Michael Parker

MUED 380
Jesse Rathgeber
10/31/16
Practicum Observation #4A Student Snapshot
The student I chose to observe, (Ill call him John to keep his real name
anonymous), was a very enthusiastic fourth grader. John was a tall, skinny,
African American boy who I later found out had just moved to the school at
the beginning of the school year. John came in with a lot of energy, so I
instantly picked him as the subject of my tracking because I thought I would
be able to observe some interesting behaviors. He quickly taught me that no
student is exactly how they may seem.
As previously stated, John came into the classroom very energetically,
so I assumed that he may have trouble focusing on the lesson, as many
energetic elementary schoolers do. What surprised me was how quickly he
redirected his energy into the lesson at hand. As soon as the music started,
he changed his demeanor completely and would not take his eyes off of the
teacher. I could tell that he really cared about what he was learning. Not
only was he focused on the lesson, he was successful at attaining the set
objectives of each lesson and was a lot of the time ahead of the curve in
terms of adding extra vocabulary words into the mix and incorporating other
movements that matched the musical goals, such as moving his arms longer
when he heard half notes in one song.
Between activities, John did sometimes lose focus on the lesson and
took a bit more time to focus back in on the lesson. At one point, he was
individually called out by the teacher for doing push-ups at the beginning of
one activity. As soon as the teacher addressed him, he sat back up straight
and refocused on the lesson. At one point later in the class, he began to
move towards a push-up position again but corrected himself, showing that
he had learned from the earlier experience. John also seemed to be quite a

social student as he would regularly engage in conversation with other

students in between and sometimes during activities. He even got into a
small argument with another student at one point over what color scarf they
both wanted, (interestingly enough, both boys wanted the bright pink scarf,
going against many normal social constructs). As the period went on, John
continued to lose focus, possibly due to the fact that he did not seemed
challenged by the activities anymore.
Many of Johns actions seemed to be influenced in some manner by his
peers. At the beginning of class, he was very engaged with the lesson and
activities before he had the chance to really interact with his peers in this
classroom setting. Most of the talking and acting out, (while there wasnt too
much), came when other students engaged him in conversation or action
first. He seemed to follow along with their level of engagement after their
initial interaction, which may explain the steady decline in focus throughout
the period. The teacher engaged with him regularly, even using him as a
positive example for the whole class during one activity, which seemed to
center his focus back on the lesson. John even came back at the end of
class, away from the rest of his peers, just to ask the teacher a specific
question pertaining to future lessons based on a concept discussed that day.
It is understandable that a new student to a school may utilize some
personality-mirroring techniques as a way to fit in with and be liked by his
peers. Still, John made a point to show the teacher at specific times that he
was engaged and cared about the lessons he was learning.
If I were to talk one-on-one with John, I would ask him mostly about his
move to the new school. I would ask what his school was like where he came
from and how he thinks he is doing in the new school with making friends
and fitting in. This would be a valuable conversation to have as every
teacher will have a new student in their class at some point in their careers,
and that student may be feeling some of the same feelings that John is. I
would also continue to encourage him to ask questions in class and to
remain focused on the music lessons, since it seemed apparent that he cared

about what he was learning. I believe that it is vital to foster students

interests and encourage them in whatever path they choose to take,
regardless of what their peers may think of their activities.