The Descriptive Review of a Child Protocol
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The Descriptive Review of a Child Protocol
90 minutes is exorbitant. Most research shows that a person’s attention span lasts about 15 minutes.
If we think about the “typical” IEP conference, 90 minutes is not unusual. Maybe what this protocol reminds us to consider is that all children may need the equivalent of an individualized education plan.
The use of protocol is very effective ant time efficient because it reduces the waste of time in an issue and it also restrict those people who take over a meeting and would not let other speak. To me, this appears to be a meeting for a possible child who needs extra social, behavioral, or academic, physical, or support.
It appears to me also that the protocol is for a child who needs extra social, behavioral, academic, physical support. Which i think mainly still holds true but after discussing with peers it seems to be able to benefit all students at some point. This is because when you are able to provide the kind of support a student needs you may find that it also helps others.
As a professional who has worked in various capacities with young children and adolescents both inside and outside of the classroom, the process helps us focus on the student in a way that explains a lot about who they are, and where they come from and what we can do as professionals to better help students reach their educational, emotional and social goals. In fact, many of the questions listed under “Description of Child” (par.26-30)are questions we would utilize in order to describe the student’s characteristics and progress.
As I read through this protocol, I associated it to the idea of “teaching a child as a whole”. As an aspiring teacher, it is interesting to see the different questions and answers educators can use or document for each student. Speaking from experience as a parent, I have never encountered this protocol and I agree with Lu M. about the very brief parent teacher conferences.
Let us do this to fix it. I tend to hear how much trouble they cause in class as well to the teacher process.
Many teachers tend to see bad behavior in a student when they are not properly seating with their hands crossed on top of the table and instead they are moving around and being talkative. Most time students who do this have underlying reasons that are dismissed or seen as they have a problem when in reality students have too much energy. Sometimes students get bored very easily when not engaged or they already know what is being taught. As educators we must first observe, assess and ask questions without assuming because a child’s actions always have a based reason for their behaviors and this too could be home related.
I understand your point, but great teachers only tell, exactly what they observe" on the child and let evaluators label the causes of the behavior as well as strategies to resolve, reduced or change them. What do you think?
This process is individualized, very in-depth, involves numerous collaborators from the child’s community, and is also highly structured. Similar to what happens when a child is being considered for services to ensure a plan of success. However, this is for every child.
The Descriptive Review of a Child Protocol" is a great tool to be implemented during meetings and especially in a one that includes creating a profile that covers the social, academic, and behavior of a child. Just imagine a child who behaves very well with some teachers, unacceptable with other teachers, and the parents feel the child is an outstanding students. Each party in the meeting will argue to create a child profile. This is very time consuming and this protocol will meet the needs of the presenter and facilitator.
Adapted by Katy Kelly from “Making the Whole Student Visible: The Descriptive Review of a Child”, HORACE, 11/1996 – a process developed by Pat Carini at the Prospect Center in Bennington, Vermont for reflecting on students and their work.
This activity seems as though it could really be a valuable one for building an educational community not only within school walls but also in the home.
To get parents to be able to think about their child through this educational and personal lens would be incredibly valuable. That is if, of course, the family had the time and resources to dedicate to this activity.
I suppose extra time is becoming more rare these days, especially among families in urban settings. As an aside, neither Bennington college, nor its educational center, are in urban settings. Very much the opposite.
The Prospect Archive and Center for Education and Research in North Bennington, Vermont, has, over many years, developed the concept of “Descriptive Review of the Child.” The work done by these dedicated educators has seeded a dialogue about children’s work all across the country that deserves gratitude and acknowledgement.
We got 3 page narrative reports instead of report cards. His 2nd grade teacher had him read to us at a family conference and explained exactly what literacy skills he had (intonation, decoding, etc). She knew his interests and how to engage him, who he chose to work with at work time, and his specific strengths and challenges. All of the teachers in the school collaborated and learned about each child so that there was continuity as they progressed through the years. I had never seen anything like it. It was amazing.
During most of my fieldwork observations I constantly saw the process teachers used actually providing a full descriptive review of each child. Each parent is given an individual narrative of their child interest and strengths as well as what need to be improved on. Teachers taking the time to build upon each individual characteristics of students they worked with and not a general blank report card.
