Meghan CO #1

Date: September 5, 2018

Time: 11:00-11:50 a.m.

Topic/Skill: Reading with Group 2-A

This class concerned the ability of students to ascertain the main ideas of English texts and use them to paraphrase and summarize. 

Teacher Presentation: The instructor used a couple of power point slides to spur conversation and wrote new vocabulary and a daily agenda on the board. Otherwise, the majority of the teaching was done through class discussion and textbook reading.  

Classroom Management: I took many notes on the way the instructor managed her classroom. For example, she asked the students to work in groups or pairs much of the time, and went from group to group to guide their discussions and answer their questions. She also noted any key words which the groups discussed and used them to guide the following class discussion. She also wrote down all new vocabulary words on the board as they appeared, and promised to post them on Canvas after class. I also admired the way she handled student questions; one time she led the student's classmates to answer him and another she led the student to answer himself. It was only the questions they couldn't possibly know (like vocab questions) which she answered herself. 

Student Participation: The students seemed a little tired, which makes sense right before lunchtime, but almost all of them participated actively throughout the class. The instructor organized the lesson in a way which had the students almost always interacting with either her or their classmates. 

Feedback Provided: The instructor was extremely patient with her students, giving them as much time as they might need in order to answer her questions. She also carefully answered all of their questions and when given a correct answer, she repeated it in a louder, clearer voice for the rest of the class. When asked to explain a new vocabulary word, she broke the word into its root and suffix, then asked the students to define it themselves.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: The necessity of involving students in the lesson, rather than just lecturing, was reinforced in this lesson. It was also made clear that being quiet is actually also a huge part of teaching. I have a hard time not helping people in the middle of their trying to figure things out, so I need to work on waiting for them to ask for help before I offer it. If they are made to figure things out on their own, they learn it much more effectively. Patience is key!