Answer

• Child-Centred Scenario Analysis

   

  Within the classroom, there are always moments that can be used by the teacher to create memorable lessons and inspire a transformative mind-set in the student. These moments are always unusual and can be applied to create lasting impressions on the students themselves, or even on the teacher. This analysis looks at the case of young Amoth whose troublesome student life was exposed when I came face to face with him as he hit one of his classmates. The paper includes a detailed explanation of the scenario and a discussion of the scenario in light of Social and Emotional well-being, Moral Development and Language Acquisition.

  Part 1: Child-Centred Scenario

  At La Creche Avenue Childcare Centre in Darwin, I entered the Year 2 classroom for the first class of the morning. A group of six male students were around Amoth. He was cornered. Amoth had only been in this classroom for three weeks, and the initial thought was that he was adjusting well to his new life at La Creche. As it turned out, the boys were trying to get hold of him and bring him to me for what they thought was his affinity for violence. “This is the second time he has threatened to beat up his desk mate for looking at him too much,” one of the boys says. When the boys let him go, Amoth runs to his desk and hides his face in his hands while bowing over the desk.

  Amoth had not always been a resident of Darwin. A month ago, her mother had emigrated from Southern Sudan following conflicts there and now they lived not far from the Childcare Centre. The mother was fleeing violence, and she had brought him with her. The truth is that in South Sudan, Amoth had not stepped into school. The only socialization he had was the one he experienced at home with the constantly changing friends as he and his family attempted to escape the deadly violence. Fresh from the inadequate socialization that Amoth had experienced back in South Sudan, the boy was thrust into the realities of not only strange children but also a totally new language. Here, Amoth was alone.

  Amoth was not only a stranger in terms of the language spoken; he was a stranger to the environment too. People acted differently here. People sat with books, pens and crayons. His mother had to come to school. Amoth had to understand that his class was not a place where there were enemies; it was a place where there were people who could be friends like the ones he had in South Sudan. It was my estimation that without the backing of his friends in the class, Amoth would almost never come out of this zone. He had to begin seeing his classmates as people he could belong with, not people he had to protect himself from. Henceforth, there would be no mobbing him when he did something unusual and the two camps had to shake hands.

  Two of the boys who were for bringing him to me were to guide him so he could understand the meaning of lessons, breaks, timetable, the bell, and other aspects of the school routine. The whole class was to accept Amoth into their games and groups without conditions. The school, having learnt of the difficulties that Amoth had to go through in his bid to fit in, decided that it was now time to revise entry activities by focusing on the aspect f language, exposure to school environment and letting the new entrants learn about the school and the expectations long before the actual formal learning even begins.

  Scenario Conclusion

  EAL Student: A month later, Amoth had essentially transformed from the combative student he had was to being friendly and outgoing. Whereas he had been a reserved lonely student, now he was at the helm of collaborative efforts. His language was growing and he no longer needed the two enemies turned friends to show him around. La Creche was his home now. Unlike many students here who were only familiar with the surroundings of Darwin, Amoth had the privilege of knowing about some little geography of where he came from, how it looked like, how the people there looked like and why they had to move. The other students were not only learning from him, they were also making him believe in himself. He had something to bring to the table too.

  Teacher: The teacher was shocked at the quick turnaround that Amoth was able to make from a violent little one to a sociable student ready to join others in groups, during play and during school activities. She found out, and made the conclusion that overcoming the language barrier is the first way towards attaining self-confidence, and that once Amoth could talk to the others without having to listen most of the time, he could begin to collaborate with the rest in class and in play. The teacher requested the school to begin language programs and familiarisation tours for new students who do not speak the English language to make them faster integrate into the school system. These efforts must not only target the new student. The old one too must understand that there is need for them to be patient, welcoming, tolerant and understanding of new students who may still find life unbearable and may need to respond in unusual ways.

  The class: Within the month, everyone wanted to be Amoth’s friends. Everyone remarked that he had great stories about many experiences that he had not forgotten. They all wanted to play with him. On the day I had found them mobbing him at first, they had been doing it like enemies but now, they were mobbing him still, but like great friends.

   

   

   

   

  Discussion

  Amoth’s scenario above can be explained in light of several themes outlined in the unit. Within this paper though, Amoth’s case is discussed in light of the Social and Emotional well-being, Moral Development and Language Acquisition.