Is this a private school? How many children per class?
This underscores the difference between the “haves” and the “have nots.” EVERY child deserves this amount of attention.
However, it was very small (about 200 kids) and teachers (including specials, paraprofessionals, special ed and intervention teachers, and counselors) collaborated across grades so they got to know kids over time. There was a lot of time for staff collaboration. They were very creative about scheduling and dividing classes for music, art and movement to allow for small group work and support.
Beyond that, I think the progressive curriculum and pedagogy was crucial for allowing this attention. The curriculum was emergent and inquiry-based. The center of every day was a 2 hour block of “work time” in which kids chose their activity area and developed their own projects and interests. Because students were directing their learning in so many ways, this allowed teachers to spend a lot of time observing. Literacy was woven through this work time as kids kept work time journals. There was a lot of focus on social-emotional growth, which yields big dividends as kids get older and are able to take more responsibility for their work. The school had an 80% opt-out rate from the standardized tests, which also freed teachers from having to “teach to the test” and there was a lot of buy-in to alternative assessments and a more holistic understanding of the child.
I think all of this helped. But it IS very challenging still to do all this with the large class sizes and small budgets of a public school. It’s really made possible by a teaching staff and parent body that is committed to the model. But for it to really scale system-wide, I do think it would require smaller class sizes and far more professional support than teachers usually receive. These are the kinds of schools rich families choose for their own children, but then they tell us that the rest of us needs skills-driven, test-driven, “no-excuses” schools. I agree that every child deserves this amount of attention and to be treated as an individual rather than a product to which we are expected to “add value”.
Wow, I want to be a teacher at this school! Learning how to observe and understand the whole child and focusing on their strengths to support them through challenges is key.
This process is not intended to solve a problem or change a child, rather it allows us to know her better — and as a result use that knowledge to better meet her academic, social, or physical needs.
As I read through the protocol it encouraged me to think about each student individually and take note of some things that we tend to take for granted sometimes like their physical presence, their gestures, their relationships with other children and adults, activities and interests etc. This all helps guide teachers get to know our students better and also helps us in differentiating instruction
As teachers, it is our duty to act not only as content deliverers or authority figures but also as collaborative role models. We must have the willingness to work with students who come from various backgrounds. The only way that we can do this is by getting to know our students. By doing this, it shows our students that we are caring and empathetic individuals. This in turn fosters a stronger teacher-student bond.
I believe it to be fun to get to know your students because like Zachary was saying it creates relationship and where there is relationship there tends to be a mutual goal or agreement that facilitate things for both parties. Teachers knows the students ang gets to share the lesson in a way is more understandable instead of feeling hopeless when lesson is being taught and students do not understand. While students see the effort and respect have for their learning experience and tends to be more collaborative.
Getting to know the child better really allows us to individualize instruction to tend to all their needs and better support their growth. Having effective engagement and communication all stems from the relationship we build with children. When I step into a new space with a new group of student, I always focus on trying to build trust, relationship, and understanding so that can open up communication and facilitate planning.
It is unbelievable to hear that educators still view this protocol as radical and new. Knowing our students is an essential part in ensuring their success. What comes to mind is that this protocol might be difficult to comply in schools that are understaffed, under-funded, or that my have an overflowing student population.
In my opinion it is radical because it is not in the norms of how the school system in America do things. I believe that in the school system, they see children as people who they need to fix to become better citizens. In my opinion, students are there to only absorbe what the teacher displays and that is about it. Taking the time to know the student is radical because it kind of take over the control of teacher knows it all and the information they feed is necessary for the student. What it means now is the needs of the students are important and so teacher have to know it to better assist them, which is completely different to how things were been done in traditional school system.
I agree with the idea that first educators need to know their students before trying to solve any problem. I observed that some teachers put a name on their students without knowing them, or why their behavior is like that. I believe in a restorative circle as a way to talk and to create that relationship with our students, educators, parents, where we give the possibility to our students to express themselves. In this way, we learn about their needs.
In past experiences, I have seen teachers attempt to re-build a child accrording to what they feel the child lacks and needs. While setting goals for students in terms of their behavior and academics, is not bad, nevertheless, getting to know the student allows us to better tailor our lessons and help them benefit the most from them.
