CLASSROOM ANALYSIS

RULES AND PROCEDURES OVERVIEW

Kelly Wildermuth

Who Are The Students?

“Every person is unique.” Although most teachers would agree with this statement, they tend to
talk about student types—slow learners, underachievers, disadvantaged, science-oriented, jock,
or college-bound. This tendency is understandable in all people when they try to reduce the
complexity of a situation. This typing of students transforms a room filled with 35 unique
individuals to one with 3, 5, or even 10 types of students. But however understandable or natural
this tendency is, it is also potentially dangerous because such a practice might blind teachers to
their students’ individuality. This is why you should get to know your students as individuals.
Each has particular strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and also each is a member of
one or more friendship groups. Understanding who a student looks to for approval or respect is
also of vital importance. The topic of labeling or classifying students—particularly special
education students—brims with controversy. What are some of the benefits of labeling or
classifying students? What are some of the hazards or disadvantages of labeling or classifying
students?

The first step in getting acquainted with the students is to observe them in class. Here is one
approach to observing students:

Stand as unobtrusively as possible in the classroom before any students arrive. Jot down notes as
they begin to arrive. Some suggestions for your notes are as follows:

1. Notice who arrives first and last: Rylee, Addie, Ariah arrive first. Rylee and Addie
are the class leaders. Alexus, Liam, Skylar, and Audrey arrive last. They are all much less
involved and much newer to choir.

2. How many and what age and gender are the students in this class? All twenty-two
of the students are female ages 15-18.

3. Do students remain in the same groups inside the classroom as those in which
they arrived? The students remain the same groups for the most part.

4. Look at the overall space between groups. Is it uniform? Does it reflect furniture
or resource location or friendship groups? Are there any cliques? The overall space
between the groups is uniform. It reflects the structure of the room and the classroom
procedures. The students have assigned seats. There are not cliques per say, but
groupings do happen at times during rehearsals.

5. Who are the isolates? Alayah, Olivia, Abigail, and Ariah are somewhat isolates in the
group.

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6. How much movement between groups occurs? Note how changes in groupings
occur during the class period. There is not much movement between groups. There are
assigned rehearsal seats, but the groups seem to be seated together. This might be a
coincidence, or it could be intentional, or this might be a product of the seats that the
groups are what they are.

7. What roles do particular students play? For example, who is the joker, the cynic,
the teacher’s pet, the introvert, etc. Addy is the leader, Marin, Molly, and Dina are the
singing leaders, Rylee is somewhat abrasive and a know-it-all, Olivia and Abigail are
quiet and shy, Alexus and Keniya provide the comic relief, sometimes accompanied with
attitude, and Ariah is very eager to please and somewhat of a teacher’s pet.

8. Which students raise their hands most often and least often (or never) when the
teacher asks a question? The students that raise their hands the most include Marin,
Molly, Rylee, Keniya, and Ariah. The students that raise their hands the least are Olivia,
Abigail, Alayah, Liam, and Skylar.

9. On which students does the teacher never call? The students that are called on less
are the ones that do not raise their hands and the isolates of the group. Once or twice she
calls on students that are not raising their hands.

10. Is the behavior of the students who sit in the back of the room different from
that of the rest of the class? What about the corners, the middle, and the front? The
students in the back are less engaged and do not answer questions but they are not
misbehaving and do participate. The corners are where the leaders sit in the class and
they often interrupt the teacher during instructional time to include their own input. The
students in the front of the class talk and interact with each other much more – it is
obvious they are friends.

11. Which students seem to be paying most and least attention and what is the range
of attention spans? The students paying the most attention include Marin, Molly, Rylee,
and Keniya. The students paying the least attention are Carly, Liam, Sierra, and
MacKenzie. There is a wide range in attention spans among the students: some stay on
task nearly all class period while others only last about five minutes. The student in the
back and sides of the room tend to have shorter attention spans and pay attention less,
whereas the students in the front of the class pay attention longer.

12. Which students ask for most help and whom do they ask (the teacher, nearby
students)? Abigail, Molly, and Ariah ask Ms. Hood for help the most while Rylee and
Alexus ask their friends. Skylar and Liam ask each other as do Marin and Taylor.

13. Which students receive the most praise and which receive the most criticism?
Which students seem to be ignored? Ariah, Keniya, and Marin receive the most praise
while Alexus receives the most criticism. The students on the back row seem to be
ignored the most frequently: Liam, Skylar, Moona, Audrey, Carly, Sierra, MacKenzie,
and Alayah.

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14. Try to determine the extent of any division of labor in the class or within the
groups. Are there different roles? Do all carry out the same tasks? Are roles and
tasks fixed, or do they shift among students? Why? How does this affect the well-
being of students? Who seems to assign these roles or tasks? How smooth-running
and cohesive is the class and is each group? As far as roles go, Addy are Rylee are the
leaders, Charlotte is a behind-the-scenes leader, Marin, Taylor, and Molly are the singing
leaders. These roles are fixed and do not shift among students. The students who lead get
better at it but students who are not leading get left behind and are largely left out of
participating in very constructive ways. Ms. Hood assigns the roles and tasked to be
carried out and the class is somewhat cohesive. The transitions need to be much smoother
– they take way too long and are not organized at all.

15. If there are groups, how much communication and sharing exist among them?
The front row group communicates with each other frequently. Alexus and Keniya
communicate with each other as do Skylar and Liam. Sierra and MacKenzie also talk to
each other while other students do not. When the students are left alone or have free time,
the back-row group talks a lot with each other – they seem to bond because of feeling like
misfits within the class.

16. Is the relationship among the students mostly cooperative, competitive or

individualistic? For example, when the teacher asks a student a question, do other
students help the first student answer it, or do they try to answer it themselves? The
relationship among the students is mostly cooperative with the exception of some loners
that do not communicate with the overall group. However, other students try to answer
questions if the person called on does not know the answer. But when trying to succeed at
learning music, they are very cooperative and try to help each other.

17. On which students does the teacher rely to help decide when to move on. When
teachers decide to move on to another activity or topic, they commonly base this
decision on their judgment that certain students have “gotten” the material. This
group of students has been termed the “steering group”. Where do they stand in
relation to the rest of the class in terms of ability? The teacher relies mostly on the
front row as the steering group per say, especially Keniya, Addie, Molly, and Marin. The
teacher generally moves on when these students seem ready. These students are the most
knowledge, “best”, students in the class.