Observation Task

Date: 14/12/2020

Duration: 08:55 – 09:20

Location: Room B218, Vorkurs, Grundschule Defter Straße, Bremen

It was 8:55 AM when I entered the classroom and waited for the children to come. A week before that, I had a talk with the teacher, Claudius, and he invited me to spend a morning with the children and observe the class. It was a classroom for children who have immigration background and the kids seldom speak as well as understand German. I went inside the room and sat at the classroom’s left corner, where there is a sofa. The classroom was a small room in a rectangular shape, I suppose it was 20 square meters, was painted in green and decorated with flags from different countries on the right side, pictures of the alphabet with animals above the big blackboard. On the left side, there are two big opened windows. The sofa was located right under the window, on the left corner. In the middle of the class, there is a large blackboard. To the left of the blackboard, the teacher’s desk was located. Papers were neatly laid in the left corner of the desk. The tables are connected to each other and were formed into an opened rectangular shape with only 3 sides. 

At 9:00, four small boys came inside, followed by the teacher. Claudius introduced them to me: Prinz from Ghana, Ahmed and Abdul from Syria and Mohammed from Iraq. All of them gazed at me shortly before they looked again at Claudius. Prinz was wearing a blue T-Shirt, a green trouser, and a pair of dark blue sandals. Abdul was a chubby, round-faced boy. He was wearing a black suit and a black pair of shoes. Ahmed, the tallest boy, had a long sleeves white sweater and navy blue trousers on and Mohammed, the smallest boy among the four, and likely the youngest, was wearing a velvet sweater and white trousers. Claudius told the boys to sit down, the class started with Claudius opening a story.

Claudius sat on a thin, black office chair in the middle of the class, his back was opposite to the blackboard. Abdul sat down on his left side, opposite to Mohammed on the right side, Prinz and Ahmed sat down together in the middle table lines, face-to-face with Claudius.

The topic was “Do not steal”, which was written on the blackboard by Ms Zimmermann with a long piece of white chalk, a red-haired woman who was wearing a black T-shirt and black pants, all made from satin. She was the illustrator for the story Claudius was about to tell. He started in a languid, deep voice: “Nico was 20 years old, he is from a small town in Switzerland,  and he was going to sell some groceries to the villagers on a van”. He stopped, asked: “What must he have to drive a van?”

Prinz stood up, leaning on the yellow table, his right hand was up in the air. Meanwhile, Ahmed was staring at the blackboard with his hands on the cheeks. Claudius looked at Prinz, nodded. He mumbled a bit, I suppose he forgot what he would like to say. Then he shouted: “Driving license!”

Claudius agreed with his answer by giving Prinz a thumb up and continued to narrate the story. Abdul was staring at the empty table. Mohammed probably was not listening at all, stood up and went to the right corner of the room, where the puzzles lied. Claudius looked into the direction where Mohammed was, told him to go back to his seat. Then he continued the story: “In the van, there is a lot of food…” Ms Zimmermann opened a new package of colourful chalks and started to draw the van with different food products inside. Prinz raised his hand, spoke loudly: “I know, I know! Er-er-er…” He pointed at the board, his eyes opened widely, then he looked again at Claudius: “Please, please!” Ahmed looked aside to Prinz, frowned. I suppose because Prinz didn’t let anyone else but himself answer the question. The teacher made a sign of silence by putting his index finger on his lips, then continued with the story. He asked what kinds of food were supposed to be inside the van and looked at Abdul, who was playing with his pencil case. He gazed at the blue pencil, seemed like not noticing at all. The teacher had to call his name for his attention. He looked up, his hand reached out to the pencil case, squeezed it slightly. He then picked one pencil up and rolled it all on his forehead. Prinz, on the other hand, slid through the table line to where Claudius’ sight was, both hands up in the air, looking eagerly. Mohammed was opening his water bottle and drank out of it. 

Claudius stopped looking at Abdul and called Ahmed for the answer. Ahmed stood up, glanced at the board, put both hands on the table, leaned forward and mumbled. It seemed as though he didn’t remember the German word for those vegetables which appeared on the board. Prinz then interrupted: “Ah-ah-ah-Enten-ah-Gurken-ah-ah-Reis-ah-Tomaten!”

Claudius gave him applause and continued the story. His voice became tense, as he came to the point where some thieves came and broke into the van when Nico was not looking. Ahmed’s hid his face behind his hands, as though he was scared. He made a noisy sound by sliding his shoes on the floor. Mohammed was licking the table, didn’t seem to care about what the teacher was saying. Prinz crossed his arms, let out a small laugh and looked to Ahmed’s side. Abdul was sharpening his pencil, then stood up, took the pencil sharpener to the sink, opened and washed it. 

I could hear Claudius sigh, probably because the boys were not concentrating. He turned around, looked at the board, now full of colours. The thieves had been portrayed by Ms Zimmermann. He looked back at Prinz and Ahmed, told them that Nico came back to the van and called the police. Ahmed stood up suddenly, tilted forward, shouted: „Gefängnis!“ as he saw Ms Zimmermann draw a prison over the thieves‘ body. Prinz looked so happy, maybe because he saw that the thieves had been caught. He turned to me, smiled.

I ended the observation process at 09:20. It was so interesting to see children from different cultures coming to one classroom and spending time together. I also think that the concentration ability of children can be limited if we don’t use all senses to get their attention. The teacher was just trying to tell the story, although there was an illustration from the blackboard, it only drew 2 children’s attention. The rest was either doing their own things, or looking at the board.