I have read Pat Carini’s work in various education classes over the past four years or so, and every time I reread this protocol, I have to appreciate how rooted in observation it is. We are so used to hearing things like, “Johnny’s a bad kid” or “Riley is so smart”, but what does that really mean? This process seeks to address some need a student has by gaining a better understanding of that child through observation. We become scientists looking for evidence, and our own biases should hopefully be left at the door.
The descriptive review of a child protocol is created this process is created to target, identify, and work on the child’s needs to better provide the services students need.
Through this process a child can receive support in many areas in which development t needs to be reinforced.
Teachers needs to understand that there are many students in a classroom, which all have different needs. 90 minutes is not enough to assume something. However, there are many teachers that do not want to get updated. They believe that their old method is just the right one. However, things have changed.
Time (see facilitation tips) Allow at least 90 minutes for the process and plan on pre-conferencing several days prior to the conference to allow participants time to reflect on the child and prepare their description. Times given below are guidelines only based on a 90-minute conference – they should be reviewed carefully in every pre-conference.
Process (see attached notes for details of each step)
settle the child down after the fact.
Description of the child is very essential because teachers use observation to share updates on the child’s progress while also addressing any thoughts or questions from parents. It assists educators in better understanding why a child may exhibit challenging behaviors.
I believe the description of the child is very important because it just show the students that their teachers knows about them, instead of them being labeled as student A or B, this takes into consideration who they are hence making the student feel valued and cared for. I also think pop ups are important because it is like an overview of basically what did the child said and repeating to assure the point was sharing clearly across and it is also another way to show the student that you heard them and take it into consideration.
That’s a really interesting connection, Marlen. In what ways do you see the similarities?
The exercise of observing a child can be linked to a method I learned for encountering works of fine art, such as a painting. First, one should simply take a substantial amount of time to note what you notice. As that process continues, the mind starts to shift to curiosity… one may wonder, “why did Van Gogh put a big cypress tree in the foreground of Starry Night?” When it comes to observing a child, you might notice the child getting agitated and throwing nearby items at around the same time every day, and then wonder what the reason for that behavior is, and work from there to deduce and address the situation.
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Introductions — facilitator introduces the presenters, the process, the child, and the focusing question (5 minutes)
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Description of Child — use prompts in notes (20 minutes)
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Summary of Presentation, Dominant Themes, Patterns, Restatement of Focusing Question — facilitator (5 minutes)
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Other Descriptions (10 minutes)
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Restatement of Focusing Question (5 minutes)
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Clarifying/Probing Questions from participants (15 minutes)
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Pop-ups — What did we hear you say — participants (5 minutes)
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Summary of Presentation, dominant themes, patterns Restatement of Focusing Question — facilitator (5 minutes)
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Discussion/Recommendations — participants (15 minutes)
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Presenter Response (5 minutes)
- Debrief (5 minutes)
I read the full document and I still found specific information lacking on what the ‘focusing question’ actually is. It seems like a reasonable assumption to make that either the teacher or the facilitator would need to formulate this question. But again, I don’t think it is specified.
Perhaps its like the motivation of a lesson plan, where the teacher determines an overarching theme or guiding question that is dealt with throughout the entire discussion.
I think a focusing question is one that tries to get at what is essential about what you understand about this child, and then, how does this have implications beyond that child to others in your class and to how you are interacting with them. So specific and general, essential and broadly applied. It’s not easy to define.
I did a little bit more research as I had the same question as others who have read this protocol. What I found is that the focusing question is something you are wondering about the child that you can look at from various perspectives. Here are some examples I found:
How can I help Jason work more productively with other children in the classroom? (http://essentialschools.org/horace-issues/making-the-whole-student-visible-the-descriptive-review-of-a-child/)
-Who is Aisha as a student and writer? How can I support her as a writer, particularly on her 12th grade senior thesis? (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/591825)
-What is behind Cassie’s positive attitude? How can she share her good energy with other students and positively impact her own learning as well as the class community? ("http://teachinglearninggrowing.weebly.com/descriptive-review—child-study.html":http://teachinglearninggrowing.weebly.com/descriptive-review—-child-study.html)
After reading more, I think the focusing question makes more sense since as the driver behind the confernece.
Having the focusing question as the guide behind the conference and the descriptions to be discussed helps create an emphasis to branch off of.
