Findings: Bridget

Tiny Islands/Big Sea

Throughout this study, my grade seven students loved exploratory time. They could not wait for ‘their hour’ and many students planned in advance just what they would do. As the hour drew near I would don an old paint smock and grab my clipboard. These two actions were the indicators that research was about to begin.

Before I began the study, I thought most students would use their exploratory time for leisure or ‘play’ time. I was surprised to find they were using their time to catch up on work they could not do at home for various reasons. Reading their exit slips, I learned many of the students felt there was not enough time in the day to complete assignments. Homework assignments and project work made for a heavy workload when combined with their already full schedules outside of school. My most interesting observations, however, came from watching my class as a whole instead of looking at individual children.

Observing student choices was informative but by the third observation, my interest waned and I focussed more on the atmosphere, who worked with who, and movement in the classroom.

As I perused the class, I sensed something was amiss but could not pinpoint what was wrong. Something in the atmosphere was different when I compared it to the usual chatter during lesson activity. This bothered me. I saw my class divided into small, self-selected groups like tiny islands floating in a huge sea. Supplies were not being shared. Why was no one speaking to anyone other than to his or her group members? Where was the camaraderie that had existed in my class?

Before our study, I assigned student seating at table groups of four. This plan would change every six weeks so that students had a chance to work with children other than their friends. At other times, the class was divided into different groups for project work or lesson activities. Having more female than male students, lone boys were isolated at tables with three girls. There was never a complaint about my imposed seating arrangements. The students had always worked well in the smaller groups. Presented with exploratory time, there was no imposed seating plan and students could work wherever and with whomever they wanted.

I decided to investigate the lack of communication among the groups. My assumption was that everyone in the class was content being in each other’s company but my observations were telling me otherwise.

The Girls’ Group

Grouping patterns emerged after just two observations.

By the windows, at the back of the room, one large group of seven girls work at a table meant to hold four students. Strangely, they are not working together. With heads bowed over their work, there is little conversation other than, “Can I use that felt when you're finished?” or “Is this the Indian Ocean?”

They speak quietly so only members at their table can hear them. Periodically, one head lifts to observe a raucous group playing cards in the middle of the room.

Across the room, another group of four girls work at a bank of computers looking up material for their ‘Famous Person Biography.’ Although motivated about their project, they keep their voices low and share few ideas. They seem uncomfortable with their backs to the centre of the room and keep peering over their shoulders at the card players.

At a table beside the computers, two girls attempt to play a board game but are unsure of the rules. They need more players but are reluctant to find anyone who is interested. Their voices, too, are low as they argue, “Forget it! I'm not going over there. You go!”

"I'm not going. You go!"

Not wanting to interfere, I decide to let them solve the issue themselves. Why won’t they cross the room?

Adjacent to my desk, two girls work alone at two separate tables. They talk to no one and pay little attention to what is going on around them.

On the far side of the room, a group of four boys play a game of Monopoly. The game is friendly but there is serious conversation about where Aaron is allowed to put his hotels. As usual, resolution eventually happens and they move on.

This game has been ongoing from the beginning of the research project with the same players throughout. With only seven males in the class, the game has commandeered more than half of the boys.

Why are the other three boys not playing? And why is this game exclusively male? Are others excluded or do they simply choose not to play?

Two children in my class, a boy and a girl, work alone.

Throughout the study, neither child has worked nor played with anyone else.

James has difficulty settling into exploratory time. He does not enjoy this choosing time; he prefers to have his time structured. Experience tells me decisions are difficult for James and he feels more comfortable when he is told exactly what to do. It often takes him twenty minutes to settle into an activity. Today is no exception. Finally he decides to work on his art project, though he is not really engaged in this activity. He wanders through off to the side and observes but does not participate in the monopoly game nor does he get asked to play. He appears content to watch.

In the front of the room sits Kate. She is academically challenged and generally does not connect with her peers. Quiet by nature, she only responds if spoken to directly and often avoids contact if it’s possible. Today, she works alone at her table. She sits with her back to a group playing a raucous card game. She seems undisturbed by their exuberant chatter.

She turns her head slightly and stops colouring her picture. She is listening to the children behind her!

The card game breaks up and the group heads out of the classroom for the bathroom. Kate unobtrusively stands up, turns around and begins to check out the deserted table. She picks up the cards and studies them. Next, she starts to explore the other things that have been left behind. No one is paying attention to Kate and she feels free to explore the remnants of the game.

The raucous group playing cards is made up of boys and girls. Its membership has been consistent since the beginning of the study. There are two boys and two girls. The group is situated in the centre of the room and is hard to ignore. Their noise level is higher than other groups with the conversation bordering on offensive. The members have become more disruptive with each research session and I am beginning to feel that it may be time to intervene. I eavesdrop on their conversation, which is not unlike that of a bar on a Friday night:

Girl 1: “What the hell?”

Girl 2: “Do you have ADD?”

Boy 1: “What the hell is ADD?”

Girl 2: “It’s like attention problems. My mom says I seriously have it.”

Boy 1: “Yeah, well what are STD's?”

Girl 1: “Shut up!”

Boy 2: “I want to sit on the big stool.”

Girl 2: “Yeah, that’s where you belong. On a big stool!”

Girl 2: “So, are you single!”