  Social and Emotional well-being

  Optimal learning requires that the student’s social and emotional well-being are taken into consideration. How the student relates to their family, neighbours, friends and teachers plays a huge role in the socialization process. Similarly, Chandler and Tricot (2015) admit that when the emotional well-being of a student is assured, the student can settle and begin the learning process. Social and emotional well-being mean that the student feels free to join others in performing tasks in groups or as teams, and that he or she is confident that regardless of their individual differences, no one will victimize them (Agarwal and Roediger, 2018). It stems out of the realization that there is value in the connections that are created between people, and that any element of exclusion is strongly rebuked. It is this process of persistent interaction that that helps in building self-confidence and thus leading to overall emotional well-being.

  At the onset of the scenario, Amoth has virtually no social skills. The broken friendships he has formed along the way as a child to a runaway refugee mother are not enough to help her develop the necessary social skills leave alone prepare him for an intercultural experience. The recourse then is to retreat inward and not associate with his classmates well. It can be deduced that Amoth’s violent past has conditioned him to respond violently to threatening and unfavourable surroundings. This is evident when he threatens a classmate with violence over staring at him. Feeling that he is the focus of unfair and unwanted attention, Amoth is left out. He neither has self-confidence nor esteem. His emotional deterioration is seen when he buries his face in his hands.

  Moral Development

  Morality is about telling what is right and what is wrong. It is the aspect of discriminating what is just, acceptable and right from what is wrong, unacceptable and unjust (Butler and Carpenter, 2015). Morality first begins by identifying what is unacceptable and holding it up against what is acceptable. The child’s moral development is a consequence of his or her socialization. To have a heightened sense of morality among students, the students must understand and appreciate the fact that there will be good rewards for moral actions either in the present or even in the future. The ultimate goal of children’s moral development is that when faced with two or more options, the moral student will make a choice not based on popularity or desirability but on what is right regardless of the cost.

  For Amoth obviously, he does not start his moral journey on the right foot. His multiple threats to violence bring him out as incapable of making the right choice. Because Amoth does not have the norms of this group yet, he has no benchmark for morality within his immediate environment. In fact, his threats may be seen as acts of defence and response to unfamiliarity rather than as immoral acts. Within the wider picture though, his moral development is lacking, and once he has the school norms, rules and laws, he ca now demonstrate his moral development. Amoth’s integration would mean that now he may see that the alternative to felling harassed and bullied by other students should elicit the reaction of going to report rather than taking the law in their own hands. Better still, he would prefer peaceful conflict resolution and collaboration to build team-work (Jinfa et al. 2017) and further develop a sense of morality.

   

  Language Acquisition

  Language acquisition is an essential element of learning because it is through language that children are able to make meaning of their world. Through language, ideas are expressed, knowledge is passed and clarification is sought. The student who has the privilege of having acquired language long before they are in class is at a considerable advantage over those who have not. Without acquiring a language, the student feels naturally excluded (Garraffa et al. 2018). They cannot engage in group discussions, participate in answering questions, make contributions, seek clarifications and play with the rest.  This limitation of exclusion makes the student fail to develop self-confidence because they do not believe in their own abilities. Left unexplained, these students would even begin to imagine that their own languages may be inferior to the ones spoken around them. Regardless of the language then, language acquisition is essential for every child because it is only through it that the children begin to make formative meaning of the world.

  One of the key problems for Amoth once he arrives in La Creche Avenue Childcare centre is that he feels lost and out of place. While one reason is because of the unfamiliar people, it is much more about unfamiliar language. This is a sad reality because the fact is that Amoth is not dumb. He has a South Sudanese language that he can speak. When he realizes that this language is not spoken here, it is likely that he will begin to wonder if at all his initial language is useful. Even for older learners, making them understand that their languages matter and can be translated to other major languages is enhances learning of the new languages because it is based on the premise that all languages are equal (Michael-Luna, 2015). Once Amoth begins to acquire English, his confidence is raised and his attitude changes. Soon after, his classmates all want to be his friend because they can now easily understand each other. The acquisition of language is a prerequisite step to achieving positive learning outcomes in the same way it happened to Amoth.

  Conclusion

  It has been observed above that memorable lessons can be created out of unique scenarios. These scenarios can involve a problem or a striking moment of brilliance. The teacher can use these instances to develop lessons that can have lasting significance on the student. Ignoring the unique scenarios mean that the teacher is not committed to improving the quality of learning. The teacher has to incorporate elements of the theory and practice of learning, describing these scenarios exhaustively and then explaining them using the concepts of social and emotional well-being, moral development and language acquisition.

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