I think this approach, because it is very in-depth and involves many collaborators, can be seen as new and radical since the discussion and the plan for the child will involve people outside of the child’s educational bubble which can be seen as unfavorable for teachers and other professionals.
One of the steps that to my understanding is essential when creating this type of process is the introduction. That is because knowing the goal and the people that will be working and providing the services and instruction is key during this process. Also, recognizing the child’s areas of reinforcement, specific information, child’s background, and family participation as well as the tools and what the goal and final outcomes of this process will be about.
During the descriptive review of the child, parents, teacher, counselor, psychologist, and any other concern school staff should be present, but teacher is the person trained to observe students behavior that can affect the school or classroom environment while the parents can provide the behavior of the child at home. The other parties may see the child not as frequently. The teacher is very valuable during section 2, describing the child.
because there is no mission accomplished with no clear path, a path that we clearly remember. This part of the process is for that, to re-state the path, the focus of the study.
While I think all of these steps hold much value, I think the most valuable step is the discussion and recommendations. This is the “action” part of the protocol in which a plan is designed that considers the whole child.
I can relate this process to the response to intervention process many schools use to support students. In this process, all students participate in screening and interim assessment to check their progress. For those that aren’t performing to the benchmarks, more work is done to understand why and supports are provided. For those students who are not make sufficient progress given targeted supports, a problem-solving committee may convene that examines the student from different perspectives. All stakeholders involved, including the child if they are old enough, should be invited to these meetings. Diagnostic assessments are often performed, along with close evaluation of student work and student characteristics to understand the child more fully. I think that this descriptive child process would actually fit really well as an initial problem-solving meeting! I’m just not sure there would be enough time to conduct this type of meeting with all students who need this level of support.
Here’s a link to the problem-solving meeting protocol in case you are interested. https://www.interventioncentral.org/sites/default/files/workshop_files/allfiles/Companion_Guide_Tier_3_RTI_Team_Revised.pdf
Facilitation Tips
I feel like they are very aware and tends to already do many of these things so if i were to bring to their attention I have to assure i have done research and prove also that this protocol best fit the student. The problem could be like Juanita said is that the host teacher does not want to hear your opinion and believe that how they have been handling things is correct. They also might see our inexperience or the lack of information to persuade the host teacher to apply it.
I would respond to criticism with facts and proofs. I would go beyond the document and find examples where this was applied in the classroom and it was a success. The point is not only to share but to show why it is good, we ourselves have to be sure it works first before handing it to the host teacher and the research and time spend finding extra information not only assist in persuading in term of host teacher criticism but also our own doubt and reservation of the protocol
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Timing — the timing for this process depends on how many people are presenting and how many are participating.
90 minutes allows enough time to work through the process if timed out carefully.
Two hours or more is better, especially if a parent is involved.
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Presenters — usually there is one main presenter, most often a teacher with any number of additional interested parties — parents, counselors, other teachers, mentors, etc. who can offer different perspectives on the child.
Generally, the more presenters the more time you need for the conference.
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Parents as presenters — parents don’t often get a chance to talk to a group of caring, interested people about their child.
They know their child well and can add greatly to the conference.
There may be times when it is difficult to include them or counter-productive.
That is your call as facilitator.
That said, once they are involved it’s hard to tell a parent to stop talking so they can be tough to facilitate.
Therefore it is important that they are involved in pre-conferencing and are aware of the process before they go into it.
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Pre-conference — pre-conferencing far enough in advance of the conference allows the presenters important time to reflect on the child, collect information and prepare for their presentation.
- Summarizing — facilitator should take careful notes and pay attention to any dominant themes or patterns that emerge, while keeping the group’s attention fixed on the focusing question.
The most straightforward way might be to have the student teacher act as a facilitator while the host teacher takes on the role of the the main presenter. Alternately, the host teacher and the student teacher could both act as presenters, with the host being the main presenter. If the host teacher weren’t comfortable taking the lead as the main presenter, I suppose the student teacher could take on the role and the host teacher could be an auxiliary presenter. Implementing the Descriptive Review has the advantage of being able to use multiple configurations.
It’s hard to say how one might respond to criticisms of this protocol without knowing what those criticisms are. But I suppose that even without knowing that information, one can see that the flexibility and dynamism of Kelly’s framework provides many ways to handle strong criticism and even disagreement.
