What are They Thinking?

Clinical Assignment
I conducted the “what are they thinking” interview in a fifth-grade classroom on the topic of

westward expansion and Native Americans. I interviewed a group of four students. My group of

students included two African American males, one of which has been held back a grade and is a

year older than the other students. Within my group there was also one African American female,

and one English Language Learner female. The African American female receives special

education services in math. According to the classroom teacher, the other female is a non-reader.

From my interview, the first conclusion I came to, was that students associate a negative

connotation with the idea of moving. Through my questioning we explored the ideas of moving

and moving without choice in relation to the movement of Native Americans as the European

explorers moved westward and forced the Native Americans off of their land. Students described

their own feelings of if they were told they had to move as feeling sad, angry, and feeling as if it

was unfair. Based on the students’ responses, I have noted their strength in making connections.

They were able to connect their feelings to those of the Native Americans. Since students were

able to generate these connections, I am including a venn diagram in the lesson as a way for

students to compare and contrast two people. The students will use their knowledge of making

connections to think about how these two people relate or are different from one another.

Based on student responses, the students also demonstrated that they are able to generalize ideas.

This generalization of ideas occurred throughout the interview. I initially asked students about

what it would be like to move to a new place or to encounter new people. The students then

related this concept to their feelings of moving and generalized the idea of moving with change.
The students were able to not only answer my questions, but also think about the ideas presented

in new ways. For example, after my initial question, students began discussing their own feelings

related to moving without any prompting. They generalized what it must have been like for the

Native Americans with their own thoughts and experiences. Based off of the students’ ability to

generalize information, I am presenting a big idea of character traits of a leader to my students in

the modeling portion of the lesson. Students will need to generalize this idea to make

connections between Sitting Bull as a leader, and a U.S. President as a leader.

The final conclusion I made from student responses is that the students have a solid

understanding of what you can learn from cultural narratives. When I first questioned the

students on cultural narratives, I had to support them by reminding them what a cultural narrative

is. Once I provided the students with a reminder, they gave me multiple responses for what

someone can learn from a cultural narrative such as, how people from that culture talk, act, and

their character traits. This was important information for me as the students will be analyzing a

narrative on Sitting Bull for these key ideas. This tells me that I do not need to pre-teach to the

students what a cultural narrative is and what we can learn from it. Students will be able to read

the story and gather information using what they already know.

I found this assignment to be valuable because it allowed me to determine the background

knowledge of my students. Conducting this interview allowed me to informally hear the thoughts

my students had around the topic we would be discussing. I was able to have conversations with

these students and hear responses that I may not have otherwise. I was also able to make

connections with these students and set a positive tone for the lesson.