Boy 1: “I'm single and I'm proud!”

Girl 1: “You're a loser!”

Although the conversation is disjointed, it is apparent, that while swapping insults, they appear to be flirting.

I have not introduced rules about noise hoping that if a conflict about noise arose the students would solve it themselves. Today, the noise level grabs my attention, like they want to be noticed.

It is this group that everyone else in the class steals furtive glances at. It is this group that makes the rest of the class nervous. It is this group that resonates dissonance and distresses me today. Their behaviour is drastically different from the rest of the class. They are having so much fun and yet no one wants to join in. Why?

Exposure

The bullying began one morning at the end of February. One of my female students complained of a migraine and went home. I contacted her mother who immediately requested a meeting. We met at lunchtime and she promptly said her daughter would be devastated if she knew I was speaking to her, but that the matter was so serious she felt she had no choice other than to meet with me.

Her daughter had had enough. On her daughter’s behalf, the mother identified a bully group in the class and said the bullying had been going on for some time (prior to the research period). She related that the bully group had acquired so much power that they had successfully threatened and excluded two girls from the basketball tryouts. Although the students in the class were aware of the problem for the better part of the school year, many students felt silenced for they thought nothing would be done about the bullying. They were frightened of exposure for fear of retribution. Now I understood the uneasiness I felt in the classroom, and the odd relations between individual groups. Bullying explained the disconnection.

How could I approach the class so victims felt supported and the bullies would feel threatened with exposure? I had to tread lightly. That afternoon, I shared my feelings about what I had noticed during exploratory time. Then I told them that parents had contacted me alleging that bullying was going on in the classroom. I asked the students if they knew what I was talking about. Incredibly, twenty-two of twenty-four hands went up. I devised a questionnaire that had four questions:

Have you witnessed bullying in the classroom?

Have you ever been bullied?

Have you ever been a bully?

What did you do about it?

I was hoping for honesty in their responses; and they delivered.

It’s Not Cool to be a Bitch

Since then, my entire curriculum has been devoted to Social Responsibility and the results have been promising. We spend time each day discussing different issues related to bullying and other concerns that teenagers have (friendship, peer pressure, trust, drugs and alcohol, sex). One such discussion began with a journal question, “Why is it ‘cool to be a bitch’?”

I got the idea after watching The Passionate Eye, where Lynn Glazier (2004) hypothesizes that “It’s cool to be a bitch.” She states, “Girls hurt others by using stabbing looks and biting words to inflict emotional wounds.” Next, I tried to change attitudes by exploring reasons why “It is not cool to be a bitch” and in the case of the boys in my class, “Why it is not cool to be an asshole.”

Finally I felt a shift in the negative energy and the classroom atmosphere relax. Children began to move more from group to group comfortable that they would not be harassed. The identified bully group, however, became isolated and not welcome in any of the smaller groups. This was not what I wanted to happen but, under the circumstances, it was understandable. In the very near future I will need to address this new issue of the isolation of the bullies and think about healing for the whole class.

As a follow up to exploratory time, journal writing and discussion offered ways for my students to examine their own behaviour and that of their peers. I wonder now, if my students had been given more time in earlier school years to practice healthy social skills and conflict resolution, whether such dissonance among groups would have evolved.

Reflections: Right Under My Nose

In this study, one of the many things I learned is that I need to communicate more frequently with my intermediate teaching team about student workload and the time we provide for our students to complete assignments. Many of the students’ exit slips indicated they felt relieved they had more time to finish assignments during exploratory time. Common responses were:

“I felt happy because I had free time to read.”

“I felt good because I was getting this stuff out of the way.”

“I felt good because now I can focus on my projects instead of doing homework.”

“I felt relieved because I could get my work done and finish my projects.”

I realized that my students, though twelve and thirteen years old, also needed time in the classroom for exploration free of expectation. However, their ‘time’ looked different than that of the younger children in Jen’s and Kristina’s classes. An American study of students in Grades Three to Eight found that student interest, choice, and enjoyment decreased as grade level increased (Gable, Robert K., Gentry, Marcia and Rizza, Mary G., 2002). Additional forces such as peer group pressure, self-esteem, and self-image also affected motivation and achievement. Maybe it was a lack of supervised socialization that allowed the bullies to develop in the first place.

Although many of the students have been friends since kindergarten, hierarchies had formed within the class. Differences were no longer tolerated. The identified bullies, or troublemakers, tried to set the tone in the class but this power struggle worked best within a curriculum with no exploratory time. I also wondered if what I was witnessing in the classroom was similar to what may be going on at recess and lunch. Was I seeing the playground at break times?

Ultimately, I have learned that there is special truth in the adage that ‘things are not always as they seem.’ The fact that there was an extreme bullying situation going on right under my nose and that I was unaware of it tells me I am not paying enough attention to what is truly happening with the students with whom I spend so much time. It was only when I took time to observe my students during the research project that I sensed trouble.

Exploratory time allowed for self selected groups and activities without teacher direction. During this time there was no imposed focus on academics, which in turn allowed social issues to become evident. There was also a perceived lack of supervision. Less structure and more freedom revealed the anti-social behaviour in the classroom, unveiling what had previously been hidden. Once the bullying had been made public, the tension was off and the bullies were no longer hidden, but watched carefully.