Involving the child’s entire community as much as possible can be highly effective in improving the educational experience of a student. I think having these outside collaborators (parents, mentors, counselors) can really help educators get a better understanding and profile of the child as these other people in their lives get to see a different side of them and can input on a child’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall temperament.
The main challenge of parent being included in their children activities and the contribution to school activities is that many minorities parents are people who for one reason or another became parents when they were very young and never learn the function of being a parent in the society where they live. Few parents hold a different belief about school and teachers to the point that they do not believe in their children wearing uniform, waiting for turn to speak, or following school rules. The school tries every possible way to reach some parents and many times parent block the calls no to be reached. It is a difficult task to get some of these parents on board. Would the inclusion of the parent have any effect if the parents do not get involved. I worked in a school where there were many challenging students, and the % of parents presence at the parent’s meeting was always very low.
I love this focus on including parents in the dialogue. As a literacy coach, I found that teachers often blame parents for “not reading enough” with their child at home or “not doing their homework”, etc. Yet, they really don’t give the parents the opportunity to be active partners in their child’s education within the confines of what the parents are able to do. What I mean by that is that teachers often don’t take the time to understand the context of the child’s home life and work with the parents to find ways to enrich their child’s education at home. It could be that parents don’t attend conferences because of their work schedule, etc. I love how this protocol includes parents as a main stakeholder from the get-go.
I agree with this statement. I believe that parents need to hear about there children from caring teachers and people. Sometimes parents are in denial of their children’s actions or they knew it and need to hear it to face it and bring change if there is a problem. Hearing from caring people and partnering with the parent will always be beneficial to the student.
I think one of the criticisms of this protocol is the involvement of the parents. It can be difficult to manage the meetings and discussions, however, it is essential to figure out how to involve them to help plan out the child’s academic success.
Getting to know your student’s means getting to know their parents. Parents are the best resource there is when trying to get to know your student’s. Nobody knows a child better than their parents.
When parents are involved in their child’s education, this makes a big difference. Therefore, when I have the opportunity to be in a classroom, I will work with the parents to establish a good relationship with them.
Notes on Process
- Introductions — facilitator introduces the presenters, the process, the child, and the focusing question. In introducing the child, the facilitator may want, at this time, to give a thumbnail description of the child: grade, age, birth order, pseudonym if appropriate.
- Description of Child — The presenting teacher may describe the classroom context if it would be helpful to participants: the room plan, setting, schedule, etc. Then she describes the child, including both characteristic and unusual behavior, using the prompts in the following categories:
Are you saying every child with an unusual behavior is bad ?
I once observed a teacher allow a student to just go take a walk mid lesson. When I asked why he told him the student always makes a scene in his other classes and allowing him to take a walk he comes back calmer, focused, and has better behavior. He said the other teachers make it worse when they scold him and spend most of thier period trying to correct his behavior.
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Physical Presence and Gesture — Characteristic gestures and expressions: How are these visible in the child’s face, hands, body attitudes?
How do they vary, and in response to what circumstances (e.g. indoors and outdoors)?
Characteristic level of energy: How would you describe the child’s rhythm and pace?
How does it vary?
How would you describe the child’s voice?
It’s rhythm, expressiveness, inflection?
Disposition.
How would you describe the child’s characteristic temperament and its range (e.g. intense, even, up and down)?
How are feelings expressed?
Fully?
Rarely?
How do you “read” the child’s feelings?
Where and how are they visible?
What is the child’s emotional tone or “color” (e.g. vivid, bright, serene, etc.)
?
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Relationships with Children and Adults — Does the child have friends?
How would you characterize those attachments?
Are they consistent?
Changeable?
Is the child recognized within the group?
How is this recognition expressed?
Is the child comfortable in the group?
How would you describe the child’s casual, day-to-day contact with others?
How does this daily contact vary?
When there are tensions, how do they get resolved?
How would you describe the child’s relationship to you?
To other adults?
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Activities and Interests — What are the child’s preferred activities?
Do these reflect underlying interests that are visible to you?
For example, does drawing or story writing center on recurrent and related motifs such as superhuman figures, danger and rescue, volcanoes and other large-scale events?
How would you describe the range of the child’s interests?
