BLOCK II: THE PUPIL.

BEING ABLE, WANTING AND

KNOWING HOW TO LEARN
1. How does Erin motivate her students towards school learning?
Erin looks for a common interests and activities that motivate all the
students. Far away from the typical study of the Holocaust through books and
examination tests, she prepares dynamics and trips to approach this historical
fact to her pupils, for instance. She creates activities with a real objective that
origin a motivation to the kids, as well as a necessity to learn about it. It shows a
perfect contextualized learning situation, where the students have clear the goals
and the content they are going to study. What is more, she uses the classroom
situations as academic ones and it is like that how it surges the will to learn more
about the Holocaust, from a classroom conflict.
For instance, one of the activities is to read Anne Franks Diary, each one
by its own pace. Once the book had been finished, they asked her to bring the
woman who hosted her. This reaction created the perfect situation to introduce a
writing exercise (letters) and other learning tasks. This activity means an
opportunity for pupils to give a significant meaning to their productions.
Therefore, the motivation increases and, as a consequence, their engagement
increases, too.
In balance, she is using all the possible resources around them to
approach all the contents must be taught. The point is how she manages the
group and their perceptions about these contents or knowledge they saw as
useless at the beginning of the year.
2. Compare the way in which Erin describes the class group and her
expectations of the students, with those of the other teachers. Are they
different? Do you think the students change their academic self-concept
and attitudes towards the learning process through the course? Why?
Firstly, we can see how the other teachers warn Erin about their future
pupils. They provide reasons and arguments to explain why they are in this
situation, why there are not motivated teachers trying to solve this issue, why
they do not invest more effort in them On contrary, we can see how Erins
motivation provokes the students minds changing and their predisposition to
learn and to face with their social and academic problems.

We completely agree with these theories that argue for the importance of
teachers motivation and the outcomes this attitude fosters. We all know a
teacher in our academic life who were not motivated and whose methodologies
and techniques were not innovative and creative and, of course, were not
focused on engage us in their subject. Therefore, we stand up for teachers
motivation as one of the most important tools in order to teach any subject. The
relation between teacher and students determines how the pupils perception
about subject and its contents will be. In the films case, we can observe how
the students attitude change during the course and how they react in front of
the different activities but, specially, in front of their teachers attitude. They
become to feeling important and useful for someone, and this positive perception
towards them provokes fantastic outcomes.
We would also highlight the capacity to adapt and to create new ways to
teach and to approach the knowledge to different contexts, as a necessary ability
to be in front of a class. To understand the context that surrounds us is an
important step to apply a proper methodology, as well as, it allow teachers to
stablish a relationship with their students and to identify their needs, problems or
any interference with their academic success.
3. Describe the students diversity in this class. What does the teacher
do to attend to the diversity? What methodology does she use in the
classroom?
In Erins class there is a huge racial diversity, which is the main problem of
the class. What is more, students familiar context is not the proper. Some of
them have lost relatives, other ones have criminal precedents In addition to
this diversity of races and difficult contexts, there is a problem added: the gangs.
Most

of

the

students

belong

to

criminal

gangs

which

has

continuous

confrontations outside the school. The students carry these conflicts inside the
classroom which make the coexistence almost impossible. This situation,
obviously, does not fosters the academic success among the pupils, and this is
the fact that provokes Erins change of actuation.
In order to attend this diversity, she makes activities which show the
similarities they have to approach ones and the others (as the one of the line).
What is more, she finds a common interests and focus the activity on it, The
Holocaust. But there are other aspects that differentiate her students. An

important resource she uses to manage these differences is the diary. Through
it, students can write whatever they want by doing what they know. Which
means that not just one kind of writing is allowed but any kind of expression.
That way, she potentiates the talent each of them has and fosters the
action of writing. Moreover, most of the dynamics and activities are done in
group which allow them to share opinions with others and help one to each
other. Consequently, the diversity of types of activities is obvious being adjusted
to all kinds of learning.
4. Social dynamics in class: how does the teacher face the social and
discipline problems in class? Are there clearly-established behaviour
rules?
We believe there are not prestablished behaviour rules posed by teacher,
but implicit ones. Erin tries to get the students committed with the global
classroom management through some of the activities previously commented.
Instead of punishing or sanctioning their behaviour, she tries to engage pupils in
a common objective, which makes them aware about their similarities and
common points.
As future teachers, we strongly believe in Erins model because it fosters
the cooperation and the global inclusion of all the students. Sometimes, teachers
must look for different ways to approach the contents if the initials do not work.
Therefore, we think this is a good technique to make our students improve and it
is also a good example to take into account in our future role as a classroom
managers.
Finally we would not end without highlighting another important aspect
implicit in this kind of intervention: the sense of belonging. Students create a
sense of belonging to a group, and they left behind all the differences and
conflicts among them. This situation improves the coexistence and, as a
consequence, improves also the academic outcomes. In a context in which the
coexistence among children is present, the possibilities to acquire, transmit and
create knowledge increase considerably.