INTRODUCTION
This document collects all the demographic data and interests of the students. My group is 32 and consists of 20 students, all from different backgrounds, although half of them come from public housings located near the school. The school is Rufino Vigo Elementary School and is an urban school, which most of the students that are enrolled in the school can come walking but to my surprise the majority in my group come to school by car. Female students, with a total of 11 girls, dominate the group. Only 9 students in this group are boys. The process to gather all this information was not easy to get by. I provided the survey with more than sufficient time for students and parents to fill it out and hand it in before the established date I put on the survey with the instructions, but there were still a few students who do not hand the survey on time for the tabulations for this document. I had to constantly remind a few students’ to try and get the survey filled for the next day, but it wasn’t enough. At the end of the document, there is an appendix with the survey that I administered to the students’ to collect all the information presented here.
DEMOGRAPHIC DATA & STUDENTS’ INTERESTS My practice group 3-2 is a heterogeneous group consisting of 20 students. The majority of the group were born here on the island, most of them in Humacao, a few of them in Caguas and only four students were born in the United States. Almost all of the students are 8 years old, being born in 2006. There are still a couple of students who are 7 years old, with upcoming birthdays in the following months. There are 4 students that are nine years old and two of them were born in the United States. Only those who were born in the US are the only ones who have lived for a period of time over there and the rest of the group have not. Their type of home are almost equals parts of students’ living in a residential and others living in owned houses. The majority of them get to school by car and come from a mixed number of family members ranking from 2 members to 7 members in the family. This third grade is very different from one another, all of them have different taste for everything, and I couldn’t find a common result on professions, hobbies and their least favorite class. The majority of them love Physical Education and there is a draw between Science, Spanish and Math for their choice of least favorite class. Most of the students like “reggaeton” music and like to watch TV shows on different children networks like Disney Channel or Cartoon Network. A few of them like to watch movies instead. From the look of their answers on their favorite sport there is a draw between volleyball and basketball, so this tells me that this group likes to be active. Below you’ll see detailed charts from their interests.
GRAPH OF SURVEY RESULTS & ANALYSIS
Gender Distribution
Third grade section 2, has 11 females and 9 males in the group. It is a female dominated group, although the male students have their way of making themselves known in the classroom from time to time and they like to participate a lot more than the female students’. I have to say that this group has 5 students’ that were switched from 3-1 to 3-2, because 5 students’ from 3-2 had to take Therapy at that period of class. To not have one group full at that period, they decided to switch from both groups.
Students who lived outside of Puerto Rico
From the information I could gather, from students who handed in the information on time, only four students have lived outside of Puerto Rico, in the United States of America. The rest have not lived outside of the island.
Place of Birth of the students
The majority of the group was born on the island in the towns of Humacao and Caguas with a total of 13 students born on the island. The rest of the students, 2 were born outside of Puerto Rico, in the United States in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, specifically.
Years in which students were born
Only five students were born in 2005 and two of those were born and lived sometime in the United States. The rest of the group was born in 2006, which if I am not mistaken is the correct year for students to be in the third grade at this age of 7-8.
What type of house the student lives in
There are almost equal parts of students’ living in a private/owned house and the others living in a residential (public housing). Only one student lives in a rented house. This is the information I could gather from students who handed in the survey.
Persons living with the student
There is equal parts of families being composed by 3 members and more than 5 members. To be specifically, two students’ total members in the family is 7 persons and two also lives with 5 persons. The other students’ total family members are 4 and only 1 student lives with their single parent.
How students’ come by to school?
The majority of the students come to school by car, something that surprised me because it is an urban school and most of them live by a walking distance from the school. Only three students come to school walking.
Favorite Sports There is an equal result between volleyball and basketball. Shows me that students’ like these type of sports, then three students like baseball and one like soccer and one likes running as a sport. I have to mention that some female students do not liked any sport and they mentioned it in their answer.
Favorite type of music The results shows that most of the students like to hear “reggaeton” music followed by Christian music, which makes this very interesting. It’s like the opposites of music taste in this third grade. Then there are two students’ who like to listen to pop music in English and three students who enjoy listening to “bachata”.
