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Nathan is an average kindergarten student whose work shows growth since the beginning of the school year. Nathan misses gym and part of music as he arrived at 8:55. When I asked later why he was late, he said his mom had given him too much cereal for breakfast and he took too long eating it. He also said his mom had walked him to school; therefore, I assume he lives close by. He was sorry he had missed gym. During the rest of the music lesson, Nathan sang very little. He did not raise his hand when the music teacher asked, " Who remembers the story I told last week ?" When reminded of the story title, Nathan raised his hand to share a part he remembered. He was not called on to answer; later when he was called on to define ‘gallop,' he shared what he remembered about the story instead. During the remainder of the music lesson, Nathan was asked to do motions to the music, tell a story from a musical piece, to beat the rhythm with a pencil, recite a rhyme, differentiate between fast and slow, and to count to ten through a song. He had a period rich in auditory stimulation. Even though he appeared uncomfortable during the hand activities (he kept his hands in his pockets mostly ), he was rewarded with a chance to perform at the front and choose the next helper. Nathan chose the "quietest boy in the room," according to the children. When the regular classroom teacher took over, Nathan walked to the tadpole containers with some of the other children. When they were called back to the circle, Nathan hopped like a frog with his classmates because the teacher had called her little frogs to come. Nathan continued to move around the circle until he was on the floor by the teacher, who had three wooden blocks to use in a song about frogs falling off a log into a pool. Each child had a turn being a frog. Nathan acted like a real frog by flicking out his tongue as if to catch a fly. When he was asked to choose the next frog, he again chose the quietest boy. During the reading of a Disney ABC pop-up book that followed, Nathan raised his hand to tell that he had seen a classmate on the bus yesterday. The book had been brought by a student that morning and was not introduced or closed with any objective other than: "This is just to go over the letters." A treat followed for those whose behavior warranted one, and Nathan did. "Bingo" was next used to clap the letters and to lead into "Mommy" being spelled and clapped to the same tune. Nathan did not sing as he was still savoring his treat. The teacher began to explain the center choices for the day; Nathan had his name called as he had tried to quiet two students who were arguing. He didn't seem to get upset and went to sit in the circle. The teacher successfully reviewed the life cycle of the frog that she had introduced the day before by having flashcards with First, Next, Last, egg, tadpole, and frog identified and placed in the correct locations on a pocket chart. Nathan chose the tri-fold manila center activity that followed the review. His task was to write the words in the life cycle of a frog in the correct order and draw a picture of each. The ‘quietest boy in the room' came to sit beside him. Nathan's finished work looked like this:
He said his tadpole looked like a frog and then told me about a fishing story. He said, "One time I went fishing, and I accidentally caught a tadpole. My Uncle Jerry brought it home." We then had a conversation about what he did with it and if it turned into a frog. As he worked on his paper about tadpoles, he told me his tadpole looked like a fish. After I told him that was okay, we talked about how tadpoles are like fish -with the help of the other children at the table. Next, he told me that he made his 2's like S's because he had trouble making 2's. I showed him how to make a 2 by thinking of an ear. As I put a 2 on his paper, I was aware that he was scrutinizing my ear to see if I was right. Although he chose to have a chance to work with manipulatives to stack instead of practicing 2's, I felt Nathan is a student who hears, ingests, and looks for validity in learning to what he knows and likes. He shares his stacking of shapes to me as he is quite proud of its height, helps clean up, and quietly lines up for lunch. |
