I chose to observe an art class for
four and five year olds at a private art gallery. I watched for approximately ten minutes
focusing specifically on the interactions between a five year old and the
assistant instructor. The instructor
delivered an interdiction and gave directions for making the art project. Then one child needed some extra help getting
started and the assistant came over to assist him. The dialog was as follows:
Assistant, “Do you need some
help?”
Child, “Yes, I don’t want to make
a tree.”
Assistant, “Well, this is the
assignment for today, but when you finish you could work on another project if
you would like.”
Child, “I don’t really want to
make a tree.”
Assistant, “How could I help you
get started?”
Child instructs on what he would like
to do instead of the tree, and the teacher helps child to realize how the tree
and his plan could work together.
During the process I observed the
child silently working, and the assistant consistently giving the child
praise. The praise was very general; “Good
job. That’s it. I like that.”
The child finished the tree
project, and looked at the assistant and said, “Did I do good?”
The aspect of effective communication
that I thought stood out to be glaringly missing was, the lack of specific
feedback. Dangel and Durden (2010)
stated the importance of specific feedback to, “let children know their teacher
values their efforts and accomplishments” (p. 76). However, the assistant did make a connection
to the child’s life when she showed him how the tree assignment was similar to
what he wanted to do (Dangei & Durden, 2010).
The
communication interactions with the general feedback may have negatively
impacted the child’s self-worth, but I also believe her attention to what he
was interested in positively impacted his self-worth. Overall, I believe the child had a positive
feeling towards the project and the assistant, by the look on his face and his
body language towards the assistant.
I
believe we can always improve in our communication with children. I believe it is something that can always
evolve and grow. However, this has been
a goal of mine over the past two years.
I have working on the simple parts of language such as self-talk to
model language and vocabulary to specific feedback, to listening and following
the lead of the child in conversations with children. Each child is unique and learning their
communication preferences is the key to successful communication.
References
Dangei & Durden, T. R. (2010). The nature of
teacher talk during small group activities. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 74-81.
Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete
database.
Enjoyed reading your post Amber! I also believe each child is unique in learning their communication preferences. We all know that working with families can be satisfying and can also be frustrating, but it's good to have that partnership. When we observe children it's for us to understand them better, their strengths and also their difficulties.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I like the way the assistant bridge together the assignment and what the child wanted to do. They did not ignore the interest of the child but found a way to include it in what the actual assignment was. Appealing to the interest of the child was a great way to motivate her to do the assignment at hand. Also providing praise is a great way to encourage the child. I do agree that it could have been more specific to what the child was doing that was great.
ReplyDeleteHi Amber,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It made me realise that I am guilty of giving non-specific praise such as 'good job' to a child. When they hear what they are doing well specifically they will feel supported and it will also help them to build their confidence if they know exactly what they are doing is working. Thanks for sharing!