Observing Communication

I was in an early childhood classroom at one particular school. It was circle time, and the children and teacher were on the carpet. Now I have been in this classroom before. One distinct thing I noticed was whenever a certain young child would get his turn to talk, the teacher would limit his conversation, by  telling him “we do not have time, please do not talk. I only want one word that begins with our letter of the week.” He just like to talk.  On this particular day the teacher was letting each child answer a question about the new letter for the week. She would go around the circle, and give each child a chance to speak. I noticed, and observed when it was this young boy’s turn, he responded again with more than one answer. Everyone in the circle looked baffled and all eyes were turn in his direction. For a brief moment the teacher was caught off guard, however, she quickly regained her composure before anyone except myself could noticed. The young boy kept giving her words that began with the new letter of the week, and would not let the next person have their turn.
The teacher could have established and taken into consideration better teacher-child conversations with this student to make the communication more affirming and effective. One of the strategies she could have used was “teacher talk.” According to Dangle & Durden (2010) “the role of power (who decides who talks, when, and about what).Do the experience and language encourage children to initiate ideas and share regularly in the conversation? Who controls what is said and done? Is there a balance of teacher and child talk? Sharing power during conversations and allowing children to initiate conversations maximizes children’s voices” (Durden, 2010).
My thoughts are the interactions between the child and the teacher were not favorable for the child. The kind of language, functions of her language, and not promoting the child’s thinking, I believe hurt the child’s feelings. It had a great impact on his sense of self- worth, because, in his mind he may have thought he was being helpful providing more than one answer, and he wanted to share what he knew with his peers. What better place than to share what you learned than in circle time?
My insight from this observation is to never let your agenda or planning get in the way of a young children expressing or communicating in the classroom. I do not do this, because, I feel as though maybe at home the child does not get to express or communicate as much with other adults and children.  I have learned to step back and listen to what children are trying to tell me, then embrace it to affirm effective communication. I also learned I do not have to do most of the talking in a conversation with  children. I can keep their voices at the forefront of our relationships, so I can hear what they are telling me. I can improve by being more sensitive, respectful,  more acceptance towards others, more reflective, listening more, and providing more space for each child to be themselves.

References

Durden, J. R. (2010, January). The nature of teacher talk during small group activities. YC: Young Children, pp. 74-81.

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