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Scenario D: Jorge Mendoza's Secondary Spanish Class
- In the center of Jorge’s room, students’ desks were closely grouped into clusters. Along one wall were long tables covered with pictures, weavings, pottery, artwork, and various other items he had purchased on his recent trip to Mexico. Other artifacts were strewn on the floor underneath the tables. Posters lined the walls, providing a riot of color but blocking the clock and seating chart from view. Brightly colored floor cushions and pillows were thrown into one corner of the room underneath a huge poster of a matador, and nearby shelves overflowed with Spanish comic books, novels, and magazines. When Shannon, a new student, first entered the room, she couldn’t see Jorge’s desk tucked into the corner.
- At the beginning of class, students picked their way to their seats. Kevin stepped over backpacks, Tiffany knocked Diego’s jacket on the floor as she squeezed past, and Brock stepped on Nina’s purse. When students complained to Jorge about these problems, he responded, “It’s no big deal. Get over it.”
- Jorge began one Friday class by passing out a quiz that covered the week’s assignments. He suspected several students of cheating, so he walked around the room continually as students worked on the quiz to make sure they kept their eyes on their own papers.
- After the quiz, Jorge wrote new vocabulary words on the board. Jasmine, seated behind the overhead projector, couldn’t see the words and asked Laurie to spell them out to her. Another student, who was sitting with his back to the board, moved his chair, causing the student behind him to move his chair. When several other students also moved their chairs, the movement escalated into good-natured pushing among three students in the back of the room. Javier disrupted the lesson when his chair was pushed out from under him and he crashed to the floor.
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