Which interests are intense, passionate?
How would you characterize the child’s engagement with projects (e.g. quick, methodical, slapdash, thorough)?
Is the product important to the child?
What is the response to mishaps, frustrations?
Are there media that have a strong appeal for the child (e.g. paint, blocks, books, woodworking)?
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Formal Learning — What is the child’s characteristic approach to a new subject or process or direction?
In learning, what does the child rely on (e.g. observation, memory, trial and error, steps and sequence, getting the whole picture, context)?
How does that learning approach vary from subject to subject?
What is the child’s characteristic attitude toward learning?
How would you characterize the child as a thinker?
What ideas and content have appeal?
Is there a speculative streak?
A problem-solving one?
A gift for analogy and metaphor?
For image?
For reason and logic?
For insight?
For intuition?
For the imaginative leap?
For fantasy?
What are the child’s preferred subjects?
What conventions and skills come easily?
Which are hard?
When the child gets angry he often crosses his arms or throws himself on the floor. When he is outdoors he runs away or around the playground. He screams or talks very loud. Feelings are expressed fully. When he is happy he is laughing and smiling, when he is upset he is screaming or crying. Feelings are visible in tone, actions, and body language.
I believe making deep observations based on the students gestures and presence in the classroom can be helpful when trying to understand the student as a person. This may gave indications to the teacher on the students enthusiasm or look of, in the class, as well as their understanding or comfort in the particular setting. Body language can help one learn what is on the students mind that they are not verbally sharing.
Having an understanding of how the student choose to exhibit their feelings through action, gesture and sound are greatly important as they set the baseline for behaviors that are typically for the student versus those that demonstrate some level of distress. Additionally, this information is essential to share with the students’ future educators to both get to know the students as well as record any progress or regress that the student is demonstrating.
Do secondary and post-secondary educators have much to learn from early childhood educators? How do we take into account physical presence and gestures in an online environment?
are bored in the lecture. A child who tends to play with the items on their desk while the teacher is lecturing shows that they barely have interest in the lecture. I have also experienced where a child is looking forward and paying attention to the teacher’s talk and movement, they are either very interested or trying their best to comprehend.
The teacher can not become an evaluator determining why the child acts in certain ways. I remember telling my supervisor that a girl needed to be in a special education settings to which she responded asking me " are you an evaluator?" Since that time, I learned my lesson.
Just a lot to always consider.
The child has friends that are changeable. He is recognized by name and he is invited to join games and activities. He is comfortable in the group but sometimes prefers to play alone. Tensions get resolved by using words or finding a different activity for the moment then returning to the previous activity. He has a great relationship with me
I think this is something that is very overlooked in a class setting and often underestimated. Understanding your students social skills, and whether their skills hinder or enhance their learning experience is important. I believe this will also help to create lessons that include more engagement to help the students learn to work collaboratively and engage with others as a part of their learning. Through observation, you can also attempt to understand why the student is able to or unable to build on relationships in class and ultimately work with parents to better support the students, with additional info.
I was amazed by these questions. Because my time observing in schools was so limited due to different areas I had to focus on getting information on, I never got the chance to pay close attention whether the child belong to a specific group or had a preference being around certain people. This something I will definitely consider during my future observations.
I too will consider using this in the future. I really found this method to understand the student to better serve them their academic, social, or physical needs to be supportive and empowering. Parent and student involvement in conversations concerning the child, are pushed out when proper services like facilitation or multilingual services are not present at meetings. As a theoretical framework I wonder how its implementation can look like in person. I am eager to see of the possibilities of incorporating even in my pedagogy. I say this because bridging that knowledge into the lesson planning is an effective culturally responsive practice.
While many times we focus solely on the work that we have students complete and their ability to do so effectively, we should also keep an eye out for the way our students interact with others socially. Such would require us to consider the manner in which students communicate, problem solving and engage with both their peers and adults.
Some students are very social with some teachers and not with others. I noticed that clean and well dressed students are treated different than the others who look different. Students tend to like and be more sociable with teachers who are not very academic demanding, sometimes.
