PART TWO
ANALYSIS OF THE FILM
A
Second Grade Class in Bethel
This class was taught by Mr. Scout, a young man
of small stature who had taught several years in Alaska. In terms of this
study he was an “Anglo” but
perhaps only marginally, as he was the son of eastern European immigrants
and had been raised in New York City (Collier, 1973: 93).
The class had some
twenty-eight students, and the room was fairly small.
As a result, there was not much open space, and seating was in rows of
desks, although the students were not in them much of the time. This class
had the
highest proportion of non-Native students of any of the classes studied
in detail.
The film coverage of the class opens with Mr. Scout
in the back of the room, his hands cupped to his mouth, giving instructions
to the class at
large
as they prepare for recess. While he is addressing the class, one of
the boys
approaches him and taps him on the chest in an attempt to get his attention.
Mr. Scout, without breaking his focus of continuing instructions to the
class, puts his hand on top of the boy’s hand. The boy moves back
and gets something from a desk and returns. The teacher finishes talking
and draws back with the
boy toward the corner of the room where they can then be seen in communication.
The process is a smooth flow of interaction from start to finish. Mr.
Scout had continued his directions to the group, signaled the boy that
the message
was received, and had then followed up with the attention that the student
had sought. Significantly, the coverage of the class starts with a student
initiating communication with a teacher and getting an immediate and
smooth response, an occurrence quite rare in most of the classes-but
common to
this one. In fact, this brief sequence almost defies the nature of teacher-to-student
relations in this class (Illus. 107-110).
While Mr. Scout and the boy
talk, the rest of the class close up their desks and move to the
front of the room where they get their coats and
congregate
around the door. The teacher then comes to the front of the room
and puts on his coat. The whole class is now in the small space in the
front of
the room,
milling around, but with no congestion or friction of movements.
Their pace is shared, and they have a good sense of each other’s whereabouts,
making it possible to move around without bumping into one another.
Several of the
students approach Mr. Scout to talk to him, apparently about something
on the floor as all eyes turn down toward something off-camera. Then
the class casually
go out the door without lining up; and, in the midst of them, goes
the teacher, leaving several students unsupervised in the classroom. According
to John
Collier, this was quite unusual, indeed unique, in the classes he
observed
(Collier, private communication). Others have noted that school and
state regulations often forbid teachers to leave students unsupervised in classrooms
(Connelly,
private communication). Whether or not this was the case in Alaska
is
not known, but it is a significant reflection of Mr. Scout’s
confidence in the children that he did leave them unsupervised.
The
students that remain in the classroom are all busy. One boy is
working at his desk with pencil and book, oblivious to three girls
who busy themselves
putting away a large roll of paper and then distributing cups and
napkins to all the desks. One girl, moving down each row, pours
milk into the
cups. All
of the students in the room appear to be very sure of themselves.
There is no hesitation to their movements which are smooth and
relaxed. This
sense
of purpose and direction, with and without the presence of the
teacher, was characteristic
of this class and sets it apart from all other classes filmed,
with the exception of the Head Start class. It is particularly important
to note
that both here
and later, the children had purpose and direction even when the
teacher was absent.
The other students start to drift back in, followed
by the teacher. They sit down and start to eat crackers and drink milk while
Mr.
Scout sits
in front
and reads a European folk tale. He is expressive in his reading
style and makes many hand and arm gestures. The students sit
listening intently while they eat. Some lean forward in their desks and, a
great deal
of the time, they focus their attention
on the
teacher. They are
quite relaxed in this behavior, and some students alternate between
books
on their own desks and the story the teacher is reading. It is
not clear whether
they are following the reading in the book or are looking at
books unconnected with the story.
The snack period and reading
ends, and the class cleans up and gets prepared for other activities. There
is a surface appearance
of chaos,
but it
becomes clear that the activities all have a purpose. Desks
are cleared, things
are put away, and the students begin to form into several distinct
groups and
areas of activity. With no apparent direction or burst of energy
the class has gotten
down to academic business. There are three reading groups in
the back of the room, one of which is in the middle of the
room and
engaged
in individual
activities
and two groups who are involved in art projects in the open
space at the front of the room.
Throughout this process of getting organized,
there is a great deal of interaction among students and between students
and the teacher.
In one
brief period
he talks briefly to ten different students either individually
or in small groups.
Some of these interactions he initiates; but fully half are
clearly started by the students. His movements in these encounters
are
at the same pace
as the students’. The flow of movements are smooth;
there are no signs of friction or missed signals. This smoothness
is particularly
remarkable as
most of these interactions take place while the participants
are walking around (Illus. 111-116).
The frequency and number
of teacher-to-student and student-to-teacher
interactions in this class was unmatched in the total film
sample. This section of the
class also shows another feature which makes his class
unique: the ability of the
class to get itself together without the constant presence
and direction of the teacher.