Favorite TV Show/Program or Movie I asked them to write their favorite TV show or program but I’m glad they wrote where they watch it instead of the name of the show, because it would’ve been a little chaotic writing all of the different names of TV shows there are. There is a draw between watching programs from the Disney Channel and the other half watching their favorite movie, which includes, Lego Movie, Barbie, Rio 2 and Fast & Furious 5. One student enjoys watching the classic program “El Chavo del Ocho” and the rest of the students’ like to watch Cartoon Network and Discovery Kids.
Students’ favorite subject My group loves Physical Education by the results of the tabulations. This shows me that the group is kinesthetic and likes to be active. For my lessons, I have to find a way to incorporate kinesthetic so that the students feel more engage in the learning process. The second favorite class is a draw between English and Music. This is really good because I want to bring music as motivational technique to hook them from the beginning. The rest of the students’ results are single between Corporal Movement, Spanish and one student likes all subjects.
Students’ least favorite subject There is a draw between three subject classes students’ do not like. They are Spanish, Science and Math. Only one student do not liked Physical Education, which if I remember correctly was a girl. There rest, those were their choices and for me it’s alarming that that there are many classes, student’s do not enjoy as much as the others.
Students’ access to gather information Most students’ have access to the internet through a computer or tablet/iPad, which is great news because I can ask them to search for information in their homes about something and they can bring it to the class next day. For those students’ that do not have access to the internet, I have to work with them differently or ask if they can go the town’s public library and look for information if necessary.
•
Open questions
In the survey I administered to the students, I put some open questions for the students to answer. Some of these questions were what is your favorite hobby or hobbies? And what do you want to be when you grow up? I included more open questions but since the answers from the students were similar I decided to tabulate the results and show it on a graph. Their answers surprised me because what they liked to do in their free time is so diverse. Some students like playing sports, others enjoy drawing as a hobby or watching TV shows, dancing, going to the beach, a student liked going fishing with his grandfather. Most of the girls like dancing; playing with dolls and a girl enjoyed making bows as a hobby. Now, professions I was impressed with
their choices. They picked really great professions and not the traditional answers you could expect in these cases were students answer this type of questions just to get it out of the way. A student that got my attention was one who wants to be an engineer and a veterinarian. It was the most unique profession in all of the questionnaires I came across and I hope this student will be able to fulfill that desired profession. Other students wrote that they want to be a painter, few of the girls wants to be a teacher, although I think that almost all the girls growing up wants to be a teacher. Some boys want to be a professional wrestler, firefighter, chefs and a welder because his father is a welder, which is admirable. The rest, who filled this question, was a girl who wanted to be a nurse and one girl wants to be an actress in Hollywood because she wants to be famous, that's what she told me when she handed in her survey. I wish that they continue their education and be what they want to be although it may change as they grow up, but the important thing here is that they continue on the path to success.
REFLECTION After tabulating the results of my students’ interests I came to the conclusion that they are a diverse group. Almost every one of them had different hobbies, their desired professions were a wide range of different careers and even the types of music were varied too. I have to say that it definitely puts a difficult task on me to try and find something that most of them will like to bring them a relatable learning experience, knowing that reaching every one of them would likely be impossible. Almost every one of them likes Physical Education class, and that tells me that they are a group who likes being active in class, making things, so I have to bring them activities that will get them on their feet. Another result I came across that sparked some interest was them selecting their favorite class and least favorite, apparently I wasn’t clear on the survey, and some of them selected more than one, making it harder to tabulate this specific item result. The type of music they like is mostly “reggaeton” and bachata, which is an interesting
combination. I want to incorporate music into my classes because through singing they can improve their English pronunciation, so it is a technique I’m going to use with my group. Another thing interesting was their choice of hobbies; it was a wide range of activities they liked to do ion their free time. That gives me an advantage and disadvantage to try and incorporate their interests to my classes, but that gives for different classes’ every day. Now I know with the results of the group profile, what classes I can incorporate with my lessons to try and reach the students on another level. As I said before, being a diverse group can be a good thing too, because I can integrate different things of their interests throughout the whole semester and bring them a dynamic, interactive, fun class every day hopefully.