Observing Communication
I chose to visit my son's head start classroom during lunch time. his teachers, Mrs. Jackson and Ms. Dorsey were taking the children to the sink to wash their hands before they ate. Once all the children were seated at the table and received their plates, the children began eating. One child, by the name of Lila, began to pick at her plate and wasn't eating her food. Ms. Dorsey watched Lila as she picked up her string bean off of her plate and stared at it, while whirling it around in the air. after a minute, Ms. Dorsey said to the children. "Do you all like your string beans?, I think they are delicious." This statement that was meant for Lila, but directed towards all the children instead. Ms. Dorsey then states, "How about you Lila? Do you Like your string beans?" Lila sat quietly and began to taste the string bean, after while, she began to eat the string beans as well. Lila later states "I ate my beans Ms. Dorsey, they're good!!, I'm gonna eat my chicken and bread too!" Ms. Dorsey replies to Lila, "That's good that you ate all you're food and your vegetables, you're going to be very strong and healthy!!
In this account, I noticed that by the actions that Ms. Dorsey expressed by asking the children caused by speaking on how good the string beans were, which encouraged her to try them, which also led her to try and eat all of her food. Ms. Dorsey's actions were more of general statements instead of command, which led to the expectations of Lila eating her food to be met.
I believe that the communication interaction between Lila and Ms. Dorsey was very uplifting for Lila. from the language and communication flow of Ms. Dorsey towards Lila not only influenced her to eat her vegetables, but to eat all of her food as well, Which is why language is such a strong guiding principle for communicating with children. "As teachers we need to question our language in terms of the context it provides for children's thinking." (Rainer Dangei, J & Durden, 2010).
References
Rainer
Dangei, J., & Durden, T. R. (2010). The nature of teacher talk during small
group activities. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 74-81. Retrieved from the
Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=47964033&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Hi Diedra,
ReplyDeleteFirst - I love Head Start and am so excited to read stories like this one! :) How cool was it you were able to witness this scene in which a teacher witnessed a potentially challenging event, and yet knew to call out or embarrass the little girl would be so harmful. Sometimes as caregivers we need to be super creative to inspire the children in our care to "just try" things. I'd like to think that if Lila had not enjoyed her string beans, the teacher would have found an equally appropriate and supportive way for her to not eat the beans. For the record - it would have to take A LOT of convincing to get me to TRY string beans! LOL :)
Thanks of an uplifting post this week!
Heidi #2
Hello Diedra,
ReplyDeleteInteresting way Ms.Dorsey used to get Lila to eat string beans and discontinue playing with her food. Her selective way got her to cooperate I believe, because of her choice words. There needs to be more educators like Ms.Dorsey. Great post!