Miguel Derett - CO #1

October 30th, 2018.     

            The first classroom I observed a was group 3A  grammar class. The lesson was taught by Mrs. Felicia Ciappetta. The instructor began the class by allowing the students a chance to review what they had previously learned. I believe that this helped set the tone throughout the class lesson, as the class was at ease. The instructor herself was friendly, and always willing to help the students. Once the lesson began it was evident to see that the instructor was using the deductive approach to teaching, meaning that she first taught her lesson and then followed with an activity. The grammar lecture was on using the different forms of present, past, and future tense. For example, the simple present, present continuous, past perfect, future progressive, etc. One noteworthy thing that occurred when the instructor was presenting her lecture, she became entangled in a mistake she made and yet she seemingly managed to get out of it without the students noticing. What had occurred was that the instructor asked her students to tell her a sentence in the past perfect. The student said, “I have been studying English since when I got here.” The instructor noticed an error but unfortunately, she inaccurately pinpointed it. The instructor said that what the student should have said was, “I have been studying English from when I got here.” At this point the class seemed somewhat confused. A bit more discussion occurred until finally the instructor asked the student to repeat his sentence. The student repeated the sentence and finally the instructor caught onto the error. The instructor mentioned that the problem in the sentence was using “when.” The sentence should be said as, “I have been studying English since I got here.” The issue was resolved and the class, for the most part, did not notice that the instructor had made a mistake originally. This was insight for someone like me, who is aspiring to teach, as it showcased a real example of how to subtle autocorrect a mistake.  

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