Field Observation 2

For this week's observation, I went and observed a middle school church service at Pinelake church. The beginning of the service took place in the large gymnasium and included singing and a speaker. The "big group", as they call it, included both boys and girls in grades 6-8. What I noticed first of all was the short attention span of the young teens. The room is filled with adults whose job is to make sure they stay quiet and attentive during the service and still the students tried to socialize with one another. It was clear that, just as Brighton had mentioned in the book, friends were the focal point. They are then split up into "community groups" where they go to different rooms divided up by age and gender. I chose to observe the 6th grade girls group.  It was just as the book had discussed in chapter four, the students who spoke up the most and answered the most questions seemed to be more confident in themselves than the girls who sat on the back row and seemed timid. The girls who were answering the questions were a group of six and I quickly found out they went to school together and were best friends outside of school and church. I could tell that the girls in the back, even when called on, did not want to try to steal the spotlight from these other girls. It was almost as if they were the popular girls at school and that the way others reacted to them was the same at school and outside of school. When the teaching concluded they were free to socialize until their ride came to pick them up. At that point I observed more male and female interaction. Some flirting was going on and I heard multiple times "I will text you later tonight". It was clear that they were very infatuated with the opposite sex.
The book laid out a pretty clear guideline and was almost exact in its description and what I actually observed. I did  have one major thought however, although the book suggests encouraging students to participate  in "groups that encourage positive values such as community service groups, sports teams, scouts, and religious organizations" (Brighton 25) I think it is difficult, if not impossible, for students to escape peer pressure and cliques whenever they are in a big group like they were that night. Middle school is such a difficult time for young adolescents to try to fit in and find themselves at the same time. Without proper encouragement and guidance from teachers and other adults around them, it would be easy for some of these students to slip through the cracks because they are the quieter type. This observation made me much more aware of the types of situations I will be dealing with in the classroom.