MOM 2006 journal for pdf.pmd - University of Michigan-Flint

ack and read the text (on their own).” The inner-city school students did not do this type of
activity.
Another activity that the suburban students completed on their own was of an arts and crafts
nature. Students were instructed to draw and label the different anatomical features of a plant
stem along with their functions. This was the only art activity out of a total of two that the
suburban students were required to do on their own. All activities that involved drawing or art
were done as a group by the inner-city students.
The inner-city students did most of their assignments in groups. They did arts and crafts
assignments, completed worksheets, and drew food webs of certain animals—all in groups. The
suburban school students did only one assignment as a group. This was an arts and crafts
assignment in which students were instructed to share each others art supplies to construct their
own three dimensional model of a flower.
The first group activity the inner-city students took part in required them to draw everything
they saw in a neighboring field. Students were divided into groups of four and an approximately
ten square foot of land was assigned to each group for observation and drawing. The drawings
were labeled Habitat Maps because students were learning about the types of organisms that
inhabited the field. Students worked together as they spotted different organisms in the field, but
each student was required to turn in his or her own drawing.
When students were completing the worksheet identifying insect body parts, they were guided
by the teacher throughout the process. The worksheet was filled out by the class as a group with
the teacher giving the students all the correct answers. At first, she would ask the students for the
answer to each blank on the worksheet. However, if none of the students raised their hands or
gave an incorrect answer, she would provide the class with the correct response.
The food web assignment required students to draw a food web depicting which animal was
eaten by whom. The teacher asked everyone to listen as she explained how to make a food web.
Before she began to give her instructions she said, “Listen carefully I’m only going to say this
once.” However, by the end of the class period the teacher had repeated the directions a total of
twelve times and guided the students every step of the way. This included giving directions to the
class as a whole and providing instructions and explanations one on one to certain students.
The suburban students did more reading exercises as compared to the inner-city students. This
included reading from the textbook in class and at home. One of the reasons the teacher made the
students read out loud in class was the language barrier some students faced. A large number of
students in the class were of Middle Eastern descent. For many the primary language spoken at
home was Arabic. Because the teacher thought these students might not be able to read or
comprehend the material well if they were told to read it on their own, she had the class read as a
group and then she discussed what had been read. She said, “I never assign text material to be
read independently…without going over it in class. Usually we read it together in class first.” She
went on to say that she expects the students to reread the material on their own outside of class.
She said, “I always remind my kids that just reading it with me in class is never enough.”
In contrast, the inner-city students were never instructed to read in class. The reason for this
could be a lack of updated textbooks. The teacher said, “To tell you the truth, the textbooks that
we use here…are ten years old.” The textbooks given to students at this school were published in
Meeting of Minds 2006 2