My partner is Bei and last night we compared our transcripts of 4 minutes of her Friday class. (Unfortunately, the rules regarding recording students or class in general at my workplace are very strict and I have no chance of doing that at this point... unless I break the rules =)) so I'm grateful to Bei for sharing hers even more!!..). Here are some comments and observations on this task from me:
The first thing that jumped out to both of us when we saw both transcripts was that my version, in Bei's own words, is "more descriptive." I'm sure she can explain better what exactly she meant by this, but I think I wanted to write down as much of the sound I heard as possible. For example, if here was mumbling in the background, or other students were speaking Japanese - I put it down. We didn't share any information abt each other's classes, so in my mind, I guess I was trying to build a whole picture of what might be happening in class. I heard voice of another teacher, which confused me a little at first, so that was part of our discussion as well. We talked about the students talking in Japanese in the background, what usually happens in that class with English and Japanese use... To be honest, this experience of hearing and decoding the classroom as "layers" of interactions - a teacher with a student, other students among themselves, another teacher in there with their own purpose, possible non-verbal interactions that were happening - was exciting. Refreshing. I caught myself thinking I want to do more of this.
Anoher thing that was interesting for me to note was that a few times I didn't catch what the students were saying, or what I heard didn't make sense to me. However, in Bei's transcipt it was all clear. THe fact that she knows these kids, she has heard them talk many times and can distinguish what they are saying - while it might not be so clear on the recording, to the ears of a stranger - makes perfect sense to me. There were also cases when kids mentioned some game that I'd never heard of - and Bei did. So her transcript in some ways was "cleaner", more accurate.
Look forward to tonight's class!
The first thing that jumped out to both of us when we saw both transcripts was that my version, in Bei's own words, is "more descriptive." I'm sure she can explain better what exactly she meant by this, but I think I wanted to write down as much of the sound I heard as possible. For example, if here was mumbling in the background, or other students were speaking Japanese - I put it down. We didn't share any information abt each other's classes, so in my mind, I guess I was trying to build a whole picture of what might be happening in class. I heard voice of another teacher, which confused me a little at first, so that was part of our discussion as well. We talked about the students talking in Japanese in the background, what usually happens in that class with English and Japanese use... To be honest, this experience of hearing and decoding the classroom as "layers" of interactions - a teacher with a student, other students among themselves, another teacher in there with their own purpose, possible non-verbal interactions that were happening - was exciting. Refreshing. I caught myself thinking I want to do more of this.
Anoher thing that was interesting for me to note was that a few times I didn't catch what the students were saying, or what I heard didn't make sense to me. However, in Bei's transcipt it was all clear. THe fact that she knows these kids, she has heard them talk many times and can distinguish what they are saying - while it might not be so clear on the recording, to the ears of a stranger - makes perfect sense to me. There were also cases when kids mentioned some game that I'd never heard of - and Bei did. So her transcript in some ways was "cleaner", more accurate.
Look forward to tonight's class!
Full of insights--multiple layers being one of the most important. Another as strangers we cannot understand as much as a person who hears the students every day.
ReplyDeleteSee you soon.