This can tell you what are the student’s limits, level of comfort, and behaviors. This creates a relationship of respect and awareness every teacher needs to have with their students
The peer group for students play a huge role in the developmental psychology of a child. Peer groups influence students by learned set norms and values that govern and reinforce their existence. It is important for teachers to pay attention to the peer groups students are associated with. By shaping and controlling behaviors, public institutions like schools, serve as a reference to their inaccessibility to life determining skills to live with dignity. Therefore, teachers, by moving among the people as a fish swims in the sea, lessons are gained from parents, students peers, and the community, that can be used to better serve students’ academic, social, psychological and physical needs
Even if a classroom doesnt have seat assignments typically students like to sit in the same seat. I was observing a classroom where this boy was sitting and a girl came and asked him why are you even sitting here I don’t want you sitting here. The boy doesn’t look at her but says because I can and then ignores her after she continues. The girl then asks the people around her and makes a bigger scene of the issue. The teacher looks over and ignores the issue. The teacher after class tells me shes always causing a scene and it wasn’t even worth it to acknowledge her. I felt bad for the boy who had to sit next to her and felt that by not acknowledging the girl it was worse for both parties.
I think those questions are very good ones to keep in my mind while interacting with my studnets. Students need to be described based also on their relationship with adults. When we are able to give answer to those question, we re more prepared to create trust relationship with our children.
Perhaps they are alluding to all the other staff members that students interact with briefly throughout the day. For example, the lunch lady or when they are transitioning to other classrooms and there is an interaction with the gym or art or music teacher. Sometimes there are staff members who come into the classroom and visit. During these brief encounters, were it to happen a few times, there may be behavior that is reasonable to be noted and not dismissed.
One of the thing the teacher can do they can talk to other adults the child tends to socialize or is involved in their classroom. The teacher can also ask about their work and behavior to those teachers. I know what you are talking about. It can be hard keeping track of all students and their socialization with other peers and staffs.
He loves to read and be read to. He also enjoys looking at maps and other places in the world. When he draws he usually tries to draw another continent because of his love for maps. He is very passionate about this interest. The child completes projects thoroughly and takes pride in his creations and work. He needs to start over if he makes a visible mistake.
This is one thing I will share with my host teacher. It is important to provide children with a rich classroom environment. This means that children will be exposed to a variety of centers making it possible for them to participate in many different activities. This will allow the teacher to see what activities interest the child and what activities they demonstrate a lack of interest.
Children more often then not look for activities they can relate with and enjoy while learning. Therefore, I agree with you Maritza that having a host teacher to see this is important. Having students perform activities not only make is engaging but it also allows us to assess students and see what works well and what doesn’t.
He is interested in learning new things and gaining new skills. He relies on observation as well as steps and sequence. During math he focuses more on the steps and sequence, versus art where he observes more on technique. He is very strong with problem-solving and thinking reasonably and logically.
I love how specific these questions are. I never would have thought to consider questions like; “How would you characterize the child as a thinker? What ideas and content have appeal?”Is there a speculative streak? A problem-solving one? A gift for analogy and metaphor? For image?" Thes are crucial questions that, when answered honestly- give us a plethora of important information about our students.
The more we know each student as a learner, the more equipt we become to engage in instruction that is sensative to their needs and appealing to their interests. Moreover, we are able to tailor meaningful learning experiences that students are eager to participate in.
These are good questions to discover the child’s learning style and interests to incorporate them into the lessons.
I think I can present this protocol to a host teacher by focusing on the benefits and the aspect of involving a child’s community in their learning. It is a heavier and more demanding protocol, however, it focuses on the whole-child and allows for a deeper understanding of the student and for more easily implemented preventative measures.
I think when reading the protocol it seems a bit intensive because of all the little details in the description of the child. However, as an educator you should be getting to know your students on a deeper level and be able to have a mental note on many of the questions you could ask. Also, other participants involved with the child can contribute some responses. Maybe a student doesn’t necessarily gravite to you but knows staff or another teacher that share the same interests and gravitated towards them.
having the opportunity to work with STEM schools, students have different learning processes is based on the subjects. WE need to know our student’s learning process and which of the approaches we need to implement to better serve them.
Every student is different and it is up to us educators to rule the best learning approach for them to be successful.
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Summary of Presentation, dominant themes, patterns, Restatement of Focusing Question – facilitator
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Other Descriptions — This should not be a repetition of the description already given but observations that build on it and furthers our insight into the child.
