Ethnography

It’s a really different experience when comparing a group of high school who are just in school to pass their classes to a group that is willing to put in as much effort as possible in order to do their possible best. Differentiating students based on physical appearances is impossible. No matter how a student may look, you would never be able to tell if they were intelligent and promising or if they were just in school because they had to be. Though impossible to determine by looks, the choices they make can help to determine the type of student they are. For example, a simple choice of choosing between a study hall and a study group makes such a difference. The students in study hall are just there because there wasn’t a class to fill that certain timeslot with a class. It is also basically a free period where no work is really expected to be done. No one has ever chosen to have a study hall when they were able to be in an actual class. Students in a study group however chose to be in a group where homework is expected to be done. After reading this essay, you will gain some information about the dedicated students who chose to be part of study groups in order to further aid them with their certain classes.
The average student who participates in a study group goes to a minimum of three one hour sessions of a study group for each class per week. These groups either meet during a free period during the school day or afterschool. Most if not all of the students who participate in study groups are part of an AP (advanced placement) classes. The location of the study group was the classroom of the focused subject. The difference in atmosphere between a study group and study hall are very apparent. In a study all, you are likely to hear of random conversations may it be relating to sports and news. Study groups though are much more focused. The only conversations you would hear were about the subject at hand. The supervisor of the students also differs. In a study hall, the supervisor can be just about anyone. Their job is just to make sure things don’t get hectic and to keep order. The job of a supervisor of a study group (who is usually the teacher of the class) is to help with any problems or answer questions that the students may have.
In the AP Chemistry study session that I am a part of, there are three distinct groups. Of these groups there is a group that just goes in and does their work quietly and are just there in case they need help with something in the homework. There is also usually a very involved group that discusses just about every part of their work. The third type of group is one that takes up most of the teacher’s time by avoiding doing their own research and just trying to get answers from the teacher.
The first group is filled with students who like an individual challenge. This was concluded because of the fact that even though they are in a room filled with several intelligent students, they choose to approach their works by themselves, and only ask for help as a last solution. Sometimes they wouldn’t even ask for help until they are mentally broken and are no longer able to think about the problem. I guess you can call this “group” of students the individual learners since they are basically invisible and independent until they need help with something.
The second group is actually one that I am a part of. I find this discussion based group the best out of the three. This group is rarely ever quiet and is always discussing something related the chemistry. Though sometimes it may not be based on the homework that everyone else is working on, the discussions are always revolved around the topic of chemistry. Though there is a lot of talking taking place, a lot of work is getting done as well. Unlike the first group, when an obstacle presents itself, the entire group tries to solve it. It is very beneficial because of the fact that since there are plenty of people in a group, there is a higher chance that someone will understand and be able to solve the problem.
The third group might just be the most unproductive of the three. This group spends a majority of their study group time trying to get answers directly from the teacher. They usually start off with some random talk in the subject followed by some feedback about how the class is going. This is followed by some rants on lab reports and their difficulties on them. The subject is then slowly changed to the homework and how difficult it is. Though the teacher would normally not just give out an answer, he would usually take the students step by step through the problem(s) that they were having difficulties with. I think this is the most unproductive group because it is the least helpful for the future since it isn’t helping them learn to find the abswers to their problems the proper way.
Even though there is a clear differentiation between those who want to learn and those who chose to, there are also even deeper classifications such as the way these individuals choose to learn, as just explored in this essay. Even with these different styles of learning, these students all have the same or very similar goals. These goals require them doing the best that they possibly can with their academics. The one thing that these students have in common is their willingness to take a portion of time out of their schedule to dedicate to a certain class that they know they should be getting extra help or something of that nature. The work and dedication of these high school students is likely to show when they move onto higher level of education, and is likely to separate them from the other kids who chose to take periods off in school rather than use them to study and do homework.