The absence of learning is evidently seen in “The Class” in several ways. On the first day of school Mr. Marin falls short of establishing classroom rules and procedures. Rather than having mastered classroom management, the students themselves are the ones who seem to have more power in regards to what will be learned, what will not be learned, and on what terms. I find it interesting that on his 4th year of teaching, he has not reflected on his teaching skills and modified whatever aspects were clearly not working with his past students to enact with his present students. But rather seems to lack the desire to affirm what his position is and what their positions are. Befriending them and pushing them too much as to lead them astray from their comfort zone is not the way he is going to gain his students.
The learning process was constrained by the fact that the students walked into his classroom lacking a distinct boundary between their teacher and themselves. Since some of the students have had this French teacher in the past, they know just how far they can go, which seems to be pretty far. They get away with using profanity, failure to complete homework assignments, disrespecting their teacher and their peers, being off task, and so forth. It was clear that Mr. Marin failed to use the appropriate language in the classroom; thus, setting himself up for inevitable questioning. As he wrote a sentence with the name Bill, some students found it out of context to use “weird” names (American), and instead use names more commonly used in their culture; thus, this being something they could relate to. Learning is known to occur more readily when student’s are exposed to things familiar to them; yet, if something has no meaning to them, it will be that much more challenging to engage them in.
Surprisingly enough, the learning process came into effect in a later moment, despite the student’s initial resistance to it, through a self-portrait assignment. A classroom consensus revolved around how their lives were not as interesting as that of Anne Frank’s; therefore they would not do the assignment. Yet, as Mr. Marin had the students expand on what they meant by that, was he able to in a way “trick” the students into sharing things about them even if they were “ashamed” of it. The more the students shared something, the more others would soon follow. It was almost as if their peers stories were somewhat relatable despite how different their story was. Specifically, one of the boys shared about being ashamed of having been around wealthy people because of his own inferiority to them, although his particular story does not apply to his classmates; perhaps they can empathize with him because they share a common background, this being living in impoverished areas. Same with the girl who said people were ashamed of their appearance; although she said she was ashamed of their ears because they stuck out, others can relate to the fact that they too are insecure about their appearances. Thus, learning occurs because they are learning something applicable and relatable rather than foreign and dull.
I definitely noticed a change in the learning environment during their self-portrait assignments as well. It seemed to me that once one student became willing to share, the environment shifted and the students began respecting each other for their willingness to admit what they were ashamed of. This lead to sort of a snowball effect where others became willing to share about themselves as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI also noticed a change in the learning environment when Mr. Marin gave the self-portrait assignment (it definitely was a high point with Souleymane). One advantage to the free wheeling teaching method Mr. Marin displays is that he can modify his lesson plans on the spot if they start to really bomb. He realized he was going the wrong direction with reaching the kids he had so he switched gears to something that worked out.
I think that having them share things they were ashamed of helped build classroom community. When the students starting sharing I was reminded of those hokey trust exercises or ice-breaker games that are popular at business retreats and youth camps. The success of the activity really showed when students felt comfortable enough to start volunteering things without being asked directly.
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteYes! That’s exactly what happened. I’m glad I was able to see this shift in the students because it was getting really frustrating seeing how the teacher attempted (perhaps not hard enough since he’d jump from one topic to another without notice or clear understanding of his previous topic) but nonetheless, was able to propose an assignment relatable to the students; thus, making it inevitable in a sense, for them to dismiss since prior tasks lacked the language and culture they were in desperate need of.
Hi Matt,
I agree that he does have the ability to shift gears when finding himself heading into a danger zone as well; that being the key to reach out to his students rather than provoking them to build a wall around him. I was really surprised that when the students were sharing such personal things, like Louise’s insecurity about her ears, the students did not ridicule her for it as they are accustomed to doing. I feel that Mr. Marin initially began pushing this assignment to the first student that commented on being ashamed of his friend’s mother, but not in the same way (if that makes sense). In other words, he did push them but not to exhaustion but more so by asking him questions for clarification on what he meant by being ashamed since the real term he was possibly looking for was embarrassed. With that, everything else began to flow more easily and students were definitely more cooperative.