Gender in the Classroom

It’s interesting to see the dynamics during tutoring. I’ve noticed that most of the students that Hannah (St. Olaf tutor) and I support are mostly boys. The only time where we have helped a girl was when the students that actually needed the help were absent that day. Instead, Mr. DuBe had us help a nonbinary student and a girl who had late work because they were sick. The girl I was working with seemed to know what she was doing and wrote very elegantly. She was very careful in what she wrote and took her time forming her ideas. I asked her if Language Arts was one of her favorite subjects and she said it was one of her favorites.

Her comment was interesting because in a way I could tell because she didn’t need much help and seemed to generally enjoy the paragraph she was writing. Instead of focusing on making sure she fulfilled the sentence count, she wrote to answer the questions and elaborate on what she was thinking. Compared to a lot of the boys I had tutored before her, they seemed to be focused more on doing the bare minimum. This is not to say that all boys are the same and that they all need help, but it is just an observation from the boys I have tutored. Most of them seemed to have negative attitudes when writing and are just doing it because of their late work or class work.

It is fascinating to see gender within an English class and maybe even how late work plays a role in choosing who needs extra help. This possible split in gender for tutoring  can discourage certain students from enjoying the subject perhaps, although tutoring happens based on who seems to need more support. I also think about the role that I play as a tutor. As a tutor I try to compliment each student on their assignments even if I have to correct certain sections so they can feel encouraged. However, I do wonder if by them being sent out of the classroom, diminishes their development and their enjoyment in the subject.

As I think back to my high school experience with subjects, I remember how the smartest girls in my class were so much more vocal in my language arts classes than in STEM classes. Even though at my school we had mostly female teachers, most of the higher track teachers like Physics, Trig, and BC Calc were male. There was a mismatch of gender participation within humanity and STEM classes. I know some may be due to who was teaching the class, but it’s still interesting because most of the times the girls were way better at explaining math than the boys, but maybe it was due to confidence and not being vocal in class that they felt like they weren’t as competent despite their grasp of concepts.

Fig 1 and 2 Observations: Although there are more female teachers in my high school, there is still a misbalance between genders depending on Humanities and STEM classes.

Other Observations from Class

Thinking back to cognitive development, I have really appreciated how Mr. DuBe is moving the 9th graders into learning how to write a five paragraph paper. He’s starting off with 5 paragraph papers by having students first write something personal. They got to choose between 3 different questions about what is a place that they enjoy, or someone who they admire. These are easy prompts in which encourages enjoyment while also developing essential skills. Through their prompts, they are able to feel confident in their topic while learning how to write academic papers with a thesis and topic sentences that support the thesis.

Another thing I have observed in class has been the leniency that Mr.DuBe has with second period than the first one. It’s interesting to see the class dynamics between periods based on Mr. DuBe’s perceptions. He seems to be more active and relaxed with 2nd period because he makes conversation with a lot of the volleyball girls. However, first period seems to be less receptive to him. This brings me back to the first time I tutored, he mentioned how first period used to have more missing assignments than second period which also set me up to have different expectations and views of them. I try to keep that in consideration when I work with either class so I don’t treat either students with more or less empathy. I wonder if the missing assignments from the start of the term affected Mr. DuBe’s perceptions of his first period and how that may affect the dynamic with the class.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Clarissa Guzman.