Critical incident reflection

Critical incident date: 19/11/15

Description
I was reading aloud a book to a student that has several emotional issues, both inside and
outside of the schooling environment, that have been identified by the staff at the school. This
particular book, The Rainbow Fish written by Marcus Pfister, carries a deep emotional
meaning and connection to the audience which involves the themes associated with sharing,
empathy, treating others equally, self-sacrifice and respect. This student has difficulty
cooperating with other students at the best of times, which when reading this book and asked
questions related to these key themes, this student somewhat broke down (emotionally)
struggling to come to terms how an individual could be happy themselves by giving to others.
After some heavy and thorough explaining, the student somewhat came to grasp these themes
both cognitively and emotionally.

Commented [K1]: 4.1 and 4.3 Selecting a text that

explores themes of sharing, empathy, equality and respect.
These concepts are all relevant to the students emotional and
social needs. Through having the student identify these
themes, rather than the teacher, this allows for valuable
discussions to take place in the forms of text-to-text, text-toself, and text-to-world connections.

Interpretation
This student has had a fairly rough upbringing, being adopted from a low-socioeconomic
family, however could not mentally and physically capacitate how an individual (such as
himself) could ever achieve happiness by giving his possessions away, as such events
occurred in the book. After a series of meaningful questioning, such as Why would someone
feel good about themselves by giving to others? How could you give to others? Isnt helping
someone in need more important than our own personal desires and wants? How could we be
more thoughtful of other? (In the schoolyard, classroom, at home and for our family), this
student could not come to terms with the positive benefits this can have for personal growth
and social development. I suggest this derives from having a past highly impacted upon via
his home environment and Micro and Meso Systems. These include the features of your
family, neighbourhood and what is deemed socially accepted in the areas that immediately
impact the individuals life. It was almost as if my questioning and moral themes of the book
made him reconsider his own moral values and somewhat his personal defences, as this
student is highly desensitised or distanced from social/emotional cues.

Commented [K2]: 4.3 Use of appropriate questioning to

manage challenging behaviours. This limited this particular
students emotional outburst from disturbing other students
that were independently working. These questions were
slowly catered to meet the needs of the individual
(transitioning from the book why did the fish decide to give
away his scales? to authentic real-world application of
relevant themes How can we give to others).

Outcomes
After a long and deep discussion regarding the key themes of the book including sharing,
empathy, treating others equally, self-sacrifice and respect (particularly following a lesson
focussing on respect) this student somewhat made a small connection to these themes. The
student connected that maybe sometimes by giving to others and sacrificing something of
your own for another person, can have a somewhat positive effect on your own life. This
finding, although only small on the scale of overall students, was a huge success of my own
teaching and more importantly the personal development of this student. I am aiming to
follow up on this finding with another text to read one-on-one to see if these moral links can
be extended or built on to become practiced in authentic context rather than simply the
classroom environment after being reminded of the book, but to be done simultaneously by
this student.

Commented [K3]: Reflecting on the experience and

recognising the need to follow-up this mini-lesson to ensure
findings are meaningful, contextually appropriate and
authentic learning takes place.

Critical incident reflection

Critical incident date: 26/11/15
Description
During a mathematics lesson regarding area and perimeter, the same student of whom struggled to
mentally compensate the themes discussed in the Rainbow Fish book (refer to Critical Incident
Reflection 1), also could not physically perform a skill regarding placing M.A.V. Blocks over a
round-shaped fish to find the area in square centimetres of the fish. From direct observation, it was
clear the student seemed distressed whenever he would knock or place an M.A.V. Block in an
incorrect position. This was obvious from direct observations as the student would frequently rub his
forehead, and back of the neck along with verbal complaining to himself. When asked if he
understood what the task was asking him to do, the child was precise and clear with the requirements
of the task. After consoling the student, he continued to display signs of distress from the task prior to
having an emotional outburst of tears and frustration stating he could not do the task.
Interpretation
This student, identified to be the same student discussed in my first critical reflection, clearly has
trouble controlling his own fine motor skill actions. Every time he placed an M.A.V. Block on the
image of the fish, he knocked another one out of place. This action repeated over several attempts
resulted in frustration, which is rather understandable. However this student was clearly more
distorted and distressed from these repeated attempts, resulting in an emotional outburst in both tears
and anger. This, along with my first insight explored during the reading of the book The Rainbow
Fish, suggest that this student has a very low level of resilience, and struggles to contain his emotions
when faced with slightly more difficult task. It is clear this students does not respond positively to
change, or alteration of routines. This could be influenced by a number of factors including family
situation (particularly considering the students upbringing), limited problem-solving skills or ability
to focus, constant and unexpected fluctuations in emotional and behavioural functioning.
Outcomes
The students difficulties continued despite being closely assisted by both nearby students and myself,
which I gave him another task to proceed. This task was more creative, rather than having the child
use M.A.V. Blocks to find the area of a shape, I had the student use grid-lined paper so the student
was still able to find the area by counting the squares within a shape, however did not need to use the
physical concrete material to measure the area (limiting the use of the requirement of fine motor
skills). The student responded much more positively and completed the task without requiring any
extended assistance.
This was a very interesting observation however as the student knew exactly what was required of
him throughout the task, yet was unable to control both his fine motor skills in application towards the
task, as well as his emotions from getting the better of him. Considering the personal events that have
occurred throughout my placement so far with this particular student, it is becoming clearer that this
student has a very low level of resilience. This may be a response from accumulated traumatic and
upsetting events in the students life outside of the schooling environment (family circumstances).
Over my remaining few days of placement, I plan to further consider how I can adapt set-task for this
students needs to encourage experiences of success for the student to build his sense of mastery.
Mastery builds hope in a child and it is important that students are assisted to realistically understand
that mastery is not achieved instantaneously but is something that must be strived for and worked
towards.

Commented [K4]: 4.1 and 4.3 Adapting the task to suit

the needs of the individual. It was obvious that the students
fine motor skills were hindering his participation in the
activity, hence by altering the lesson to incorporate more
visual prompts and limiting the use of fine motor skills, the
student responded in a positive manner, becoming further
engaged within their learning.