It may include comments from people not present.
If a parent is not present any important medical information supplied by the school or doctors should be presented at this time along with any other school documents or reports.
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Restatement of Focusing Question — It is important to keep the group focused on the purpose of the conference.
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Clarifying/Probing Questions from participants — These are burning questions — ones that participants feel they must have an answer to in order to go further.
This opens out multiple perspectives and generates new information that may enhance the teacher’s insights, expectations, or approach, or may even shift her focusing question itself.
Start with clarifying and move to probing questions.
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Pop-ups – What did we hear you say — The participants take turns making simple statements from their notes about what they have heard about the child.
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Summary of Presentation, dominant themes, patterns, Restatement of Focusing Question.
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Discussion/Recommendations — participants discuss what they have heard and offer suggestions and recommendations.
They may build on each other or contradict each other.
These recommendations focus on ways to support the child’s strengths – not change the child – and create harmony in her school life.
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Presenter Response — the presenter may choose to comment on anything she has heard, answer any question that has come up or give any new insights she has gained.
She is not obliged to do any of these.
- Debrief — How did this process work for the presenter(s) in gaining new insights about the child? How was it for the participants? What implications emerged for their own practice. The facilitator should be given feedback at this time.
For public school teachers, the relationships and rapport established with students and parents, along with strong wraparound services provided by the school, and partnered with community resources and organizations; essentially a mutual aid, dual power political organization, is an effective model to follow. Children and people discover who they are and what they are from the ways in which they have been treated by others who surround them in the process of growing up.
However, in the reading I notice a lack of emphasis of the community where the child and school community reside. The child’s socioeconomic conditions determining and influencing consciousness development, is an important aspect of a child’s life that deserves uncovering. Not in isolation, are a child’s relationships with other people that form their kinship. Teachers and staff must take into account heavily.
It is important to remember that we are there to help the child. If a topic comes up, especially with a parent or guardian present, we should touch on the topic, but keep in mind the main reason we are there so that we will not get distracted and we will get to the proper solution
This is a time for the other side to chime in and ask questions they need answered before taking the next step. With that being said, this is a vital step in this process as these questions could define how things can go.
People, even and maybe especially children, are complex creatures! We need to accept that there may be complimentary or competing information about an individual being studied, and not to assume that the manner in which a child behaves in one scenario is how they behave in all scenarios.
Maybe a teacher is unaware of a teaching style that another teacher has implemented that works better for the student or has worked for students with the same characteristics. Maybe the teacher is interpreting the child actions in the wrong way. When working with colleagues, and parent a collaborative effort is going to give you the best information to help the child better meet thier academic, social, emotional needs.
I agreed with you Karyn,
Working in collaboration with different teachers are essential in the learning process of the teacher and the students. maybe the other teacher went to some workshop and she is knows how to deal with a child with more severe needs. Moreover, Teacher collaboration is key, in order to teach successfully.
Protocols are most powerful and effective when used within an ongoing professional learning community and facilitated by a skilled facilitator. To learn more about professional learning communities and seminars for facilitation, please visit the School Reform Initiative website at www.schoolreforminitiative.org
General Document Comments 0
During this time all people involved in the child education and care come together to present the student behavior to find out if there are behaviors that need to changed or eliminated because they affect the child, and others.
I believe it is necessary from day one for the teacher to try to set up a similar protocol. Students like it when teachers are straight forward with their expectation and when students are involved and the teacher gets to know more about their students it creates an atmosphere of openness and respect. This can eliminate many misconception from the starts. Teacher have to understand and implement strategies that focuses on the students more than themselves.
Many teachers use a protocol they name routine, or any other name. But the use of it, takes time for children to learn and I am not sure if the school principals would be flexible with changing the way they operate the school.
The first thing that comes to mind when going through this protocol is Holistic teaching. Understanding the whole student to be able to provide them with tools and strategies they can use to empower their learning. The protocol gives parents, teachers, and others the opportunity to share their perspectives on the student to work together to strengthen the student’s abilities.
When reading over the protocol it reminds me a lot of the inclusion of students with special needs. This is because when getting to know your student better you have to take into consideration social, emotional, and or physical needs. When you understand these needs you can make the necessary adjustments so that every student can succeed. For students with special needs you take into consideration those same needs.
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