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Video Of A Second Grade English Class

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This class observation is from a video of a second grade English class in Atlanta, Georgia. The video is from 2010 and features Ms. Wiggins teaching her students vocabulary words. Ms. Wiggins’s goal was for her students to understand the meaning of the vocabulary words, and to reach that meaning themselves. Rather than giving direct definitions, she guided the class to the correct answers. Although not specified, this video was probably taken during the middle or end of the year. This can be inferred by the automatic responses students had to specific prompts from their teacher, as well as the smooth classroom procedures. The students encountered an obstacle when Ms. Wiggins asked them what “traction” means. Most of the students did not have sufficient background knowledge to answer this question. Previously, Ms. Wiggins had asked the class the meaning of other vocabulary words, like “specially” and “struggle”. For these questions, nearly all of the students raised their hands to give an answer. For this question on “traction”, there was a smaller response from the class. Only two children raised their hands to answer. The video provides sufficient footage to conclude that the students are comfortable answering questions. The smaller response suggests that, as a whole, the class did not have an answer for the meaning of “traction”.
Of the students that did respond, their knowledge was limited. The first child said, “Like when you’re running”. Although traction pertains to

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