Lunchroom Observation Paper

The third grade students observed during the two sociograms were C, K and D (with A and Q). The informal setting sociogram was conducted during lunch time during the first part of lunch, and the formal setting sociogram was conducted the next day during the interactive computer math activity that occurs every day. During lunch the students sit at a two sided table and take up approximately four tables in total. All the students in the summer school program eat lunch at the same time, so the lunchroom is loud and full of activity. Additionally, the lunchroom setting provides the most common places to identify code-switching between academic and informal speech (Wheeler, 2008). While the computer activity is not the best academic situation for
K is a black 8-year-old third grade boy whose native language is English.
D is a black 9-year-old third grade boy whose native language is English
A is a black 8-year-old third grade boy whose native language is English (also has an unknown developmental disability)
Q is a black 8-year-old third grade boy whose native language is
D still dominated the conversation in the formal sociogram. Interestingly however, the majority of his initiations (one initiations directed to the teacher from across the room) stemmed around his accomplishments in the computer activity – “I got a new high score” and “And another high score”. As a student who is having to repeat a grade, he might feel it necessary to prove himself as a good student. Likewise, competition seems to be very important for him, so activities that involve team based competitions would help develop his language development skills (Wasik & Iannone-Campbell, 2012). Conversely, K reacts very negatively to competition. For each gloat that D made about his scores, K progressively looked more and more defeated. Ultimately K stopped working on the lesson and just stared at the screen. In the future, K should spend more time working one on one with a teacher to help bolster his math skills to build confidence so that he can interact more efficiently with the other students. K did however respond positively to D when D helped K set up his computer at the beginning of the lesson. Perhaps, in the right setting, D would be a good scaffold and teammate for K in a variety different activities (Wasik & Iannone-Campbell, 2012). Additionally, K’s reaction to D’s competitiveness might be negated due to the fact that they were