
the lesson
in the
same abrupt,
forceful
and linear style which he used when he was projecting to
the whole class in the ESL lesson. He reaches across the
table
several times
to turn
students’ pages
or to draw attention to the books. These movements are
sudden and at variance with the students. In one case,
he accidentally
hits a boy
on the side
of the face. Neither he nor the boy were sufficiently aware
of the other to avoid
the blow even though they were sitting side by side (Illus.
63-65).
All these movements would have been intrusive and
disruptive to student flow and involvement with the lesson
if there
had been
any; but with
things as
they were, these motions were merely a part of a generally
confused pattern of movement and interaction.
The camera
swings to show the rest of the room. The aide, helping a girl with some writing,
leans over and writes
something.
Student and aide
move at the
same slow pace, but the camera continues its swing
and the scene is lost to view before any characterization
of the interaction
can be made. The
younger students sit widely scattered, coloring, just
filling in
the lines. Each
is
alone with his or her sheet of paper and an individual
set of crayons. The coloring process is slow and sleepy.
Eyes wander
readily to
other parts of
the room (Illus. 66-67).
66 |
67 |
The camera swings and shows
the aide with three students. All are bent intently over the table, focusing
down
together. One
of the
girls gets
up from her
seat and stands leaning on the table to get closer
to the center of focus (Illus.
68-69).
68 |
69 |
The camera returns to the teacher, now standing,
who continues in the same energetic style. The students at the reading
table continue the
behavior
already described.
The next portion of film shows a play period. Most
of the students play alone or in groups of two or three. Behavior is generally
similar to
the play in
the Head Start class. The only striking difference is that here there
is a fair amount of bumping into one another, and the scene is correspondingly
a
bit more chaotic. This disorder may in part be due to the smaller size
of the play area and the larger number of children.
Throughout this play
period the aide continues to work with two of the three
students she was last seen helping. They sit in the middle of the room
in quiet concentration, heads and bodies focused down on the table
or toward
each other.
They have created an invisible bubble of intense concentration in which
they continue their work smoothly and without hurry (Illus. 70-72).
The
class ends with the whole class gathered at the front of the room as images
are projected on a screen and students are called forward
to point
things out.
The behavior is generally the same as during the ESL lesson, except
for an interruption when everyone but the teacher turns to look out the
window.
Presumably, something of importance and interest, a plane landing
perhaps, is outside (Illus.
73).
73
The teacher ignores this intrusion and resolutely
continues in his hardworking manner, pointing to things, gesturing and drawing
students
to the front of
the room to point out things on the screen. As before, they stand in frozen
postures and escape as quickly as possible back to their chairs.
This class
was typified by a nearly complete absence of connection between the pace
and movements of the teacher and the pace and movements of the
students. The teacher operated at three times the speed of the students,
and in a style
of movement--angular, linear, and harsh--which was opposite in style
from the rounded movements of the students. Except for brief moments noted
in
describing
the ESL lesson, the teacher appeared oblivious to the position, pace
and movements of the students. Had he attempted to relate to them more closely,
the conflict
in pace and motion would have been even more striking. The students’ chaotic
behavior may have been partially a result of a non-verbal chasm between
them and the teacher which made it nearly impossible for the teacher
to create a
situation in which the class could focus in on the material which he
was presenting. Mr. Principal worked almost nonstop in his efforts to
involve
the students,
yet the class was characterized by boredom and general lack of intensity
of involvement with anything. Only the two or three students described
working
with the aide showed any extended involvement or intensity. Could Mr.
Principal have modified his behavior, the structure of the class, or
the role of
the aide in such a way that student interest and involvement would have
matched
his own hard work and obvious dedication? It is ironic that Mr. Principal’s
hard work and dedication, expressed as it was in increased pace and more
aggressive movements, may actually have served to make the situation
worse. Even
such a small matter as a marked reduction in the speed of his movements
might have led to improved student response.
