IN THE CLASSROOM -- Surveying their scene

Danette Goulet

Colored construction paper covered the desktops as students eagerly

cut survey results into pie charts.

It was a coloring, cutting and pasting bonanza as little dull scissors

held in small fingers flew through the air.

Second- and third-grade students in Andrea Dekofsky’s combination

class at Newport Coast Elementary School were all graphing the results of

personal surveys they had taken.

After compiling the data, it was time to make pie charts and bar

graphs.

While the process of making the charts and graphs was both fun and

educational, the survey questions were fantastic.

Each child came up with a question, to which they offered survey

takers three possible answers.

For instance: “What is your favorite color -- green, orange or pink,”

asked Josephine Lee, 9.

“I asked: What is your favorite subject,” said Elizabeth Nguyen, 8,

who offered reading, math and writing as answers. “My favorite is

reading. They chose math.”

Other students may have asked these same questions but offered

different options.

Taleen Shrikian, 8, asked about favorite colors but offered purple,

blue and green as choices to those she surveyed.

Many of the questions were very telling of the surveyor’s opinions on

things.

While several students asked about favorite animals -- giving dog,

horse, cat and guinea pig as options -- my absolute favorite was

8-year-old Jason Johl’s.

His three choices for favorite animal were snake, penguin or spider.

What choices.

“I thought snake was going to win,” he said, flashing a sheepish grin

with missing teeth.

The snake lover acted shocked that penguins won the race hands down.

“I just thought that snakes and spiders were a little creepy and

penguin was a little cute,” he said.

Then there was one that, despite being repeated to me multiple times,

never really meant anything to me.

“ I asked what your favorite game was, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Dance

Revolution Fourth Mix or Mario Party,” said Dylan Tran, 8, so quickly

that his classmate Jason had to finally translate at a slower speed.

Dylan’s favorite was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, which is about a

skateboarder for those, like myself, who don’t know. And it’s his

favorite for a darn good reason.

“Because I’m really good at it,” he said.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.