This week, I observed three classes. These class observations are really helpful so I signed up for more so I can take what I learned and apply them to my lesson plans.
On Monday, I went to a speaking class taught by Wallace Gowens. He started off the class with a pre-activity on beautiful mistakes. How he applied speaking in the pre-activity was he had students pair off and read to each other the sentences to find the beautiful mistakes. I thought that was a good idea to not only get them to speak to one another, but to also help them practice their grammar. After they went over the answers, Wallace had assigned them to interview one another and make a presentation. None of the students were familiar with PowerPoint or Prezi, so I think it was good that he had them figure out on their own how to make their presentations since they will need to know how when they enroll in classes and such. Once the students speak up about their partner, Wallace would first ask the student what they did well on. I realized he was trying to lower their affective filters so they wouldn't feel anxious or self-conscious by their errors. Then, he would ask the class if they had any questions about the presentation. I raised my hand to start off just so others could feel comfortable asking their own questions. All the while, Wallace would walk through the student's mistakes and point out how they can improve for their next presentation.
Today, I went to Ryan Flemming's reading class. Ryan, however, was absent so Ramin filled in as a substitute. When I told him I was there to observe, he insisted I sit with the students and join in on the lesson. I introduced myself to everyone and shared my future plans. I talked to few of the students before class began. They were reading Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Ramin did all the reading. I had assumed the students would take turn, just to practice their pronunciation and fluidity. Ramin would stop after reading aloud a couple of paragraphs and ask questions about what was going on. The students comprehended, what seemed more like 95% of the story. I was impressed by how well they analyzed certain scenes.
Later today, I went to a listening class taught by Jasmine Carnell. Mainly, they focused on listening to some audio on foods and culture and then they would be put into groups to discuss words they didn't understand to try to figure out by listening to the context clues. Then they would share each other's cultures with one another. After class, Jasmine had told me that the higher levels focused more on academic listening than fun/casual, which made sense. I think what they are taught in these higher levels needs to be watched carefully because there was a disagreement between two students when they discussed religion and gender roles. Jasmine was able to clear up the misunderstanding, and all was right in the world. Haha.
Overall, I think I learned a great deal in each of these classes.
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