Context of Buchanan Elementary School

We visited Buchanan Elementary School on September 12th where we had the opportunity to observe

Mr. Dejong's 1st grade class. His class includes 21 students; 13 boys and 9 girls. 100% of students in his class

are of hispanic descent, and approximately 95% are ESL learners. Due to the large population of hispanic

students in his class, Mr. Dejong spoke in Spanish about 30% of the time. He is the bilingual teacher at

Buchanan Elementary School for students in the 1st grade. Mr. Dejong tries to encourage his students to

become more comfortable in English, but will revert back to Spanish in order to “mentally check” his students

progress and level of understanding of the content. The students English proficiency levels are quite low in

regards to reading and writing (approximately 85% of students are not able to read and write proficiently on

their own). About 90% of the time, the students had to copy what Mr. Dejong was writing (as they could not

keep up with his pace without further help from Calvin students). We observed approximately 6 learners

struggling to write their letters of the alphabet correctly even when copying Mr. Dejong’s work on the board.

However, the community within Mr. Dejong’s classroom appears quite tight knit. The students low

levels of English force them to bond together and help each other achieve in both languages. We observed

approximately 5 students who were willing to help their peers when they were struggling with reading or

writing during the worksheet exercise. It appears the students are not ashamed to ask for help, and encourage

their peers. We believe the classroom is community based and extremely peer supported.

Mr. Dejong’s classroom provides an area of security and safeness. The walls are covered in posters, he

has provided materials for all students (e.g. water bottles on desks, scissors, paper, crayons, individual desk

name tags), there is an area in the corner dedicated to students who may need to calm down (e.g. sensory

equipment, weighted balls), and color explodes in the room. We did notice that the space within the classroom

is very tight with not much space to move or walk around in between desks. Only about 20% of the classroom is

“moveable space” where students can walk around freely without running into desks or cabinets. This can cause

problems for students who need movement in their educational setting, issues of space when participating in
kinesthetic learning activities, and can create problems of safety, especially in an overcrowded classroom of 21

students. In addition, there is a personal, handicap accessible bathroom in the back of the room.

Buchanan is considered to be one of the GRPS schools, or Grand Rapids Public Schools and consisted

of Prekindergarten to 5th grade. There are approximately about 500 to 550 students in the school and the class

sizes start out small and become bigger as the grades increase. The school had just finished renovating the

buildings and so everything seemed very nice, spacious and clean. There were multiple playgrounds within the

school grounds and had a large cafeteria and library. There were many classrooms that were solely dedicated for

one subject, such as the Computer (I.T) room, Music room and Art room. The classrooms were very large and

had a separate bathroom for each class, and each student had designated tables, individual lockers and cubby

holes. When we were talking to the Principal, Mrs. Ortiz, she explained a little more about the school’s

curriculum standards and grouping of students. Buchanan has a special ed program for kindergarten students

however, once they go up to elementary school they would in included within the classrooms. There weren’t

separate classes for special education students or ESL students, so the school practiced both inclusion and

immersion within each classroom. Mrs. Ortiz also briefly talked about the different textbooks that the teachers

were to use this year. Many of the curriculum had a digital component to it and used manipulatives or digital

devices such as Ipads and computer laptops.

Buchanan Elementary School seemed to be a very neighborhood-based community. Most students lived

very near to the school and walked to school with their parents. Before school began, the teacher talked to a

parent of his student and mentioned that it was a ten minute walk from the neighborhood to the school.

Mr.Dejong explained that the local community seemed to be fairly stable and not many families moved in or

out of the neighborhood or the state unless they were involved with migrant work. However, he did mention

that the families often moved around within the neighborhood and gave an example of a student’s family

moving to different houses three times over the past couple of years. Mr.Dejong explained how parents who

live in near proximity to the school often didn’t speak English and had not been in the States for very long. So
the school offered ESL classes to parents and adults so that parents could help and be more involved in their

children's education.