Once the groups are set, there
is a great deal of interaction within them. Mr. Scout moves around for a
periods and students
pursue
him with papers
and questions and then return to their groups. Eventually
he seats himself at the rear of the room with a reading
group; fully half
the class is
out of
his sight.
The camera focuses in on one of the art groups.
They have rolled out a long sheet of paper and walk back and
forth
looking down
at it. They
move
together
as a group (Illus. 117-119).
Mr. Scout can be seen,
briefly, gesturing in wide rounded gestures to the group he is with. The
camera pans back to the front of the room where most
of the art group is down on the floor at one end of the paper, partially
obscured from view by the desks. Two views of them show the intensity of
their focus
and the degree to which it is shared (Illus. 120-121).
120 |
121 |
Two other students
in the front of the room are working on separate projects on the floor.
Both groups are quite active, their focus and concentration
clear. Their bodies, bent over the papers, move back and forth, and
their hands are
busy. There is a great deal of interaction; they look up at each other
and then down again at their work. This sequence shows what interested
and involved
students look like; their orientation is toward the project, and their
movements are shared and coordinated. This is a group project, and
they function as
a group.
The students at the desks are working individually,
mostly with Science Research Associates (SRA) reading materials. They glance
up occasionally,
but there
is little drifting of attention from the materials. For the duration
of this period there are students moving around all the time but
always with an air
of purpose. They come and go around the teacher throughout the period;
he always responds.
Following a break in the filming, the next footage
of this class shows that the students are involved with a math lesson. Mr.
Scout
is at the
board,
explaining a process and pointing out each step. The students are
sitting and watching
intently, some leaning forward or half-standing to get a better
view (Illus. 122).
They respond to questions with animation. After
a while the teacher hands out sheets of paper, and the students work
at them
at their
desks. Concentration
is high; everyone is busy with problems or with occasional
consultation with neighbors.
The teacher can be seen working with a number of
individual students.
He crouches on the floor next to them and looks at them a
great deal, watching
their responses.
All his other movements and actions are directed toward the
problems at the desk, as is the attention of the students who rarely look
at the teacher
but focus rather on the worksheets and what the teacher is
showing them (Illus. 123-124).
123 |
124
|
Most of these interactions are filmed in too
little detail to make clear statements, but one sequence follows an interaction
from
start to completion.
Mr.
Scout walks down one row looking at students’ work.
Spotting a problem, he stops beside one boy and starts
to show him something
on the worksheet
(Illus. 125-127).
Then, to explain the process more clearly,
he gets up and returns with a number rod (set of wooden
beads on
a rod)
which he and
the boy set
up while
two other
boys watch. In one sequence of this process he moves
his hand across the table setting up the base while the
boy
picks up
the rod and
moves it across
the
desk getting it ready to place on the base. The movements
of the teacher’s
hand and the boy’s hand with the rod are at the
same speed and follow each other across the desk in a
flow of motion.
With the rod
in place,
the teacher makes more explanations, waits for student
response, explains more, then waits again. Waiting after
explanations
was characteristic
of his
style; there seemed to be no pressure for immediate response
(Illus. 128-133).
Earlier, Mr. Scout and individual students
were seen in brief encounters that were notable for
their frequency
and their
flow. This last
sequence gives a
suggestion of the foundation on which those interactions
were probably based; i.e., long, patient, one-on-one
interactions
with students
in which he
was able to learn to move together with the students.
During
this math period, the class as a whole is continuing in its high level of
concentration. Later, as the students
come
close to
finishing
the assignment
there is a little more restlessness. Students stand,
stretch, then continue to work. When the class ends,
the students
get their coats
and leave
the room in the same easy manner described earlier.
This
class is important in the film sample because it shows an Anglo teacher who
has been able to create
a
class situation
in
which student-to-student
interactions and teacher-to-student interactions
are frequent and fluid and
take place in
the context of intense involvement with the processes
of education. It suggests that it is possible for
a non-Native teacher to make
adjustments
which lead
to the, involvement of the Native children. This
raises the question of how it is done. Mr. Scout
seemed to
base his
success on a
pattern of leaving
much of the operation of classroom processes to
students while he spent large portions of time making contact with individual
or small groups of students. Additionally, many of the activities
of the class
were group
activities requiring group
interaction, unlike the characteristic pattern
of
other classes in which the curriculum
was based on activities which students performed
alone and apart from other students. The effect
of this structuring
of the class
was to leave
the control
of pace and process very much in the hands of the
students so that they were able to proceed at a
pace and in
a manner comfortable
to them. Equally
important,
the classroom environment created by Mr. Scout
was one in
which it was possible for him to learn the movement
patterns of the
children
and they
to learn
his. This was so because his interactions with
them were often on
an unhurried, informal, one-to-one level which
allowed for mutual adjustments.
The circumstances
were a direct result of the way in which Mr. Scout
had structured the class.
