Sean CO #1

     The first class I have observed was with Ms. Candace who taught Group 1A, EL-HE, Composition. Immediately upon walking in she took control and garnered attention by asking what everyone had done during the previous weekend, which was a tactic of building schema for the upcoming lesson. After this lesson warm-up exercise, Ms. Candace applied a new situation I haven’t seen before called bell ringers. Bell ringers is the introduction of three new vocabulary terms that students are meant to write or incorporate into a sentence. They are then encouraged to read their sentences and seek advising and suggestions. For example, one student had written a sentence involving sports players, but Ms. Candace suggested they change the term “sports players” into “athletes”. This was also the opportune moment Ms. Candace decided to introduce an American culture topic, American football, which is foreign to everyone who is not American. The students were then turned on to each other to act as each other’s conversation partner as they were tasked in discussing job routines, such as what a does a police officer do versus what does a singer do. Added to that were the supplementary and relating vocabulary such as “criminal” and “arrest” for police officers. All the while Ms. Candace patrolled her classroom to offer suggestions and assistance for struggling or curious students.