Mr Percuoco Observation

When I first walk into Pine Meadow Elementary School at 8:30, Mr. Percuoco greets me with a “good morning” and the 21 6 to 7 year old children say “hi”. Mr. Percuoco is the only teacher in the room throughout the morning. The classroom is full of posters on the walls that have written rules, numbers, digraphs, and colors on them to help the children remember. Also on the wall, are jobs kids are assigned to. Mr. Percuoco has a paper ladder that has steps that leads to being above the zone. The children start every morning in the zone; if they are good, they pinup, but if they don’t follow the rules, they have to pin down. The desks are individual desks clustered in groups of 4 or 5. There is a small area they call carpet area, where the children …show more content…
I realized that many of the theorists work shows during just the short amount of time I am there. One of the first things I noticed was Vygotsky’s theory of working in small group's. With the desk in clustered, the kids teamwork when they are allowed to. Another theory that goes with that one is Vygotsky’s theory about students who interact more, learn more. When children play partner games, especially math games, the kids pick up ways that their partners do things that make it seem easier to figure out the solution. After those, I noticed that when kids get in trouble, they receive a punishment. One time, a kid named Jameson forgot to get his paper signed, so he wasn’t able to get candy and a star. The teacher told him that if he brought the paper in tomorrow signed, he would be able to get the star. He got very mad and ended up swearing. Mr. Percuoco made him pin down and told him that acting that way was not allowed. Jameson stopped being bad immediately. The next day, he forgot again, but he knew what wasn’t allowed and he didn’t swear. This example falls under B.F. Skinner’s theory number 3; behavior followed by removal of an aversive stimulus result in a decreased probability of the behavior occurring in the future. Skinner’s other theory is when a behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future. One job that children can get is line leader. When a kid is picked to be one, they know it can be taken away if they don’t follow the line rules. If they follow them, the children get praised by the teacher. It helps them when their job changes. Every time they go in line, they know they will get praised if they follow the rules. Stage theorist, Jean Piaget, states that during preoperational period (ages 2-7), kids will understand simple abstract terms and develop vocabulary from 200 to 2000 words. I see this theory, when the 1st graders take reading