Miguel Derett - CO #2

November 6th, 2018.   

            For my second classroom observation, I observed a group 4B grammar classroom taught by Ryan Flemming. Naturally, this class was considered to be a strong and advanced grammar class. This was evident as the class progressed. Initially, the instructor began the class by informing the students of the daily agenda. This was useful to see, I believe it helped the students have a clear image of what they were going to be doing on that day. The class began with an activity from a previous lesson. This was also insightful to see as it showcased that it is okay, if not also helpful, to bleed in different lessons and carry on similar topics throughout several days. This activity was very visual, thus helping students who are primarily visual learners. While the students were working, the instructor walked around and observed the students’ work. The instructor was primarily focusing on the students’ proper use of grammar as they spoke to each other. This activity carries on until there were only 15 minutes left in the class. Finally, the instructor goes over the activity with the class. The remainder of the class was focused on correcting students’ “beautiful mistakes.” The main thing I took away from this classroom observation was the proper use of the inductive approach to teaching. I was able to clearly see what affect this approach would have on a classroom. To me, it seems that this approach works very well while the activity is occurring, but once the activity ends the class knows that now there will be a lecture or correction of some sort. This can potentially sour the mood of the classroom. However, I believe that the way that it was handled in this classroom was rather cleaver. The instructor let the activity take the majority of the class time and the remainder was devoted, not to a lecture, but rather to error correction.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TS #10

For my 10th tutoring session I met with Mauricio at his apartment complex on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Mauricio and a few of the other Colombian students asked for assistance with listening in preparation for the ITEP examination. I returned to the same website I visited in our previous session; though this time I read the passages aloud to Mauricio. I read the passage at a steady pace slightly slower than my normal speech pattern. I read the passages only once, and then asked Mauricio to answer the comprehension questions and explain his rationale. This time around he had no problems, aside from a few words he didn't hear well. He exhibited ambiguity tolerance in still deciphering the information of the passages despite this.
Read more

TS #13

For my 13th Tutoring Session I met with Natalia on Wednesday, December 12th, 2018. Natalia was referred to me by Paula and was also interested in working on listening. Mauricio, Santiago, and Paula gave me positive feedback about the strategy I'd been using for practicing listening so I continued as such. Natalia asked me to start slowly so I began with a mid-intermediate level passage, continued with a few upper-intermediate passages, and eventually worked into advanced passages. I think this was a good strategy as she did not seem confident at first, but easily worked her way up to comprehending the advanced passages. Through the entire 75 minutes she was only mistaken on 3 questions, and each were ones that were worded poorly in my opinion. We focused on the questions that were well done, and her logic on each. Twice she got the correct answer, but misunderstood the information leading her to the answer. The beautiful mistakes were explained and she left the session feeling that...
Read more

TS #11

For my 11th Tutoring Session, I met with Santiago on December 11, 2018. Santiago was preparing for the ITEP examination, and asked if I could tutor him after speaking with Mauricio about our session. Santiago was also having the most difficulty with the listening section preparation, so I approached with a similar structure. I visited the same website I'd used with Mauricio. I first read Santiago two upper-intermediate level passages, once each, before asking him to explain his answers for the reading comprehension section. He easily deciphered the passages and selected the correct responses. I then read him two advanced level passages. The first section he answered all questions correctly, though he did need one paragraph repeated. The second passage gave him a bit of trouble, but to be fair it was confusing to me too. It was a passage styled in the form of a news report containing several names, and the questions were worded poorly. I explained to Santiago that this should not di...
Read more